Family
Family. What was family?
Some would define it as the people you are born into. Such as your blood mother and father, and then everyone else who comes with them. Such as sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and so on.
Obviously these people hadn't had the same dysfunctional family as Sherlock Holmes had.
Sherlock was born into a rich family of three. His father, mother, brother, and then finally himself. His mother was a paranoid schizophrenic who could barely take care of herself and attempted suicide as many times as she had died alone in her bedroom. That meant uncountable.
His father was a sad man, rich and powerful, though he never spent time with his family, because every time he did, he only became sad. Not depressed like his mother. Only mournful at his poor job as a father and husband.
His brother Mycroft, was the only one Sherlock ever saw as someone to be able to reach out to other than the various maids who showered him in pity for the life he was forced to live.
Mycroft spent nights with him in his room, telling him different stories of his days teaching him various things he had learned through school that he didn't know yet, and reading him advanced literature he was having to read for his many classes.
Sherlock took advantage of every minute of those times at night. His face wouldn't show through the happiness he felt, because he would have felt awkward, but every night before Mycroft would go to bed, he was awkwardly reach out, turning away of course, and hug his elder brother.
Mycroft would return it gratefully and understood through that single touch that Sherlock was eternally grateful.
Sherlock never loved any of his family, except Mycroft. The maids and Mycroft were who he considered his family.
When he became older and lived the life of a consulting detective with his flat-mate, John Watson, he quickly figured out the true definition of family.
Family was John Watson, who was like another brother to him. Family was Lestrade, who had always been like a father. Family was Sally Donovan who had been like an annoying sister. Family was Anderson, who was like that cousin no one could stand, though kept you going with your goals by adding fuel to the fire. Family was Mycroft who'd loved him since day one.
Family were the people you would die for.
