There were no words, just glancing between Hamish and me. The boy was holding a cup of hot chocolate I made for him when we got back to the flat and Mrs. Hudson had given me some biscuits, but he wouldn't even eat in front of me.

He wasn't shy, or at least that's what John told me about him. I tried to remember all the things he liked and what he didn't like. Then I remembered that by taking care of a child you must have communication with them, or well, that's what the specialists at college told us.

"So, Hamish" the boy looked up at me "Your daddy told me about what you like but..." I lowered my tone and Hamish raised his eyebrows "I forgot almost everything…".

"You are Molly's cousin" Hamish said taking me by surprise "I like Molly, she's a nice lady" he looked down at his hot chocolate. Maybe John told him about Molly and our relationship.

"How do you know?" I asked but his indifferent blue eyes just stared at me and my smile disappeared.

He didn't answer.

"He's a very playful boy actually" Molly said while we were sitting in the living room and Hamish did his homework in the kitchen "there's also times where he reminds me of Sherlock" she giggled.

"I don't know much about his father, he seems like a very reserved man, not like John" Molly had told me very few things about both of them. I knew Mr. Holmes was a consulting detective, the only one in the world, but that was it, I didn't know much about his persona.

"Sherlock might be scary at first, but it's just that mask of him what you see" Molly left her cup of tea on the small table. "You just have to give them time to know them better, and for them to know you better" She said leaning back on the sofa.

I looked down at my cup of tea thinking of what she'd say. Suddenly my phone buzzed in message alert, I took it from the table and stared confused at the screen.

Tick-tock

"What is it?" Molly asked after seeing my expression "Elise?" she called again making me snap out of my staring.

"Sorry, a message…must be the wrong number" I left the phone back in the table and turned to look back at the kitchen, Hamish wasn't there anymore. He'd just left his books in a well ordered pile.

"I must go" Molly got up from the sofa and put on her coat "We should have a picnic this Friday, you bring Hamish and I'll take the food" I walked her to the door.

"Sure, I just hope he likes me by that time" we laughed and said goodbye before I closed the door of the flat.

John told me I'd be staying at their flat and that they had a room for me, my things were already in the room. I took my level of blood pressure and registered 98 which was good and proceeded to take my medicine pills.

"Are you alright?" a small voice made me jump and I almost choked with the pill, I drank some water and turned to look at Hamish who was sitting in a black single leather couch across the living room.

"Yes, I am fine" I smiled at him before joining him on the other side of the living room; my eyes glanced at the fire consuming the wood. There was silence as we both were sitting there. I turned to look at the boy several times, he wouldn't stop looking at the fireplace and somehow he reminded me of my little brother.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" he said in a barely audible voice but without looking at me.

"Indeed" I replied bringing my legs up in the couch and wrapping my arms around them.

"I don't need a babysitter, did you know?" I could clearly hear the tone of Sherlock's voice when he spoke.

"Yes, but your parents wouldn't let you all on your own" He was now looking at me as I spoke. After a few minutes he got up from the couch and left to his room. I just took a deep breath thinking of how difficult could this be, then I headed to my room and slept.

I prepared some scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. I wasn't sure if Hamish would like them but I was at least trying to make him like me. My little brother liked when I used to make breakfast for him. Mom was never around before we'd go to school so I learned to cook by myself when I was just 10. It turned into a habit and then I started enjoying it by the time I turned 12. Lasagna was one of my specialties and I used to prepare it when we had our family time every Friday. We would watch three movies, one after another, and ended up playing Pictionary or Scrabble.

There were two plates set on the dining table with their respective glasses filled with orange juice. A cup of coffee was placed beside my plate; I grabbed it and took a sip of the sweet milky coffee, it was perfect for this kind of days where the entire buildings felt cold. We were starting spring but the weather was still cold, sometimes it'd rain, but for a very short time.

The sound of footsteps coming from the hallway snapped me out of my thinking, and then Hamish arrived to the kitchen. He headed straight to the fridge, opened the door and looked for something.

"Where's the milk?" Hamish turned to look at me.

"Good morning to you too" I replied at the time I took a glass and poured some milk in it and gave it to him smiling "Here you go" Hamish looked at me, his eyes being as suspicious as before; he took a sip from the milk before taking a seat in the table. So did I.

"What's this?" Hamish took the fork that was lying beside his plate and poked the food several times.

"Oh, those are scrambled eggs" I took a small portion from my plate and started eating. Hamish glanced at me and then he sighed.

I was just hoping he wasn't allergic to any of that by the time he started eating. He seemed to think in how awful it tasted and I was waiting for him to throw me his plate and yell at me about how awful it was. But instead he kept on eating until he finished leaving the entire plate clean. I was at the half of eating my portion when I noticed he'd finished and he was now drinking the rest of his glass of milk.

"Did you like it?" I asked and Hamish nodded "Do you want more?" the boy nodded again.

"Please" Hamish answered as he stood up and poured more milk in his glass. I took his plate and put more scrambled eggs on his plate. He sat down again and kept on eating.

Silence was sure one of those things this flat could contain and I wondered if Hamish was actually okay with it. John mentioned Hamish was quite serious around people he didn't know, but that would change with time. Talking about time, I turned my eyes and looked at the clock.

"God! It's almost time to take you to school" I took the empty plates and put them on the dish washer.

"I don't want to go" Hamish said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"You have to, I also have to go to work and nobody would be here to take care of you" I replied putting the leftovers on a topper and inside the fridge.

"Mrs. Hudson could take care of me" I didn't want to argue with him now…not now. I had to think of something. Kids like him would negotiate. Yes, negotiations would work.

"Listen" I started "What if we go to where I work after school, Hm?".

"And where's that, exactly?" the boy asked curious.

"You'll see after school" I grabbed his hand and walked with him to his room. His uniform was hanging from the door of the wardrobe "Now you better change your clothes, I'll wait downstairs".

I was making sure I'd grabbed the flat keys and put them into my purse. Molly had been texting me like crazy, she said she needed help at the morgue. While I checked all the messages I stumbled with the very last one I'd received last night. Tick, Tock.

I was really hoping this was some sort of bad joke just to get me on my nerves. Gary, one of my last friends from college, used to make pranks on me when I got stressed. According to him I would get better with these jokes, which was a lie because my stress got worse until the point I had headaches. I swear I was about to have one if I received another message like this one.

Hamish and I took a cab; I left him at his school and promised to pick him up at 1 pm. As I made my way to the hospital my phone buzzed again.

How's Hamish?

-JW

I replied he was fine, of course. It took just five minutes to get a reply. John asked if he was being nice to me, I responded that he was actually. I didn't mention he acted a bit rude telling me he didn't need a babysitter but after giving him scrambled eggs and making some negotiations, we were starting to understand each other.

Well that was one big step, or so I thought.