Look out for the <>

I woke up the next morning to the sound of something crashing to the ground. I shot up and looked around to see Sherlock picking up a plastic plate. I winced as I lightly touched my arm, remembering what happened yesterday. I was still on the couch so I must have slept here the whole night.

"Morning," he said as he continued putting the plates back where they belonged.

I felt my head spin, so I gently laid back down once I realized that there was not real threat. "Why are you putting away the plates?" I asked him because I knew for a fact that I did this job, honestly he hated almost any house work so I did most of it.

"They needed to be put away." He shrugged as if this is what he normally did in the early morning.

"Whatever," I said stubbornly and slowly got up from the couch I had been sleeping on. He was acting very oddly. He must still feel guilty about yesterday. "What time is it?"

"It's 11."

I looked at the clock to make sure he wasn't joking. I didn't think I would sleep this long. I remembered that I had to meet up with Kale in an hour. "What? I have to go! Like now!" I rushed into my bedroom, tripping over to the dresser and quickly found a blue stripe button down top to go with my white jeans.

"Are you ok?" I heard Sherlock said from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, fine. Just ran into someone from my past the other day and we're meeting up."  I winced as I put on my shirt. The last time Kale and I met up for lunch was so long ago. I missed him.

I opened the door of my room to see him frowning as if he disapproved of my actions but didn't say anything. "How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know. I'll text you," I said as I slipped some gray oxfords on and walked out the front door. I walked slowly down the street and prayed that I wouldn't be too late. My head started to hurt by time I made it to the Tube and by time I made it to Water Loo, I had a pounding headache.

<>

I walked out of the Tube station in Water Loo and looked around for a stop that Kale would pick. I quickly laid eyes on a coffee shop and knew that was probably where he would go because it was the closest to the Tube.

I walked into the coffee shop and looked around it, seeing if Kale was already here. I took a seat right next to the two large picture windows. I enjoyed the location, I had a view of all the people on both sides of the street as they walked by. I heard the chair close to me squeak, I turned my head to see Kale.

I gave a small smile. "It's been a bit since I got your last letter. Did you get everything sorted out?" I thought about his letter that he sent to me last month, he was finishing destroying Alice Parish's work. I guess it took him a while to do that because I hadn't heard from him since.

"Just about. But that is not why I'm here. While I was in France, I got this." He handed me a gold locket with a single ruby on it. It was simple but yet beautiful and I had seen it before.

I took it from him and knew exactly where this locket came from. My mum. She told me once that she would give it to me when she died. She never took it off that I could remember anyhow. It was a family heirloom passed down from hundreds of years, it was the only family heirloom we had. It remembered us of our rich heritage in Ireland, a place which I tried so hard to forget.

This heirloom had been missing for a few years now. It vanished like my mother, one day without a trace. I frowned. I didn't care to find it or have it honestly. It was a useless piece of junk to dead memories.

I knew that Kale wanted some kind of reaction but instead of shock, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "So."

"So this was your mothers. She gave this to me personally before she died." 

I raised my eyebrows at him, I didn't know she died. I frowned, I knew I should be angry that she didn't bother to find me, but instead I felt a little hurt that Kale saw her and not me. This cemented the idea that she hated me, she never wanted me, she never cared, that's why she left. My mum was a monster of a person, but she was also my mother. I would have like to see her one more time to give her a piece of my mind on her death bed. "Ok."

Kale frowned at me. "For pity sakes Aurora! This is your mother! Show some kind of emotion!" Kale said, getting frustrated like I knew he would.

 I frowned at him, I couldn't help that his and my idea of family was so different. He forgave Zane for everything that he did to their family, and he claimed that he still loved him. I could never be such a great person as that. Unlike Kale, I would never be able to forgive her fully for what she had done.

I knew he wanted me to be a better person, but I couldn't. "I can't. I don't want to. She caused me so much grief already. She left me alone, so I feel like she died a long time ago," I said to him softly as I played around with the locket in my hand.

"I understand that. But she was your mum. She gave birth to you." He sighed and shook his head at me. "She said you probably hated her and wouldn't care about this locket but there is a note she gave me for you." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a crumpled letter.

I shook my head at him. I wouldn't read it. I didn't want to open old wounds that had healed. Reading would be as painful as it was when she left, I knew it.

"Please Rori, read it. It was her wish."

I sighed as I took the note from him then unfolded the rough piece of paper reluctantly.

Dear Maire,

I know that you must hate me and this letter and locket will not make up for what I did to you but I felt like I should do something for you before I die. That's when I ran into Kale. I have been keeping tabs on you over the years. You may think I left you completely alone but I was there the whole time, watching from a distance. I was so proud when you started to make friends in Ireland and then when you moved to London and met Kale. I was happy for you. I am still proud of you for working with Sherlock.

This will not make up for what I have done but I want you to know the reason why I left. I got in debt with the wrong people and I knew that I needed to leave and pick up my old job of doing white collar crimes in major cites. You have to understand by now that this kind of life was not suitable for a young child to be tagging around. I always planned on returning to you, but after doing jobs for a couple years, I discovered that I couldn't get out of the life and work I made for myself and the people I worked for. If I did try to get home I would bring my trouble to you and they would hurt you and my mother. But that doesn't explain why I didn't write or call or even drop by for a day. For that was entirely my fault, in my age I have discovered that I was just afraid of coming back home for my own reasons. I was scared that you would hate me and never look at me the same as you did when you were young. But I guess I already did that.

I am sorry for all the pain and scaring that I caused you. I was never the mother that I should have been. And I am sorry. In my last words I want to give you my access code to my bank account. In the bank of London, talk to Reddish, he helped me with everything. The code word is Maire.

I will and have always loved you,

Mother

I sat there with my mouth open as I put the letter in my pocket. Emotions hit me like a wave as I tried to process what I just read. For a good half of my life I hated her and what she did to me. This letter didn't make up for the things that she did, but it did start to thaw my heart.

"Are you ok?" Kale asked with worry in his voice.

I looked at him and whipped my eye of a stray tear that wanted to fall down my face. "Yes." I looked up at the ceiling to stop other tears from spilling over. I didn't know why I had tears. Was it because I was mad? Sad that she was dead? Mad at myself for being bitter towards her all this time? I suppose that there were many reasons why.

"How long will you be gone now?" I did not want to talk about my mother anymore. I rather think about her on my own when I could be emotional.

"Not too much longer, maybe another month and then I'll be back for good. I need to free those that Alice imprisoned. I'm trying to make everything better than it was." Kale said.

"Ok." I reached for his hand across the table. In return he stretched out his fingers, so our hands intertwined. "I miss you."

"And I miss you. I think about you every day. My only goal is to come back to you."

I frowned at him as if that wasn't good enough. "I want you home now." as soon as I said that my phone vibrated.

"I wanted to be home by now. But things are taking longer than I thought," he said and sighed. "You should answer that." 

"I probably should," I said reluctantly then pulled out my phone and read the text from Sherlock.

Found the killer. Now time to find the hire. Meet me at the flat in 30 minutes.

I let out a groan knowing that my time was up with Kale. Crime never slept and we had to make our move before the killer ran. "I have to go."

"I can walk you to the train station."

"I would like that," I said and smiled at him as we got up from the table we were sitting at.

By time I walked into the flat, Kales lips were still on my mind from when he kissed me goodbye at the station. I wish he would stay instead of leaving but he felt like this was right and there was no stopping him.

I walked into the flat to see the room a mess. "Well, that's nice," I said sarcastically because I knew that I was going to have to clean it.

"Aaaahhhh!" Sherlock yelled as he ran out of his bedroom, looking frantic. He scared me for a second. There had to be something wrong if he looked this way.

"What happened?"

"They came and took things, they wanted you," Sherlock said as he breathed heavily.

I frowned, not knowing who exactly came and how they found us here. "Who came?" I looked around the familiar family room and suddenly it seemed so foreign. This place didn't feel like home at this second. Home was supposed to be a safe spot and I didn't feel safe here. This was why I always left from place to place, so no one would find me, ever. I suddenly wondered if I should run again.

"I don't know, I didn't see their faces," he said and squatted on the ground with a pained look on his face. "I think they drugged me." He then started to pace around the room as he tried to get his thoughts in order.

"What did they take?" I asked as I started to look under the chairs and overturned items, trying to figure out what they stole.

"I don't know. One just had a deep voice and other one was small, younger."

I nodded as I got on my hands and knees as I looked underneath the couch. There, I saw a small piece of paper under it, I pulled it out from under the couch and held it up. "I found something." 

On the paper was a note for me reading, "Don't worry about your dear Sherlock. But if you do continue to get in my way don't think I won't go farther into hurting him or others. Drop it before it gets messy."

I frowned and crumpled up the note in my hand out of frustration. I knew that this had to be referring to the case we were working on. This just got personal. They didn't take anything, they just wanted to mess with my head, and it was working. I looked at Sherlock who couldn't seem to sit still and knew that I needed to find these people. "I have to go." I said as I got up from the floor. I watched a Sherlock laid down on the floor and I think fell asleep. I sighed, knowing that just to be safe I should call John about this. "Looks like I'm calling John this time." I said as I pulled out my phone and dialed the number that I knew well.

The phone rang twice and then I heard John's voice say, "hello?"

"Hey John, you busy?"

"Nah, just finished up a shift. Why?" John asked calmly.

"Because someone broke into the house, the messed-up place and drugged Sherlock."

"What?! Are you and him ok?" 

"I'm fine, I wasn't here when it happened but I'm not sure if Sherlock is. Can you check on him?"

"I'll be there in 20."