Werewolf in London
Sherlock's taxi ride to Bart's lab across London was very dismal. The driver barely spoke any English and Sherlock forbade him from trying to make chitchat. He need not be bothered by such trivial things. He had some tests to run on that so called Ectoplasm.
When he got to Bart's he was shocked to find Molly still there working. As usual she was delighted to see Sherlock and asked him what he was doing there so late.
"I should ask you the same thing Miss Hooper," He replied. He had been nicer to Molly since she helped him beat Moriarty but he hoped she hadn't taken that as flirting from him. He did come back from hiding with a wife…that had helped.
"Oh, car accident, I was the only one available. Seemed everyone else had plans," She said he nodded and started to work. She knew better than to bother him so she left him to it. He felt jaded still. A normal man would have been baffled but what he just saw, a ghost going up in flames. His only focus was if he could prove to himself that this was real. He hadn't adjusted to life without Gwen well. She made his life normal, not that he ever strived for that but she made him feel more important than he ever did as the Reichenbach Hero. She was his mystery to solve every day because he couldn't wrap his head around why someone like her ever stayed with him.
His tests where slowly one by one coming up inconclusive. He was growing angry with the machines and he held back his urge to smash everything into tiny bits. Maybe he should just give up that what just happened was in fact real and not make believe.
"Every good fairy tale needs a good villain Mr. Holmes," He muttered to himself. Gwen always loved stories and fairy tales. She would joke about what she would do if they were real and how they would be better in this way or in that. Maybe…just maybe he hadn't really been seeing the world as she would have because he refused to. His thoughts ran together in one giant river and he found himself slipping into a memory.
It was a rainy day and he and Gwen were at her brother Hamish's house watching her niece and nephew for a while. They had on silly costumes that Gwen had helped them make for a school function sometime back. They fought over who got to sit on her lap, and it become some ridiculous ordeal; Cthulhu fighting a unicorn. Gwen was reading them a fairy tale as Sherlock observed idly. He normally wasn't too keen on children; he found them to be annoying and boring. But Gwen was insistent that he join her tonight. They made him play Clue, from which he got banned from just like with John though Gwen proved his victim can do it theory could work. Then he was forced to play Twister and he was sure he'd done something to his ankle. He didn't even mind, because he did it all for her: His mystery of a wife. He never could tell her no if she wanted something, save for one thing. He watched her laughing periodically as she acted out the story to the children. Over and over they made her read it and she did all the silly voices and actions every single time, he was so shocked that they never once grew tired of it. This maybe was how Gwen felt about him. She never bored of him, not once. Once the kids wear asleep, still in their costumes Gwen pulled out her favourite author and then read to him till Hamish and his wife got back from their date.
"I swear they must have been super glued into their costumes by the super glue fairy because when I told them to get into their pajama that's the answer I got. And I'm fresh out of eye of newt to loosen the glue. I wasn't sure where your stock pile was so they still are Cthulhu and the Unicorn and there was nothing I could do about it," She chuckled as her brother laughed and sighed.
"No wonder the kids like you so much sis, you let them do whatever."
"Isn't that the whole point of being the auntie who spoils them?" Gwen continued to giggle. After a few more pleasantries they began their walk home. The rain had let up a bit, but they could see their breath in little puffs as they walked.
"Do you think John missed us?" She asked him laughing. He couldn't help the smile that came to his face as a laugh flowed from his mouth.
"You most definitely…me, maybe not so much I think. Like with your niece and nephew back there I got banned from Cluedo and I think he may still be a tiny bit cross with me over it," Sherlock replied. Gwen let out another laugh and sighed happily.
"Do you ever think of us like that?"
"What living in a mediocre flat in the middle of London with Cthulhu and being banned from Clue? No we have some much better waiting for us. After all we are Mr. and Mrs. Holmes."
"Not what I meant and you know it!"
"I haven't the slightest Clue to what you are talking about then," Sherlock playfully lied. Gwen smacked him and he chuckled. He loved to jokingly frustrate her.
"I know for a fact you do too smarty pants! I'm talking about children, Sherlock, of our own." This got a considerable pause from him. He had always feared this talk. His silence had her very on edge he could almost feel it.
"Gwen…."
"You would make such an excellent father, though I know you certainly don't think so. I know a family dynamic is one you've never really known but let's face it, we already have one; you me and John. So why not expand a bit more?" She was clearly adamant about it and he knew that full well. Sherlock thought it over, but he knew he'd need a lot more time to ponder it.
"I know fairy tales aren't real but don't you want that, what we just did? Read aloud to the kids before tucking them in at night?" Gwen almost begged. Sherlock sighed and gave his wife a hug.
"May I have the chance to mull it over before we go anywhere else with this conversation? This is a big step, and unknown territory and we to trod lightly and see what will happen."
He regretted now not just saying yes and starting a family with Gwen. He sighed with a heavy heart. If Gwen was so ready to believe in him to be a good father he guessed he could try to believe that the things that go bump in the night are real.