Chapter 10
The town centre was buzzing with the never ending sound of modern society. The contrast of the public's muddled voice and the deafening sound of taxi's, buses and cars pounded in Sherlock's eardrums. Though humanity's industrial music was least of his worries. The question "what should I buy for my potential criminal mastermind of a 12 year old daughter to take to France?" Didn't quite fit in with the usual questions that filled his brain. Questions such as "can cyanide be used as a fertilizer when mixed with other substances?" Or "what would happen to the human brain when set in different liquids for a chosen period of time?" Or "were did sally Donovan hide the eye balls when I specifically told her to put them back in the microwave?".
So from his pocket he pulled out the list Mycroft gave to him. Unfolding the paper the first thing he saw written was "underwear". Well this was going to be awkward.
"PHAHAHA, so go on what happened then?" asked John eager to hear the rest of Melanie's story.
They were still sat at the table and she had been telling him all about her time at home and school. The conversation started of slightly tense though quickly turned into something quite pleasant.
"Well it basically ended up with me legging it down the hall throwing anything I could find in my path to slow her down, and she was running at my like a rabid cat screaming "you ruined my marriage" the rush of it all was invigorating so I ended up trying to get the same rush out of anything I could deduce".
"and how did that end?" John asked still laughing slightly.
"well it got me in an awful lot of trouble but it was defiantly worth it. Mum says I have a habit of running into things without considering the consequences" she replied happily.
"Sherlock's like that".
"I think my uncle might have taught me to be like this. Well that's who mum blames"
"I didn't know you had an uncle"
"Well he's not my real uncle he's a close family friend. He helped us through a lot, we live in a bit of a bad area".
Right at that moment Sherlock practically fell through the door in a heap of navy blue trench coat and all manner of different sized shopping bags. Sherlock truly could be childish when he wanted to.
"Did you get enough stuff then Sherlock" The doctor asked with a wide Cheshire cat grin.
"Too much" Sherlock shouted back at him as he swiftly got up off the floor and all but threw himself upon the sofa. "May I ask why Melanie isn't in her usual place?"
"Her usual place?" John questioned.
"Well she's normally in your bedroom John".
"Yes well we were having a little bit of a chat. Weren't we Melanie" John smiled.
"Yes. We were talking about my days in school" she smiled.
Melanie went to pick up all the shopping bags wondering why Sherlock had been to places like M&S and Top shop.
"Dad, what are all these?"
"Clothes...for you, courtesy of your dear uncle" Sherlock was clearly in a bad mood and so John decided to switch the kettle on once again, he mused that he did little else.
"So did you get everything on the list then?" John asked, his recent chat with Melanie had put him in quite a talkative mood.
"List?" asked Melanie though her curiosity was quickly disregarded as Sherlock had other things on his mind.
"John do you know what a balcony bra is" he asked with his head resting on the arm of the sofa and his hands clasped together.
"Well no and I don't-"
"And did you know girls have boxers"
"I've heard there more for-"
"As much as I'm starting to like Uncle Mycroft I'm finding it a bit strange how he knows my bra size" said Melanie as she lifted a black bra out of the M&S bag.
"Melanie put that back and take them upstairs, put them all in a suitcase or something we're leaving soon" said Sherlock harshly, then closing his eyes to try and block out Melanie's pointless chit chat, he much preferred it when she was sat in Johns room, keeping quite.
"I don't have a suitcase" she stated, whilst struggling to fit all the shopping bags on her little arms.
Sherlock's eyes shot open in frustration as he loudly exhaled, "John get her a suitcase".
"You'll find a big black one under my bed Melanie, you can use that one" John replied stirring the cups of tea.
As the hours past the flat became more quiet and calm. John was called away to the clinic a little short of an hour ago and Sherlock had taken to his experiments. He was a little annoyed at the fact his test tubes had been tampered with by a small twelve year old girl, though the acid and solvent mixes were strangely impressive. He'd done them before when he was fourteen, it was when he found his first series of data that actually interested him.
"Melanie!" he called, and soon enough her footsteps were heard coming down the stairs.
"yes"
"What on earth is this?" he asked holding up one of the test tubes.
"I was separating acids and neutral compounds by solvent extraction" She said quietly, her hands held behind her back and her eyes glued to the floor.
"Well for starters you've used far too much carboxylic acid, come on sit down I'm not having my own daughter not know basic chemistry".
A wide smile lit up Melanie's face. Finally she was getting somewhere. She sat down next to her father and listened intently as he explained the and demonstrated the experiment.
After a small while Sherlock and Melanie moved to the sofa they'd left the test tubes and Bunsen burners to clutter up the kitchen table while they stacked papers upon papers of equations and formulas all of which inspired Melanie to know more. Though as the sun set her eyes began to disobey her orders to keep them open and observant.
It was hours later when John had finally returned home with milk and other grocery's. Upon entering the flat he was more than a little surprised to find Sherlock and Melanie sat side by side on the sofa...sleeping? Sherlock's head rested on the back of the sofa while Melanie leaned against his left shoulder. Coming to the conclusion that it would be best not to deal with the awkwardness of waking them he decided to make his tea and finally go back to sleeping in his own bed for to night.