On Mycroft and Anthea's invitation, John and Harry joined them at Dearbourne, the Holmes family seat, for the month of July. Mummy Holmes had relocated to the French countryside to visit with her relations there. They were all relieved to be free of London which had been sweltering in above average temperatures. Harry had plenty of space to run and play outside to his hearts content and they spent many afternoons collecting flowers, bugs, plants, rocks and all the other things little boys deemed important enough to put in their pockets and carry home.
They always had at least one shadow with them, even though the house and surrounding grounds had a security system that was not yet on the market for people who weren't the British Government. For the past three months John had received threatening letters at his home, work, and even at the Yard. More than once, his soldier's senses had told him he was being watched or followed. Mycroft had tightened security on everyone that had regular contact with both John and Harry.
The closer to home that Sherlock got, the more threatening the letters, until the last one had arrived at the end of June with a picture of Harry as seen through a sniper's scope. Mycroft had been diligently teaching Harry how to observe and deduce those around him and he was quite good at it for a four - almost five - year old. He had been the one to catch the sunlight reflecting off the lens of the scope on the building across from the Yard while looking at he view from Greg's office.
They all knew these threats were coming from Colonel Sebastian Moran, he had signed every letter that had been delivered. It had taken quite a bit of digging, his past was buried as deeply as Moriarty's had been, but they had eventually located the original records on him. He was as psychopathic as Moriarty had been given the number of bodies he left in his wake, he was just better at hiding it.
John had known him during his army days, had been taught sniper techniques by the man in fact, had even saved his life from a shrapnel wound to the abdomen. The fact that Harry had been marked as a target was unacceptable to John. He would do everything he could to protect Harry. Albus, Minerva, and Kingsley had all been alerted and had done what they could to put magical protections on the property, but no one was sure if they would be able to stop a bullet. The wise thing would have been to keep Harry inside, but John refused to do so. Snipers could shoot into buildings as easily as they could in the open, especially one of Moran's talents.
John began to practice daily with his gun. Mycroft had converted the former archery range into a shooting range for this use. Both he and Anthea joined John in his daily practice, which surprised him. Mycroft was as bad a shot as his brother, but Anthea, John was relieved to note was almost on the same level as himself. She had also had training in several different types of firearms, including a sniper's rifle. John's respect for her went up with every new facet he learned about her.
They had celebrated John's birthday on the seventh with a small family dinner and movie night and were planning a large party with friends and family in for the weekend for Harry's birthday at the end of July.
The logistics of pulling off a large house party under the threat of a sniper attack seemed a bit crazy to John, but he had been overruled in true Holmes fashion. Mycroft had even called Mummy Holmes, whom John had never met and yet was still somehow intimidated by, even over the phone.
She had 'pursuaded' him to let them throw Harry his fifth birthday party. Even after dealing with both Sherlock and Mycroft, the fact that Mummy Holmes was able to addle him enough over the phone to change his mind about something meant that she was the scariest Holmes by far.
Aside from dramatic party planning on the part of Anthea and running the government from afar on the part of Mycroft, their month was spent lazily soaking up the sun (when it wasn't raining), exploring the woods, and discovering hidden passages inside the house (which Mycroft assured John was absolutely safe and booby trap free and had even been Sherlock-proofed)
So when Harry couldn't be found for several hours, they assumed he was in the passages. After four hours, the more extensive search was started, and John had to be talked down from the panic attack he was intent on having. Two texts came in simultaniously on John's and Mycroft's phones.
The message on Mycroft's phone was from Sherlock.
20 Jul 4:36pm 51*32N 0* 5W - London
Hello brother dear, where is my blogger?
The message on John's phone was from Sebastian Moran.
Missing someone? Sherlock has forty eight hours to find me before I put a bullet in his sweet little head.
There was a video of Harry attached that showed the boy was dirty but asleep on a small mattress pushed up against a dirty wall. John watched his chest rise and fall before handing the phone over to Mycroft so he could see the message. His panic attack was completely forgotten. He felt a peaceful calm come over him. The buzzing in his ears ceased and all he heard was silence. He was in his 'killing space' as he'd always called it. Ironically enough, it was Moran who had taught him how to get into this head space. Now all that concentration was directed back at him. John pushed aside all emotions and was immediately in soldier mode. An enemy had threatened one of his own and now he would hunt and kill the bastard.
John looked at Mycroft and Anthea and started issuing orders, his Captain's voice taking complete control of everyone in the room. Mycroft's shadows snapped to attention before running off to follow his orders, never questioning if he had the right to issue them in the first place. Anthea's fingers flew over her phone's keypad relaying John's instructions to the rest of the minions in Mycroft's employ. Mycroft forwarded his brother the message from John's phone. Sherlock may not know about Harry or why he was important, but the fact that Mycroft had added the word pirates to the end of the message would give his brother all the information he would need. If vatican cameos was the codeword Sherlock used with John that only the two of them knew the meaning of, pirates was the codeword for the Holmes brothers.
He also gave in to the inevitable and called Mummy. She would find out soon enough anyway that Harry was missing and Sherlock was back, better to get her on board as soon as possible. For all that he and Sherlock were proper geniuses, they had gotten it all from somewhere and that somewhere was Vivienne Rachelle Lisette Archambeau de Orleans, now Vivienne Holmes. It was a truth very widely known that one did not cross Vivienne Holmes. She had stayed out of the whole James Moriarty debacle at their request and allowed Sherlock to handle it his way, but it was now time to end this once and for all.
In the french countryside, in an extravigantly appointed sitting room, Vivienne Holmes took the call from her eldest son. When he apprised her of the situation and had rung off, Mummy Holmes began to plot and plan. She would be on her way home in a less than an hour and then she was going to get very inventive in all the ways she would make Sebastian Moran beg her forgiveness for daring to threaten her family. A small smile appeared on her still gorgeous face. Oh yes, this was going to be quite lovely!
A/N: Hello Lovelies! A small cliff hanger for you! Harry's been taken by Sebastian, Mummy Holmes is a scary BAMF for reasons you'll find out later, and John is a little bit dark. If you haven't noticed, I did kick the rating up from K to T, just to be safe. Things will get shippy, but nothing explicit, and it won't be the main focus of the story. So if that's not your thing, you can probably read it as epic platonic bromance, or you can bail out now, but I'll ship it till it sinks!
Also, I didn't take French as a foreign language, and only did a small amount of research on Mummy's name, so if I've got it completely wrong, I apologize for my ignorance!
Until next time (maybe later today?), gentle viewers, enjoy!