Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Chapter 1: World turned upside down

At the beginning of the week Alyssa Jamerson was a bored assistant for an even more boring and sexist government official with no power. Now she was Anthea James, Mycroft Holmes' mysterious assistant with twelve times more power than all her previous employers combined. And to think all these changes happens in the space of an hour.
It was a Monday morning, around ten o'clock, and Alyssa had the mother of all hangovers. Her boss was being particularly sexist and handsy today and she was 1 comment away from screwing the possible assault charges and breaking his nose anyway. She was halfway through a candy crush level on her outdated computer when the outer office doors slam open and in walks the most intimidating man she had ever seen. He was tall, silent and wearing a pristine grey three pice suit with blue accents. Every detail of him screamed important, arrogant genius and it intrigued her to no end. He slowly walked in twirling a wooden handled umbrella about like he owned the place and looking with the most analytical stare known to man.
"hello my dear, is Mr Froke able to grace me with his presence today?" The mystery man said as he stopped infront of her desk. Alyssa didn't even try to hide the fact that she was playing candy crush as she got up and walked towards the door gesturing for him to follow her. Alyssa opened the door and waited for the man in the suit to enter first before she followed in behind him. "sir theres someone here to see you."
"ah, thank you miss Jamerson" Mr Froke then proceeded to get up and walk around the other side of his desk. Mr Froke extended his hand to the mystery man "hello Mr Holmes, pleasure to finally meet you." Mr Holmes looked down at Mr Frokes hand with disgust and scoffed. Alyssa broke out into a huge grin and started to laugh inwardly as she watched her boss' face turn red with embarrassed. "Coffee! Now!" Mr Froke said staring at Alyssa. Her face went back to neutral as she replied with a slightly venomous "yes sir." And exited the room in order to go and make the coffee. When she returned the two men were exactly where they had been ten minutes ago, which she deemed as odd, and were just finishing up their conversation. She brought the coffee over to her boss' desk and then proceeded to try and get away as fast as possible, but apparently he had other ideas as he grabbed her arm just before she could leave. "Alyssa" he whispered getting his slimy mouth very close to her ear, which she defiantly didn't like "how about after I'm done here we lock the office door and have a little chat" that's it. That was so it. Three weeks of dealing with this grotesque pig and she was ready to commit murder. In a very calm voice she turned to him and said "with the least amount of respect possible sir, I've had just about as much as I can take with your groping and inappropriate remarks. I would rather spend my every waking hour with a complete asshole than let you lay a finger on me. I quit" she said as she turned around and started to walk out but as she did so she nodded towards the other man in the room "Mr Holmes"
"Miss Jamerson" he nodded back. As soon as the girl was out of the room Mycroft Holmes turned towards Mr Froke "well Mr Froke, I'm afraid I have to agree with miss Jamerson, you are an insufferable imbecile who can't get anything right. Expect your termination notice in an hour, good day" and with that Mycroft turned towards the door and begun to walk out.
On the way out he stopped in front of Alyssa's desk while she was packing up her things "miss Jamersom your skills and intelligence where obviously being wasted here judging by the enormous amounts of puzzle games on your computer and I'm in dire need of a competent personal assistant, so if you deem it a worthy experience I would like to offer you a job." Alyssa was slightly shocked to say the least, she was completely willing and prepared to just walk out of here and go and find a job at McDonalds. Mycroft obviously sensing her shock and apprehension added with that bored tone of his "we could always start with a trial day and see if your willing to take on the enormous workload." Alyssa was speechless this creepy smart guy had basically just read her mind, she was defiantly going to take this job even if it was just to get an insight in to the life of this ominous government worker. "It would be my pleasure sir." She said choosing not to extend her hand, learning from her old boss's mistakes. She almost saw a shift in the mans neutral mask as he plastered on a fake smile and said goodbye " good, I'll have my driver pick you up outside your house at 6:30am, make sure your ready by then." And with that he just strolled out of the office.
When Alyssa got back to her flat her roommate Max was already home, Max was a lieutenant in the British army and had only been home for three months. Alyssa and Max had been good friends since there uni days and had shared some sort of accommodation since they both graduated 5 years ago. "Oh my god that's awesome Aly I'm glad you finally told that creep to go do one!" Alyssa started laughing as Max was trying to cram another slice of pizza into his mouth. "I didn't tell him to go do one Max, if I had I doubt I would've gotten offered another job offer"
"WAIT! WHAT? You never said anything about another job offer, I thought I was gonna have to pay for your expensive shopping habit again" Alyssa picked up both plates and took them to the sink "HA HA very funny, and by the way going clothes shopping once every two months is not a 'expensive shopping habit'" Max just stared at her giving her that 'we both know you go shopping way more than that' look."anyway" Alyssa said trying to change the subject as quickly as possible "yeah this creepy genius guy that was in the room when I quit walked out and offered me a job. To be honest I thought I was gonna have to get a job a McDonald's" and with that Max started laughing and raised his glass "to creepy smart guy" Alyssa smiled and touched her glass to Max's "to creepy smart guy
Oh, only if either of them knew.

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Chapter 2 working 7 till 8

Alyssa groaned as she rolled over and smashed her alarm clock so it would stop screeching. It was 5:00am and this was the earliest she had ever gotten up for work EVER. She rolled out of bed and padded down the hallway into the kitchen and living room area. Once she had turned the kettle on Alyssa looked round and started to glare at Max who was still up playing his stupid video game "hey."
"Max it's 5 in the morning why haven't you gone to sleep yet" Max paused the game and turned around to look at her "I can't sleep Aly... the nightmares are too much." Alyssa gave a sympathetic smile and sat down next to him on the sofa "are you ever gonna tell me what goes on when you leave" Max pulled her into a hug and whispered "you wouldn't understand unless you went through it yourself" Alyssa tightened her hold on him and then stood up and started to walk towards the bathroom "I'm heading of to work in a bit, just promise me you'll at least take a nap." Max started to laugh "sure thing mum"
Alyssa stepped into the shower and started to think about how accurate those words where. Max was practically her brother. Alyssa never got on with her family, her mum was an alcoholic and her dad was a drug addict so at the age of 15 she went to live on the streets rather than live in that abusive hell hole. she still went to school, never missed a day, and that's how she met Max. When she was 18 she went to university to study history ,never really being interested in anything else, and max was her roommate. Ever since then they've been inseparable. When they graduated they got a flat together and then Max joined the army, his tours usually lasted around a year and then he'd get around 8 months before he'd get deployed again. Max and his family were her family and she was grateful to have them. Alyssa got out of the shower and dressed in the smartest clothes she had around ,she'd defiantly need to go shopping, when she was done it was 6:15 and she went to go and make her tea.
When the clock hit 6:30 she got a text saying that there was a car outside waiting for her ,which was weird because she didn't remember giveing Mr Holmes her number. She said goodbye to max and walked outside towards the waiting black car.
Half an hour later she was sitting in front of Mycroft Holmes. He had a file open in front of him and was scanning it as Alyssa sat there patiently. "Alyssa Jamerson, daughter of Caroline smith and Keith Jamerson. When was the last time you spoke to your parents?" He questioned now looking at Alyssa. "12 years ago sir, right before I walked out" Mycroft seemed to study the women sitting in front of him before he gave a quiet 'hmmm' and moved on. "So, you live with a lieutenant Max Williams, currently back from his..." He looked down at the file " 3rd tour"
Alyssa expression grew softer as she answered with a "yes sir"
"You seem awfully calm about this miss Jamerson. After all these aren't standard interview question or, background checks?" Alyssa smiled as she crossed one leg over the other and replied "no sir, but then again this isn't a standard personal assistant position is it?" Mycroft sat back in his chair folded his arms and started to smugly smile at the women sitting in front of him " well done miss Jamerson. No this isn't a standard job, it will require you to take a field training course and take on several different names for your own safety." Mycroft then stopped as if to give her time to decline but when she didn't say or do anything he continued."if you choose to back out now I will understand" Alyssa didn't even blink as a grin spread across her face I'm not backing out now "who said anything about backing out sir."
"Very well miss Jamerson, welcome aboard." And this time Mycroft stretched his right hand over the desk and shook Alyssa hand "it's my pleasure sir."
The next two hours were filled with debriefings, Alyssa chose her new alias Anthea James and she was then given her new blackberry and shown how to use it. After that they both went through the schedule for this weeks and next weeks meetings then Anthea got sent to her desk to answer emails and phone calls. She was impressing Mr Holmes already and could tell this job was going to be one fun challenge. Anthea got home at half 8 that night after the longest day she had had since she graduated. As soon as her head hit the pillow she was asleep thinking about how the hell she got into this situation.

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Chapter 3 the 3:00am house calling

It was 2:53am and Anthea had been working for Mr Holmes for around three months now. Max was sitting on the sofa playing a video game and Anthea was asleep in her bed down the hall. Max was about to ram an axe through a zombies head when a loud sharp knock made him jump out of his skin. Max took a while to slow down his heart rate before walking wearily to the door. Once he opened it he was met with the cold stony face of one Mycroft Holmes dressed in a pristine suit like always."can I help you?" Max questioned with a very obvious look of annoyance on his face.
"Yes I'm sure you can, I'm looking for Alyssa Jamerson." Max took a minute to take in his words, and then it dawned on him "ohhh, your 007."
"Excuse me?" Mycroft question, confused at the mans statement. Max smirked and gestured for him to come in. Mycroft followed and closed the door behind him. " your Alys boss," Max added "I call you 007 cos the way she described you, you sounded like a James Bond villain, you know smart intimidating..." Mycroft stared at Max for a minute trying to deduce the man then carried on "yes. Well, can I speak to Alyssa please it's rather urgent"
"Sure" Max added as he started to walk down the hall towards Anthea's bedroom. Two minutes later and Max was running out of the room whilst several pillows were being thrown at him. Max calmed down and slowly started to walk towards a now smirking Mycroft "she'll just be a minute." A minute later a very tired looking Anthea walked out of her room in flannel pyjama bottoms and a tank top "sir? What's the matter" she said whilst rubbing her eyes.
"There's been a crisis." He stated
"No there can't be a crisis, our schedules already full." Anthea said as she groaned and looked up to the ceiling. "Ignore it, it'll go away soon enough." Max stated as he sat down on the sofa again. Mycroft scoffed as he looked down at the umbrella in his hands "lieutenant Williams the phrase 'ignore it and it'll go away' does not apply when you pickpocket the president of the United States" Max began to laugh uncontrollably whilst Anthea just looked at him dumbfounded. "sir you didn't?" If Anthea hadn't known any better she might of mistaken the look Mycroft Holmes gave her as an apology, but this was Mycroft Holmes and he didn't do apologising. "I'm afraid I did my dear, and unfortunately we have to leave right now if I wish to rectify the mistake"
"Wait, did you do this in the meeting the other day when you were bored out of your mind?" Mycroft ignored her question and raised a hand to his face rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Please Anthea we need to leave now." Anthea stood there for a moment starting at him and then gave in "fine" she sighed as she started to walk to her bedroom "I'll be ready in 5 sir."
"Thank you" he sighed as he sat down on the edge of an armchair.
5 minutes later and Mycroft and Anthea were rushing out into the town car. They had been sitting there for about 2 minutes when without warning Mycroft turned to Anthea and said "007?" Anthea started to lightly chuckle but kept her eyes on her phone."yep" she said with a smug smile on her face. "Why of all thing 007" Anthea looked up to him still with a big smile on her face "c'mon at least he doesn't call you creepy asshole" Mycroft sniffed a laugh and smiled wide at Anthea "your last employer?" Anthea nodded but kept her eyes on him, this was the first time she had seen him smile. Properly smile, and it seemed to make his eyes sparkle. "Well he was a creepy asshole" Mycroft declared as he looked out of the window and Anthea burst out laughing, after about a minute she calmed down and sighed "yeah he was. Makes me feel sorry for the girl who's working for him now." Mycroft scoffed as he turned back to Anthea "well don't my dear. I fired him." Anthea looked shocked for a moment "why?" She asked Mycroft looked slightly embarrassed before he answered "because my dear, if you hadn't said something to him after his little suggestion I would of personally broken his nose." Anthea's mouth upturned into a large grin as she spoke "y'know you do an awfully good job of it sir." She sung as she pulled out her phone "of what my dear" he questioned as he looked towards her. Anthea kept her eyes on her phone as she answered "pretending not to care about people."
She didn't get a reply

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Chapter 4 when she found out about Sherlock

This was it. Anthea James had been working for Mycroft Holmes for 3 and half month now and this was the first full day off she had had in that time. Most people, normal people, would've gone out with friends or gone shopping, but Anthea wasn't normal and she planned to spend her day spread out on her L shaped sofa with her best friend watching his favourite TV show while he explained everything to her. And that's just what she did, well for the most part. She woke up at half past eight after a well deserved lay in and wondered into the kitchen to find that max had brought four bags of popcorn, Doritos and coke to go with the laziness. At around about nine Anthea and max sat down to watch Doctor Who, all of it. Which max was incredibly excited about. And that's how she got to here. It was 5 o'clock and they had only gotten to about half way through season two and a whole way through a Dominos pizza when her phone started to ring, she kept it near just in case because In this job you always had to be prepared. She picked up the phone immediately noticing that it was mr Holmes' mobile. She answered and was met with the sound of a very tired Mycroft Holmes. "Hello my dear, I realise that this is your full day off but I really do need your help." Anthea was shocked, not only did he sound exhausted but that was basically a plead. "Of course sir anything you need."
"Thank you miss James." He said sounding relieved. "As you know I have a very important meeting with the Chinese delegate today, however my brothers in hospital and I'd rather not have him wake up by himself."
"Of course sir, would you like me to reschedule the appointment for next week?" She questioned whilst max was throwing popcorn at her. "No I can't miss this meeting... I was hoping that you could come and sit with him my dear. Just until one of his friends show up." Mycroft sounded exhausted and defeated, and it pulled on Anthea's heart strings. "Fine sir" she joked "but your buying lunch tomorrow."
"Of course my dear. His names Sherlock." He said as he audibly relaxed.
When Anthea arrived at the hospital she went up to the front desk and asked for sherlocks room number. After a rather long walk to the room she slowly and quietly opened the door and was met with a site that she smiled warmly at. There, sitting on a chair near the bed with his jacket off, sleeves rolled up and holding the hand of a disheveled man with a mop of jet black hair on the hospital bed was Mycroft Holmes, arrogant genius who avoided people like the plague. Yet here he was looking almost like a normal human being. Mycroft made no move to get up so Anthea moved towards him and made a move that would surely get her killed. She placed her left hand on his shoulder and to her shock he placed his hand on top of hers. They sat there like that in silence for about a minute until Anthea spoke "overdose?" She questioned and Mycroft nodded
"Sherlock has trouble shutting off his brain." He paused for a moment "he uses drugs to help him relax." Ah so he was super smart too.
Ten more minutes passed before Mycroft left and before he walked out of the door Anthea gently grabbed his arm and said "it'll be okay Mycroft"
"I hope it will my dear, this isn't sherlocks first overdoes" he said as he looked over to the beds occupant
"It'll be fine. I'm here if you need me sir." She said looking straight at him, Mycroft turned to her, the neutral mask gone for once, and looked happily shocked "thank you Alyssa." The next thing he did stunned Anthea, he pulled her into a tight hug that lasted longer than it should've and then left without a word.

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Chapter 5 a long long day

Anthea had been tense all week. It was getting closer to Max's leaving date and that meant she'd be alone in the flat again. Mycroft could obviously sense this as he kept looking over at her and humming whenever Anthea would sigh. She could tell this day was going to be a pain in the arse as it had kicked off with the kettle breaking. She flicked the switch a couple of times then unplugged it with unnecessary force. Max got up from the kitchen table and filled a pot up with water and put it on the stove, he then rubbed Anthea's shoulder and sat back down to finish his cereal.
The day didn't get much better from then on. Anthea's car broke down half way to work and she had to call Henry, Mr Holmes' driver, to come and pick her up. When she slumped into the car she greeted Henry and Mr Holmes then proceeded to get her phone out. A couple of seconds later and Mycroft was holding out an earl grey tea from her favourite place near her house. Really that man.
From then on it was meting after meeting during which Mycroft spent the whole time whispering to her about how the security of defence was having an affaire with the home security or how a certain person in the room was a complete twat. What can she say, it kept things interesting. These meetings kept going until around four, at which point Anthea had to go and give Sherlock another case file.
She knocked once and then entered the complete mess of a flat that was 221B Baker Street, Sherlock was laying on the sofa hands steepled under his chin. It was weird, after Mycroft had left the hospital Sherlock woke up and he and Anthea started to talk, it was almost like they were friends. Anthea threw the file onto sherlocks chest, sat down on the coffee table and crossed her legs waiting for the genius to stop daydreaming, or whatever the hell he does.
"What's my brother got for me this time?" Sherlock said as he grabbed the file and sat up. "Not much" she shrugged "just some rouge terrorist cell that we could use help tracking."
"was he too busy stuffing his face to come and see me himself?" Sherlock looked up briefly and saw the glare Anthea was giving him "what 'Thea?"
"You know what Sherlock." Anthea stated and Sherlock gave her a smug smile "plus your not the one who has to deal with his foul mood every time you mention his weight. Why do you think I've started coming instead of him?"
"Well I prefer you coming anyway, I don't need 'high and mighty' walking in here acting like he owns the country" Sherlock got up with the file in hand and moved towards his desk "I should have this back for you in two days" and with that Anthea sighed, got up and started walking towards the door "thanks Sherlock
When she got back to work it was around 5 and when Mycroft came out of his office announcing that they had to leave for the airport it was 9 and Anthea was two emails away from destroying her computer.
The plane ride was fairly long ,12 hours, and it started off with two hours of going through paperwork and a who's who of political figures that we're going to be at the conference but after that it was just fun and games. Mycroft and Anthea were sitting next to each other, as to go through files easier. Mycroft was reading a book and Anthea was texting max, who at this point had deemed his date unsuccessful after spiking wine over her. At the moment they were having a joke war and Anthea was just about to reply with the mother of all one liners when, " my dear, it's 2 in the morning in England, who could you possibly be texting?" Anthea, a bit startled, looked towards Mycroft with a smile on her face "oh, uh Max sir. He doesn't sleep that much." She said looking back towards her phone "well what has he said that got you smiling like a buffoon?"
"We're having a joke war sir." She said giving up on sounding like an adult "really my dear" he questioned with a look that could only be explained by the sentence 'what the hell is wrong with people' "fine sir, listen to this one." Mycroft seemed to prepare himself for the onslaught of bad jokes "have you heard the rumour about butter?, never-mind I shouldn't spread it." He scowled in response "fine" Anthea said flicking through her phone "ok here's one you'll like, 16 sodium atoms walk into a bar followed by batman." At that point Mycroft started grinning then started to chuckle "ok I'll give you that one"
A few hours later and she and Mycroft were still talking, about completely useless thing but still talking. "So you mean to tell me that the whole time you and Max shared a room in university you didn't see those slippers again?"
"NO! and they were my favourite pair."
"Well my dear, serves you right for buying ghastly slippers that look like dragon feet." Anthea lightly hit Mycroft and he faked a gasp. Conversation like that went on for god knows how long until Anthea finally drifted of to sleep on Mycroft's shoulder, and not so long after that Mycroft fell asleep with his head on hers.

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chapter 6: a fond farewell

this was it, this was the day that Anthea would have to say goodbye to her best friend for another year not even sure if he’d come back alive. it was early September and Max would miss his Birthday, Anthea’s Birthday and most importantly he’d miss the one time of year that the whole of Max’s family plus Anthea get together and she didn’t feel completely alone. Christmas. because of this Anthea would be spending Christmas in the empty flat. without max there no one really felt like celebrating.
it was three o’clock in the morning and Anthea and Max were up playing video games, neither of them could get to sleep and this was the better option than laying in bed ignoring the inevitable, max had just ordered a pizza from a twenty four hour dominos and both of them were now trying to kill each other plus several other people. “how are you this good” Max said shocked at the fact that Anthea was beating him 7 to 2 “what the hell has 007 been teaching you” Anthea just grinned and replied “sorry thats clarified” just then there was a knock on the door and Max quickly said “not getting it” Anthea got up smiling at her stupid friend sitting on the sofa “your such a child” the only reply she got was Max sticking his tongue out at her. she opened the door and instead of a board looking teenager she was met with her impeccably dressed boss “sir, what are you doing here?” Mycroft held out the pizza to Anthea “i thought id save the delivery man a walk and picked up the pizza myself,” Anthea looked at him sceptically, he then sighed and added “I was board and knew you two would be up doing something remotely interesting” Anthea was about to say something when Max shouted from the sofa “hang on, how did you know that we ordered pizza”
“I told you its classified” Anthea said with a smile on her face, she then took the pizza “thank you sir, you didn’t have to” Mycroft stepped into the flat and closed the door behind him “well my dear, we have a very blank schedule for tomorrow, and i remembered that lieutenant Williams is leaving tomorrow so i thought id come over.” Max got up and started to walk towards where Anthea had put the pizza down and was now getting out plates “how many times have i told you 007 call me Max”
“and how many times have i told you “Max” to call me anything but 007” Max just smiled and grabbed a slice of pizza out of the box.
hours went by with all three of them eating pizza and playing video games, it got to 5:00am and Max got a phone call “sorry guys its the boss i gotta take this” he then got up and went into his bedroom. “come on sir, take over i need a team mate” Anthea said as she handed Mycroft a controller. Mycroft hesitated for ten seconds then grabbed the controller “you do realise my dear that this is in no way a test of actual skill” Anthea unpaused the game “yes but sir, think about it, its like leg work without the effort.” she looked over to see the tiniest hint of a smile on her bosses lips.
the phone call had taken max way longer than he expected it to, 32 minutes by his phones count, as he walked back into the living room he saw the funniest thing he had seen since Anthea tried to do a cartwheel after 5 shots of Malabo, there sitting on his sofa was the ever serious Mycroft Holmes, suit jacket off sleeves rolled up and his mysterious assistant on his lap in her pyjamas both concentrating on the game so much that they didn’t notice max take out his phone and take a picture. “sir we have bogies at 3 o’clock i suggest deploying the grenades”
“Anthea get behind me we have men coming from both sides we’ll need to deploy the grenades and you’ll need to get out your rocket launcher”
“good point sir” that was it Max lost it, he burst out laughing and hunched over clutching his stomach which then made Mycroft and Anthea separate quicker than humanly possible. “oh my god you guys, i thought i was bad when i played these games, but you two act like its the real thing” Max said still laughing, then it dawned on him and his face went serious “hang on wait, have you two actually done this?” Anthea got off the sofa and put the kettle on “classified Max” she sung as she got out the cups “sir do you want a cup of tea?” Mycroft got up off the sofa and straightened his tie “yes thank you my dear” Anthea went about making the cups of tea “so Max what was the phone call about?” she asked as she poured the water . max stopped trying to analyse the odd pair bustling about the kitchen as familiar as a married couple and instead took a biscuit from the cookie jar “oh, it was just my boss telling me that the deployment’s gonna be earlier than expected” Anthea sat down next to Mycroft and opposite max with her cup of tea at the kitchen table “well when’s your deployment now?” she asked looking slightly worried “seven” Max said giving her a sad smile. Anthea’s face dropped as she realised that she only had an hour and a half left until she’d be alone again. “if it would help lieutenant i could give you a lift to the army base” Mycroft said noticing how Anthea’s mood had shifted “yeah, thanks Mycroft that would be helpful” obviously he and Mycroft were on the same page then.
it was half six and Max Mycroft and Anthea where standing outside the army base, Max in his uniform and Mycroft Holmes and his mysterious assistant dressed for their work day “I’m gonna miss you Aly” Max said as he dropped his bag and hauled Anthea into a big bear hug, she buried her face in Max’s shoulder “I’m gonna miss you too you idiot” Anthea said as she hugged him back. they let go of each other and Max held his hand out to Mycroft “Mr Holmes”
“Max” Mycroft said as he took the outstretched hand. Max shook the mans hand and then leaned in to whisper something in Mycroft’s ear “look after her, please” Mycroft nodded as max pulled his hand back. “and Aly don’t forget, don’t burn down the flat with your horrible cooking, the gas bills not due till next month and don’t forget to tape Dr who for me.” Anthea laughed and replied “ill do that if you come back alive”
“ill try my best” Max joked as he picked up his bag and gave a joke salute “see you in hell guys” and just like that he was gone and it was just the two government workers on the side of the road.
they drove back to the office and got on with there day, well that was until Anthea got a text from max whilst going through files with Mr Holmes.
Aly don’t forget i love you and seriously don’t forget to tape doctor who. if i don’t make it back this time find another man to annoy for the rest of your life, see ya soon bestie.
Max.
attached was the picture that Max had taken of her and Mycroft playing the game this morning both of them concentrating like there lives depended on it, Mycroft’s arms wrapped around Anthea’s waste and his head resting on her shoulder, once she had read this Anthea burst out crying, Mycroft got up and gave her a hug. they stayed like that for 10 minutes.

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hapter 7: well this is my diets fault.

it was a Monday and Anthea was still upset about Max leaving, it didn’t really help that today they had more meetings than free time and because of this both members of the dynamic duo where in a bad mood. they where in their third meeting of the day when Anthea finally noticed it, her boss hadn’t eaten anything with more than a hundred calories in it all day and it seemed to be a regular occurrence. could it be a diet?, she couldn’t see any reason why it would be, there was nothing wrong with Mr Holmes’s appearance and she’d even go as far as to say that he was good looking. hang on what did she just think… “Anthea!” Anthea got out of her train of thought just in time to see everyone getting up. she quickly rose to her feet and started to pack her notes and other things she had gotten out to alleviate the boredom during the meeting. Mycroft leaned in closer to her a quietly said “are you quite alright my dear, you seem a bit distracted”
“it’s nothing sir.” she said quickly
“well obviously its something my dear otherwise it wouldn’t be distracting you” Anthea just decided to ask him, whats the worst that could happen “well sir, I’ve noticed lately that you haven’t been eating well and i was wondering what the reason was?” Mycroft tensed and started to walk out of the meetings room “its nothing” he said as he opened the door and held it for Anthea. walked out of the open door and stopped about 2 meters in front of it “see you say that sir yet i’ve noticed that you barely eat anything when we have lunch meetings with clients” he rolled his eyes “and i know that you don’t eat when we work late at the office” Mycroft smiled an obviously fake smile and stared down at his assistant “miss James while i am surprised at your keen observations concerning my eating habits, i must remind you that keeping track of my food intake is not in your job description” Anthea sighed, typical avoidance as usual “yes but as your “personal assistant” sir it is my duty to assist you in personal matters such as making sure you’ve eaten enough to stop the world going into world war three” Anthea smiled to herself as she thought that, that was a pretty good argument for what she was trying to get across, however as she was being smug she noticed a very scruffy man standing in the middle of the lobby pulling out what looked like a gun. Anthea didn’t even think as she acted on in-stink thanks to her training, she tackled her boss to the floor effectively stopping his sentence short however just as she did she heard a gunshot. Anthea franticly started looking over her boss for any sign of injury, what she didn’t expect to see however was the concerned look in the ice mans eyes. “sir? are you alr-“ but before she could finish her sentence Anthea fell to the floor in pain and blacked out.
Mycroft was freaking out, one minute he and Anthea were arguing about his diet, which he wasn’t going to admit to, and the next minute she was lying on the floor unconscious with a bullet in her leg. “Anthea” Mycroft pleaded as he knelt down, took hold of his assistant’s hand and started to lightly tap her face, ‘Anthea” he said a bit louder. see this is why he didn’t do emotions, getting attached to people only gets you and the people your attached to hurt and now someone who actually cared about him is lying on the floor because they stopped him from getting shot. “Alyssa wake up” by this time several members of his security team were around them including his driver Henry who had called the ambulance and was now knelt down the other side of Anthea checking her pulse. at this point she had started to wake up and was now murmuring something incoherent. “Alyssa, Alyssa come on stay awake… you’ve got to stay awake”
“Mycroft?” she said trying to get up. “no don’t try and get up, you’ve been shot and id rather not go through the horrible business of trying to find a competent assistant” he joked, Anthea coughed out a laugh and then hissed in pain as she jogged her leg. she gripped Mycroft’s hand which he had forgotten was there and the next thing she knew she had blacked out again.
her throat was dry and there was this burning pain in her left leg, for a moment she had forgotten what had happened early that morning and all she could hear was the beeping of the ECG machine next to her plus what she thought were some nurses talking outside. Anthea opened her eyes and looked around the room, what she didn’t expect to see however was her boss, the ice man sitting next to her in a chair asleep holding her hand. she couldn’t help it she had to smile here was this complete idiot of a man who didn’t believe that human emotions where an advantage in hospital holding his employees hand. “now now miss james you’ve just been shot you could look a bit more sad” Anthea laughed and replied “its hard to look sad sir when I’m not going to have to deal with mr Cleeves and his wondering hands for atleast three days”
“ugh i absolutely hate that man” Mycroft groaned. at that moment the doctor walked in with a clipboard in hand “now miss James, the leg dama-“ he didn’t have time to finish his sentence as he looked up to not only see a very intimidating gentleman in the room but that he was also holding his patients hand. “as i was saying” the doctor continued as Mycroft let go of Anthea’s hand. “the leg damage isn’t permanent but you did tear a ligament so I’m afraid you’ll be on crutches and i suggest that you move in with a friend or a relative so that they can help you with menial tasks, do you have someone to stay with?” Anthea went to open her mouth but then Mycroft cut in “she’s staying with me” Anthea looked at her boss in surprise “well it is my diets fault your in this mess in the first place my dear” she barked a laugh and looked back towards the doctor “when can i go back to work?” the doctor looked at the pair as if they were crazy ‘uh you can go back to work as soon as you would like but i suggest taking a week off before you try walking around on a daily basis.”
AND SO BEGAN THE WEEK OF EYE ROLLS MUHAHAHAHAHA.

Chapter Text

partners in crime chapter 8: a week of eye rolls.

monday
Anthea had spent about a day in the hospital until she got fed up of doing nothing and checked herself out, despite the doctor and Mycroft disagreeing, at which point she rolled her eyes and told them she felt completely fine and that she was a grown woman. Anthea and Mycroft walked out of the hospital, well Mycroft walked, Anthea was in a wheelchair being pushed to the car by him, “sir i told you I’m completely fine i could’ve used the crutches.” Mycroft started to help Anthea into the car whilst Henry was packing the wheelchair into the boot as he replied “my dear, you seem to forget that I’ve been shot before, many times and trust me when i say that its best to rest the affected area as much as possible, otherwise it will take longer to heal and cause you more pain.” Anthea laughed a little before she said “hence why you bought a pharmacy’s worth of pain killers with us.” Mycroft smiled and nodded as he closed her door. she waited until he had gotten in on his side and closed the door before she spoke again “then riddle me this sir, how am i going to get my stuff from my flat? we’re on the third floor and the lifts broken.” Mycroft turned towards her and went to say something before Anthea cut in “and no your not going up there and getting my things for me.” he closed his mouth rolled his eyes and replied with an exhausted “fine”. they arrived at Anthea’s flat ten minutes later. Henry got out of the car grabbing the couches from the passenger’s seat as he did so, he then opened the door for her and helped her out “thank you Henry”
“your very welcome miss James” it was strange really, Henry was in his sixties not a posh man and generally very happy, so why was he working for Mycroft Holmes the definition of power. they made it upstairs to her flat fairly quickly, well as quickly as you can when your on crutches. Mycroft opened the door for her and they both strolled in one after the other. Anthea walked into the bedroom only to realise that she might need help, when she turned around she bumped into Mycroft and started to fall backwards, fortunately he noticed and grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her “need any help?” he asked
“yes please”. the next half an hour was spent with Anthea sitting on the end of her bed and Mycroft running around her bedroom packing things into a suitcase. when they were done they started to make their way out of the flat when Anthea remembered something “oh, sir would it be ok if i brought a couple of DVD’s with me.”
“by all means” he said as he put the suitcase on the floor and opened it. Anthea made her way over to the bookshelf in the corner of the living room and started to look through the massive amounts of max’s DVD’s, she grabbed season 7 and 8 of doctor who and made her way back over to the suitcase. “I never knew you liked doctor who my dear” he said as he closed the suitcase “it’s alright i guess, Max likes it and every time he goes away i always watch a couple of seasons, i haven’t seen these two yet.” they made their way out of the flat and down the stairs “your in for a surprise at the end of season 7” Mycroft said as they made their way down the narrow stairs “wait you watch doctor who” Anthea exclaimed as she tried not to slip “old habit I’m afraid, it was always on when i was a child and i grew quite attached to the character.” Anthea decided to leave it at that and ask him later as they were just about to get into the car.
they arrived at Mycroft’s house a short while later. it was a rather large red brick house in Kensington only a 15 minute drive from the Diagnose club a place where the posh prats of London sat in silence ignoring almost everything apart from their glass of scotch. as they walked through the house Anthea noticed that there was barely anything in it no photos, no clutter everything was either hidden away or put in its proper place and only furniture remained.
“the living rooms through there, i had the bedrooms soundproofed so i could get some sleep when Sherlock breaks in so you don’t have to worry about that if you wake up during the night, i don’t use the main dining room so its empty and heres your room, i gave you one on the ground floor because those stairs are a pain for a person who hasn’t had a hole ripped through their leg.” when Anthea opened the door she was met with a double bed, set of draws, a wardrobe and a wall mounted tv. “thanks again for this sir you didn’t have too”
“well the French didn’t have to kick up a fuss at the last EU conference but they did and so we now have to go and take care of that, after you my dear, unfortunately the study’s upstairs.” Anthea just smiled and shook her head at this strange strange man and made her way upstairs.

tuesday
how was she here again, no this wasn’t right “ALYSSA!” he was coming, what had she done wrong this time. BANG! the door smashed open and in came her dad obviously hight on cocaine again, she looked around for her mum but she was passed out drunk on the sofa “Alyssa what have i told you about disobeying me” she knew it was coming before it even happened, SMACK a ring cladded hand hit her in the face causing her cheek to bleed. she stood up ready for the fist fight she knew was about to happen “I’m not sleeping with anyone for money dad least of all your friends” the fist flew in the direction of her stomach, she managed to get out of the way but she didn’t know if she’d be so lucky next time. “i don’t care what you want mrs high and mighty now take your punishment or ill start aiming for that pretty little face” that was it, she balled her right fist up and aimed right for his nose, it made contact but she wasn’t quick enough he grabbed her by the throat. “ALYSSA” he started screaming over and over again “ALYSSA” her dad started to fade away “ALYSSA” and was replaced with another figure “Alyssa come on” she wasn’t taking any chances, she started lashing out fists flying everywhere “Alyssa its ok its me its Mycroft your fine” at that point her vision cleared and in front of her was Mycroft Holmes wearing a white t-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and had a bloody nose “Myc” she said her voice croaking as if she’d been crying “close enough” Mycroft said smiling at the small figure in the bed “Alyssa what happened? are you okay? you were screaming”
“i was?” Anthea said rubbing her forehead, “yes you were, what was the nightmare about?” as Anthea pulled her hand away from her forehead she saw that she had blood on her knuckles and then thats when her brain clicked “oh my god, i punched you in the nose” she said looking up to Mycroft “Mycroft I’m so sorry” Anthea grabbed a tissue from the bedside table “can i?” she asked looking sheepish. Mycroft nodded and Anthea put the tissue to his nose as he tilted his head back “its no bother my dear its happened before”
“what someone punched you in the nose while they were sleeping”
“Sherlock was coming round from one of his highs and he punched me in the face, only then he broke my nose. are you going to tell me about the nightmare or am i going to have to deduce it” Anthea’s face went blank she wasn’t going to tell anyone about that part of her past, not even Max knew about it and she’d like to keep it that way “how did you hear me screaming? i thought you had the bedrooms sound proofed” she said trying to change the subject. Mycroft looked at her sceptically noting that she was avoiding the question “you left your door agar and i was in the kitchen”
“couldn’t sleep?” Anthea said as she took the tissue away to check if his nose was still bleeding, it was so she put the tissue back “your not the only one who has nightmares about the past” he smiled sadly.
they spent most of the day going through files in the study and attending stupid video conferences with the stupid prime minister of Australia who stupidly got his computer hacked. while they were going through some files in the study Anthea finally snapped “can you please stop trying to deduce what my nightmare was about” Mycroft carried on going through the files “i don’t know what your talking about”
“oh come on don’t think i haven’t noticed that every time i look at a file your side glancing me, its nothing its just the pain its making me more alert.” Mycroft placed the file on the table calmly and with the coldest tone he had at hand he said “well if it was nothing why did you yell out in your sleep “I’m not sleeping with anyone dad least of all your friends” i have something that closely resembles an eidetic memory my dear, id be careful what you say around me”
“ok then if we’re going to start with things we remember seeing or hearing who’s in that picture you keep in your wallet, i asked Sherlock about it but he wouldn’t tell me anything” Mycroft took a deep breath and slowly got up and walked out of the room “thats what i thought” Anthea and Mycroft spent the rest of the day separated n that big house, Anthea in her bedroom watching tv and Mycroft on the third floor where Anthea couldn’t physically get to doing god knows what.
4 o’clock in the morning and Anthea woke up screaming and crying again, she really needed to get a hold on this. suddenly there was pounding footsteps coming down the corridor and the door to Anthea’s bedroom flung open to reveal a heavily breathing Mycroft who had obviously fallen asleep at his desk. with a million images running thorough her head and tears running down her cheeks Anthea blurted out “it was my dad” Mycroft slowly moved over to the bed and sat down “my past isn’t a pleasant one, thats why i don’t talk about it” she weakly laughed “i haven’t even told max about any of this.” she paused for a moment “My parents where arseholes, my mum was an alcoholic and my dad was a drug addict, usually cocaine sometimes other stuff, and when he’d get high he used to try and make me do stuff, but every time id say no and id hit back, after a while i got fed up of doing that, got fed up of fighting for a family that obviously didn’t give a shit about me.” Anthea paused and took a minute “and thats why when i was 15 i got up and left.” she looked up to see Mycroft staring at her “I’m sorry about early Mycroft”
“I’m sorry for asking about it.”

wednesday
Anthea had asked Mycroft to get the wheelchair out this morning because her leg was worse today so now she was speed racing around the halls of this big house like a game of Mario kart. “Mycroft have you seen the extra strong painkillers i can’t find them” she said as she was rolling down the hall towards the entrance area looking for him. all of a sudden a head popped around the doorframe to the kitchen in front of her “have you checked in the bathroom?” Anthea was about to tell him that she had when the front door of the house opened and both occupants turned towards it. the door opened and in walked two elderly people carrying suitcases, as soon as the woman saw the pair in front of her she broke into a big grin “Mycie” she said as she opened her arms and moved towards Mycroft. Mycroft sighed, rolled his eyes and moved slightly towards the woman. Anthea couldn’t help it she let out a laugh and was met with a glare from Mycroft “hello mother” he said smiling and returning his attention to the woman that now had him in a hug. as soon as she finished hugging her son her attention was brought to the girl in a wheelchair “why Mycroft you didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend” Mycroft bought his hand up to his face trying to hide from civilisation whilst Anthea tried to rectify the situation “no Mrs Holmes we’re, we- we’re not together” Mrs Holmes chuckled and said “oh i know that dear i was only joking and please call me Violet” Anthea let out a small laugh and held out her hand “pleasure to meet you, I’m Anthea James your sons assistant.” Violet shook her hand and then she was off into the kitchen and rambling about something or other. the other man then walked up to Anthea and said “sorry about my wife she doesn’t understand that she’s not funny” he joked, he then held his hand “ mr Siger Holmes, but you can call me Siger because Mr Holmes is my son.” he said laughing. he then said hello to his son and followed his wife into the kitchen, Mycroft groaned and Anthea rolled into the kitchen whilst giving him a sympathetic smile.

(the song in this chapter is stevie wonder signed sealed delivered)
thursday
Violet and Siger left early in the morning to watch a play and to see their youngest. unfortunately for him, Mycroft had a charity thing on at the Diogenes club that he couldn’t worm his way out of so Anthea would be alone in the house and could catch up on some Walking Dead without him telling her how stupid the show was. plus she had a weekly Skype call with max that she’d been looking forward too.
“so bestie how’s things going with you” max beamed as he settled himself in front of the laptop. his face then changed as he noticed something “hang on thats not our flat… Oh my god have you got a boyfriend?” Anthea started laughing at the man on her laptop who was now freaking out “no max i haven’t got a boyfriend.” she said as she rolled her eyes. in fact a lot’s happened in the last week.” Max and Anthea spent the next two hours talking about what had happened and what was going on with Max until he had to leave and Anthea was once again alone in the big house.
she wondered around the house, well i say wondered more like limped, she explored the second floor and its enormous amount of bedrooms and she crawled up the spiral staircase to the third floor what she found on it however confused her.
on the third floor was a landing with a sofa and a window that looked out to the garden. and there was a bedroom that was fully furnished and looked to be a teenagers. this was defiantly too weird so she decided to go back downstairs and spend the rest of the night in her room. Anthea must of fallen asleep because the next thing she knew she was being woken up by the opening of her bedroom door and a very inebriated Mycroft staggering in. “sir?” she questioned rubbing her eyes. Mycroft wondered over to the bed and laid down on it with some force. she couldn’t help it she started to laugh “sir are you drunk”
“no ill have you know that i -m completely fine” Anthea rolled her eyes sat up laughing to herself and looked at him properly for the fist time since he walked in. Mycroft Holmes, the head of the British government was laying next to her on the bed waistcoat unbuttoned, tie undone, no socks and hair a mess. she turned on the lamp and then turned to the man next to her “sir are you gonna go to your own bed.”
“mmmm cant get up” Anthea rolled her eyes let out a laugh grabbed her crutches and got up “were are you going” he slurred as she walked past him to get to the door “to get you a glass of water.” As she was walking towards the kitchen one of her crutches got caught on the door frame and she tripped falling right on her leg. she screamed as she landed and grabbed her leg in pain. not even 30 seconds had passed before she heard the crashing of the bedroom door and the pounding feet of her boss who had suddenly sobered up “Anthea” he shouted as he rounded the corner. Mycroft ran to her side and got down on his knees, Anthea who at this point was now laying down with her hands covering her face said “have the stitches split?” Mycroft rolled up her pyjama leg and saw blood “I’m afraid they have my dear we’ll have to go to A&E.”
“you’ve sobered up” Anthea blurted out as she started to cry. “well you know me Anthea always ready in a crisis” he said as he pulled off his tie and wrapped it around Anthea’s leg above the wound he then put his arm under her legs and lifted her up. Anthea hissed as Mycroft steadied himself and started to walk towards the front door “sir you can’t drive you’ve had too much to drink”
“i don’t care” he said as he strode down the steps and placed Anthea in the passengers seat of his Aston Martin and quickly ran around to the drivers side. they had been driving for a few minutes when Anthea looked down at her leg and saw a lot of blood “oh my god” she said as she looked up to the ceiling trying not to freak out. Mycroft who was now breaking the speed limit in order to get to the hospital quickly said “sing”
“what?” Anthea questioned as if the man was mad “it will help you take your mind of off the injury, sing”
“thats nice of you sir but I’m not doing anything that a man with no socks tells me to do” she laughed “and i don’t sing” Mycroft rolled his eyes as he turned down another road “miss James not only have i heard you singing in the office but over the past 4 days I’ve heard you sing when you think i can’t hear you” Anthea sniffed a laugh and Mycroft let out the hint of a smile “fine” she said and she took a deep breath “like a fool i went and stayed too long, now I’m wondering if your loves still strong” Mycroft went over a bump too fast and it jarred Anthea’s leg to the point were she was now crying so he carried on in the hopes that it would distract her “ooooh baby here i am signed, sealed delivered I’m yours. then that time i went and said goodbye, now I’m back and not ashamed to cry, oooh baby here i am signed sealed delivered I’m yours.” he finished as he pulled up to the hospital. he lifted Anthea up out of the car just in time for her to pass out from the pain.
Anthea woke up for the second time this week in a hospital bed with a sharp pain in her leg. yet again there was someone holding her hand and yet again when she opened her eyes she saw her boss sitting next to her on a chair, this time however he was on his phone answering emails. “i didn’t know you listened to Stevie Wonder” she said “he doesn’t, one of his friends listened to it when he was younger” Violet said as she walked into the room “id say she was more of a friend Violet” Siger commented as he walked in behind her. Mycroft let go of Anthea’s hand “thank you for that. and what do i owe the pleasure” he said as he pocketed his phone. “you don’t owe anything” Violet smiled as she walked over to Anthea and gave her a hug “we came back to say goodbye before we left the door was open and there was blood on the floor, we assumed something bad had happened so we came to the nearest hospital” Violet explained as she pulled out a bunch of grapes and handed them to Anthea “aww Mrs Holmes thank you, you didn’t have to do that” Violet smiled as she pulled up a chair and sat down “please dear call me Violet, and yes i did have to. me of all people know that my boy’s can be challenging at the best of times, and you manage to put up with them, this is the least i could do. your parents must be so proud” all of a sudden the room went dead quiet and Anthea looked down at her lap. Mycroft sighed and started to rub his forehead “mother” he moaned “Anthea hasn’t seen her parents in over 13 years” as soon as she heard this Violet put on a sympathetic smile and grabbed Anthea’s hand “oh my dear i’m sorry that must be awful” Anthea smiled and looked into the elderly women’s eyes “no it’s ok, theres no point on stressing about the thing’s we can’t change.”

friday
She couldn’t sleep, well how could she, her leg was hurting so bad that she thought she had been shot all over again. They stitched her up at the hospital last night and then she went home after an hours argument with Mycroft that she was perfectly fine, however now she was regretting it and all she wanted was to talk to max. She understood it now, how agitated and frustrated max would get when he got sent home early after he’d been shot, they used to stay up talking for hours on end just to take his mind off of it. she could remember one time the pain was so bad that she found him in the bathroom with a broken wrist after he’d smashed it against the bath just to distract him from the pain, actually that idea didn’t sound so bad at the moment. CRASH! what the hell was that, oh my god someone’s broken in. she grabbed her phone from the bedside table and dialled Mycroft’s mobile number… nothing, god he must of turned it off, why of all the days did he have to sleep properly on the day that they get robbed. Anthea grabbed the crutches and slowly and as quietly as she could made her way to where the noise had come from. it took her a while but she managed to get to the study on the second floor without being noticed, she would of gone to Mycroft’s room but it was locked and trying to open it would’ve made too much noise.. right here we go, the plan was storm into the study and throw one crutch at the suspected attacker, luckily the desk in Mycroft’s office was fairly close to the door so she’d probably be able to get in a few good blow’s and disable the intruder without too much fuss, here we go. BANG! the door shot open and Anthea threw one of her crutches at the figures chest, they ducked down and missed most of the object, however part of it clipped them in the shoulder and she heard them groan in pain. next she quickly made her way to the side of the intruder and shoved the other crutch into the persons groin area because man or woman that’s got to hurt. however after it hit them they grabbed the crutch and pulled Anthea down with them. she shoved their head into the ornate desk and they shoved her into the bookshelf behind with little to no impact. at that point the light was turned on by Mycroft to reveal Sherlock holding his groin and the crutch whilst Anthea was laying opposite him also holding the crutch “seriously Sherlock, you break into my house whilst a sleep deprived, injured and trained lunatic is sleeping downstairs.” Anthea didn’t take in what her boss had said, she was too buys looking at Sherlock and how something wasn’t right, “oh Sherlock you didn’t” she said closing her eyes “I didn’t what?” he said playing the fool “oh come on Sherlock” Anthea huffed “just because you too are genius’ doesn’t mean the rest of us are stupid, i’ve been around people on drugs most of my life do you really think i wouldn’t see it” Mycroft crossed his arms and looked directly at his younger brother “Sherlock?” he questioned “fine i used” he said as he got up “god you two aren’t my parents you know” he said as he walked off probably in the direction of the kitchen. After helping Anthea off of the floor both her and Mycroft made their way down to the kitchen where Sherlock was sitting on a counter waiting for the kettle to boil. the room was completely silent as the three occupants moved around the kitchen making tea and getting pain medication. when everything was done and the three of them were sitting at the table the two brothers where having a staring contest that didn’t look like it was ending anytime soon so Anthea started to speak “why?” she questioned looking up at Sherlock “why do you care?” he replied “Sherlock” Mycroft warned “no Mycroft i want to know why your assistant of all people cares about me?, why she’s staying at your house? and why in the name of all things logical you are showing emotional attachment towards her?” Mycroft was about to reply to his brother when Anthea’s banks finally burst “because Sherlock weather you like it or not your one of the few people in this shitty little world that i care about, i’m staying here because your brother is a nice enough human being to let someone who got shot protecting him stay for a week so they can get back to work and he’s probably showing attachment towards me because I’m his friend and i care about him.” and with that outburst Anthea got up and made her way to her room. after that the two brothers stayed at the kitchen table in silence, Mycroft glaring at his brother and Sherlock sipping his tea as if nothing had happened. “what happened to her” Sherlock said finally putting down his tea. “your so clever Sherlock, work it out for yourself” the other brother said finally uncrossing his arms “well she obviously has very few remaining family or friend’s otherwise she wouldn’t be staying with you”
“close, she has no family she communicates with” Mycroft corrected. Sherlock took a moment to recalculate some thing’s before he looked up at Mycroft with a saddened expression of shock and said “oh”
“oh indeed” Mycroft repeated holding the now cold tea in his hand “is that why your nose looked particularly swollen the other day when you came to annoy me.” Mycroft rolled his eyes, put the cup of tea down and stood up “i think you should go and apologise little brother.” he said as he walked off. Sherlock casually opened the door, flopped down on the bead and picked up one of the books on Anthea’s side table “what do you want Sherlock?” she questioned rubbing her face with her hands. Sherlock put the book down and stared up at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity “I came to apologise” he confessed looking anywhere but her “well your doing a shit job of it” she said as she looked down at her hands “well you’ll have to excuse me” he said as he got up and started chucking around a cushion “i don’t usually apologise” Anthea scoffed and Sherlock glared “your right sorry, sorry” she laughed as she put her hands up in surrender “as i was saying i don’t usually apologise-“ Anthea let out another laugh so Sherlock threw the cushion at her to shut her up “so excuse me if i get this wrong, but i wanted to say sorry for asking you all of those things, its come to my attention that it was obvious why you care about me and about my brother.” Anthea got up and stood beside Sherlock “thank you Sherlock” he started to walk out of the room when Anthea continued “oh and by the way, don’t think i haven’t noticed the interest you’ve taken in doctor hooper” Sherlock stopped and swivelled on his expensive shoes “don’t worry, luckily for you I’m the one who monitors the CCTV not your brother” he let out a hint of a smile as he replied “i underestimated you miss James.”
“goodnight Sherlock and sorry about the head” Anthea chuckled as she made her way back to her bed.

Saturday
Saturday was a rather boring day, no work, no start of world war three and to be honest no fun. because of the events of last night Mycroft was sulking and Anthea was questioning why all of her friends are lunatics. somehow Anthea had found herself in the living room flicking through tv channels whilst Mycroft was god knows where. after she had watched four episodes of jeramy kyle two episodes of top gear and 1 episode of QI Mycroft wondered in carrying two cups of tea and sat down next to Anthea. “what are you watching?” he said with a board tone “QI” she said taking a cup from his hand “oh good something i can actually watch” the silence that followed was uncomfortable and Anthea had to break it before it drowned them “do you want to talk about it?” she said as she turned off the tv and turned her head towards Mycroft “theres nothing to talk about”
“sir-“
“no Anthea, theres nothing to talk about, my brother just did another stupid thing and-“ Anthea put the tea down and turned herself towards him. “Mycroft, if theres anyone you can talk to about this stuff, it would be me, i understand what your going through.” he crossed his arms and was silent for about a minute when he finally said “theres really nothing to talk about”. Anthea gave up, she sighed and put her head on the back of the sofa “fine, fine… do you wanna watch a dvd?” Mycroft nodded towards the cabinet in the corner of the room so Anthea launched herself off of the sofa and towards it. she started looking through the cabinet “Band of Brothers, blah blah blah the great escape, hang on a minute” she said picking out the DVD and turning around “you have Bridget Jones Diary” all of a sudden Mycroft was looking everywhere but Anthea “it’s my brothers” he replied. “no it isn’t” Anthea said limping over to the sofa and sitting on the coffee table. Anthea then proceeded to stare her boss down with a smug grin until he gave in “fine it’s mine in fact i have both the movies in there if your interested.” he said giving up and gesturing towards the cupboard. “I love Bridget jones too… do you wanna watch it with me” Anthea shyly spoke Mycroft looked shocked for a moment before he nodded his head “great go put the kettle on.” she said as she flopped back on to the sofa. Mycroft looked slightly offended as he got up and made his way to the kitchen mumbling about power or something or other and Anthea couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the drama queen. Two movies, four cups of tea and half a bottle of wine later the duo where spread out on the sofa still laughing from the two movies they had just watched “well i’m going to go to bed” Anthea said as she got up of the sofa and started to limp towards the living room door, now that she wasn’t using the crutches it was taking her a while, “miss james” Mycroft said just before she got to the door, his voice was quiet and calm so Anthea turned around ready to listen “thank you… for today.” Anthea smiled back “it’s my pleasure sir” she said before she carried on making her way towards her bedroom.

sunday
For god sake couldn’t the british government take care of itself without being directed like a bloody child. 1 hour. it took just one hour of communication shutdown for the country to start a civil war. unfortunately for the two it meant that Anthea had to start at work a day early and even worse had to deal with the idiots called MP’s. Luckily however they managed to sort out the crisis some 15 hours later after hours of arguing with too many people “we’re going to need a new kettle” Anthea said as she came in and put two teas down on the desk they where sharing for the day “i think after the amount of times i’ve used it today it’s given up” Mycroft jotted one more thing down on the file he had in front of him before he put his pen down and rubbed his face with his hands “well at least we’ve finally sorted out the temper tantrum those imbecile were having”
“yup” Anthea replied grabbing her tea “civili war’s been averted” Mycroft picked up his cup and clinked it with Anthea’s “yes it certainly has”.

eye roll total = 9

Chapter Text

partners in crime chapter 9: in memory of new friends and old Part 1

it had been two months sine the week Anthea spent at Mycroft’s house. the day had started off fairly normal. Anthea got up made tea, got dressed, cursed her door for not locking properly, cursed the London traffic in her car and when she got to the office she made tea for her and her boss and then went to catch up on Sherlocks CCTV surveillants. “what?” Anthea said looking back over the last half an hour of tapes. “oh Mycroft is going to have a fit over this” Anthea said smiling and standing up with sherlocks file. She knocked on the door and waited a second before entering the inner office. once she was in she closed the door behind her and stood in front of Mycroft’s desk. she waited until he had finished looking at the computer and put his hands together on the table before she started to speak “sir, theres been a development” Mycroft sat back in his chair and crossed his arms obviously expecting the worst ‘whats my brother done this time?” Anthea broke into a small smile as she passed over the file “well sir, he’s gotten himself a flatmate. A Doctor John Watson. Army doctor. honourable discharge from Afghanistan due to a shoulder injury. studied at Barts and quite honestly sir I think he’s the best thing for your brother since we put him under round the clock surveillants” Mycroft studied the file as he spoke “well if he’s going to be my brothers new flatmate then we’re going to have to put him through the test” he then got up and walked out of the office “do we have too sir” Anthea called out after him as she followed “i can’t be bothered to act mysterious today”
an hour later and Anthea was picking john up “hello” john said, Anthea looked at him trying to keep the facade of ‘i don’t care’ “hi” she said and then turned back to her phone
id be careful if i was you sir, this ones a talker
A.
oh god no, not another one. please tell me miss James what about my brother attracts ‘chatty’ people
MH.
“whats your name then” god this was going to be a long drive
“uh… Anthea”
“is that your real name”
well at least he’s not completely stupid sir,
A.
“no” she said smiling at the other occupant of the car. “I’m John” Anthea smiled again and said “i know” as silence crept back into the car Anthea got another text
well at least he knows his own name.
MH.
be nice, I think I’m starting to like him
A.
“any point in asking were I’m going?” Anthea let out a breath and smiled at John “none at all. John”
After the meeting was finished and John was taken back to baker street Anthea walked back into the office and flopped into one of Mycroft’s chairs opposite his desk. she then pulled out her phone and began to go through next weeks meetings “on Monday we’ve got a rather tedious meeting with the prime minister. can i be excused from that one?” Anthea asked looking up from her phone “why” her boss said smiling slightly “you know why sir” she moaned rolling her eyes “every time I see him he asks me if i can go and get his dry cleaning as well because ‘my PA’s not nearly as pretty as you darling’” Mycroft was still chuckling when he said that he’d have a talk with the prim minister about it “Tuesdays pretty busy, we have 5 meetings and a conference call with the Russian Ambassador plus-“ Anthea stopped dead which made Mycroft look up from the file on his desk “Anthea?” she snapped out of it just in time to reply with “you’re brother’s gone missing”
20 minutes later and they where standing outside a crime scene watching the detective and the doctor walk away “well my dear, what do you think of the Doctor” she looked up form her phone to smile at her boss “I think we should get back to the office before you turn green with envy sir.” Mycroft glared at his assistant as he replied “miss James for your sake I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Anthea slipped into the back seat and went back into serious mode “you right sir my apologies”
the car had been going for 5 minutes before Anthea got a phone call. she answered with the same tone she answered every phone call and she put on the same bored expression she did for every phone call, however this phone call was different “miss Alyssa Jamerson?” the man on the other end of the phone said. strange she thought, she quickly glanced over to her boss with a worried expression which he caught. barely anyone knew her name, her real name so she was on edge from the start “yes this is she”
“I’m sorry to have to tell this to you over the phone ma’am but we didn’t know your home address” 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds went by without Anthea breathing until she finally let out a shuddery breath into the phone in her hand. “I’m sorry, who’s speaking”
“this is General Albert Smith ma’am we were told to contact you as well as lieutenant Williams’ family in case of an incident” when Anthea didn’t reply the general carried on “Lieutenant Williams went on patrol 52 hours ago, theres was an explosion and I’m afraid to say that he’s been considered MIA.” …
to be continued

Chapter Text

Partners in crime chapter 10: I’m memory of new friends and old part 2

“he’s been considered MIA.”
She was in shock. She couldn’t move and to be perfectly honest she didn’t want to move. After they had stopped Mycroft had sprinted out of the car and round to her side of the car, he flung open the door and helped out of it and onto some steps. She knew he was speaking, but she wasn’t registering what he was saying. All she could see was the stressed face of her boss in front of her face, mouth opening and closing quicker than she could notice. “ANTHEA!” Mycroft screamed as he shook his assistant trying to get her to come out of wherever she was. Mycroft had gotten the rough gist of the conversation Anthea had had on the phone before she froze and this did not bode well for the girl sitting in front of him shrinking into herself. Mycroft stopped trying to snap Anthea out of it and took off his overcoat, he then draped it around his assistants shoulders and sat next to her. Henry had just finished a phone call, probably to his wife when he lent on the car and looked at the pair in front of him. Henry had been Mycroft’s driver since Mycroft graduated and got offered the job he still has today, because of this Henry was one of the only people that was allowed to talk to Mycroft without restraint. “I remember when my brother died. Vietnam, he was only 19.”
“why are you telling me this Henry?” Mycroft asked obviously getting frustrated because he couldn’t do anything “I’m telling you this because you know what its like to have someone disappear out of your life with no closure too Holmes, and i think you’d do well to remember that when dealing with this situation” and with that Henry got back into the drivers seat of the town car and left the two in peace. five minutes later and Anthea was starting to come out of her state “M.I.A” she said looking at something in the distance. Mycroft didn’t feel like he had anything to add so he kept quiet “there won’t even be a body” Mycroft looked at the woman sitting next to him, she had been in this job a little more than two years and you could tell. she wasn’t showing any emotion and the only reason you would’ve know this affected her was by her voice “ill look into it when we get back to the office, if theres no body then theres still a chance that he’s alive” Mycroft said
“captured’s better than dead” Anthea added bitterly from beside him. “indeed” Mycroft replied. They sat there for a couple of minutes more before Mycroft got up and Anthea straight behind him. She started to walk towards the car before she noticed that she had her bosses overcoat on, she carefully slid it off her shoulders and gently handed it back to him “thank you” she said sadly
“your most welcome” Mycroft replied as he started to walk back to the car “not just for the coat sir” Mycroft stopped and turned around “for everything” Anthea added “your most welcome” he said again and made his way back to the car.
the ride back to the office was filled with silence and for the first time in a long time, uncomfortable. They got back to the office and spent 5 hours looking for any sign of Max, they couldn’t find any, and when they were done. “I’m gonna head home.” Anthea said with an exhausted look, Mycroft looked up from the filing cabinet and straight at Anthea, he looked her over like he usually did when trying to deduce something from someone and closed the filing cabinet. “Anthea” he said as he put on his overcoat “i don’t think it’s wise for you to be alone tonight” he said almost stuttering “so if you would like to… then you can come and stay the night at my house” Anthea smiled at her awkward boss twiddling his umbrella like it was a lifeline “thank you sir but i think that id much rather sleep in my own bed tonight.”
“then I can sleep on your sofa if that would be alright” Anthea was shocked when that came out of his mouth, Mycroft complained when one of the springs in his chair was out of place and now he was offering to sleep on Anthea’s lumpy old sofa. “ok then” Anthea said grabbing her coat “but be warned i’ll have to make you breakfast in the morning” Mycroft stopped dead in the middle of the room “oh god no. I’m making the breakfast I’ve heard max’s horror stories.”

Chapter Text

Partners in crime chapter 11: Christmas

Work was slow this time of year, always was, even the world needs a holiday every now and then. Because of this Anthea and Mycroft were stuck in their office twiddling their thumbs so to speak “i never thought id say this” Anthea sighed whilst spinning around in Mycroft’s desk chair “but i really wish someone would blow something up” Mycroft let out a laugh from the sofa in his office he was now laying on “well you know what they say my dear” he said getting up “you never miss it until it’s gone” Anthea continued to spin around in the squeaky chair until her bosses annoyed glare got to be too much “sorry” she said as she looked at her phone again “ugh even Sherlocks being quiet, why the hell is your brother being quiet?” Mycroft took off his jacket and put it on the sofa “i have no idea” the genius said now checking his own phone. he sighed as he put it back into his trouser pocket “what?” Anthea chimed in from across the room. Mycroft smiled one of his bitter smiles and turned towards his assistant “that was my mother, and she would like to know if you would care to join us this Christmas” Anthea almost dropped her phone when he said that. about 2 minutes passed before Mycroft chimed “well?”
“wait so you actually want me to come with you for Christmas?”
“my dear it would be my pleasure”
the next couple of days went by quickly, they finished a long day of work and Mycroft drove her and Sherlock up to Sussex where his and Sherlocks parents lived. The car ride over was filled with fighting about too many things so half way there Anthea told them both to shut up and she got an inaudible response back from both of the brothers. Once they got there the two brothers where pulled into hugs and eventually so was Anthea. From then on the weekend went at a bit of a haze until Christmas at eight o’clock at night when Sherlock got up and told Mycroft it was time. Mycroft got up and smoothed down his waistcoat “you can come as well my dear if you wish” Anthea got up and followed her boss and his brother to the garden outside. they stopped at a bench that had two lanterns on it “uh… sir whats going on” Anthea said feeling slightly unwelcome. Mycroft handed her a lantern and replied “a memorial service” as if it was obvious. At that point Sherlock came back from the house with a gas lighter and handed it to Mycroft. Mycroft then turned to Anthea and started to explain “every year at Christmas, me and Sherlock light a lantern for someone important that we’ve lost and set it free.” he took a moment and then added “i thought you would care to join us and light one for Max” Anthea started to get a little teary “thank you” she said and Mycroft nodded “but sir” she added and Mycroft looked towards her “who’s your lantern for?” Mycroft froze, not able to respond. Anthea was about to give up and say it didn’t matter when Sherlock spoke from her side “our sister” a bit shocked Anthea looked towards Sherlock, he was staring back at her, his face completely serious. “Sherlock!” Mycroft warned.
“no Mycroft” he challenged “someone’s got to know about her. we’d be doing her wrong if they didn’t” Mycroft slowly nodded and picked up the lantern handing it to Sherlock “ok but can we please light the lanterns first” Sherlock nodded “of course” Mycroft took Anthea’s lantern first and lit it, he then lit the one Sherlock was holding and grabbed it as well “1, 2, 3 go” Sherlock said and on three they all let the lanterns go watching them float off into the night. Sherlock sat down at the picnic bench still watching the lanterns float off into the distance and Mycroft and Anthea did the same. After the lanterns where out of sight Mycroft spoke “her name was Sherinford” he started causing Anthea to look towards him “she was our adopted sister, and before i found her she was homeless” Sherlock turned himself around on the bench so he was facing them “she was the total opposite of us, and now she’s gone” Anthea rapped her jumper around her tighter and whispered “how did she die?” Mycroft took a deep breath and began “we were driving back from the high street. she had just turned 18 and mummy and father said she could get her first tattoo” he laughed sadly “we were driving back and a drunk driver hit the passengers side where she was sitting, i became unconscious instantly.” he paused to rub is hands over his face “i woke up a good distance away form the car. it was on fire, and about two seconds after i woke it exploded. the body was unrecognisable.” the silence that followed was defending and Anthea could feel the tension between the two brothers growing “she was 18. she was only 18” Sherlock said glaring at Mycroft “and if you left it to the morning like i suggested she would still be with us” Mycroft looked up at Sherlock anger in his eyes “dont you think i realise that Sherlock. don’t you think i hate myself everyday because of it.” Sherlock stood up and walked back into the house, turning his coat collar up as he went. Anthea could tell that her boss was getting upset even if he didn’t show it so she carefully placed her hand over Mycroft’s “it wasn’t your fault you know” she whispered. He didn’t move, he just sat there for a few minutes until he said “how do you do it?”
“how do you do what?” she replied pulling her jumper closer to her “how do you come to terms with the fact that someone you love hates you?” Anthea took a deep breath and turned towards him more “Sherlock doesn’t hate you Mycroft, anyone who knows you two can see that.” Mycroft stood up and began to walk back into the house, whilst he did he turned back and replied “it would be helpful if someone could remind him of that fact.”

Chapter Text

partners in crime chapter 12: and life just gets better.

new years came and went and so did January and Febuary and now that March was here Anthea realised that this year was going to be just as weird as the last. She had tried going on some dates, tried to find someone she could spend the rest of her life with like Max had asked her, but they all kept being interrupted by work, actually now that she thought about it, it wasn’t just work it was Mycroft too. He’d ask her to come and work late at his house which always ended up ending in drinks or a conversation about things he usually wouldn’t take interest in.
it was a rainy Monday night and Mycroft and Anthea were walking back to his car from a nearby cafe they had just finished a meeting in. “well i suppose that could’ve been worse” he said positioning his umbrella more over Anthea, “sir the ambassador broke down into tears after you told him that his wife was having an affair” she laughed as she pulled her coat closer to her. Mycroft laughed as Anthea started to recall the evening they’d just had, he didn’t know why but he always enjoyed spending time with her even if it was just to tell him off for being rude. as they rounded the corner into the alleyway where his car was parked three men appeared in front of them and three behind, “well hello Mr Holmes.” the taller man in the middle said as he stepped forward. Mycroft stiffened beside Anthea and she knew this spelled trouble for the two of them. she reached into her pocket and fingered her phone getting ready to put the deactivation code into it if the situation got worse. “i don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure. You are?” he said as he lowered his umbrella getting ready to use it as a weapon “lets just say that someone i need getting rid of has taken a particular interest in you” Mycroft casually put one hand in his pocket and replied with “well that information is as much use as a ball of chalk” Anthea immediately tensed, ball of chalk was english military slang that she’d heard Max use many times, it meant that the situation had deteriorated beyond repair. She entered the deactivation code that would destroy all information on the phone, she presumed Mycroft had done the same when his hand appeared from his pocket and came to rest on his umbrella in front of him. “and what makes you think that ill cooperate?” Mycroft said in one of his sarcastic tones that usually warned people off of what they were about to do. “oh Mr Holmes i don’t expect you to come along easy, thats why i brought these five fine gentlemen” he said gesturing towards the men that were now coming towards the two of them “sir” Anthea warned as she brought out the pocket knife Sherlock had given her for Christmas saying that she might need it one day. “you wanna tell your girl to back down Holmes, you know your outnumbered and her slicing up one of my guys is only gonna make the situation worse for her.” Mycroft eyes grew sharp as he looked towards the now gloating stranger “leave her out of this, she has nothing to do with me” the man laughed as he stepped forward “oh i beg to differ Holmes, see we’ve been observing you two over the past couple of days and she’s my ticket to making sure you cooperate.” he clicked his fingers and a man came up behind Anthea holding a knife to her throat. Mycroft held up his hands as soon as he saw what was happening “NO!” he shouted looking towards the man who seemed to be in charge “no stop, ill come quietly just dont hurt her.” Anthea started to struggle against the man that was holding her but she stopped when he said that “Mycroft don’t” she pleaded tears coming to her eyes. “I won’t hurt her as long as you come quiet.” He dropped his umbrella and looked back at Anthea “I made a promise, and i intend to keep it.” the next second a man who had been standing behind Mycroft put a cloth covered with chloroform over his mouth and he went down banging his head on the floor on. “take the girl, but don’t hurt her, the man came quiet.” the next thing Anthea knew she was out cold.
She woke with an throbbing pain at the front of her head just above her eye, she guessed that she had hit her head when she was knocked out. She went to touch it but found that her hands were bound in front of her. A sound came from next to her and after she looked up she realised it was Mycroft coming around from the chloroform. “Mycroft” she said watching his eyes open and move around calculating the situation until they came to rest upon her. “Anthea! are you alright, did they hurt you.” Anthea moved both of her hands up towards her bosses head where blood was now pouring from a gash there “no i’m fine, but you…” she said as she touched it and he winced “sorry” she said pulling her hands back “do you have any idea where we are or who’s taken us” Anthea asked looking around the room again. “no” he said standing up “i don’t even know who they’re trying to get to by taking me” at that moment the tall man and two other men came through a door in the corner of the room “to answer your question Mr Holmes, we’re looking for an assassin who’s been giving me trouble for some time now, she even killed my dad.” Mycroft blinked as he processed the information trying to work out who they could be talking about “i don’t associate with any assassins”
“well she’s been saving your arse for a while now, figured she’d save you this time” Mycroft went to say something but the tall man hit him square in the face sending him flying, he then bent down to look him in the face “now Mr Holmes, you’ve got quite a reputation and i’ve been told not to let you speak, so heres whats gonna happen. The longer your friend takes, the more I’m gonna torture you and your girl here” he said smiling at Anthea making her skin crawl. He then got up and left without another word. Anthea crawled the short distance over to her boss and pulled him up into a sitting position, he wiped his face and looked over to her, this was defiantly not good.
The hours were crawling by at a snails pace, they were stuck in a small room with no light apart from the yellow glow that was seeping through the frosted glass of the door to there prison. Every so often they would come in and beat the pair, they’d now focused their attention more on Mycroft as every time they concentrated on Anthea Mycroft would jump them from behind and do a considerable amount of damage to one of the men. i had been about a day now though it’s hard to tell. Mycroft was in bad shape, his face was a mixture of purple, yellow and red, His clothes were stained in blood and he was looking paler by the minute. Anthea didn’t look much better, she had bruises scattered up and down her body and she couldn’t get the taste of blood out of her mouth. They were both sitting in the corner of the room, Anthea leaning against the wall with her legs stretched in front of her and Mycroft laying by her side with his head in her lap “Aly” he mumbled through his swollen face “yeah” she said looking down at him “as soon as we get out of this, fire our security detail.”
“yes sir” she laughed which made Mycroft smile “I’m sure Sherlock will find us my dear, i have no doubt he’s wondering where i am after i didn’t come and annoy him yesterday” Anthea smiled trying to stop the tears that where now forming in the corners of her eyes “i know sir”
The hours kept passing, the beatings kept coming and there was still no sign of whoever they were waiting for.
On what was presumed as the third day the tall man in charge came waltzing into the room carrying a revolver that looked older than he did, “well, since your friend hasn’t turned up and since I’m getting board I’m afraid your going to have to die, both of you sorry for the inconvenience.” and with that he stepped forward and aimed the revolver at Mycroft’s head. Mycroft’s hand instinctively reached out for Anthea’s and gripped it tightly. The silence was deafening and what was in fact 5 seconds felt like an eternity until eventually… a safety was released and a gun was pressed to the back of the tall mans head.

to be continued

Chapter Text

Partners in crime chapter 13: rescues and reunions

The silence was deafening and what was in fact 5 seconds felt like an eternity until eventually… a safety was released and a gun was pressed to the back of the tall mans head.
“I think you should put that down Jones” Anthea looked behind the tall man to see a short woman in her mid twenties in jeans, a black hoody and a black beanie. She was now holding a gun to the tall mans head with the ease that said she had done this before. “ah there you are Hatter, i thought i was gonna have to shoot your friend.” the man who Anthea now presumed was Jones said. “I’m not gonna ask again Jones, put the gun down or you’ll have a bullet shaped problem embedded into your skull.” Jones laughed as he took the gun away from Mycroft’s head and turned around “fine we’ll play it your way.” The woman lowered her gun and put it in the back of her trousers “this fights between me and you, there was no need to bring them into this.” she said gesturing towards Mycroft and Anthea with her head. “well you wouldn’t answer your phone.” Jones grinned and in the next second he had pulled out a knife snd swiped at the woman in front of him. throughout this interaction Mycroft was slowly becoming more unresponsive and now Anthea decided to avert her attention away from the crazy people and to her boss that was possibly dying next to her. However she didn’t get much of a chance as in the next minute there was a loud thud and Jones fell to the floor. The woman rushed over to her and Mycroft, immediately getting down on her knees and looking at the man in front of her “are you ok?” she said directing the question at Anthea. “ill live, I’m just worried about him.” she said gesturing towards Mycroft next to her. The woman smiled a little “ahh he’ll be fine, he’s too stubborn too die” Anthea laughed at that. The woman took Mycroft’s head in her hands and slapped his face a little trying to wake him up “Myckie!, Mycroft come on stay with us, don’t die on me yet old man” the woman stood up and then helped Anthea to do the same, she then put Mycroft’s right arm around her neck and lifted him up “ ‘thea- where’s Anthea” Mycroft mumbled “she’s here Myckie, she’s doing just fine” she said as the three of them quickly made there way through the maze that was this building. There were two men outside in the hallway which the woman easily took down with two shots, she then handed the gun to Anthea “do you know how to use one of those?” Anthea grabbed it clicked the safety off and made sure there were enough bullets to give her a good enough chance at getting out of here. She then looked up at the woman who was now smiling at her “i can see why he likes you” she said obviously referring to Mycroft. Once Anthea had fought off another two guards with little to no help they were outside. the women, still carrying Mycroft, made her way to a white transit van and opened the back of it to reveal four seats two on one side two on the other. She placed Mycroft on one of the seats “can you sit in there and look after him I’ve got to talk to the driver” she said as she opened a door that led to the driver and passengers seat. Anthea sat down next to Mycroft and put on his seat belt “Mycroft” Anthea said, she didn’t get a verbal response he did however grab her hand. The woman came in and sat down opposite Mycroft doing up her seatbelt, she then banged on the wall and the van started to move. “we’re going to Mycroft’s house, do you have any friends that have any experience in the medical field that you can call, i left Jones alive in there and he’ll be looking for us we can’t risk taking him to a hospital.” the woman finished gesturing to Mycroft “yes ill send a text to Sherlock he has a couple of friends who’ll be able to help.” Anthea said, the woman handed her her phone and she sent a quick text to Sherlock
Mycroft’s hurt badly, bring John and Molly to Mycroft’s house as soon as possible, we can’t risk the hospital so tell them to bring equipment needed for a blood transfusion and resuscitation just in case.
A.
once that was finished Anthea looked back up at the mysterious woman staring at her boss “we’re about twenty minutes away from Mycroft’s house” she said and Anthea nodded. The van grew silent for a few minutes until Mycroft stirred and sat up, he still gripped Anthea’s hand as he looked around. His eyes finally settled upon the woman in front of him who was still wearing her hat and jumper “thank you” he managed to get out and the woman nodded. Anthea looked over the woman and noticed that she had a huge gash on her arm probably from where Jones pulled out the knife “your hurt” she looked down too see blood pouring from her arm and didn’t even flinch “i’ve had worse” she replied. Anthea was about to ask a question but then the van came to a stop and there were three loud bangs on the wall “we’re here” she said getting up and helping to get Mycroft out of the van. They made their way up the steps of the large house, Anthea opened the door with the emergency key and held it open for the woman and Mycroft. She quickly dragged Mycroft into the living room, laid him down on the sofa and started to take off his bloody waistcoat and blazer. Anthea saw what she was doing and went over to help her. After taking off his blazer, waistcoat and tie the woman sat down on the coffee table opposite him and took her hat off revealing light brown hair that came down to the bottom of her neck, her fringe covered most of her right eye and when she looked up at Anthea she looked much younger than she had before. Anthea sat down next to the sofa on the floor not bothering to take off her dirty blazer and looked at her boss who at this point looked as pale as a piece of paper. The woman’s phone buzzed in her pocket, she pulled it out to check, “it’s Sherlock” she laughed “he says he’ll be here in five minutes and he says to tell Mycroft not to die yet because he still has to tease him about the fact that he got kidnapped” she put her phone away and sat there looking at Mycroft for a moment, however as they were sat there in silence with the woman checking Mycroft’s vitals every now and then something in Anthea’s brain clicked. “your in Mycroft’s wallet” she said pointing towards the other woman in the room “he has a picture in his wallet, your on a bench or something with your arms around him and Sherlock, you all look really happy.” Anthea said standing up “oh my god” she said covering her mouth with her hands “your-“ before she could finish her sentence the front door flung open and in came running Sherlock who was carrying all sorts of equipment and John and Molly who were trailing behind him. “WHERE IS HE” Sherlock shouted “IN HERE” Anthea said running to the entrance of the living room. seconds later John and Molly both came running in, immediately going into doctor mode and dealing with Mycroft. The woman moved into the corner of the room and stood there watching, arms folded, Sherlock didn’t even notice her as he came in, he gripped Anthea by the shoulders and ran his eyes over her trying to deduce any injury. “you should sit down” he said directing her to an arm chair near the TV on the wall. The next twenty minutes was spent patching Mycroft up again until he was able to stay conscious and once they did that they moved onto Anthea who was in worse shape than she was letting on. Whilst John was taking care of Anthea Molly came over to the woman who was still standing in the corner arms folded. “do you want me to take a look at that” she gestured to the gash that was on the woman’s right arm, “no I’m fine just concentrate on them.” Molly looked behind her to see Sherlock sat on the coffee table talking to his brother who had now propped himself up into a sitting position and John dealing with Anthea close by, “I think the dynamic duo have got them covered” Molly laughed “fine” the woman smiled “but lets go into the kitchen.” Molly patched the woman up and then went back to the living room to see if John needed any help with Anthea, leaving her alone. about a minute later Sherlock walked into the kitchen and picked up a piece of fruit from the fruit bowl and started to toss it around, the woman had her back to him so he couldn’t see her face “i wanted to thank you for saving my brother and his assistant.” he began “i understand that you are the reason they were there in the first place but still you didn’t have to come to his rescue” the woman still with her back to him replied “I’ve always been there for both of you, i wasn’t gonna stop now” she turned around to face Sherlock and time stood still as he dropped the fruit to the floor and it rolled away, “Sherinford” he whispered as he started to shake a little, “hi locky” Sherlock took two steps towards her and lifted her up into a hug gripping her tightly.
Sherlock walked back into the living room with Sherinford trailing behind him about five minutes later, Sherlock wanted to see how long it would take for Mycroft to figure out. When they entered the living room Anthea and Mycroft were sitting on the sofa next to each other looking exhausted and John and Molly were in the corner of the room packing up the equipment they had brought with them. “well brother mine, you managed to get yourself kidnapped again” Sherlock said widening his eyes and looking over at Sherinford who was leaning against the doorframe “yes Sherlock and you weren’t the one to find me this time” Mycroft replied with a ‘i told you so’ tone. “now now boys lets not start a fight, not with the state your brothers in Sherlock” John said glaring at his friend. Anthea at this point decided she was fed up of playing games with the Holmes brothers and directed a question to Sherinford who was still leaning on the doorframe smiling at her stupid brothers “does Sherlock know yet?” Sherinford nodded and Sherlock spoke not taking his eyes off of Anthea “yes I do and frankly Anthea the fact that you managed to work it out before my brother says how hurt he really is” Mycroft stood up with the help of Sherlock and looked between the three of them “I thought it was you in the back of the van but i couldn’t be sure it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me” Mycroft said looking at Sherinford Sherlock smiled at his brother but then John chimed in “can someone please tell me what the bloody hell is going on here?” Sherlock walked over to Sherinford and put an arm around her “John, Molly this is my sister Sherinford Holmes, both me and my brother thought she was dead for the past ten years”.
The rest of the day was spent dealing with everyones injury and happy reunions and when it got to eight in the evening everyone started to leave. “Mycroft don’t move to much, that broken rib is going to be a pain in the arse if you make it worse, Anthea as always its been a pleasure” Anthea rolled her eyes as John winked at her Molly got up and said her goodbyes to everyone as well moving towards the door. John then moved over to Sherinford “its been nice to see you again Hatter, and the fact that your a Holmes explains a lot”
“its good to see you too captain” Sherinford replied and with that John walked out of the door going back to Baker Street. Sherlock and Mycroft both looked at Sherinford with surprise as she carried on sipping her tea as if nothing had happened. “you were in the army?” Sherlock asked with a look of surprise but Sherinford shook her head and carried on drinking her tea Mycroft looked intently at his cup of tea before he looked up and said “where have i heard the name Hatter before?” the room was silent for a couple of seconds before Anthea spoke up next to him “Hatters a free lance assassin we use for the more delicate jobs. 100% success rate so far, you’re the assassin Jones was looking for aren’t you” Sherinford nodded putting her cup of tea down “we have a lot to talk abo-“ Mycroft started before he moved the wrong way and groaned in pain “i think you should go and lay down Mycroft” Anthea said holding Mycroft up so that he wouldn’t fall forward, he looked up at Sherinford “don’t worry ill be here tomorrow” she said standing up “do you want help getting upstairs?” she asked “yes I suppose ill need it” Sherinford walked over to Mycroft and helped him up similarly to how she had done earlier today she then took him upstairs. Anthea and Sherlock sat there for what felt like an age in silence “Sherlock its pretty obvious that you haven’t eaten or slept much in the past three days, why don’t you go and raid whats left of his fridge and then sleep.” Sherlock looked up at Anthea with worried eyes “he’s fine now, your assassin of a sister is sitting up there with him” Sherlock laughed and smiled “yes she is isn’t she” He got up and started to walk towards the kitchen “goodnight Anthea”
“goodnight Sherlock”
Ten minutes later and Sherinford came back downstairs with a piles of clothes “Mycroft said you’d need these” she said and handed Anthea track suit bottoms that were too long for her and a white T-shirt that was too big “thank you” Anthea said Sherinford smiled and started to walk towards the kitchen, Anthea had a shower and collapsed into what she now thought of as her bed away from home.
It must of been around 4am when she woke up again, her bruised body was hurting her too much and she couldn’t find a comfortable position, she decided to go and get a glass of water from the kitchen but when she got there she found that she wouldn’t be alone. standing at the counter opposite the breakfast bar in a Navy blue T-shirt was Sherinford working on a laptop. As Anthea walked in she noticed that Sherinford had blue hearing aids on the backs of her ears “your deaf?” Anthea asked as she got a glass from one of the cupboards “yeah apparently i got measles when i was a baby and it didn’t end too well, helps me with the job though so i can’t complain.” Anthea filled the glass up with water and Sherinford got a phone call “what do you want Culver its the middle of the night?… did he come quietly?… Yeah yeah i know… no i can’t come in right now.” then as she said the next sentence she sounded eerily like Mycroft when he was threatening a particularly tricky member of the government “listen to me Culver when i say I can’t come in, I can’t come in. Jones will just have to sit there and stew and if one of the Mysterious men up high is threatening me then he’ll have to come and threaten me in person.” with that she hung up and went back to the computer. Anthea sat down on one of the stools opposite her “who do you work for?” Anthea asked sipping her water “no one in particular” ah deflecting apparently every Holmes did that. Anthea went to say something else but got interrupted by Mycroft stumbling into the kitchen with a exhausted Sherlock helping him “she mainly works for MI6.” he said waving his phone in the air “i pulled in a few favours, apparently she’s Europe’s highest rated gun for higher.” Sherinford closed her laptop and leant back agains the oven crossing her arms “She’s been involved in no less than 12 government assassinations in the past 14 months and according to one of my colleges saved me from being shot 23 times, and oh yes she was one of the snipers in the swimming pool last month Sherlock” Mycroft finished as both he and Sherlock sat down at the kitchen table staring at their sister “I was the only sniper at the swimming pool, its amazing what a sniper rifle and two laser pointers can do.” Anthea sat down next to Mycroft at the kitchen table and Sherinford sat next to Sherlock “I would never of done it sherlock, never.”
Sherlock took a deep breath and looked at his sister “the fact that remains Rin, is that ten years ago you faked your death and became a bloody assassin”
“why?” Mycroft asked from across the table.
Sherinford rubbed her hands over her face and then put them down on the table “ok ill tell you, but you might not like me after it” both Mycroft and Sherlock nodded simultaneously. before she started Sherinford signed something to Mycroft “i trust Anthea with my life and i defiantly trust her with my family” Anthea smiled a little at that “right, ok before i begin i just wanna say that I never meant for anyone to get hurt or to put anyone in danger… I love you two, ok.” again both Mycroft and Sherlock nodded and Sherinford continued “my dad, my biological dad he had a lot of very dangerous people after him, so when i turned 6 he dropped me on the streets with £50, a knife and this.” she held up her arm to show a bracelet made up of black paracord and a metal plate with something written on it “the number” Sherlock said and Sherinford nodded
“so i survived, i lived on the streets and a year later you came along” she said gesturing to Mycroft “you became my friend and when i passed out two months later because of hypothermia you took me to the hospital. mum and dad saw how much i meant to you and how bad my situation was and they adopted me. then everything was fine for ten years. do you remember when a bully hit Sherlock and i beat the shit out of him earning myself a broken nose in the process.” Mycroft nodded urging her to go on “that wasn’t a bully, that was someone after my dad who managed to find me… he would’ve killed Sherlock if I didn’t have training in combat from when i was younger.” Mycroft fists tightened and a scowl developed on his face. Sherlock saw this and added “but you saved me, i saw you that day you beat the hell out of that man just because he pushed me out of the way” Sherinford nodded and carried on “well after that i knew i had to leave, i was putting you guys in danger for staying with you for that long anyway, so i called the number ,stated my name and they made the necessary arrangements.”
“you mean the car crash” Anthea added sadly and Mycroft put his head in his hands “yes they told me it was gonna happen and when it did i dragged you out of the car and onto a patch of grass and put the replacement body in the passengers seat, i then set the engine on fire and ran.” the room was silent for a while until Mycroft stood up and told Sherinford to do so as well, She prepared herself for a punch but what came next surprised her. Mycroft brought her into a hug and held her tightly “family is family Rin, and you have never been a burden to us, NEVER.” Sherinford was about to reply but she got a phone call that she had to take. She stepped away from Mycroft and answered her phone “what is it now Culver… well tell then if they have a problem they can take it up with my current boss… Mycroft Holmes” Sherinford smiled at Mycroft and he beamed back with pride “goodnight Culver” and with that she hung up the phone.