EXT. FOR­EST - JUST BE­FORE SUS­NET

The for­est stretches up the moun­tain to the house sit­ting on the edge of the tall cliff. The sun­set, viewed from the house, is mag­nif­i­cent.

The wind rus­tles the leaves in the trees as the sun cooks the dead frog lay­ing with its back to the hard stone in a for­est clear­ing.

A stick prods the frog once. Then again.

WAT­SON, twelve, a girl in ill-fit­ting jeans and t-shirt, pro­poses a pos­si­ble per­pe­tra­tor of this heinous crime.

WAT­SON

Per­haps it was the but­ler?

SHER­LOCK, also twelve, looks rather like a boy even though, un­der­neath her Sher­lock Holmes hat and cape, she wears a much-too-frilly pink and white dress and a neck­lace with an or­nate pen­dant.

Per­haps it’s her hair­cut. Per­haps it’s her face.

She dis­agrees in her most of­fi­cious voice.

SHER­LOCK

I find that… un­likely.

Wat­son pos­i­tively flum­moxed, stares at Sher­lock.

WAT­SON

Yet he had mo­tive! And he would cer­tainly have been able!

SHER­LOCK

Why yes, my dear Wat­son, if not for one sim­ple fact.

(beat)

This _is _the but­ler! Don’t you see? It is, my dear Wat­son, el­e­men­tary!

Wat­son huffs.

WAT­SON

He never said–

SHER­LOCK (CON­T’D)

(with drama)

_I _say it.

Ten­nis shoes poke out from un­der her skirt as she lifts it to step over a muddy patch.

SHER­LOCK (CON­T’D)

Get­ting your dress all muddy…

(grum­bling)

Next time can’t you bring some­thing less… Fluffy?

She trips and falls, butt on the ground. She grabs her neck­lace to check it’s safe.

WAT­SON

(laugh­ing)

Or maybe not a dress? That’ll be a chal­lenge. They’re like all Mom buys me.

Sher­lock rolls her eyes and glares, but there’s no heat to it.

With help from Wat­son, she stands, and they make their way out of the woods.

SHER­LOCK

(back to Sher­lock voice)

I be­lieve that, how­ever nice it may be to ex­press my fem­i­nin­ity in such ob­vi­ous fash­ion, it may be wiser, in fu­ture jaunts in the woods, to uti­lize cloth­ing of a more prac­ti­cal–

WAT­SON

(hissed)

Sher­lock! Your dad’s car!

She points through the trees. Sher­lock looks.

SHER­LOCK

Shit!

WAT­SON

Sher­lock!

(mock­ing tone)

We’re ladies! Mom says ladies must never say words like “shit.”

SHER­LOCK

(small smile)

Oh shut up.

WAT­SON

How can we get back in with­out him see­ing, well…

She in­di­cates Sher­lock and all she’s wear­ing.

SHER­LOCK

We can still get to the back door be­fore he gets to the front. He’s got to open the gate and garage and–and then he’ll most likely stop at the bath­room, so–

Wat­son does­n’t give Sher­lock time to fin­ish.

She grabs her, and they run to­wards the large house on the cliff.

INT. SHER­LOCK’S HOUSE - MO­MENTS LATER

The two slip into the fam­ily room through the back door, the se­cu­rity sys­tem beep­ing at them.

SHER­LOCK

(whis­per­ing)

Why could­n’t we have stairs on both sides of the house?

Wat­son tugs Sher­lock be­hind a couch.

Mo­ments later, Sher­lock’s fa­ther walks through the room.

He does­n’t stop. He just walks right on by. A door opens some­where, then closes.

Sher­lock and Wat­son slowly and care­fully ex­tract them­selves from their hid­ing spot, and tip-toe across the house.

INT. SHER­LOCK’S BED­ROOM - MO­MENTS LATER

Qui­etly, they shut the door.

They col­lapse to the floor, laugh­ing loudly in re­lief.

The fa­ther yells up from be­low, voice fil­tered through two door­ways.

FA­THER (O.S.)

So you two are up there!

SHER­LOCK

(top of her lungs)

Are you yelling from the bath­room?

Beat.

FA­THER

No!

Wat­son looks at Sher­lock. They laugh again.

Flush.

Door opens.

FA­THER (O.S.)

You two are as thick as thieves!

SHER­LOCK

(yelling back)

What?

FA­THER (O.S.)

I said–

Thump, thump–feet start to climb the steps.

Wat­son looks at Sher­lock, pan­icked.

SHER­LOCK

I’m, uh… I’m go­ing to the bath­room!

Sher­lock scram­bles for cloth­ing strewn across the floor; Wat­son helps, toss­ing a cou­ple of socks to her.

Wat­son shoves Sher­lock into the bath­room and shuts the door.

INT. OUT­SIDE SHER­LOCK’S ROOM - DAY

Sher­lock’s fa­ther turns the knob and walks in.

Wat­son sits on the floor, read­ing a book of Sher­lock Holmes sto­ries.

FA­THER

Where’s John?

Wat­son purses her lips.

WAT­SON

_Sher­lock is _in the bath­room.

FA­THER

Emily–

WAT­SON

Wat­son.

They stare each other down.

The bath­room door shuts.

Sher­lock leans against it wear­ing boy’s clothes, de­cid­edly un­happy.

EXT. SHER­LOCK’S DRI­VE­WAY - NIGHT

The car door shuts.

Sher­lock is slow get­ting out of her side.

Her fa­ther grabs her arm and pulls her out firmly, the car door THUMPS shut.

INT. SHER­LOCK’S FAM­ILY ROOM - CON­TIN­U­OUS

A door opens. Two sets of foot­steps en­ter; one stomp­ing, the other stum­bling.

The door slams shut.

The foot­steps come nearer…

Sher­lock’s fa­ther tosses her onto the gi­ant arm­chair.

He paces. He _may _be about to hy­per­ven­ti­late.

She looks any­where but him.

FA­THER

You were do­ing it again.

SHER­LOCK

(grum­bling)

I’m do­ing _it _now.

FA­THER

You said you’d stop.

SHER­LOCK

I was try­ing! I’m a girl and the only way I can _not _cross-dress is if I dress _like _one!

FA­THER

You’re not a–

He catches his breath.

He sits on one of the arms of the arm­chair, and snakes an arm around Sher­lock.

FA­THER

John…

SHER­LOCK

Sher­lock.

FA­THER

John! Look, it’s not… It’s not the cross-dress­ing. It’s that–you’re not a girl.

(beat)

I mean, look at you! You’re grow­ing fa­cial hair! Chest hair start­ing to come in, I bet? Your feet–and even though you’re just thir­teen, you’re al­ready get­ting tall.

He moves in to hug her, suf­fo­cat­ingly close.

FA­THER (CON­T’D)

No one’s go­ing to–you never get a job, and there’s cra­zies out there who’ll–

(beat)

You have to fight it.

Sher­lock turns to look at her fa­ther. He’s so close their noses al­most touch.

SHER­LOCK

I don’t know how to fight it.

FA­THER

You just have to choose to.

(beat)

Look, these feel­ings, they’re like… Mo­ri­arty, right? Mo­ri­arty was Sher­lock Holmes’s en­emy, was­n’t he?

(beat)

Sher­lock kills Mo­ri­arty, right?

Sher­lock looks away, but nods shak­ily.

FA­THER (CON­T’D)

You have to fight it. You have to stop–you have to stop Mo­ri­arty.

(beat)

John. Tell me you’ll fight.

He clasps her hands.

FA­THER (CON­T’D)

Sher­lock.

Her eyes snap back to his.

FA­THER (CON­T’D)

Sher­lock. You must stop Mo­ri­arty, at all costs.

INT. WAT­SON’S BED­ROOM - DAY

The bed­room is overly fem­i­nine, pink and white are every­where.

Sher­lock fid­gets.

WAT­SON

Want to try on–

SHER­LOCK

No.

Wat­son looks at her, con­cerned.

WAT­SON

Are you–

SHER­LOCK

I’m fine. I’m just–my emo­tions are–

(beat)

I feel like I’m Sher­lock and Mo­ri­ar­ty’s com­ing for me.

WAT­SON

Well, as long as you don’t pull a Sher­lock tak­ing him out…

Awk­ward beat.

WAT­SON (CON­T’D)

Meet in for­est for sun­set?

SHER­LOCK

(beat)

Fine.

INT. SHER­LOCK’S BED­ROOM - DAY

Sher­lock opens the door to find her fa­ther search­ing through her closet.

SHER­LOCK

What are you–

Her fa­ther does­n’t an­swer. He places some ar­ti­cles of girls’ cloth­ing into a large trash bag.

SHER­LOCK

They’re Wat­son’s.

FA­THER

The point is to re­move temp­ta­tion.

SHER­LOCK

Get out!

FA­THER

Sit!

He points at the bed.

Sher­lock is trans­fixed as her fa­ther goes around her room.

He’s not just tak­ing clothes. He’s tak­ing any­thing from pic­tures on the wall to stuffed an­i­mals and fi­nally, to–

Sher­lock tries to stop him as he lifts the neck­lace from round her neck, but he firmly pushes her back into place.

SHER­LOCK

That was Mom’s!

Her fa­ther takes a deep breath.

But–slowly; as if un­able to bear it him­self–he lets it coil it­self into the bag.

Sher­lock stares at the bag as her fa­ther slowly ex­tri­cates him­self from the room.

EXT. SHER­LOCK’S BAL­CONY - JUST BE­FORE SUN­SET

Sher­lock stands on her bal­cony, over­look­ing the land far be­low her.

She glances to the for­est, then back at the val­ley be­neath the cliff, be­neath her bal­cony.

EXT. SHER­LOCK’S DRI­VE­WAY - CON­TIN­U­OUS

The fa­ther’s car snakes up the long dri­ve­way, tak­ing its time in the sun­set’s light.

EXT. FOR­EST - CON­TIN­U­OUS

Wat­son reaches the clear­ing.

Sher­lock’s not there.

She looks around.

EXT. SHER­LOCK’S BAL­CONY - CON­TIN­U­OUS

Sher­lock folds a piece of pa­per.

She scrib­bles “To Wat­son” upon it, and pock­ets it.

She walks to the rail­ing.

Slowly, she pokes her head over. She quickly looks away. Then, slowly again, peeks back over.

She closes her eyes.

EXT. FOR­EST - CON­TIN­U­OUS

Wat­son ex­its the for­est, look­ing around. She looks up to­wards the house.

She can see, just sil­hou­et­ted against the sun­set, Sher­lock, sit­ting on her bal­cony’s rail­ing.

Wat­son freezes.

Then, eyes wide, she runs.

INT. FA­THER’S CAR - CON­TIN­U­OUS

Sher­lock’s fa­ther has a per­fect view of the cliff.

Sud­denly, his eyes widen.

The car jolts to a stop.

Then, he slams on the gas.

EXT. FOOT OF CLIFF - SUN­SET

The fa­ther runs up, but it’s far too late.

On the ground sits Wat­son, cradling Sher­lock’s dis­fig­ured body. The note lies, dis­carded, next to her.

She looks up.

She blinks.

She blinks again.

Then, she drops Sher­lock and charges at the fa­ther and tack­les him to the ground.

She pounds on him, yelling.

WAT­SON

YOU KILLED HER! You–you–you told her she had to fight who she was, that she was Mo­ri­arty–

(whis­per­ing)

Do you know what hap­pened to Sher­lock Holmes when he fought Mo­ri­arty?

He tries to push her off; he tries to get to Sher­lock, but–

FA­THER

He–But there were more sto­ries!

WAT­SON

He was sup­posed to die. The au­thor wrote him back.

She grabs a pen, and hands him the pa­per.

WAT­SON (CON­T’D)

Go on! Write her back!

(beat)

If it’s so sim­ple, just do it! Write her back into the story. Make her not die. Make her alive.

She col­lapses onto the ground, away from the fa­ther.

WAT­SON (CON­T’D)

It’s all wrong. She should have lived. She was­n’t Mo­ri­arty. You were. _You _were the one be­hind this… _You _are the one who should be dead!

(beat)

She was­n’t Mo­ri­arty. She was her.

(beat)

She was Sher­lock.

FADE TO BLACK.