A/N: Hello! Sorry, it's been a while, and this is a short chapter, but yeah, I don't really have an excuse... Here, I'll make it up to you, you meet Sherlock in this chapter! Hooray! Anywho, hope you enjoy. :)


Mrs. Holmes sat at the sitting room table, sipping tea, and warily watching Sherlock from across the table. He sat there, ignoring the snack placed in front of him, arms crossed and a stubborn look on his face.

"Sherlock dear, eat what Mrs. Hudson has prepared for you," she said patiently.

Sherlock did not respond. She waited.

"Sherlock, you have to eat," she said more sternly.

"I'm not hungry," he pouted.

"Sherlock, if you do not eat everything on that plate, I will take your toys away."

He huffed and refused to meet her eyes. "I couldn't care less what you did with them. They have no use to me."

"Oh, no, Sherlock I'm not talking about those toys," she baited.

At this Sherlock turned to face his mother, uncrossing his arms to drop them exasperatedly to his side, "Muuuuuummy! Not my experiments!" he whined.

"If you don't want them taken away, then you will eat your food, and not complain."

He sighed, annoyed, but not wanting his things taken away, begrudgingly nibbled at the sandwich in front of him. Eventually the plate was clean and the glass empty. He grimaced.

"See that wasn't so hard was it?"

Sherlock opened his mouth to respond, but Mrs. Holmes gave him a firm look, and he closed it, but his glower did not waver. It was, not so impressively, about the best she could wish to get out of him. He was behaving very well, at least for Sherlock's standards he was.

Just then, one of the Holmes' maid staff entered the room, a young, mousey girl, with her hair pulled back into a tight bun, and a telephone in hand.

"Excuse me ma'am. There is a young man on the phone, he says he saw your ad in the paper, and he is interested in applying for a babysitting job."


John sat in his room, drumming his fingers nervously on his desk, as he dialed the number with his other hand. They picked up after the first ring.

"Hello? Holmes residence, how may I help you?" said a small, female voice on the other side of the line. These people were really very posh, after all. No wonder they were offering so much money.

John cleared his throat, "Uh, yes, hello. I am calling about an add I saw in the paper."

"Sorry?" she inquired.

"Well, here there is an ad for a nanny, in the paper, and I would like to apply for the job," John clarified.

"Oh yes, of course. I will get Mrs. Holmes, one moment."

"Oh, okay. I didn't know that I wasn't talking to her…" John was not very good at phone conversations; he always thought he was being awkward, which only resulted him in actually making it awkward.

He heard some bustling and distant voices, muffled by a hand to the speaker, and waited a minute before someone answered, "Hello, this is Mrs. Holmes speaking," in a pleasant voice.

"Hello, Mrs. Holmes, I'm just, well, uh, calling because I am interested in the ad you put in the newspaper, for a babysitter."

"Yes, I am aware, could you please state your, name, age, and reason for applying," she said, suddenly all business.

John's awkwardness began to kick in again. "Oh, uh, yes, of course sorry. Well, uh, my name is John and-"

"Last name please."

"Oh, okay. John Watson. I am sixteen years old and I was looking for a job and I am good with kids, so I was considering babysitting, but I couldn't find a, well, a family to work for, and then I, uh, happened to stumble upon your ad, and I just, well, thought that I would give you a call." Man, did he feel articulate (*sarcasm).

"Sixteen, isn't that a bit young?" she said doubtfully.

"Not really, ma'am. I think I should be able to handle it, just fine," John said regaining his confidence, not wanting her to think he wasn't capable.

"Oh, I'm sure you will." He could almost hear the challenge in her voice.

"Sorry?" he was taken a bit off guard.

"Come tomorrow. The time is 2 o'clock, sharp and the address is 221B Baker Street. Good bye Mister Watson, a pleasure talking with you."

And with a beep, the line went dead.

Maybe this wouldn't be as easy as he originally thought.


Mrs. Holmes felt a bit sorry for being a little harsh with John. She was a kind woman, but when she wanted, could be quite a, well, not so kind person, especially when it came to protecting her son. She just needed to make sure John was good enough for the job. By no means was she able to do what Sherlock did, but if she just pushed him a little, she needed to see that he was at least able to handle her, or else he would, like all others, give up on the first day. The boy had some potential. He was nervous at first, but when he said "Not really, ma'am. I think I should be able to handle it, just fine," he had confidence in his voice. There was no way to be sure until he actually met Sherlock though. She could only hope finally Sherlock would be able to find someone he could in the least, stand, possibly even admire, and someone who could do the same for him.

Lost in her thoughts, she had forgotten that Sherlock was still sitting across from her. She looked back to him to see the same stubborn expression on his face.

"No."

"Sherlock…"

"NO!" and with that he pushed himself off his chair and stomped away.


A/N: Next chapter will be up soon! I promise it will not be such a long wait. Please tell me what you think about it so far in the reviews and such, it is much appreciated. :D