A/N- GIF is kinda cute, sort of related... Italics is happening somewhat alongside Darcy's POV... again with the Italics, Hannah stop! >-<
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Darcy's POV
Irene had insisted that it took an entire day to get ready for going out in the evening, two days after the announcement of my release into the wild as this somewhat new person. She'd put me through my paces, testing me, like an exam of everything I'd learnt.
I'd passed with flying colours apparently, taking Irene down in combat, hitting the right spot on the targets in weapons training and managed an entire night of every torture method she could throw at me. Although, making sure not to cause too many obviously noticeable wounds.
She'd told me to have a shower and I did, walking back into my room with a towel wrapped around my head and body to see Irene and Kate stood in there. Both, in silk dressing gowns and surrounded by what now looked more like torture equipment than the actual implements that had been used on me the past couple of weeks.
I blinked rapidly and looked between both women in confusion, "What's... going on, ma'am?" I took a hesitant step further into the room and Irene through a fluffy dressing gown at me, I caught it as best as I could without my towel being pulled too much.
"Go and put that on." Was all she told me and I turned back around, heading out the door and into the bathroom. I slipped the towel off of me and put the dressing gown on, tying it across my middle tightly before going back into my room.
I smiled and gestured to the dressing gown as I walked towards them both, Irene smiled and patted the chair in front of the dressing table, "Sit." She ordered and I slowly went over to it, sitting down just as slowly.
It was about eleven in the morning, we'd had breakfast and I'd been surprised to have been given free time in which I had practiced my gun combat for want of something to do. "Miss Adler, why-?" I started to ask again.
"You need to look presentable if you're to meet the highest elites of the criminal underworld." She answered as though it were common knowledge for me to have known that, I just shrugged it off and instead thought more on what she meant by 'highest elites' and 'criminal underworld'.
Irene seemed to sense what I was thinking and wrenched the towel from my head, pulling my hair along with it and I just jerked my head back but it didn't really hurt that much, and she said, "Kate, can you go and make us some tea?" I glanced in the mirror as Kate looked slightly annoyed and a bit worried before leaving.
"Every few months or so Charles Jameson, a very important and very corrupt government official, holds a gathering for people like myself who don't exactly follow the law but only the most important of us are invited." Irene explained.
My eyes widened in both realisation and as she dragged a brush through my now longer, knotted hair. These were assassins, corrupt businessmen and all round terrible criminals, but the worst of the worst in what they did. So what exactly was it Irene did?
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Detective Inspector Lestrade led Sherlock and John through an abandoned lot of land, surrounded by mostly empty warehouses and grassy areas. "There was a plane crash in Dusseldorf yesterday. Everyone dead." He informed them.
"Suspected terrorist bomb. We do watch the news." Sherlock agreed and argued at the same time, only Sherlock Holmes.
John rolled his eyes and corrected him, "You said, 'boring', and turned over."
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I daren't ask Irene what is was she did for a living but I obviously deduced it wasn't legal nor entirely safe, due to the combat training she had given me. I couldn't deduce the exact information from her either and while she was holding curling irons mere centimetres away from my face I thought against asking.
"If you were wondering..." Irene said as she curled another piece of my hair, even more than it already was curled, and I hoped she was going to tell me on her own, but she didn't, "The only reasons you are attending is because Jim is going to be there for once and we have business to discuss regarding an old friend of yours."
I tried to turn to look at her, stupidly forgetting she had a hot curling iron tight to my head and flinched as the metal seared at my scalp. So, I composed myself and asked, "What old friend?"
She smirked and released the lock of hair, "Oh, I think you know."
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There was a car in the open space with its boot open, ready for them, as Lestrade walked towards it with the boys in tow. Upon approaching the car it became clear that there was a body in the boat and Lestrade explained as Sherlock examined the car.
"Well, according to the flight details, this man was checking in on board." Lestrade looked at a bag of evidence as well, as he spoke, "Inside his coat he'd got a stub from his boarding pass, napkins from the flight, even one of those special biscuits. Here's his passport stamped in Berlin Airport . So this man should have died in a plane crash in Germany yesterday but instead he's in a car boot in Southwark."
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Of course I knew who she was talking about, what other friends did I have? But what could she and Jim possibly have to discuss about Sherlock Holmes? No doubt it was to do with me, they were probably going to use me so that Jim could 'burn' Sherlock.
"He wants to see you as well." Irene added as she finished up curling my hair and started to pin some parts up so they were bunched on top of my head, "Jim does, wants to see how you've changed and improved."
I could have made a comment there but held it back. I'd had to do that a lot recently in order to keep Irene happy and it had been drilled into me, so I had little choice but to keep my mouth shut sometimes. "Miss Adler?" I asked and she hummed as she pinned some more of my hair up so I continued, "Do you think I've changed for the better?"
It was a genuine question as I didn't know whether what I had engrained into my brain as what I now had to do was for the good or not. I knew it wasn't necessarily for the good but was I more useful now than I used to be?
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John just chuckled slightly and commented somewhat cheerfully, "Lucky escape."
Both he and Lestrade were staring down at the body in the boot, as Sherlock inspected it closely still. Lestrade looked down at the detective and asked, "Any ideas?"
Sherlock moved down to inspect the dead man's hand before answering, "Eight, so far."
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Irene put her equipment back on the dressing table and grabbed my forearms from behind, smiling at me through the mirror, "You are a creation of the life you have had. The hand you have been dealt hasn't been the easiest and I know that, but look at all you have now. Every opportunity at your fingertips now because of who you have become and what I have taught you."
Her grip tightened and her smile widened as she continued, "You are going to be someone that people will learn to fear. So, what do you say? How would you like to be my protégée?"
I furrowed my brow and asked innocently, "Forgive me, Miss Adler, but I thought I already was."
"No, dear." She chuckled and let go of my arms, going back to pinning my hair up, "Far from it, I was just going to train you as Jim suggested I should but then I saw your potential."
My eyes widened and I parted my lips before finally questioning, "My potential?"
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Sherlock straightened up from his inspection and looked down at the body again from a distance, to get a better look.
He frowned, as Lestrade looked on, before correcting himself, "Okay, four ideas."
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I watched on as Irene brushed my fringe down onto my forehead with her fingers and after reached out for the hairspray, then answered, "You are strong, ambitious and loyal. All qualities I greatly admire in a student."
"I hadn't realised." I said softly and coughed at the hairspray being sprayed around my head.
Irene smiled and ruffled my hair a bit before spraying again, "I'm surprised, what with you clinging to Sherlock Holmes like a limpet. I'd have thought the fact you were loyal was obvious."
My eyes widened at his name and then I blinked, stopping the thoughts of him and Dr Watson, and the memories. They were sure to haunt me of times I'd no longer have. I smiled lightly and replied, "I didn't really have anywhere else to go."
She put the hairspray back down and gripped my forearms again, "Well, Darcy, now you do."
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Sherlock turned back to Lestrade and then down at the items in the evidence bag. The passport and the stub of the plane ticket, his name was John Coniston and was travelling on Flyaway Airways. Sherlock had never heard of it but then it was a rarity that he travelled anywhere, even then he paid no attention to the company.
He straightened up and looked at the sky, filled with minimal clouds, as a passenger jet flew overhead. Sherlock looked thoughtful and again corrected himself, "Maybe two ideas."
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She left me soon after that and I was left to change into my dress, the beautiful one I'd bought at the shop weeks ago. The sight of it reminded me of that day in the shop, seeing Carl again and then trying to get away.
The first amount of torture I had to endure after that. But now it was normal for me I guess.
I slipped the black, sequined dress on and palmed the fabric, while wandering in front of my bed anxiously. No shoes, why would I put myself through that?
The door to my room opened and in walked a smiling Kate, carrying a tea tray, "I brought this for you and I'm here to do your make up."
"Thank you." I said and gestured for her to enter, she did and wandered carefully to the dressing table where she placed the tea tray. "Where's Miss Adler?" I asked and made my way over to the window, to open to curtains and see the cars driving past without so much as a second thought.
"She getting ready herself and asked me to attend to you instead." Kate answered and I heard the sound of china clashing with china.
Pouring Tea.
I stared out the window where a very angry looking man in a casual suit was shouting loudly at a woman in a skirt suit.
Dint In Rear Of His Car, Smashed Taillight. Two Very Opinionated And Short Tempered People. Not Going to End Well For-
"Darcy? Darcy?!" Kate saying my name over and over again, pulled me from my deductions and I turned to her, she had pulled out the seat to the dressing table for me. "Off in your own world?" She asked teasingly, what I imagined a mother might be like.
I smiled and glanced back at the pair arguing, before saying softly, "Yeah, you could say that." Averting my gaze I wandered to the seat and as I sat she pushed the chair under me, I took a sip from a teacup and watched as she pulled up her own chair, sitting down and then taking out some make-up.
"Not too much for me." I stated and she looked up questioningly, so I clarified, "I'm not really into make-up."
Kate giggled as she readied some tan coloured liquid from a tube and turned to me, "Nonsense. Every girl loves a makeover."
"If you knew me at all, you'd know that that's not true." I commented and put my now empty teacup back on the tray, then flinching as she dabbed the liquid onto my face but she shot me a look and I let her continue.
I grimaced as she dabbed more of the stuff on me and rubbed it in before going over it with a large brush, as she worked she spoke, "If it wasn't all that obvious I'm not entirely fond of the way Irene is treating you."
I stifled a chuckle and she looked at me with a serious face, my eyes widened and she turned to ready some other make-up equipment. "I understand what it is Irene does, I've witnessed it first hand but what she does to you is..." She stopped briefly before continuing, "...terrible to say the least."
"It got me where I am." I argued solemnly and she swivelled in her seat with a pen-like implement in between her fingers.
"Close your eyes." She ordered softly and I pulled my lips into a firm line before doing so. She ran the pin over my eye lid well sort of, it felt weird anyway, "Stop fidgeting." She said lightly and I tried not to smile.
Kate moved onto the other eye and then stopped, so I opened my eyes as she pulled out a brush stick thing, "Stay completely still if you don't want this in your eye." I did as she asked and she put the brush to my eyelashes.
When she was finished she sat back to admire her work, "Minimal yet beautiful. I like it, suits you."
"Thank you." I smiled and looked in the mirror, it sounded so cliché but I don't think I'd ever looked this good.
Kate put a hand to my chin and turned my head to face her, it wasn't like when Irene did it, with Kate it was soft and gentle. This time she attacked my lips with a red lipstick, "Promise me one thing when you go tonight, come back in one piece." Again, she sat back and admired the colour.
I pulled my lips together and frowned, "Why do you care about me?"
"Moriarty isn't a nice man by any means and I hate that you haven't been given a choice in this." She answered honestly.
"Thanks to Miss Adler, I think I'll be able to handle myself." I quipped and tried to lighten the conversation.
Kate just remained looking solemn before she started to pack up her make-up equipment and I heard her mutter, "I doubt it." Before the door to my room swung open and the clicking of heels I was completely used to by now followed.
"Ready?" Irene asked and stood in the door, waiting, I glanced at Kate who mouthed, 'Promise?'.
I nodded and smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder as I stood and she put the red lipstick in my hand, "Thank you, Kate." I said and slipped the lipstick into the pockets I hadn't even noticed the dress had.
On the way out of my room, I picked up my black heels and the laced gloves I had left with them. Putting both the shoes and gloves on in the door, I gave Kate a reassuring smile and followed Irene out onto the landing.
"Kate's done well, you look beautiful." Irene told me as she waited at the top of the stairs and I smiled awkwardly, she continued, "They're going to love you."
I found that hard to believe but smiled again as we headed out, my nerves building when we left the house and got in the car. Tim driving as usual and he nodded at me through the wing mirror, I raised my hand in a slight wave and then looked across at Irene who said, "Off you go, Tim."
It was evening as we drove through the city, I didn't know where exactly we were going, and I just couldn't believe it had taken so long to just get changed. I'd never put this much effort into my appearance before but I suppose it was something I now had to do, if I were to continue on this path.
"I need you to be on your best form, tonight. Any chance you get to show off..." Irene started to tell me and then stopped to look at me before finishing, "...do."
I tilted my head, "Show off, ma'am?"
"Yes, show off. God know you're used to that." She reiterated and again I fought back a smile, as she added, "Jim will want to see everything you've learnt, so you shall have to show him, won't you?"
I nodded firmly and glanced out the window as the car stopped, "Yes, Miss Adler."
"Good, now come along." She ordered and stepped out as Tim opened the car door, nodding his head at her.
After being taught how I knew how to exit a car gracefully and gently slid across the seat, making sure to keep my legs close together and putting both feet on the floor at the same time. I raised myself from the car and smiled at Tim, "Thank you."
"You're welcome, as always, Miss." He replied and I walked away slightly as he closed the door.
Tim went to enter the car again I said after him, "Call me Darcy, not Miss, I hate that."
"Right you are, Miss." He nodded again and then grimaced slightly, "Darcy, sorry. Have a good evening."
I waved him off as he entered the car and watched as he drove away, before Irene drew my attention away by saying, "Darcy, dear, are you ready?" I turned around to face her and my eyes widened at the sight of a very, very posh looking hotel.
Elizabeth- Name Of Hotel. British. Named After The Queen? Probably Not. Small Print Underneath- Unimportant.
"Of course." I said, albeit distractedly, and she led me up the stone steps to a set of huge wooden elabourate doors.
My heart suddenly started beating faster as she put a hand on the door knob and I gulped, I just had a feeling that this wasn't going to be easy nor enjoyable.
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Two chapter updates in one day?! I'm on a roll! I am so excited to write the next chapter... I have something very interesting in mind >-<
Thoughts on both, what do you think is going to happen?
Vote and comment, amazing peoples ;)
-HBH xxx
Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters, except Darcy, or any lines from the show. Those rights belong to the BBC and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.