"Er, we're just going to... I need, um, Sherlock to help me choose some, er, socks." John said, at the exact same moment that Sherlock offered: "Ties." They looked at each other and then back at Mary who stood in front of them holding Sophia's hand.

"Why don't we go with socks?" Mary offered. "I mean, you've got to get the right ones."

"Exactly to go with my..." John started.

"Tie." Sherlock said, simultaneous to John offering: "Outfit."

"That'll take a while, right?" Mary asked. John pointed to the kitchen.

"My coat in there?" He asked.

"Yes!" Mary smiled. Sophia frowned as she watched John walk into the kitchen. She wasn't stupid. She knew that they weren't going on a boring shopping trip. They were lying. Why was everyone lying today?

"Just going to take him out for a bit. Run him." Sherlock said quietly. Sophia stared up at him in horror. Her chest felt empty and a lump rose in her throat. Why was everyone taking each other out for a run when she was the one who was the child? She was the one who needed taking out. She needed attention. She wanted her daddy to take her out to the park. She had never been to the park before but the children on the television seemed to have a good time there.

"You said you'd find him a case." Mary smiled.

"A case?" Sophia asked, her voice catching in her throat. Her eyes became blurred with tears. Sherlock looked down at her, his smile dropping when he saw that she was upset. He frowned and crouched down to be at her level.

"What? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He asked quickly. His eyes scanned her face for any signs of pain.

"You don't like me anymore." She bawled. Sherlock panicked, looking up at Mary with wide eyes. She shrugged, crouching down next to him and putting her hand on Sophia's shoulder. "You only like the wedding. You don't want to spend time with me. You only want to spend time with the wedding... or John."

"...No." Sherlock answered uncertainly. Mary elbowed him in the chest angrily. He lost his balance, falling onto his butt. Sophia sniffed before letting out another loud sob. She wiped at her eyes with a balled fist.

"Do you want to come on the case with me and John?" Sherlock asked, sounding more like it was a chore than anything. Sophia looked up at him from behind her wet eyelashes.

"Really?" She asked, her bottom lip still sticking out as if to remind Sherlock she could start bawling again at any second. Sherlock sighed and got to his feet.

"Is it safe?" Mary asked. "For Sophia, I mean. She won't see any..." She looked over at Sherlock, not exactly wanting to say 'dead bodies'. Sherlock still didn't get it. He frowned and tilted his head. "Anything that could traumatise her." She finished.

"No, no. Just a stalking case." Sherlock answered happily.

"Can I really come?" Sophia prompted with a sniffle.

"Will you stop crying?" He asked. She nodded quickly, a small smile appearing on her face. He gestured for her to get her shoes on and headed towards the door. Sophia let out a squeal of delight and ran for her shoes.

/

"We're here to see Private Stephen Bainbridge." John said as he handed his military ID card to the sergeant. Sophia peered around Sherlock's legs to watch the guards. There was something about them that made Sophia love them. She didn't know what it was. Maybe it was the hats or the coats or the way they walked like clockwork dolls.

"He's on duty right now, sir." The sergeant said as he handed John his ID back. "But I'll certainly let him know when he's free."

"And that will be?" Sherlock asked.

"Another hour." The sergeant replied. Sophia let out a quiet groan. An hour, in a childs mind, could often seem like a month or a year. Sherlock and John didn't complain. They just smiled and began to walk away. Sophia briefly wondered if they had gave up and were going home. If Sophia was in charge that's what they'd do. She'd give up and go to McDonalds or the park. Or both.

They didn't. Instead they just went to the bench across the road. Sophia sat at their feet on the grass, playing with the small plastic dinosaurs Sherlock had handed her. He always made sure he had some sort of small toy or crayons and paper in his coat pocket at all times. He had learnt the hard way to never let Sophia become bored on a case.

"Do you think they give them classes?" Sherlock wondered. Sophia looked up at him, midway through helping a stegosaurus through a deadly forest.

"Classes?" She asked.

"How to resist the temptation to scratch their behinds?"

"Afferent neurons in the peripheral nervous system." John said. Sophia turned around to look at him with a confused frown. She didn't really like it when adults used long words she didn't understand. He smiled down at her.

"Bum itch." He explained. Sophia began to giggle. Nothing was better than hearing an adult say a rude word.

"What if they need to sneeze?" She asked once her laughing had calmed down. She made her T-Rex figure walk across John's shoe. "Because they can't help it then and it wouldn't be fair it they got fired."

"Hmmm." Sherlock answered, considering the question.

"I don't think that they're real." Sophia declared. She looked up at her father who stared back at her with that look she knew too well. The look that reminded her that she was a child and that she was, most likely, wrong. She shrugged, offering a small smile to change his mind. "I think they're big wind-up, clockwork dolls."

"Interesting theory." Sherlock concluded to which Sophia grinned. She drifted off into her own imagination for a while, watching the guards. She didn't hear John or Sherlock speak. She didn't really care to either. They wouldn't be talking about anything interesting. Useless adult chatter. Taxes and countdown.

She was only snapped out of her imagination when she felt John slip his hands under her arms, lifting her up and placing her on his hip. Sophia looked around, puzzled as she stuffed the dinosaurs into her coat pockets. Her father was gone. Strange. She hadn't noticed him leave.

"Where's daddy?" She asked, clinging onto John as he trotted over the road.

"He's ran off." John answered simply. He hesitated as they got near to the barracks. His brow furrowed as he looked down at Sophia. She knew what was going on. She was too young to go in there. There wouldn't be any other little girls in there. It would be one of those mysterious places that she wouldn't be allowed into until she was 18.

"Sophia, I want you to do something for me that's very important." John said slowly and clearly. "I want you to pretend that you're fast asleep until we go inside. OK? Can you do that, for me?"

"Yes, sir." Sophia said with a salute. She was good at this. She wouldn't tell John but she pretended that she was asleep a lot more than he knew about. She would always pretend she was asleep after a car journey just so she could be carried to the flat. A few times she pretended to be asleep at school so she wouldn't have to do work. Pretending to be asleep so she could get into an army barracks would be no problem.

Her eyes stayed closed, her body stayed still and her breathing stayed steady and deep as she heard John talking to someone. She listened into the conversation. John didn't lie at first. He said he was here to see Private Bainbridge, which was true. He only began to lie when the man asked about the little girl with him. Then he started saying complicated things about his 'colleague' and 'separation anxiety' and 'single parents' and 'psychotic mothers' and 'death threats'.

"Any other time we wouldn't bring her with us but we just can't risk it lately." John explained. "Not until the judge has made her decision." There was a moment of silence until John took another deep breath. "Look, she won't be any trouble. She's fast asleep. It is of major importance that I get in and see Private Bainbridge as soon as possible." More silence until John began to thank the man and walk towards the barracks again.

"Great job." John whispered. The cool breeze that had tickled Sophia's cheeks had stopped and it was suddenly much quieter. She knew that they were indoors but she still didn't risk moving. She heard John chuckle and felt his chest shake. "You can wake up now."

With a grin she sat back up and looked around. The building they were in was beautiful. She wondered if all places that didn't allow children in looked like this. John slid her from his hip and placed her down onto her feet next to him. "You need to be on your best behaviour now, Sophia." He said as he slipped her hand in his. "There's going to be a lot of important people we need to speak to and Private Bainbridge is bound to be a bit scared." Sophia nodded. She didn't blame Bainbridge for being scared. She would be scared as well if there was someone following her. Her mind briefly fluttered back Jim outside the school and in the shop. She shook her was different. Jim could be a coincidence. This could not.

"Can I ask what this is in connection with?" The man behind the desk asked after John had handed him his military ID card. His eyes looked up, falling onto Sophia who stood next to John's seat silently. "And why you've brought a child with you?"

"Personal reasons. It was unavoidable." John explained vaguely, gesturing towards Sophia. The man didn't look very pleased but then again, he didn't seem like the type of person who ever did. He looked like someone who was constantly unhappy for no true reason. Sophia didn't allow herself to look at him for too long. "Private Bainbridge contacted us about a personal matter, sir."

"Nothing's personal when it concerns my troops? What do you really want?" The man answered. His voice was low and boring. The type of voice made you feel ever so slightly gloomier.

"I'm here on a legitimate enquiry." John replied.

"Press? Digging around for some bloody Royal story or something."

"No, sir." John said, pointing to his ID card. Sophia frowned. She didn't know why John still called the man sir when he wasn't at all cooporating. "I'm Captain John Watson, Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers."

"Retired." The man pointed out. "You could be a used salesman now, for all I know." Sophia knew that she was supposed to be on her best behaviour. She was trying her hardest but she could feel the anger swelling up in her chest. She didn't like the way he was talking to John. If she didn't do anything about it soon she suspected that the anger would explode inside of her, breaking her ribs and ripping out of her skin.

"He's not." She said quickly. "He's a detective with daddy and he's got a blog that lots of people read."

"Sophia..." John warned, looking up at her from under his brow. Sophia stuck out her bottom lip and shrunk back so slightly.

"I know you, don't I?" The man asked, leaning closer ever so slightly. "I've seen you in the papers." He said as he tossed John's card across the table. John cleared his throat uncomfortably as he put his ID card back in his wallet. "You hang around with that detective. The one with the silly hat."

"It's not a silly hat." Sophia mumbled under her breath.

"What the hell does Bainbridge want with a detective?" The man asked.

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say."

"You're not at liberty to say? He's a soldier in my regiment. I'll be damned if he's going to get up to cloak and dagger nonsense like this." Another man, the man from outside, ran into the room urgently.

"Sir... sir." He said.

"What's going on?" The man behind the desk asked.

"It's Bainbridge." The sergeant replied, eyes wide. "He's dead."

After that it was a blur of running. Sophia tried her hardest to keep up with the men but they had longer legs and were much faster. By the time she caught up with them they had already stopped in the shower room. She stood behind John, trying to catch her breath. She bent forward, hands on her knees as she panted.

It was then that she saw the man they had come on the case to see. He was lying on the floor on top of a lot of shattered glass. There was red stuff, that Sophia later figured out to be blood, covering his lower back. She wanted to say something but her words got caught in her throat. A horrible, sick feeling swelled up in her stomach.

She stumbled backwards. Everyone had forgotten about her. Forgotten she was there. John went into doctor mode. Sophia had seen him do that before. Like the time she fell down the stairs or scraped her knees and hands when they were on a case or when her daddy had cut his arm open while doing an experiment and told Sophia it was OK. She knew it wasn't. She took his phone and called John. He checked it out and took him to the hospital. There was a lot of blood that day but not as much as there was today.

The sergeant was suddenly grabbing John. Twisting his arm behind his back. Sophia yelped and stumbled backwards again, her back hitting the wall. John began to beg them to let him help the man. Tears blurred Sophia's vision. She closed her eyes, pressing her balled fists into them.

"Sir, caught this one snooping around." Another completely new voice said as footsteps went past her. Sophia didn't look up. She dug her fists in deeper. It began to hurt. Her eye-balls began to burn. She heard herself let out a loud sob.

"Sophia, get out of here, now." Sherlock's voice barked. Sophia's eyes snapped open and her fists fell away. A new sergeant had Sherlock, his arm twisted behind his back. The sight made Sophia cry even harder. "Now!" Sherlock yelled.

Sophia finally did as she was told, running out into the hallway. She didn't go too far. She was far too scared for that. A sergeant could jump out from around any corner and grab her, twisting her arm around her back just like they did with her daddy and John.

She pressed her back against the wall and allowed herself to sink down to the floor. Pressing balled fists back into her eye sockets, she let herself cry again. Quiet crying that built up in her throat and made her chest ache.

She wasn't crying for the man she had never met who lay bleeding to death on the floor. She hardly knew him. No, she was crying for her father and John. They were being hurt. They were being touched without permission. They weren't in control and that terrified Sophia. Sherlock was always in charge. That's why she always felt safe with him. If he wasn't in control and John wasn't in control and Mary wasn't around to be in control then who was? Who would look after Sophia? Who would protect her from Jim?

/

A/N: Wow that was a long break wasn't it! I'm so sorry. I got carried away with Halloween and eating too much and college work. (I mean seriously why do I need to research so many studio photographers, seriously?)

Anyway, thank you all so much for the lovely favs, reviews and alerts. They all make me so happy! Even when I'm out with my friends and they ask why I'm smiling at my phone. You guys all make me so happy, it's ridiculous.

Please review and fav and alert and sacrifice a lamb in the name of this fanfiction. Actually, don't do that last one.