Chapter 38

Disclaimer: I don't own Sherlock or anything.

Author's note: I don't own Sherlock or anything.

Hamish was sat on the sofa watching some crap telly in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, it was raining outside and his parents were busy pottering around the house. His dad was trying to tidy the living room floor of the remnants of Gladstone's teddy massacre, he had grabbed one of Hamish's old teddy bears and they'd come into the living room that morning to stuffing all over the floor. His Papa was in the kitchen analysing some of the stuffing.

Hamish laughed hysterically at a character's movement in the show and suddenly his voice went from his normal sound to a high pitched squeak. He stopped laughing instantly and put a hand to his throat.

John looked over at him curiously and said "Alright?"

"My voice just went a bit high." Hamish frowned.

"Hmm… perhaps it's beginning to break." John pondered.

"Oh… cool! Do you think I'll sound like Papa?" Hamish asked brightly, leaning against the arm of the armchair he was sat on.

"Hey! What's wrong with my voice?" John pouted.

"Nothing! But papa's is more… deep and resonating." Hamish explained.

"It is. One's voice is a powerful tool, Hamish." Sherlock said.

"I know! You can make people cry or run away with your voice." Hamish nodded "But seriously, do you think it'll go really low?"

"It is unlikely to go as low as mine. My voice is naturally deep and my tones have effect. However, my voice was deepened by smoking." Sherlock said, not looking up from his experiment.

"Oh…" Hamish sighed and stared back at the telly.

"We'll have to wait and see." John ruffled his hair and went to put the last of the stuffing in the bin.

CUT!

Hamish's voice dropped relatively quickly in comparison to some people he knew who had been going through the drop slowly and were aching for their voices to stop betraying them and going squeaky or crackly or such at the most inopportune moments.

It took about a month until Hamish had a deep voice that was smooth and clear. When he talked it was kind of… different, he liked it but at the start it was almost not his voice he was hearing.

Sherlock got out John's stethoscope and a notepad and listened to Hamish talk with the stethoscope on his chest, he was finding the difference fascinating. In the end Hamish had glared at him till he left him alone to finish his tedious homework. At first Hamish didn't mind, but then he got bored and needed to concentrate on typing.

Sherlock had stalked away grumpily mumbling "John's glare… not fair at all…"

Hamish was definitely not as deep-voiced as his papa, though it could deepen more with time and growth. He sounded a little like John and Sherlock in tone but his parents were fully-grown men, they were both more deep in voice than him. But all-in-all Hamish was very chuffed with his deep voice. Some of his classmates were yet to break their voice so he oddly felt quite accomplished despite it not being his doing, it was just nature.

CUT!

Just after the April holidays Hamish went back to school and George's voice had finally smoothened out and they both had deep voices. George's voice had been breaking for over a year!

They went to Science together and sat in their normal seats, chatting till their teacher, Mr Lloyd told them to stop.

"Right, class, today we're going to be looking at a rather recent science phenomenon. It was discovered about thirteen years ago, well, they'd been working on it for years but it was successfully carried out thirteen years ago." Mr Lloyd explained.

He switched the smart board on and took the register quickly.

"Right, now, as we've just finished looking at reproduction I thought this would be an interesting thing to focus on today. Right, so men and women are the only people who can reproduce, am I right?... No. Two men could make a baby too." Mr Lloyd said.

"How in hell?" one girl mumbled.

"Well, I won't go into too much detail until you're at GCSE stage, but scientists here in London found the correct elements to create a reaction that putting a batch of sperm from one man, and another from another man, could act like an egg and sperm, and it creates life. The cells are put inside a female, like a surrogate, because a female has the correct organs to… basically, bake the baby in an oven. You know the phrase "bun in the oven"… anyway, so, I thought we'd look at some news reports from the time that it was revealed that it was possible. And then after I want you to go on the computers and make a powerpoint, alright?"

The class mumbled agreement and Hamish was frowning, Mr Lloyd hadn't so much as looked at him or mentioned him? He was the baby! He obviously wasn't aware it was Hamish, oh… this would either be fun or horrendous depending on the class's reaction.

They all sat patiently while Mr Lloyd got youtube up and typed in "BBC one news two men make a baby" and hit search.

He clicked the link for the video he wanted and turned the lights off for the best viewing.

The class fell silent and watched the news report.

They watched as the news reporter introduced them and everyone looked over at Hamish quickly when they heard his surname and saw him and his parents, he was only little, sat on his parent's lap. They all turned back to watch and Hamish heard some cooing from people whenever he would speak or do something. By the end the lights turned back on and Mr Lloyd was staring at Hamish.

"You never said…" he stammered.

"I didn't think it was something I needed to share. Nobody else walks in and says "Hello, I'm Courtney and I was made from a man and a woman."" Hamish said, trying to project his voice like his papa did when trying to get people to listen and not question.

"I'm sorry, I hadn't watched the clip before, I'd got all this stuff from another science teacher…" Mr Lloyd babbled "Erm… so would you like to give your experience to the class? As you're someone closely involved in the process…?" he asked.

Hamish stared at the man for a moment, deciding what to say "Fine." He decided "Right, well, my dads made me through that new method. My papa is greatly involved in science and my dad is a doctor so it was curiosity that brought them to decide to have me this way. They wanted a child, and considered adoption or surrogacy, but… a close relative," Hamish was careful not to talk about his Uncle Mycroft much "told them about the reproduction, my dad and papa looked into it, they didn't want to risk anything, and they decided to give it a go once they deemed it safe for… well, me. I don't know the surrogate, though dad and papa did tell me about her when I asked who carried me, but I don't mind. Of course, we're grateful to her, but she isn't a part of our lives and hasn't been since the day I was born, and she wanted it that way too. And… that's about all I have to say." Hamish said.

"Well, thank you for that, Hamish." Mr Lloyd gave him an encouraging smile "Does anyone else have anything to say?"

"But… whose like… the mum?" a newcomer to the school, Adrian Brown, asked, looking confused.

"I don't have a mum." Hamish stated.

"But… you need one."

"Do I?" Hamish raised an eyebrow "Many people don't have mums, or don't have dads. Whether it's due to having a single parent or like me, same-sex parents. It isn't a problem. I have female figures in my life too, my gran, my dads' friends. And pretty much everyone has figures of both sex's in their lives, whether they be distant or close relations, or friends." Hamish explained.

"Right… but like… say you needed comfort…" Adrian tried.

"Oh my God! You're so stupid…" Hamish put his head in his hands and sighed in exasperation, and finally he looked up at his peer "Men can be comforting, men can be nasty, women can be comforting, women can be nasty. You're stuck in thinking that genders have conventions, well, they don't. It isn't all about gender, it's about the person." Hamish explained.

"Damn straight, my mum was always really horrible but my dad was who I went to for a cuddle when I was little!" a girl at the back pointed out.

"You see." Hamish said "Just… open your mind." He said fairly to Adrian then turned back to the teacher.

"Right… good… why don't you all go and get on your computers and start on this powerpoint?" Mr Lloyd stammered and everyone got up and tried to sit next to their friends at the computer desks at the back.

"Good on you, mate." George patted Hamish on the shoulder.

Hamish smiled "Thanks."

CUT!

At dinner that evening Hamish explained to his parents what had happened that day.

"And this science teacher had no idea you were the first child to be born from male and male reproduction?" Sherlock asked.

"Absolutely clueless, he normally is though!" Hamish rolled his eyes.

"John, we must ring the school and get Hamish changed into another class. I will not have an idiot teach him science! Oh, goodness, my poor child has been taught by an imbecile… science, John!" Sherlock exclaimed.

"Hey, wait, just… Hamish, why don't you talk to the school?" John suggested.

"Me? Why?" Hamish asked sharply.

"Because you're a big boy now, if you have a complaint then you can talk to your head teacher, or tutor." John said.

"But… I don't want to. I like my class, George is in it with me. And I've also already learnt the whole module for this year so I just go there for George." Hamish explained.

"Hmmm… well at least he isn't teaching you anything. But make sure to correct him if he's wrong, I don't want any other children growing up and being given false facts." Sherlock said.

Hamish chuckled "Papa, you're so funny about science, it's like it's your baby."

John laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Hey!" Sherlock looked between his husband and son "It isn't! The only baby I have is you… well, you're a big baby now… but still my baby-"Hamish cut Sherlock off.

"I am not a baby!"

"Not anymore, but as a parent, you're still my baby boy. But if you prefer then I usually refer to you as 'my child' or 'son', but as you were saying science was my baby… well, I was just explaining that you're my only child. Science is… important to me and that's it." Sherlock frowned and stabbed a prawn with his fork.

"Fine… whatever. Dad, can you watch that new drama on BBC One with me tonight? It looks good but kind of scary and I don't want to watch it alone." Hamish asked.

"Of course! I planned to watch it anyway. And we can borrow the shock blanket that your papa stole from Lestrade last week, we can hide behind it if need be!" John grinned.