"John, come quickly!" Mary cried from the nursery. Watson and Holmes, who had been talking by the fire in the sitting room, rushed up the stairs, fearing attack.
They stopped in the doorway, caught by the sight before them. The Watsons' son was stumbling across the room, his blond curls askew.
"He's walking, John," Mary said softly. "Sherlock is walking."
"Daddy!" An excited young voice came from the kitchen, "Daddy, you're home!" A brown haired blur propelled itself into John waiting arms. Young Anna, named after Mary's old employer, was a three year old blur of energy. She looked at her daddy with the blue eyes of her mother, and eagerly told him, "Mommy and me made biscuits!"
***
"How was school?" John asked his son as they sat around the dinner table. Sherlock grinned at him. "I liked it. They let me do experiments like I do with Uncle Sherlock."
John and Mary exchanged half amused, half fearful glances. Their son was growing up to be very much like his uncle Sherlock, and they were not yet sure what to think of that.
"Why can't I go to school, Daddy?" Anna asked John. "Sherlock goes to school."
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but girls aren't allowed in school." John hated to say it, but even Mycroft's considerable influence on behalf of his pseudo niece had not wavered school policy.
Anna's pleading gaze turned to her mother. "Mummy, can't I go to school?" Mary shook her head, then brightened as an idea occurred. "What if I teach you instead, darling?"
The smile that lit up Anna's face was answer enough.
***
The years flew by, and Holmes retired, leaving a new detective to take his place. Sherlock Hamish Watson replaced him, to the delight of his godfather, and was in time accompanied by Dr Anna Watson as he solved crimes on the streets of London, with the occasional help from his uncles.
***
John had tears in his eyes as he walked his daughter down the aisle. The expression of the man waiting by the altar reminded him of his feelings when he married Mary, many years ago. She took her place by the altar, and he went to sit with his wife and both Holmes's, who had come into the city just for the wedding.
"Anna Martha Hudson, do you take Robert Gregory Lestrade to be your lawful wedded husband?"
Looking straight into the eyes of her childhood friend, the son of her father's good friend, and the man she loved with all her heart, she said, "I do."
***
After many years, John and Mary retired to Sussex, to live in a small cottage, gifted by Holmes, that held a remarkable proximity to a certain beekeeper's cottage. They had many visitors, including their two children, and eventually grandchildren, and had many evenings spent by the fire with an old friend, remembering the remarkable lives they had led.
At Baker Street, the night after Holmes's return, John Watson slept on, a soft smile on his face, dreaming of a world death had not touched.
