Hey, guys, I just want to let you know before I begin that I'm still a Sherolly shipper. In fact I ship Sherolly more than Mollstrade and it's the on the bottom of my list of ships, but I am a multi shipper and I like to think about the "what ifs" quite a bit and it does challenge me to think outside the box to a degree.

Now, I know this strays away from the original story that Lestrade was in the middle of a divorce around the time of the series instead of having been divorced already and having only one child to raise, and I might have gone with that but I have to flow with my imagination and this is where it landed. As a side note, I gave Lestrade a head-canon backstory seeing as we don't know much about his to begin with.

Enjoy!

Unrequited love, unfortunately, was a division Greg Lestrade was all too familiar with.

When he was a child, his parents were never much involved in his life, try as he did, he just could never get them to notice him unless he got in trouble. It was a pattern Greg picked up early in life and repeated it as much as he could to get them to notice him. He never became a delinquency, but man, he would be lying if he said that he hadn't fantasize about it in his early teens. Eventually he came to the conclusion that he would never win the affection that he wanted from his parents and came to terms with his about a year after he concluded it; he just vowed never to be that kind of parent to his own children.

He met his wife, Linda when he entered college with the eventual goal of becoming a part of Scotland Yard. She was fun, outgoing, had a quick temper, but Greg was immediately smitten by her and she seemed to be reciprocating. She, too, had the goal of becoming a part of Scotland Yard, so they already had a common ground to work with. One thing led another and before Greg knew it, he got married to her a year and a half later. A few months after that, Linda dropped out of college, which was a surprise to all of their colleagues, Greg included. She said that she wanted to focus on being a wife at the moment with the intention of finishing college later. Greg was perplexed, but figured it was marital bliss and that she would get back to finishing college sooner than even she thought she would. Linda was a driven person by nature, and it wasn't like her to just drop everything and not finish her goals.

Then, Grace Kelley Lestrade was born a year later.

Greg was the happiest man alive when he first held her tiny form in his arms and was proud to call her his daughter. Unfortunately, Linda didn't seem as happy as he was. Greg figured it was common among most mothers right after their children were born, new to motherhood and all, but all the same, he pressed gently by asking her questions here and there. There had been a wall building between them over the last year and he didn't know why. She would always brush it off, and Greg had no choice but to leave it at that.

Grace wasn't a happy child because she was sick a lot and would keep them up at night with her crying. It was more like constant whimpering, which worried Greg enough because babies were supposed to cry and not whimper. The only reason he didn't want to get up and check on her in the middle of the night was because he had papers that were due at college and needed his sleep. Linda would take care of Grace most of the time, but if she seemed overwhelmed, he would take his turn by carrying her through the hallways until she fell asleep. He insisted that she needed a doctor, but Linda always would say that she was "fine" and that she read that a lot of babies went through it.

Maybe it was because Greg was naturally paternal, his growing cop instincts or both, but his gut was telling him that she wasn't "fine".

Eventually, Linda gave in and they saw a doctor. Together. The results were not what he had expected.

"She's malnourished," the pediatrician had said, "Gracie's not getting fed enough."

"What do you mean?" Greg was confused and looked at Linda who looked as if she had gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Exactly what I mean," The pediatrician said looking right at Linda, "She's not getting fed enough."

Greg stared long and hard at his wife.

"Linda…you're feeding her well enough, right?"

Linda had just shrugged carelessly.

Greg scoffed in frustration.

"For Pete's sake, Linda, this is serious! You could be charged with child endangerment! You know that."

"I guess I just kept forgetting."

"Forgetting? Linda, she cries all the time; how could you ever forget her?"

"Well…I'm not at home all the time."

This had thrown Greg in for a loop.

"You're not? Then where have you been?"

"Just out. The next door neighbor's daughter who's homechooled? You know Clara right?"

"Right; sweet girl."

"I leave Grace with her when I go out, and I tell her to feed her and even give her a schedule to follow, but maybe she's not following it."

"I suppose that's possible," Greg felt relief that Linda wasn't purposefully withholding feeding their daughter, "We're just going to have to be more strict with who we leave our daughter with."

A week later, Greg had come home to find his daughter with Clara, and Linda was nowhere in sight.

"Hello, Clara," Greg had hung up his coat and tried not to sound too surprised, "Where's Linda?"

Clara was rocking Grace back and forth feeding her with a bottle that Grace happily sucked from, which would make a pretty picture if it weren't for the fact that something was obviously bothering Clara.

"Clara, what's wrong?"

Clara bit her lower lip as if she were debating whether or not to tell him something.

"Mr. Lestrade…" she slowly started, "I think there's something you should know."

"Oh?"

Clara set the empty bottle on the stand next to the rocking chair and started to pat Grace on the back.

"Remember when you were working late last week?"

"Yes? What about it?"

"Well, I came to babysit Gracie and...caught Linda kissing another man."

Greg felt his whole body grow numb.

He blinked.

"Wait, what?"

Clara nodded miserably.

"She wasn't pecking him on the cheek; she was making out with him.

"I don't know who he is; I've never seen him before. She offered me a hundred dollars not to tell you. I took it because I didn't want to argue with her, but it's been eating at me ever since. The money's on the table; I didn't spend any of it."

Greg leaned on the wall to steady himself and process this new information. The conversation at the doctor's office suddenly made sense.

"Well, I'm not home all the time."

"You're not? Then where have you been?"

"Just out…"

"Mr. Lestrade, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you…"

Greg pushed himself off of the wall.

"No, don't be, Clara. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time; it was cruel of her to put you through that. Go home; I'll take things from here."

Clara stood up, gave Grace to him then left with empathy in her large brown eyes.

Needlessly to say, the conversation with Linda didn't go well.

"Why, Linda?" He knew he was begging for an answer but never before had anything torn him apart like this and he had to know.

Linda had just stood there looking at him with an emotion that he was unfamiliar with coming from her: despise.

"Why? Well, I'm not happy! Haven't you figured that out already?"

"Yes, but you haven't told me why."

Gracie started to whimper in his arms and he brought her to her crib then shut the door behind him on the way out: she didn't need to hear any of this, even if she wouldn't remember it later on in life.

Linda was waiting for him tapping her foot.

"This isn't the life I wanted, Greg."

"Then why did you choose it?"

"Excuse me?"

"You chose to drop out of college; I never wanted you to, and neither did anyone else. And as for Gracie, yes, I'm glad she was born, but we could've waited for kids longer than we did.

"So I ask again: why did you choose this life?"

Linda shrugged.

"It just seemed like the right path at the time."

"Well, it's not too late." He crossed the space between them and placed his hands on her shoulders, "We can work things out, get some counseling, and you can go back to college and become what you wanted to in the first place."

Linda looked up at him, eyes cold and unrepentant.

"I don't love you, Greg."

The statement tore into him like a dagger, but he tried to not let it show. He stroked the side of her head tenderly.

"I know you don't feel like you do right now…"

"No, Greg; I never loved you."

That statement tore right through him.

"What? You can't mean that."

"Yes, I do. I married you because like I said, it just seemed like the right path at the time."

"I don't believe that."

"Well, begin to, starting tonight. You know how to prepare Gracie's bottles, so I'm moving out tonight."

"Tonight?" He blinked barely keeping up with the nightmare that was unfolding, "But Linda…"

"Goodbye, Greg." She walked into their soon to be ex room, pulled a suitcase from the closet and started to pack.

"Linda, please think about what you're doing." Feeling desperate, he tried to take out each article of clothing that she put into the suitcase, but she shoved him.

"You're pathetic."

"Tell me where I went wrong and I'll fix it."

Linda stopped packing and looked up at him, her demeanor not once changing from a few minutes earlier.

"Alright, where do I begin: well, for starters, you're not my type, you're not my type and, oh, let me think about it: you're not my type. You happy?" She went back to packing.

"Then why did you even date me?" Greg through his hands up in the air.

"I didn't know what my type was until I started seeing Drew Walters."

Greg felt the air leave his lungs.

"Drew Walters? My best friend from college Drew Walters?"

"Yes, your best friend from college Drew Walters." Linda zipped up the suitcase. "Do you know any other Drew Walters?"

This couldn't be happening. He would just wake up and this would all be just a dream. He would just wake up with Linda sleeping beside him, happy and ready to start the day with he and Gracie.

Gracie.

"What about Gracie?"

"What about her? She's all yours."

Greg felt the last of the world he thought he knew disintegrating.

"You don't want any part of her life?"

"I never wanted her to begin with."

"But she's your daughter!"

"I never wanted kids; that was all you."

"You never told me!"

"Well, now you know." She picked up her suitcase and left the room. "I'm going to start over completely and finally get what I want."

At first Greg wouldn't sign the divorce papers trying one last time to keep the love of his life and hold on to the notion of starting over. Eventually, of course, he had to and with it, signed as she called it her "one way ticket to freedom".

Greg wondered how he could've struck out on love with both his parents and his wife, but he still had his daughter, and though not loved by her mother, she was dearly loved by her father. He could only hope and pray that he would be enough.

Well that took an entirely different direction than I was expecting. In my original plan I was going to have Molly in here somewhere, but it just didn't work out that way. Maybe if I get enough reviews I can do a time jump into 5 or 6 years when he does know Molly.

Anyway, please review and comment, and please no character/ship bashing and/or foul language.