I don't own BBC Sherlock, they are the creative works of Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and of course the wonderful Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Hope you had a wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year. I shall be going back to my normal schedule of updating once a week on a Wednesday.


Science of Youth

Chapter Eleven

The door to the bedroom was knocked gently. It slowly opened and Athena walked in, behind her was an elderly gentleman, grey hair and a clean-shaven face, with watery blue eyes smiling gently into the room. He walked inside and came to the bed as Anthea stayed by the door, closing it behind her.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Sloan," he smiled as he held out a hand.

"Doctor Sloan, pleasure to meet you. I'm Mycroft," he said as he took the hand and shook it, "This is John," he said as he introduced the barely awake child that was still curled in the crook of his arm.

"And this is the one that I have come to see, Anthea has told me all she could about him, his age, weight and things that I would need. But shall we get him looked over and see what's wrong with the little tyke," he said as Mycroft then nodded and laid John on the bed properly as Doctor Sloan began his examination.

Mycroft watched as John was a little sleepy as he tried to move away from the man. He finished and Mycroft took hold of John again, comforting him as started to dry heave, there was nothing in his stomach, as he hadn't been able to keep anything down.

"Right," Doctor Sloan said with a smile, "He is a little dehydrated, but just make sure he has plenty of fluids, let him rest. It's just a 48-hour bug, he should be fine soon. With the fever he has, its a little high, but give him some calpol, the infant one, no more than 10ml every six hours," he advised.

"Thank you," he said as he looked to John and laid him on the bed, signalling for Anthea to come over for a moment. "May I speak with you outside for a moment?" he asked, not wanting John to listen in.

"Of course," he said a little surprised that the man wouldn't speak in front of a child.

The two went out of the room as Anthea sat on the bed and looked at the child. She ran a hand over his back as John began to search for Mycroft once again. She tol him gently where Mycroft was and he settled back down. It was over five minutes later when they came back into the room.

"Thank you Anthea, please take Doctor Sloan back to the hospital." Mycroft said as he went to a small desk that he had in his room and made a small list. "Please bring these to me as soon as possible," he added as he handed it over.

Anthea nodded and then left the room, with Doctor Sloan following behind her after saying good-bye. Mycroft went over to the bed and picked him up, cradling him in his arms as he went to the kids bedroom and changed John's onesie to something clean and fresh.

"Coulds have folds you all fhat," John mumbled as he was dressed again and lying in Mycroft's arms as they went down the stairs.

"Oh John, for one you are just a child at the moment, and if you did I have no doubt that you would have given me the doses for an adult and not the small child that you are," he smiled, with a slight chuckle.

"Mays bes," John huffed as little as he moved a little in Mycroft's arms, he wanted to sit up, but every time he did he began to feel sick, and because of that he hadn't been able to keep anything down so far.

Mycroft went into the living room and grabbed a book from the bookcase and sat down. He started to read Oliver Twist to John, since he had learned that it was one of his favorite books. It didn't take long for the door to open and Sherlock to walk in, followed by Greg.

"Is he okay?" Sherlock asked quietly as he walked over and looked down to John who was looking back at him.

"Fherlock," he smiled a little.

Sherlock smiled back, "Feel better?" he asked softly.

John would have shaken his head, but instead replied, "pheel a liphle bepher," he yawned a little.

"He still needs to rest, and to make sure to drink plenty," Mycroft told him, adding to what John had said.

Sherlock nodded and then took up a seat beside Mycroft and knelt so John could see him, "Been doing a few experiments, was thinking about looking into mould again, wondering what would be able to get rid of it quicker," he said as he was thinking back to an experiment that he had conducted several years ago.

"Could be inphresphing, mights helps when you lets its gets fo much in the phlat." John said, he felt a little more awake, but that was because Sherlock and the others were talking to him, he wanted something to drink.

"What did the doctor say exactly?" Greg asked as he sat down on the arm of the sofa, next to where Mycroft and John were.

"It's a forty eight hour bug, needs rest, fluids and to get his fever down, and I have already sent Anthea to go and get what is needed. She should be back soon," he answered him.

Greg ran a hand over John's forehead moving a little bit of blond hair, he could feel the heat coming from him and wondered how high his temperature actually was, "So after a while he'll be fine then?"

Mycroft nodded as he saw John laugh a little as Sherlock was telling him about one of the experiments that he had just done that had made a pop and had made Greg jump.

"Okay Sherlock," Greg said, "let's leave them be, I have no doubt that the experiment that you set up will be ready for you to finish when we get back," he smiled, a slight chuckled breaking forth, he had to admit it was interesting seeing Sherlock work on experiments, he had very rarely had the opportunity to do so.

"Okay," he nodded as he looked to John and told him, "do rest up John, I'll need you back soon, Greg is terrible as an assistant," he grinned a little.

John giggled as he said, "'Kay."

Sherlock then nodded and of the sofa, "Mycroft do make sure he gets better soon, I need my blogger back," he then walked out of the room.

Greg couldn't help the laugh that came out, "He does care about John doesn't he," he smiled.

"He does, and cares a lot, they have a very loyal friendship." Mycroft said softly.

"We do, he'ss my besstss friends," John said from where he was lying on Mycroft's lap.

Greg nodded and then walked out of the room, as he heard Sherlock call for him to hurry up. Mycroft chuckled as he watched him go and then turned back to John, who was looking up at him and asked, "Book?" a simple question, he understood that John was still a little embarrassed by the lisp he had, and Mycroft did wonder when it finally left, because he couldn't tell that there had once been a problem.

"How about we try once again to get you something to drink?" he asked softly, wishing to get him to drink something.

John nodded slightly, though Mycroft could see the worry, he didn't like being sick, "we can fry."

Mycroft nodded and helped him sit up a little and then held a cup of warm water and let him take a few sips. John rested his head against Mycroft as the room began to spin and his stomach was already rolling from the different position that he was in. He knew he was going to throw up again, he tried to keep it down.

Mycroft was glad that he had brought the bowl as he grab it and put it under John as he started to heave and the little water he had been able to drink came back up. He ended up dry heaving as he lay back down in the crook of Mycroft's arms once again. Shaking from the effort he had put forth.

"It's all right," Mycroft soothed gently as he cuddle John a little closer and would have rocked him, if he hadn't been ill.

John settled back down as Mycroft rubbed his back for a while before picking up the book once more to read to John. It was twenty minutes later when the door to the room opened once again, Mycroft expected Sherlock to come into the room, but instead it was Anthea, with the things that he had order her to get.

"Thank you," he said as Anthea put two bottles down on the side table and the bag on there as well.

"The medicine is in there, along with all you need. I warmed up the apple juice and the water." She told him as she then left the room once again.

Mycroft looked to the two bottles, he had asked Doctor Sloan about what he could do and this was the best suggested that he had made, he knew that John was going to protest. There wasn't much of a choice if he wanted to get John to have something to drink.

"John," he said getting the childs attention, "I have gotten a bottle for you to drink out of, I know that you might not like it," he said, wondering how John would take it.

"No," John said forcefully, which wasn't as forceful as it normally would be.

"I talked to Doctor Sloan about it and he said that it would be best if we use a bottle, since you can't sit up and have something to drink. So this would be best," he said as he looked to the two and then to John, "so, which would you like, water or apple juice?" he then asked, not really giving him a choice.

John thought for a moment, he knew that he needed something to drink and if this worked, well he would have to. He then nodded slowly as he said, "Apple juices," he answered a small pout on his face.

"All right," Mycroft nodded as he picked up the bottle and handed it to John, letting him drink from it himself.

John nodded and began to drink, enjoying the fact that his stomach wasn't rebelling at all as he drank, it was warm as well, which meant it didn't shock his system and make his stomach cramp up. He smiled up to Mycroft as he took the bottle out of his mouth and said softly, "fhank you."

"You're welcome, we'll use these while you are not well," he told him with a smile, happy that John was finally able to have something to drink.

John gave a little nodded and carried on drinking the apple juice. As he moved around and got comfortable again as he drank. He felt a little weird drinking from a bottle, but knew that Mycroft and the doctor was right, it was the best course of action for the moment.

"When you've drank that, you can have some medicine and see if we can get your temperature down a little," he then said as he put a hand on his forehead to try and see how hot John was, he was still a little hotter than he would like, Mycroft could tell that he was around 39°C.

John hummed as his eyes began to close slowly, the older gentleman shook his head a little as he pulled the bottle away from John, "No," John mumbled as he reached for it.

"In a moment John, have some medicine first and then you can have the rest," he said as he got the bottle, shook it up and then opened it, giving him the dose that Doctor Sloan had recommended for him.

John pulled a face as Mycroft gave him the bottle back and he started to drink. Mycroft smiled as he watched John begin to fall asleep while drinking, he wondered what it was that caused that reaction in children. He settled back and gently took the bottle when he noted that John was fast asleep and put it aside, picking up his own book and reading until John woke up again.


Thank you all for the wonderful reviews, so happy that you are enjoying this one, as I loved writing this one.