The Great Mouse Detective and the Basil of Baker Street Mysteries belong to the Walt Disney Company and the late Eve Titus respectively. The original name of "Sherringford" for Basil's first name, Myerricroft Basil and the Scotland Yard Inspectors are the creations of Mlle. Irene Relda

This story is my way of wishing a Merry Christmas to all and one, and a Happy New Year!

A Winter's Tale

Prologue

One'd be surprised to know just how fragile such a cruel thing as fate can be. The smallest of details, the most unnoticeable of things can lead to such grand changes to the pattern of to its web. Sometimes these changes are for better or for worse and whether they're by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it.

A young girl is celebrating her birthday along with her father. Moments after he gives his daughter her present, a bat bursts into their home, taking the father with him. The girl remains though, and for a long while knows not what to do. With her father gone and nowhere to go to, the little girl simply did not know what to do. She tried to call for help at first, but nobody would hear her on the lone, cold London streets, and those who did would just walk by.

The hours ticked by, and still nobody offered help. She remembered when her father told her that help did not come cheep, but she never imagined it would be quite like that. At some point, she remembered the name of a mouse that could help her - Basil of Baker Street! Her father told her that is she ever had any problems, Basil would help. He could do anything, after all!

Finding Basil proved to be harder then she imagined though, for soon enough, she became lost. Nobody found it odd that a young little would wonder around the streets of London all alone on the eve of Her Majesty's Jubilee and nobody found her while she was crying - all lost, cold and alone in the rain.

One retired military doctor almost did though, but by some strange turn of events, he had forgotten his umbrella and thus was forced to run, right past her hiding place. That doctor could have heard her cry, but he did not. He could have helped her find this Basil, but he did not, because he was not aware of her troubles, or even her very existence. But even if he would have, that night they would have found no Basil home, for he was busy setting a trap for a certain rat.

The next day, after a not too comfortable night spent in a human boot, the girl made a decision: if nobody would help her, then she was going to help herself. She would keep searching, for both her father and Basil - whichever she will find first - and she will not have rest until she did.

But if only one thing would have happened differently: if the doctor wouldn't have forgotten his umbrella, if the detective would have been home that night, if the mice of London would have been more caring or if the child would have been a couple of years older, then the girl might be once again with her father, happy and content as all children should be. But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control – none of these things happened, and so begin a brand new chain of events that will finally make a difference.

One which was not part of Fate's original plan.

The day young Olivia Flaversham did not meet Basil of Baker Street and Dr. David Dawson was the day Fate's web had changed its pattern. It was no longer as it should have been – it was… not right, and Fate was not happy by it. Still, Fate is as stubborn as it is cruel and one way or another, it will make sure that everything will stick by its pattern - no matter how long that would take.

It just needed to find the perfect time and place for a clever rewriting.

During this most festive season, people give and people shall recieve. My gift to you, my dears, is this small story, which although is small (and lately posted) and (surprise!) and AU - it was baked with love and care for all you wonderful readers out there to keep you warm in the long winter nights.

Translation: I love AUs with a burning passion and although you will find that some characters will seem a bit OOC, that is only due to unusual circumstances (and for the sake of this story). But if you - despite all of this - will enjoy this story, feel free to leave a review ^^