Hi there! This story was posted a while ago, but I pulled it down and have done some slight plot edits. I apologize for the delay in updating it, and I hope to be a bit more consistant in updating from here on out.

This is un-britpicked or beta'd, so if you happen to read this and would help me out, I'd be very appreciative!

He was having that feeling again.

He knew looking around would do nothing. There was always someone watching him, he'd resigned himself to that. That no matter where he was going or what he was doing, someone was watching him closely. If wasn't Mycroft's CCTV cameras, not this time at least.

A few years back he wouldn't have cared, but now he had someone in his life that made everything worth living for again.

"Katie," he called. "It's time to head home for dinner."

"Aww, daddy, do we have to?" comes the voice of his almost six-year old daughter from the slide.

"Well, you have to eat sometime, you know."

"Eating slows me down and I'm busy!" she insists and though she doesn't know it, her words knock the wind out of him. It's too much like him. Though it's not her fault, his patience has all but run out.

"Katie," he says sharply. "We're going. Now."

"Fine." Blonde pigtails swing back and forth, accompanied by serious stomping in the playground. John couldn't help but chuckle at her ferocity.

"Katherine Elizabeth Watson. You know better than to behave like this. From what I understand, Mrs. Hudson has prepared your favourite dinner and I'd hate to have to tell her to bin it all."

He grinned at her furrowed brow, as if she were deliberating if a tantrum was more important than fish and chips with cupcakes for desert. She clearly decided that food was more important.

"Daddy, can we invite my friend over, please?"

"Which friend is this?" John asks t

he whirling dervish attached to his finger.

"My best friend from school." The duh was clearly implied.

"Sweetheart, in the past month you've had at least six new best friends. You'll have to give me a name so I can keep them all straight." His eyes scan the street, because unlike the other times, this surveillance feels closer than before.

As they round the corner, John fishes for his keys to his flat but stops when something catches the corner of his eye from across the street.

"We have to go inside."The little girl tugs at his hand. "I have to go." Instantly starting to squirm.

His should-be shaking but calm under pressure hands unlock the door and leans down. "Listen to me. Go inside and straight to Mrs. Hudson's. She's waiting for you and I will be in shortly." With a quick kiss to her curls he opens the door.

It doesn't surprise him that in the few, short moment he had his back turned, he would turn back around to be face-to-face with the one person he never expected to see again.

The one person who supposedly died a bit over three years ago.

"Sherlock."

"Jo-" before he could finish, the only thing Sherlock saw was his former lover's fist coming directly for his nose.

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear what you thought?

I love readers more than John loves jam.

Cheers,

Anne