Order and Chaos

Genre: Family

Pairings: Sherlock and Sally, background

Main characters: Sherlock, Grace, Michael

"Grace, NO," Michael warned, as he watched his sister, a gleam in her multi-coloured eyes. "You KNOW better than to disturb Daddy when he's in his mind palace… Grace… you really shou…"

Michael huffed a sigh of frustrated resignation as he watched his barely older sister delicately crawl into Sherlock's lap.

"I'm sorry Daddy," he whispered softly. "I tried to tell her not to disturb you. But she's just… so… OOOOOFFF," he finally huffed.

Grace snuggled up to her dad, relaxing against him.

Sherlock barely responded, but for a slight upturning at the corners of his mouth. The steepled fingers in front of his face barely moved.

"Grace, what have I told you?" Sherlock scolded lightly, not the least bit surprised to turn around to find his daughter joining him.

"Not to disturb you in your mind palace. I know Daddy, and I'm SO sorry… but I had a question and well…"

Sherlock sighed softly, smiling, as he approached his eldest. Crouching down to her level, he brought a hand up to touch her face. "Well?" he asked, patiently.

"Well… I have this teacher in school, and… wait… is this from your current case Daddy? Oh, it's FASCINATING… oh Daddy, let me help, PLEASE? Oh I promise I won't be in the way…"

"Fancy yourself a detective, do you my girl?" Sherlock responded lightly. "I'm not surprised, you do tend to look for facts and focus on the obvious… but this isn't a current case, really. I'm just in here to… organize a bit. Your mother gets a bit testy with me when I don't organize… so I've gotten used to it. This place is a bit…"

"Messy, Daddy?" Grace asked sweetly. "Oh, I don't think so… but if it makes Mummy happy it's worth it, isn't it?"

Sherlock found an easy chair, much like the one he'd had in 221B for years, and cleared it off, placing files and papers aside on the coffee table in front and the side table. He settled down, pulling his daughter into his lap. "Yes, it makes Mummy happy… but Gracie, she's not here. This is my own place, to do with what I wish. Yet I feel now… that I must tidy it somehow…"

"You love Mummy SO much that you want to please her, even where she can't visit you. Oh Daddy, it's SO obvious…"

Sherlock wrapped his arms around his daughter as he threw his head back with a deep baritone chuckle. "Yes, my darling girl. It IS obvious. I've changed since I fell in love with her. And I know she's changed too since she fell in love with me. Not a lot, mind you. We're still ourselves…"

"Mummy is still Mummy, as she was when you fell in love with her, and the same goes for YOU, Daddy. You couldn't still love each other if it was any other way… It makes sense, really…"

"How are you so wise, my Gracie?" Sherlock asked, with a smile that reached his eyes and beyond. Grace paused as she snuggled closer into her father's embrace.

"Oh, Uncle Greg… Grammy Hudson… Auntie Molly… Uncle John… you… Oh Daddy the list is endless… even from Michael. Oh he's SO smart, but don't you DARE tell him I said so, I CAN'T have him know how glad I am he's my brother. That would RUIN things."

"I promise you my dear girl, I shall not utter a word to your brother. Now… I know you have exceptional organisational skills. Mrs. Hudson has complained more than once that SOMEONE has arranged her videos first by genre, then by title, then by year, and she has heaps of trouble finding anything anymore. It sounds like chaos…"

"Oh Daddy, but there's order in chaos… WE know that."

"No, Grace. There is order in order. But you think as I do, and so your way of thinking… is order in chaos. Chaos in order. I know that whatever you do, I'll understand it. Now, shall we get to sorting this… whatever this is? Mummy has planned a movie night with all of us and I have no intentions of missing it. The sooner we get started, the better…"

Grace grinned broadly, jumping of her father's lap. "I know JUST where to start…" she declared happily, as she set to work.