An Nimh Milse

She found her family a few minutes later. They were still in the cafeteria and Gavin was still with them but Darcy didn't see him. All she could see were those silver-green eyes and a blurry figure jumping out a window. She felt like half a person, like part of her was stuck in that moment when she knelt beside Sherlock and put her life on the line. She wasn't sure why she did it. Why, she ran around her corner to help him. A normal person would have been to shock to react in time. She saved Sherlock's life.

So why did she feel empty? Like her world had just shattered into a million little pieces in her hands? She should be patting herself on the back not beating herself up! She should be bragging, telling everyone the story of how she saved a life. But as she approached her family it felt more like something never to be spoken of.

"Hey! There she is!" Fallon spotted her before the rest of them. He smiled when he saw her but that it quickly fell when he saw the vacancy in her eyes. The way she walked towards them like she was dead and her body was just going through the motions. "Darcy?" his voice was sharp as he stood up and ran to his sister with the rest of them on his heals

"Darcy?!" Sheila squeaked out as she watched her sister collapsed into Fallon's arms. Around her, blurry figures called out her name and spoke to her with words she couldn't understand and Darcy felt like she was spinning. Like her whole life someone had been winding her up and just now pulled the string. Nothing made sense anymore; death and sacrifice were things from a fairytale! They had no place her world and she certainly wanted nothing to do with them.

Why her? Why did she have to be the one that stumbled across the scene? Why couldn't Sherlock have confronted him a million miles away from her? Why not in another country, another world? Why couldn't he have kept death and sacrifice to himself? And why did he turn his back on her when she told him exactly how deep she'd been thrown into this? She was in danger, and he didn't care. Her life was one the line and he chose to ignore her instead of help.

Though, as she thought about it, there was something freeing in knowing she was likely going to die. It was like the rules that once bound her had been severed in one swift motion and she was left adrift. Well not adrift really, she found there was one tie left and held her. Instead of many options at her finger tips there was only one, only one way to liver her life from now until death.

For herself.

"What's wrong with her?" Gavin's voice and another deeper one echoed over the others and all at once everything snapped into focus and she stood up. She looked around at the concerned faces around her. Her Parents, sister, even her brother, whose arms were still protectively wrapped around her, all looked confused and scared as she gave them the first genuine smile they'd seen from her since she was five. It was like the weight of the world was lifted off her shoulders. Nothing could touch her. Nothing could hurt her anymore. There were no expectations but the ones she gave herself. The freedom strengthened her as she turned her eyes on Gavin.

He was standing a few feet away. He was clearly panicked but dared no come any closer. She stepped out of her brothers arms and out of the shield her family had created around her. She walked right up to him and looking into those green eyes that once made her so happy before they made her so sad.

"Darcy?" her mother whispered behind her, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Her eyes didn't leave his. "I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"Have any of you ever experienced something so..." she searched for the words in his face, "extraordinary that you knew your world would never be the same? That you would be forever changed by the experience?"

"What are you talking about?" Fallon demanded. "Darcy, what's going on?"

"I've been changed," she said smiling faintly. "I'm different from the girl I was an hour ago. You asked me earlier what I wanted to do with my life, Sheila, I know now."

Sheila took a step closer to her sister, reaching forward to grab the end of Darcy's hoody, "…and what's that?"

Her smiled grew and Gavin regarded her with an uneasy expression, "Be the best that I can be. Let the past lie in the past and move forward with no regrets. And I'll start… with this," And then before anyone could react Darcy grabbed Gavin by the shoulders and pressed her lips against his. There was an intake a breath around her as she let him go and gave him a faint smile. "I've wanted to do that since ninth grade."

Gavin's lips flickered into a smile, "Darcy-" he was cut when her fist made contact with his cheek and he stumbled back into a table.

Sheila beamed and threw her fist in the air, "Do it again!"

Gavin and the rest of them stood there shocked as Darcy cocked her head to the side and rubbed her knuckles. Her shoulders rolled back, her eyes remained locked on the boy in front of her as she stood up straight. A smirk playing across her lips, "And I've wanted to do that for six years."

"What has gotten into you?" her mother demanded looking astonished that her oldest child was capable of such violence.

Darcy ignored her. "We're not even, Gavin." She addressed the wounded boy in front of her. "What you did to me is unforgivable. You were my one friend and you turned your back on me." He stood there quietly holding his jaw and looking at Darcy like she'd gutted him. "That being said I not going to keep ignoring you. You exist; I can't keep pretending you don't. If you call I will answer, if you send me a letter I will reply but we are not friends," she turned away from him. "We will never have that again."

She started walking out of the cafeteria. Sheila followed, still holding onto her hoody as they moved. A flash of tan out of the corner of her eye caught her attention but she kept moving forward. As she walked out of the building she had the biggest smile. The once cloudy skies were now a clear blue and her life had completely changed.

Because Darcy had changed. An hour ago death and sacrifice were fairytales and had no place in her world. Now they were a permanent part of her. She'd sacrificed herself and now death had found her early. Normal people would be scared but Darcy, Darcy was free. An hour ago she was just the crippled little bird she'd been her whole life. Now she was different.

Now she could fly.

Now she would soar.