Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Sherlock or anything.

Author's note: Please review! Thank you!

Hamish lay in his bedroom after his horrid second day at school. Suddenly he heard some shouting downstairs, he was about to get up, fearing someone had got in the house when he heard that it was the familiar sound of his parents' voices. He went to the door and opened it and sat at the top of the stairs and listened.

"No! Do you not understand that we have to stay here? We have duties and responsibilities! Firstly, Hamish!" John shouted.

"Oh, I understand that! I'm not an idiot! But that's fine; it's a one-week-tops case! He can come with us!" Sherlock protested "Or stay with Mycroft and Greg!" he added.

"No! It's his first week at school! High school! It's getting important for him! We are staying here! And Mycroft, Greg and Sam are all going to your parents' house! You know that! Sam's school doesn't start till next week!" John said.

"He is far above average; he doesn't need to catch up because he is always ahead of the other kids!" Sherlock exclaimed.

"Not just education! Relationships! He needs to make friends, and going away on his third day of school will not help that!" John shouted.

"Oh, for goodness sake, John! You're treating him like he's four. He'll be fine! He's not stupid!" Sherlock shouted.

"He's very intelligent, but he is not doing well at socialising!" John said.

"Oh, because of me, you mean?" Sherlock said.

"No, sort of! Just… you know some parts of his development were slowed because of his kidnapping! He was four, a vital part of development with people and such and he was kidnapped and in some respects that has made him different from other kids! It's not your fault! It's Moriarty's!" John sounded irritated.

"John. Yes, it is very obvious that he is close to us, but he is eleven! He's not a teenager yet! He has time to grow socially! And come on, he's our son, did you really expect him to be normal?" Sherlock sounded equally as irritated.

"Enough! He is not going to Scotland! Nor are we!" John said and slammed something down, probably a book or something.

"You've changed." Sherlock said disdainfully.

"Sorry?" John asked.

"You used to love our adventures, our cases. Now you're a dad and it's all 'Hamish this, Hamish that'." Sherlock grumbled.

"I'm being a father. But at this moment you are putting your work first!" John exclaimed.

"No! I'm saying he can stay with us." Sherlock said.

"He needs to go to school!" John pushed.

Hamish ran downstairs "Stop it!" he shouted, running between his stood parents in the living room.

"Stay out of this, Hamish. This is between me and your Pa. Go back to bed." John said.

"And you expect me to be able to sleep when you're shouting?" Hamish queried.

"Hey, don't get cheeky with me, young man." John frowned.

"Just stop shouting! I hate it!" Hamish said.

"It's alright, couples fight, but that's okay." John said more gently.

"There you go treating him like he's two again." Sherlock grumbled.

"Right." John stood straight, like a soldier, then walked over to the couch, grabbed his coat and made his way out.

"Where are you going?" Sherlock asked.

"Out. Air." John said shortly.

"Wait! Dad!" Hamish called after him.

"Later!" John shouted behind him and the front door slammed when he left.

"He hasn't done that in ages." Sherlock commented.

"Will he come back? He looked really angry." Hamish said "He went all soldier-like and silent."

"He'll be back. He just seems to like walking around to organise his thoughts." Sherlock threw himself down on the sofa and sat there grumpily.

"Erm… pa, I want to go to Scotland." Hamish said and sat in John's armchair.

"You want to get away from that school. You hate having to go there and try to make friends when you can't; we both know you probably won't. It's been two days. Everyone's knitting their groups shut." Sherlock stated cruelly.

Hamish's eyes widened and he ran up to his room. He was so… distraught at his pa. He was too blunt sometimes.

He took his slippers off and put trainers on, then took his dressing gown off and put his coat on over his pyjamas. Then he ran downstairs and out the front door, he could hear his pa running after him, also in his pyjamas, but without a coat and only a dressing gown. Sherlock's slippers were basically normal shoes so with slippers he was fine.

Hamish knew the streets of London almost as well as Sherlock and he ran, trying to get away. He was so angry, how dare his dad talk to him about his inability to make friends and sound so careless about it.

"Hamish, you come back here now!" Sherlock shouted after him and they had turned off of Baker Street by now. People had to budge out of the way to avoid the running child and his dad.

Hamish had been running for about five minutes and was in the middle of a big crowd of clubbers and he looked behind himself and found no sign of his papa. He slowed down and then the worry set in. He tried to believe that it was fine, he had ran intending to be away from his papa, but he didn't feel safe knowing nobody was there watching him.

An idea popped into Hamish's head. He looked up to a security camera and gave it a shy wave. It wiggled up and down, as if to nod. And two minutes later a car pulled up.

Hamish got in and found his Uncles and cousin in the car.

"Now, you are lucky we were just heading to a restaurant. So, why would an eleven year old have any business running around the busy London streets at nine o'clock at night in his pyjamas?" Mycroft raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, Mycroft, no need to be so smug." Lestrade admonished him "What were you doing? Where are your dads?" he asked.

"They had a fight. Papa has a case in Scotland, it'll last a week. And dad said that I needed to stay here, that we should all stay here because I… I'm having… trouble making any friends at Brydon high. And I couldn't afford to go off to Scotland. And I went downstairs to tell them to stop and when dad was explaining that sometimes couples fight and it's okay papa said that he was treating me like I was two again and that he always does it. And dad stormed out for some air. And I said to papa that I wanted to go to Scotland and he said that if course I did. And he said that I wanted that so I didn't have to go to school and that I'll probably not make any friends at all. He was really… cruel. So I ran out of the house and he was running after me for ten minutes and then I got lost in a crowd and he wasn't following me anymore and so I waved at the camera." Hamish explained in a rush.

"Right. Well. Okay." Lestrade stammered.

Mycroft coolly told the driver to head for Baker Street and then turned to his nephew "My brother sometimes doesn't thing before he talks. You've been lucky; he barely ever says anything cruel to you, or to your dad for that matter. But I think he's just distracted. I'm sure it's an intriguing case and your dads will come to a decision of what to do. My brother prefers to have John with him on a case, that's why they're having a fight over what'll happen with you. I have seen for quite some time that both my brother and brother-in-law may not always treat you like an eleven year old, but that's because you're not an average eleven year old. You're incredibly clever, intellectually, you have common sense. You are very brave. But you lack certain skills that you should have developed. At the age of eleven children are normally reliant on their parents, but I think you're a little more attached because of your… experience… during and after your kidnapping." Mycroft explained.

"That's what dad said. They both said I wasn't normal." Hamish lowered his head.

"Ah! Here we are!" Mycroft announced as they pulled up at Baker Street.

Sherlock had lost Hamish in a crowd, attempted to find him again, but had failed. He ran to Baker Street to get his phone to ring Mycroft and just outside the door he slammed into John.

"What are you doing? Why are you outside? Where's Hamish?" John frowned.

"He ran! He ran outside and I lost him in a crowd! We need to ring Mycroft!" Sherlock said, alarmed.

Suddenly a familiar car pulled up and the door opened. Mycroft was first out, then Hamish trudged out, looking very sheepish.

"I believe you lost something." Mycroft commented.

Sherlock rushed forward and pulled Hamish into a hug then pulled away and said "Do not do that again!"

"Sorry." Hamish said.

"I believe we should leave you to it. I think Hamish wants to talk to you." Mycroft ducked back into his car gracefully and shut the door.

"Come on, inside, we'll all catch a cold." John said quietly and the three went inside.

Hamish sat on the sofa while Sherlock took his own armchair and John stood by the fireplace.

"I know I'm not normal." Hamish said quietly.

"Wh-"Hamish cut his dad off.

"I was the first child ever to be born from two men with that science thing. And I'm from both of you! You're both… unique. And that makes me different. I'm cleverer than everyone in my class. I don't make friends easily. The only friend I've had in my life is Gavin. One friend." Hamish sighed.

"We wouldn't have you any other way. Being different makes you special and you are special." Sherlock explained.

"I'm not going to change who I am. But… you know when I was kidnapped?" Hamish queried.

His parents nodded.

"I think that changed me. Mycroft said I'm more reliant on the both of you than other eleven year old's are with their parents. And I know that because you saw me get hurt you 'baby' me. So… maybe we can all try to… I don't know…" Hamish put his head in his hands.

"We can try to develop ourselves." John said "I could try to not… baby you, as you put it… so much."

"You'll make friends, Hay." Sherlock said.

"No. You were right. I need a miracle." Hamish said.

The room was quiet for a moment before Hamish said "I want to go to Scotland for the case."

"Let me talk to your Pa now. Go to bed, get a good night's sleep and we'll tell you what's going to happen in the morning." John said.

"Okay. Night." Hamish said, he got up and gave his parents each a hug before going up to bed and falling asleep quite quickly, exhausted from the night's exploits.

Downstairs John sat on the arm of Sherlock's chair and Sherlock put an arm around him and pulled him into his lap. John sighed a little more contently and relaxed in his husband's arms.

"This case… it's a big one?" John asked.

"Yes." Sherlock nodded "Serial killer. I was requested all the way from Scotland."

"I just… when I got back from Afghanistan I was so lonely. Nobody to turn to. I didn't… I didn't fit in, to tell the truth. I was just a crippled man who couldn't do anything anymore. Nobody understood me. Thank God I met you. So… with Hamish, this whole friendless situation is… I can feel it. He doesn't fit in, and nobody at his school can understand his life, can understand his mind or why he is what he is and does what he does. He has nobody at school to look after him. And I'm just scared. I want him to go to school and make friends and I worry that if we pull him out for a week now that when he goes back in everyone will have mingled and chosen their groups and sort of settled and he'll still just be floating round, looking for someone who could be a friend." John explained.

"I understand that. But to be honest I know that won't help. I think they've all chosen who they want to be friends with, and I think none of them want to get close to him. Maybe if we took a break he could calm down, he looks so stressed over this scenario of friendship. Just a one week break, he can have some fun, help us on the case with the safe parts, and then go back with a bit more confidence maybe and start again and try to go back in to that school with positive eyes." Sherlock said.

"Hmm… it's a week of education." John commented.

"Education he has already probably learnt." Sherlock counteracted.

"Fine. Fine, I'll ring the school in the morning, explain that we have urgent work and he needs to accompany us and that'll be that. When do we leave in the morning? And by train or car?" John queried.

"Car's best." Sherlock said.

There were a few minutes of silence where they were both in thought. Sherlock was absentmindedly caressing John's back.

"I'm sorry if I've changed." John said quietly.

"You've changed. I've changed. I'm sorry for what I said; I was in a state of emotion. You changed. But you see, you turned into something even more beautiful." Sherlock said.

John gave a small smile "You think?"

"I know." Sherlock said with a tiny smile.

John pulled Sherlock in for a kiss.