My eyes stuck to looking out the car window, taking in the sights around me. For as long as I could remember, Maryland had always been home. It was the one place where I could feel the safest.

"Are you nervous?" Amanda asked me. She and I had been best friends for years, since high school. We're the same age, twenty. She was attending college, I wasn't. Amanda didn't live on campus; her commute from school to home wasn't that far. Ever since we both moved out of our parents' houses, we decided to live together. No, we didn't have anything lesbian thing going on. We're two best friends who thought it would be financially better to share a place.

"I shouldn't be," I admitted, ruffling my chocolate, shoulder-blade length hair. "But I am, sort of."

"You don't have to tell them everything. Tell them the need-to-know things, and nothing else."

"Right, need-to-know." I messed with my fingers, a habit I had developed over the years. Most people didn't pick up on my finger habit, but I knew a few people who could. For the life of me, I didn't want to think about them. They reminded me of everything that had happened recently. As if the injury hadn't been enough of a reminder.

"Are you telling them about your shoulder?" Mandy continued to probe as she turned a corner. "They might notice your stiffness."

"I'll make up something." Consciously, I touched my left shoulder, the one that was still healing from a vicious wound. I grimaced, trying my hardest to not think back to the night that I got it. "They don't need to know the true story."

"They do have a right to know, though. They should sometime. Why did you tell me, anyway?"

"I live with you, Mandy. I had to tell somebody eventually."

"Why not your parents?"

"And have them breathe down my neck for the rest of my life? No thanks. I figured you would handle the news the best." I shrugged, wincing at a slight twinge in my shoulder. That little twinge would eventually go away, I hoped. "So...you haven't talked to them, either, the girls?"

Mandy shook her head. "Nope. I got a call from Madison telling me about the get together at Chili's with her and the others. We didn't really talk much."

"It's been, what, two, three years since we've last talked to any of them?"

"It feels like it's been longer."

"Tell me about it."

Ten minutes later, Amanda had her car parked in the Chili's parking lot. I stepped out, contrasting Amanda greatly. She didn't look twenty, with her appearance. She didn't like it when people believed she was older than her actual age. She held herself high, straight blonde hair up in a high ponytail. How she didn't break her legs in the heeled boots she wore amazed me. She was the fashionable one; I was more of the down-to-earth girl who wasn't looking for anything exciting in life, unless you counted finding Mr. Right.

The smell of Chili's food nearly made my mouth drool. My stomach roared. It wasn't noticeable, as chatter and music drowned it out.

Amanda took lead, weaving her way through the narrow aisles in search for our other friends. When I saw Mandy wave, I knew she had found them. She had sharp eyesight, she rarely missed a thing.

"Hi!" Mandy chirped as the girls slid out from the booths, coming to briefly embrace each other. Mandy and I settled in one booth along with Kendal, and in the other booth were Darien and Madison. Mandy and I were the youngest out of the group, Darien and Kendal were the oldest by a few years.

"So...how's everyone been?" Madison pressed. I had forgotten she liked her hair short; it was odd to see her with a pixie cut.

"I'd still like to know how you managed to find us," Kendal said, excitement in her tone. "I mean, we all lost touch." She pouted.

"Well, let's not do that anymore." Madison whipped her honey-blonde bangs out of her face, pulling what I'd like to call a Justin Bieber.

Once a waiter came by and asked us about drinks, we all started spilling our lives to each other. Amanda and I remained quiet while Madison went first. Apparently, she had found someone, though they couldn't make it because they were afraid of us. When Kendal asked what his name was, Madi shocked us by saying her name was Gabriella.

Well, it shocked some of us. Kendal was stunned, but Darien, Amanda, and I all had had a sneaking suspicion. As long as Madi was happy, that was good enough for us.

"So...I've got some great news!" Darien piped, her hands holding her stomach.

Kendal's brown eyes bugged. "I thought Max was waiting until marriage?"

Darien went rose-red. "It sort of just...happened." She twisted a black ringlet around her finger.

"How'd he react?" Mandy leaned over the table, her eyes full of wonder.

"He said we're in this together."

"That baby is going to have the best parents in the world!" Madison gushed. "I call dibs on being the child's godmother!"

"Excuse me, but I think I have rights to that more than you!" Mandy retorted lightly.

"In what universe?"

"Girls, easy," Darien called them to order. "It's my right to choose who's what to my child. Regardless, you'll still be aunts to him or her."

I scratched at my arm lightly, tuning out Darien's continuous gushing over how committed Max was to sticking by her while she was pregnant. It wasn't that I wasn't happy for her, it was just...hearing about parenthood made me think back to my childhood.

My family I'd grown up in wasn't my real family. I was adopted, and the only person who I knew to be related to me was my mother. However, she was no longer alive thanks to a nasty car accident. I learned this when I was ten. She died when I was three.

I didn't hate the family that adopted me, I loved them to death. Still, once I was told I was adopted, that close bond we'd had had a wedge in it for a while. It was hard to accept that my real mother had been dead for almost all of my life, and that she had given me up. But my adoptive parents told me that she had done it for a good reason, because she trusted someone else could take care of me better than she ever could. It made me wonder what my birthmother did that deemed her unfit to take care of her own daughter.

I knew more about my mother than my father, so you could imagine how uncomfortable I felt while Darien talked about Max and his upcoming role as father to her child. My adoptive parents never told me who my father was, as they didn't know either. My mom had never mentioned him to them. My parents assumed that she had had a one night stand with a guy and that was why she couldn't remember.

"Rachel?" Darien's voice brought me out of my solitude. I looked at her with bleary green eyes. "Are you okay?"

"She's fine," Amanda assured her, rubbing my back. "You are, aren't you?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I am," I confirmed.

"No, you're not." Darien groaned, smacking her forehead. "It's my fault. I know how you are about hearing parenting stuff...with your family and all." Her blue eyes became huge. "I'm sorry, Rachel."

"It's fine," I waved her off. "It doesn't bother me."

"Hey," Kendal piped, "that gives me an idea!" We all looked at her. Her eyes strayed to me. "You want to know who your parents are, right?"

"If you mean by parents my dad, then yes," I said slowly.

"I know someone who could definitely help you find him!"

"Who would you know that could help her?" Mandy pressed her.

"We all know him, silly." Kendal giggled.

"Do we?"

"Yes."

"Tell us the name already," Madison droned.

"All right, all right," Kendal snapped. "I'm sure you all remember a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, do you not?"

I swallowed, everyone else's eyes lit up in revelation. I didn't like where Kendal was going with this, what she was suggesting.

"You think he could help her?" Amanda asked.

"Of course! Look at all the cases he's solved! We hear about him all the time," Kendal rambled on. "He could definitely help Rachel find her father."

"I'm pretty sure he would rather be solving crimes, not who my father is," I muttered. My stomach was knotting tight. "It would be a waste of his time and probably mine."

"You should have asked him when you were in London!"

"How did you know I even went there?"

"You talked about going."

"When did you go?" Madison asked me. "Did you see him? Meet him?"

"Easy, fan club," I said calmly. "I was there for vacation, and no, I didn't meet him or see him. I didn't go there to go hunting for him, if that's what you were thinking."

"I would," Kendal said, putting her head in her hand. "He's so damn handsome, smart too."

"And you say I'm the fan club?" Madi asked me, flicking a thumb towards our Sherlock-struck friend. "He's hypnotized her."

"Look, the thought is tempting, but I'm passing on it," I said with finality. "I'm not going to get a hold of him, let alone go back to London just to ask him."

"But who else would find out quickly? Nobody," Kendal boasted. I hadn't realized she was a part of the Sherlock Holmes bandwagon. Darien, Amanda, and I weren't. Though Sherlock was hardly Madison's type, he was the kind of person who could get anybody's attention. "Give it a try, Rachel. If you want, we'll go with you."

"So you mean to tell me that Sherlock Holmes would get my answer faster than, say, a DNA test?" I shook my head. "Even if I did, I wouldn't ask you all to go. It'd be a lot of money."

Before our Sherlock conversation could progress more, we ordered our food. Once our orders were taken, Kendal insisted on not dropping the Sherlock conversation. I put up with her continuous pleas of getting in touch with him. While she ranted on, I shot Amanda looks. She knew how much the idea bothered me. She knew I didn't want to go back to London.

While we waited to eat, Kendal excused herself to the bathroom. Madison went with her. I breathed easy, enjoying the peace while I could.

"You know, the idea doesn't sound so bad," Darien whispered timidly. I watched her with soft eyes. "She does make a point."

"I do too when I say he's a crime solver, not a who's-your-daddy solver."

Darien blushed. "You want to know, don't you? He could be the only one who can get to the bottom of it fast."

I chewed on my lower lip. Who else was going to side with Kendal's proposal? I knew Amanda wouldn't, only because she knew that I wanted nothing to do with London as long as I lived.

"Speaking of London, how did that go?" Darien asked carefully. I felt at ease, not hearing that name brought up again.

Having rehearsed the story in my head, I told Darien what I could tell the others: I'd toured London, did a bit of sightseeing, and I managed to almost pursue a relationship, though I knew it wasn't going to work out. Darien took in every word, never once detecting that I was keeping so much from her.

By the time Madison and Kendal returned, our food had arrived. Madi and Kendal continued to gush over Sherlock Holmes, I tried to tune them out by focusing on my food. I didn't want to hear that name nor have it stuck in my mind. His name threatened to make me remember things that I wanted to forget desperately. From time to time, I saw Amanda steal concerned glances at me.

Before long, our lovely reunion had come to an end. We all left Chili's with our stomachs full and with Sherlock on the brain—some of us, anyway. As Amanda drove us home in the chilly winter weather, I felt the silence to be a bit...different than normal. Mandy and I rarely talked when she drove anywhere to begin with.

"That could have gone worse," Amanda said thoughtfully.

I leaned my head against the window. "Do you think Kendal is right, about me going back to seek out Sherlock?"

Mandy breathed heavily. "I hate to say it, but maybe she is."

I rolled my eyes.

"Don't think I didn't see that." She sighed. "Rachel, we all know what he can do. Asking him won't hurt."

"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't help me, Mandy." I crossed my arms. "I don't want to ever go back."

"You might have to; I doubt he'd want to discuss it over the phone."

I shot her a dirty look. "Do you want me to be reminded of my vacation?"

"No, I want you to have some peace and find your biological father."

"There are other options out there besides him, Mandy. No matter what, I'll be paying for it."

"True, but he is your best bet. He can probably find him quicker than any of your other options." There was temporary silence. "You may refuse to go to London again, but you'll go back there if you want to know badly enough."

I rested my head against the headrest. I did want to know who my father was; I'd been dying to know for years ever since I found out my mom had never mentioned him. But couldn't there be any other way to find him besides Sherlock Holmes?

I didn't want to give in to the idea of going back to London. What if the people I didn't want to see ever again still remained there? It's a big place, they may never find you. Who am I kidding? They'd find me. They'd have ways to.

I had a feeling this was going to be the beginning of a long, internal battle.

**If there is any formatting errors - it is not on my end. Wattpad like it push words together for some reason and I still can't understand why. So if some things look a bit funky, blame Wattpad.**