John's voice is panicked and I can tell from the slight bus on the phone that his hand is slightly shaking (the tremor will appear if he's under a lot of stress, extremely emotional or scared in some way) "Sherlock, where are you? Hai's school just called and said he'd disappeared. They've phoned the police, the-"
"He's here, with me. Please calm down." I interrupt, deciding that that's best.
"What the hell? I almost had a heart attack. Did you take him again?"
"No. Uhm, you know how I showed him how to pickpocket the other day...?"
"You taught him to…You…he's three. What-This isn't the time-Go on."
"Well, he's extremely good at it. He has great coordination for his age and the fact his hands are so small mean that he can easily get into things, if the pocket or whatever is low enough." John's still quiet, waiting for more. I don't go on, and lift Hamish, who had been nudging at my knee, onto my lap. I whisper to him, taking the phone from my ear "It's Dad, and I have a feeling he's going to be mad at us." Hamish slumps and takes my phone from the lab table.
"Go on, Sherlock. Who did he pickpocket? Why did that end up with you taking him out of school?" John's voice is tense, and I can picture him, tapping a hand on the kitchen table, inspecting the orange and fish liver experiment I'd left there (perhaps it looked almost like a meal, before I'd added the carbolic soda, that is).
"I didn't take him out of school exactly…" John 'humphs' on the line. "One of the teachers was wearing a long cardigan, I noticed when I went in. And you know how I was wondering about the smell from the main building?" It had been of something sea water, beef and petrol, "And I couldn't figure out why it would be there?" It had been some strange type of superfood they'd found and were forcing on the children "Anyway. I went across the grounds, searching for that-"
"What has this got to do with taking Hai out of school?" John interrupts, impatient.
"I didn't, I said. Now, I was going towards the outer building, the closest to the nursery and I heard Hamish shouting me, he'd been at the gate so I went over, but I still couldn't see him. –"
"What has the teacher's cardie got to do with any of this?"
"Let me finish. So, as I turned to go to Hamish, he was already there, at my feet. Somehow he'd gotten out of the fence. The teacher's cardigan pocket had been so low that Hamish could reach, and the woman had been stupid enough to keep her key in there. Hamish took it out, worked at the gate for long enough to get the key in, and then got out."
John didn't speak for a minute, thinking about Hamish's exploits, how capable he was. "Why wasn't someone watching?"
"Exactly what I thought. I guessed they'd panic if he wasn't seen and notify one of us, it took way too long for my liking. I decided that a place that couldn't see that he got out and a teacher that didn't know her key was gone were hardly fit to care properly for Hamish, which is the second reason I took him out, I want to find another school for him."
"You're right, I guess. But it would take a lot uprooting him and things. And you being right there would have mean Mycroft's people didn't react. We'll talk about this when I get home."
"I'm not at home."
"Where are you?" John is supposedly still at the surgery, having called me on finding out Hamish was 'missing' and he'd have to finish the shift before coming back.
"The lab, Hai is helping me."
"Near all the chemicals? Keep him away from them, Sherlock."
"I was just passing him the hydrochloric acid, of course." I say, and I can practically hear John rolling his eyes "I'm not an idiot, John."
"I know, I know. Just when you're working, you get distracted." John says, and I hear the squeak of a chair and a voice, "I've got to go, love you."
"I wouldn't endanger Hamish. Love you too." I pass Hamish the mobile "Say bye to Dad."
"Hi Dada." I hear John's voice on the line, a quiet tone and Hamish laughs, then frowns "No, bye." And gives me back the phone.
"What was that?" I ask, but John says he really needs to go and hangs up.
"What did Dad say?" Hamish ignores me and puts his head down on the table. "I'm done with this, so I was going to show you the fireworks again…" I say, Hamish had a fascination with the iron fillings, which I would allow him to throw into the Bunsen burner (from maybe too far away, but he wouldn't have got many in there anyway).
"Talk at home." Hamish mumbles and jumps off my lap to the cupboard, looking for the iron filings.
"About what?" I ask, trying to gage a reaction from him.
"Don't know." Hamish says, then comes back to the table "Where fireworks?"
"We'll see then." I lean down and take the pot from the small shelf underneath the desk. "Here. I'll turn the Bunsen on, and we'll play."
I bring Hamish up to the chair next to me and sit down, moving his chair further back from the table and keeping a hand on his arm "Why don't we do it at nursery?" Hamish says as I change the flame and throw a few of the fillings in. Hamish laughs and adds a few in of his own.
"They think you're too young, which you are, but I can watch you so it's safe."
"But I'm careful." Hamish moans and giggles again when the fire crackles and the sparks appear.
"I know, but a lot of people aren't." I hand him more fillings from the pot "And you're too young to be too near it."
"I'm big!" Hamish protests a little, but is too happy making his fireworks to protest properly.
"Not exactly, you're still very little in comparison." I push the Bunsen back a little and tickle him.
"Fa!" He moans, in between squeals. The door opens, Molly is stood there, a little hesitant. By now I had pulled Hamish to my lap, pulling his arms away from his body and was tickling his stomach.
"Oh you were…Nothing, bye." Molly back out. She's hesitant…what did I do last time I spoke to her? I think it might have been bad, because she had seemed more confident the last time I remember. I look up, and Hamish turns around. No weight gain, still with the boyfriend, family being nice for once. Maybe I shouldn't have deleted what I'd done, though it must have been bad for me to bother in the first place.
"Moll!" Hamish shots and runs over to her. She picks him up
"Hi! Are you okay?" She asks, then pulls a small teddy from her pocket "I thought you were coming today, just later, so I bought you something." She hands him it and Hamish takes it, then hugs her.
"Say thank you, Hamish." I instruct, turning off the burner
"Ta."
"It's okay…nothing really." she mutters, looking at me.
"Molly, please speak properly. Don't mumble."
"Sorry. I just-For goodness sake Sherlock, how could you say that?"
"Say what?" I ask and she lets Hamish down and he goes to the laptop
"How did you forget? I thought you had an eidetic memory-anyway, you told me that Steve was a pimp and that I need to stop searching for people that will hurt me because I never had a father figure, destruction. What are you, a psychologist?"
"I read a textbook when we took Hamish for an IQ test, so I learnt something. I didn't think it would offend you." She sits down, sighing.
"Alright, I shouldn't mind really. I knew he had something dodgy about him." She picks up a beaker, moving it between her hands.
"I'll get John to…set you up with someone." I say, wondering if I'd used the phrase right.
"Really, you'd do that? For me? Thank you, Sherlock." She gives me a quick hug, startling me "Sorry, I got a little excited…I know a lot of John's friends are lovely…and gorgeous."
"It's alright. And Hamish, you said you had something for Molly, on the computer?" That was okay wasn't it? I don't think I flinched too violently, and my reaction may have seemed almost kind. Good.
"Moll!" Hamish says, tugging her hand. "I drawed you a picture." He brings up the Paint program on the computer, the closed window at the bottom.
"Drew." I correct, but Hamish is too busy telling Molly about what he's drawn.
"Can I print it off and put it on my wall?" Molly asks, leaning over his shoulder.
"Yes. Can I come?"
"To my house? Maybe when your Dads go out again. You can play with Toby again."
Hamish had stayed at Molly's only a few times, but he always came back asking for a pet of his own.
"Yes. Yes!" He turns around "Fa, when you and Dada going out?"
"Trying to get rid of us, Hai?" I ask stepping forward and running a hand through his hair.
"No. I want to go to Moll's." He says, then takes her hand. Molly smiles and puts her other hand on his shoulder.
"You can, for tea. If she agrees" I say, wondering whether John would agree to the new experiment I'd thought of, lets just say that Hamish couldn't be around for that.
"Of course I'd love Hamish to come to my house, don't be silly." Molly grins and Hamish leans against her.
"I want to see Dad though." Hamish says, still looking at the computer screen.
"Really? I thought part of your reason for going to Molly's was to get out of talking to him about what you did?" I ask, and Molly raises her eyebrows
"What happened?" She interrupts, but I ignore her comment, waiting for Hamish's answer instead.
He moves away from the screen and looks up at me properly "I don't want to be told off but I want to see him." He explains, a little confused,
"He won't really tell you off, you know that. He'll just say not to do that again, and then we'll talk about moving you to another school."
"I don't want another school." Hamish protests, but I shake my head.
"I think you'll be moving, Hai, but I need to convince your Dad."
"No!" Hamish says this louder, stomping his foot. Seeing a tantrum about to begin, I don't answer and turn away.
***
Rather than the three of us going all the way back to the flat and then Molly taking Hamish home, we get John to call into the lab to talk to Hamish before he goes to Molly's. His main talk with Hamish is as I predicted, and Hamish is sorry not too upset and being in trouble, he seems to know what he'd done was wrong.
"Hamish, what would you think of going to a new school, stop going to nursery here?" John asks.
"Friends."
"You'll make more." I tell him, bent over the microscope just a little away from where John had sat Hamish on the table top.
"I like these." Hamish turns to me, moving down the desk a little.
"Maybe we should see how it goes, Sherlock. Mycroft's cam-"
"No. He wasn't safe. We are not keeping him there."
"But we want him to be happy, too. Not only safe, and you know why no one acted."
"You're right, John. But I still don't like it." I say, I'd found a few new schools on the internet. All state run, and a few even had extra teaching for gifted children like Hamish, not too far from the private sector after all.
"We'll go until the end of term, even test them if you want." John says. Testing. Hmmm, this may be quite good actually. Playing with Mycroft's team of agents, I'll go with it.
"Right. A term."