The Baker's Detective

| The Argument and the Friend |

After dinner, Lily and her family returned to her apartment for créme brûlée. Her irritation had melted away by then, and she listened to her family's chatter while torching their créme brûlées, happy she had practice that morning on John and Sherlock's. Liam, as per usual, didn't want to wait a measly five minutes for the dessert to cool, but his playful arguing with Lily took about that long anyway.

Once dessert was eaten, they talked for maybe half an hour more, then her parents had to head to their hotel. Liam sprawled out on the couch quickly, flicking on the TV.

He then pulled out his phone while Lily cleaned up her kitchen, but she stopped when he spoke. "Oh, John Watson updated his blog."

"Oh?" Lily said.

"Your neighbor," he replied, as if she didn't know. "Oh, you're in this one! This is the first case you mentioned?"

"Um..." she sighed, walking into the living room. He looked up at her with a raised brow, and she went on. "Before you read that... you should know that I... may have been in a form danger during that case."

He sat up. "May have or were? What happened?"

"I got a gun pointed at me. Obviously, it all worked out. I just don't want you to freak out when you read it."

"Lily."

"I'm fine," she insisted.

"And if you weren't? Is hanging around this Sherlock guy really a good idea if you're gonna be in harm's way?"

"He saved my life! He talked the man down, he uncovered the truth. That's the important thing."

Liam sighed and got to reading while Lily finished cleaning the kitchen. She then sat down in a chair for a few minutes, but she was up again when someone knocked on her door.

"Who's that?" Liam asked, brows furrowed.

Lily shrugged. "My only guess would be Mrs. Hudson or one of 221B boys. Or potentially Mycroft Holmes."

"Mycroft Holmes?" Liam asked as Lily started up the stairs.

"He seems like he would show up at odd times for odd reasons. Those Holmes boys aren't your average Joes, that's for sure." Lily made it up the stairs and opened the door to find one of them on the other side, holding a box of severed ears. Well, just two. And a lot of salt.

She invited him in, half thinking on what he might tell her concerning the ears then within her flat, half thinking on what food and tea she could offer him. When he said he wanted tea, she chiefly concerned herself with that and small talk, somewhere in the back of her head thinking Liam and Sherlock would introduce themselves. She'd much rather that anyhow, considering Liam was hearing flirting that wasn't there and then upset about her being in harm's way.

They didn't introduce themselves, reminding Lily she'd better do it. She observed them curiously, wondering how Liam would behave — and a bit worried on that front, too. It seemed normal until Sherlock told Liam the box contained the severed ears. While Sherlock was on the phone, Liam turned to Lily, whispering to her. "So now he's bringing severed ears into your flat?"

"He probably just came from the crime scene or whatever," Lily replied. "They're in a box..."

Liam shook his head. "You are so not okay with this."

"Okay, not entirely," Lily admitted, "but... it's fine."

"He was just here a few hours ago-"

"And I told him to fill me in on the case."