A/N: okay, sorry, for the delay but exam season has a habit of sneaking up on you, foul things that the exams are. Anyway, this chapter is for sjsmatee101 with cookies for the guest who got the right answer!

Once more, thanks go to my lovely beta Ingradera who somehow manages to put up with me and my spelling mistakes.

EDIT: THIS CHAPTER WAS RE-VAMPED ON THE 29th SEPTEMBER 2015 AND WILL SOON COME OFF HIATUS

~3 years later~

To the detective's everlasting annoyance, he had never been able to finish that case and it was a thought that still needled him even to this day, especially as there was no explanation as to why it had gone cold in the first place. All he knew was that, one moment he had been interrogating the Smith siblings in the room as he would with any other witness, and the next, Lestrade had come in all red faced and flustered claiming that the case had been wiped from their computers and that orders from on high had explicitly stated that they drop the investigation.

At first, he had suspected his brother had decided to punish him for some inane reason again, but Mycroft hadn't known a thing about it at the time, and when he had looked, his clearance hadn't been high enough to access the files relating to the case which was a shock to them both. Mycroft Holmes had the highest clearance in the country; he was never denied access to anything! Of course, that just worked to make the case all the more interesting to both of the brothers and they had both kept their eyes open since that moment, leading them to discover that this was not an isolated incident. In fact, it seemed that events like this were rather common, and impeccably well hidden. As such, that one unsolved investigation would never leave the consulting detective's mind and so, when a case was brought to him by a brown haired, blue eyed teen just over 3 years later, he recognised her instantly.

As the girl remained seated in the 'client chair' as John had dubbed it (honestly, the man had no creativity to his name, so how were his little stories so popular?) he couldn't help but look her over once again, comparing her to the child he had met back in Scotland Yard, the one who had been clinging to her brother as though everything around her was completely foreign and unknown. Now however, she sat straight and confident, proud even, and her eyes now held a defiant glint that spoke of many past battles. Her pale skin was darker than before, tanned from prolonged time out in the sun, and her hair was both longer and a little darker. If he had not been obsessing over the mysteries she seemed to bring with her for the last few years, he may not have even recognised her as the same person.

"Miss Smith, it has been a while hasn't it? Finally finished running rings around the government have you?"

He had been expecting a flinch or some other reaction to his careless revelation of her secret, but he was surprised once again when the girl only smiled up at him, the frank innocence behind it making her look far more like the child she had once been than the grim line her face had held before.

"You're one to talk about upsetting the government Mr Holmes. Tell me, has your brother given up on trying to access my file yet or is he still trying to hack into it? I must admit, watching all of his failed attempts are quite amusing, though I feel that you might need to fear for his sanity soon. After all, he does keep repeating the same actions and expecting a different result."

Ah, so she was aware of that then, interesting, but not all that unexpected. One did not become a government secret without suspecting even the smallest hint of it. Off to his left he heard John make some sort of sound to display his confusion over how familiar the two of them seemed with each other and he remembered that the first encounter had been about 2 months before he had moved in with the ex-army doctor, but he quickly put that thought out of his mind, it didn't matter.

"Oh, he says he has given up the attempt to avoid raising any red flags that may harm his reputation, but I would bet that he is still trying some… less conventional methods. As much as he may like to use the flaw against me exclusively, I am not the only one unable to back down from a challenge. But I doubt that you are here to idly chat about such well kept secrets so then… why are you here?"

He had noticed when the teenager had first walked in that she had been tense and had settled in a stance that was both casual but ready for an attack at any time, but while they had been exchanging barbed comments, and before that when she had been conversing about trivial nonsense with John, she had begun to relax her stiff posture. Now however, the battle ready tension seemed to snap back all at once and her back became ramrod straight, her eyes darting around the room as though listing every single point of entrance and escape. It was a reflex that tended to unnerve normal people, but Sherlock had been around too many spies both under his brother's employ and not, that he was easily able to ignore it.

Once the girl had finished her speedy, though most definitely thorough, examination of the flat, her attention flicked back to the detective, fixing him with a piercing gaze that made him want to flinch, though he managed to control the urge just in time. Those eyes that had looked as clear as the sky she was named after just a few moments ago where now dark and stormy with emotions that were bubbling just below the surface.

"They say you're the best there is Mr Holmes… and that you are always up for the weird cases... the ones that make no sense?"

If Sherlock's attention hadn't already been held completely by the girl before him, it would have been after that comment. At the first part, he internally preened under the praise, but at the second, his curiosity was piqued. A girl who makes no sense had come to offer him a case that confused even her… that had the makings of and excellent distraction.

"I don't know who the 'they' is that you have been talking to Miss Smith, but it sounds like they knew what they were saying. What sort of case can you offer me other than your own?"

At the last bit, it looked as though the girl had had to fight back the urge to roll her eyes in exasperation, though her lips did twitch slightly all the same. Still, it was several minutes before she spoke again, the emotions flicking across her face far too fast for the genius to read and with such contrasting extremes that it seemed like she was fighting a war inside herself. When she finally did respond, her eyes were fixed pointedly on a spot on the floor, refusing to meet the curious gaze of the detective and the compassionate one of the doctor.

"You know of my mum right? The journalist: Sarah-Jane Smith. You mentioned her last time. Well, now she's gone missing and we can't find her. No note, no call, even the GPS on her phone isn't helping. It's like she just vanished off of the face of the planet but that can't be right..."

The girl seemed to trail off there but Sherlock, who had been sitting closer to the wooden chair she was seated on heard what sounded like a muttered 'she would have called first' at the end of the sentence, though that made no sense. If what he had heard was true, then Sky seemed to be assuming that it was possible for people to leave the planet whenever they wanted, but that simply wasn't true… was it? He really needed to find a way into her files after this. Instead of letting on that he had heard this whispered statement however, he simply leaned back in his chair, pressing his fingers together to form a steeple in front of his face.

"You said that the case made no sense, but this seems fairly simple. Your mother is a journalist, she may have caught sight of a case she wanted to pursue and, in her haste, forgot to leave a message. If she was in an area where there was no cell signal, then she would not be able to call and the GPS would be dodgy at best. Leave it a day or two before you become too worried about her. Honestly, she let you wonder around London alone at the age of 13 why would she care over much about leaving you alone now?"

There was more to the case, he was sure of it. From what he had seen of Sky and her brother in their interrogation all those years ago, they were both remarkably intelligent, simple logic like this would have occurred to the two of them almost instantly, yet the girl had still come to seek him out meaning that there was more to this case than she was currently letting on. By acting so nonchalant about an event that was clearly upsetting the girl to this extent, he hoped to get her to lower her guard through anger and then let slip something that would help him get to the bottom of her mystery. John, however, didn't seem to share his thoughts on the matter as he sent the detective a dark glare before leaning forwards to talk to their guest, attempting to block his flatmate from the girl's sight with his body as he did so.

"Look, just, don't listen to him when he gets like that. He may be a genius, but he doesn't really get people if you know what I mean. He probably doesn't mean anything by it."

It was fortunate that the army doctor was facing away from his best friend at that moment as the glare coming from the detective was enough to make a grown man shudder in fear. He knew exactly what he was doing, who was John to tell anyone what Sherlock meant, when he had already communicated it by speaking. Honestly, that was what speech was for after all, but the girl didn't seem to be paying any attention to the pair of them either way. Instead, she was biting the inside of her cheek anxiously and her left hand kept tapping over the same spot on her right sleeve, brushing against the dark green fabric as though checking to make sure that whatever rested there remained so. The look of intense concentration on her face soon shifted into one of acute resignation after a moment however, and she finally deemed it necessary to look up and meet the eyes of those before her. In contrast the expression on her face, the look in her eyes was one of steely determination.

"If I tell you something, will you promise to listen through to the end no matter how insane it seems? I know it is a little hard to accept some things, but I can assure you that what I will tell you is true, but you won't be able to tell it to anyone else!"

Now that was interesting. If she was stressing so much on the idea that what she wanted to tell them wasn't so much unpalatable as unbelievable, then it must be something important… and the idea that he might finally be able to see what was so secret about this girl and her family was enough to get the consulting detective hooked. Add in the fact that he would know something that his overbearing brother would not be allowed to know, then there was nothing on earth that could stop him from hearing the girl out.

Noticing his intense look in her direction, Sky seemed to resolve herself once again. Taking a deep breath and pushing herself further up in her chair she looked him directly in the eye.

"Well then Mr Holmes, tell me, what do you know about aliens?"

HELLO! Ingradera here. Personally, I think that Elandil owes me many, many sugary drinks in payment of checking this, but she won't. No matter how much i beg. (A/N: no, they make you far too hyper!)

Okay I know everyone loves Benedict Cumberbatch, (and if not: are you feeling okay?) but do you know why he was chosen to play Sherlock?

Reviews get to hit a character of their choice!