The Baker's Detective

| The Wall and the Flower Girl |

Lily finds herself often scolding her brother and friends, as they're far too loud when walking from outside to the flat downstairs. Still, she tends to laugh as she does it, as the others are usually laughing, too. All she feels is guilt, though, when she actually has to hire professionals for certain jobs, like taking up the carpet and replacing it with hardwood floors or taking out the old countertops. That stuff is always the loudest.

At present, they've put down walnut wood flooring, painted the kitchen area white — the same color they'll paint the sitting room area (because more pictures and decorations would match it), though they're going to paint the fireplace wall a different color to make it a "statement wall" — and Lily's decided on muted pink and gold for the bathroom, the sink cabinet being pink, the sink itself being white (like the the tiles on the floor and wall) and the faucet being gold to match the accents on the corner shower that needs to be installed. For the kitchen, she wants pale yellow cabinets, white marble countertops, and a kitchen island with a drop down bar to eat on. She's still picking out appliances and tile for the backsplash, though she's more focused on the living room at the moment.

She can't decide what color to paint the statement wall, for one thing, and that will likely help determine the furniture and decorations in the room. Liam and others have discussed it with her, putting in their own helpful opinions and such, but she ends up distracted from the issue anyway.

One morning, a little over three weeks after she signed the papers for 221C, she arrives there with Liam and their childhood friend Uriah to start painting the sitting room area. When she unlocks the door, she enters the stairwell and pictures it as she wants it to look when it's done, with decorative pictures and a hanging ivy plant and possibly painted the same color as the statement wall, but there's still something that feels off about it. She frowns a little as she walks down the steps, opening the white door with one hand, a paint can in the other. Liam carries another paint can, while Uriah has the tape, trays, and paint rollers.

"Before we start painting, we're going to have to tear down this leftover wallpaper," Lily says, putting the paint can on the floor next to where the island will go, where a half-full can already rests. The wallpaper she spoke of is on the wall that hides the stairs, torn around the edges, leaving a large, jagged oval of a dark, faded pattern. Lily, Liam, and Uriah begin working, Uriah on the stepladder they've left in the apartment to use when need be, but it proves difficult even with three people.

As she works, Lily can't help but think of that off-ness she feels with that stairwell, on the other side of that wall. She'd chalked it up before to the lack of nice paint and decorations, but she can't deny that it still feels off even when she pictures it as the best it can be. She stops working on the wallpaper, hands resting casually on her hips as she thinks, brows furrowed. That faded wall sits there, offering next to no dreams of pretty paint and pictures, hardly any potential for something useful or pleasing — and what it does offer is not enough to save it.

"What are you thinking, Lil?" Liam asks, having noticed her stance.

The wall is all but gone in her mind, replaced by a white railing to match the newly repainted stairs behind it. She smiles. "I think I want to take out this wall."

Uriah looks down at her. "Does that mean I can stop trying to scrape this wallpaper off?"

"Yes, Uriah, I think it does."

"Sweet."

"Now hold on," Liam says. "I know taking it out would open things up, but you might not be able to; it could be a support wall."

Lily's smile turns into her furrowed, faraway thinking expression again. "It could," she admits, before she smiles again. "Let's go ask Mrs. Hudson." She takes off up the stairs, excitement and like for the landlady overriding her nerves, forcing Liam and Uriah to follow her.