I'm not autistic, the detective signed, not really, but I wasn't born like this – mute is the term most people use. I have sat through enough sessions to know that autism is a popular amateur diagnosis, and I know I exhibit some of the clinical symptoms, but I'm not autistic.
It had been a two weeks since John had first met Sherlock Holmes, and they were sitting together on the couch in the flat. Molly had been teaching John sign language. It was difficult, harder than John had expected, but Sherlock insisted he learn it, and so John worked at it, and Molly assured him he was improving.
I know it may seem that way…I'm frenetic at times, distracted. I loose my temper easily. I become completely absorbed in certain tasks. I don't speak, I don't make friends, I fight for control, to make everything fit into a pattern…but there is so much more to me than that, more than anyone can see, and no one has ever come close.
John tilted his head, looking closely at Sherlock. "'I don't speak,' not 'I can't'," the doctor said, and Sherlock nodded, looking pleased with John's catch.
I said no one has ever come close, but maybe that's not right…I was close with an aunt of mine – she died in a car accident when I was seven – but it was her that found the one doctor that disagreed with the rest.
"Oh?" John asked curiously, and Sherlock nodded, an unhappy smile playing on his thinned lips.
I was pronounced an elective mute, and that didn't go over well at home. It was Mycroft that first called me a freak – he has matured some since then – but in hindsight, I realize it was because he disliked being recognized as the boy with the retarded brother.
John pressed his lips together at Sherlock's harsh words, but stayed silent, fiddling with the sleeve of his jumper.
I ran away to university as soon as I could, but my family disowned me within the year, and I had to pay my own way.
I helped out a cousin of mine – a detective in Vancouver – with a case a few months in, and met Lestrade, a detective inspector at Scotland Yard, through him. I had always loved London, and when I moved here after I finished school, we met up. I helped him with a case or two, and here I am.