A/N: Welcome everyone! Woo! Sherlock and Leena are back! For new readers, this is an OC/Sherlock story, Welcome Holmes, a little play on Welcome Home, and it is the third story in my series, The Jackie Holmes Chronicles (I would recommend Holmes, Sweet Holmes and Holmes is Where the Heart is be read first). For anyone interested, I also have OC series up for Supernatural, DW, Merlin, Star Trek, and Thor. My OC, Jacqueline 'Leena' Jerrard, called Jackie by everyone who isn't Sherlock, is a very old, very close friend of Sherlock Holmes, so close that she has her own nicknames for him, Sherwood, when around others, and Locksley, in private, based on her favorite story as a child, Robin Hood. In fact, she's so close that she is actually Sherlock's fiance ;) Too bad fake-suicides put a damper on wedding plans :(

A short description, Leena is of average height, with light blonde hair just down to her chest that hangs straight with a little wave to it, with gray eyes. She's usually rather pale and tends to wear comfortable and simple clothes. To help the visualization more, I picture her to look something like the actress Brianna Brown. This will also be a minor crossover with Criminal Minds as Leena was once a member of the BAU in America for about four years so slight references might be made to that show ;)

I am going to try to keep as true and in character to Sherlock as I can, though I give one caveat, you are a different person around your friends than around your family or co-workers or others. Leena is closer to him than anyone, they started a relationship in my first story, got engaged in the second, but I make no promises for what may come in this story ;) This series follows a very long and very established relationship/friendship between Sherlock and Leena long before the show begins that we only learn more of as time goes on.

This story will be updated daily, with the episodes broken up into two chapters. Though this is more a surprise first chapter as the first episode part will be up tomorrow ;)

~8~ is a scene break

'...' is a form of communication between Sherlock and Leena where he deduces her expressions and she profiles his, silently communicating without speaking.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sherlock, not Sherlock Holmes or the BBC's show...or Redbeard would be alive :(

Enjoy!

~8~

Many Happy Returns

Anderson had lost his bloody mind.

Or at least that was the thought of one Greg Lestrade as he sat beside the man in a pub, the man himself having really let himself go in terms of taking care of himself. He was wearing a cream-colored knitted jumper that, oddly enough, reminded him very much of the sort that John Watson would wear, and with his hair grown out along with a beard, looking all together very unkempt. He was listening to the man drone on and on about ridiculous theories all involving Sherlock Holmes. The man was convinced, absolutely convinced that Sherlock was alive despite the evidence against that. He'd just finished telling him about a news report he'd found for the Himalayas, how an abbot had discovered a blonde woman among the ranks of the Buddhist monks.

"A breakaway sect of Buddhist warrior monks infiltrated by a blonde drug smuggler?!" Lestrade scoffed, the disbelief evident not just in his words but in his gaze as well, staring at Anderson with a look that clearly indicated he thought the man was barmy, "That never really happened!"

"A-A blonde drug smuggler who was exposed by an abbot with unusual powers of observation and deduction!" Anderson argued, as though that was all that had to be said to make the 'abbot' Sherlock.

"A blonde woman hiding amongst bald monks? That wouldn't exactly take Sherlock Holmes!"

"Well, perhaps it did!"

"He's dead," Lestrade said firmly, ignoring the look Anderson was giving him, ignoring the flinch the man gave as well, "I'm sorry. I wish he wasn't, we…we all wish he wasn't," he added quietly, both men all too aware that that last part was in honor of Leena. She had only been with Scotland Yard a short while, but SHE had been officially working for them, unlike Sherlock, and to see her just…falling apart little by little after Sherlock's death…well, she was one of them, they all felt even worse that they hadn't done more to stop the ridiculous allegations that Sherlock was a fraud, "But he really is dead and gone."

"Well, how d'you explain this?" Anderson looked away to pull out a world map, different little red cross marks scattered all over it, but he pointed at one of New Delhi, "Sighting number two: Incident at New Delhi…"

"You haven't been titling these?" Lestrade hoped, that was…a bit like John as well, the names he gave the different cases he used to blog about.

Anderson ignored him and explained the 'incident,' "A killer at large, and he was discovered by Inspector Prakesh who, listen to this," he grinned, "'Worked out the depth to which the chocolate Flake had sunk into the victim's ice cream cone!'" he looked at Lestrade, "Do you see!?"

"Clever man, Inspector Prakesh," Lestrade remarked.

"Oh, for…what police inspector could have made that deduction?!"

"Oh, thank you," Lestrade rolled his eyes, offended that Anderson didn't think HE could have caught the killer either.

"You remember how Sherlock never took the credit when he solved all of your cases?"

"He didn't solve all of my cases!"

"He's out there," Anderson murmured, staring ahead of him, at the wall across from them though Lestrade knew he wasn't really seeing it, he was just lost in thought, "He's hiding. But he can't stop himself from getting involved," he laughed, "It's so obviously him, if you know how to spot the signs!"

Lestrade eyed him a moment, it was creepy, he was even starting to SOUND like Sherlock now, which was odd enough when Leena had done that during her trial run for the Yard, to hear Anderson, of all people, sounding that way too was unnerving. He shook his head, getting back to his point, "The Klein Brothers, the Tower House thing, the Kensington Ripper…I solved all those myself!"

"Well, you got Tower House wrong."

"No I didn't!"

"Yep, you did," he turned the map to another red x, "Ok, sighting number three..." he tapped Hamburg, Germany "The Mysterious Juror…"

Lestrade let his head fall onto the table, shaking it against the wood as Anderson continued.

"A man, Herr Trepoff, on trial for the murder of his wife. ALL Jurors, except one thought him not guilty, and then the last managed to convince them ALL that he WAS guilty after all! It had to be him! There's no one else it can be!"

Lestrade sighed and looked at him, "Have you ever read '12 Angry Men?'"

Anderson blinked, "What?"

"Jackie suggested it," Lestrade swallowed hard, thinking on the girl. She…didn't seem to be doing well. She had quit the Yard, which he'd tried to talk her out of, she…she should be distracted, have something to occupy her thoughts instead of sitting in 221B Baker Street all day, but...things had gotten in the way and it had all been too much for her, "It's the same thing, all of the jury thought the man on trial was guilty though and one, plain, ordinary man thought he was innocent and convinced them all the same. It doesn't have to be Sherlock."

"But…it IS though," Anderson insisted, "Do you not see?!"

Lestrade sighed, Anderson really wasn't going to give this up, was he? "I see that you lost a good job because of the hand you played in…what happened, and now you're fantasizing about a dead man coming back to life, and I know why you want that to happen…but it's never gonna," he paused in thought a moment, "You…you haven't gone to see Jackie again, have you?" he eyed the man, a tone of seriousness in his voice.

Anderson looked away.

"We've been over this," his tone became harsher, as did his expression, "You STAY AWAY from her Anderson," he pointed at the man, poking him in the shoulder, "You're lucky I didn't file a restraining order against you on her behalf. You have to STOP it," he shook his head, "Visiting her at all hours of the day, telling her ridiculous theories about how Sherlock had to have survived, and this…" he pointed at the maps, "Trying to find him in different countries. You need to stop, it's…it's not good for her."

Anderson nodded slowly, he knew it was wrong of him, to visit the one person who hated him most at the moment and try to give her hope, knowing that…that there was a chance he was wrong and if he was it would just crush her all the more but…he NEEDED to make up for it, he needed to make amends with her, and this…this was all he could think to do.

Find some way for her 'husband,' as she had called him even though they weren't married yet, to still be alive.

"Ok," Lestrade sighed, finishing the last of his pint, "I'm gonna go and see an old friend," he picked up his coat as he stood, looking over at Anderson, "You take care, ok?" he picked up a box from the stool beside him and eyed the man.

"Just look at the map, though!" Anderson insisted, tracing a small path from New Delhi to Hamburg and then to Brussels, "He's getting closer," he looked at Lestrade imploring him to believe him, "It's like he's coming back."

Lestrade just sighed sadly and shook his head, leaving the pub.

~8~

"It's good to see you, Greg," John Watson greeted as he let Lestrade into his home, he'd moved out of 221B and, well, into another home.

"And you," he reached out to shake John's hand.

"Have a seat," he gestured to the chairs in the room and Lestrade took one on an armchair while John sat on the sofa.

"So, how've you been?"

"Er, yeah, good. Yeah. Much better."

Both men fell silent, thinking of someone else who…didn't appear to be getting better at all, or moving on, or letting go, or anything that she needed to do to heal from her loss.

John cleared his throat, "Er, so what's in the, er…" he pointed at a white box Lestrade had brought over to him.

"Oh, that, yeah. That's, er, that's some stuff from my office, some stuff of Sherlock's, actually. I know I probably should have given it to Jackie but, um, well…" he trailed off again.

John nodded, "That's good," he agreed, Leena already lived in 221B still, she had to see reminders of Sherlock every day, Mrs. Hudson had informed Lestrade that Leena refused to throw away anything of Sherlock's, to give her that, something new, something else…it wouldn't be helpful to her.

Lestrade nodded and reached out for the box, "Yeah, there's something here. Um, wasn't sure whether I should have kept it in," he took the lid off, pulling out some odds and ends, the pink phone, some nicotine patches, a bit of paper with writing on it, a toy train engine, a yellow mask of a face, all to get to the CD in a case at the bottom. He pulled out the CD and held it up, "You remember the video message he made for your birthday?" John nodded, "Oh, you should have seen Jackie 'persuading' him to make it," John laughed a bit at that, he could only imagine, Leena had…rather varying methods when it came to Sherlock and getting him to do things, "Finally had to resort to saying 'please,'" he chuckled himself sadly in memory, before holding the DVD up, "This is the uncut version. It's quite funny."

"Oh, right," John took it from him and just…looked at it, maybe…maybe it would have been best to give it to Leena then. Because he was the sort where he healed best when away from what haunted him, Leena…she was the sort who needed to be surrounded in it till she was able to accept it was gone and move on. She did have ample DVDs and memories of Sherlock, but…he doubted she had something so recent. He knew the only things she did have were the videos proving Moriarty's true existence and he didn't want her to watch that over and over again.

It couldn't be healthy.

"Maybe I shouldn't have brought it…" Lestrade began, seeing him staring at the DVD.

"Don't worry," John offered him a smile, "It's ok. Probably won't even watch it," he turned and placed it on the arm of the sofa, just…glancing at it once more as Lestrade left.

~8~

Lestrade stepped out of John's home, tugging his coat around him more and looking down at his phone to check for messages or alerts from the Yard…when something caught his eye. An old man, with a white beard, was standing there, just…reading the paper. Nothing out of the ordinary…except…the headline drew his gaze.

'THE GAME IS BACK ON!'

He frowned at it a moment, recalling Sherlock's favored 'catchphrase' before he shook his head and walked off.

~8~

John poured himself a bit of whisky as he sat on the sofa, taking a breath and putting the DVD on, and then 221B Baker Street was on the screen, the sofa before him, the yellow smiley face spray painted on the wall behind it, and then there was Sherlock.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Sherlock frowned, looking at the camera intently, "The light going down?"

"It's fine Locksley," he heard Leena laugh, and his heart nearly broke more from that than seeing Sherlock again, nearly. He hadn't heard Leena laugh in...so long, too long really. He'd rarely ever seen her smile since that day it all happened.

"Yeah, ok," Sherlock nodded, starting to pace before the sofa "Oh, er, hmm. So, what do I…what do I…what d'you want me to do at the end?"

"Locksley calm down," Leena assured him, "It's just John, he knows how you are. Do whatever you feel is you."

"Shall I, um…smile and wink? I do that sometimes. I've no idea why. People seem to like it, humanizes me."

"Well that depends," he could almost hear the smirk in Leena's voice, "Are you going to be winking at John…or at me?"

Sherlock smiled and gave a small chuckle, seeming to calm down a bit more at her small joke, "Why am I doing this, again?" he had to ask though.

"You didn't want to go to the dinner for his birthday, remember?"

"Well of course I don't, there'll be people."

"You could go and have a ball deducing them," Leena suggested, "I do love it when you do that."

Sherlock smiled and he could see that the man was actually tempted by the thought, before he shook his head, "How can John be having a birthday dinner? All his friends hate him. You only have to look at their faces. I wrote an essay on suppressed hatred in close proximity based entirely on his friends."

"I know," Leena laughed, "I was the one who proofread it for you. And even if his friends do hate him," John shook his head with a small smile on his face, knowing that Sherlock could interpret hatred in anything, but if Leena did then well, it was hatred, but since she'd said IF he knew that she didn't fully believe that, "Shouldn't that mean it would be best to have friends there that DON'T?"

"Like who?" Sherlock scoffed…until he looked above the camera and John knew Leena was giving him a look, "Oh."

He laughed at that.

"On reflection then," Sherlock admitted, "It probably wasn't a very good choice of gift."

"Which is why I swapped it out," Leena informed him, making Sherlock look up at her, "I put BOTH our names on my gift. I'll tell you if he likes it."

"Given that you are a profiler, I would wager that he will be exceptionally thrilled with it," Sherlock reasoned.

John nodded to himself, had been thrilled with it. It was encryption software to protect his computer so that even the great Sherlock Holmes would need more than a few minutes (more like a few hours) to hack into it. He had LOVED it.

Sherlock took a breath, seemingly ready to begin, before he floundered, "What was my excuse again?"

"You said you had a thing," Leena remarked, "Hardly explanative, Locksley."

"Ah, right, yes! That's right. A thing."

"Care to add a bit more specification?"

"No, no, no. Only lies have detail."

"That IS true," he could hear a thoughtful quality in Leena's words, "The truth is singular, lies are just…words."

John shook his head, watching as Sherlock stared at the camera, though he got the feeling, judging by the man's soft smile, he was actually looking at Leena, "Right, I just…I need a moment to, um, figure out what I'm going to do."

"I can tell you what you can do," John murmured as Sherlock paced, "You can stop being dead," he took a sip of his whiskey.

"Ok," Sherlock called, looking right at the camera, making John look at the screen, startled, "Ok, I'm ready now," and moved to sit in an armchair, staring at the camera, waiting.

"Ready when you are Locksley," Leena laughed, "This is just like when we were children."

John winced at that though, recalling the videos that Leena had shown them all as proof of Sherlock's abilities, she had filmed one of them

Sherlock nodded and took a breath, "Hello, John," he smiled, "I'm sorry I'm not there at the moment. I'm very busy. However, many happy returns. Oh, and don't worry. I'm going to be with you again very soon."

Just as Sherlock moved to continue to speak, there was a ring of the doorbell and John quickly paused the feed, getting up to go see who it was.

~8~

"He's coming back!" Anderson shouted the moment the door to 221B Baker Street opened a crack, though only really opening as far as it could as there as a metal chain lock across it now.

"Please leave," was all Leena said as she peered through the slightly open door at the flustered man.

"But he IS!" Anderson grinned, "I've…I've…I've got proof this time," he began to shuffle through his papers and maps, "See, I've been tracking him and…" only to lose hold of them and send them falling to the floor, kneeling down to pick them up, "I've followed his movements and…"

"Philip," she cut in, her voice quiet, tired, and just…heartbroken, "Please…stop," she whispered the last word.

Anderson looked up to see tears in her gray eyes as she looked down at him, before he swallowed and stood, "But…he really is Jackie," he tried to speak more calmly, "Look, just…look," he held up the map to his side, shifting to point at it as he held it before her, "New Delhi, Hamburg, Brussels, and…"

"Don't," Leena murmured, "Just…" she closed her eyes, before looking at him, "Sherlock is dead," she blinked a few times, her lips pursing as she tried to keep the tears from falling, but failed as one trailed down her cheek, "Just stop…and leave me alone. Please. I can't…" she shook her head, "I just can't."

Anderson swallowed again, feeling tears in his own eyes before he nodded, "I'm sorry," he told her, "I…truly am SO sorry," that was all he could offer her before he turned and walked away, Leena watching him go till he disappeared from sight.

She slowly closed the door, her head bowed…

Before she took a deep breath, shaking herself out a bit, and turned around, wiping from beneath her eyes with her sleeve as she sniffled in, and breathed out…completely calm, completely collected, completely…faking the entire tearful moment. She let out a soft laugh before she walked to the middle of the room, turning to face the wall behind the sofa and smiled, crossing her arms.

She looked at everything she had hanging on the wall, a map of the world, news clippings pinned around it, little tacks on the map with bits of string connecting them to their individual news clippings. She reached up and traced and invisible path ALL over the world, beyond just New Delhi or Hamburg or Brussels, tracing all the places she was certain Sherlock had gone.

Oh she was well aware he was alive, she'd been tracking him the moment she could, scouring the newspapers and international news. It was made easier with the program Penny had given her, her own little hacking app to trace and track the vaguest mentions of Sherlock all over the globe with cetain key words and things.

She knew he was alive.

And she knew he was coming back.

Anderson though…he deserved a bit of pain for all the hurt he and Donovan had caused her, and well…Sherlock clearly wanted them all to think he really was dead. She could guess why, and she'd done all she could to perpetuate the airs of a 'grieving widow' for the world to see. But really…she was just waiting, as patiently as she could, for him to return.

But it was enough for now, to know he was alive.

"Any day now Locksley," she murmured, smiling at the map, she'd had enough of fond farewells.

~8~

In John Watson's sitting room, the video unpaused, Sherlock smiling widely at the camera, before he winked.

A/N: Surprise! :) I hope you enjoyed this little early start to Sherlock and Leena :) I was debating whether to post JUST this chapter tomorrow, but I felt like that wouldn't be fair to do something so little, so we get it a day early :) I put a few things out of order for this scene, mostly with Lestrade and the newspaper but everything else I hope flowed well :)

I really can't wait for tomorrow to get back in the swing of TJHC ^-^

But to comment on HIWTHI, I'm glad you all enjoyed it and Leena :) It really means so much to me to know you liked the stories and the series so far, and I'm very excited to see where Leena helps lead the story this time ;)

Also, since a few asked, I AM planning to do a Criminal Minds (Spencer/OC) story in the future, 2015 though :( But I do have a cover and a sneak peek introducing the OC on my 'Upcoming Stories' page of my tumblr (link on profile) ;)

Some notes on reviews (from the end of HIWTHI)...

I can say that I DO have a Spencer/OC Criminal Minds story planned, it won't be this year, unfortunately, but it'll be up next year :) If you'd like, on my 'Upcoming Stories' page of my tumblr (link on profile) I have a tentative cover up for it AND a sneak peek that introduces the OC ;)

Technically under the old posting for 'characters' it's not a 'pairing' category, it's the characters involved, so to put John and Sherlock there when they didn't offer an OC category wasn't labeling it as JohnLock (as I clearly say it's a Sherlock/OC in the summary) but merely that they were two characters involved. It never said it's a pairing at that point, it lists them as 'characters' so there's no need to get annoyed about Sherlock only fics having John listed as a supporting character ;) But luckily the site fixed it and I can make the pairing Sherlock/OC officially :)

I will be doing a Criminal Minds, Spencer/OC story, but not till 2015 because I have Merlin/OUAT/BBT/Star Trek/Star Wars/Thor/LotR series coming out this year :)

I can say that I plan to do a spinoff when the series is officially over of Adventures throughout Sherlock and Leena's life. From when they were children to adults, which will also detail some adventures Sherlock had without Leena and some cases Leena handled at the BAU without Sherlock ;) I won't be posting notices in the actual past stories about the new stories being up as, to do that, it would mean posting a note instead of a chapter which is against the rules of the site. I did it once for DW and they suspended my account for 24 hours, I'd rather that not happen again. At most I will put up a guess as to when the next story will be up and also put it on my FF profile too :)

I've heard it's been contracted for Series 4 so we don't have to worry about that ;) But I can say that after the show is officially over, I do have plans for a spinoff/sequel that will look more at Sherlock and Leena's overall life, from childhood to old age and all between of their time together and apart :)

That's cool, I definitely understand the confusion for the Irene chapters :) It's more that Sherlock can only deduce her and read her expressions when he's actively trying. Like what Leena said to Lestrade when Sherlock didn't notice them sitting right there during the Blind Banker, he has to really be looking to see it :) The half a year thing was really that it wasn't happening every single day for half a year, but maybe a minute when Irene would text, or when Irene was actually there/brought up. Overall, it wasn't enough time consecutively for Sherlock to see something wrong :) The tactless 5-year-old wasn't so much about Irene in his bed as that he doesn't see Irene as a woman, like Leena does. He's not confused why it's wrong for Irene to be in his bed so much as the only person it would mean anything to him to have in his bed is Leena. It's like there's only 2 women in his life, Leena and everyone else, he just discounts Irene so he's not sure why everyone's getting worked up. He sees her as someone, Leena (and the world) sees her as a woman. I was debating having more time of Sherlock seeing what he's done wrong, but he's always been able to make deductions in seconds, so it wasn't a far cry, in my head, that with someone even starting to tell him, he'd work it out instantly :) It won't happen again though because not that he realizes that the way he sees other women and the way others see him interacting with them is different, he'll be more careful. He's never had women interested in him except Leena so he's never had much experience with them interacting with him to begin with :)

I'm planning a small spinoff after the show is officially over that would have some chapters of Leena's adventures with the BAU :) And even some of Sherlock's time pre-John while she's in America too :)

Oh I can say little Liberty might pop up again ;)

I can say that I do have sort of both in mind for a Criminal Minds story (Spencer/OC) and also a spinoff of this story that would show an adventure or two of Leena's with the BAU yup ;)

The DW reference was Leena kissing Sherlock against the fireplace to the point of speechlessness like in Girl in the Fireplace ;) I wish they didn't take so long between seasons too, but at least they're like little movies :)

I was SO excited for the new series ^-^

I sort of think there's a fine line between doing their jobs and knowing right from wrong. Your job could be a cop, you should protect people, that doesn't mean you need to go out there as a vigilante and shoot people who aren't attacking anyone, right and wrong, ethics, so many lines lol :) But as for Sherlock being a fake, the episode confirmed Richard was real and Sherlock was not a fraud :)

I've considered a Criminal Minds story up, and it is Spencer/OC, it'll be up in 2015 ;)

That made perfect sense to me :) I'm glad you enjoyed the story and that it was able to help your troubles :) I can't wait to get to the rest of it too :)

Well since the episode proved Richard was the criminal, Leena wasn't exactly lying and that Sherlock was innocent ;)

I'll always try to post the Sherlock stories within a week after the last episode airs (mostly because I have to write out my own transcripts for it) :)