Author's Note: Hello and welcome to my first fanfic ever! I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. This story is to be an introduction to the life of Alexandria Holmes, the consulting detectives daughter. I don't want to give away too much though. :) Do enjoy and please review! I will love you forever if you do!
Disclaimer: No matter how baldly I wish to own Sherlock, I do not.
Chapter 1: Alexandria Holmes
I'm not sure when it was that I realized that I was not like most children. It wasn't the fact that I only lived with my mum, or that my mum worked nights and so I had a nanny for the first 5 years of my life. It wasn't that I had no idea who my dad was, other than a few letters or gifts here or there signed with only a scribbled SH. It wasn't that I had absolutely no family whatsoever. These things were not uncommon in the life of a child living in New York City. It was the fact that I was clever, more so than most children my age. I do remember teaching myself to read at the age of three.
My mother had just returned home from work at around 8 in the morning. Of course she was exhausted. I had asked her to read to me from one of my favorite books, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. She had told me no, and then walked into the kitchen to make some coffee. I was a stubborn child, still am I suppose, and I did not like that answer. So I decided to climb the bookshelf in order to retrieve the book myself. When I had reached the top of the book shelf, I grabbed the book, but I accidentally knocked over a small statue of an elephant which was by my feet. It clanged as it hit the ground and my mother walked back into our small apartment living room.
"Alexandria Hamish Holmes!" She scolded and she ran over to pull me down. "Do not ever do that again! Do you hear me?" She sat down with me in the rocking chair which was placed next to the book case. I held up the book.
"Please, please, please, read to me mommy?" I asked turning to look at her, my silver blue eyes pleading. My mother sighed and took the book from me.
"Alright," she said tiredly. "But just one chapter, and then its nap-time." I snuggled into her and listened to her read. As she read I listened to her voice fade from the New York accent she purposefully employed during the night back into her British accent. Oh how I loved her real accent. I was never sure why, but listening to it always made me feel at peace more than anything else. I listened as her words came slower and watched as her eyes grew heavy and fluttered to a close. Soon the chair stopped rocking and I knew that my mother had fallen asleep. I also knew, from previous experience that if I woke her up now, I'd be forced to go take a nap myself, and that was not on my list of things which I wanted to do. I also noticed that I had not received my one chapter that I had been promised. I peered at the letters which formed words on the little page and something clicked.
I pointed to a word and started to sound it out. "D-d-o y-you k-now your way f-from here, d-a-ugh-t-e-r, daughter of eve? said Tumnus." I felt my mother shift under me but I was so interested in this new code that I paid her no attention. "L-lucy l-looked very hard b-e-t-w-een, between the trees and," I heard my mother gasp and looked up to see surprise in her eyes. "What's wrong mummy?" I asked her.
I watched my mother's face as she once again gained composure and replied smoothly. "Nothing darling. What you just did, can you do that again?" She asked, curiosity evident on her features.
"You mean read? I just learnt it mummy!" I continued to read until the end of the chapter, stumbling through the words at first but gaining speed and efficiency as I did so. When I had finished I looked up to my mother brimming with pride. I saw a look of incredulity on her face before she broke into a huge smile.
"You are so clever, Lexie." She told me and then said under her breath "Just like your father." She then pulled out her phone and proceeded to text furiously on it. This happened quite a lot growing up. I would do something that I thought was normal, my mother would tell me how clever I was, just like my father, and then she would text someone on her phone, as I got older, I found out that it was my father whom she was texting. The mysterious SH.
I never talked with my father. The only contact that I ever received from him was in a few letters and gifts. For my 5th birthday he sent me a Ragdoll kitten after I had successfully memorized every cat breed in the world and had decided upon the Ragdoll as my favorite. Dolly showed up with a red bow tied around her neck with a note saying "Take care of her- SH." I knew that whoever SH was, he was proud of my cleverness. My mother was too. However that was where it ended.
I suppose that I really found out that I was different when I started school. My mum had signed me up for kindergarten at a local elementary school. I remember thinking how boring it was, as the teacher was only interested in teaching us our alphabet and how to count. Well, I already knew that. I could already multiply numbers in my head by the time kindergarten started, and quite honestly I was not a fan of school. So, my boredom got the better of me, and I decided to try an experiment. I placed a dead frog into my teacher's microwave to see what would happen. (It blew up by the way, and created a horrid mess.) Needless to say after only 2 weeks of kindergarten I was expelled. This happened quite frequently. I was put into a new school and then found some way to be expelled. I actually kind of liked to be able to just stay home. I felt that I learned much more that way anyways. I spent kindergarten through half of my 2nd grade year going from school to school until after my 14th switch no other public school would take me. My name would turn a seasoned teacher into a crying child. I was quite proud of my accomplishments. My mother on the other hand was not.
I was sitting in my room, trying to listen to my mother's conversation with someone on the phone. I could tell that it was a man's voice, but nothing more. She was explaining my newest experiment, I had decided to see what would happen if I poured melted Crisco on the slide, and since it was only April and the highest the temperature would rise was to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit if I was lucky, it had taken quite a large amount of preparing. My experiment ended with two children with broken bones and a very angry Principal. I found it to be hilarious. Apparently the man on the other line of the phone thought it was as well because I could hear him laughing.
"Sherlock!" I heard my mother scold. "This is no laughing matter! Two children were hurt and Lexie was expelled again! No other public school will take her and I've not enough money to afford a private one. Then again I'm not even sure that any private school would take her. She is gaining quite a reputation here. If we don't get this figured out soon..." There was a pause and I heard muffled talking on the other end. "Exactly. You know, this wouldn't be so hard if she wasn't so bloody clever like you."
I knew then that she was talking to my father. That was the first time I had heard his name. Sherlock. SH. Sherlock Holmes. I pulled my kindle fire out of my night stand and turned it on, immediately searching up Sherlock Holmes on the internet. He was a detective. And he wore a funny hat apparently. I clicked on a website titled The Science of Deduction and scrolled through his many posts. Some of them were very odd, but some of them interesting. My mother was right, he was clever. I clicked on his photo and was surprised to see that I looked a lot like him. I had his silvery blue eyes, his unruly hair and his nose. I stared at his picture until I heard footsteps coming near my door. I quickly exited out of the window, turned off my kindle fire and placed it into my table drawer. I laid down and covered my head with my blankets. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't want my mother to know that I knew who my father was. It had always seemed to be a taboo subject. Whenever he was brought up, she would just reply with "All that you need to know is that he loves you very much, and it is safer this way." Then she would change the subject. I wasn't sure why I wasn't supposed to know, but now that I knew, I was not going to let anyone take it from me.
I heard my bedroom door open and my mother walked in. "Lexie honey," she said softly. "I'm not mad anymore. I've calmed down. I do need to talk to you though." She flipped on my light and sat down on my bed near my feet. "Your father is wiring the money for you to go to a private school." I sat up quickly, dislodging Dolly who had climbed onto my stomach.
"No!" I exclaimed. "Please mummy, please. I hate school. It's boring!" I threw myself back onto the bed and my mother sighed in exasperation.
"Lexie, you have to go to school. It's the law. Now that we have the money we can send you to a gifted school. They will make sure that you are challenged so it's not as boring." I sat up slowly, pulling the blanket off of my head.
"But the kids still won't like me. They never do. They all think I'm weird. Maybe I am." I said sadly. My mother reached for me and pulled me into her lap.
"You aren't weird honey. You're clever." She said and I finished her last words with her "Just like my father." I sighed.
