Generations's (Spin Off/ Book FOUR)

Pinky Promise

Birdy:

I sat up with a start, lying in my bed back at Baker Street. This was strange, so strange... Getting up carefully, I moved towards the door, confused as to how I got here. I was falling, far and fast, from such a great height, I was falling. But I didn't feel myself hit the ground, my mind gave out by this point. 

How long had I been out? I felt rested, but I also felt weak, meaning I could have been out cold for a long time. There were no clocks, and the windows were blacked out, meaning I really didn't know what the time was, for how long I had been asleep. But there was a mirror, and I looked in relief at the familiar face of Birdy, the woman I'd become after SJ. Dark blue eyes like the night sky, long ash brown curls and a heart shaped face with a light spattering of freckles across my nose. I was happy as both, in very different ways, but I liked how I could feel happy without having to run at many miles per hours, up high where I could fall at any moment.

Falling... 

Like Sherlock had said, it wasn't the fall that killed you, it was the landing, so how had I managed to land without dying, without my spine shattering into a thousand pieces? I feel from so high, high up in the clouds where everyone's voices surrounded me. How was I still alive? 

There was a noise behind me, and the voices were soft little whispers in my mind as I grabbed my soft bear hooded dressing gown, padding out into the main part of the flat to see Christmas decorations out, and then smell of chicken coming from the kitchen. Christmas dinner, so, so I'd been asleep from months, since April... "S, s, Sherlock? K, Khalilah? Arcadia?"

"Birdy?" A voice asked, coming down the stairs, and I saw Ashildr, just as beautiful as the last time I'd seen her, long dark hair in her face as she padded down in her own pyjamas, silky red ones. "Oh, my God, you're awake."

"Y, yeah, yeah, I, I am. H, how-"

She shook her head. "We, we don't know. There was no sign of your body, we, we searched the water for hours. We came back here and you were lying in bed, out cold, but alive. We didn't, we just... we assumed that you would know when you woke up. If you caught yourself and came here."

It was my turn to shake my head, my long curls not greasy, dry or tangled, meaning someone had spent time and care washing, conditioning and brushing them for months while I was asleep. "I, I don't know. Maybe, I mean, I blacked out, but I had a lot of people in my mind, they could have walked me here. W, where's Arcadia, Sherlock and Khalilah?"

"W, we forgot cranberry sauce, they're just getting some from Mrs Hudson's friend down the road, she makes it and Khalilah's old enough to try it this year." She smiled, hugging me carefully. I was shaky, but my arms went around her well enough, and I was shy, nerdy and weak this time. "I'm so glad that you're alright, we all were so worried. Nothing would wake you up, at all, we tried anything we could think of. Sherlock tried to sit with you all the time, but we limited him to just 3 hours a day, while we watched Khalilah."

"Well, as long as I got my 3 hours, with the suitable about of begging, pleading and praying, even tears would be good." I smiled a little, tucking my hair behind my ear. "How are you, after, well, living through a vast amount of the universe alone."

Ashildr sighed a little, doing the same with her own. "I'm so happy that he doesn't want to kill me any more. Your brother is the only thing that kept me going for a very long time, the thought, the hope, for forgiveness over, over what happened to Clara and your mother. Your father was right, it was my fault."

"It wasn't. Mum would have died anyway, and, and, Clara would too." I whispered, saying a memory that she'd forced me to promise never to say to anyone else.  I'd cried for so long when I'd found out, and stayed with her for a month to try and find a way to help, to save her."I, I'm sorry, but, but I couldn't say it at the time, because she wouldn't have let me, she, she would have denied it until she couldn't any longer. A few months previous, to, to Trap Street, um, I touched her, and, saw her at the hospital."