This chapter is for floratang, who has been awesome at reviewing and has been asking for a chapter featuring Sherlock and Irene and more children. So I introduce to you: the twins, Thalia and Alivia. Also, NewSlove, who has also been great about reviewing and jumped on board with the idea of Nero inviting a girlfriend home to meet the family. Cheers, NewSlove and floratang!


Nero barged through the door, chasing his little sisters who gleefully ran up the stairs, laughing and making kissing noises. Thalia and Alivia thundered up the final flight and burst into the flat, where their mother was sitting and reading the newspaper.

"Mummy! Mummy!" they shouted.

"Yes, what is it?" Irene said, looking up from her paper and smiling at her daughters.

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" Nero shouted, coming in behind his sisters.

The twins looked at their brother to see if he was angry. Then they decided they didn't care. "Nero has a girlfriend! Nero has a girlfriend!" they sang and danced around the flat. Nero put his head in his hands and the tips of his ears turned red. Irene grinned at her son's embarrassment.

"Nero? You have a girlfriend?" Irene asked, standing and crossing over to her son.

"No." he said forcefully, a little too forcefully.

Sherlock got back from his work with Lestrade at that very moment, Uncle John in tow. "Right then, what have we missed?" John said, looking around at the dancing twins.

"NERO HAS A GIRLFRIEND!" they shrieked. Sherlock raised an eyebrow at his son. "No, I don't." Nero said, his face and ears still red. Sherlock looked him up and down. "Yes you do." He said simply. He went into the kitchen and grabbed an apple, then sat down at his laptop.

John smiled fondly at his nieces. 'Rhyme and Reason' Sherlock called them. They were certainly as clever as everyone else in the house, but they were the most…childlike children of Sherlock and Irene. John remembered when he, Mary, and Hamish went on vacation and returned to a visibly pregnant Irene. "Why didn't you tell me Irene was pregnant again?" John had asked him. "I did." Sherlock said. "No you thought about telling me, and forgot to." John said, shaking his head. "The end result remains the same." Sherlock said shrugging it off. When the twins were born, John again stared at his friend and asked: "Why didn't you tell me they were twins?!" Sherlock just looked dazed. "I didn't know either." he'd said. But Sherlock spoiled his daughters, and they loved him best.

John sat in his chair. "Tally, Livie, what makes you think Nero has a girlfriend?" he asked. They kept dancing but took turns answering.

"We were waiting—"Thalia started.

"For him to pick us up in a cab." Alivia finished.

"When he got there, we ran to the car—"

"But there was a girl in the cab too!"

"And he said we were just splitting the fare—"

"And taking her home—"

"But then they kissed when we dropped her off!" they finished together, squealing.

Sherlock smiled behind his laptop. Nero's entire face glowed red. "What does she look like?" Irene asked Nero. He opened his mouth to answer, but his sisters beat him to it.

"She's pretty!" they said, coming to flank their brother on the couch. "She has ginger hair and pale brown eyes and a little nose and a pretty mouth." Thalia said. She was 'Reason.'

"She looks like a fairy!" Alivia exclaimed. She was 'Rhyme.'

"I had a girlfriend who looked just like that in university," Irene said wistfully. John rolled his eyes. "What's her name?"

"Jane Reynolds." Nero muttered reluctantly.

"Is she coming over for dinner?" Irene asked.

"Hell no." Nero said vehemently.

"Yes! Yes! We want to see Jane!" the twins shouted. "Thalia, Alivia, go upstairs." Sherlock said. The twins finally stopped their jumping and dancing and went up to the room they shared.

"Nero, call her and ask her over for dinner." Irene said. "Don't force him, Irene." Sherlock said.

"Oh quiet Sherlock, you're the reason he doesn't want to invite her over."

Sherlock was quiet but looked intensely at his oldest. "She's kind of right Dad."

"Why am I the reason you don't want to invite her over?" Sherlock asked, as though he honestly had no idea. John stared at him incredulously. "For the same reasons I didn't want to invite my girlfriends over!"

"I never understood that." Sherlock said waving him off and looking at Nero again.

"Dad…you're a dick."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are. You'll deduce the shit out of her and you'll probably make her cry. And then she'll never talk to me again."

This had happened before. With Molly Hooper, with various clients, with some of John's more dull and fragile girlfriends in the past. So he couldn't deny it, but he did anyway. "I am not a dick."

Nero rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Dad."

Sherlock stood and grumpily took up his violin and began to play. Nero rolled his eyes again, then retrieved his backpack from the floor. "See you later, Uncle John." He said, thundering upstairs.


Months went by, and Jane Reynolds didn't come up more than twice. The twins still wanted to see her, but Nero hid her away. Then, one day it happened.

"Jane wants to meet you guys, for some fucking stupid reason," Nero grouched one day at dinner, shoveling food into his mouth as though he hadn't eaten for days.

"Language, young man." Mrs. Hudson said, when it was obvious that neither Sherlock nor Irene cared enough about the boy's profanity to say anything. Uncle Mycroft was over, and he asked with interest, "Who's Jane?"

Sherlock and Nero both scoffed and rolled their eyes at his comment. "Like you don't know." They said in unison.

"Oh, the pretty ginger? Is she only just now asking to meet your parents?" Mycroft said. Nero ignored him and stood to get seconds.

"Well, I'd like to meet her." Irene said. "Yes, Mum, you've made that abundantly clear." Nero said from the stove. Sherlock snickered.

"Invite her over, then." Irene said, staring at her son until he looked away.

"He did." Sherlock said, his food forgotten and his hands steepled under his chin. Apparently he was only half invested in the conversation. The other half was engrossed in the double homicide with absolutely no fingerprints, hairs, or fluids left behind.

Nero glared at him. "Yeah, I did."

"When?"

Nero wolfed down the last of his second helping of dinner. "T'moffow" he said around his food.

"Tomorrow? Isn't that rather sudden?" Irene said over the twins who were squealing in delight.

"Yeah, but you've been asking to meet her since forever. I thought you'd be thrilled." Nero said smirking.

Sherlock chuckled again.


Once again, this chapter was for NewSlove and floratang. I like the twins, and I may write more of them but it won't be often, I don't think. My headcanon doesn't feature Sherlock and Irene with multiple kids, since they just don't see like the big-happy-family-type, but you know…Tally and Livie are cool. I might do one more with them grown up, and Sherlock being overprotective…yeah, that'll probably happen.

Also, in case you didn't notice this is another two part-er. But there will more than likely be a story in between these parts. I got inspired the other day, and I am excited to get it written down then posted up for you guys. Thanks for being amazing.

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