Look out for the <>!

"Heads you go, tails I go," Sherlock said to me as he tossed a silver coin in the air and caught it. "head's." He looked at me waiting for me to do something great.

I frowned, not wanting to run today. "Fine," I mumbled as I shot off running down an empty alley. I felt like I was always the person chasing the weirdo's down dark alley's. I think Sherlock just didn't want to do it himself, so he made me run after them instead. But most of the time, I didn't mind, As long as I was dressed for it and today, I was. I took a left and saw the women about the same age as me and tackled her to the ground causing us to land in a big puddle.

She let out a grunt then proceeded to swear at me. Once she saw my face her eyes grew large as she realized who I was and started to call me names. She thought I was working for the wrong side, but I didn't let her words sink in. Every time I got someone I knew from my old life, they loved throwing insults at me. By now, I was used to it.  

I already chose my path and If they wanted to believe that I was working for the "wrong" side that was on them. But I was by no means fighting with the angles of the town that was already damned to the demons. I had my own agenda and clueless Lestrade wasn't going to stop me and neither was Sherlock.

By now there was a rumor going around about a grand Nazi treasure and I was about to get to the bottom of it. If there was such a thing, I wanted that treasure for myself. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a scum of the earth and you hate me. I've got it all before," I said coolly as I waited for Sherlock to come. I looked at my shirt that used to be white and frowned at the mud on it. Perfect.

There was a moment of silence and then she spoke up again, "why did you do it?" she whispered as she looked at me. Her body tension began to melt away as she realized that there was no way out of this. Instead of fighting, she gave in, too soon if you ask me.

I knew she was referring to my switch to Scotland Yard. That was an awfully personal question for someone who was just swearing at me. "Because I wanted a change." I looked up to see Sherlock walking up to me from a side alley. "Hiya," I said to him and got up from the ground and pulled up the girl with me.

"Good job."

"It was no big deal." I bushed myself off then looked at my watch. "Shoot, I have to go." I looked at my ripped blue jeans and mud spots on my white shirt. I was in no condition to go into public like this, but I had no choice since I couldn't stand up Kale. "You owe me a new outfit," I growled at the girl I tackled before looking back at Sherlock.

"Date with prince charming?"

"Yeah, something like that," I said holding back the blush that threated to come to my face. He nailed it spot on. That was why I was tried to look nice today but chasing people down alleys was bound to mess up my look.

"Then take this." Sherlock said and pulled out a light sweater from inside his coat.

I gave him a nod, although I hid my amazement from him. Did he really pack a sweater for me? Our relationship had changed so much since when I first started to work for him. Together, we learned how to look out for each other. We grew closer. Sherlock was my partner, and I wouldn't want anyone else by my side to solve murders.

I took the sweater from him then turned away to walk off, knowing that Sherlock would take care of the rest. I walked into a main busy street and wrapped my sweater around my small frame as I shook from cold and nerves. I had been waiting for this day for a while, date with Kale. A real date, one that he didn't have to leave into the shadows afterwards.

Kale told me that he was in town this weekend for a job, and he made time for me. He told me that he had something big to tell me. I was hoping by 'big' that he meant staying around town forever. I stopped at Waterloo station and pulled out my phone as I waited for him to come like planned.

<>

"You look lovely as always," I heard his voice say from behind me.

I smiled as I turned to face him then let out a chuckle as I looked at myself, not believing the complement. He was always one to flirt. "Hello," I said and went up on my tip toes to kiss him.

"Hello to you as well." 

He smelt like cologne and familiarity. I missed him too much. "So where are we going today?"

"Do you want to go on a walk? I want to show you a place," he said and reached for my hand.

I intertwined our fingers and smiled knowing I belonged nowhere better than beside him. "But it's raining," I frowned quickly as I looked out at the gray sky that was spitting on the streets. 

"But that's the point, it's really cool. Come on," he said and started to lead me out into the rain.

I shrugged as I followed him. My outfit already looked like crap, what else was there to lose?

After taking a couple turns we ending up in a small market with a glass ceiling. "Wow, I didn't know this was here." I looked around at all the stalls selling all kinds of things. It was lively here with people walking around and shopping.

"There is a really good café too, over there." He pointed to the left of me.

We walked into the café and I took a seat as Kale ordered for us. A minute later Kale came with two cups in his hands and handed me one.

I smelt like vanilla, he didn't forget about my favorite flavor. I smiled at him, falling deeper in love with him over the cup in my hand. He didn't forget about me, just like I hadn't about him. "So what brings you back here?" 

"A job interview for some security system company, they want me to work for them. I'll be testing out bugs and finding flaws."

I smiled. If he had that job, he would stay here. For the first time in a long time, we could be an actual couple. Our relationship wouldn't be filled with traveling or secret letters.

I then frowned as I thought about what this job could mean for him. He wouldn't be able to do the white-collar things that he had always done. That part of him was just as much a part of me.  But he must have thought about this already. Did this mean that he was changing like I was? "It would be nice to have you around."

"Yes it would."

We talked until the sun set and that was when Kale said goodbye for the evening. I wanted to stay and talk until the sun came up the next day but I knew he had things to do and so did I. Not wanting to, I said goodbye and started on my way back to the flat.

I skipped down the dark Baker street because of the mood Kale had put me in. He always put me in a better mood when we were together. "Rori, hiya," John said as he gave me a look that said, 'are you ok?' on the sidewalk.

"Oh hi John. I'm fine. Just in a good mood."

He smiled at me. "Ah good. Well, I'm heading back to my place, I'll see you later."

"Wait, how is the miss doing?" I asked him before he had a chance to take a step forward. I was curious what had happened between them lately.

He looked at the sky and then took a deep breath in before saying, "it's over. I can't deal with all the drama anymore." He looked at the ground as he hunched his shoulders forward, losing confidence in his actions. I felt almost sorry for him except that horrible person he called a wife wasn't worth my sympathy. 

"It's not your fault." I  put my hand on his shoulder gently. "Any levelheaded woman would see that you're a catch." 

He shrugged, not believing my words. "Thanks," he mumbled a little too quickly and walked past me down the road.

I frowned at I watched him walk away. I was never going to get better at relationship advice. I sighed as I fished in my pocket for my keys, then distracting me from my thoughts, a young man came up to me. "This is for you." He said as he handed me a slip of paper.

I took it as I racked my brain, trying to remember if I had seen him before. Before I had time to ask what was this paper for, he ran off, slipping into the dark. Not wanting to track down any more weirdo's down alley ways today, I stayed still and read what was on the paper.

It's time for you to live up to your side of the bargen.

Love,

Z

I gritted my teeth as I remembered the deal, I made with Zane a month ago. Whatever he was planning I had to stay out of the way. This would be almost impossible, but I had no choice. I wondered what he was planning and how many people he would hurt to get what he wanted. I stuffed the paper back into my pocket then opened the front door to 221.

I walked up the stairs slowly as I tried to regain my confidence so Sherlock wouldn't know what just happened. With every step I took I stood up straighter and pushed my shoulders back to look like my confident self.

"Rori," Sherlock greeted me as he laid on the couch reading a book but my view switched to what looked to be a finger in a bowl of ice on the coffee table.

"Please tell me you're not going to leave that out all night." Before he had time to respond I said, "you know, I don't want you to answer that." And with that I turned and walked into my bedroom with my sudden sour mood.

A few minutes later I heard Sherlock say outside of my door, "do you want take out for dinner?"

"No, already had dinner while I was out." I didn't want to face him more than I had to, he would figure out what was going on. He would be disappointed that I made a deal with Zane, but at the time I was desperate. Now looking back at it, I was disappointed in myself for agreeing to the deal. Zane was going to rack havoc but I couldn't stop it. I had to stay out of the way but what if Sherlock tried to stop him on his own?  

"Ok, night." 

As soon as I heard him leave, I walked out of my bedroom then walked over to his laptop and entered in the password easily. I searched for pictures lost over the course of World War 2 in Google. As that loaded, I pulled up the Scotland Yard data base and hacked into it in a matter of minutes. I spent the rest of the time looking over reported missing portraits over the course of both world wars.

This was probably the fourth time I looked over all of this information in the past month. I was starting to lose faith that there was anything to find but Zane sure seemed hell bent on it actually existing. He was going to not stop until he found this treasure. The only way I could stop him now was beat him to it.

I resumed my normal position when I was alone in the flat while surfing the web. I leaned back into the chair I was sitting in and put my feet on the coffee table, content that I had the whole flat to myself tonight.

My eye scanned the different photos that were claimed as lost or stolen during the war. I got out my small notebook and started to add the different portraits that I seemed to miss from the last time I time I took notes.

I flipped through pages of information over a course of the two hours that Sherlock disappeared for. It seemed like someone was clever enough to make a great bed time story and smart enough to make people chase after this fairy tale all their lives. I had no proof that this story was true. But I did know that at the time, over 200 million pounds of art work was stolen during the war and over 85 million pounds were taken worth or jewelry. More might have been taken but these were claimed as stolen.

Not all of these pieces could have been put together. That was crazy. But if there was just a little was taken and hidden together, we were still looking at millions of pounds worth.

I let out a sigh of frustration. There was a lack of information and I was just about to give up. My eyes then stopped on a page from the Scotland Yard data base. It was a photo of a young girl with a caption that claimed her great uncle was insane and killed her father. I read the article and saw that he was a solider in the war. In his old age, he was forced to go to a nursing home in London. He was the oldest living survivor from world war two in London. The report stated that when the police talked to the old man, he only talked about Nazi pirates and secret people in government to keep it all quite.

I smiled, finally I had something to go on. I quickly jotted down the address of the nursing home on my note pad. I was going to do this tomorrow.

"What are you doing?" Sherlock asked as he walked through the door.

I was so enthralled with my research I didn't even hear him walk up the stairs. "Nothing," I lied flatly, pulling up a page about some murder that happened on the west side of London. I couldn't bring Sherlock into this. This was my own mess that I got into with Zane. I was not about to drag other people through the mud with me.

"Looking into that one?" He looked over my shoulder to see the computer screen.

"Yeah, just started."

"And I see you hacked into the Scotland Yard data base. I wonder when Lestrade will realize what you've been doing in your free time." He said with a smirk.

I shrugged at him. "Probably never," I said with a smile, knowing that Lestrade was a little too dunce to catch me. 

He nodded as he looked at his finger on the ice.

"I'm going to continue this tomorrow."

"Wait, Rori, just because I'm lenient with your extracurricular activities doesn't mean you should get sloppy. I won't always be there to watch your back." 

"And I won't." I stated as a fact.

I'm back! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! well it turns out that I wanted to write a little more to this. I missed it so I went back to it and wrote a small add on story. I want to know that you think! :)