"Sherlock, could you do me a favour?", John asked sheepishly as he stood in the doorway of the kitchen at 221b, his little 3-year-old daughter, Amalia Sherlock Watson, balanced on his hip.
The little girl was complaining quietly as she was eager to run over to her favourite uncle and say hello.
"Sher!" she called and gave the detective a beaming grin.
From the minute she was born (he had promised John to be there), Sherlock had loved Amalia like his own daughter. He had only loved one other person before Amalia came into his life and that person was John.
Maybe that was why he had a weak spot for her.
She only had to look at him with her huge blue eyes and he would have gone to the end of the world for her if she had told him to do so.
The detective put down his mug as John spoke and walked up to them, picking the toddler up in his arms to hug her gently. Amalia wrapped her small arms around his neck and planted a wet and sticky kiss on Sherlock's cheek what made him chuckle.
"Hello, Amalia." he said and ruffled her soft light blonde hair before he turned to his best friend.
"You want me to look after her as it's your wedding day and you would like to have some time for yourselves." Sherlock said and put on a smile so John didn't see how much every single word of this sentence was hurting him. Even after all this time that he had lived without John he hadn't been able to get over his feelings for him. They even got stronger and sometimes it was hard to cope with the fact that John was happily married and had such a beautiful daughter.
Why did he have to think about all this now?
He shook his head and tried to focus on the here and now.
"As much as I adore Amalia...I am not sure if I would be the best choice for a babysitter." Sherlock said slowly with a frown and looked down at the girl.
John chuckled and shook his head. "You're absolutely fantastic with her, Sherlock. Besides, she insisted to come here and spend some time with you." the doctor grinned and Amalia nodded.
"I wanna stay here, Sher. Pleeeease!" she gave him her best puppy-look that worked immediately.
"Alright. Fine." Sherlock sighed deeply. "I'll look after her and you can pick her up again tomorrow morning." "Brilliant. Thank you, Sherlock I really owe you." John beamed at him and patted his shoulder before he leaned forward and kissed Amalia's cheek. "Be a good girl...Daddy will be back tomorrow, okay? We love you." he smiled at her and Amalia took her eyes off of Sherlock who seemed to look absent and quite sad. She couldn't help but wonder if John saw that as well. She would ask him the next day.
"Okay daddy. Love you too." she gave him a kiss as well and smiled back at him. When John had left, Sherlock blinked and grinned down at her.
"Just you and me now, mh? What would you like to do?" he asked and walked to the sitting room with her, flopping down on the sofa before placing her on his lap.
"Can we catch bad guys?" she asked, her eyes sparkling. It was amazing how much Amalia was like Sherlock even though they weren't related at all. And every time he remembered that, just like in that moment, he felt his heart crack a little.
"Of course we can." he smiled softly and swallowed the thick lump in his throat.
The next few hours weren't going to be easy.