"So, Sherlock," Archie said, shoes now off, "What should we do?"

Ah. Yes. Entertain the small child. That might be a bit of a problem.

"Well-I was hoping you might have some ideas, Archie."

He started jumping up and down again.

"Yes yes yes! We can watch movies and play board games and go to the park and make jello and start a lemonade stand and-"

Woah woah woah, what? Movies? JELLO?

But then I got my great idea.

Archie was still rambling off ideas-did he just say finger painting? when I got my great idea.

"Or, I said, cutting in, "We could play pirates."

Archie looked at me quite confused. Had the small child never played pirates before?

"Surely you've played pirates before, Archie."

He shook his head. Poor kid.

"What sort of a childhood did you have? We must get started right away. Come on, Cardboard boxes in the attic."


I smiled at him, and he smiled back. He seemed to be having a good time. It brought back so many memories of my childhood-ones I was happy to relieve, and ones I wasn't so happy to. But I'm sure nothing like that would happen, right? I was obviously the smarter one. End of discussion.


"Did you have fun today, Archie?" I said, as he got into bed. I remember Mycroft saying that to me every night, before bed. It's nice to carry on tradition, though I never thought that was a sentence I'd ever say myself.

He nodded at me. But just as I was leaving the room, he spoke.

"I don't have a godfather, Sherlock."

Wait, what? Where did that come from? Surely he must know I'm not good at sentimental discussion.

"That's okay Archie, you don't have to, not everybody does." There. Simple answer, discussion avoided.

"Will you do it?"

The sentence hit me like a brick to the head. What was this little boy asking of me?

"Will I do what, Archie?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"Will you be my godfather?"

Well, that was it. I couldn't let this little boy down, the one whom I cared so much about. The one who reflected me perfectly. I knew I could be sort of a Mycroft figure to him-But I was determined not to mess up. I tried my best to smile at him.

"Of course I will, if that makes you happy. Goodnight, Archie."

I closed the door and discovered a tear on my face. Where had that come from? I wiped it off quickly. The small child mustn't see me crying, what sort of vacation would that be for him?

"