The first Friday of the month was always a godsend.

First off, it was usually after payday which meant that once all the rent and bill money was gone from whatever bank account, most people of a higher wage were feeling a little more spendy. Secondly, the company Katrina worked for usually provided beer and pizza on the first Friday of every month; nothing could go wrong with free alcohol and food. Finally, it was the one day people were more likely to go to the pub on a Friday.

Sure, her tech department colleagues preferred Thursdays for the cheap nature of things, but who could resist the company wide overtaking of as many pubs as possible in Fitzrovia? Especially after the fact they'd already had free pre-drinks meaning that they were merrier and feeling generous with their money. Usually everyone spilled out of the company building sometime between nine and ten o'clock at night after their filling of pizza and wiping the kitchens clean of the provided alcohol, off on their giddy way to the pub.

The real catch was trying to figure out which place to go to first before it ultimately shut and they had to find somewhere else to head to. Normally, Katrina and her tech lot would head to Tower Tavern on the corner of Clipstone Street; it was a spacious place with some comfy sofas and large round tables in one corner that they liked to dominate along with some of the building runners and a few of the junior production staff. That was when there were a lot of them.

Tonight, on this particularly drab February Friday, there weren't as many of them as normal and so they decided to head a cramped little pub called Jackelope. It was a five minute walk (depending on how drunk they were at this point) from their building on Great Portland Street, tucked away on Weymouth Mews. The only reason it was cramped was because of how packed it could get, with most people opting to spill out onto the back alley pavement - which was exactly the case for them this Friday night.

Pint in one hand, cigarette in another, Katrina and her colleagues were stood around in a small circle chatting to one another. She must have been on her fifth drink by now - weak for her, considering it was the first Friday of the month. Some people were further ahead than her, but she wasn't sure if she was about to play a game of catch up. It was chilly outside, and they huddled a little closer so as to maintain some warmth. The only lights on in Weymouth Mews came from the pub and the pub alone.

"Jenkins, can I borrow a light?" Lucas asked her. She nodded, popping the cigarette in between her lips so she had a free hand to fish around in her pocket for her lighter. When she found it, she flicked it on after Lucas stuck a cigarette between his own teeth, and lit it for him. "Cheers. It's good to have you back."

She pocketed the lighter and took a drag from her cigarette, electing to blow it directly into Lucas' face. "Only so you can nick my stuff again without feeling guilty?" she retorted with a smirk. He playfully nudged her with his elbow.

"Oh, one hundred percent. Definitely not because you lessen my workload."

Katrina rolled her eyes at him and tossed her now finished cigarette to the ground and stamped it out. After that, she necked back the rest of her pint and headed into the stuffy pub to go get herself another one. She ignored people in her group clamouring for her attention to get them another drink as well, opting to flip them the bird in the process. It had just been payday and they could pay for their own drinks, thank you very much.

It was almost a fight to get up to the bar with the amount of people milling around in that general area, not bothering to move away after they had bought their drinks. Eventually she got there and patiently waited for someone to come over to her; Katrina wasn't one to heckle. It didn't take long, and within the next five minutes she had paid with cash and was heading out back outside but with a strong gin and tonic this time.

This did not go unnoticed.

"Stepping it up, are we?" Andy remarked.

"Hey, it's my first proper week back at work - I think I'm allowed to treat myself. Besides, you lot are more far gone than I am. Playing catch up safely, but quickly." Katrina shrugged and took a sip, wincing a little at the strength of it. Mostly gin, not enough tonic - and the gin was shit as well.

"You never did say what happened, Jenkins," Lucas then said with a hint of suspicion in his voice. "Only that you were in hospital for a bit."

"It's irrelevant - really," she said, making a face. "Besides, I don't fancy talking about it… it's slightly morbid. Not one for the Friday pub, I'm afraid, but maybe a Thursday when we're feeling like exchanging some fun stories like that."

Andy raised his eyebrows. "Always so upbeat… Can I have a cig?"

"Get your own, Andy…" Katrina rolled her eyes at him. "Or ask Lucas. Think it's high time he shared instead of steal."

"Fine… Lucas?"

Reluctantly the other man handed one of the prized cancer sticks over to Andy. At that moment, another guy joined the circle; he was younger than Katrina by about five years, sporting round glasses, a beanie hat, and a very fine looking leather jacket. She raised an eyebrow, the words "new boy" floating around her head.

"Give me your name, your department, and whether it was Ollie or Derrick who dragged you here?" she then barked fairly abruptly at the new boy, who was rather taken aback by her response to his coming into the circle. The rest of the lads around her were stifling giggles.

"Errr…" His mouth gaped open for a second, but the way the corners of his lips twitched suggested he found Katrina amusing. "Lee. Software development. Derrick," Lee then answered her, looking pretty satisfied as he took a sip of his pint. He had a slight accent; mostly British, very well spoken, a little camp, and something else. "You?"

Katrina bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from making a remark about his smug, perfectly dimpled face. He looked incredibly young - he must have been about twenty one, twenty two at most. So that would have been a solid five or six year gap between them, and the urge to call him a "baby" right there and then was far too strong. She waited a moment for the impulse to pass.

"Katrina. Tech. Nobody. Charming little accent you have there."

"My family is from Lithuania."

"Lovely. How old are you?"

"Twenty three."

She inhaled sharply, wincing as she did so. "Bit young for me, then." The other guys let out a chorus of "ooooo." Katrina ignored it.

He frowned, and cocked his head to the side every so slightly. "Why? How old are you?"

"Twenty seven, kid."

"Come on now - four years isn't much of a gap…"

"Oh, sweet baby, I could do my six times table by the time you were born. Are you sure about the gap not being that much?" She batted her eyelashes at him and demurely sipped on the rest of her gin and tonic.

"Liar." He was teasing her, she knew it. The smug look was back on his face, and she wanted nothing more than to slap it right off of him.

"What would I get out of doing that, new boy?" Within a few seconds of saying that, she'd finished her drink. "Nothing."

Lee narrowed his eyes at her, only there was a fascination in them and no malice. Either way, he turned his attention away from Katrina and opted for conversation with Derrick. She shook her head, turning to put her empty glass on the window ledge behind her. She aimed to get out another cigarette, her head beginning to swim with the effects of alcohol when someone interrupted her.

"So this is what the great mind does?" came a familiar drawl to her right. Katrina glanced to see Mycroft Holmes was leaning on his umbrella, watching her from a short distance away. He was half cast in the light from the pub, standing just at the edge of it so he wasn't as noticeable. She sighed and broke from her circle to approach him.

"I'd hardly call my mind 'great,' but yes - this is what it does. It drinks regularly and likes to flirt. You should try it sometime, it's a fun way to relax," she retorted. She looked back over her shoulder to find that Lee and Lucas were eyeing her strangely, so she quickly brought her attention back to Mycroft. "Why are you here? It's a Friday?"

He shot her a dark look. "I found out what I wanted to find out about you, Miss Jenkins. I'm curious as to why you're wasting your life away in the tech department of a film company - surely you're better suited elsewhere?"

Her shoulders sagged and the swimming in her head started to ease up at that sobering question. Not what she had been expecting.

"Who knows? I don't really care. I was lucky to get the job here in the first place. I was overqualified for the position that little old Lee over there probably has right now, so they stuck me in the tech department thinking it would be a challenge," she explained.

"Was it a challenge?"

"Not really, but… been there nearly five years now. I could be head of the tech lot any time I wanted, or even the software development department! Unfortunately I don't care enough about the visual effects pipeline for that…" Katrina then rattled on. "Besides, those guys make it worth it."

Mycroft was studying her with such intense scrutiny that she felt as if he were boring into her soul, searching for the one thing that would make her tick. She avoided looking directly into his piercing gaze, worried that he might find something far worse than the desire for a work related vice.

"You could do anything you wanted with computers? Any technical device, really?" he then threw at her. Katrina nodded in response. "Build software and systems from scratch? Is that as far as it goes?"

"I could go further, and you know that. Come on, Mr Holmes, you didn't come here tonight to play games about what I can and can't do. You've found out everything you need to know about me off your own back and you're going to ask me to do something for you, isn't that right?"

The silence from Mycroft spoke levels to her.

He reached into his pocket with a leather gloved hand and promptly handed her a business card with his mobile number on it. "You're nearly as clever as my brother; in a different way, perhaps. I dread to think how the rest of tonight will go for you considering the amount of alcohol you've had."

"So you have been spying on me."

He gave Katrina a wry smile. "Guilty as charged. I'm afraid it's a habit of mine when people cross paths with my brother, and I suspect you'll be crossing paths with him again."

"Really?"

Mycroft raised an eyebrow and clearly refrained from rolling his eyes. "Really. If you can do what your file says, then he'll be seeking you out again."

Katrina blanched for a moment, slipping the business into her coat pocket. "Just to clarify, that means you know about the incident in two thousand and four, then? You know what me and my friends did when we were desperate?"

"And how you covered it up so none of you got arrested. Quite impressive, actually." He paused. "Really, we should have stepped in - oh, don't give me that look, of course I was working where I am now back then - but… it seemed like a fluke and would never happen again. I was correct. Now look where we are."

"In a mews alley in Fitzrovia, and I'm drunk," she quipped.

"That might be so, but you've got… shall we say an induction offer? If you're interested, I believe you could be of some use to me, and you shall be handsomely compensated."

She chewed on her lip for a moment. "Right."

"Go enjoy the rest of your 'first Friday of the month,' Miss Jenkins. I think the Lithuanian is gagging for your attention."

He slunk off into the darkness of the rest of the alley.

Mildly stunned, Katrina went back to her friends to find there was an addition of two; girls from the production staff that would often join their table at the pub on Thursdays. One was blonde with dipped dyed ends whom Katrina had seen far more frequently than the other one, a brunette with bright red lipstick. She gave them both a quick 'hi' when joining the circle again. Somehow, she'd ended up between Lee and the brunette girl, which the former didn't seem too pleased about.

"What was that all about?" Lucas asked her.

Katrina shrugged, trying to play it off casually. "Dunno. Government lad offering me a job of sorts, I guess."

Lucas snorted. "You? Working for the government? With your internet history?"

"Please, I've done far worse things than my internet history," she scoffed, then turned to Lee. "Come on, let's get another drink…"

She grabbed him by his jacket cuff and pulled him back inside the pub. There was a little more room to move about and get to the actual bar now. While waiting for the drinks Katrina had ordered for the pair of them, she rounded on Lee in quite a frank manner. An interesting idea had struck her.

"You're not going near the brunette."

"What? Why? She's cute," he said.

"Yes, she is, but she's also a sweetheart and I can tell right from the off that you're not. You're nice, but you're not her level of nice."

Four shots of straight vodka were placed on the bar next to them, and she paid for them. She gestured for Lee to take one; he looked like he was waiting to regret the decision.

"I'll tell you how the rest of the night is going to run," Katrina then said, clinking her shot glass with his as they downed them together. She let out a light cough, hating the burning sensation of vodka. It was a necessary evil for what was to come next. "You and I are talking in a manner you find very amusing. When this place shuts for the night, we'll all go to the Albany for a bit. Then when we're really drunk, I'm going to end up at your flat and I'm going to fuck you, the four year gap be damned."

They necked back the second shot.

"And you stay away from sweet girls, they don't deserve the likes of you."

"How do you know I'm not sweet?" he countered, the smirk coming back onto his face.

Katrina shook her head at him and pinched his cheek. "That. That is how I know you're not sweet. Besides, if you're a good enough fuck I might come back for more. And you might be able to help me with something."

"What's that?"

"Let me figure out by the end of the night - before we fuck - if I can trust you enough to tell you."

She sauntered off back outside, leaving Lee somewhat bemused.

For the rest of the night, he desperately tried his best to get it out of Katrina but she absolutely refused. One pub switch and at least three more gin and tonics later, it was somewhere around one o'clock in the morning. Katrina and Lee were stumbling through the streets of Marylebone on their way back to his flat near Paddington station. The fresh night air helped to clear their drunken heads with every passing moment.

"Here…" she took the business card out from her pocket and handed it to him. He adjusted his glasses and squinted as he read it.

"Mycroft Holmes… funny name, who is he?" He slipped it back into Katrina's coat pocket.

"Guy from the government I mentioned earlier on. He's the brother of that detective - Sherlock Holmes."

"Why does the brother of a detective want you for a job?" Lee frowned.

Katrina shrugged. "Apparently I'm wasted where I am. Or at least, that's what he was trying to get across. Do you think I should do it? Ring him and see what he wants to offer me?"

"Oh this is what you needed my help with?"

"Yeah… and?"

"Dunno. Nevermind. You're very strange, Katrina."

She snorted. "Says you."

"Okay fair," he said quickly. "If you feel like you're wasted, then maybe it wouldn't hurt to find out what he wants? Don't be afraid."

"Who says I'm scared?"

"The amount you drank this evening was apparently more than normal," he said gently.

She sighed. "I don't want to be therapised by a twenty three year old…"

"Actually, that was more down to Lucas and Andy. They could tell you were… you were rattled? Yeah. Rattled," he appeared to be quite pleased with the use of that word.

"God I've been working with them too long…" she muttered. "Anyway, I should warn you - I might need to borrow your laptop in the morning…"

For the next twenty minutes they idly chatted away about nothing and generally just being rather stupid as the alcohol continued pulsing through their systems. When reaching Lee's flat, they wasted no time in getting to his bedroom and undressing each other, finishing up and falling asleep a couple of hours later.

Katrina woke up first around about eleven o'clock, and Lee getting up about half an hour later and making them both coffee. She was fully dressed and fiddling away on his laptop and he didn't even bother asking how she managed to get in without knowing his password. It looked like she was using a VPN to talk to someone, and after finishing the coffee, cleared his entire browser history out ("just to be safe," she said to him).

"What are you even doing?" he asked her.

"Business," she replied cryptically, putting on his coat. "I know some… ah, interesting characters."

"Like that Mycroft guy?"

"And his brother," she pointed out. "Anyway, I'll see you around, Lee. Thanks for a fun night."

Katrina winked at him and made her exit, leaving him thoroughly bemused.

Bit of filler fun? :)

Comment?

-OL.