09:00 AM (Living Room) - Interview

"Morning everyone. Today I'm gonna start by saying that NO ONE except the TV team and Sherlock and I are allowed to know the locations of secret areas. Therefore, please don't write on twitter that you've been inside a factory near the north of Thames. Yes Charlie, that's for you. No, don't run away! Sherlock wants to speak to you!"

"I really do."

"Oh please! I've only been with you guys for two days and I already know you! He'll give me the look and I'll pee on my pants."

"What look? Everybody keeps talking about the look. What look?!"

"There! Stop! Keep your face the exact way it is!"

"Why John?"

"Don't talk! Now! Look at the mirror!"

"Once again, that's my face."

"Ugh! Forget it! Skipping this, as we don't have any cases or an appointment, I-"

"I DO HAVE an appointment. I was going on a date."

"Sherlock, it hardly counts as a date if one of the members is a part of a human."

"It still is a human."

"It's the liver of a person!"

"The closest I get to a human."

"What do you think I am?"

"My blogger."

"What about you?"

"A superior mind confined to the scum of the Earth on the form of a 'rational' animal."

"Funny."

"I know. I've been practising."

"Mind Palace! Yeah, that's what I was gonna talk about. I understood in the worst way possible that most people don't know what it is."

"'Rational animals' my ass."

"SHERLOCK!"

"Apologies."

"Go to your bedroom."

"Are you my mother?"

"I'm more than a mother, you realize that."

"True."

"May I continue? As I was saying, most people don't know the concept of Method of Loci or Memory Palace and I intend to explain them. Sherlock uses this method, but he calls his 'Mind Palace'."

"Because it is a palace."

"I'll tell you guys a little story. One day, we were walking to a park when DI Lestrade called us. He was in the same park with the rest of the Scotland Yard. There has been a murder."

"A MURDER!"

"Yes Sherlock, a murder. God, you're such a child."

"My mum always says that. MUM!"

"What?"

"She's visiting us today. I completely forgot that!"

"Oh! Yes. Let me just finish the story. So Sherlock and I walked there, blablabla and he went to his Mind Palace. Some random officer needed to talk to him. That guy called him numerous times but Sherlock didn't answer. So the idiot started to shake Sherlock."

"That was a mistake."

"Oh boy! Please, do NOT touch him while he's thinking."

"I'll punch you."

"He got arrested."

"We got arrested. You shout abuse at the officer."

"I was trying to protect you!"

"Great job."

"Sarcasm. You're getting good."

"No need to say the obvious John."

11:25 (Living Room) – End of Interview

"Hello Mum." Sherlock opened the door and allowed his mother to get in the flat. The TV team backed away to the farthest corner of the living room.

"Sherlock! How have you been? It's been a long time since we last talked face-to-face. Looks like it have passed centuries!" Mrs. Holmes grabbed his son's face on her hands and gave him a kiss only a mother could give: full of pure love and wonder. Sherlock immediately hugged her, burying his chin on her shoulder. A big part of the people who were watching this would think he was having a moment of tenderness with his mother, but John knew affection wasn't the only thing in there: embarrassment was also there. The great Sherlock Holmes showing feelings towards someone? On TV?

Breaking the too long hug, Sherlock stepped aside, so that John could be seen. "Mum, this is John. He solves cases with me and blogs about it."

Turning her lips in a gleeful smile, Mrs. Holmes moved next to John. "John Watson. I can't express how happy I am to finally meet you. Mycroft told me how you manage to change my younger son to better. I can see it clearly."

"You just arrived. How can you say I'm different?" Sherlock throw a puzzled look to his mother. For the first time, John saw the you-kidding-me look being sent to Sherlock.

"You hugged me. Hugged me as if it was the last time we would see each other." Mrs. Holmes wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. Everyone saw it. For years, this lady waited for this to happen. For her son to hug her. Something as ordinary as a hug, that meant so much to her. "Besides" she continued "you didn't close the door at my face."

"Yeah, I believe I'm a tiny bit different now." Sherlock whispered so only his mother could listen. With a nod, Mrs. Holmes walked to the sofa. She sat and observed the house. The cameras were pointed at her. "It already started then."

"Indeed." Sherlock walked close and stared down at her. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes please." She answered as John went to the kitchen to make the tea. He opened the cupboard and took three cups. "You also want, don't you Sherlock?"

"I do." John put the kettle to boil and waited. He decided to give some space to his friend and Mrs. Holmes. Well, the most space they could have with the cameras in there.

"So, sweetie, our name is clean now?"

"Yes. Mycroft and Lestrade took care of the all bureaucracy. I'm a 'hero' now." Sherlock made quotes with his hands while saying hero.

"You still believe you're not one? Look at you. You've been through hell to keep your friends alive. I know many people who would not do a half of what you did in this past two years." Mrs. Holmes grabbed his hand and started to rub it. The movement on the hand gave Sherlock a feel of warmth he didn't feel since he was a kid. He wondered why.

"I had to do it. They would die." Sherlock said as a matter-fact.

"No, you didn't. You could have just let them die. But you didn't. Why?" She knew the answer. There was no need for him to give her a response. She just wanted for him to think about it. Mrs. Holmes always had the capacity to make her children shut and think about what they've done. Today instead, she wanted her little boy to get somewhere with the confusion that afflicts him so much this last years.

07:00 PM

The morning passed by. John introduced Mrs. Hudson to Mrs. Holmes and it looked like they were old friends. They gossiped and talked about things only women could understand. John wondered how Sherlock and Mycroft could be the children of this lady. She was so… ordinary. Mrs. Hudson made the lunch and everyone ate at the old lady's kitchen. Light talk went between forkfuls. Even Sherlock participated.

The afternoon passed by. Requested, Sherlock played a beautiful tune for his mother. Music filled the flat with colours. People danced (TV team also), sang and fell into a fit of laugh. John caught a grin on Sherlock's face.

Later that afternoon, John suggested going to the cinema. Mrs. Holmes and Mrs. Hudson agreed happily and Sherlock declined politely.

"No way. You're coming with us. Today I want to spend a full day with my kid and you won't say no." Firmly, she took her son's wrist and pushed him to the hall. Cursing everyone, Sherlock grabbed his coat and scarf and called a taxi. John and the women left the flat, closing the door behind the TV group.

The cab trip itself wasn't that bad. The worse came when they entered the shopping centre. Thousands of people came from nowhere and started taking pictures of them.

"Mr. Holmes! !"

"Just a sec Mr. Holmes!"

"Look! It's them!"

"Doesn't John look like a hedgehog?"

"A what?!" Approaching Sherlock by behind, John shot an angry look at Charlie. This one lowered his head, not being capable of looking at John's eyes. "Charlie, what have you done?!"

"Maybe, just maybe, I… I wrote on Twitter you… were going to be here this afternoon." He whispered. John found it really hard to listen to him with shouts coming from everywhere.

"Sherlock, how do we…" John looked around. Sherlock was gone. As his mother. And Mrs. Hudson. "What the hell?..." Now even more confused, he tried to cross the barrier of fans and journalists. After what seemed hours, John got away and run to the cinema. When he got there, he saw Sherlock buying the tickets. The ladies were not there.

Breathing quickly, John fell on a chair close to the counter and tried to speak to Sherlock. "You… You left me… there… with those… How did you escape? Where's your mother? And Mrs. Hudson?"

"Answering your last question, the ladies are in the toilet. As how we escaped… I have contacts. Does that satisfy you?" Getting the tickets from the young clerk, Sherlock turned to leave when Mrs. Holmes blocked his passage. With a suffer tone, Sherlock addressed to his mother "What now mum?"

"Popcorn. A medium size for me and a small one for Mrs. Hudson."

"You like that?"

"Yes. You never cared to know."

Mrs. Holmes took the tickets of Sherlock's hand and walked away to the movie theatre with Mrs. Hudson, who just got off the toilet.

"Ugh! Ladies. Have your breath back?" Sherlock smiled at John. The doctor rose of the chair and asked for a large size of popcorn. Once he got it, the detective and the blogger left for the movie.

"Which one did you choose?"

"The Fault in our Stars."

"What?! No!"

"Mrs. Hudson read the book. Mrs. Turner next door watched the movie. She said men and women cry. Everyone cries. I'm going to make the difference."

John's mouth fell. "Are you saying that you allowed them to choose this movie so that you can change the statistics?!"

Sherlock stoped. He opened his mouth and closed it immediately. They made their way to the chairs next to the women. They sat. And Sherlock told John "Yes."

09:00 PM (Cinema)

The movie ended. Mrs. Hudson was crying. Mrs. Holmes was crying. John was crying. Sherlock was staring down. Making no sound.

"Sherlock. You ok?" John put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. Sherlock looked up and blinked the eyes. John couldn't believe it. "Are you crying?"

The detective turned and faced John with an angry face. "Do you see tears rolling down my cheeks?"

"No, but-" John was quickly cut by Sherlock. "Then I'm NOT crying! I am a sociopath. I don't care about such trivialities!" Sherlock rose from the chair and burst through the door of the theatre furiously. The people in there turned around with a questioning look. Mrs. Holmes suddenly hugged John. "Thank you John. Thank you."

"You're welcome?" The doctor hugged back the old lady, not seeing what was she thanking him.

"For making him more… human." She left right away, saying goodbye to Mrs. Hudson, who was still trying to wipe the tears off her face.

"Just look at that. Another mind reader."