From somewhere in the living room, John heard his phone go off but before he could reach it, Sherlock had already got to it. He walked into the room from the kitchen as Sherlock answered the call. "Still worried Jeanette might call? How much more jealous can you get?" John questioned rolling his eyes. It has only been a week or two since he and the Consulting Detective been together as a couple rather than just flat mates. John assumed that Sherlock wouldn't worry about the other girls that he had dated in the past.
Sherlock only shook his head, "Its not Jeanette, but someone else." He replied, handing John the phone. "Sounds like some woman who is approximately around 20 years of age." John had already put the phone to ear and said hello.
"Is this John Watson?" A young voice asked. The voice had a slight accent, American he figured. It definitely wasn't Scottish or Walsh.
"Yes, who is this?"
"Um, do you remember Emily Jones? I think you went to a school with her or something like that." Uncertainty coloured the girl's voice. John only raised an eyebrow at the mentioning of one of his ex-girlfriend's. That was ehat 21 or 22 years ago.
"Yes I remember her. We dated for a time but she broke it off with me." John saw Sherlock's glance dart towards him, eyes narrowed. The man can completely get overly jealous at times. Suddenly something clicked in John's mind. Emily was expecting at the time and it had hurt him that Emily didn't want him to know his own child. He had no clue why. It wasn't like he was horrible to her. But it hurt, and that was the main reason why he went into the army. " Wait…. You're!" Joh paused, swallowing past the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. Sherlock tilted his head to the side, glancing over at him observantly. "Emily's." He finally said after a minute.
"Yes," The girl said simply, "My name is Joanna Jones. I'm your daughter." Joanna announced. John was silent for a minute, but he didn't freak out. He knew that it would come. He hoped his child would come looking for him. He never knew if Emily was having a boy or a girl. He found himself smiling suddenly. He knew now.
"I was wondering when I was gonna finally meet you." John replied, Joanna gave a small laugh.
"Me too John. Mom told me recently about what happened. She wanted to apologize. It had taken her by surprise and she, I guess didn't want you to know. But I guess you did." Joanna replied. John could hear shuffling in the background like she was gathering or moving objects around. Then there was a thud in the background; it sounded almost like a book.
"Yes, I understand and I knew the signs. I had started medical school when I was 18." John answered to his daughter with a small grin. He meet Joanna's mother while she was staying in England for a time, studying abroad as a nurse.
"Wait what? How?" Joanna asked, confusion in her voice. John almost chuckled. His eyes glanced over at Sherlock briefly, seeing an eyebrow raised as he glanced down into the microscope. John just rolled his eyes with a smirk.
"America is it?" John returned, a smile in his voice. Behind him in the kitchen, Sherlock muttered under his breath.
"Yes."
"Well, its different here in Britain." John smiled.
Finally Curiosity captured Sherlock as he attempted to bud in on the conversation, eventually abandoning his experiments. "Who is it?" He wanted to know. Sherlock was always the type who always wanted to know what is going on around him, but it did not help that he could overly curious.
John tried to shoo him away, "Sherlock, not now. Don't you have a case to be working on?"
Sherlock pouted, wrapping himself around John stubbornly. "No, I'm bored and I want to know." He whined. That made John look between him and the experiment on the table with a questioning glaze.
"Who is that?" Joanna asked, hearing Sherlock's voice on the other side of the phone. This made John pause for a second. It was different in America when it come to certain things. How is she going to react? Well, might as well tell her. Sooner or later, she'll find out. John let out a sigh.
"My partner Sherlock Holmes." He finally replied, waiting for the sound of shock.
There was a paused just as John had expected, but he wasn't prepared for her answer, "Oh, that's cool." John smiled, trying to shake Sherlock off of him for a minute. He didn't budge but leaned towards the phone.
"I know its your daughter John. I've figured it through the conversation and by the sound of her voice. She may have an American accent but she sounds like you." He announced, explaining his reasoning. John looked up at him, a remark coming up, but before he could stop himself.
"Did you deduce that?" John blurted playfully. Sherlock huffed, obviously he seemed to say through the action. He heard Joanna giggle.
"He sounds interesting."
"You have no idea. Wait until you actually meet him." John smirked up at the Consulting Detective. He just rolled his eyes but a smile was visible on his normally collected face.
"Maybe I might if its fine with you."
"Of course, sure. When?"
"Well, I have exams this week for college, but im out for break after that. So," A pause filled a few sounds of shuffling around a room and movement of paper could be heard on John's end of the connection. "Um, the 16th?" Joanna asked, excitement creeping into her voice. John looked at Sherlock for approval. Who always knew when they were going to get a huge case came in and they had to leave the country. His eyes were glued onto the phone, calculating.
"As far as I know, there will not be any cases unless my brother up and decides to start a war on me." Sherlock said, "Then we'd have to cancel the arrangement." John could only roll his eyes chuckling. Of course, Sherlock's Arch Enemy. It seemed that Sherlock wanted to meet Joanna as well John noted silently to himself.
"I'm off from the Surgery that week, so it works for me." John answered. Sherlock nodded his agreement. Yep, John was right about Sherlock wanting to meet her.
"Okay. Oh, this is my cell number if you were wondering. Um, I have to go. I'm a little late for class. Bye….Dad." And with that she hung up. John pulled the phone away, quickly adding her number into his contacts.
"Uni."
"College there."
"Whatever, same thing." Sherlock huffed, tightening his arms around John. He sighed and Sherlock looked at him, "What is wrong?" he asked as he placed his head on John's good shoulder. John simply shrugged. Sherlock nodded understanding the mixed emotions that John must be experiencing. "I've been in your shoes before." He blurted unknowingly, staring off into space. John's head snapped towards him, confusion twisting his eyebrows downward. Did he just hear that right?
"What?" Sherlock only shrugged, straightening himself up. He walked back into the kitchen. " What do you mean that you've been in my shoes? Are you saying-?" John stopped abruptly when Sherlock turned to face him, eyebrow raised. It was the face again. John groaned inward. Then Sherlock held up two fingers and John's jaw dropped. Twins.
"Mycroft told me."
"Holy Christ Sherlock."
Sherlock shrugged his shoulders. He turned, getting two cups from the cabinet. John walked over, leaning against the countertop. "I've known for say, four years. Kept tabs on them for a while. Hated to know that Mycroft had to tell me after 14 years. I was really pissed off because I didn't know."
"They're 22 now."
" As of two months ago on April 9th. I was in Uni when it happened. Age 17 I do believe." John could only shake his head. So there were two more Sherlocks running around.
"That would piss off Anderson." John said, making Sherlock laugh.
"I'd love to say that face." Sherlock chuckled, smiling. "One of them works at Scotland Yard."
"Who?" John asked. He mentally pictured everyone that he has meet at Scotland Yard. None of them striked him to be a Sherlock copy.
"Cody Elrick. He changed his last name. It was…. Damn…. Smith that is it." Sherlock announced like he was shouting eureka. He looked over at John. He knew Cody to a certain extent. He helped a case or two. John was about to ask if Cody knew, but Sherlock was already ahead of him, "And yes, he connected the dots. I was seeing if he had any Holmes in him. And that he does, but he is more of his mother. His sister on the other hand, she is a mix of both of us."
"Cody and Samantha are a carbon copy of me and Mycroft through intellectual talents, but they are more of their mother." Sherlock gave a sideways smile. John shook his head. Of course the sibling rivalry would run in the family. Then John noticed Sherlock reach into his pocket, drawing out a mobile phone. He tossed it to John swiftly. "Pictures 15 and 16." He instructed him as he took the kettle off the stove and made the tea. John pulled up the two pictures, seeing on picture 15 what must be Samantha and Cody. They looked about 17 and they were smiling up at the camera.
"I would have thought that they would have yours and Mycroft's type of relationship." John jested, earning a chuckle.
"Cody likes to exaggerate sometimes. I told him a few things about Mycroft."
"His Uncle." John said to himself sarcastically. Sherlock pretended not to hear but he smiled. He took the two cups, walked over to the table. John followed as he studied the picture. Cody had Sherlock's features at whatever age he had been, but mostly it was his eyes that stood out. The piercing effect of them even though they are pale green rather than blue. He had a more rounded face rather than the narrow sculpted face that Sherlock had. Samantha also took more after Sherlock and deep green eyes. " You can tell they are a Holmes." Sherlock nodded, watching John for a bit across the table. John was so engrossed with the pictures that Sherlock noticed that the steam from his tea was starting to fade. Finally the doctor looked up, "You meet Samantha?"
Sherlock nodded, "Last week." This made John think for a minute, and then it clicked.
"Oh, when you had to meet someone." He replied, switching to the other picture. He could see the Consulting Detective nodded from the corner of his eye. Picture 16 has three people sitting around a table and smiling. Cody had his arms wrapped around Samantha and a woman who appeared to be their mother. "So that's her? Their mother?" John asked, turning the phone to Sherlock who nodded quietly. John examined the picture again. Finally John gave Sherlock his phone back. "You hide it well."
Sherlock merely shrugged, "I have to you know. I have loads of enemies and you know one in particular." Sherlock replied softly, taking a sip o his tea. John still hasn't touched his, too caught in the moment that he just found out that he was soon going to meet his daughter for the first time, and that Sherlock was also a father of not one but two. It was strange in a way but John enjoyed the thoughts. He found himself chuckling as he finally took a sip of his now cold tea. He knew four Holmes's rather than two. Oh God, John suddenly thought to himself, covering his face. He let out a small grunt, making Sherlock raise an eyebrow.
"This is all really weird." He voiced his thoughts of a few seconds ago. He laughed despite himself. Sherlock laughed too.
"Tell me about it. At least they don't hate me. Like you, they think my deductions are brilliant, fantastic, amazing." Sherlock said each word how John would usually say them. Just like he did during the case in Baskerville when John was walking away from him. "Cody tried it and he has the gift. Just have to give him time. Seeing that Deductive Reasoning is a family trait. And John, I think you've grown onto him a bit." John only glanced toward the man across from him, head to the side with eyebrows drawn downward seemingly saying, 'what do you mean?' But Sherlock didn't seem to notice. " Also, like everyone else at Scotland Yard, knows that we are together." John nodded giving a small shrug.
Of course.
John thought over everything that has just occurred. Cody, Samantha, Joanna. Their children. What would happen if they all meet? "It'd be interesting." John blurted suddenly. Sherlock looked over him, deducing his meaning. He must have seen that he was thinking of his daughter, judging by the small smile and the spark in his eyes.
" It would be interesting."
"Yes it would. It'd be a different version of you and me." Sherlock suddenly paused for a minute at hearing his own words, "They're around the same age." He glanced over at John, eyes wide then he grunted in realization.
"What?" John questioned innocently. Sherlock raised an eyebrow at him, making John laugh. He knew what he was getting on about.