The Baker's Detective

| The Coroner and the Dinner |

Two things woke up Lily that night. One was the crying of a little girl, the other was deliberate knocking on her door. Both happened about the same time, around 5am. At first, the noises merged with her dream.

She was in her flat — it didn't look like her flat, but she knew it was her flat — and she was making... possibly a cake. She couldn't be sure. The TV was falling off the wall and Liam was there for some reason but he wasn't doing anything. She kept shouting at Liam to get the TV, and then the oven caught on fire. That was when the crying started, and she was convinced she had a daughter in the next room (which wasn't there before), but she couldn't get to her. Someone started knocking on the front door, Liam pestered her to answer it, and about that time she realized she didn't have a daughter and she was dreaming.

When she woke up, the sounds persisted (aside from Liam's badgering), and she wearily rolled out of bed, using her phone's flashlight to get to the door. On the other side was Sherlock, already dressed.

"What are you doing?" Lily whispered.

"Officer Davis called-"

"How?"

"He found your father's number in the phone book. Anyway, the autopsy is done. I want to go get the report."

"Right now?"

"Time is of the essence. A killer may be on the loose."

"May be?"

"And Mary Gray's mother should be in today. There's too much to do."

Lily blinked a few times, trying to process everything going on. "That's two things."

"Yes, but-"

"Hold on." The crying came back to her attention. "Who's crying? Is that Rosie?"

Sherlock turned. "I believe so."

They both went down the hall, to Liam's old room. Lily knocked on the door. "John? Rosie?"

John opened the door. "What are you two doing up?"

"The autopsy is done," Sherlock replied.

"And you want to go now?"

"Time is of the essence. There may be-"

"Why is Rosie crying?" Lily asked. John opened the door wider. Rosie was sitting on the bed, sniffling, with her bag of toys on her lap.

"I wanna go home," Rosie said. Her eyes were red.

Lily came over and sat next to her. "Oh, you poor thing."

"She's never been away from Baker Street overnight before," John said. "I don't know what to do. The case isn't done yet, I don't know how long it will take. But she's miserable. She's been having nightmares all night, when she can sleep. I guess she wasn't ready to go this far from home yet."

"Then take her home. Sherlock and I can handle the case. There should be a six o'clock train to London, or around that time. I'll look."

"We're going home?" Rosie asked hopefully.

John looked at Sherlock, who nodded. "We'll fill you in when we get back for the blog."