The Baker's Detective

| The Garden and the Brownies |

Meeting her neighbors wasn't as bad as Lily had feared.

She was worried they wouldn't like her just showing up, or they wouldn't like the cookies, or they just simply wouldn't like her. Sherlock worried her most, considering she had already bugged him, but she wouldn't let it stop her — like he said. He was surprisingly kind.

When talking to John, her worries started to become alleviated, as he was so nice and welcoming, and then Sherlock walked in, and there was a moment when she felt very exposed under his gaze. She'd heard he could basically discern someone's whole life story from the tiniest detail, and it felt like that was what he was doing, in that one moment — reading her like a book. But then he offered a smile, and his kindness showed in his voice. She could tell that he knew she was nervous, by the gentleness in his voice, but that also meant he was trying to alleviate her worries. And he had.

The cookies were definitely a hit, and Rosie was absolutely delightful, and even Sherlock's deductions weren't horrible or horribly put. It was strangely a comfort for him to know about her nerves; now she won't have to fear he or John thinking she's rude or something when she talks to them. They'll know why she's stuttering or rambling or giving the occasional short reply.

And then she managed to guess that Sherlock plays violin, which was a delightful surprise, if it was only a fluke. They'll be returning the dish, too, which means she'll talk to them again, and Rosie evidently wants to visit.

Lily has a feeling that she and her neighbors are going to be good friends. At least for a little bit.

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After she left, Lily got some lunch from Speedy's (though she didn't get dessert) and then began unpacking her clothes. It took ages, and she finished with putting her blankets in the chest at the end of her bed. She absently wished she had some secrets to store in the bottom, under the blankets as she put them inside — though she supposed it was much less stressful to have no secrets to store, romantic or otherwise.

She made spaghetti for dinner and ate on the couch while she watched TV, then she had another cookie before she went to bed early, reading a few chapters in a book before she actually fell asleep.

This morning, she has a slow breakfast in front of the TV, then reads some more, having nothing to do. Everything is done now, and it's an odd feeling to be idle. She looks at her mantelpiece with the knickknacks on it and decides there isn't quite enough, and surely there's some other things she missed at the shops. She gets dressed and goes out, hailing a cab to take her. After doing a bit of shopping, not getting anything large considering she has to carry it back, she sits down for a quiet lunch, then passes a bakery on her way down the street — the same one she saw when she was walking with Liam the day she found 221C.

She decides to go in, briefly wondering what it would be like if she owned it as she walks in. There's a purple theme going on, with purple walls, dark purple tables and chairs, and purple accents in the decorations. The counter is, likewise, purple, and the glass case's base is a dark wood. The desserts, however, are mostly not purple.

There's tarts, scones, muffins, cupcakes, cheesecake, eclairs, cinnamon buns, chocolate croissants, and, of course, biscuits. Lily gets a chocolate croissant, then returns to her new flat, feeling refreshed after a few hours of being out by herself.

She puts up all her shopping, then sits for a bit, trying to figure out what to do. After some thinking, she finally decides to go and ask Mrs. Hudson if she can work in the garden; it was a bit unkempt the last she saw it, and Mrs. Hudson said she was free to work in it if she liked, but she still feels like she'll be messing with something that isn't really hers.