Authors note:
I promise I'll try and update this as much as I can. Please comment where you can and thank you so much for reading.
Chapter 1
Sherlock wasn't accustomed to having people rampaging through his home. Though, rampaging may have been too strong of a word given that they were merely seated in the chairs across from him talking amongst themselves. It was the first Christmas he had had with John and Mary around, and despite all of the loud noises, laughter and garish decorations dotted around the place, he was strangely… happy. A content sort of ease washing over him as he took a seat in his armchair and watched the two newly-weds talking animatedly to Molly. Her interest seemed to wain though and flicker back across to where he sat, the lights catching her light brown irises turning them to a rich, liquid gold.
"Here we go," Mrs Hudson came teetering up the stairs, a tray nestled between her hands, 6 glasses balanced precariously along its length, "homemade eggnog, with one non-alcoholic for our lovely Mrs Watson."
"Ah Mrs Hudson," John rose from his seat, carefully relieving the lady of her burden and placing the tray down on the coffee table, "you're too kind."
She waved him off with a smile and started handing the glasses out to the small group, crossing the room to hand one to Sherlock where he sat watching them.
"Come on Sherlock, join us," John exclaimed, waving him over, an unreadable expression flashing momentarily across his features.
The man waited a moment, remaining perfectly still before standing and pulling the chair across the room a little further, closing off the circle they had created.
"Is your brother coming along Sherlock?" Mrs Hudson asked turning her attention to the young man. John was grateful for the momentary lapse in attention so he could cringe at the alcohol content in his beverage. Mary elicited a chuckle as he set it back down on the table and wiped his mouth.
"As far as I am aware of, yes, though you never can tell with Mycroft," as if on cue the front door clicked shut and the sound of Sherlock's sibling's voice echoed up the stairs.
"Oh Mycroft dear, come on up, we were just talking about you," Mrs Hudson called from her spot upstairs.
Sherlock sucked in a deep breath and took a long sip of his drink, apparently totally immune to the alcohol burning down his oesophagus as he swallowed. John stared at him with barely concealed surprise from across the room. Mycroft and he were not on the greatest of terms to say the least.
"There you all are," the eldest Holmes exclaimed as he stomped up the stairs and into his brother's abode, "sorry I'm running late. I had to pick up something on the way through."
As he stepped through into the welcoming warmth of the room though everyone's attention was on the sound of more people climbing the stairs followed by three rather haggard looking faces appearing in the doorway.
"Wh…" John stood up instantly, his body tense as he glanced from the three newcomers to the older of the Holmes', "Mycroft? Are you going to introduce us?"
Sherlock was already one step ahead though.
"They are the Winchester children; Dean, Sam and Haley," his eyes settled on the three in the doorway, taking in every minute detail about them from the sleepless looks on their faces to the plane cabin crumpled clothing they wore, "they are wanted in the States for countless charges of murder."
Molly swallowed her mouthful of eggnog rather loudly and stared open mouthed at the travellers. "However," Sherlock continued, "they are not the criminals they are made out to be."
Everyone was staring at Sherlock in stunned silence, all except for the three in the doorway, they appeared to be more disinterested with the man's commentary of their lives than anything else.
John was the first to break the silence, "do, uh, do you know these three, Sherlock?"
The eldest Winchester answered with a vehement 'yes' whilst Sherlock spat out 'no' at exactly the same moment. All eyes moved from one man to the other, curiosity evident in the way each of them seemed to be sitting to full attention.
"You'll have to excuse my brother," Sam said with a forced smile, his American accent sounding stronger against the rather proper British accent that the room shared, "he's just tired from the flight. We do know Sherlock, we had the pleasure of running into him some time ago. He, uh, helped us with a case we were working on."
"What case?" Molly asked, her gaze falling to the man across the room.
"It was nothing," Sherlock responded never once looking away from the new comers.
"Sherlock," John's voice had taken on a stern undercurrent, always the soldier, "what's going on?"
"Why are you here?" Sherlock asked, ignoring his companion's question entirely.
"Mycroft asked us to come," Dean replied, raising an eyebrow at the Brit, "apparently you need our help."
Sherlock bristled, his steely green eyes rising to meet his brother's, "don't look at me like that Sherly, these three are the best in this business."
"What business?" John asked, clearly agitated at being ignored.
Sherlock rose to his feet and strode over to the doorway, stopping a mere foot or so from the siblings.
"What business?!" the soldier barked again.
"Nothing!" Sherlock hissed over his shoulder, "There's no business here for them to take part in."
Sam pursed his lips, his hazel eyes matching Sherlock's green ones, "that's not what your brother seems to think."
"He knows nothing about these things. Why you took his word on it is beyond me, though it doesn't surprise me. He can be quite convincing when he wants to be."
The entire room had gone deathly silent as they watched the exchange in the doorway. No one wanted to move in the fear that it would spark some sort of crazed movement from someone and send everything into a barely contained chaos.
"Someone needs to explain what is going on here," Mary exclaimed after a long, uncomfortable silence, "please."
The only one yet to speak was the youngest Winchester, though she seemed to be entirely uncomfortable in the current situation, more so than was to be expected. As soon as Sherlock had made a move from his chair, she had set her gaze permanently on the floor, almost as though she were too scared to risk a glance up at the man in front of them.
"We worked together back home," Sam began, shooting his brother a warning glance, though Dean barely noticed, he was too involved with staring down Sherlock.
"Worked together is a bit of an overstatement," the Brit retorted, "I mostly did everything and you provided the firearms."
"Without us you would have been hound meat you arrogant jackass," Dean bit back.
"Please, I knew what I was up against the entire time," Sherlock retorted, "your little salt circles did nothing to preserve my life."
"I remember them providing a pretty freaking awesome barrier for your sorry ass."
"I was entirely capable of looking after myself you…"
"Enough!" John stepped forward, coming to stand slightly off to the side of his friend, "just, give it a rest would you. It's Christmas, can we not fight about this tomorrow?"
Sherlock glanced to his side, a long sigh escaping his lips, "fine."
John's gaze fell to the three in the doorway, "do you have anywhere to stay?"
Sam shook his head, "no, we were sort of wrangled at the last minute."
"I'll say," Mary exclaimed from her seat, her face instantly reddening as all gazes fell to her, "sorry. I mean, it's Christmas. Shouldn't you be with your family or something?"
A twinge of pain rippled through the siblings. They had never really experienced a Christmas in the way other people had. For the most part it was the same as any other day, there were no decorations hanging from doorways or presents wrapped in bright paper under a tree in their lives. For starters, in order to have those things they needed to have a home, something that none of them had had in far too long. Dean was the one to field the comment, "this is the only family we have. What you see here is pretty much what we have left. So whether we're in America, England or on some island for Christmas, it doesn't matter to us, as long as we're together."
Mary's expression softened slightly, a smile creeping at the edge of her lips.
"Well, you'll have to stay here with us," Mrs Hudson said with a smile, much to Sherlock's grumbled annoyance, "any friend of Sherlock's is welcome in this home. Now sit, I'll fix you each a cup of eggnog."
"They're not my friends," Sherlock whispered under his breath, staring intently down at his hands like a naughty child.
The woman stood, set her glass on the coffee table and shuffled down the stairs to get more glasses. The three exchanged brief glances before John finally stood and offered to grab one of the bags, "Come on, there's plenty of room in my old bedroom, there's 2 singles in there and I'm pretty sure Mrs Hudson has a mattress somewhere downstairs you are welcome to borrow."
Sam handed his little sister's bag to John and quietly followed him down the hallway and out of sight Dean close in tow, making sure to give Sherlock a stern glare as he wandered passed.
As Haley moved inside though Sherlock stood almost instantly, his movement so abrupt that Haley faltered slightly. Both Mary and Molly were watching him with barely concealed surprise as the young girl made her way towards the hallway, sticking as close to the wall as she could, her eyes never once rising to meet his gaze.
"Haley," his voice was gentle as he moved towards her, it was almost as if he were dealing with a wild animal, a soft side to the usually sarcastic man they all knew.
"Don't," she flinched, shook her head slightly and pressed a little closer to the wall.
If it was at all possible, he looked wounded, as if her simple word had inflicted a myriad of pain, "Please Hal."
"Don't!" she finally looked directly at him, her gaze as fierce as her next words, "don't you dare call me that. You don't get to be friendly with me, you don't get to be anything with me."
And before he could say another word to her she had disappeared around the corner and into John's old room, leaving Sherlock standing there pale faced and completely dumbstruck.
Molly raised her eyebrows and scoffed, "Well isn't she just charming."
