The Baker's Detective

| The Breakfast and the Sister |

Lily stops at the door, turnovers in hand, barely registering Sherlock looking at results as he, Molly, and Liam talk. Why did he seem... upset? Irritated, bristly, but not at her. At the idea that somebody else would find her irritating. But now he's back to his usual, mostly blank self. His thinking face, his almost monotonous tone he gets when he's focused. Like the other person isn't quite there, he's bouncing ideas, he's figuring things out. But sometimes he is hard for Lily to figure out — or she makes it harder than it needs to be.

He cares about what other people think of her. Or he doesn't understand it. Or he doesn't want her to think of herself that way. One of those three — or two or all of them. They're friends. It should make sense. Liam gets upset when people aren't kind to her, but he's her brother. Uriah — also like a brother to her — Raven, they don't like it, either. So why does it feel different when it's Sherlock?

He locks eyes with her from across the room, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Are you coming in?"

She shakes the questions from her mind and ignores the beating of her heart. "Yes. I..." She walks in and turns to Molly, holding out the container. "I made you some cherry turnovers. John told me you liked them."

Molly's face takes on a genuine smile — not a super wide one, but a genuine one. Her cheeks color. "You didn't have to do that."

"It's what she does," Liam and Sherlock say. They turn to each other, startled.

"Jinx..." Liam trails off, and Lily does not like the look he's giving Sherlock right now. Sherlock, for his part, doesn't seem to understand it based on the furrowing of his brows.

Lily doesn't have time to dwell on it, as Molly takes the container from her. "I would eat one now, but I'm... not supposed to in the lab."

"Oh, I didn't think about that." Lily frowns a bit.

"It's alright. The longer you wait, the better it'll taste, right?" Molly says. "Sorry, that was stupid."

"No, it's okay. I do that, too. The amount of times I've apologized for something I said is... well, it's a lot." There's an awkward pause, then Lily asks, "Well... is the DNA a match?"

"Yes," Molly says. "Those are Diane and Jared's ears." Sherlock seems unsurprised. Molly starts cleaning up the lab, putting the ears back in the box and setting it in front of Sherlock. "Please get these out of here."

"Can you show me how you determined that?" Liam says. "If you don't mind."

"Sure," Molly replies, and Liam grins, walking with her to the equipment. Lily shakes her head at him, then turns back to Sherlock. There's that crease between his brows again, but it's lighter than it sometimes is.

"You don't seem surprised by the results," Lily says.

Sherlock hums a bit. "No. I just wanted to be certain."

"Have you got it all figured out, then?"

He shakes his head, curls rustling. "I have a theory. Some motives are... unclear, however. What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Oh, I'm- My parents are leaving tomorrow, so we're supposed to go get breakfast in the morning."

Sherlock frowns. "I want to go to Susan's as early as possible. I found out this morning she has another sister she and her friend didn't mention, and I need to confront her about it. John certainly won't go tonight."

"And you need to get some sleep." Lily checks the time, confirming how late it is.

Sherlock waves this off. "How long will you be at breakfast?"