The Surrogate Sister (a Sherlock fanfiction)

Chapter 4

“Took you long enough,” Lestrade calls out to the trio walking towards the scene.

“Sorry,” Sherlock replies in a monotonous tone, inspecting the exterior of the abandoned concrete building standing before them. “Ran into some traffic.”

“Well, Anderson is almost finished.” Lestrade turns to Victoria. “Hello again, Victoria.”

“Hello, Inspector,” she replies, also staring at the building.

Lestrade turns to John, eyebrow raised. John just puts his hands in his pockets and shrugs.

“Ah, now isn’t it everyone’s favorite psychopath.” Anderson walks out of the building and makes his way to the group. He smiles sarcastically, “So glad you’ve finally come.”

“High functioning sociopath, Anderson.”

Anderson rolls his eyes and looks at Victoria. “Who’s this

“She’s with us.”

“Well who is she?”

Victoria doesn’t respond. Sherlock looks over at her, and then at Anderson. “Her name is Victoria.”

“Well, she’s not allowed here at the crime scene.”

“She’s alright, Anderson,” Lestrade says. “She’ll be staying behind with me, anyway.”

Anderson lets out a huff and studies Victoria, who is blankly staring at the building. Sherlock glances at her and notices her hands clenched in tight fists.

“Tory.”

Victoria snaps out of her trance and she relaxes her hands. “I think I should go inside with you.”

“But you can’t,” Anderson says.

“But I should,” Victoria snaps, looking Anderson straight in the eye. She turns to Sherlock. “Trust me.”

Sherlock and Victoria turn to Lestrade, who waves it off. “Fine. Go.”

Sherlock looks at John. “Stay here with Lestrade. We shouldn’t be long.”

The three men watch as Sherlock and Victoria turn their heels and make their way to the entrance, disappearing into the building. Anderson rolls his eyes and follows them in.

John turns to Lestrade, frustrated. “Ok, what’s up with them?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is there something that I’m missing here? Because really I’m feeling out of the loop right now.”

“Ah,” Lestrade crosses his arms. “He didn’t tell you, did he?”

“Tell me what?”

“That night we found all the hostages, we didn’t bother to count up all the bodies. Not at first, at least. Sherlock knew right away that someone was missing, so he searched the whole factory on his own while we did our usual examining-the-bodies procedure. He eventually found Victoria and carried her to one of the ambulances. She was not at all in a good state. She was trembling and in complete shock, and Sherlock… comforted her. He stayed by her side, held her in his arms, and comforted her.” Lestrade paused. “And you well know that isn’t typical Sherlock behavior.”

“Hmm,” John nods and crosses his arms.

“She was taken to a hospital and Sherlock came with us back to the Yard. We tried to contact her parents or any type of family she may have, but we couldn’t reach anyone. Sherlock then got a call from Mycroft. He informed us that during Victoria’s hiatus, her parents were brutally murdered in their own home.”