FIC: Dust (Dawn/Mary Russell)

[mhalachai]

Title: Dust
tth100 prompt: Dawn
Crossover fandom: the Marry Russel books/Sherlock Holmes
Characters: Dawn, Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes
Prompt: 064 -- Diary (master table)
Word Count: 732
Rating: PG/FR7
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Laurie R. King own all things Marry Russell. Only the story is my own.
Note: A new sort of crossover for me. If you've never read the Mary Russell books, but you like Sherlock Holmes, I recommend picking up a copy of the Beekeeper's Apprentice.

~~*~~

Coughing at the cloud of dust, Dawn raised the creaking lid of the trunk and looked inside.

The trunk was just one of many such boxes hidden deep in the basement of the old English house, a repository of Watcher knowledge that the First either missed or didn't bother to destroy. Dawn privately thought that the First just ignored it, this creaky old house with its drafty halls where no one every ventured.

But here she was, all bored on her summer vacation, drafted by a frazzled Giles into cataloguing what remained of the Watcher's Council's knowledge. She would rather have stayed in Rome, with all those really hot Italian boys.

The trunk was full of papers and books and other things. Diaries, Dawn noted as she lifted one cover, handwritten.

There were three diaries at the top of the trunk, then a pile of old newspaper clippings. Really old, from just before the start of the second world war. Someone had circled a portion of one clipping, and Dawn held it up to read it in the dim light.

The short paragraph mentioned the theft from the British Museum of an artifact from the African display, with no further details. In spidery handwriting beside the article, scrawling over a government exhortation to save fuel, was the phrase, "Fourth. All? Query Mycroft."

Something about the name Mycroft was familiar, but Dawn couldn't place it. She dug deeper, and came to a bundle of telegrams. She read them in order.

RUSSELL RESEARCH NIGERIA NATIVE RELIGION STOP SEARCH CUSTOMS ON GIRL WARRIORS STOP MYCROFT WILL FORWARD NO NEED TO JOIN ME STOP

HOLMES AM JOINING YOU IN LIVERPOOL ON THE TENTH STOP RESEARCH SO FAR FRUITLESS BUT HAVE MEETING WITH MISSIONARY TONIGHT STOP WATSON STRUCK BY AUTO BROKEN LEG WILL RECOVER FULLY STOP

RUSSELL WILL BE AT WILTSHIRE HOTEL ON TENTH STOP WAS WATSON TARGET QUERY

WATSON NOT TARGETED STOP ACCIDENT ONLY HAVE INVESTIGATED STOP MISSIONARY MEETING SUCCESS BUT WAS FOLLOWED STOP AM GOING TO GROUND STOP

That was the last of the telegrams. Dawn stared, not really sure of what she was seeing. Holmes and Watson? This couldn't be real. She'd read those stories in class, of Sherlock Holmes, but those were fiction, right?

She looked back at the diaries. She flipped the top one open. The name scribbled in the front of the journal was M. Russell, and the handwriting was different than had been on the newspaper, much more cramped and difficult to read. The date in the top corner was the day after the last telegram was sent.

After my meeting with Hartford, the missionary Mycroft sent me, I was followed by two men back to my hotel. They were good, to the point where I did not ever see them at first. It was only as I paused to purchase the Evening Times that I spotted them.

Luckily, the hotel is one Holmes and I have used before. My room adjoined a disused service hall, and after applying a hasty disguise, I managed to leave without being noticed. I took myself to the station and was on a train to London within the hour. I am certain that my followers were not on the train; however, until I know what they are after, I am hesitant to continue to Liverpool to meet Holmes.

At first, I was leery of Holmes taking this latest case, the theft of the Nigerian artifacts from the museum as they related to the native African legends of a girl warrior, but Hartford's story does contain certain consistencies from my previous research. Perhaps whatever Holmes has been doing on the Continent will clear up some of this muddle.

Girl warrior? This had to be about the Slayer, Dawn thought. She'd have to check, but she thought that the Slayer at the time the journal was written had been in Czechoslovakia.

Dawn was half-certain that this was a joke, but that only made her more determined to get to the bottom of this. The Watcher's Council was notorious for the lack of a sense of humour. She doubted they'd keep something like this around if it wasn't real.

Resolutely, Dawn went back to the trunk. She'd figure this out if it was the last thing she'd ever do. The first thing she needed to do was to try and find out who this M. Russell was.

-fin

Comments

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Nice! And a good way to introduce Dawn to the Holmes/Russell universe without invoking holes in the fabric of space-time.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And holes in the fabric of space/time make me want to kill, so this is best for all.

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Yupper.

[bugly42.livejournal.com]

I'd been wondering if this series could be crossed with Buffyverse somehow. I still have been trying to get the money together to purchase Locked Rooms or whatever the latest one is. I fall asleep to the audiobooks, of which my faves have to be the ones involving Ali and Mahmoud.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I am in love with this series. I do recommend getting your hands on a copy of Locked Rooms, it is quite a nice book. LRK takes on a different writing style (POV-wise, I mean) and I think it works nicely.

O Jerusalem is a great book, but I think Justice Hall is just the tiniest bit more my favourite. The twists and turns in the plot are quite a delight.

[bugly42.livejournal.com]

So, any chance you might put this story in that bin we all have of "might be expanded later"?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

hee. they're all in that bin. I might get to another one in this set... just trying to figure out how it will fit into the grande scheme of things.

[eavling.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that it has a contemplative, problem solving quality to the narration. I absolutely love it. The mystery and the history.

Thank you both. You have given me the courage to sally forth into reading the M. Russell stories. I've heard good things of them, and can't wait.

Mhalachai, Does your inventive mind develop such brilliant plots better on minimal prompts more than detailed ones? If so, I must keep this in mind, and keep my own wild imagination away from the keyboard when trying to give you ideas you can actually work with.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

To me, the whole Beekeeper's series has that sort of air to it. I tend to sometimes fall into writing like that when I am ficcing from a book. Then again, when it's something I write ALL the time (AB), I tend to develop my own take on things.

Enjoy the MR books. I'm rereading the Beekeeper's Apprentice, and it's just a delicious book. The character of Mary is just so interesting.

I think I can get farther with minimal prompts. I feel too restricted sometimes with big detailed propmpts. Mini ones help me aim the writing gun, but don't get in the way. If that makes any sense.

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

Oh, neat. I never would have thought of combining these like this.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

You've read the Mary Russell books? Yay! Laurie King deserves much love.

Ahem.

I love this world so much, that if I didn't have a zillion WIPs, I might write Holmes and Russell and the case of the Nigerian Artifacts. Oh well. One day.