Chapter 9

Nightmare Monsters

Greg and Mary climb the stairs as they head to bed after they had seen the last person out. Greg glances through the open door of the playroom. He spots Sherlock's dark-brown teddy sitting on the chair where Sherlock had placed it before the fated shopping trip. 'John will want his teddy back.' Greg whispers to Mary. She glances into the playroom and carries on up the stairs. Greg smiles and hurries back down the stairs and into the playroom. He scoops up Sherlock's teddy and hugs it. Mary had tiptoed back to the middle step and sat down at the same time as Greg had entered the playroom. Greg turns and spots Mary laughing silently at him. Greg beams at her, his expression scarily similar to the big smiles from the toddlers.

'Big kid.' She mouths. Greg sticks his tongue out at her and re-joins her on the stairs. Together they finish climbing and tiptoe into the kid's room. Greg eases the light-brown teddy from under Sherlock's little arm. A pout creeps onto the sleeping face but disappears when Greg replaces it with the darker ted. He carefully throws John's teddy to Mary who tucks it in beside John. The blonde-haired toddler instinctively wraps his arm around the bear and cuddles it close. As one both toddler turn over and face each other across the room. Greg and Mary smile fondly and quietly leave the room. Mary takes one last look before closing the door making sure that a toddler can open door and Greg pulls her into a hug. 'I really want kids.' She whispers.

'I know. We will, somehow.' Greg whispers back.

'We've got them now, more or less.'

'And when they're back to normal?'

'I don't want to think about it Greg. Not yet.' Greg doesn't answer but pulls her to the door of their bedroom.

'Let's sleep and enjoy our time with them in the morning.'

At roughly four o'clock in the morning John begins to grizzle in his sleep. He trashes his head from side to side and whimpers. He shouts out a couple of time waking Sherlock from his sleep. Sherlock sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes. He peers across at the other bed and smiles broadly at the figure in the other bed before his expression becomes extremely worried. He watches for a couple of minutes before pushing his covers back. He grabs his teddy and holds on to the covers and as he eases himself down from the mattress. He toddles across the room nearly tripping over John's teddy having been thrown by John at the beginning of his nightmare. He picks up the bear and crosses the rest of the room to John's bed. 'Don.' He grabs John's shoulder and shakes it. 'Don. Wake up Don.' John thrashes again knocking Sherlock backwards. Tears well up in the alert toddler's eyes, but he brushes them away and looks around. Sherlock picks up John's teddy from where he had dropped it to grab John and tucks it beside his friend. He glances to the door and sees that it is ajar. He toddles over and grabs the side of the door. He looks back at his friend tossing around in the bed and opens the door to find Greg and Mary.

Greg awakes to someone shaking him. He keeps his eyes closed but stays alert as he tries to work out who it is. 'Stwade.' Greg opens his eyes and sees the scared face of Sherlock. He reaches his arms out to Sherlock. But the toddler shakes his head and looks over at the door. Greg wraps an arm around the little body anyway and pulls himself into a seated position. 'Don.' Sherlock whispers.

'What about John?' Greg asks

'Don scared.' Sherlock looks up at Greg's face with scared and worried eyes. Sherlock snuggles into Greg's chest and clutches at him. Greg reaches over and strokes Mary's arm. She murmurs something, turns over and opens her eyes to see Sherlock in Greg's arms.

'Nightmare Shock?' she asks. Sherlock shakes his head.

'Don is.' Mary is wide-awake.

'John's having a nightmare?' Sherlock nods sadly. Mary pulls herself up and rubs her eyes. Greg stops her from getting out of bed. 'I'll go. Look after Shock.' Sherlock scrambles across into Mary's arms letting Greg out from under the covers. Mary wriggles down and draws the covers up and over herself and the toddler. Sherlock snuggles down into the warm cocoon and plays with Mary's hair. Greg steps on Sherlock's teddy as he makes his way to the door. He bends down and picks it up and set it next to Sherlock. The toddler grabs it and cuddles it still playing with the hair with one hand. Mary smiles up at her husband who smiles back and leaves the room. He returns moments later with sobbing John against his shoulder. Sherlock stops playing with Mary's hair and rolls onto his back and watches the two of them. Greg sits back on the bed on top of the covers still soothing the frightened boy. Once the tears have stopped Greg wipes the ones staining his cheeks away.

'What was it John?' Greg whispers.

'Scawy.' The boy whispers.

'What happened John?'

'Mummy and Daddy.'

'What about them John?' Mary asks softly

'Loud. Bangs.' John starts whimpering again. Greg rubs his back

'Did they shout?' John nods. 'And throw things?' he nods again. Mary and Greg exchange concerned glances.

'Did they ever hurt you John?' Greg asks softly. John doesn't answer and burrows into Greg's arms, which is an answer in itself. Mary sits up and picks John off Greg's lap. She cuddles him singing softly into his hair. Sherlock strokes John's leg and offers him his teddy bear. John clutches it tightly. The Lestrade's share a knowing glance and Greg leaves for the kitchen downstairs.

'Uncle Greg's gone to get some warm milk for our favourite boys.' John smiles sadly and Sherlock beams. Mary rocks the blonde boy singing. Sherlock snuggles into her side. She wraps her arm around him and rocks him as well.

Downstairs, Greg picks up the handset for the landline. He glances at the clock and swears softly. 'I hope you're still awake Mr Holmes.' he quickly dials the number and put the phone to his ear. While he waits for someone to pick up, he bustles around the kitchen and prepares two small cups for warmed milk.

'Hello.'

'Mycroft, it's Greg.'

'Yes, Gregory?'

'Has John ever spoken about his childhood to you or his father?'

'Gregory, Both Sherlock and John tend not to share personal stuff with me.'

'Let me try again, in your background research on John have you ever come across potential child abuse, either physical or mental?'

'Ah, no. Well…'

'Mycroft?'

'Not explicit abuse. It was found that his parents often fought, throwing things at door and each other. Hit each other.'

'Enough to scare a small child?'

'Yes. I take John has had a nightmare.'

'Yep, but neither Mary nor I heard it. It woke Shock up.'

'He's learned that no one will come whether loud or quiet.'

'I hope he can unlearn it. Honestly Mycroft it scares me. I knew some of it from the altercation between John and his father at a crime scene but this-'

'Captain John Watson doesn't spread his emotional baggage around it seems. Keep me informed Detective Inspector.'

'I will Mycroft. Umm, I take it you Mr Watson the elder in your custody?'

'You are correct. Why do you ask?'

'Don't be too lenient. If I get my hands on him, I think he would prefer you over me.' Mycroft chuckles down the line.

'Gregory Lestrade, I sincerely doubt that whatever I do will be lenient. I consider John Watson as the politer of my younger brothers. However if you broadcast that statement I will deny all knowledge.' It's Greg's turn to laugh.

'Understood. Good night Mycroft.'

'Good Morning Gregory.'

'Get some sleep.' Greg hands up and sets the handset back into its cradle. He finishes warming the milk and pours it into the two cups. He carries them back upstairs to the master room and smiles at seeing the three of them asleep in a small pile. He carefully places the cups on the bedside table on Mary's side and repositions the two small boys and Mary so they will be comfortable when they wake. He slips into bed on his side and curls around Sherlock and quickly falls asleep himself.