Lily stops at the door, turnovers in hand, barely registering Sherlock looking at results as he, Molly, and Liam talk. Why did he seem... upset? Irritated, bristly, but not at her. At the idea that somebody else would find her irritating. But now he's back to his usual, mostly blank self. His thinking face, his almost monotonous tone he gets when he's focused. Like the other person isn't quite there, he's bouncing ideas, he's figuring things out. But sometimes he is hard for Lily to figure out — or she makes it harder than it needs to be.

He cares about what other people think of her. Or he doesn't understand it. Or he doesn't want her to think of herself that way. One of those three — or two or all of them. They're friends. It should make sense. Liam gets upset when people aren't kind to her, but he's her brother. Uriah — also like a brother to her — Raven, they don't like it, either. So why does it feel different when it's Sherlock?

He locks eyes with her from across the room, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Are you coming in?"

She shakes the questions from her mind and ignores the beating of her heart. "Yes. I..." She walks in and turns to Molly, holding out the container. "I made you some cherry turnovers. John told me you liked them."

Molly's face takes on a genuine smile — not a super wide one, but a genuine one. Her cheeks color. "You didn't have to do that."

"It's what she does," Liam and Sherlock say. They turn to each other, startled.

"Jinx..." Liam trails off, and Lily does not like the look he's giving Sherlock right now. Sherlock, for his part, doesn't seem to understand it based on the furrowing of his brows.

Lily doesn't have time to dwell on it, as Molly takes the container from her. "I would eat one now, but I'm... not supposed to in the lab."

"Oh, I didn't think about that." Lily frowns a bit.

"It's alright. The longer you wait, the better it'll taste, right?" Molly says. "Sorry, that was stupid."

"No, it's okay. I do that, too. The amount of times I've apologized for something I said is... well, it's a lot." There's an awkward pause, then Lily asks, "Well... is the DNA a match?"

"Yes," Molly says. "Those are Diane and Jared's ears." Sherlock seems unsurprised. Molly starts cleaning up the lab, putting the ears back in the box and setting it in front of Sherlock. "Please get these out of here."

"Can you show me how you determined that?" Liam says. "If you don't mind."

"Sure," Molly replies, and Liam grins, walking with her to the equipment. Lily shakes her head at him, then turns back to Sherlock. There's that crease between his brows again, but it's lighter than it sometimes is.

"You don't seem surprised by the results," Lily says.

Sherlock hums a bit. "No. I just wanted to be certain."

"Have you got it all figured out, then?"

He shakes his head, curls rustling. "I have a theory. Some motives are... unclear, however. What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Oh, I'm- My parents are leaving tomorrow, so we're supposed to go get breakfast in the morning."

Sherlock frowns. "I want to go to Susan's as early as possible. I found out this morning she has another sister she and her friend didn't mention, and I need to confront her about it. John certainly won't go tonight."

"And you need to get some sleep." Lily checks the time, confirming how late it is.

Sherlock waves this off. "How long will you be at breakfast?"

"I'm not sure. But do you... need me, anyway? You were just fine before I started tagging along."

"You're good with people," Sherlock insists. "People like you, they want to open up to you. They'll disclose motives and feelings more easily to you than they would to me or John."

"But they still will. And they don't have to say much for you to figure it out," Lily says.

Sherlock sighs softly. "I suppose. I just don't want to present an answer without being at least 95% certain of what happened."

"You've worked with less." Lily's read some of John's blog in her spare time since remembering it with Raven.

"That doesn't mean I enjoy it."

Lily chuckles. "We all have to do things we don't enjoy."

"Frequently," Sherlock mutters.

Lily looks at Liam, who's listening intently to Molly. She turns back to him from some equipment and smiles, and he smiles back, nodding. Lily wonders if her explanation is over, as it's late and Liam has to leave early tomorrow morning to make it to his work meeting.

Liam looks over, then speaks loud enough for Lily to hear. "You're ready to leave, aren't you?"

"Are you?" Lily asks. "You're the one that has an early morning."

He checks the time, then sighs. "I suppose."

They say goodbye and shuffle out, Molly once again thanking Lily for the turnovers. The cab ride home is mostly quiet, Lily sitting in between Liam and Sherlock. Liam keeps looking at Sherlock, almost like he's trying to catch him doing something — but Sherlock looks out the window the entire time. He's probably mulling over the case again.

They step into the foyer, and before Sherlock goes upstairs, Lily lays a hand on his shoulder. "Get some sleep, okay? The case will be there tomorrow."

Sherlock smiles a bit and nods, then heads upstairs, but Lily isn't confident in that nod. She decides not to push it and follows Liam into her flat.

,,,O,,,   ,,,O,,, ,,,O,,,
{_;_;_;_} {_;_;_;_} {_;_;_;_}
\_|_|_/ \_|_|_/ \_|_|_/

He could simply not understand why someone would find her irritating — after getting to know her. She was intelligent, emotionally and otherwise. More intelligent than most people he's met. Not even Mycroft, he suspects, would call her a goldfish. She's good with people, the type of person Sherlock always wished he was when he was younger. The type of person he wishes he could be now, at least partly. If he had just a little bit of the fairy magic Lily seemed to have...

It's like he almost had it as a child. He'd almost caught it, and then... Eurus. He's often felt, in the quiet of the night with no case to think about, when Eurus pops into his mind again, that he lost a part of himself when all of that happened. The part of himself that was the most human. Now, more than ever, he feels like he could get it back, and now, more than ever, he wants to.

He rolls over, pulling the blanket up over his shoulders. Lily told him to get some sleep, and he's trying, but he can't. He hasn't gone to sleep this early in a while.

,,,O,,,   ,,,O,,, ,,,O,,,
{_;_;_;_} {_;_;_;_} {_;_;_;_}
\_|_|_/ \_|_|_/ \_|_|_/

Lily woke up early enough to make cinnamon buns, then sent Liam on his way with one for the road and one half-eaten. He overslept a bit and had to rush out with a quick thanks and call you later. Lily, still in her pajamas, went back to bed for another hour.

Now awake, she gets dressed, quickly goes out to water her garden, then catches a taxi to meet her parents for breakfast. It's a fancy place her mum likes to go to when she visits, and Lily already knows they'll be arguing over who pays for the bill.

When she arrives, her parents are already there, and they're seated quickly. Her father starts discussing work, mentioning Uriah and his wonderful work ethic he's so proud of. As he is like a brother to Lily and Liam, he's like another son to their father.

"He hasn't been down to see your new flat yet," her father says, a statement more than a question.

"No. He's talked about it. I've sent him pictures." They text about as much as she and Liam do, though it's mostly pictures of whatever Uriah's working on and links to videos or articles they think would interest each other. Lily hasn't told him much about Sherlock and the cases, though he brings it up himself sometimes. Liam must've told him some things.

"He better make plans before school starts," her mother says. "You'll be busy."

"Yeah," Lily replies. When school starts. It's nearing the middle of June. How much more time does she have to just... run around? To go on cases, to be there when Sherlock... needs her around? Wants her around? How much time will she have to bake them things, to go up and visit in the middle of the day? Part of her thinks they'll be tired of her by the time school starts, anyway, but the more time she spends with Sherlock, the smaller and smaller that part of her gets.

How much time will she have to write her new book? How much time will she have to start seriously considering bakery plans? This move was supposed to be the next step in that dream, and she hasn't even thought about it in ages.

"Are you alright, Lil?" her mother asks.

Lily picks the crust off her toast, doesn't meet her mother's eyes. "Fine."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with that Sherlock fellow, would it?" She knows her so well.

Lily chuckles a bit. "Yes. No. It's alright."

Her dad sets down his mug of tea. "Personally, I'm of the opinion you should just tell him you like him."

"Dad!"

"It's true. That's what I did when I met your mom, and look how that turned out for me?"

"I do not like Sherlock Holmes. We're friends."

"Alright," her father replies, but he seems unconvinced.

"He is a celebrity," her mother says, not always willing to just drop a conversation. "That would be rather fun, wouldn't it? To date a celebrity?"

Lily chuckles, shaking her head. "Mum."

"I'm not saying you have to marry him," she replies. "I just think it would be fun. I always thought it would be fun to date Prince. Or Paul McCartney."

"And then she met me," her father says. Her mother laughs, nudging him.

"Well, you're a local celebrity," she says. His business does very well locally, especially with the repairs he does. Most of his new business comes from word of mouth. One day, when Lily gets her bakery, she's going to model her business practices as much as she can off his. Thinking of the bakery makes her anxiety rise for a moment again, knowing she hasn't made any progress with it at all.

"Sure, but I'm no Paul McCartney," her father says. He takes a bite of toast. "I'm better than him." He paused long enough for Lily and her mother to react incredulously, then says, "For you, anyway," to her mother and winks.

Her mother laughs. "Alright, true enough."

Lily chuckles, turning back to her breakfast and hoping they won't bring up Sherlock again.

,,,O,,, ,,,O,,,   ,,,O,,,
{_;_;_;_} {_;_;_;_} {_;_;_;_}
\_|_|_/ \_|_|_/ \_|_|_/

As long as he went without knowing Lily at all, going on a case without her still feels strange — almost as strange as it was going with her the first time, without John. She's been on two cases, and yet he wishes she were here. Even when she said he could do it without her — and he can, he knows he can. He just doesn't want to. But he has no choice.

"Missing Lily, are we?" John comments, already out of the cab parked in front of Susan's house.

Sherlock bristles and frowns; he doesn't enjoy somebody else observing something about him, least of all John. John's usually right. Sherlock gets out of the cab while John pays, keeping his all-seeing eye on Sherlock.

"Come on," Sherlock says simply, heading for Susan's front door. John chuckles behind him.

He knocks impatiently, then finally Miriam opens the door. "Oh, thank goodness you're here. We've been waiting for news-"

"Did Susan tell you not to mention her sister or did you do that on your own?" Sherlock asks.

"Okay, then," John mutters.

Miriam's brows furrow. "I told you about Diane. I don't understand."

"Her other sister," Sherlock replies, rolling his eyes.

"What does Sarah have to do with this?" a voice asks from inside. The elusive Susan shows her face, a face Sherlock saw in a picture. She looks the same; the picture couldn't have been that old.

Miriam steps aside, so Sherlock and John come in, though Sherlock barely registers his own movement as the name sinks in. Sarah.

"Are the... ears my sister's? Are they Sarah's?"

"They're Diane and Jared's," John says. "I'm sorry."

Susan sits down slowly, tears welling in her eyes. Sherlock frowns a bit; part of him feels bad, but the other part is figuring this out. "Did Sarah ever live here?" Susan nods. "When?"

Miriam glances at Susan, sees she's unable to speak for tears, so she answers instead. "She left almost two months ago."

"Backpacking," Susan manages. "Around Europe — Europe, Europe."

"She's still not back?" John asks.

"She's not coming back," Miriam says. "Not here, anyway."

Sherlock's eyes dart around the room, looking at the pictures. Her parents, Diane, possibly cousins and grandparents, but no Sarah. "What did she do?"

Miriam sighs. "She broke up Diane's marriage. Apparently she had a crush on Diane's ex-husband Michael — of course he was her husband at the time-"

"My boyfriend helped her," Susan cuts in. "My ex; that's why I broke up with him. Ray was always that 'if you want something, go get it,' kind of guy. Of course, I never thought he would do something like that, but... They started bringing Jared around, one of Ray's gambling friends, to flirt with Diane. Sarah kept going after Michael, and finally he told her no. So they told Diane he had come on to Sarah — Ray took a picture while she was all over him — and Diane believed them. And when they got divorced, in moved Jared. Diane was so grateful to Sarah and Ray for bringing Jared into her life and telling her the truth. But I knew they were lying; Sarah admitted it to me, before she left. I knew from the start."

"So you kicked her out."

"After what she did, the lengths I realized she would go to to get what she wanted, I couldn't live with her anymore. So, she left. Said she'd always wanted to leave, but if she really did she would've actually saved her money and got her own place. Or gotten a better paying job. It's not like she couldn't have."

"Where is she now?" Sherlock asks.

"Italy," Miriam says, pulling out her phone. She scrolls for a moment. "Lucca, according to her Facebook."

"How long ago did she post that?"

"This morning."

"And her last post?"

Miriam scrolls down. "Before she left. She doesn't post very often anymore; too busy to be on her phone, I suppose."

"I'll send somebody to get her."

"What for?" Susan asks.

"I want to talk to her."

"You don't think she did it?"

"No. But she might know something," Sherlock replies. He turns to go, then pauses. What would Lily say? "I'm sorry for your loss."

Susan nods at him, then he leaves with John, brows furrowed in thought.