Astrid Wingham was just an echo, she no longer existed. In her place stood the new and not so improved Alexa Holton. Astrid finds herself caught up in the affairs of the greatest criminal minds in the world, and despite her memorable past with crim...
Moriarty led Astrid across the ballroom floor to where a group of men where standing. They were all wearing the same suit, tie and trousers, except for one man who had a bow tie and was talking with a lady with short brown hair wearing a silver long dress. Astrid could spot the two laughing together over something one of them said. When Jim approached the group with Astrid at his arm, one of the men in the awfully boring suit leant into the man's ear. The mans face lit up as he saw Moriarty and walked towards them followed by the lady in silver.
"Mr Moriarty!" He beamed and took his hand and batted the Irishman on the back, "it's good to see you my friend."
"Likewise Mr Hansel," Jim Patted his friend on the back and introduced her to Astrid, "Lucas, I'd like to introduce you to my friend and colleague, Miss Alexa Holton."
"Pleasure to meet you sir." Astrid offered her hand for the man to take and he kissed it and smiled.
"Please, call me Lucas." He smiled and stood up straight, "What brings you here Mr Moriarty?"
"Just business, and I wanted to introduce Alexa to some of my coworkers, like you."
"Well, I do hope you've enjoyed yourself" He smiled. Astrid couldn't quite pinpoint his accent, it deffinitley wasn't English, or American. English clearly wasn't his first language; probably German or Polish or something European.
"Oh, absolutely." She clicked her tongue, "nothing says me more than ballrooms and chandeliers."
Lucas laughed and after introducing us to the dark haired lady he was with as his wife, he took Jim away from the ladies, probably to talk about some sort of business. Another man dressed like the barmen walked by with drinks on a tray, he offered one to Astrid who took it and leant back on the wall. As she was sipping the champagne, Lucas' wife stepped towards her smiling friendly at her.
"You look beautiful," she looked at her dress and Astrid smiled. French, interesting.
"As do you." Astrid said, not taking a lot of notice of the brunette.
"Ugh, there are too many men here for my liking," she said taking out one of her rather heavy looking earrings, "Lucas drags me along to these kind of things all the time."
"You've been here before?"
"Few times yeah," she said as she took off the other earring and slipped them into her small purse, "I'd try and make a get away but it seems like we're in the middle of nowhere."
Astrid looked away from the Woman and to Jim and Lucas in the corner who seemed to be laughing and having a good joke, the french lady noticed her looking at the two and rolled her eyes.
"The affairs of men will forever be a mystery to me." She said and laughed.
"Which part of France do you come from?"
"Born and raised in Lyon, as they say." She laughed again, "You have good ears."
"Hmm," Astrid took anther sip of champagne, "What was your name again?"
"Amelie Chaudoir." she smiled.
"Wow, very..."
"French?" she chuckled
"Just a little." she smiled, "you didn't take your husbands name?"
"I believe that women should not have to change their name for love," she said and Astrid smirked "Its Alexa isn't it?"
"It is"
"How long have you been working for James?"
" 'bout a month," Alexa replied, "and I don't work for him, I work with him."
"And he said that did he?"
"He did" she looked at the French and gave her a sardonic smile.
"Well, not many people can say that." she smiled at Alexa again and looked over to the men, Alexa stood up straight.
"Now, if you will excuse me." the blonde said, still staring at Jim laughing with his colleague, "I didn't come here to just sit around."
She smiled at Amelie again before quickly striding off towards Jim who had just about calmed down enough to acknowledge Astrid.
"Alexa, hello," he smiled and put his arm around her shoulder, "are you having a good time yet?"
"Clearly not as good as you," she smiled and took his arm off her.
"Lucas and I are finished, we were just discussing business" he snickered and looked at Lucas who raised his eyebrows and went back to his wife.
"It looked like a very serious conversation from where I was standing."
"Oh it was" he took her hand and they walked into another room that had several people dancing quickly to a Charleston "Do you dance, Miss Holton?"
He put out his hand and Astrid took it and he lead her to the dance floor just in time for another song to start. They got in position and gracefully - much to Astrid's surprise- danced around the floor. The music was slow, the two were perfectly in sync, there face's were close and Astrid wished that time would just freeze; this was nice.
"Where did you learn to dance?"he asked quietly.
"I used to have lessons; ballet and jazz."
"Jazz?"
"Yes" she smirked, "what about you? Where did you learn this?"
"My mother. She was great." he laughed at the memory, "but, she didn't approve of my business idea's so I killed her."
"Wow, that's intense." she frowned and look him in the eye, "how old where you when you first killed someone?"
"Eleven" he said and Astrid smirked.
"what did he do?"
"He laughed at me, so..." he grinned manically, "...I stopped him laughing."
They continued to waltz around the floor until the music stopped and they made their way to a table. After settling down and being given food, Jim started talking about his plan.
"Now, I know you trained hard with Seb and you wanted to know what it was all for, well it was for this; have you ever heard of a man called Sherlock Holmes?"
"Name rings a bell."
"He and his 'friend' Dr John Watson live in a flat at 221b Baker Street and I want you to move in to the flat with them. You can move in in about a week, but first I need to do something with the flat."
"Do what?" she asked, puzzled.
"All part of the game Alexa." He said playfully, "I'll tell you in the car"
After they finished their meal, Jim quickly went around the room with Alexa at his side and introduced her to all the people he had worked with and had made bonds with over the years. At around eleven o'clock, they were back at the entrance to the house watching a shiny black car stop in front of them. They got in the back seat and, as promised, Jim told her about his great game. He said that he needed her to get into their flat and put a pair of shoes in the flat, 221c, below them. She was confused as to why at first, until he explained. It was perfect. She would move in to report back to Jim on the progress. Well, to report back to him, and because Jim could. It was part of the joke. To have one of the people responsible for their stress right in front of their noses, and yet, the detective wouldn't suspect a thing.
Amelie's dress
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