The crying broke the sleepy silence of the morning, John's mind slowly flickered into action – it was Innes and he was crying, he needed fed. John shoved the duvet back from covering him, the cool air hitting his skin and lifted Innes out of the cot at the end of his bed; despite the fact that Innes still cried regularly, his cry had changed-but was no longer a mirthless scream, but a wail to alert John that he wanted something. As John settled Innes against his shoulder, he settled down slightly, his cry falling to a whimper.
"Come on Innes..." John murmured sleepily, "Let's go and heat you a bottle." John couldn't stop himself from yawning as he opened his bedroom door onto the landing; however when he got down to the living room Sherlock had beaten him to it and had a bottle heating up.
"I heard him crying and thought it's be time for a bottle." Sherlock explained.
"Thanks Sherlock." John yawned again.
"Do you want me to take him?" He asked, watching John yawn and observing his tired face closely.
"Nah, it's alright." John replied.
"Okay, you grab a seat; I'll bring the bottle over." Sherlock told him.
As the bottle was warming slowly Sherlock watched John and the baby as John took a seat on the sofa; it had been nearly three months since they had brought Innes home and it seemed like things finally might be settling down. John had accepted the situation, accepted that harry was gone, but also begun to relish that Innes was a part of harry that he was now responsible for. Their relationship too, was still a pleasantly warm feeling; looking after a baby didn't allow for much couple time, so the majority of their time had been spent looking after Innes. Sherlock couldn't complain -he really liked looking after the little boy, and his feelings for John had grown as he watched John connecting and beginning to become the prime nurturer for Innes. He brought the bottle over for John to give to Innes and sat down beside John on the sofa.
"Have you been up all night?" John asked, yawning and managing to tease the teat into Innes' mouth.
"Yeah." Sherlock replied, "I wanted to get this experiment all set up so I can monitor it precisely."
"I don't know how you can do it..." John mumbled, resting his head against Sherlock's shoulder. "Stay up all night and not be exhausted... I'm exhausted!
"Yeah, but you've not really got actual sleep because every time you got into deep sleep, Innes has woken you up... So that makes you even more tired." Sherlock explained.
"Mmhmm..." John agreed.
"Maybe you should try it... Staying up all night with me so you can get a feel for what it's actually like." Sherlock suggested, resting his own head against John's. "As long as you keep yourself active then you don't feel the tiredness." he waited for a reply, but when none came he lifted his head and looked down at John. Still holding the bottle in one hand feeding Innes, John appeared to have fallen asleep leaning against Sherlock; and Sherlock could hear his slow deep breathing. After a few moments, Sherlock tried to move very slowly and take Innes out of John's loose hands; with some difficulty he managed to extricate Innes from John's arms without waking him up. John had been doing so well recently; he had really begun to come into his own regarding Innes. The pain and loss he had been living with through the death of his sister had begun to roll away in the past month, he had begun to realise in full certainty that Innes was the last part of Harry and it was his job to look after him. Sherlock was proud of him; it was a bizarre feeling, the strong rush of heartfelt affection towards John. He watched him as his chest rose and fell as he slept rather peacefully next to him. It was like they had reached the calm after the storm- the waves had died down, the wind had abated, and their lives were becoming more calm and back to their ordinary kind of routine. Sherlock had begun doing scientific experimentations again, although being careful to make sure that Innes was asleep and out of the room when he began to do them; it felt like their life was perfectly beginning to balance out.
John however, when awaking around half an hour later, watched Sherlock with Innes without speaking for a while. Sherlock was so good with him, he turned into an almost completely different person when he was looking after Innes; yet John missed some of the old personality, although he would probably describe Sherlock as arrogant and cold- what he really was was assured in his opinions, and conscious not to mislead people.
"I had thought..." John began speaking as though he had already been in conversation with Sherlock and paused to think; Sherlock jumped as John spoke and noticed that he was awake.
"Yes?" Sherlock asked, reeling to catch up.
"I'd wondered whether we could maybe ask Molly and Greg to come and look after Innes for an evening, so that we can go out and do something... without having to worry about Innes." John continued.
"Oh!" Sherlock cottoned on to the idea that John was suggesting. "Like a date?"
"Well, yeah... kinda like a date." John nodded nervously.
"That sounds like a good idea... but, let's ask my mother to babysit." John stared at Sherlock, rather surprised that he would even suggest his mother, especially because of the somewhat strained relationship between them. "She will be really annoyed if she finds out that we've got someone else to babysit for us... she consider Innes to be her grandson- I know he's not really, but that's how she views it."
"What do you mean; he's not really her grandson?" John questioned, "Of course he is... you're my partner, so he's as much your son as mine." Sherlock's mouth opened and closed once, dumbfounded for a second by what John had just said to him.
"I... my- my son?" Sherlock babbled, his eyes seemed to have changed, and only for a few seconds his face looked younger, more innocent and much more caring. It was the forming of connections in Sherlock's brain. John was Innes' guardian, despite not being his biological father, he was still Innes' provider, his father... and if Sherlock was in a relationship with John, then Sherlock was Innes' parent too.
"Yeah, Sherlock! Why don't you call your mother and ask her if she'll babysit for us?"
"She says she'll be around for about six o'clock." Sherlock called, putting the dust-covered phone down on the receiver. "But no doubt she'll be early, she'll want to come and see us before we go out."
"What actually are we going to do?" John asked, this thought had never occurred to them - they had discussed going out, but not where or what to do.
"Oh..." Sherlock paused in the doorway, "Um... dinner?" He suggested.
"That's great, as long as it's not Angelo's." John agreed, a smile flickered across Sherlock's face.
"You can choose where we go." Sherlock said.
True to Sherlock's prediction, there was a knock at the door at half past five; John had just picked up Innes to give him one last feed before himself and Sherlock went out. When Sherlock reappeared from the bottom of the stairs, his mother was accompanying him.
"Hello John!" her voice was cheery and she was beaming. "Oh - look at him!" She was staring lovingly down at Innes, "He's getting big, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he's fair come on recently." John agreed, rocking Innes to quieten him down.
"Do you want me to take him; I can feed him if that's what he needs." She offered, holding out her hands.
"Yeah, here we go..." John stood up, and passed Innes across. "There are a couple of made up bottles in the fridge if he needs another feed; there's nappies and his changing mat over there; and there's his Moses basket if he falls asleep." John informed her of all the things surrounding Innes that she would need to know. As she nodded in understanding, John realised that -unless Sherlock had done so - she didn't know about their relationship.
"Where abouts are you two going? Got another case?" She asked, sitting herself down on the sofa cradling Innes. John was looking at Sherlock, trying to convey this without actually speaking - getting nowhere, he mouthed:
"Does your mother know?" Sherlock's eyes widened slightly and made a tiny shake of his head; luckily his other had been too busy looking down at Innes to notice the interaction between them. "We need to tell her."
"Mother..." Sherlock began slowly, he took a breath in, he was obviously steeling himself for revealing this. "You know how Mycroft keeps informing you that John and I are 'more than just friends'?"
"Hmmm... oh yes Sherlock." She nodded her head absently.
"And I keep refuting it and telling you John is just my flatmate and a friend?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well, when I asked you to babysit for us tonight, it's not so that we can go and work on a case or anything..." Sherlock took a breath in. "It's so we can go on a date." It took a moment for this to register in his mother's head, then she looked up.
"A proper date? A courtship date?" She asked, it was strange to hear it put in these terms.
"Yes." Sherlock said quietly.
"Oh boys!" She exclaimed, beaming even wider. "It's about time!" Sherlock suddenly rolled his eyes, at least her reaction was over enthusiastic; Sherlock clearly thought that she had been badgering him for so long to get into a relationship of some sort, and now he had done what she had been waiting for. "Well, with that news - I'd better let you go for your date then!"
Sherlock took John's hand when they reached the bottom of the stairs and opened the door to step out into the evening and start their date.
A/N:
As always, I'd love to know what you think of this chapter/story so far!
Also, I think I'm coming to the end of this particular story, possibly might have thoughts for a sequel, but I'd still love to know whether you think it's worth continuing!