Morphine || The Niece Of Sherlock Holmes

A Study In Pink - Chapter 1 -

- 5 Years Later -

My heart pounded in my chest as my feet collided with the slippery forest floor. My eyes squinted in attempt to see further through the trees but the leaves were too thick for any moonlight to reach through. I was trapped in endless rows of trees, each looking identical. I tried to protect my face from the branches with my hands but it was no use, I could feel each needle searing into my skin. I called out for my mother but the only response I received was the echoing of my own voice. I was alone. I stopped running and fell to the ground, exhausted and fought for air and the forest seemed quiet for a moment, almost peaceful. However that didn't last long as whilst I lay there, my hands gripped around my aching throat I heard a noise from behind me. I slowly sat up and-

I jolted awake as suddenly the room filled with light, causing my eyes to burn and I pulled the blanket over my head before realising that I was on the sofa in the living room. I would often sleep downstairs if I had a bad dream which seemed to be a fairly regular occurrence, and despite it usually being the same dream, it was always unsettling.

"Nightmare again?" Sherlock asked, sitting on the armchair by the fireplace with a cup of tea in his hand. I lowered the blanket, accepting the fact that I wouldn't go back to sleep and nodded. "I need to go to the lab today and do a few tests on some blood, do you want to come?"

"Hm, what tests?"

"Coagulation and Erythrocyte sedimentation rate for that case that came up a few days ago."

"Alright," I replied. In truth, I didn't really have anything better to do. I spent the majority of my time in Bart's Hospital lab with Sherlock which was always interesting as my options were either that or helping Mrs Hudson with her cleaning and Sudokus.

It was early afternoon when we left the flat and we got lunch at the cafe before getting a taxi to the hospital. It was only a twenty minute drive and we probably could have walked there considering how Sherlock didn't actually have a paying job and we were usually low on money anyway but he always preferred taxis as they were quiet and allowed him to think which is why I knew not to talk on car journeys. When we got there we went straight upstairs and met Molly Hooper on the way to the lab. She was only about thirty and was very kind although Sherlock found her to be rather annoying so we didn't talk for long but she reminded him that he had left his riding-crop in the mortuary the day before after he was measuring the time it took for bruises to form after death.

There were already some test-tubes, flasks and microscopes set out on the counters when we got there and I helped Sherlock by getting the citrated plasma and phospholipid and usually I would then just watch him do the experiment.

"Do you want to do it?" He offered and it took me a moment to figure out if he was joking or not but I agreed and put on some gloves, "This measures the time necessary to generate fibrin from initiation of the intrinsic pathway. Since platelet factors are necessary for the cascade to function normally, the test is performed in the presence of a phospholipid emulsion that takes the place of these factors. The classic partial thromboplastin time depends on contact with a glass tube for activation but that's hard to control which is why we use calcium, understand?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Good, now, get a tiny bit of calcium and mix it in slowly," I followed the instructions and, using the stirring rod swirled the mixture around a few times until Sherlock held his hand up to say stop then I watched as the red liquid changed to a light yellow and became thicker in only a few seconds which was a lot faster than it should have been. "Excellent," Sherlock smiled to himself and picked up the tube, raising it so the light shone though to examine it closer, "well, not excellent for the man whose blood this is, probably the reason he died in fact." I laughed slightly, relieved that I had done it correctly and also at how abrupt he could be, considering a man had died from a cause which could have been prevented if he had only gone to the doctors a week earlier.