Elizabeth Watson (John Watson's daughter- Sherlock fan fiction)

Chapter 9- Anticipation

Elizabeth was late again- she did not want to be met by them on the morning of her birthday.

She turned the corner to walk down the long corridor, when she noticed a figure, mirroring her steps. He was coming towards her at exactly the same pace.

It was Elijah.

His face was unreadable for a few seconds, before morphing slowly into a shy, almost friendly, smile. They met at the form room door and Elizabeth stepped back to let him through.

As he pushed at the handle, he whispered something that startled her.

"Maximum penalty for an adult caught in possession of a knife without good reason: four years in prison and a fine of 5,000."

"Good job I won't get caught."

"Immediate expulsion."

"Sounds good to me."

They did not even look at each other as Mrs Porter greeted them.

"Ahh." she said, relishing her moment to taunt and criticise, "I see this could be a recurring event Mr Kerr. And Miss Watson, you really have no excuse."

"We are sorry Mrs Porter." said Elijah quietly and politely, and the pair sat down at their seats.

"Nice one Watson." whispered the deadly hiss behind her, "But I know what you're doing."

Elizabeth ignored it and took out her Physics book, stroking gently the knife as she did so, where it hid safely in the bottom of her bag.

She opened the textbook to the sixty-first page and began to read.

"Enjoying it are you Watson?" came the voice again, "Hey look Grace, she's already on chapter eight and we only got that thing yesterday."

"Weirdo." came the reply.

Elijah had stiffened beside her and his eyes were flicking to look at Elizabeth's desk.

"You aren't doing your homework now are you Elizabeth?" sneered Mrs Porter, leaning over to admire the girl's textbook. "This is form time- not time for doing work that you should have finished at home."

Elizabeth looked at the hateful woman and her face became stern.

"It's not homework Mrs Porter."

"Well whatever it is put it away now. I will not tolerate having my time interrupted."

Elizabeth gritted her teeth as the frustration rose inside her. She slipped the book back into her bag as Mrs Porter continued on her long dictation about punctuality and uniform inspections.

"Now." she said, her neck stretching and eyes glaring like a vulture's, "I would like to hear no further complaints from you teachers about this matter. Is that all clear class?"

"Yes Mrs Porter." came the murmur.

"Right, you are now dismissed."

And with a scraping of chairs and shuffling of bags, the students rose from their seats and set off for their first lesson of the day.

As Elizabeth moved out of the room, someone pushed past her, jabbing at her ribs.

"Oops, didn't see you there Einstein." came Eva's voice, before she tottered away down the long corridor, into the mass of the crowd, "Catch up with you later."

*

Elizabeth's equipment was in her bag already.

"...which means that n must equal the square root of x. Does everybody understand that?" Miss Wetherby let her eyes wander over her class but no one replied, "Jolly good." she said.

Tick tick tick.

'Come on, come on, come on.' Elizabeth muttered, her fingers tapping her hearing aid.

"Now then, having learnt this, we can move onto- oh goodness!" exclaimed Miss Wetherby, "I had not noticed the time! I am sorry class, someone should have told me. I did not realise it was the end of the day." she waved her arms and jogged to the desk, "Here is your homework everybody, collect a sheet each on your way out. You are dismissed."

Elizabeth leapt to her feet and was once again the first to the door.

"What's the rush Beth? Are you alright?" asked Miss Wetherby as the girl collected her paper.

"It's my bus Miss, sorry I have to go." and away she hurried down the corridor. She reached the gate and dashed through. Looking at her watch she knew it had been too long.

Her pace slowed as she walked down the path.

Why were they not here?

She approached the corner, looking around in dreaded anticipation, and then,

"Happy Birthday!" came a furious cry.

And Elizabeth had to face the music.