Title: A Study in Family

Genre: Romance/Family

Rating: T

Pairing: Sherlock/John

Warning: slash, violence, swearing, implied but non-graphic child abuse and sexual content.

Summary(extended):Sherlock and John have an established relationship and are ready for the next step:children. What they didn't know however was that they each already had a child. Sherlock has an twelve year old daughter, Samantha, and John and eight year old son, Jackson. Sammy and Jack meet in a foster home where they become friends and then run away because living in that foster home was unbearable. When Jack gets sick however Sammy does everything in her power to make sure he's taken care of, even hacking into some powerful businesses and blackmailing them. Causing Mycroft to send Sherlock and John after the culprit. Won't they find that surprise appealing?

Chapter 2:

By the time their cab arrived at St. Barts there was a black government car parked across the street. As they walked up to the floor where Harry would be getting her treatment, John stopped Sherlock in the middle of the hallway.

"What?" Sherlock asked. He had been surprised that someone wanted to start a family with him. The fact that that person was John only caused him to be elated. He was practically on cloud nine! Even though they were married, Sherlock still had some doubts that John would one day wake up and decide he just couldn't handle Sherlock anymore and would leave. Having a family would more than secure that John would stay, but what if he wanted to back out? Sherlock didn't know what he'd do if that were the case.

John gave him a smile and it relaxed the consulting detective. It wasn't a smile of pity so it meant that John wasn't going to give him bad news. The smile was in fact similar to the one Sherlock's seen on John's face when he sees a family and imagines his own. It was tender and sweet and full of caring. It was so full of love. And it was mixed with a smile that belongs solely to Sherlock.

"Thank you..." John whispered.

Sherlock smiled and leaned in to kiss John. It was a small peck but that sent the message of what he really wanted to say clearly.

They walked hand in hand to Harry's private room that Mycroft had gotten for this purpose. With the situation as serious as it was, Mycroft wouldn't let anyone who wasn't the best near Harriet. He would make sure the equipment used would be the very best. Everything will be top notch.

When they entered Harry ran right into John's arms and hugged the breath out of him.

"I'm so happy for you John!"

When John snapped out of the shock he hugged her back and smiled at his sister.

"Thank you. And thank you for agreeing to this. When Sherlock said he wanted to have you be the surrogate mother I thought for sure you'd say no in at least a thousand different languages," John replied as he smiled at his sister while holding her at arms length.

This was his sister who he'd sort of turned his back to and left for Afghanistan because he'd rather kill in the battle field than stay and work through their family problems. His sister who married a woman anyway, despite the lack of support of their family but let it fail and fell into a bottle. Their relationship was strained.

But now! Now she was clean and well put together and letting him and Sherlock use her womb to produce a child that would be both a Holmes and a Watson. He couldn't be prouder.

"That's impossible. Harry only knows English and 'no' is still 'no' in at least three languages so it hardly counts," Sherlock answered.

John swatted his arm playfully and replied, "You know what I meant."

Sherlock smiled and wrapped an arm around him, "Yes. And Harriet did take a bit of persuasion. It took about the fourth lunch outing before she wavered. It took the sixth one for her to say yes."

"Everything is ready now though. We've been preparing and planning for weeks. We were just waiting for Sherlock to gather his wits and ask you," Mycroft said.

"I'm not sure how to feel knowing all of you got together to plan something like this behind my back," John admitted.

"Hush John. It's all for the best. You've always wanted to be like dad. You looked up to him always. You used to baby sit and were damn good at it. It's about damn time you became a father! Oh, mum and dad are going to go crazy when they realized they're finally going to get those grand kids they've been bothering us about!" Harriet cried.

John couldn't find it in himself of be angry at all.

"Alright alright, so we're finally doing this. How is this going to happen again?" John asked.

"Over the last few weeks I've given them my semen sample and Harriet's been injected with all sorts of drugs that will make her fertile. The doctors think there won't be a problem and now that you've legally agreed they'll begin the treatment. They say it'll take a few times but we're confident everything will turn out fine," Sherlock said.

"If not, we have the funds to keep trying as many times as it takes," Mycroft added.

John frowned, "It's not going to be harmful to Harriet in any way right?"

"No. Like we said, the doctors think we have a high chance of getting pregnant in the first few tries," Sherlock replied.

"Okay...if you're sure," John said slowly, then smiled to everyone in the room, "Thank you...thank you all."

.:~*~:.

Three weeks passed and Sammy and Jack had gotten very close. He was always tailing her and taking every lesson she gave to heart. He even followed Sammy and Michael for a whole week after they snuck out after midnight and broke into the library. They were using their computers and xerox machine to get the papers Sam had been talking about. They were hacking into the foster care system and looked through the profiles of the families.

When Jackson was told that Sam was a genius he thought that it was mostly on survival and her observations skills, but that wasn't all. She was an incredible hacker. She hacked into the government to look into the people who seemed nice, to make sure they didn't have any criminal records or to make sure they were financially stable to care for the children.

Basically she as making sure that the kids would go to people who were in it for the kids, not for the money.

They stayed for hours and got a lot done. Jackson realized that the way the progress with the paper work was going meant that Sammy's plan of escape would be soon.

He was both excited and nervous. He'd never spent one night lone in the streets, but he wouldn't be alone. Sammy would be with him and he felt safe around her. He knew he's be okay with her. Shaking his head, he kept his focus on what Sammy and Michael were doing, trying to learn anything he could.

"I promise to teach you some tricks later on Jack. Right now do me a favor and get the papers that will be coming out of the printer," Sammy said when she got a look at him.

Jackson nodded. When he came back with the paper he asked, "Doesn't this place have cameras?"

"Yeah but while we came here during the day we slowly moved it so it's in a blind spot. The next time we snuck in we wired the cameras so they show a loop. As far as anyone in the screen will see is an empty room in the middle of the night," Michael replied.

Jackson nodded even though he didn't fully understand, "How is everything going?"

"We have paper work for nearly everyone. All we have to do is get the paperwork for Stan and Jason to be sent to his sister's home and then that'll be that." Sam replied as she continued to type.

"What about you and Jackson?" Michael asked.

"Don't worry about it. Just make sure that when the time comes you know who to give the papers to," Sam replied.

Michael merely nodded.

After another half an hour they decided they'd done enough and returned to their temporary home.

When they got back, no one was the wiser that they were even gone.

The next morning everyone was helping set up the breakfast table when Anna accidentally dropped a plate, and it broke when it reached the ground.

Everyone gasped and all the color drained from Anna. She began to shake with fear and she started to tear up.

Jackson was about to ask what was wrong and Sam went to Anna and pushed her towards Jason, who moved her farther away from everyone else.

Sammy crouched down and began to pick up the pieces. Everyone else was still tense and holding their breaths and looking towards the kitchen door. Jackson was about to ask again when the door slammed open. Mr. Miller's face was very red with both anger and the fact that he was drunk. He stormed up to Sam and pulled her up harshly, "What the hell did you do?"

"It slipped. It was an accident," Sam said evenly.

"Do you think I'm made of money?" Mr. Miller demanded.

Sammy stared back defiantly and snarled, "Considering all they give you because of us, yeah, I do!"

The skin to skin contact echoed very loudly throughout the kitchen and the force of the slap caused Sammy to fall backwards. Jackson was about to go help her but Michael held him back. Jack was about to protest but Michael whispered, "Don't!"

Mr. Miller pulled Sammy back up harshly again and pushed her towards the kitchen door, "Disrespectful degenerate! I'll show you to break things of good hard working people!"

When they were gone Jason and Michael dragged everyone towards the attic. Anna was being held by Lisa while she cried. Gabe and Stan seemed to be crying too, fear on their faces. Michael and Jason held an expression of worry and continually kept staring at the opening of their attic door.

Jackson didn't know what to do or how to feel. From what he saw, this seemed to happen before, that they had a routine for when it happened.

He wanted to ask many questions but it seemed like no one was in the mood to talk. So he kept quiet and sat down next to the window. His knees drawn to his chest, stare set on the door as well.

What felt like an eternity but was really like another hour later, it opens and Sam come through it. Her face seems swollen, there are marking around her neck and wrist. Anna quickly runs to her and hides her face in Sam's chest and sobs. A mantra of, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"Shh...Don't worry about it, okay Anna?" Sam whispered. She was trying to be strong but it was hard with the pain.

Michael went to their secret stash and got her a soda, which she accepted graciously. She went to sit near the window. Anna tucked on one of her side and Lisa in the other. Both of them crying. Gabe sat on her lap and hugged her, also crying.

The rest of the day passed without too much noise. Eventually everyone went to sleep. Jackson waited until everyone else was asleep before he went to the roof top where he found Sam fiddling with her harmonica.

"He's an abuser..." Jackson stated. His mother worked as a nurse and when there was no one to watch him, he would go to the hospital and sit there and people watch. He'd see people come in with bruises and cuts, seemingly done by the father or boyfriend or step father...

"Yeah..." Sammy replied.

"You take the fault when something happens?" Jackson asked.

Sam sighed, "Either me or Michael...we're the oldest. The strongest...I could never imagine poor little Anna having been hit like that... or anyone. No one should ever be hit."

"No...they shouldn't. Even if we all leave...this guy will still be a foster father...others will be sent to him..."Jackson murmured.

Sam's eyes narrowed, "Not if I have anything to say about it."

"What are you going to do?" Jackson asked.

"For now? Plan. When the opportunity presents itself I'll put the plan into action...this can never happen to anyone else."

"Should I be worried about what you're going to do?" Jackson asked.

Sam shrugged, "You can be, but considering the kind of man this is, do you really care?"

"...I guess not. As long as we get away from here and never have to come back, I don't mind," Jackson replied.

"Good. We should probably get to sleep," Sam suggested.

Jackson made a face, "I'm not tired."

"Well, what do you want to do?" Sam asked.

"Tell me more about the constellations," Jackson said he laid down and stared up at the stars. He knew a few, but Sam knew more.

Copying Jackson Sam said, "Alright. Which do you want to hear?"

"Um...what's your favorite?" Jackson asked.

"Hmm...well the constellations are stories about Roman or Greek mythology and there are so many sides of each story...but I guess the one that always captured my attention was the one of Orion." Sammy replied.

"Orion?" Jackson echoed.

Sam nodded, "Yup. It's a complicated story that has many variations. But that all have similar enough points to make."

And so for a moment the horrible events of what happened that day were momentarily forgotten as Sam went into story mode and told Jackson the stories behind the constellations in the heavens above them.

I have really no idea how medical pregnancy happens. I'm sure you can google it if you're very curious. It was all just from what I've gathered from TV, other stories, and somewhat common sense.

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