A/N: Thanks for reviews! Sorry it took me so long to post this. Originally most of this chapter was supposed to be a sequel for this story, but then it went off to a different direction than I intented so I decided to just continue it here. There will probably be one more chapter before the story is finished. I hope you like it!
Warnings: There is a strong reference to abuse in this chapter
Disclaimer: I do not own Sherlock
Sherlock didn't come back till that night around 3am and John stayed up to wait for him. Without a word he made them tea and they sat in silence for a long moment till Sherlock grew frustrated.
"Well? Aren't you going to ask?" He spat folding his arms. "I can see you want to."
"I don't need to know, Sherlock." John said calmly. "Your brother told me quite enough. I just want you to know that if you want to talk about it, I'm here."
Sherlock huffed.
"You want me to tell you about my father who hated and feared me through my whole life or my twin brother, who left with him? What are you now, John, my therapist?"
"No, Sherlock. I'm your friend. And friends listen to each other's worries if needed." John said patiently. "I'm not telling you to talk about it. Just that I'm here if you want to."
"What my brother didn't convince you to talk me into giving them another chance?"
"I didn't make any promises." John said. "I told him I would think about it. And only about giving him a chance. Your father can rot in hell for all I care. If I'm ever so unfortunate to meet him I will punch him for you." He said heatedly.
"As for your brother I have only heard his side of the story and his reasoning behind his actions and I imagine yours is much different. Regardless, I would never try to force you into anything you didn't want to do. I know first-hand that some relationships just can't be repaired – just look at me and Harry – but I know that we at least tried, many times even. Harry and I, though, we were never close, I imagine you and Scott were.
"What I mean to say is that you make your own decisions Sherlock. Just remember that whatever happened between you and your twin brother, happened over two decades ago. Intelligent or not you were both still just kids and kids make stupid decisions all the time." John stood up yawning. "I'll go to bed now. Goodnight Sherlock. See you in the morning." He said leaving Sherlock alone with his thoughts.
For the next two weeks there was no mention of Scott in the household of 221B Baker Street. John decided that he had said his piece and it would be up to Sherlock to bring him up next and one morning two weeks later he did.
"John." Sherlock said coming out of his mind palace.
"Yes, Sherlock?"
"Scott will be coming to tea this evening. You should go get some more milk." He said taking hold of his violin and playing quietly.
John looked up in surprise but just nodded in acceptance. "I will head to the Tesco in a minute." He said. "Do you want me out of the flat? I could text Greg to meet me in the pub."
"No. You can stay." Sherlock said and John nodded a small smile gracing his lips as he exited the apartment – in Sherlock that was as good as "no, I want you there with me"."
An hour later found John back in Baker Street. Sherlock had gotten bored of the violin and was doing some kind of experiment on human eyeballs to which John just rolled his eyes and put his shopping away. Just as he got the job done and was going to prepare some tea Mrs. Hudson burst through the door.
"Woohoo! Boys, you have a client!" She exclaimed. "Just go right in, Sir." She said before leaving.
John turned to the door and saw an old grey-haired man limping in a cane in his hand.
"Hello." He said shaking the man's hand. "I'm Dr John Watson and this is my partner Sherlock Holmes." He turned to Sherlock who was still focused on his experiment.
"Sherlock." John hissed.
"Busy John."
"Sherlock we have a case."
Sherlock barely gave a glance at the man as he answered:
"He wants to find a missing family member, whom he hasn't seen in two decades all because he's dying and feeling guilty. Boring!" He declared.
"Sherlock!" John hissed. "I'm sorry about him…" John started apologizing but the man waved him off his eyes never leaving Sherlock.
"No, he's right. I am looking for my son." The man said his voice filled with sadness and regret. "I have greatly wronged him by abandoning him and taking something he held dear from him when he was young and would like to have a chance to apologize…" He continued only to be interrupted by a sharp voice.
"Get out!" Sherlock spat startling John who gaped at him. Sherlock looked more thunderous than John had ever seen him, but what was more striking was the pain his eyes held.
"Willi..."
"No! You have no right to call me that! You have no right to be in this flat! Now GET OUT!" Sherlock yelled before grapping his coat and leaving the flat himself.
The door slammed and John, who by now had realised what just happened and who the old man was, cursed under his breath looking around for his phone. Finding it on the kitchen table he grasped it and quickly dialled the number he had only used a few times. It took only one try and the phone was answered with the familiar drawl.
"Dr Watson, to what do I own this pleasure."
"Do you have eyes on Sherlock?" John asked ignoring the pleasantries.
"As you may recall I promised my dear brother to leave you alone after…"
"Find him Mycroft!" John interrupted him sharply.
"What has happened?" Mycroft asked seriously, seeming to realise it was no time for games.
"Your father happened." John said not caring that the old man could clearly hear him.
There was a short silence on the other end.
"I see. And you believe Sherlock might…" Mycroft trailed off as both he and John knew what was going on in each other's heads.
"I bloody well hope not, but I'm not willing to risk it." John sighed. "Just find him and make sure he's okay."
"I will." Mycroft said and paused. "Try not to punch him too badly, Doctor."
And the call was cut off.
"No promises." John muttered as he took the phone off his ear and walked back to the living room to face his flatmates father, Siger Harlington.
"I want to know why." John said. "How could you just ignore your own son and take his twin, his other half away from him?" John had no will to deal with Sherlock's father any longer than necessary after all he had heard about him, but he needed to know why. He couldn't fathom why a father would treat his own son in such a way. It was something he had never found out regarding his own father, but maybe Sherlock's could shed some light on the matter.
"Because I was afraid of him." Siger said simply like it explained everything. "He was too intelligent; it was only a matter of time till his intelligence brought him to madness. I had seen it before… with my own brother. Malcom was just like William, so intelligent ever since he was a small child. He was as curious about everything and experimented on anything and everything. He captured living animals and cut them open just to see how their bodies worked and how long it would take till their organs stopped moving. Our parents always said he was harmless and didn't believe me when I told them otherwise." Siger said in a haunted voice.
"He was seventeen when he went too far. I came home for a visit and found he had turned our kitchen to a laboratory and in the middle of our kitchen table was our younger brother Desmond, tied down with robes. He wasn't moving and I feared for the worst, but not even my worst fears could prepare me for what I saw. Malcom had tied our little brother to the table and cut off his eyelids to see if he could still sleep without them. I was later told that Desmond's heart had given out under the pain. He was only thirteen."
"You need to understand, Dr Watson that in my head William would become just like Malcom. The older William grew the more intelligent he became and the more he reminded me of Malcom. Scott and William had always been close just like Desmond and Malcom had, even more so, and Scott always went along with whatever experiment William came up with. In my mind I would someday arrive home to find William doing the same to Scott as Malcom had done to Desmond.
"And so I decided that I needed to get Scott way from him. Mycroft was already out of the house and away from William, but Scott was right there spending every minute of the day with him. I did what I thought was best in that situation and moved away from the country taking Scott with me." Siger said quietly.
"So what changed?" John asked. "Why now? Sherlock is still intelligent, I'm sure even more so than when he was an eleven-year-old boy."
"The first time I heard of him in over two decades was when I received a copy of a newspaper. On the front pages it told of a suicide of a fake consulting detective called Sherlock Holmes. I recognized him in two seconds even though I hadn't seen Scott either in many years." Siger said sadness in his voice.
"It was a sobering moment… to hear he was dead. That he – my son – had killed himself." Siger said his eyes vacant. "I felt… numb. I had ignored him for more than half his life, but still… he was my son. No matter how I feared him, or how badly I treated him I never wanted him dead. I realised in that moment that regardless of my fear of him I still loved him as much as I did my other children; but I had let my fear of my own brother consume my thoughts and make me abandon my own child.
"I didn't even know him. My own son." Siger said mournfully. "The last memory I had of him was his eleven-year-old figure standing in the airport broken, as I took his twin brother from him. I thought I was saving Scott by taking him away from William, back then. So that he wouldn't end up like Desmond had." He closed his eyes.
"It is the old age, Dr Watson." He suddenly looked at John with haunted eyes. "You start to look back on your life to see what kind of life you have lived and what you have accomplished… I was horrified of what I found." Siger started laughing humourlessly. "I took me over twenty years to realise how horrible of a father I had been."
"I started researching everything I could find of William. I learned of his name change and read all about the episode with this Moriarty character and how the press made William appear to have been a fake. I was enraged how they dared to slander my son like that – I knew better than anyone that there was no way William was fake, after all his intelligence was the very thing that had caused my fear from the very moment he was born.
"I found your blog about your cases with William and was amazed by the way you described him. You didn't see him as a threat and a curse like I did, you saw him as what he always had been; a brilliant and amazing man. And I was proud of him. For the very first time in my life the fear disappeared and was replaced how proud I felt of my son. He had done so many good things in life, helped so many people.
"I want to thank you Dr Watson." Siger looked straight at John. "I want to thank you for being there for him. For accepting him for what he is and for understanding him in a way I was never able to." Siger stood up with the help of his cane and walked to the door before stopping.
"Tell William that… that I don't blame him… for hating me. And that… I'm sorry."
And then he was gone.
John watched the old man go his brain mulling over the new information he had received of his flatmate but now wasn't the time to concentrate on that, he had a friend to find.
Thank you for reading! Please review and tell me what you think.
Like I said one more chapter and then we'll be done. Don't know when I'll have time to write it but let's hope it will be soon.
- Dalnim
