Disclaimer: I do not own BBC Sherlock.
2017
"GET IN HERE ALL OF YOU! Stop me killing him! No... wait. Stop me in a minute."
-x-
It started with the grapes. Mummy always cut the grapes in half because Eurus was so young she might choke on them. Sherlock did not need the grapes cut in half because he was older, but Mummy said it was easier just to cut them in half for both of them. Mummy was always adamant about cutting food in small bites. Sherlock did not seem to mind, just so long as the food did not touch food of different colours. He was weird like that, but Daddy said everyone was a bit weird.
Eurus remembers the first game she ever played with her big brother. She was three years old and he was four. Sherlock loved to talk. Not about important things, like Mycroft did, but about things that were important to him, which were usually not very important to Eurus.
She asked Mycroft to get the grapes off the high shelf in the fridge, because Mummy and Daddy were working in the garden, and she and Sherlock were too small to reach them. But Mycroft did not want to cut the grapes for them. He was busy, like always. He said they were too old to choke on grapes anyway. Eurus agreed. Mycroft was so wise, so clever. He knew everything. If Mycroft said that they were old enough to eat whole grapes, then they were old enough.
Mycroft set the bowl on the table and left them alone. Eurus and Sherlock squished the whole grapes in their mouths while the adults continued their work outside. Grapes are yummy and sweet. It amused Eurus to squish them, like bugs under her shoe.
Sherlock had been talking, talking, talking and Eurus wished he would stop because he was being irritating. She thought of hitting him so he would be silent, and suddenly he did stop. His eyes grew wide like on the surprised face and he tapped at his throat. His mouth opened wide and his tongue hung out like a floppy red fish.
This amused Eurus. Sherlock liked to make faces at her, and they were typically not funny, but this time it was funny. He really did look like a stupid little fish. And he was quiet.
She giggled and bit into another grape.
Sherlock's hands fluttered on the table and he grabbed Eurus's arm and shook, his other hand over his throat. She shoved him away. Mummy didn't like it when she pushed because pushing was bad, but touching was even worse because Eurus did not like to be touched, and Sherlock knew this!
How delightful. Not a single sound from him. His mouth was still opening and closing. Mouths like food. She picked up another grape and held it to his mouth. He shook his head – his face was red now – and the grape fell to the floor.
Sherlock tumbled out of his chair, his arm swept across the table and the grape bowl toppled over the edge. It smashed. Eurus flinched at the noise. She slid out of the chair onto the shards. She searched for the grape. Her palms pressed into more shards. The grapes lay scattered across the floor. They looked pretty against the white tile, like polka dots. Eurus enjoyed patterns.
More loud noises made her skin feel like it was being yanked on from all directions. She looked up. Sherlock pounded on the door. His hands slipped on the knob and he continued to bang. His curly hair blocked his funny face. His palm slapped on the wood.
Mummy's yellow hair shined through the kitchen window. A flash of Daddy's blue eyeball.
She ate another grape off the floor. She was too small to reach the knob and Daddy did not like it when Sherlock acted like a baby. He was tall enough to reach the knob, so he should be able to open the door.
Eurus reached for another grape and noticed the red on her palms. She frowned. Pieces of the yellow pottery stuck in her hand. She touched it, and a jab of terrible feeling shot up her wrist. It was a tickle. She did not like it when Daddy tickled her. But it was worse than a tickle.
She had seen the red before. It came from Sherlock's mouth when he lost a tooth. She touched the red again, and dipped her finger under the flap of skin. The tickle happened again. It felt sharp. Mean. Mean like when Sherlock pushed her.
She did not like the red. The red was mean.
She opened her mouth and, after so many minutes of silence, the noise out of her mouth was positively shattering. The feeling in her skin was back. She wanted to pull it off, crawl out of her body and leave the terrible feeling. So she made her voice go louder.
The door crashed open, slammed against the wall and Mummy crouched next to Eurus and took her hand. Eurus continued to laugh and wet dripped from her eyes. Mummy made her voice very loud. Eurus covered her ears. She got the red on her face. It felt thick, like paint.
Daddy was there and Eurus saw Sherlock over Mummy's shoulder. Sherlock's face was red, so red and his lips were dark. His eyes were red around the blue.
Mummy set Eurus on the counter and held her hands with a towel.
Mycroft and Daddy were running. At least, that's what it seemed like to Eurus. They weren't really running, but their mouths were moving very fast and loud and Daddy held Sherlock's underarms and cupped one hand around his fist and squeezed him, digging his hands into his tummy.
Eurus kicked her feet against the counter. Her feet tickled just like her hands. She laughed.
Mycroft's face was white, like snow.
"Come on," Daddy said. Daddy looked gray and Sherlock was blue, and Eurus was red. It was funny how many different colours people could turn.
Mummy gripped Eurus's hands and squished the telephone between her cheek and her shoulder. Her voice was high pitched and squeaky, like a mouse.
Eurus watched Sherlock. His eyelids fluttered and his mouth still hung open. Eurus laughed. Mummy hushed her and pressed the rag against her feet. The red dripped to the tile.
Sherlock coughed and a dark, wet pebble popped out of his mouth with a rush of air.
Daddy was crying and he laid Sherlock on the floor, petting his hair, and Sherlock sucked in air like the hoover, wheezy and raspy. His face went pink then red and water dripped from his eyes and nose, but his chest moved up and down, and making noises.
Mycroft looked like a giant, invisible puppet master snipped all his wires and the chair creaked when he collapsed. He rested his elbows on his knees and hid his face in his hands. Eurus did not know why he was so upset. They were playing a game. Games were fun. Eurus was very good at games.
They all went to surgery and the doctor with bad breath had to stitch Eurus back together, like Mummy did with Sherlock's trousers when he tore the knees open. Daddy had to carry her to the kitchen and toilet because her feet were still healing. She could not colour in her books for a while because her hands hurt.
A week later, Eurus sat on the counter while Mummy cut salad. She liked the shiny knife, it made rainbows shine on the tile. Sherlock ruined it though because he was being loud again. Always loud. Eurus frowned. Frowny face represented anger.
"I want to play the game again," she said, incorrectly because she could not pronounce her /L/s.
Mummy smiled and gave her a strip of lettuce. "What game love?"
"The grape game."
Mummy set the knife down. Her eyebrows went squiggly. "Grape game?"
Eurus nodded.
"How do you play?"
Eurus smiled at Sherlock who had finally gone quiet.
"Get to see who don't go ghk!" Eurus wrapped her hands around her throat and made the funny sound that Sherlock had made. She laughed.
Mummy's eyes went wide. "Why do you think it's a game?"
Eurus explained. Mycroft had wanted to see who could outsmart the grape. Eurus, because she was smarter, knew not to talk so much, and did not let the grape choke her. Perhaps if they played again, Sherlock would be clever enough to win. Or he would be stupid enough to choke.
Mummy's eyebrows matched the frowny face and her mouth twisted in a weird shape, maybe completely turned down like the sad face. Eurus could not tell if she was angry because her mouth kept moving.
Later, after Mummy had a long talk with Mycroft, Mycroft showed her a picture of the inside of a human body. He showed her the lungs. He told her to take a deep breath, then hold it. Mycroft told her to pinch her nose. After a while, her chest started feeling funny. Mycroft explained oxygen and lungs, and if she did not have air in her lungs, then she would die. That is what choking is. Sherlock could not get air in his lungs. If Daddy had not squeezed him, Sherlock could have died.
"Do you understand?" he said.
Eurus nodded.
Dying was when a person in the telly and in the books went to sleep and never woke up. But that was just make believe. When she went to sleep, she dreamed, and in the morning she would wake. So would Sherlock. So it was okay. Eurus wanted to see him turn funny colors again.
This is an experiment. I did not really enjoy the Final Problem, but for fanfic writers there is an opportunity with everything Mofftiss gives us. But the introduction of a third Holmes sibling screwed up my head canon.
