Mrs. and Mr. Watson lay curled up on their couch watching a movie. They had a blanket covering them and the lights were turned off. With the oil tank filled, the house became warm again. On the coffee table in front of them their plates lay covered with the scraps of food.
Penelope's head lay on her husband's chest, their feet entangled and Clint's hand carding through her auburn hair.
"When's Harry due home?" Clint asked as the credits started playing. Penelope looked up at the clock on the wall."In about a half an hour, Clara's mom said she'd bring her home."
Clint only nodded, "And John?"
"Spending the night at Sherlock's."
Clint nodded again. "Come on, let's go to bed love."
Penelope Mills walked down the grocery aisle looking for her usual cereal. She gave a weary sigh; they had moved the aisles around again. She hated it when they moved everything around, what was once the cereal aisle was now the soup aisle. After searching for couple of minutes she found the correct aisle. "I swear they do this to me on purpose!" She said out loud to herself.
"It seems that way doesn't it!" said a man's voice from behind. Penelope turned around to see a man looking at the kid's cereal next to her, "It's a lot worse when you have kids with you. Trust me, once I was looking for the aisle with the cleaning fluids and ended up on the candy aisle. Took me a full ten minutes till I was finally able to drag my kids away from the chocolate bars."
Penelope gave a small laugh, "I can imagine! Same thing happened with me and my niece!"
The man gave a pleasant laugh, "Got any kids of your own?"
"No, just a niece and a nephew."
"Oh, I got two of my own, a boy and girl, one's five the other is thirteenth, and I swear they come from two different worlds! They're quite a handful!"
"Do they get along?"
"They have their moments, but usually they're off on their own. John, he's five, mostly just plays alone is his room. I'm worried, but he's starting preschool next year so hopefully that will help."
"And your daughter?"
"Harriet, she's a tomboy, so I guess that helps her relate more to John, but she sees herself as the one in charge and the boss of him." The man laughed fondly, "I still remember on time when I came home from work to find John coloring in a coloring book on the floor with Harry's feet resting on his back!"
The two laughed together merrily. Penelope had to admit, it had been quite some time since had a good laugh, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be babbling on and on about my family to a total stranger; you've probably got things to do-"
"No, no! It's fine, actually my entire week is clear! I just moved into town and I don't start work till next week! I just moved here from Devon, I'm staying with my sister till I can find my own place. That's sorta why I'm here, I was bored to tears at home and practically begged her for something to do!"
"Why'd ya move? Oh, I'm Clint by the way." Clint had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was quite broad and was strongly built. Just by looking at him you could tell he had some kind of hard laboring job like a constructive worker or a fireman or perhaps a policeman? Penelope got a better feel of his calloused hands as they shook.
"Penelope, well her husband just died and, well, I didn't want to leave her alone. Jack made her so happy, she was crushed when she woke up and found out Jack didn't make it. Oh sorry, they were in a terrible car crash; my sister was lucky and was only out for a few hours. Jack, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky and was killed on impacted."
"I completely understand, I lost my Clara five years ago; I still can't believe she's gone. We were so excited, she was practically glowing when she found out she was pregnant with a boy," Clint said sadly; the poor man looked completely crushed. Penelope's motherly instincts took over and it took all her will power not to pull the man into her arms and comfort him.
"Oh you poor thing. Was she young?"
"Yes, she had just turned twenty-four. We married young, both her parents were dead and my father had gambled all his money away, my mother left when I was only a child. We wanted to start anew, so we ran away to London together, got married, and started a family. It wasn't until Harry was born when we realized all the issues we were going to face. So we decided not to have any more kids till we were more stable."
Penelope smiled sweetly at Clint, "Well, you two sounded like you were both really in love."
"Yeah, we were. Look, I've already taken up so much of your time; at least let me buy you a drink."
Penelope smiled a little brighter, "I would like that very much Clint."
"Please, it would be my pleasure."
Harry and Clara sat on the floor of Clara's bedroom painting their nails. When the two girls would get together, they would mostly talk about the normal things: parties, the latest gossip at school, and their celebrity crushes. But one thing that Harry began to notice was that neither of them ever talked about boys. Sure, they would talk about actors and male singers or gossip about boys. But they would never talk about boys they liked.
"Okay, so I was talking with Kimberly today, and she said that there was a secret party at Melissa's place this weekend. It's open-invite so you can only go if you know someone who is already going!"
"Whoa...We should totally go!" Harry said, nearly messing up the middle finger on her right hand. Harry, unlike her brother, was right-handed, so painting with her left hand was quite hard.
"Yeah, only one problem: it's at Melissa's place, and you know what that means."
Harry groaned, "It means two things, actually. It means Derrick will be there, and he'll probably end up inviting some geek over to make fun of him." Harry sighed, "He is so immature."
"Oh okay, I can't believe I forgot to tell you this but...Nadia Carlson got tickets to see Abba!"
"WHAT!? I thought they were sold out!"
"So did I! And from what Betty said, she has one extra ticket! The rumor going around is that she was going to take Jesse but-"
"But what? Oh my gosh, did they break up? Again?"
"Yeah, but it's 'cause apparently Jesse likes someone else."
"Who? It's Margret isn't it? I knew that little witch was trying to impress someone that time when she-"
"It's you."
Harry's head snapped up to look Clara dead in the eye, "Me?"
"Yeah, Betty said that Jessie keeps watching you in class and stuff. She said that she saw him even follow you to your locker once!"
"Really? I never saw anything!"
"Yeah, so, what ya' gonna do?" Clara asked as she began putting the nail polish away. "I don't know, I've been in a situation before. Guys aren't usually interested in me," Harry said as she looked at her dark green finger nails, "I suppose I should at least talk to him; it could just be some rumor Betty heard."
"Yeah, I suppose. But do you like him?" Clara asked as she moved from the floor to her bed.
"I- I don't know, I never really thought about him much. I suppose not."
"Hmmmm, well then maybe you shouldn't talk to him. Ya know, and it would be like a movie, you know where like the guy keeps admiring the girl from afar."
Harry laughed, "Yeah, now all I need is some cheesy love song and title." Harry stood up and plopped down on the bed. The two girls stretched out next to each other.
Harry looked over at her friend, she laughed when she saw that Clara had already fallen asleep. Harry had always wondered why she and Clara were friends; they were both so different. Clara liked dresses, singing, and pink, while Harry liked tees and jeans, dancing and green or black. Clara reminded Harry a lot of her mother. Heck, they both shared the same name! Maybe it was because Clara looked over Harry like a mother, or perhaps it was a whole 'opposites attract' thing. But whatever it was, Harry was glad she had Clara.
John and Sherlock hid underneath one of the tables at the restaurant. Mrs. Holmes had rented out a whole side room for the celebration and there were plenty of extra tables in the rooms.
"How long do think it will take Mycroft to notice we're gone?" asked John as he shifted from a crouching position to sitting on his legs.
"Wait...5...4...3...2...1...-"
They both heard someone (Mycroft) sigh heavily and then say, "Mother, where are Sherlock and John?"
"I don't know dear. I thought you were looking after them?"
"No! Why would I- never mind, I'll find them."
The two boys cupped their hands over their mouths as they giggled. John peeked his head out from the tablecloth to see if Mycroft has spotted them yet. As he did he felt someone pull on his shirt, "No John! He'll see you!"
But it was too late; Mycroft spotted the boy and was now walking over towards their table, "Just once, could you two behave like grown ups?!"
The two boys giggled from under the table, still covered by the tablecloth. "I wouldn't hold out too much for hope!" John called out, which only made the boy's giggles turn into real laughter. The laughter soon caught the attention of the guests from the main table. Ronald and Harold were the first notice; next Lilith and Arthur were looking over towards the small two-person table in the corner. So nearly everyone at the main table was looking over to the small table Mycroft was standing next to. Aithley glared at her son to fix the situation.
"Sherlock Holmes, either you come out or I'm coming in!"
"Oh please, My! You're too fat! You wouldn't fit!"
Mycroft heard snickers coming from the main table and turned to see everyone looking at him, and Ronald and Harold snickering to themselves.
"Sherlock, you come out or I'll- I'll I'll-"
"You'll what? Sit on me?"
This caused even a few of the adults to laugh, but a quick death glare from Aithley hushed them.
"Sherlock, come out or I'll see to it you won't do any experiments for two weeks!"
"You can't do that! I'm going to dad's next week. You can't do anything to me there!" Sherlock yelled out.
" 'Lock, maybe you should stop now..." John whispered to Sherlock. The boy looked questionably at his friend, that's when he realized that most of the adults at the main table were having a hard time controlling their laughter. Sherlock peeked out to see that his mother had now come over.
"Mycroft, take Sherlock and John home, we'll sort this out later. Sherlock, I don't want to hear one word from you. I am very disappointed with both of you. Am I understood?"
"Yes Ma'am."