John was surprised by how many people were at Sherlock's funeral. Most of them were old clients, a lot of them from before Sherlock had met John. Mrs Hudson, Lestrade, Sally and Anderson had come too. So had Mycroft which somehow surprised John more than Anderson being there.
Speeches were made, most teary eyed speeches by Sherlock's old clients about how much he had helped them. Some of Sherlock's old schoolmates had come and made speeches too. Lestrade made a short speech which he ended with "He was a brilliant man and he was a good man."
John was the last one to make a speech and he found it surprisingly hard to know what to say. "I don't believe that he was a fake. He was brilliant. He was the most human, human being. And that's how I'll always remember him." He felt like he should say a lot more but he couldn't think of anything. After his speech the casket was lowered into the ground. A few people lingered to say their finale good-byes and at the end there was a woman still standing in front of Sherlock's grave. John couldn't help but over hear her conversation with Mycroft who was telling her they should go now.
"You can go be the British Government or whatever it is you do but I need to stay here a bit longer," she replied. John had never heard anyone expect Sherlock talk to Mycroft like that before and he wondered who this woman was.
"Its going to rain soon." Storm clouds were in fact gathering in the sky and Mycroft sounded genuinely worried.
"Then its a good thing you always have your umbrella with you." After a few moments she added "I'll be fine Mycroft." They said a few more things that John didn't hear and then Mycroft left. John walked over to the woman feeling guilty for interrupting her grieving and curious as to who she was.
"Excuse me miss," John said once he was standing next to her. She turned to him. Tears rolled down her face which tried to brush away. She looked like Sherlock, she the same curly black hair, grey eyes and pale complexion. The shape of her mouth was the same as his, something he didn't think he would have noticed before Sherlock came along. But her face was rounder, she was a fair bit shorter than Sherlock and had a button nose. "I was just wondering how do you know Sherlock?"
"He's my brother," she answered. "Older brother. I'm Lyra Holmes." She held out her hand and John shook it.
"He didn't mention having a sister."
"Of course he didn't. I bet he didn't mention Mycroft either. Your John Watson aren't you?" She continued before he had a chance to answer, "Thank you for taking care of him. I read your blog everyday and I'm glad he had a friend before he died. He wasn't a fake we both know that."
She looked like she was going to start crying again. Then without thinking John asked for her number.
"In case you want to talk about Sherlock," John quickly added. "I swear I'm not the type of guy who would try to pick up a girl at her brother's funeral."
She laughed and said she knew he wasn't. They exchanged numbers and Lyra also gave him her buisness card just in case. It wasn't until after she left that John looked at the card and found out that she was a therapist. Not a profession he'd expect a member of the Holmes family to have.