This chapter is going to sum up the next ten years of Sherlock's life and so it will be short and sweet. Because, although his life was not an ordinary one, it was, in a way, routine.
Sherlock didn't attend the funeral, it was out of town and although Mycroft offered to take him, he wanted the last memory of John to be him saying 'I love you'.
Sherlock became a recluse. He didn't talk to anyone, not even Mycroft, and spent all his time trying to gain information on anything and everything. He had books, papers and articles all over his room; he drew diagrams and watched lectures online. He worked hard every night, sometimes not sleeping until he passed out due to exhaustion. He closed up his emotions and removed any proof of the childhood he had had with John from his life.
He hated life. He hated people, and people hated him. He wanted the world to pay for what it had done to John. He never learnt how to drive, he didn't want to. Cars were evil. But he never lashed out, not once. He wanted to keep his promise to John. He would never be the bad guy.
Mycroft went to a top university in London and once Sherlock had finished school, he and his parents followed him to London. He went to a different university though; he didn't want to be like Mycroft.
At university Sherlock studied criminology. Although he tried not to think of John, he didn't want to let him down and so he had vowed to become a detective. Not a police detective, he didn't want to become one of the people that had let John down. No. he was going to be a private detective. He had his heart set on it.
Mycroft started to work for the government, 'this and that' he would say, never quite being clear. But Sherlock knew. He could always tell when a case had the distinct stench of Mycroft. That's why he did his best to stay away from home, from the memories.
After university Sherlock immediately set himself up in a small flat outside of London. He advertised wherever he could and got his first case within a week – he had learned how to sell himself well. A woman wanted to know if her husband was cheating on her. He called at her house and asked her a routine few questions. Whilst he was there, the husband had returned and Sherlock had seen within the space of 10 seconds the answer.
"Yes." He stated.
"I'm sorry?" the woman had said, unaware she had asked a question.
"He is cheating on you. You said you had told your husband that you were at a friend's house, but when he returns and here's you call out 'hello', he comes in looking nervous. He also smells like a woman and has lipstick on his cheek. That and the fact that when you said 'hello' there was a yelp and a slamming of a door suggests there is a twenty year old woman standing on the doorstep wondering why her lover had just thrown her out of the house she had just walked into." The woman had burst into tears.
"You could have broken it to me gently!" She yelled. Sherlock was confused. She had asked him to investigate and he had found her the answer. She was being ungrateful. From that moment he decided he would not take domestic cases.
He started working smaller cases but as he got older, and the more clients he got that would then recommend him, his cases got bigger and more important. He was asked to investigate the theft of an expensive necklace from a celebrity and it was here that he met a Detective Inspector Lestrade. He very quickly solved the case using his information on boot polish and plug adapters which amazed Lestrade. Sherlock was as rude as he normally was but Lestrade could not shake the feeling that this man was special, and so he kept in contact, calling him in if he was needed. Then, when Lestrade was transferred to the murder squad, Sherlock Holmes was introduced to the worst things people could to each other.
And that is the story of the Sherlock Holmes you know. And this is how it continues…
