Unforeseen meeting
Hello everybody, this is my first attempt at writing fanfiction and all constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated. I got this idea from a pin on Pinterest and cannot pretend to have come up with this on my own.
On that note, I should also add that I do not own Sherlock or any of its characters.
Also, I'd like to start writing longer stories and am looking for a beta reader to help me.
Enjoy!
Work had been a killer this week, between five murders and the subsequent need to get Sherlock involved to keep afloat of the workload, Lestrade was exhausted. So, when his ex-wife arrived to drop off his daughter Emily for the week-end, he felt a bit overwhelmed by how much this week had gotten out of control to the point where he'd forget that he was supposed to spend the next two days with his daughter.
Which is why he was currently making his way towards another DI's office to ask if he could cover the shift he'd picked up the next day.
Lestrade had left Emily in his office to wait for him to come back. He had however forgotten that he'd asked Sherlock to come in for an update on one of the most recent murders.
Sherlock had had a pretty good day overall, the two murders that Lestrade had asked him to look at were respectively a 6 and an 8, which kept him busy for the most part of the day. Unfortunately for him, Lestrade was too busy to come to him to show him an interesting piece of evidence regarding the latest murder. It meant that he had to go himself to Scotland Yard. This new murder wave was particularly welcome considering that because of John's responsibilities as a single father, he was less free to accompany him on cases than before and he was getting rather bored without the distraction.
He was however a bit surprised when he stormed into Lestrade's office expecting to find the detective at his desk only to find a little girl sitting in one of the uncomfortable office chairs occupying the room. He considered leaving to try and track down the detective but then thought that he would be back eventually to collect the child – his daughter considering her facial structure and the pictures on his desk - and thought it would just be easier to wait. Considering Lestrade current abandonment of his child and the fact that the DI had not mentioned or even hinted at the fact that he was seeing his daughter tonight, he concluded that Lestrade had forgotten that he had his child for the week-end and needed to find someone to cover his shift.
"How long ago did your father leave?"
The nine-year-old girl who had started staring straight at him when he blew into his office blinked a few times pondering his question and realized that she had been lost in her own head thinking about a pirate book she had had to read for school and had not kept track of time at all during her father's absence.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? You were there when he left where you not? You should know when that was."
She thought he was being harsh, nobody can keep track of time exactly down to the minute, it's impossible. "Don't you ever lose track of time?"
He looked taken aback a moment, unfortunately for him, he kept getting lost in his own head and whole days could skip past without him noticing.
"Sometimes. Usually when I'm thinking about something important."
"Well I was thinking about something important."
"Such as?" Even though what she thought about was probably unimportant, experience (i.e. Archie) had taught him that children sometimes came up with the strangest things and were a little less predictable than their parents.
"Pirates."
"Pirates?"
"Yes, Pirates. We had to read this book about pirates for school and I was wandering, because if I became a pirate, then I'd be an outlaw wouldn't I be? And then dad would have to chase me. But in the pirate books, the authorities are never good people but dad is a good person. So, if I become a pirate and dad has to chase me, am I the bad person?"
"Interesting, I never considered that conundrum when I wanted to be a pirate. But again, I do not fit well in 'polite society'."
"You haven't answered my question."
"What makes you think I have an answer?"
"Adults have answers for everything, even if their answers are weird."
"Well I've been told repeatedly that I do not behave like an adult should."
"Does that mean that you behave like a child?"
"People like to say I do though I don't always understand why."
"Do people ask you what you want to be when you grow up?"
"What kind of question is that? I'm already grown up."
"Yes, but people always ask me what I want to be when I grow up, so if they treat you like a kid maybe they also ask you that, so maybe you have an answer. Besides, adults often say that they don't have the job that they wanted to do when they were little and I just thought that you might want to do something else."
"I want to be a pirate."
"What? How can you be a pirate, you're a detective, my dad would have to try and arrest you? The only that points to you being able to be a pirate is that you have pirate hair."
"I shall take that as a compliment. But being a pirate would be great! Just imagine, they don't have to obey the rules, they can go wherever they like, whenever they like and they are free to explore and to discover new things all the time. It would be perfect, I'd have my own exploration vessel and a great hat!"
"Yes, but the hat would cover your pirate hair."
"Maybe, although I am curious as to what qualifies as 'pirate hair'."
"Well, it's long, but it's missing something to be real pirate hair."
"And what would that be? Since you're such an expert."
"A braid."
"A braid? Why would my hair require a braid to be pirate hair?"
"I don't know, I just thought that It would give it something a bit more piracy than it is right now. Can I braid it?"
"Is braiding people's hair some kind of weird little girl compulsion?"
"No, but can I braid it please? You'll look more like a pirate if you have a little braid in it."
"Alright, but do try to not make it look girly."
"Don't worry, I have a black hairband."
And that's how Lestrade found them, his daughter standing behind a sitting Sherlock and braiding his hair while continuing to discuss pirates.