Chapter 7

Sherlock hadn't slept so peacefully since he was, well, a kid. He opened his eyes to the first rays on sunlight coming down the ally and was surprised to find the much smaller John curled up in his lap.

"John, John, wake up!" he lightly shook his friend.

"M' sleepin."

Sherlock rolled his eyes, "We probably shouldn't have slept in an ally… but come on, we still have to find Myc."

John got up with a yawn, too young and naïve to care that he spent the night on someone's lap. "Who's Mike?"

"Mycroft- my brother. You- er- I was told we should find him."

"What if we can't?"

"Then I'm suppose to find a Detec-ive Inspec-or Les- Le-" Sherlock stopped to scowl at John who was giggling at the way his friend fumbled with his words and lisp. "Shu' up! Is not funny!" He crossed his arms and plopped back down to the floor.

Trying to muffle his own giggles John sat besides the taller boy "Sorry Sherlock, I didn't mean it to be mean. You're just different."

"I'm not differen'. " He clenched his teeth waiting for the teasing to come.

"I meant like special. M' sorry I laughed. I still like you."

Sherlock stood but avoided eye contact as he brushed off his clothes, "Come on, we need to go find D.I. Les-rade."

John followed gleefully realizing he had been forgiven.

As luck, or rather bad luck for some and good for others, should have it, after walking only two blocks they came across a roped off area with crime scene tape.

"You think he could be here?"

"Don' be ridiculous John, the odds of him being here are very unlikely-"

"Lestrade, you're here early, the body is just inside-" A police officer lifted the yellow tape across from them for a man of average height with gray hair and a dark coat.

Sherlock grabbed John's hand and easily snuck past the police tape unnoticed. Just as Lestrade was entering the building he felt small hands tugging on his coat. He turned to find a small blond boy smiling up at him, he crouched closer with a smile of his own.

"You really shouldn't be here, see that crime tape? That means it's off limits."

"M' lost."

"Oh… well, lets just see if we can find your mommy or daddy around anywhere shall we?"

John nodded vigorously, but a strange thought started to cloud his mind. Something wasn't right. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen either of his parents and somehow he just knew he never would again.

As Lestrade stood he felt the too familiar sensation of being pick pocketed, he turned quickly expecting to catch Sherlock red handed 'git probably put this kid up to distracting me too.' But instead found a second young boy with dark curly hair.

Sherlock opened the wallet and studied the ID inside. "So you are Lestrade?"

"Give me that!" He snatched the wallet back, "It's a crime to take somebody's things you know." His tone was much harsher now.

Sherlock tried to think of a quick reason why the Inspector should listen to them and remembered the article clipping he saw, "Dr. Watson sent us to find you." Technically he was telling the truth after all.

Lestrade stopped and blinked, "He did? Er, what did he want?"

Sherlock eyed John, it would probably be best if they had an adult on their side if they wanted their old bodies and memory back, despite how untrustworthy nearly all adults are. 'Except John, John was pretty ok.'

"We need to tell you in private. Is importan'."

Lestrade sighed, "Well ok, but you better not be pulling my leg here." He couldn't help but to think of how familiar the two boys looked.

Scotland Yard was a short walking distance from the crime scene, Lestrade had led the boys into his office with only a few stifled giggles from other employees.

"Better cuff those two! Could be dangerous criminals!" one officer called out sending John into a fit of giggles.

Once inside the small office Lestrade shut the door but made sure all the blinds were up, he didn't exactly want people thinking he was doing anything strange in there. John plopped himself onto of the desk as Sherlock stood on a chair in attempts to reach the D.I.'s height.

"Ok boys, what's going on?"

"Hungry."

"John not now, we'll get food after. De- De-ec-"

Lestrade raise an eyebrow, it was an odd coincidence that the young blond was also named John, but it was a common name after all, "You can just call me Greg." He felt bad the boy seemed to be struggling with 't's'.

Sherlock cleared his throat, he didn't want to be patronized but the shorter name did relieve him, "Mr. Greg- John told me to find you if I couldn't find Mycroft."

"Oh… Well Mr. Holmes is a very busy man, why exactly-"

"He's my brother."

Lestrade was baffled, once he thought about the family resemblance was definitely there- though more to the younger Holmes brother then the older, but he also knew that logically this boy was likely to young to have the same parents.

"You're thinking too loud."

"Thinking too…." Lestrade's mind raced. His eyes jetted back and forth between the two boys. 'Mycroft's little brother' and 'John'. "Nope. Nope. Noooope. This is some sort of a prank. Who put you boys up to this?"

John looked at Sherlock in confusion, "What's he talkin' about?"

"Do you…? Know us?" Sherlock pulled the wallet out and took out the clipping older John gave him for safe keeping. Right there in the article it mentioned a DI Lestrade. Sherlock's eyes grew wider. "Are we friends too?"

"Just hold on, are you trying to tell me that you two are-?"

"Sherlock Holmes and John Watson- um, I haven't really explained it to him yet though." Sherlock's eyes darted towards John dangling his feet off the side of the desk.

"Explained what?"

"Oh lord… no, no, this is some kind of a weird sick joke." Lestrade picked up his office phone, he knew this was a crazy long shot, but he did have to make sure.

The first two calls were useless, neither John nor Sherlock answered their phones. Nest he tried Mrs. Hudson.

"This is Lestrade, er, when was the last time you saw Sherlock or John?"

"Oh those two, they didn't even come home last night. I'm never sure if I should be worried about them or just assume they spent the night chasing criminals… or in a hotel suit somewhere."

"Uh, yea…. More then I need to know… right, well, if you see them can you tell them to give me a ring?"

"Of course deary."

Next Lestrade tried calling John at work but the main office said he hadn't come in today but also hadn't called in that he wasn't coming. Things were starting to look bad. He looked at the impossible pair as they huddled together on the floor.

"What's he doing?" John watched the D.I. frantically make phone call after phone call.

"He's trying to make sure we really are who we said we are." Sherlock helped John come down from the desk.

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"Well… remember how we ended up in that tiger pit last night?"

"Yea… well, no. I mean, I remember it but nothing much before that."

Sherlock handed over the news clipping to his friend. "That's us."

"Don't be redicu- ridicules. These are old people."

"Not that old… And it's true. Look at the name."

John couldn't deny that was his name was right there in the paper next to a man much older then him. "That can't be me. I'm going to be really tall when I grow up."

Sherlock snickered. "That's what you looked like yesterday. And that-" he pointed to himself in the picture still not sure how he felt about what the older him looked like "is me."

"How do you know all this?"

"Because you told me when you were still an adult. But then you had to shrink yourself so that we could get away from the tigers. You told me that I would be in charge after you were a kid too."

John gave a skeptical look not fully believing he would tell someone else to be in charge of him. "That's really us then?"

"Yup, look, you wrote this on the back." Sherlock turned the clipping over to reveal John's inscription.

"So we've always been best friends?" he smiled.

"I guess so. We even live together."

"We do?!"

Lestrade hung the phone up in defeat. He either had to accept an unacceptable reality or try to think of more people he could pester about the location of Sherlock and John. He looked down at the two boys, they really did have a striking resemblance to their older counterparts.

"Well, I tried calling Mycroft but it seems he's out and can't be contacted right now. Probably at that damn dionogess club…" he mattered the last part.

"Mr. Greg, do we really live together?" John's eyes were huge.

"Er, well, yea…" Lestrade decided to just accepted the bizarre situation he now found himself in. "You do."

"See! Isn't that cool?" Sherlock excitedly jumped up and down. 'Just wait till he sees my skull.'

"But friends don't live together…" John thought about all the adults that he knew and who they lived with.

"Sure they do. Why else do we have a flat with all our stuff in it?"

"Mr. Greg, do you live with your best friend?"

Lestrade patted John's head, "I live with my wife… er, well I did…"

Sherlock leaned closer to John "They broke up."

"Oooh. M' sorry Mr. Greg. She don't deserve you."

Lestrade smiled uneasily, 'That's what John said a month ago more or less…'

"But see, people don't live with friends Sherlock, they live with wives."

Both small pairs of eyes looked up at Lestrade at the same time as they spoke in unison, "Do we have wives?" Sherlock seemed slightly more disgusted by the idea but John was also not comforted by the possibility of be married to some girl he was probably expected to be intimate with, like kissing.

Lestrade couldn't help but to laugh at their clearly disgusted faces. "Ha, no, I guess that sort of thing isn't for everyone." He ruffled both of their hair. "Hmm… so did this happen after yesterday morning with Moriarty?" Greg's voice was distant and deep in thought, remembering the way Sherlock looked as he dry heaved in the parking structure.

"Who's Moriarty?" John jumped into Lestrade's lap as he leaned back in his chair.

"oof! John, you can't just jump on me like that." He tried regaining his composure but he could feel Sherlock tugging at his leg considering climbing up as well.

"Is that my arch nemeses?"

"People don't have arch nemeses Sherlock." 'Maybe I should try to call Mycroft again…'

"I do. I'm the world's only consul-ing detec-ive."

"Oi, you gotta work on your speech kiddo." Lestrade grabbed his desk phone, it was worth a shot.

John stuck his tongue out at him, "Greg is rude." Sherlock gleefully joined in.

"Is Mycroft Holmes there? It's uh, an emergency. Tell him it's about his brother." Lestrade patiently waited through horrid elevator music until Mycroft picked up.

"Detective Inspector, what is it Sherlock has done this time?"

"Well he-"

Sherlock climbed into Lestrade's lap and took the phone, leaping back off again knowing John would keep him in place, "Myc! Myc! I missed you soooo much!"

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

"Mycroft?"

"Sh-… Sherlock?" he asked in a low whisper.

Sherlock giggled, "You sound funny."

"Sherlock… this is very important. Stay where you are ok? Stay with Inspector Lestrade and I will be right there."

"Hurry? And don't stop for cake, I mean it."

Mycroft let out a light sigh, "I wont."

A/N: I had a horrible realization about John last night. If it's stated in the show that Harry is his only living relative then doesn't that mean his parents are both dead? It would explain why he joined the war and his sister is an alcoholic…

I'm gonna try to finish this story by the end of the week. Dunno if I will succeed though, I still have my other two stories to update.