"Right where to first?" the Doctor asked. Yet John was too mesmerised by the inner workings of the TARDIS.
"It's just like they said on the internet,"
"No it's not just like they said on the internet, its better."
After the reception the TARDIS gets from everyone for the first time John was back on earth, well metaphorically, in reality he was zooming through the stream of time.
"Ummm… the start?" John was still confused exactly by what was going on. Living with Sherlock had taught him to be nothing but logical and to realise that everything has a realistic answer. The Doctor blew all that out of the water.
"Has anyone ever told you that you look like a hedgehog?"
"What?"
"Nothing just thinking aloud, so the start? I think I can do that." and with that the Doctor flicked switches and pulled levers and soon the TARDIS truly came to life.
"Here we are," the Doctor announced as they both went through the doors. John was still taking in the fact they had travelled through time, to the Doctor it was all too normal. The walls were all white, and clean. Even John Watson could deduct where they were. "The start, a hospital." He muttered, he knew now this hospital they stood in was the birthplace of the great Sherlock Holmes.
"So what year is it?" John asked the Doctor as they searching, free from the small private patient room the TARDIS appeared in.
"1976 I believe." The Doctor answered "A ha," he pointed to a sign, a sign that read maternity ward. "That's were we need to be." The Doctor explained as they both travelled.
The closer they got the higher and younger the voices got. Until all those voices were broken by a young boy screaming.
"Father I don't want a brother!" the child's face had gone red with crying and his screams sounded almost breathless. The boy was sat on a chair, his legs not being able to reach the ground below him. Wearing a small suit with shorts so his knees and ankles could be seen. In front of him an older, distinguished man paced, wearing a long frock coat of dark purple tweed. The Doctor and John watched.
"Nice tweed, I need one like that." the Doctor thought aloud, they carried on watching.
"Mycroft Holmes! Your mother is in pain in that room and all you can do is care for yourself, when your brother comes into this world you will need to be strong for him! Do you understand!?" the father shouted. Little Mycroft tear's slowed as his scream turned into a quiet moan.
"Mycroft Holmes! Crying!" at first John was laughing at seeing the man he knew simply as "the government" crying but then he stopped. He stopped seeing that man and saw the child, the young scared child whose life was going to change forever. John stopped finding it all that funny after that.
"Mr. Holmes," a nurse's head appeared from the door Mycroft and his father was waiting by "Would you like to see your new child?"
Mycroft stood from his seat and took his father's hand, sinking his face into his father's stomach. The door opened and the Holmes two walked in.
"You know you want to John," the Doctor teased.
"I can just walk into a room in a hospital you need to work here to do something like that,"
"Like be a doctor?"
"Yes like be a doc…" John realised that he was in fact a doctor.
"Go on John, I'll be in the TARDIS, come find me when you're done. In a building full of doctors, the Doctor found his way back to the TARDIS. John left alone in the past swallowed his fear and headed into the door.
John new the year but not the exact time. He guessed early morning from the way the sun gleamed through the windows. The entire Holmes family stared at him. Mother Holmes in bed with a bundle in her arms. Father Holmes standing by her side in a stern manner. Young Mycroft, eyes still red from the crying, one hand in his father's and the other grasping a small cuddly rabbit, John presumed it was for the baby but they let Mycroft hold it for comfort.
"Hello, I'm Dr. John Watson," holding out his medical proof "I'm just here to make sure baby is all okay," lying through his teeth, not even thinking of the consequences in time that could come from giving his real name.
"Of course doctor he's just asleep now," the mother was still fatigued. John approached the woman, with her husband's watchful eye over him. Leaning in John moved some blankets to see the child.
Not being a father himself to John a baby was a baby, but not this one. He could see the eyes, the stern mouth, and the cheek bones that would all develop over time. If only he could explain.
"Hello." John whispered looking at the baby, he refused to refer to the baby as Sherlock, and it scared him too much that something so tiny could become that great man.
"Is he okay Dr. Watson?" the mother asked. John stroked the child's head and felt his skin, in some kind of mock baby check up. It was when John was running one finger down the child's nose that baby grabbed on to it, wrapping his tiny fingers round John's one. John felt all too emotional but had to hide it.
"Yes, he's fine, great in fact, brilliant." John carried on. "Do you have a name yet?"
"Sherlock," his father butted in.
"Well, I can guarantee Sherlock Holmes will go on to do amazing things." Foresight plagued John's words. The entire family were smiling at John, all but one. "You too young man," John smiled to the young Mycroft; the boy gave a teary smile back.
"Goodbye," John took a quick step outside the Holmes's private room, and headed back to the TARDIS, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
"Impressed?" the Doctor was smug as ever, John didn't respond. It was all hitting him. "Look John I know this must be painful for you…"
"You don't understand!" John snapped "Too see a man you know so well, as a small defenceless child, it's scary! You haven't lost anyone like Sherlock."
The Doctor changed from silly to serious. "I haven't lost anyone?" he said. "Now look John. I have lost so many people, friends, family, loved ones, whole planets. So don't," he paused "ever say I don't know what it's like to loose someone."
John brought himself together.
"Would you like to go home John? Or carry on?"
"I want to see more." John was brave. The Doctor pulled yet another lever, and that smiled graced his face.
"Geronimo."