John, Ginny and Sherlock walked home late that night, the roads starting to empty and lights shutting off as everyone went to bed.
John raised his thermos of tea in Ginny's direction.
"I still can't believe you were right." Ginny allowed herself a small smile. All signs of her earlier meltdown seemed to have vanished, and her face was aglow with the light that came from being right.
"I usually am."
"Yes, yes." Sherlock grumbled, checking messages on his cell phone as they walked.
JM surveillance-where was the last place you saw him?
-SH
He was in Cardiff less than a week ago.
-M
The three had been in and around Scotland Yard for almost eight hours. Ginny's hunch had turned into a full blown investigation, which led to four terrified children being found on the top floor of the Bank of London's headquarters.
John waved dismissively at Sherlock's grouchy manner.
"Don't mind him. He's just jealous he didn't figure it out."
Sherlock looked up sharply.
"I am not." He said, unable to keep the childish tone from his voice. He glanced at Ginny before going back to his screen.
"What you did though...that was good. That was clever."
Ginny nodded at Sherlock, and the two stared at each other for a moment. Both faces were impossible to read. Then something caught Ginny's eye and she lit up. She pointed a few hundred yards ahead of them at a neon sign.
"Can we go to McDonald's? I'm famished."
John smiled. One of the few ways Ginny differed from Sherlock was her constant hunger. Forget going days without eating; She was lucky to go an hour. He pulled a couple bills from his pocket and handed them to her.
"Go run ahead, we'll be there by the time you get your nosh."
Ginny took off down the sidewalk at a breakneck speed.
"Careful, watch out for cars!" Sherlock yelled after her, tearing his eyes away from his phone to watch her cross the street. John laughed. Sherlock looked at him, startled.
"What?" He said indignantly. John raised his eyebrows.
"Nothing, nothing." He paused. "'cept you've got dad shock."
"I do not!" Sherlock's voice jumped an octave too high at that. John nodded.
"Yeah, you do. Sudden, unexpected fatherhood. Takes time to get used to, I suppose."
Sherlock opened his mouth, then hesitated. John noticed.
"What?"
Sherlock looked down at his phone.
"Nothing."
"Sherlock."
"Never mind. It's just that I'm too old for this nonsense." Sherlock spat. John laughed.
"You're thirty-four."
"My father was years younger than that when I was a child." He said, scanning something he was reading on his phone.
John paused, intrigued. He hadn't met any of Sherlock's family besides Mycroft, and their mother had only been mentioned in passing.
"What's your dad like then?" John asked. Sherlock paused for a moment. Then he started typing more quickly on his phone, his eyes seeming determinedly focused on the little screen.
"I don't know." He said evenly. "He left us when I was three."
John stopped at that, turning to look at Sherlock with a mild shock on his face.
"You're not serious?"
Sherlock slammed his hands down to his sides, almost dropping his phone.
"Of course I'm serious why would I lie about something like that?" His voice was uncharacteristically shaken.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." John squinted off into the darkness. "You know, you talk all the time, but you never say anything."
Sherlock stared intensely at John for a moment, then turned back at his phone.
"John, I've known Ginny existed for quite awhile."
John raised his eyebrows.
"Sorry, what?"
Sherlock's refused to look at him as he spoke.
"You know how my brother is, he knows everything about everyone. One of Ginny's files passed through him when she was about ten. He figured out who she was and he called me."
"Mycroft told you? Why didn't you, I dunno, write to her, call her before?"
Sherlock was still staring intently at his phone.
"Legally, the only way we could be in contact was if she found me. Which she has. So that's an irrelevant question." His voice took on a sharp edge.
John held up his hands.
"Geez, sorry. Forget I asked."
Sherlock swallowed. "It's just-" His voice dropped just a tad, becoming a little uncertain. "-Who'd want me for a dad?"
John's heart sank. He thought of feeding Sherlock some pep-talk for new parents, but decided he had too much respect for him. He looked at Ginny, who was coming out of the McDonald's now.
"She does." He said firmly. Sherlock looked a little surprised at that.
"John, you saw how she adores her mother. She can't wait to get away from me."
John felt a pang in his stomach, remembering Ginny's earlier breakdown. He pushed on anyway.
"She, wants to be a part of this." He insisted briskly, shoving his hands in his pockets. "The thinking, the espionage, the texting-"
Sherlock smirked at that.
"She does!" John insisted.
Ginny waved from across the cross walk as John and Sherlock drew up to the other side. John walked halfway across the street.
"Ginny," He called. "You said our lives sound exciting?"
Ginny nodded slowly. John looked at Sherlock.
"Don't you think Ginny could be a part of all that texting?" He asked, loudly enough for her to hear.
Sherlock clasped his hands and held them in front of his waist, looking back and forth between Ginny and John.
"Yes." He said. "Yes, I suppose she could."
Ginny broke into a rare smile. She made to run across the street when her phone started ringing.
She stopped and balanced the bag of food in the crook of her arm while she fished it out of her pocket.
John and Sherlock rolled their eyes at it's pink and bedazzled exterior as she answered it.
"Hello?" She said.
Sherlock immediately knew something was wrong. The little color Ginny's face held vanished. She dropped the food bag on the sidewalk.
"Who is this?" She yelled, her voice commanding. John gave Sherlock a nervous look. Across the street, Ginny's eyes got wide and panicked for the first time since Sherlock had known her.
"Yes. Yes. I'll be there. Right there. Don't do anything. Don't move."
She shoved her phone in her pocket. Sherlock and John ran out on the street and she met them in the middle of the road.
"They've got my mum." She said, her voice sounding strangely soft and young.
"Who's got your mum?" Sherlock said evenly, forever calm.
Ginny shook her head in bewilderment, panicking to piece together some kind of deduction. "The man who was talking sounded mid-to-late thirties, he wasn't English..." She looked up at Sherlock. "They want me to come meet them."
John looked at Sherlock worriedly.
"My God, where?"
Ginny shoved her phone back in her pocket, pulling her dark curls into a ponytail with her free hand.
"The Waterloo bridge." She said breathlessly. "The bit that overlooks the Thames." John tucked his thermos into his bag and ran to the other side of the street, glancing around bewildered.
"How...how do we get there, what do we do?" He called from the sidewalk.
"Take a cab down five blocks, make a right, two blocks, then make a left." Sherlock said automatically, reading from his mental street map. He grabbed Ginny's arm.
"Ginny, it could be a trap."
Right at that moment a taxi came barreling down the street. John barely had time to call out. Without thinking, Sherlock grabbed Ginny and held her to his chest, shielding her as the car made a wild swerve to avoid them.
When the street was clear once more Sherlock awkwardly loosened his tight embrace on Ginny.
"It could be dangerous." He reiterated, looking slightly to the left of her eyes.
Ginny slipped her hand into his.
"Why do you think we're going?"
Sherlock's lips slowly twitched into a smile.
{Posted at 11:26 P.M}
I could almost hear him thinking 'that's my girl'.
(A/N: I must inform you that beautiful line "You talk all the time, but you never say anything" Was actually plucked (plagiarized) straight from "The Doctor's Daughter" Itself. Please thank Stephen Greenhorn for it.)