Disclaimer: I don't own Sherlock, ACD or BBC version.
For a prompt about John being de-aged.
Spoilers for series 1+2 of BBC Sherlock.
I'm not pairing Sherlock with anyone and John won't be paired with anyone with meaning (like Mary Morstan) and no girlfriends until he is an adult again.
(I do like slash stories with John and Sherlock as the pairing but I think their friendship is epic just as it is as well.)
Revised and completely re-written version, updates might be slow...apologies in advance although I have planned out the basic story line.
Prologue:
John and Sherlock hurried round the corner chasing the last known link of Moriaty's network.
Despite Sherlock's attempts he hadn't quite manage to destroy all of the higher levels of the vast criminal network during his three year absence or 'death'.
He had tried and thought he had, Sebastian Moran had been the last link in Sherlock's ledger but it appeared Moriaty had a few even more top secret threads of his web. It hadn't been six months into Sherlock's return when it had come to their attention that there was still more to be done.
Some of the lesser known, and not very high up on the ranks, criminals had attempted (and some successfully) to run a small portion of the network. That had been their downfall. None of them was half as tricky as Sherlock or Moriaty so it had quickly reached Mycroft's attention.
And as John and Sherlock had infiltrated these new set ups and promptly disabled them a new part of the web, separate from the rest, had been uncovered.
Moriaty had a few labs (a bit like the set out at Baskerville) where anything and everything had gone on. It was the head scientist of the last lab they had found that they were chasing now.
There were probably more but Sherlock and John hadn't been able to locate any others. John was especially worried about this particular lab as there was evidence of children dotted around here and there (though they had yet to spot an actual child).
They dashed round the corner breath misting in front of them as they looked around for any evidence of the scientist...
There!
They sped after the fleeing woman.
Three minutes later and she was cornered and looking around desperately. John held up his hands showing he was unarmed (his gun was tucked into the back of his jeans but she didn't need to know that). John stopped as he realised she was scanning the building tops not looking for an escape as he had assumed. John's eyes widened as he realised what was about to happen.
John tackled Sherlock just as a shot whistled past missing Sherlock by a hairs breath.
"Accomplice!" John hissed unnecessarily.
John grabbed his gun as he mentally worked out the trajectory the bullet had come from.
He dragged Sherlock behind a narrow metal barrier as another bullet pinged past. John scanned the area once before nodding and stepping out from the barrier and aiming once and firing. A short sharp cry then nothing. No more shots came their way so they excited into plain sight to try to find the scientist.
Suddenly a hand reached out stabbing John in the arm with an unknown substance and pressing down on the plunger releasing the substance into John's blood stream.
John collapsed with a gasp. Sherlock ripped out the syringe from John's arm and grabbed onto the woman and swiftly breaking her arm and shooting her in the leg so she couldn't get away before getting out his phone and calling Mycroft.
"John...John!" Sherlock said slapping John's face trying to get him to answer...show some signs of life...anything!
Sherlock inspected the syringe; it was nothing he could identify by sight, smell or taste.
It looked like a lab syringe, so possibly something the scientist was working on...
Sherlock only realised he had been sitting there his flatmates head on his lap eyeing the syringe in disbelief for at least fifteen minutes when an ambulance and some officials came careening by stopping by them and rushing to their aid. Mycroft had been swift in his response then.
xxx
Sherlock looked over the notes in dawning horror.
Mycroft's goons had got hold of the lab work swiftly and neatly removed anything unnecessary before isolating the various different things John could have been injected with. Using John's blood and testing on it they had isolated the exact serum.
It was a serum that had been worked on for years and tested on people Moriaty didn't mind disposing of.
It, to put it simply, made the person affected by it revert to a child mentally and physically. The person affected would then show signs of only remembering things they had experience before and at the age they had reverted to.
After this the notes were less specific and more general. The average aging for the people affected by the serum was a year for every two months.
Sherlock chucked the notes at the wall, running a hand through his hair in aggravation.
Not only was his flatmate and friend John Watson a child but he wouldn't be aging into an adult anytime soon either. Apparently it was too much strain on the body if they were made to age any swifter.
Sherlock did the mental maths, age six years for every year that passed meant that John would reach his mid-thirties in five years time.
Sherlock sighed defeated. He had spent three years without his blogger he really didn't want to spend any longer without him. Sherlock eyed the table speculatively. John would be eighteen in...approximately 28 months, 2 years and four months, if John was roughly a four year old at the moment.
Sherlock couldn't bring himself to visit the room his flatmate, currently a child of four years old, resided yet. He resisted the urge to scream in frustration. Why? Why John?
xxx
Sherlock hesitantly entered the room that John was in eyeing the small figure sitting huddled on the bed with evident trepidation.
The small figure with a mop of sandy hair looked up as he entered wide eyes tracking his approach. John slowly uncurled from his tense position and edged off the bed and over to Sherlock.
"Shlock!" John exclaimed a small smile on his lips. John visibly relaxed when he stood next to Sherlock dwarfed by Sherlock's tall form. Sherlock stood there eyes wide with surprise. It was one thing to know your friend was a child it was quite another to see it. And John had recognised him! That was either a potentially good thing or a potentially awful thing. He wasn't supposed to remember! But there had been a side note, apparently things that were important in the person's life before they were reverted back to childhood could be remembered as three of the studies had shown, it was rare though.
Sherlock felt a brief flash of warmth that he was remembered before shaking his head, it was John, of course John would recognise him.
xxx
Mycroft resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he walked down the hall to the room he had been directed to. Honestly trust his brother and John to get into such trouble.
Mycroft entered the room and did a classic double take, terribly trite but true. There sitting on the bed with a child, a child, in his lap was Sherlock. Sherlock had declared he hated children more times than Mycroft cared to count, yet here he was listening to the child's half indecipherable babble.
Mycroft adjusted the cuffs of his jacket thankful that Sherlock hadn't witnessed his overly dramatic reaction; he didn't need to give Sherlock more ammunition. He tapped his umbrella on the ground to inform them of his presence. Coughing was not something Mycroft would employ to declare his presence.
Sherlock looked up a little irately although the signs of slight panic was evident from the wide eyed stare.
"Mycoff!" John exclaimed looking happy to see him much to Sherlock's annoyance and Mycroft's confusion, perhaps he was just an excitable child? Dr Watson only tended to greet him with resignation normally. Although Mycroft had thought resignation was the good Doctors default emotion.
Mycroft watched as John stood up in Sherlock's lap and Sherlock let him. But that wasn't even the strangest sight. Sherlock was unobtrusively and unconsciously supporting the little body so he didn't crash to the floor.
Mycroft took in the scene incredulously.
"There's been a change of plans." Mycroft said benignly when his wits caught up with him. "I'll send the necessary equipment to 221B Baker Street." Mycroft said sending a rarely worn smile in John's direction and walking out of the room leaving his little brother almost gaping in his wake. It felt nice to shock him for a change.
"Send a detailed list of instructions about the proper care of children to Sherlock's flat along with a list of nannies. Also some basic children's equipment, I believe a soft toy is required and some food. Inform Mrs Hudson about the new developments would you?" Mycroft asked his assistant who nodded immediately complying while she juggled changing the wording of the tedious and irrelevant proposals the House of Lords was attempting to approve.
I have re-written the story I did have as I don't think the past version (written by me at age eleven/twelve) was well...readable. Anyway hope this is better.