I stood there, my eyes wide like dinner plates, and I tried to think of a way to escape this situation that I had unwittingly thrown myself into. My gaze shifted back and forth between Sherlock and John, both of them staring at me expectantly.

"Pfffft hahaha yeah about that I uh..." My hand gripped the cup I had used to water my plant tightly, and in a state of panic I threw it at Sherlock's surprised face and ran past John's knowing grin as I shouted to them. "Last one in the cab is a rotten egg!"

Sherlock caught the glass with his nimble fingers as John smirked at him, the two unmoving from their positions as the flustered girl rambled upstairs.

"What are you gawking at," Sherlock said casually, placing the glass on the countertops in Helen's tiny kitchen.

"You know what I'm gawking at," John said, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction.

"She hugged me, that was the extent of our interaction," Sherlock said, defending himself despite the fact that John hadn't mentioned the hug yet.

"Yeah but you hugged back," John countered.

"Only because she hugged me first," he replied curtly.

"Doesn't change the fact that you hugged her back." John was relentless.

"It's not as if a hug means anything. People hug all the time. It's a perfectly normal human interaction."

John laughed. "Yeah but you're not human, remember?"

Sherlock's nostrils flared and walked briskly past his friend. "Of course I'm human, John. We're all human, aren't we?"

I looked behind me as I heard John and Sherlock finally leaving the flat. "Thank goodness you're here, I considered letting this kind gentlemen take me all the way to Scotland Yard without you." I slid inside the cab and went all the way to the other side so I could spare myself being sandwiched between the two of them.

Sherlock followed behind me, and John slid in after him, both of them staring at me intently out of the corners of their eyes. For the duration of the cab ride I pointedly looked out of the window in response to their silent stare-down.

When we arrived at Scotland Yard I texted a quick update on our location to Mycroft (I was trying to remember to do this consistently from now on), and fell in step behind Sherlock who waltzed into the office, holding a folder full of information aloft.

"Raoul de Santos is your killer. Kenny Prince's houseboy. Second autopsy shows it wasn't tetanus that poisoned Connie Prince, it was botulinum toxin." He put the folder down. "We've been here before. Carl Powers? Tut-tut. Our bomber's repeated himself."

Before he can continue, Lestrade notices my presence and looks at me with pure distrust. "Nope, not her Sherlock. I'll accept him, but not her. Not on a case like this."

Sherlock grimaced. "She's my assistant, it would be ridiculous not to have her be with us-"

"I don't care," he interrupted. "You don't get to bend the rules twice Sherlock. I know John, I like him, I trust him. He's practically one of the guys now. But I don't know her, I don't like her, and I don't trust her. You shouldn't have gotten a woman caught up in this mess to begin with, she won't know how to handle it. She can wait outside until I feel comfortable knowing that she'll be working on sensitive cases."

I smiled pleasantly. "Fair enough," I said. "Don't mind me gentlemen, a 'woman' like myself couldn't possibly handle messing about with anything dangerous. Oh no, mustn't offend my delicate sensibilities. If you don't mind, I'll excuse myself before I get whisked away by some madman who you're trying to catch and end up the ever classic 'damsel in distress'." For good measure, I curtsied and lifted up the edges of a pretend dress, hoping to drive my point home.

Sherlock, Lestrade, and John watched her walk away, Sherlock biting his lip in an attempt to hold back a smile.

"Alright, maybe that was going a bit far, saying women can't handle these sorts of things" Lestrade admitted.

John gave a chuckle. "You think?"

"The rest of what I said still applies though!" Lestrade insisted. "I don't like her. She reminds me too much of..." he trailed off, not wanting to continue.

"Too much of?" Sherlock prompted.

"It's nothing, forget I said anything. Let's get this case sorted." He turned away from Sherlock, not wanting him to deduce that the end of his sentence was going to end with "she reminds me too much of you, Sherlock".

I waited in silence outside Scotland Yard, knowing all too well what was about to go down. Even though I could probably warn them, it would only serve to make me even more suspicious. It was a give and take situation. I sighed and hung my head, wanting desperately to wake up. Part of me was starting to worry that I was going crazy, and that in reality I was sitting in some mental hospital due to hallucinations or delusions.

Once again I ignored my worries. This was probably just an extremely elaborate dream and I was getting myself way too worked up over it. As long as I didn't start influencing major events and nothing deviated too far from the plot, I should be fine.

About twenty minutes later John and Sherlock finally emerged from the building, John wearing a look of defeat and Sherlock's of agitation. They didn't even need to say it. Sherlock took one look at my face, then quickly whipped it away, calling for a taxi and getting into it by himself.

I went to call after him but John stopped me. "He needs time," he said gently, and I tightened my jaw. Just like he had comforted me earlier, what he needed now was to be comforted. Being alone would only make things worse.

"Whatever," I muttered, calling for our own. "Let's go home."

I know I usually have my chapters at about 2k words each but I figured you guys would be desperate so I thought I'd just give it to you now as opposed to waiting for inspiration to strike me so I can write the second half because that could take a long time.

Anyway, I hope you understand that life is difficult, but I do intend to keep updating. I promise I'm not dead haha. But if you wanna stalk me and bother me about updating (looking at you daughter-of-the-morning haha) then feel free to message me on tumblr, as I use that quite frequently. My username is 42believer, as it is with all my social media.

Thanks guys, and I hope to see you soon! (And I'll see you even sooner if you review!)