DO NOT OWN! The awaited John Vs Mycroft chapter. Does he know the extent of what Sherlock went through? What will he do when faced with an angry ex-army doctor?

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John was standing straight arms behind his back facing forward. His face was smooth and blank but inside he was fuming. It had taken well over a week but he'd finally managed to get Mycroft to agree to meet him. He'd had to make several threats, including just bursting into one of his many government meetings to do it, but finally the man had agreed.

Now he stood in the home of the other man, in the living room. He'd refused a seat, and while normally he'd be very curious to look around at the home of such an intricate person, he was too angry and resolved to notice much beyond the fact there was a fire place, some leather chairs and a painting of a dog over the fire place.

It had been five minutes since the butler had left him, and said would be with him soon and as he waited the anger in him built. Mycroft had better pray that he didn't know what Sherlock had gone through completely or the man was going to be in heaps of trouble. Mr and Mrs Holmes were going to be taken care of whether the government official did it, or John himself did it.

"Ah John, why don't you take a seat." The deep overly polite voice came from behind him.

"I'd rather stand for this, Mycroft." He said stiffly turning on his heel and going down to a parade rest.

"To what do I owe this pleasure." John watched as Mycroft observed him, he knew the man knew he was angry and that it had to do with Sherlock. But he clearly had him stumped beyond that.

"Do you know the extent of your parents abuse on your younger brother?" He hissed.

"*Sigh* John what's past is past, why are you bringing this up again?"

"PAST IS PAST? Tell that to the little boy who wakes up every morning with nightmares of his FATHER raping him!" He mentally slapped himself. This was not how he'd wanted the conversation to go. But how could the man, who'd had several men disappear for looking at Sherlock funny, just let his parents who'd beaten, belittled, emotionally and physically traumatize him, run around as if nothing had happened?

He opened his mouth to speak as he glanced up at the other man. His mouth closed again as he took a good look at the other man. Mycroft was standing straight, his eyes wide and calculating. He'd gone extremely pale and this lips were moving, as John tried to read them he was sure whatever he was speaking, it wasn't in English. Suddenly he felt guilt boiling in the pit of his stomach. This man had a hard thing to deal with. Those people were his parents too, but Sherlock was his younger brother. Somehow he had to balance it out. Now he'd ruined that balance by bringing to light another aspect of his younger brothers life that he'd been unaware of.

"Look Mycroft I shouldn't-" He was stopped as Mycroft raised a hand and looked him in the eye.

"All I was trying to do was protect him. I couldn't back then, I was too young myself. But I tried to keep him away from them whenever I could. I moved him out when I was old enough, I kept them away from him when he was an adult as often as possible. I thought I was doing the right thing." Suddenly he looked very weary and very old. He sat rather heavily on one of his chairs putting his face in his hands. John was unsure what to do, so stood and waited for him to say something else.

As he waited he gazed around the room, and his eyes went back to the painting, in the background behind the red dog, he could make out a smiling Sherlock.

"That is Redbeard."JOhn jumped as Mycroft spoke. "He was supposed to be my dog, but he adored Sherlock. I tried to keep it a secret from our-my parents so that he had something that made him happy. They found out...and had him put down." John could almost swear there were tears in the other mans eyes. "Sherlock completely shut down after that. He proclaimed himself a sociopath and pushed everyone away. He didn't have friends at school anyway so that wasn't hard. Really it was only me he had to get rid of. He just shut down. I thought he was ruined for life, until he met you. " He took a deep breath. "But this, I never...they did such horrible things to him, but I thought that that part of him at least, was protected."

John stood awkwardly as he watched the normally stoic man, try to grapple with his emotions. Long minutes passed, before the older man finally looked up. His eyes appeared to possibly be slightly red rimmed, but other than that he was as straight faced as normal.

He stood and reached out a hand to shake John's. They shook hands, and Mycroft ushered him towards the door. Just before the doctor left, he turned to him.

"I thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will always be sorry that I couldn't protect him better, especially from...this." He looked John straight in the eye. " They will be taken care of. I felt some sentiment for them, no matter how little it was, for being my parents. But that is done, they will pay for everything that they have done to him. Just...thank you for doing what I never could. Thank you for letting him live."

There was a flurry of motion and John suddenly found himself outside the closed doors, a car waiting to bring him back to 221B. He sat the entire ride, picturing Mycroft's downtrodden face. He felt bad about ruining Mycroft's balancing act, but not enough to regret it. They needed to be taken care of, and now that he knew they would be he could go back to focusing on helping his son heal.

John tromped up the stairs, quickly wanting to see Sherlock for himself. Wanted to make sure that telling Mycroft hadn't somehow gotten back to those devil people and that they had come to punish him. Just as he topped the stairs he heard giggling. It warmed his heart and he strode in, looking around the flat.

Sherlock was on his knees on one of the kitchen chairs, leaning over the table and scribbling away on a piece of paper. Hamish sat next to him on the table, while Mary moved around making dinner. Music was playing in the background and the two of them were humming along, laughing together. John leaned against the door frame and watched his happy little family for a moment. Those people had no idea what they had lost, trying to destroy this sweet little boy. He had been stronger than them and while he didn't come out unscathed, he'd come out victorious, they hadn't broken him.

"DADDY!"He knelt down and grabbed Sherlock up into a hug and twirled him around, relishing the happy belly laughs coming from the child.

"I love you 'Lock." He whispered fiercely into the boys ear.

"Love you thoo daddy!" He said back.

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Any ideas for a next chapter? Hope you enjoyed! R&R