Ok, it starts getting sad here. So uh, be prepared for that. Also, longer chapter than the last couple. I do not own Sherlock or To The Moon. Enjoy, don't forget to say hi in the reviews!
They arrived very close to childhood, but not close enough. They seemed to be in Sherlock's teenage years. The poster was hanging on the wall in Sherlock's room as he lay on the bed in a drug induced haze. Mycroft sat beside him, placing a wet washcloth on his head.
"Keep quiet Sherlock, I'll be right back," he said, slipping out of the room. He walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where their mother was making something. "Sherlock isn't feeling well Mummy, but don't worry. He'll be well again by the morning. I'll take care of him," he said, keeping his face unreadable. Not that it would matter, it didn't seem their mother was looking to see if he lied.
"Poor Sherringford. Thank you Mycroft, you are so helpful," she said, looking over at him and smiling fondly. She looked back down at what she was doing, "My baby boys, growing up so fast."
Mycroft went back up the stairs and returned to Sherlock's bedside, picking up a book. "Sherlock, you can't do this anymore. If Mummy finds out what you're doing her mind will go! You can't do this, I will send you to rehab if you don't stop!"
"Not a problem," Sherlock mumbled, Mycroft nearly slapped him.
"This is a problem Sherlock! If you overdose..." he trailed off, grabbing his brother's hand and holding it tightly. "I can't lose you Sherlock," he said brokenly, holding back tears. Searching the room for another memento, they found a wooden pirate sword. That would get them back to his childhood, they hoped.
Their hopes were dashed when they arrived in the middle of nowhere. Everywhere was white, blank, empty. There were no sounds, there was just nothing. Dr. Watts wrinkled his nose, "It smells like roadkill, ew." He looked around the barren place they'd landed in, "... Where are we?" When his partner didn't respond he looked over at her, "Eva?"
She was staring at something, he turned to look and his eyes widened. They were standing outside the memory! They walked over to the edge of their white space, staring out into a black void. There were houses, but where the street should have been was just a dark expanse of nothing. The two doctors stared at it in wonder.
Eva sighed, "There must be a malfunction within the machine's ADG."
Neil groaned, "Again?!" he whined, "I thought the last fix was foolproof for another half year! I can't believe those idiots in the maintenence department."
Dr. Rosalene looked over at him, "Look, don't worry, we've already gotten the teenage years saved. We might still be able to do this."
They decided that they'd gone back as far as they could go, and returned to the present day. Dr. Watts was disappointed though, he was looking forward to it. They returned to the cliff overlooking the lighthouse, where the old Sherlock was sitting. He looked up at them, "And that's all I know. Sorry I can't be of more help," he said.
The two doctors assured him that they would make do with what they'd gotten, and that the only thing left to do was link his desire to go to the moon with his memory as a teenager. Then once that was done, he'd be going to the moon in no time.
As they turned to begin their work, Sherlock called out to them, "I have a question!" The two doctors returned their attention to him and he continued, "You can alter this world, can you not simply make things happen, and fulfil my wish here and now?"
Dr Watts shook his head, "That would work, if this were your one true set of memories."
"What do you mean?" Sherlock asked, confused. "What is this, then? What am I?"
"This is just a copy, a canvas for us to work with if you will," Dr. Watts explained, "As for you, you are merely an algorithm traced from Sherlock. Enough to reflect his likeness, but far from complete." Sherlock seemed to contemplate this as the doctor continued, "All we can do is to prepare this canvas in a logically consistent way. And then, when we transfer your registered desire to your childhood, the machine will generate your new life, one where the desire dictates your behavior. The result of that, would then be written to the real Sherlock."
"So you see, even if we satisfy you, you are merely a 'read-only' program. I mean, we could reset you over and over again, and-"
Dr. Rosalene cut him off, "That's enough."
The two of them began to argue before Eva forced them to go. The next part of their job was a little difficult. They had to link everything back as far as they could using the mementos they'd travelled with. Old Sherlock and recently retired Sherlock linked up with flowers, then that Sherlock linked the the previous one with paper rabbits. That Sherlock linked to the recently married, crime solving Sherlock with a book, and that Sherlock linked to the teenage Sherlock via a clock. Once they were all linked, the desire that old Sherlock had was transfered to the teenage one. Flipping the switch, they returned to admire their handy work.
However, everything looked exactly the same. Sherlock still married John, John still made rabbits. The two doctors began to question themseves, and wondered if they'd done something wrong. They returned to the first memory they had come into, of Sherlock sitting at the cliff, and everything was exactly the same, right down to the way he greeted them. They immediately froze everything, Dr. Rosalene going to check and make sure everything was right.
When she got back, she asked if anything had changed. Nothing had, even though the desire had successfully transfered. It was then decided that they would need a trigger, so they split up. Dr. Rosalene went to the Baskerville lab, and instead of chemical warfare though, the lab was about space. Nothing changed, absolutely nothing.
Dr. Watts went to teenage Sherlock's school, attempting to lecture the group of students as a NASA recruiter. Sherlock showed no interest in going to the moon, in fact he threw multiple insults at the doctor and made him the laughing stock of the school. They tried more, walking in at random points in Sherlock and Watson's lives to talk about space. The wedding, many of their cases, even when John was making the rabbits. Nothing changed, not a single thing. They decided to take a break, and turned off the machine.
They had been at it all night, Dr. Rosalene decided to go watch the sunrise from the cliff while Dr. Watts made phone calls. As Eva sat alone, she questioned what had gone wrong. Was it the machine, or was it something Sherlock did that they missed which kept preventing him from wanting to go to the moon? Why did Sherlock even want to go there? There was a memory where Sherlock told John just how irrelevent he thought the solar system was.
Not getting anywhere, she decided to go see if Dr. Watts had made any progress. She wrinkled her nose, the smell of the squirrel Neil had run over was permeating the air. Eva entered the house and walked up the Sherlock's bedroom. The consulting detective was barely hanging on, and her partner was nowhere to be seen. She returned downstairs, entering the kitchen. She walked in mid-conversation. Neil was sitting at the table, his back to her, a cup and the blue and yellow paper rabbit sitting on the table in front of him.
"No, I understand that part, but-" Dr. Watts said into the phone. "... Okay. Did you confirm it in his records?" he asked. There was a pause as the other person on the phone answered his question. "And why again was this information not made available to us? Or the medical doctor, for that matter!"
Dr. Rosalene approached him, standing just behind him, "Where did you get that coffee?" she asked. What she would have given to have a sip of that. He didn't answer her, hushing her instead. "Are you speaking with headquarter?" she prodded, wanting some answers.
He turned around sharply, "Yes! I'll fill you in after! Now shhhhhh."
She picked up the paper rabbit, "Wait, isn't this... Where did you find it?"
"In the lighthouse, before we started. Now for the last time, shhh!" he said, getting annoyed. The coffee didn't seem to be helping him any. He was just as tired and cranky and she felt.
With that last shush, he was ignoring her, so she decided to leave. She wandered around the house, rather aimlessly. She entered the living room where Lily was tucking her two children in to sleep. Dr. Rosalene didn't wish to bother them, so she crept around the room looking for anything that might help them. There was nothing, so she walked out into the dining room.
Lily was sitting at the table, looking exhausted. Eva kept her voice low as she spoke to the young woman, inquiring how she got to be working under Sherlock Holmes. She told him how her husband had died in the military, and she needed a job. Sherlock offered her work until she could get on her feet. However by the time she had the money she needed, Sherlock had fallen ill, so she'd stayed to help him.
Before Eva went back to work, Lily stopped her, thanking her for Sherlock. She said it was no trouble, before returning to the kitchen to see if Neil had finished his phone call. He had, and he wasn't the happiest camper in the world either. Eva walked up and stood next to him, "What is it?" she asked.
He looked up at her, "It seems like our little Sherlock here has some hidden records from the old days."
"Hidden records?" Dr. Rosalene asked.
"Hidden medical records, to be exact," Dr. Watts clarified. "Apparently, during his youth, he was administered a large dose of enhanced beta blockers. And what luck! They tend to have this little side-effect on a curious thing called memories!"
Dr. Rosalene turned away from him, proccessing the information. "Beta blockers..." she turned back to her partner, "Sherlock didn't have a heart condition, did he?"
"Apparently not, which leads one to wonder if the 'side-effects' were intended to be merely just that to begin with. And in such a large amount, its impact on his memories at the tiem of administration must've been significant."
"You think that's what kept us out of his earliest memories?" Eva asked.
Dr. Watts sighed, "Well it's not the machine, I'll tell you that. The maintenance department yelled at me for scolding them."
Neither of them said anything for a moment, lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Dr. Rosalene asked, "So what now?"
Dr. Watts told her that he had the information he needed to fix the machine so that it would get them past the beta blockers, and once they got to his childhood perhaps the transfer would finally work. However they were going to need a trigger of some sort in order for it to work.
That was when it hit them, the dead squirrel! It had smelled like roadkill in the memory they couldn't get to! They just needed to get that squirrel from down by the road, and when Sherlock smelled it they'd be in! Begrudgingly, Eva got herself a pair of gloves and went to get it.
When she arrived, she decided that bringing the squirrel itself would be a bad idea, since it had so much bacteria on it. Instead she rummaged through the car for a jar, and got the smell instead. She was about to return to the house when she noticed something on the ground. A small bottle, she realized it must have fallen out of the car when she was looking around for the jar. She picked it up, examining it.
They were painkillers, rather strong once. She shoved it in her pocket and began heading up towads the house. About halfway up there, she was nearly run into by Neil, who was running in the opposite direction.
"Oh Hey!" he said, trying to sound casual despite the fact he was practically out of breath. "Did you get the roadkill?"
Eva nodded, "It's ready," she told him.
He smiled at her, "Great! Go get it set up; I'll be right back."
He tried to run past her but she caught his arm, "Neil," she said seriously. He looked at her, confused, until she reached into her pocket and pulled out the painkillers. "These painkillers," she said, "I think they are yours."
"Hey!" he shouted indignantly, snatching the bottle out of her hand and hiding it in his lab coat. He also wrenched his arm out of her grasp and distanced himself.
Dr. Rosalene crossed her arms over her chest, "May I ask why you are on them?" she asked.
Neil thought about his answer for a long moment before looking down and smiling, "I wasn't going to tell you, but..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, "Oh this is embarrassing." He refused to meet her gaze, looking just about everywhere except at his partner. "A few days ago, I walked into a concrete wall!"
Eva looked skeptical, "You, just walked into a wall like that?"
Dr. Watts shrugged, "What can I say? I was in deep thought. You know how deeply I think."
He fidgeted in his place as Dr. Rosalene approached him, reaching into his pocket and holding up the painkillers. Once again she examined them, he watched her carefully. "These are some rather strong pills, Neil," she mused.
"And it was a rather strong concrete wall," he replied quickly, taking the bottle back more gently this time. "T'was a maych made in heaven, I say," he said, smiling. He once again tucked the bottle out of sight, for what he hoped would be the last time, "Anyways, you got the roadkill, right? Let's hurry, Sherlock's dying back there!"
He tried to walk back up to the house, but Eva stopped him again, grabbing his arm and forcing him to meet her gaze, "Neil. You aren't addicted, are you?"
Immediately he shook his head, chuckling, "Are you kidding me? I'd overdose before I'd sink to that level of contrived mess," he told her. He patted her hand reassuringly, and she let go of him. They began walking up towards the house, there was no more conversation. Neil's words spun around in Eva's mind. That was a strange thing for him to say, she shoved the concern down though. They had work to do!
When they reached the bedroom, they handed the jar to the doctor and instructed him on what to do before activating the machine. They were going to go all the way back to the point where they'd been stopped, before signalling him to release the smell and trigger the memories. With that, the two of them dove once more into Sherlock's memories, flying back all the way to the childhood memory that they'd been stuck at before.
Once they were ready, they signalled the doctor and the smell was released. However it didn't have the desired effect. Instead, Sherlock's condition became unstable, and the doctor's began to argue with each other on who should stay and who should leave. If Sherlock died, whoever was in the memory would permanently damage whoever was still there. However neither would go.
Luckily, the doctor attending Sherlock managed to get his condition stable once more. With everything alright, they were able to jump back into his childhood memories. They arrived in a backyard, where the pirate sword was lying in the grass. Warily, they began exploring the area. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Sherlock's mother was standing in the driveway speaking to someone, and down the street Sherlock was playing with a ball, and talking to someone.
Dr. Watts decided it was just the time lapse, making it so there were little Sherlock's all over the place. One of them was poking at a dead squirrel in the road, which was where the smell had come from. Up the street, the mother's conversation ended, and she decided she was going to the store. The doctors looked around, finding nothing unusual.
Suddenly Dr. Rosalene seemed to think of something, and dragged her partner back up the street towards the house. They were just in time to see a little boy with black curls run out behind his mother's car just as she was backing out. What happened next seemed to be almost slow motion, as the car hit him.
Immediately the car screeched to a stop and his mother ran out, kneeling beside him. However it was too late to do anything about it. The two doctors approached slowly, the street was covered in the little boy's blood and he was completely still.
"I don't understand..." Dr. Watts said, "If he was unconscious, how could we be seeting this here when he never did? Still, I'm just surprised that he survived"
"Actually, he didn't," Dr. Rosalene informed him. They watched as another little boy ran up to the scene, black curls bouncing and bright blue eyes wide.
"SHERRINGFORD!" he called, stopping in front of his brother and shaking him. "Sherringford? Can you hear me? Sherringford?" He turned to his mother, clearly upset and confused, "Why did you hit Sherringford, Mummy? Why did you hit him?"
His mother couldn't answer him, she'd been reduced to a weeping mess as she held her dead son in her arms. Sherlock didn't give up though, he continued pulling and prodding the little boy who looked just like him, "Sherringford? Wake up Sherry! WAKE UP!"
The commotion had drawn a crowd, and Sherlock's father and older brother came out of the house to see what was going on. Sherlock flew into Mycroft's arms tearfully, "Myc! You gotta wake up Sherringford! I tried but he won't! You can do it right? Right?"
Mycroft tightened his grip on his brother, staring at the bloody mess on the pavement in front of him. Their father told him to go into the house and take Sherlock with him, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene. Finally their father pushed Mycroft in the direction of the house, forcing him to move. Sherlock's wails became more frantic, "Mycroft! You're going to the wrong way!"
"He's not... He..." Mycroft took a shuddering breath as he carried Sherlock into the house. "He's not waking up Sherlock, he'll never wake up. Now hush," he said brokenly. When the two brothers disappeared from sight, the doctors turned away from the scene themselves, not wanting to see anymore.
"Even though they were young, to lose a twin brother. Not to mention how their mother must feel," Dr. Rosalene said.
Dr. Watts sighed sadly, "At least Sherlock had the beta-blockers erase the memories. Not like he remembers it, much."
"Fuzzily unlinked, not erased. Somewhere in there, the aftermath of those memories probably lingered"
"What about their mother?" Dr. Watts asked, "I don't think she took the beta-blockers."
Eva glanced back over at the mother before looking back at Neil, "She seems to have gone a little cuckoo. At least, I don't really think she called Sherlock 'Sherringford' as a nickname."
Dr. Watts looked back at the scene, "If she takes Sherlock for Sherringford, then what about Sherlock himself?"
Dr. Rosalene shook her head, saying she wanted to move on. Dr. Watts readily agreed and the two of them used Sherringford himself as the memento to jump back into time.