DO NOT OWN! I promise madworld27 I will have him involved in another case very soon :D. For now Halloween.
88
Things had gone pretty much back to normal in the weeks following the funeral. Sherlock was extra clingy but starting classes back up with Mrs Hudson had given him something to be distracted with. More than once Sherlock had come to John looking for more cases.
"I want to solve cases John. I can do it, I have both our memories." He pouted a bit. John put him off but knew something would have to give soon. He was a child but not a child. Eventually he would have to discuss something with Mary and Lestrade at a later date. FOr the moment Sherlock was content enough with his studies while John said that it was a little to busy at his own job to work out taking him to a crime scene. It was true enough, cold and flu season had started up recently and John and Mary spent their days running around helping thousands of people with sniffly noses, coughs and fevers.
Through all of that he did notice when Sherlock began to ask sly questions about his job. At first John, exhausted simply answered as they cuddled together watching Doctor Who. But as the days wore on he became a bit more suspicious.
"Not that I'm against it Lock." He said easing the boy using his nickname. "But why the sudden interest in my career?"
"No reason in parthicular." The boy said, suddenly focusing intently on the tv. He heard no more about it, but it was pretty much knocked from his mind when he realized Halloween was a few days away.
"We should take him out trick or treating." Mary said to him one evening after Sherlock had been tucked safely into bed.
"I don't know if thats a good idea." John sat letting the thought stew in his mind.
"Come on dear, we'll be with him. We can even have Lestrade scan the candy when we're done to be sure its safe. I'm sure he's never done this before, let him be a kid."
John stared at her pleading blue eyes before sighing.
"Alright, your correct as usual. He'll be perfectly safe with us there." SHe smiled and sat next to him on the couch placing a kiss on the corner of his mouth. "Well that's good because he and Mrs Hudson has been working on his costume for a week now and he'd be very disappointed if he couldn't use it."
"Oh!" He feigned surprise eyes glinting at her teasingly. "So the whole household went behind my back on this. I think this requires some sort of punishment." He went to reach for Mary who jumped up giggling.
"Catch me if you can." She smirked at him before dodging her way upstairs.
John stayed back a moment to wander down the hall into Sherlock's room. The streetlight streaked in through the window lighting the boy's innocent face. His arm was curled around Hamish as his chest rose and fell with the deep breaths of sleep, his lips quirked in a small smile as for once he seemed to have pleasant dreams. Tucking the blanket in around him, he studied him a moment more, before quietly cracking the door and wandering up the stairs after his wife, who was still giggling away in their room.
It had been so long since they were carefree like this. They had lost their child sure, but they'd gained a child who needed them more. So it was sad and they would never forget, but Sherlock filled the void and gave them so much love in return for simple care and love that he should have been given in the beginning. He joined his wife in an evening of reaffirming their love. They were sure to use protection, satisfied with the life they had.
88
It was Halloween, as of yet Sherlock had refused to disclose his costume to John instead saying he had two surprises for him that evening when he got home. The doctor spent the day going through the motions but part of his mind definitely on what he would discover that evening. The boy had been running around the flat for weeks with sly looks at his father and big toothy grins. All John could think of is this must be one heck of a pirates costume.
That evening when he and Mary reached home, Mrs Hudson grabbed them immediately and ushered them into her living room.
"First things first dears. He wanted me to show you this." She handed John a typed report. 'My Hero' By Sherlock Holmes. "Its one project generally assigned to children his age. He's been very excited for you to read it. Now while I help him with his costume, you go ahead and have a read."
The two hunched over the pages and scanned down. It ended up being about five pages long. If John wasn't so touched and emotional he would think leave it to a seven year SHerlock to write a full blown high school sized paper.
He had started by talking about his hero, the army doctor that saved lives. He put in stories from his time in afghanistan and sited a lot of his blog posts about their time together, John noticed a lot of the medical terms that Sherlock had been questioning him about weeks ago. Basically he'd written an Ode to John Watson, even greater than the fated Best Man Speech. He and Mary cuddled together sobbing quietly as they reached the end.
'John Watson saves lives. He saved his wife's, my mummy Mary's life. Giving her a life to live and a place to go where she doesn't need to be afraid anymore. He saved my life. He took an angry abused excrack head and taught him what love was and what family really means. Then he saved me again by taking me in as a messed up child, he helped me through my psychological scars, healed my physical wounds and protected me from Moriarty and anyone else wanted to hurt me. I used think there were no angels and no hero's. But I had one right in front of me all along.'
They were interrupted from their pondering when Mrs Hudson walked back in.
"Presenting: Doctor Holmes!" John blinked up as Sherlock walked proudly in, he couldn't help a laugh of delight. Sherlock was dressed in slack pants much like John often wore, his shoes were neat and shined. He had on a jumper, a carbon copy of one of John's favorites. On top of that he wore a white medical coat and when he got closer John could see a badge on it that read Doctor S. Holmes. In his hand was Hamish who had his own little medical coat and badge.
John stood and took Sherlock into a big bear hug.
"Well this is a surprise, I figured you'd dress as a pirate."
"Silly daddy I'm a pirathe everyday! This is dress up and I wanthed tho be like you! Mrs Hudson made the jumper and the whithe jacketh for me and Hamish. Do you like them?" He looked up pleadingly.
"I love them, and I'm honored that you think so highly of me. You're paper." He pushed through his emotions. "You're paper was beautiful."
They looked at each other grinning like they were inside their own joke their own world, like they had done long ago as adults on the run after criminals. A gentle clearing of a throat brought them back.
"I think we should get trick or treating don't you?" Mary said smiling proudly at her two boys as Mrs Hudson looked on at the three of them, tears in her loving eyes.
"Ok." John said taking Sherlock's small hand in his.
"Ok." Sherlock said reaching his free hand out to Mary. The three of them went out into the cool October night together. They laughed and talked and ooed over the other costumes that they saw. Sherlock filled a pillowcase and most of it coming from John and Mary's hospital friends who couldn't get enough about how adorable their child was especially as he was dressed as his daddy. Sherlock was shy as normal but he grinned face pinking as they complimented him, his hand firmly in John's grasping the strength he needed not to hide from all the new people grouped around him.
At the end of the evening Lestrade gladly scanned the candy being sure there were no razors or other things in the candy. They all studied to make sure there weren't pin pricks in any of it either. Finally satisfied that the candy was safe, they gathered a sleeping Sherlock from Lestrade's office where Donovan had been quietly watching over him.
Just before they left Sherlock sleeping soundly on John's shoulder, the man turned to the Detective.
"His memories are back enough for him to want to solve cases. Its hard for me on the one hand knowing he's seven but on the other knowing he already has all those other cases and murder scenes in his head and it isn't messing him up. Maybe...maybe if we let him do stuff like he did as an adult once in a while we can bring him back."
Lestrade studied him. "Do you really want to lose him like this?" He asked.
"Honestly not really but he's an adult in a child's body warring with the child personality and the adult personality and if we don't bring him back it could hurt him worse. I loved him as an adult and I love him now. I always care for him no matter what, making him an adult again won't change that. He may get annoyed but now that we know the life's he's had and why he has the total disregard for his own health...well he's going to find he has parents anyway. Even in his thirties." He shushed the boy who began to fidget in his sleep. Lestrade smiled down at them.
"I always knew you'd make him a good man." He started to turn and walk back to his office but just before he did. "We will find something for him. I miss that knucklehead too."
88
Next chapter, Lestrade finds a case for little Sherlock to work on. R&R