Born in Black and White

Chapter 12

"Now Kairi we need to ask you some questions." Lestrade's voice seemed tinny and she didn't really register what he had actually said though he was at her side, sort of kneeling next to her with his hand on her arm.

"Must we do this right now Inspector?" She heard John say, he was on the other side of her. Two figures, consoling her, whispering into her ear. She would say it was a devil and an angel, but she knew where the devil was standing, across the room, staring right at her.

Kairi hadn't realized she was staring at him during this process.

"I'm sorry John, but yes, we do. I'm worried that this is a message for Kairi and she might be in danger." Lestrade finished and John scoffed.

Sherlock never took his eyes from hers. He looked pained, uncomfortable. Kairi thought that maybe he had never encountered such a personal death before, but from what she gleamed from Molly, Ms. Hudson, John, and Mycroft's files, she knew better. Sherlock was shrouded with a lot of darkness and it wasn't just a ploy to keep people at a distance. He was dark, and almost sinister, but there was something about him that kept pulling her to him. A weird sort of friendship doused with a little bit of shameful attraction. They worked differently from other people. Self-prescribed outcasts who only perpetrated their existence with somewhat abhorrent behavior. Kairi would withdraw into herself, go into hiding, invest all of her friendship with an animal who didn't know any better than to love her unconditionally. Sherlock on the other hand would lash out, put down others, hide upon his pedestal glaring down his nose at the paltry people surrounding him. He was dangerously brilliant, but volatile and misunderstanding of his own emotions - when he had them.

"Kairi, would you like a cuppa?" Lestrade asked gently, his warm hand enveloping hers. She finally broke her eye contact with Sherlock and took a deep breath, one that she didn't realize she had been holding.

She shook her head gently, "No thank you, I'm sorry I'm not British enough for a cuppa to help me right now." She smiled at Lestrade and he smiled back.

"Would you prefer we do this privately?" Lestrade asked, glancing to John and Sherlock, "I don't want to put you out if you'd prefer not to talk around them. They could very well be valuable assets, but its nothing they can't get from a transcript."

Kairi smiled a little sheepishly, "I - I don't know." She felt lost as she stared into Lestrade's sad eyes. Her mother had murdered someone in cold, vicious blood. Hermother. The woman who raised her, who loved her, who healed people. That woman who was undoubtedly the most caring, loving soul in all of the universe was now in the same league as Robert Black, Jeffery Dahmer, Gwendolyn Graham... Her mother was a brutal murderer. How could this happen?

"Of course we'll be staying, I may have questions of my own. This is turning out to be quite a deliciously perplexing case." Sherlock finished, with the tiniest of smiles on his lips. He wasn't looking at Kairi now. He was standing behind Lestrade's desk, looking over the file contents spread there.

"SHERLOCK!" John bellowed in a most scathing tone.

Sherlock glanced up, rather shocked at John's vehemence. His eyebrows crinkled in confusion, about to open his mouth, when he looked at Kairi and Lestrade. Lestrade had simply wiped a hand down his exasperated face, looking at Sherlock in absolute shock. However Kairi, staring at him as she was now, absolutely forlorn, exhausted, and horrified, cracked his resolve.

Sherlock said quietly, "How very insensitive of me." He added in a whisper, "I'm sorry."

"Get out." Kairi said softly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Excuse me?" Sherlock couldn't understand her, her voice was trembling and barely a whisper.

"GET OUT!" She screamed at him and everyone flinched. Appa who was lying by her side, stood abruptly and glared at the recipient of his master's rage.