All Oscar Isaac Hooper wanted was to make his mum happy. Well, she was happy, but not in the way, Uncle John made Mary happy. That is what he planned to do but he knew that he needed help.
Not long after John and Mary's wedding, Molly found out she was pregnant with Tom's child. It was back when they were happy and good. Tom picked the name after one if his favourite actors. Molly did not mind the name, but she wanted the child to have her last name. Considering she was the last in her family. She wanted to carry on her family name. Tom was not the happiest about this, but it was a compromise he could live with.
From the moment she saw him, she knew that every bit of pain, the sickness, the sleepless nights, and all the countless trips to the loo, had been worth it. He was hers and she would do everything in her power to protect him and make sure that he never got hurt. When she held him for the first time that was what she promised.
"No matter what happens, I will protect you from people who will hurt you."
She then passed him over to Tom, who looked overwhelmed by it all. Molly had no way of knowing right then that she had just passed her son over to the person whom, in years to come, she would have to protect him from.
Over the next couple of years, Molly both loved and hated her life. It had definitely changed a lot since Oscar came along, but she would not change him for the world. Tom made it difficult. Even though they shared the same DNA, they did not share the same interests. When Tom would want to play football, Oscar would suggest reading a book about dinosaurs or pirates. When Tom would want to play a video game with his son, Oscar would rather watch science experiments online. This, over time, slowly drove him mad. It was what caused most arguments between him and Molly.
"He's nothing like me! How can I be a proper Dad to him if we don't like the same things?" He yelled at her one night after she had put him to bed. Tom had overheard her not reading their son a bedtime story but telling him all about her day at work. It upset him that his child, his son, looked up more to Molly than him, all because she had a job in a hospital.
Tom was not the smartest person at school, but he had done okay on his GCSE's to get by. He was a big fan of science and maths, his son's favourite subjects. As he tried his best to understand what his son liked, it got harder and harder the more, as he grew older. This was slowly causing them to drift apart.
Oscar also preferred Molly's friends to Tom's because they were more interesting and always had a good story to tell. John and Mary were like an aunt and uncle to him, while Rosie was definitely his partner in crime. Even though she was always the boss, he did not mind. Mrs Hudson was like a grandma to him; he always enjoyed a visit to see her because she always had nice food for him to eat.
However, there was another person that Oscar was close to that did not help Tom with his relationship with his son, and that person was Sherlock. He could talk and understand the subjects Tom could never get, no matter how hard he tried. Sherlock would treat his son differently: instead of talking down to him, he would never make him feel like a child and he would never even try to hurt his feelings. Some would say this was a good thing, but not to Tom. Sherlock was the hero in his son's eyes, and no matter what he did or how hard he tried, he knew it was never going to work with them.
This caused thousands of arguments between Molly and Tom.
"I lost you to that man the moment he came back, and I've also lost my son to him too," he would always say.
"You haven't lost me. I am here. I love you," Molly argued back.
It got to the point where they just could not argue anymore. It was not fair on either of them and it definitely was not fair on Oscar, having to over here it all.
Therefore, they decided to break up.
When they broke up, they both agreed it would be best for Oscar to live with Molly and then go to Tom's every other weekend until everything was sorted out and they could get a proper schedule.
"Don't make me go. Please, Mum, I don't want to stay at Dad's!" Oscar would always break down and say, whenever it was his time to stay at Tom's. It broke Molly, knowing that her son just did not feel happy there. She knew Tom would never ever abuse their child in any way, but still, she hated seeing what it did to Oscar.
Whenever she dropped him off, she would see his body language change and the same when he left. She had lost count of how many times she held him crying, begging not to go back. She did not know what to do. She felt like she was a bad mother putting her child through all this pain.
She decided that she needed to talk to some other mums and have their opinion. She arranged a drinks night in at her flat with Mary and Sally. The reason for picking these two was that she needed to talk to different types of parents. Mary, who was happily married to John, while Sally was a single parent to a little girl name Mia. She needs their views on what was best for a child in their parenting situation.
"I can't keep sending him back there," she told them. "He hates it. He keeps telling me things like he will do better in school, he will behave more. He'll try to love me more."
"How is Tom with it all?" Mary asked.
"He knows that Oscar doesn't like it there, but he tries his best with him. It's just so sad," Molly explained "I need both of your perspectives. Am I doing the right thing by sending Oscar to his dad's, or do you think it would be wrong to just say okay and be a single parent to him?"
"Being a single parent is hard, Molly, I'm not going to like," Sally said, "but at least Oscar's a little bit bigger than Mia. How old is he now? Six?" Molly nodded. "See, Mia's almost three. I love her, but she can be tiring, and you rarely get time to yourself like this. I'm just lucky my Mum was able to watch her tonight."
"Oscar is brilliant, Molly. Do not doubt that. Never seen a kid like him. Just the way he is acting out shows that this is something that stresses him out. If you try to force it now, who knows how this will affect them later on in life. I'm not saying you should cut Tom out completely, but maybe he only sees Oscar a couple of times a year - birthdays, Christmas, maybe a week in the summer, and if Oscar wants to see more of him, you can slowly build that up, and before you ask, I think you'd be an amazing single mum. I don't doubt you for a second; if you can put that consulting detective in his place, you can definitely handle a six-year-old."
They all laughed, whilst drinking their wine. Molly was glad she had spoken to them. "I think I'll call Tom tomorrow and we can arrange something."
Both Tom and Molly came up with an agreement: a meet-up every few months, and that Oscar would at least stay with him one week in the summer, as well as birthday and Christmas meet-ups too, and finally a phone call once a month. Oscar liked this a lot better and he was very happy with the agreement.
However, as time went by, there was one more thing he wanted someone to make his mum happy.