Glass: Reader Requests

Why Are You Here

Requested on FFN: I'd love to see more about Margaux's home life growing up. Maybe an AU where they meet as teenagers and Sherlock tries to help her?

*

There was a nook in the museum where people rarely visited. Where the sounds of the crowds exploring the exhibits was nothing more than a hum, and if you closed your eyes or buried your face in a book, it was as if you were completely alone.

Most days, there would be a girl sitting in that nook. With her knees to her chest, writing in a journal or reading an old paperback book. She had long, dark hair and a lightly freckled nose, her skinny frame dressed in a school uniform that didn't fit her quite right.

One floor down, a group of students on a school trip followed their teacher around the displays. Yawning, joking amongst themselves, failing to pay attention. A boy rolled his eyes as he stood at the back of the group, his mind travelling elsewhere, ignoring his teacher and the lesson she was attempting to give.

The teacher ushered the group to the stairs, but as they began to descend, he decided to go up instead. As he wandered around, he found himself more interested in the people than the artefacts. He watched them interact, made judgements about them based on the way they walked or the stains on their shirts. His eyes fell on the girl in the nook and he began trying to assess her like he had with everyone else.

Purple shadows under her eyes - tired. Bony knees - malnourished. She never turned the page of her book - distracted. And she was biting the nail on her index finger - anxious.

He tried to get closer in an attempt to see what she was reading, to get a better look at her face and to see the school badge on her jumper. He slinked forward with his hands in his pockets, pretending to look around.

"Sherlock!?" A voice echoed across the museum floor.

It was his teacher. He looked at his watch - six whole minutes before she noticed he was missing. That was three minutes less than last time.

"Sherlock Holmes!"

She was searching for him across the crowded room. He walked up to the girl and sat beside her, picking up her school blazer that was sticking out of her bag. He draped it over his shoulders to hide his own uniform and plucked the book out of her hands, holding it up to his face.

She gave a bewildered stare, suddenly registering the woman walking around shouting. After a few minutes, the woman went back to the stairs and jogged up to the next floor. The boy lowered the book and handed it back to her before slipping off the blazer and returning it to her bag.

"So I take it you're Sherlock Holmes..." she said plainly.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" he replied.

She shook her head and laughed softly before opening the book and sifting through to find her page.

"You know you'll have to go back eventually," she said. "I don't think they're allowed to leave pupils behind on school trips."

"Where's your class then?"

"I'm not on a trip."

He looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"I bunked..." she added.

"Oh. Why would someone skip school to come to a museum and read?"

"What are you? A wannabe truant officer or something?"

"I just like understanding things."

Suddenly, the teacher came bounding towards them.

"Sherlock Holmes! Come here this instant."