And then there was three; a Sherlock Fanfiction

Twenty-three (part two)

The bell above the door jingled lightly, alerting the employees of a new customer. The smell of coffee beans wafted through the air, matched well with the scent of fresh pastries.

The new customer, a tall and well dressed woman, stepped in line to order. As she waited for her turn, she glanced around the café. Like expected, the place hadn't changed at all since she had worked there. It has the same light gray walls, the same dark wood chairs, the same scratched floorboards. Nothing had changed, it seemed, but her.

The barista behind the counter was new though, so perhaps somethings had changed as well. The barista smiled cheerily and took the woman's order: a caramel latte, whole grain bagel with cream cheese, blueberry muffin.

As she waited for her order, the customer watched the people who sat on the familiar wooden chairs and leaned on the matching little tables. When the girl behind the counter called her name, she grabbed her things and moved to the smallest table in the corner of the cafe. It was a lonely little table for one, very unassuming, which appealed to the customer. To be honest, she felt kind of bad for the pitiful little table. Today, as she sipped her latte and munched on her bagel and muffin, she felt that she was keeping the poor table company.

"Lilly Harper?" A man's voice said incredulously, "is that you?"

Joe Hooper sauntered over from doorway to the table in the corner, a big smile plastered on his face. Lilly stood up to greet him, getting pulled into a great bear hug.

Joe, the owner of the cafe, was a tall and roundish man with a kind smile. He almost always wore a cap over top his blading head, and tended to dress in plain t-shirts and jeans. He was an extremely friendly man who Lilly had grown especially fond of in her time working there.

"Why it is you! Its been a while, where have you been?" Joe asked, releasing Lilly from his grasp.

She smiled at her former boss, "oh I've been here and there, no where special really. How have you been? I see the café is doing well,"

He removed his hat and scratched his head absentmindedly, taking a seat across from Lilly. She sank back into her chair as well, as Joe spoke, "oh yes, the café's doing great. And I've been doing alright myself, just trying to keep my blood sugar in check, ya know? What have you been doing lately? Molly told me you moved out of that detective's place a good four months ago,"

Lilly's didn't move, taking a moment before giving a reply. Joe raised an eyebrow worriedly but waited for her to speak.

"Yeah, I moved out a while ago." Lilly explained vaguely, "We had a bit of a fallout, Sherlock and I,"

Joe could tell that there was much more that she wasn't telling him, but decided not to push her on the subject quite yet, "So where are you staying?"

Lilly answered without skipping a beat, "well, I flew back to my old place in the U.S. for a while, but I came back last week and I'm currently staying with a friend,"

"Well I'm glad you stopped in, have you talked to Molly since you got back?" Joe asked, a bit of worry still shining in his eyes.

"No, not yet, I'm not sure if she would want to see me anyways," she shrugged.

"Oh nonsense, of course she'd want to see you!" Joe reassure her, "why wouldn't she want to see you?"

Lilly shifted awkwardly, "she's rather– close, for lack of better word, to Sherlock, so I doubt my company would be welcomed,"

"Why? What could you have done to upset them so badly?" Joe asked, looking a little angry.

"I lied to them, and they found out, so naturally they were furious with me," Lilly explained heatedly, deciding to be completely honest with him, "I didn't decide to leave, I was kicked out. Sherlock hates me, John hates me, Molly most likely hates me as well."

Joe didn't respond, slightly surprised by her outburst.

"Listen, I just wanted to stop in and check on you. I should get going," Lilly said, standing up and pulling her jacket on. She muttered goodbye to him hastily and left the café, feeling too claustrophobic to stay in there any longer. Joe stared at the door she disappeared through for a while, still befuddled by Lilly's violent eruption.

Outside the café, Lilly hurried down the sidewalk, trying to calm herself. She weaved through the crowd, concentrating on slowing her breathing down and attempting to shake the anger and guilt out of her body.

She felt bad for being rude to Joe, but she couldn't stand talking about her recent past at Baker Street any longer. When Lilly originally began her interactions with the detective and his blogger, it had been purely a job. Even though she had known John in her youth, she felt no sentimentality for either men in the beginning.

Somehow, though, they had broken through her icy barriers and wormed their way into a part of her heart that she didn't even know existed. And the strange thing was, she couldn't even recall the moment when it had become more than a job. But now it was over, and she had to accept that.

After the unpleasant encounter with Sherlock and John, Lilly stayed for an hour in the abandoned building. When that hour was up, she collected herself and called Mycroft.

She reported to him that her cover was blown, and that she could not return to Baker Street. Mycroft did not question her, which she was grateful for, and sent an assistant to pick her up.

She spent that night and the night after in a hotel, and then flew to her old place in America the next day. There she worked with her old unit, the one she left to come to England, and tried to put the whole mess behind her.

In a way, it was much like her recovery after her ordeal with Moriarty a few years before: she was with the same people and in the same place, trying to pick herself back up after another self-spun disaster.

There was a difference with this time though: this time Lilly did not feel any gratitude towards Mycroft for sending her back there. It didn't feel like home anymore, it felt suffocating and aggravatingly boring. So when Mycroft finally asked her to return to the England, she jumped on the next plane there.

And now she was staying with Mycroft Holmes, waiting for the day Sherlock and John might forgive her.

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I'm not dead! Yay! Sorry for taking 3,000,000 years to finally update again.

Sherlock season four airs on January 1, 2017 and IM SO EXCITED! I was really hoping to finish this book by season four, but I'm not so sure if I'll be able to anymore. Either way, I'll certainly try to speed up my writing process.

Love to all for giving me the time of day,
M