"The people with whom we're going to spend Christmas are not my real parents."

John smiled. "I suspected as much, you know, they are far too … normal to have given birth to odd geniuses such as Mycrofs and you. Did they adopt you ?"

While saying this, John turned in a minor road and stopped the car on its side. It might be a long story and he wanted to give his full attention to it.

"My father was a powerful man", Sherlock began, "more or less in the position that is Mycroft's now. But he was already married. It was just a façade, but in this time, divorce was not an option in his functions. So our mother and us had to be kept hidden. She led a very solitary life, alone in the country, with a staff that was changed very often for security. Mycroft says that she didn't mind, as her only two interests in life were my father and her researches in mathematics. I've been told that she had always been quite weird, very ill at ease in society, and I suppose I inherited that from her. Whatever, when Mycroft was 15 and I was 5, she became… even weirder, and her sister convinced my father to allow her to take care of us. Our father was always afraid that his secret would be discovered and that someone would use us to exert pressure on him. And our mother, in her mental state, had become a liability. That's why we became officially Alice and Philip Holmes 'sons. But we didn't stay with them very long. One year later Mycroft was admitted at the university with a derogation from age limits. Two years later, he reached the age of majority and took me with him. At this time, he began working with our father. Both of them had such great plans for me." He smirked. "Too bad I was such a disappointment."

"If you were a disappointment to your father", said John softly, "then he was a fool. I gather that he's dead ?"

"Yes, he died years ago. In fact, I barely knew him. When I was on holidays, I was at Mycroft's home."

"And your mother ? Did you see her again ?"

"She's alive. After several years she had more or less recovered. She lives in Switzerland now. I've never seen her again."

This was said in an indifferent tone John didn't find very convincing. He suspected there was a lot more to say about the situation than that brief account. The obvious thing, nonetheless, was that the Holmes brothers had had a very solitary childhood. John had always been under the impression that Mycroft had been the one who had raised his younger brother. Apparently he had been right. As for their father, he seemed to have been a perfectly heartless, selfish bastard. But what of the mother ? Why had Sherlock never gone to see her after she had recovered ? John was sure that there was some kind of painful secret behind all this.

"Why didn't you tell me that before, Sherlock ? And why now ?"

"Because before I didn't see the point of pondering over that long gone past. But now, as you're about to spend a week with them. I want you to know the situation as it really is. Especially as things are sometimes a little bit tense between Mycroft and our foster parents."

Sherlock smirked again. "But he'll always be the perfect, caring son. As you can imagine, he has their house watched over all the time. And he dutifully escorts them when they go to London entertain themselves a little. It's part of his façade, after all."

John nodded. If there was something in which the two brothers were at the opposite, it was their attitude concerning social conventions. Mycroft observed them strictly, Sherlock mostly ignored them. And yet, of the two brothers, Sherlock was the most capable of true interaction with his fellow men. He had friends who deeeply cared for him. He had shown that he hugely cared for them too, to the point of self-sacrifice. How was it that one brother was completely devoid of any social skills, and the other one of any ability to care for anyone, except precisely his brother? The new datas John had about their childhood may give him some answers to this questions. But it wasn't time for him to ponder over it. Sherlock looked exhausted, it was time to go and reach the senior Holmes's house.

"Thank you for telling me", the doctor said. "There's certainly a lot of things I will understand better. Now let's go, you need some rest."