The More Things Change

Genre: Friendship/Family

Pairings: Greg and Molly, Sherlock and Sally, John and introducing OC Alexandra, all background

Main characters: Greg, Sherlock, John

"So, what's her name?" Sherlock said suddenly. John raised an eyebrow and turned his head to his left to look up at his taller friend.

"What?" he asked, feigning confusion.

"Your girlfriend, John. What's her name?" Greg asked. John's eyebrows furrowed as he turned his head to the right to look up at his other taller friend.

"We're not stupid, Dr. Watson. We know you have a lady in your life. It doesn't even take Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out." Greg grinned cheekily and winked. John rolled his eyes at this, sighing heavily.

"He's right, you know," Sherlock said, words that, while they HAD been known to pass through his lips regarding Greg Lestrade, nevertheless did so quite rarely. "Greg figured it out in his own way as well. Apparently he's more observant than we thought. Who would have imagined he made Detective Inspector and solved his own cases before I came along!" he said teasingly.

"Shall I?" John said, grinning at Greg.

"Be my guest," Greg chuckled, as John solidly landed a punch into Sherlock's arm on his behalf. Sherlock scowled at his friends before shaking his head with resignation.

"That was MEAN," Sherlock pouted as he rubbed his arm where John's fist had made contact, before allowing a small smile to form.

"Alexandra," John finally said, as their journey on foot took them closer to their destination. "Well, Alex. Everyone calls her Alex."

"Alex?" Sherlock asked. "As in your nurse? Nurse Alex?"

Greg smiled at this. It figured, it did seem like John Watson had left little time in his life for a romance, between the surgery, sleuthing with him and Sherlock, and being a Dad to Rosie and an Uncle to everyone else.

"The one and only," John smiled softly. "Well where else was I going to find a nice lady to spend quality time with? We have a lot in common and we do get to spend a lot of time together at the surgery. She's smart as a whip and she's beautiful, and she even thinks boring old me is some kind of a catch," he said, self-deprecatingly.

"Well, you ARE a catch," Sherlock said. "But for God's sake don't tell Mrs. Hudson I said that. It took two marriages to women to finally convince her that we weren't gay."

Greg snorted at this. Besides himself, he wasn't sure he knew two men who were more heterosexual than John and Sherlock. Oh well, he thought, to each their own opinions. For as much as they all loved Mrs. Hudson, they knew that you could tell her, but you couldn't tell her much, and once she got an idea into her head, there wasn't much a person could do to budge it.

"So will you be spending time at her flat with her now that the cat's out of the bag?" Greg asked casually. "221B is getting to be rather close quarters as it is I reckon, but I don't imagine Mrs. Hudson would be too pleased if you moved out with Rosie."

John shrugged his shoulders. "Hadn't really thought about it. We're taking things slowly, we haven't actually gotten to that stage quite yet. Guess I don't want to rush into anything. I've still got Rosie to think about."

"Well you're not getting any younger, John," Sherlock pointed out. John rolled his eyes at this. "Even Greg didn't waste any time when he and Molly first got together. Time waits for no man after all." Sherlock's brows furrowed defensively as his two friends levelled glares at him at the same time.

"Says the man who refused to shit or get off the pot with Sally for a full bloody year," Greg muttered under his breath. Sherlock failed to hear it, but John, standing closer, caught it. He glanced at Greg and they shared a knowing half smirk.

Choosing not to respond verbally to Sherlock's crack about his age, John said, "Well, I have actually talked to Mrs. Hudson about 221B getting a bit crowded. It's only going to get worse over time. Michael and Grace will need separate rooms eventually. I wasn't going to say anything just yet, but we're going to be moving out soon."

The two men flanking him stopped dead in their tracks and exchanged a look of shock that one might see if they'd both been solidly slapped across the face – which, in truth, they both felt they had been.

"You're leaving Baker Street?" Sherlock finally said, sounding truly dismayed.

"I suppose we should have seen this coming," Greg said unhappily. None of them could deny that while it was manageable for the time being, as Sherlock and Sally's twins grew they would need their own space.

"Well. Not exactly," John said as he turned around to face his friends, smiling mysteriously. "I talked to Mrs. Hudson about leaving and she had a suggestion. Apparently she doesn't want to see anyone actually leave her house now that she's finally got everyone together under one roof. She has no children of her own and at her age it's comforting, apparently. Look, I know none of us want to see it, Mrs. Hudson has always seemed a little bit invincible, but the hard truth is, she's in her 80's and she's getting frailer with each passing year."

Greg thought about this, a look of sad acknowledgement passing over his dark eyes. Sherlock glanced at him with a similar expression. Mrs. Hudson's increasingly frail physical state really was the elephant in the room most of the time.

"Really, look at it from her perspective," John continued. "She's got five surrogate children between the three of us and your wives, and a whole brood of surrogate grandchildren. We're the family she never really had. I could move out of course, I'm a grown man and I can do what I please. But I just can't bring myself to break her heart like that."

"So then what exactly are you suggesting?" Greg asked, glancing at Sherlock an then back to John.

"Mrs. Hudson suggested Rosie and I move downstairs into 221A with her. She has spare bedrooms, she lives alone, and she said that it would be good to have a doctor across the hall with her hip the way it is. This way, we let some of the stuffing out of 221B, Mrs. Hudson has a live-in help, and we all stay together."

"That's brilliant," Sherlock said, clearly relieved. The detective took a deep breath, letting it out with happy contentment.

"I rather thought so myself," John said, grinning brightly. "This way I'll have also more privacy when Alex eventually starts coming over. It's really a perfect solution for Mrs. Hudson, and for me and Rosie as well. Besides, I rather like all of us being together."

"So you're moving out, but not ACTUALLY moving out," Greg said, grinning brightly now himself. "You know with our lot it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same."