A/N- Imagine the blonde woman in the GIF (Barbara Kean) as Irene Adler (Lara Pulver), that's all continue ;)
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Darcy's POV
That wasn't what I expected when I got to the door of our lesson room. When I wandered into the room my eyes went wide at the sight of it and I blinked furiously to take it all in.
There was a table and chair as I had anticipated, but what I hadn't expected were the weights, sparring equipment and punch bag to be in there as well. What exactly was I learning here? "Uh, Irene?"
"Ma'am or Miss Adler." She said sternly and I quickly looked around to see her leant against the back wall, she'd pushed the door closed behind me and I took a wary step backwards. "I may have mislead you. Slightly." Irene stated as she took a step closer.
She was wearing the same thing as she was this morning, straight leg trousers with heels and a purple blouse. I crossed my arms defensively and looked her over before asking, "How d'you mean?"
"It's, 'what do you mean?'." Irene corrected me and she grimaced before walking past me, "Sit. We have much to discuss." I turned around as she pulled the chair out from beneath the desk.
I dropped my arms and wandered over to the chair, lowering myself to sit while keeping my eyes on her. When I was firmly behind the table, I rested my elbows on it and clasped my fingers together in front of me. I smiled at her, waiting as she faced the wall and away from me.
She had her own smile plastered on her face when she turned around, "I am going to teach you how to be a lady but..." Irene trailed off and tried to find the words.
I raised my eyebrows, "But...?"
"But you will also learn how to fight." She finished.
My eyes widened and I looked up at her smiling face, I didn't know what to say so I just uttered, "Oh. Urm, right."
"Obviously, you don't have a choice in the matter." Irene said and took a step closer to where I was sat.
"Obviously." I nodded and rapped my knuckles on the table, sitting back in my chair and running a hand across my chin. "Wow, okay." I frowned and sat forward again, "Why are you going to teach me all this?"
She smirked and leant onto the front of the table, "A lady is one of the deadliest weapons. We can use our sexuality to achieve things most men can't."
"Our...?" I said quietly, "Okay... oh jeez. Right." I sighed and rubbed my eyes, looking straight up at her, "I'm basically being turned into a real spy?"
At that she just laughed and pushed away from the table, "Not necessarily a spy, no, more like a..." She wafted her hand around as she tried to find the words, "...gatherer of information, in a not so legal way."
My eyes widened considerably again and I nodded slowly, "Okay, so, I'll be using my feminine whiles to get information for people like you and Moriarty?"
"Exactly. Only, most of the time it will be for me and we'll use that to occasionally blackmail or sell on for money. It's actually not a bad job." She smiled and shrugged one shoulder.
"I hate to break it to you, Miss Adler, but I'm not exactly brimming with feminine charm." I stated and smiled awkwardly.
Her expression hardened and she lunged forward, banging her palm down onto the table, "But you will be!" A wide smile then appeared, "I will make you." Her hand raised and again she brushed a lock of hair from my face.
I bit my lip nervously and watched her hand retract back before I let out the breath I'd been holding in. My hands moved from on top of the table to rest on my thighs and I ran my thumb along the fabric of the dress.
"Everyday you will attend, the mornings will consist of elocution completely. Your accent, dialect and what to say in certain situations, being some of the examples." She rattled on and started to pace in front of my table, "Then the afternoons will consist of training."
I frowned, "Training in what?"
"Some days it will be martial arts and self-defence, others it may be endurance." She explained.
I did not like the sound of that at all and shuffled anxiously in my seat, "Endurance?"
Irene then turned to face me completely with a half-smile planted on her face, "We misbehave, which means that some people may hold grudges against us."
My eyebrows raised in shock and I uttered, "Y-you mean, torture?"
"Well, you're used to getting a couple of scratches here and there, so I've heard." She shrugged again, making all of what she was suggesting to be a doddle but what she added next chilled me to the bone, "I suppose you should be able to handle a couple of punches, electrocution and hallucinogenic injections."
Again, I shuffled nervously and my eyes widened. Yeah, I'd been roughed up by some of the older kids at the orphanage and the criminals I'd ran into with Sherlock but I'd never been tortured. Actually tortured for the information I was going to be collecting with my new 'job prospect'.
"Just to name a few." Irene continued, not making this sound any easier nor better for me at all. I visibly gulped and rubbed the back of my neck nervously.
I stuttered slightly as I said, "I-Is this w-what you do?"
"In a sense, yes. What I do is on a much grander scale to what I'll be preparing you for." She answered and crossed her arms delicately, yet it seemed full of such dominance and power.
"Which is...what?" I asked, regaining some of my earlier confidence and sitting forward slightly again.
Irene's lip quirked up into that same smile, "What I need from you is to be a seemingly, sweet and innocent girl that can pack a punch when she needs to, for protection. Then, when you're older and more experienced you'll be ready to learn what it is that I do."
I rolled my eyes slightly and sighed, "And we start today?"
"Naturally. Now, sit up straight. Hands in your lap..." She wandered over and grabbed my chin lightly, tilting my head upwards, "...chin up. Smile."
I grimaced a smile and when she narrowed her eyes at me, I chewed on the insides of my cheeks before pulling my lips up into a delicate and polite smile. Something, I'd never had to do before. Ever.
Irene let my face go slowly and softly, her own smile returning, "We are going to do wonderful things together, you and I, Darcy. We will bring this country to its knees, just you wait."
I didn't like the sound of that. At all. But what could I do about it? I couldn't escape, there was no way out of here. The doors were locked and Irene was the only one with the key.
So, I sat there and kept that lovely, polite smile on my face, saying just what she wanted to hear, "Yes, Miss Adler."
Irene stood back, as if to admire me, and smirked. She shook her head and said under her breath, "Wonderful things."
She taught me all morning, how to sit properly, how to speak properly and how to get rid of what she called my terrible accent. I'd been moved to sit on the chair in the centre of the room, so she could circle me like her prey and look at me from every angle as I recited the words she told me to in the correct way.
Word after word, phrase after phrase, I spoke and didn't dare to drift far from what she expected of me. We started with the easy ones such as, 'hello' and 'goodbye'. Not 'bye' anymore but 'goodbye'. I'd repeat each one at least thirty times until she was sure I'd got it down to a perfect art.
Then we'd moved onto sentences, like, 'how are you?' and 'how has your day been?'. The one she focused on the most, however, was 'what do you mean?' as she still seemed to be holding that against me.
Irene's sharp fingernails were digging into the back of my shoulders as she rolled my shoulders back so I was sat up straighter, "Posture is everything." She stated and I grimaced as she held my shoulders in place, her nail digging into my skin.
"It hurts." I grumbled and tried to wriggle out of her firm grasp but she just held onto me tighter.
"It will do." She said harshly and leant closer to my ear, "Now, you are going to sit completely straight for half-an-hour and if you don't, I'll keep adding time on. I've got all day."
My eyes widened as she let go of my shoulders and as soon as she did, I kept my back straight with my shoulders rolled back instead of rolled over and kept my chin held high to extenuate my good posture.
"We will work on this daily and I expect you to sit this straight for every meal we have together, in the hopes it will improve completely." Irene announced from where she had taken a seat at the table I was previously sat at on a chair that seemed to have come out of nowhere.
I glanced over at her briefly and my head moved over ever so slightly, "Head forward. Chin up." Irene demanded and my head immediately shifted back to face the wall.
There I sat for half-an-hour. Up straight and staring at the wall that had now become plain and boring, despite all the pretty swirls on the grey background. Occasionally I faltered but to my luck it was when Irene was focusing on her phone or her work and so punishment didn't come my way.
An alarm sounding throughout the room caused me to relax ever so slightly but my posture remained straighter still, I looked over at her and smiled politely once again.
"Well done, I'm so proud." Irene said, albeit sarcastically, and stood. I shrank into my seat slightly as she approached me and jutted her hip out when she stood in front of me, "Lets get some lunch, then we'll move on to this afternoon's training."
I nodded slowly and stood, following her to the door and taking one last glance at what I'd have to endure later on before stepping out.
Making my way down the stairs and through the hallway I found Irene sat on a stool up at the island in the centre while Kate was at the hob, frying something. I frowned at the somewhat normality of the whole situation and stood in the doorway, my hands wrung together awkwardly.
"Sit. Kate's making omelettes." Irene almost ordered and I wandered as quickly as I could over to the seat beside her, sitting down clumsily and then swinging my legs forward. "Up straight." She demanded.
I did as she said and sat up, "Smells nice." I commented, just to break the silence for once myself and I saw Kate stand a little straighter at my compliment.
Perhaps she wasn't as bad as I initially thought.
We ate in complete silence, the three of us, and I didn't know how much of it I could take. At least the omelette was nice, ham and cheese I think it was.
Anyway soon after, Irene gave me an hour to let my food digest and get changed into the gym clothes she'd provided for me. So I sat in my room, on my bed, and stared out the window with my back to the door.
My shoes had been discarded the minute I stepped in the room and the gym clothes on my bed beside me. Staring out the window, I couldn't help the feeling of doubt worming it's way into my head.
What if I'd just stayed away from Brixton that day? What if I hadn't meddled in police affairs either? What if I hadn't followed Sherlock to that skip and just said 'see you later weirdo'? What if I'd left for Cambridge when I'd said I was going to?
I might not be here now. I might be studying in one of the most prestigious schools or living on the streets or whiling away the hours in the halfway house. Who knew? But I was here now and had to make the most of it. Put on a brave face and just get on with it.
So, I reached out for my training gear and gripped the black fabric tightly in one hand. I gulped and closed my eyes to stop my emotions overflowing.
Brave face, Darcy, brave face.
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I swung my fist around in what I assumed was a right hook, just as Irene had told me when I'd made my way back to the training room, but instead of it hitting her, as I had hoped it might do, Irene ducked further to the right to avoid my fist.
"First mistake." Irene stated as my arm dropped limply and she straightened up.
I frowned, "What do you mean?"
A slight smile appeared on her face and she grabbed my hand, pulling it up forcefully. I grimaced when she pinched my thumb, "Don't tuck your thumb inside your fist, you'll break your thumb." Her hand wrapped around my fingers to close them into a fist and then placed my thumb on the outside, "Keep it on the outside and there'll be less chance of you getting your own injuries."
"Ur, thank you." I mumbled and clenched my fist tighter again, she glared at me and so I added, "Miss Adler."
Her lips formed a straight line as she ordered, "Punch me again."
So, I swung a punch her way but again, she ducked and this time grabbed my wrist as she did. My eyes widened and tried to pull my wrist from her grasp but she just held on tighter.
"Don't straighten your arm as you punch, keep it bent slightly at the elbow or you risk losing control." She told me and I frowned, going to speak but then suddenly getting pulled forward and then falling onto my back on the mats that now covered the floor.
I propped myself up onto my elbows and stared up at her, she just smiled slightly and said, "See? As of now, you'd be either dead, beaten to a pulp or captured."
Casually, she stuck her hand out to me and I took an aggravated breath, clenching my jaw slightly before putting my hand in hers and she pulled me up forcefully.
Irene managed to pull me back into the middle of the room and I span around shakily, putting my arms up to cover my face in a protective stance.
"Stand down." She said, rather softly, and I lowered my arms warily. She frowned and asked, "How flexible are you?"
I tilted my head and shot her a weird look, "Why?"
"Duck." Was all she said in return.
I thought on what she said and it made no sense, I didn't know what to do but her face hardened and her right arm drew back. My eyes widened, now I knew what she meant, her fist came straight at me and I reacted as quickly as I could. Ducking to my right and then down when her other fist came at me from the other side.
Not knowing where to go from there, I did all I could and rolled clumsily away from her. I stopped and was by her feet, looking at the door.
Behind me, I heard a slow clap and looked back slowly to see her with a satisfied smile on her face, "Intuitive. You're more of the defensive type it seems."
I shuffled around and stood cautiously, "I've nearly always been on the receiving end of all the punches."
"Well, now I know where we stand, training wise." She shrugged and gestured to the punch bag, "Fifty punches. Again, I'll be watching, one mistake and I'll add on ten."
I wandered over to the bag and clenched my fists, sighing before taking an offensive stance. My arms came up, ready to start, and I took my first punch.
My fist colliding with the thick plastic-fabric scratched my skin but I buried the pain and took another punch, quickening the pace.
That's how it was. Day two. Day three. Day four. All the same. Well, almost.
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Thoughts? Not edited as of yet...
Just wanted to get an idea of what she goes through, gonna get quite gritty soon... love a bit of drama >-<
Please vote and comment, loves thank you so much ;)
-HBH xxx
Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters, except Darcy, or any of the lines from the show. Those rights belong to the BBC and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.