Fight for Me

Chapter 10

"Speaking of Zoe, do you think she'd be up for Green Finch and Linnet Bird, it is always impressive when she takes the high ending," Lawrence spoke, breaking through the tension arising between Lydia and Sherlock as the train carried the six of them to Edinburgh.

"She loves that song, I'm sure she'd be more than happy to do it," Noah contributed. "Besides, she doesn't have to take the high ending if her voice is too tired."

"You know what would be fun-?" Lydia began to suggest, but was immediately cut off by the two men answering simultaneously.

"A gender-reversed concert."

Her smile only grew at their interruption and she pressed the idea, "come on, don't tell me every song you've really ever wanted to sing isn't actually sung by a traditionally female character."

"We know you just want to sing This is the Moment," Lawrence teased, causing her to slap his arm lightly.

"No, I just want you tough guys to sing all the arias about wanting big strong men to come save you," Lydia laughed, causing Sherlock to narrow his eyes at how free the three of them were being. After a moment, she added, "but also, yeah, I want to sing This is the Moment."

"Tough guys? Have you ever seen us, Lia? Not exactly straight from the gangs of New York," Noah cut in playfully.

Lydia winced, "yeah, unfortunately I've seen a lot more than I've ever wished to, but I was doing my best to forget about that little incident."

"Really? And here I was thinking you had come barging in on purpose." Noah winked at her, inspiring a not so subtle kick to his shins from Lydia.

But their moment was interrupted by Sherlock, "so how does it work?"

Lydia's smile faded from her lips and Lawrence furrowed his brows, "how does what work?"

"The smuggling ring you four are in. Do they chose what cities you perform in? They clearly don't pay you well, so why do you do it?"

"And we're back to this," Noah sighed under his breath, causing the detective to glance his way with a touch a surprise. "Listen, mate, I don't know where you got this crazy idea from, but we're not doing anything illegal."

Sherlock narrowed his eyes and addressed Lydia without looking over at her, "Ms. Evans, would you care to take a walk?"

She frowned, glancing at her friends in hopes that they knew what was going on. Lawrence just look at her blankly while Noah shrugged his shoulders, even Zoe, who had been pulled out of her conversation with John, seemed uncertain as to what Sherlock had seemingly figured out.

He turned to her, impatient, "well?"

"I-I suppose, not that there's really anywhere we can go," Lydia finally agreed, determining that whatever it was that he wanted, it was best to get it over with.

Lawrence and Noah had to slip out of their seats in order to let Lydia and Sherlock get into the aisle, still uncertain with the situation. John muttered something to Sherlock, wondering what he was up to, but Sherlock merely ignored him, leading Lydia down the car.

They walked in silence, Lydia surprised that Sherlock didn't immediately hound her for information on their smuggling ring. But she wasn't going to interrupt the silence, no matter how uncomfortable it was. They got to the front of the car before Sherlock finally turned to her.

"This is your last chance to come clean about what you and your friends are doing."

She frowned at him, "there's nothing for us to come clean about, like we've told you a million times-"

"Oh please," he interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Not denial again, it's getting quite boring."

"Would you prefer I lie just to make your life more interesting?" She shot back, frustration bubbling up inside her.

"I want you to tell me the truth so that I can figure out why your friend was murdered." Sherlock's tone was sharp and cold, sending chills down Lydia's spine. A flicker of fear passed over her face, but she steadied herself and refused to give him a response, turning away to walk back to her seat.

But he grabbed her arm before she could get away from him, causing her to assume a defensive stance on instinct and grab his wrist to pry it off of her. Sherlock's lips twitched upwards at the sight, quite impressed by her quick reflexes, especially for someone who claimed to be just an actor.

He took a step closer, Lydia still grasping his right wrist tightly. Despite his movements, Lydia held his icy gaze, refusing to back down. As blue stared into blue, Sherlock dipped his hand into the waistband of her trousers and pulled out the small bag concealed there, his cold fingers brushing her bare skin in the process. She didn't even flinch as he did so, maintaining the steady and challenging gaze, but felt her heart pounding in her chest.

"What will I find in here?" He asked her, holding up the bag in front of her face.

She didn't even spare the bag a glance as she replied, "why don't you look in it and find out?"

His eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to read her, mildly surprised that she wasn't getting defensive, but he had quickly learnt that her reactions were often meant to throw him off. It annoyed him that there was only so much that he could tell about her when most everyone else on the train was an open book, besides Lydia and her friends.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he reached into the small, velvet lined bag and emptied the contents onto his hand, revealing the two earrings that were sitting at the bottom. He quirked his brow as he held them out in front of her, the small objects resting in the dipper center of his palm. "Care to change your position, Ms. Evans? How much are these worth?"

Lydia's lips upturned as she grabbed Sherlock's hand, lowering it to her mouth as she blew on the stones. The film of moisture clung to the them and Sherlock muttered under his breath, "fake."

"You really aren't as observant as you claim to be, Mr. Holmes. After all, you have seen these before."

Realisation washed over Sherlock as the memory of her performance came back to him. She was wearing those very earrings that night, so how had he forgotten them? But he did not let his frustration show on his face as he slipped the earrings back into the bag and commented, "it's an odd place to keep fake diamond earrings."

"Well, they look quite real and you never know when a thief will come along. I like to keep them on me whenever possible," Lydia explained, taking the bag back from him and sliding it back between the waistband and her skin. "Sorry it wasn't proof that we're smugglers, but I reckon that's another possibility for you to eliminate. So far you've crossed out assassins and smugglers, I suppose that's progress."

"Oh no, I haven't eliminated the possibility of you being smugglers quite yet, I can assure you of that," he replied, watching as Lydia shifted her weight almost imperceptibly. He leant in and whispered, "does that make you uncomfortable?"

She put on a smile and replied, "of course not, because there is nothing that you will find by following us around."

-

(A/N): I apologise for not posting yesterday, it's almost time to register for classes for the next term so all of the departments have been hosting events (which means I get to be on zoom all day!!) Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this (late) chapter!