A/N: Sorry this took a while. I've been spreading myself pretty thin with writing projects, both fanfiction and "real" stuff. So please pardon the delay. This chapter was getting a little lengthy, so its really going to be in two parts. But its fluffy and fun. Hope you like! As always, feed my muse with reviews and do check out my Sherlolly stories if you haven't. I think they'll hit the spot. ;) Thanks to everyone who so faithfully read and review!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Gabriel.

When John woke up the next morning and wandered into the lounge, the only ones up were Mrs. Hudson and Gabriel. The former was in the kitchen making breakfast and the latter on the balcony. Mrs. Hudson handed him a cup of tea as he meandered past. "Good morning, dear," she said.

John smiled and took a sip of the heavenly elixir. "Thank you," he sighed.

"Breakfast in a few, if you like. Do you think the others will make it down?"

"Mary's in the shower and I think I heard Sherlock moving around." Mrs. Hudson looked toward the sliding door where she could see Gabriel playing on the porch. John pulled up at one of the kitchen chairs and followed her gaze, picking at the little triangles of toast she'd already placed on the table. "How's Gabriel this morning?"

"He seems fine. I mean, I had to give him a little paracetamol for that arm, but otherwise no worse for wear."

"No, I mean, are he and Sherlock okay?"

"I would assume so. I woke up in the middle of the night—my hip was acting up and I needed one of my soothers—and Sherlock was asleep in Gabriel's room. So I guess they worked it all out."

John nodded, adding a little more milk to his tea and rising from the table. He walked out the door to see what was going on with the kid. He looked okay, considering the previous night. "Hey, Gabe. All right?"

"Good morning, John." The little boy was squatted down in that impossible pose that only children could accomplish. He was examining something in the corner of the porch.

"Shouldn't you be wearing something warmer than your pajamas?"

"I'm not cold," he answered. "Come look at this, John." He waved the doctor over, pointing at his new discovery. In the corner of the porch where the railing came to a sharp ninety-degree angle, a bird had made a nest and left two small eggs inside. "I think it must have fallen out of the tree."

John knelt beside him. "I think you're right. Don't touch it."

"Why not? I was going to bring it inside. It's too cold for the babies out here."

"Well if you touch the nest then the mummy bird won't come back."

Gabriel chewed on his lower lip, considering this new information. "Why not?"

"Well, because she'll be able to smell the human on it I guess. And she'll be afraid."

"Oh." He rocked back and sat down on his backside, legs crossed and watching the nest intently. "So baby birds come from eggs. Like the eggs we eat for breakfast?"

"There can be birds in those eggs," John replied with a nod. "Baby chickens."

"Eeww… so when we eat eggs for breakfast we're eating dead birds?" He scrunched his face up in an expression of disgusted confusion. He was starting to get into a phase where he asked questions about everything. Every now and then John was surprised at the things which Gabriel had never been exposed to. The concept of the egg-chicken relationship was apparently one of those things.

"No no… we only eat the ones that aren't fertilized."

"Ferti-whaty?"

"Fertilized. The boy chicken didn't fertilize the eggs, so there's no chicken inside."

"I don't get it."

"Well see the girl chicken makes the eggs inside her body and then when a boy chicken fancies her…" John paused, suddenly realizing that he was about to tread into unpleasant territory. "They get together and… make chicks that will hatch from the eggs."

"Oh." He seemed to accept this answer and went back to watching the birdnest. John breathed a sigh of relief and started to get up. "So are people hatched from eggs too?"

John stopped, gripping his teacup tightly in his hand. "Kind of."

"Well are they or aren't they?"

"Well… I suppose… technically babies grow from eggs."

Gabriel seemed to consider this a moment, his nose crinkled and nibbling his lip. "So my mom kept me in a nest and I hatched?" John couldn't help laughing. This irritated Gabriel and he narrowed his eyes. "It's not funny, John. How did I get in the egg?"

"Gabe…" he chuckled. "You weren't in an egg like that with a shell and everything. It's an egg that was inside your mother."

"Oh." There was another long silence. John could almost hear the cogs turning in the little boy's head and suddenly he knew what the next question was inevitably going to be. He had to think fast. There must be some way to end this conversation and redirect the child. Despite the fact that he was a doctor, he did not want to be the one to answer Gabriel's questions about where babies came from. "So how'd the egg get in there?"

"Uhm… well… girls are born with eggs in them."

"Boys don't have eggs?"

"No."

"What do boys have?"

"Uhmm…" Think, Watson! Think! "Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails," he replied finally, remembering a children's verse from his childhood.

Gabe giggled. "They do not. Come on, John. What do little boys have instead of eggs?"

John sighed. "I really think that's a question you need to ask your dad, Gabriel."

"Why?"

"Because it's complicated. And as he's so fond of telling us, he's very smart."

Gabriel shrugged and went back to looking at the bird nest. "Do you think they'll be okay out here?"

"Definitely. Their eggs and all those leaves and twigs in that nest will keep them warm. And when their mum comes back, she'll sit on them."

"What?"

"The mummy bird sits on the eggs to keep them warm until they hatch."

Gabriel laughed again and stood up, shaking his head. "My mum didn't sit on me, did she?"

Considering what John knew about Irene Adler, he put nothing past her. "Probably not." He feigned a shiver and hugged himself. "Oi… it has gotten really chilly out here this morning. Let's go in, eh Gabe?"

The two of them went inside to where Mrs. Hudson was laying out scones and jam. Mary had joined her and was putting on a pot of coffee. She always preferred coffee to tea. John sometimes thought that described her personality in a nutshell. "Gabe, darling," Mary called. "There you are. Don't you want something to eat?"

He shrugged. "Just some milk, please. I'll eat when my dad comes down."

"All right. He should be down in a few minutes. Molly said he was in the shower." Gabriel nodded and took the offered cup of milk from Mary. "You know, I noticed that there was a zoo in town. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"A zoo? I never been to the zoo before!" Gabe said excitedly. "Do you think they have komodo dragons there?" John smiled. Komodo dragons had become Gabriel's new favorite animal. He was convinced that at night, while everyone was sleeping, that they grew exponentially in size until they were the giant beasts from his fairy tale book.

"I'm almost sure of it," Mary laughed.

"Hooray!" he cheered, hugging Mrs. Hudson since she was the closest at hand. She ruffled his hair affectionately. "We get to go to the zoo!"

"That's what I hear," Mrs. Hudson replied.

"You'll come too won't you?"

"Of course I will, dear." He giggled and guzzled the whole glass of milk before sprinting up the stairs to find Sherlock. Mrs. Hudson watched as he ran, shaking her head. "I just can't get over it."

"What's that?" John asked, threading his arm through Mary's.

"That little boy. To think that he sprung from the same well of genetics that created Sherlock and Mycroft. He's such a sweet and thoughtful thing, if not mischievous. I often wonder where he got it from."

"Oh I don't know," Mary said. "Sherlock is sweet and thoughtful. Sometimes."

"Niceish," John said. "That's the word I use to describe him. Gabriel is what Sherlock would have been if someone had bothered to try and understand him."

OoOoOo

Gabriel peeked around the corner of the door to his father's room. Molly was inside making up the bed, humming to herself. She started when Gabe knocked and walked inside. "Hi Doctor Molly."

"Good morning, Gabriel," she said, offering him a sunny smile and a big hug. "Feeling better this morning?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Good! Then you can help me with this." She showed him how to pull the sheet taut and tuck it under the corner of the mattress. "What would you like to do today?" she asked, making conversation as they worked on the bed.

"Mary says there's a zoo in town. I hope we get to go. She says they might even have Komodo dragons."

"Oooh… that sounds exciting."

"I know," he said. "Did you know there were baby birds on the porch outside?"

"No! When did we get birds?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I don't know. John said they probably fell out of the tree beside the porch."

"Oh how terrible for them. Do they have a mummy?"

"Probably. John said if we don't touch them that she'll probably come back." She nodded and fluffed her pillow, then Sherlock's which she then tossed to Gabriel. "Doctor Molly, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, darling."

"Well John said that they baby birds hatch from eggs inside their mums. And that human babies come from eggs inside their mums. But… how do the babies get in there, anyway?"

Molly punched the pillow just a little harder than necessary. "Well… uhm… I think that's probably a question for your dad."

Gabriel rolled his eyes and flopped down on the edge of the bed with an exasperated sigh. "Is he the only person that knows the answer to that question? I asked John and he said I had to ask my dad. Now you're telling me the same thing. Is it some big secret?"

"No, it's not really a secret, but it's something he'll want to tell you about himself. Trust me." She smiled at his pouty face and leaned over to kiss his crown. "I know, darling. It's very difficult being a child sometimes. But you'll survive." She tossed the last pillow into place and started toward the door. "I'm going down for some breakfast. You coming?"

"I'll be down in a minute. I already had some milk. I think I'll just wait for my dad."

"Oh." Molly shrugged. "Suit yourself then."

Gabriel sat on the bed waiting for Sherlock for several minutes. He could hear the water running in the shower and his father's cough every so often, but it felt like he'd been sitting there waiting forever. He finally decided that he couldn't wait one more second and wandered into the bathroom. "Dad!" he shouted over the noise of the shower. After all, he didn't want to scare him.

Obviously Sherlock didn't hear him, as no response came from behind the curtain, but a couple of minutes later, the water turned off and Sherlock pulled it back to find his child sitting on the closed toilet lid, staring up at him expectantly. "Uhm… hello."

"Hi, dad!" Gabriel replied brightly.

"Something you needed?" he asked, obviously trying to ignore the fact that he was totally naked.

"I wanted to ask you a question."

"Uhm… okay. Can it possibly wait until I'm dressed?"

Gabriel nodded. "Sure, dad." He hopped off of the toilet and made his way back into the bedroom. He sat down on the windowseat and stared out the window while he waited. His dad had looked very embarrassed when he came out of the shower. Gabe often wondered what the big deal was about being naked. Everybody took baths, right? Not to mention that he and his father were both boys. They had the same equipment, so what was the big deal?

When Sherlock emerged from the bath, he had a towel wrapped around his waist and looked braced for whatever question Gabriel had managed to concoct. "All right, Gabe. What did you want to ask me?"

"Okay, you know how chickens lay eggs and then baby chicks hatch out of them?"

Sherlock sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in an expression that Gabe had come to realize meant that he was trying very hard not to explode. "Yeah? Please tell me you didn't scare ten years off my life to ask me which one came first."

"No," Gabe said, the joke completely passing over his head. "Do human babies come out of eggs?"

"Not exactly."

"John said they did."

"Well, I suppose that technically they do. But it's not exactly the same thing."

"John said that girls have the eggs inside them when they're born. Is that true?" He crossed his arms and stared up at his father, watching for any signs that he might lie to him.

"It is."

"So Doctor Molly and Mary have eggs in them right now."

"Yes."

"Are they white with shells and everything?"

Sherlock thought this over. "No. Not at all."

"So what do they look like?"

"No idea."

"Why not?"

"Well… because they're inside their bodies."

"So they don't lay them like birds?"

Sherlock broke. He laughed out loud, unable to help it. Gabriel looked disappointed and he cleared his throat at his father. "Oh… sorry. Ahem… no. They don't lay them like birds. The eggs stay in their bodies until… uhm… well until…"

"Until when?"

"Until they make a baby. Then… you know… the baby—you know what? Why don't you ask John. He's the doctor."

"He said to ask you."

Sherlock grumbled. "Of course he did."

"Okay, so if girls have eggs, but boys don't—"

"No. Boys don't have eggs."

"Then what do boys have?" Gabriel looked at him with an intense stare that dared him to refuse to answer. What had gotten into everyone? They always answered his questions before!

"Uhm… well… boys have…" Sherlock stammered, looking at the floor in a way that suggested he was looking for a trapdoor that he might fall through. "You know… boys have… a…"

"I got that part, dad. Boys have a penis. I know that." He rolled his eyes and shook his head in a way that was so familiar that it took Sherlock aback. "I've known that since I was four."

"Oh… sorry… I didn't mean to insult your intelligence."

Before Gabriel could ask any more questions, Molly poked her head around the corner. "Hey guys, are you planning to eat? Everything's going to be cold if you don't come on."

"We'll be right there," Sherlock answered quickly, pulling a button-up around his torso. She smiled sweetly and retreated back downstairs. "Let's finish this conversation later, okay? Go on down and get your breakfast. I'm right behind you when I find my trousers." Gabriel gave a disappointed nod, but obeyed, going downstairs to join the others. But he wasn't going to give up. If everyone was so keen to keep this bit of information under wraps, it must be pretty interesting.

Gabriel hated not knowing something.