Sherlock was lying on the sofa, fully dressed in his usual suit, when Squish came out of her bedroom. The DVD player was just powering up, and Sherlock was flicking through adverts on the DVD. She dropped into the nearest armchair and hugged her knees.
"What we watching?"
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" he replied stretching out his long body, on the sofa. Squish made a noise of appreciation and settled down to watch the film. It wasn't often that Sherlock was able to simply watch a film, usually he talked his way through it ruining the plot twists for everyone, and this of course made the cinema an impossibility (they were already banned from the nearby branches of Odeon, Cineworld and Empire). But after a good few years he had been trained to watch a few select films.
Halfway through the movie just as George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn where having a party and a poor ginger cat without a name was thrown from shelf to shelf, it happened. Squish got up from her armchair went over to Sherlock, put her head on his chest and lay down next to him. She waited a few minutes and when he didn't move her she settled
She down. A few minutes later his arm snaked around her shoulder and he held her close. could hear his heartbeat, which was slow and steady and the steady rhythm soon had her drifting to sleep. By the time Mr Yunoshi was shouting that he was going to call the police, she was sound asleep.
This was how John found them when he came back six hours later. He was whistling as he walked back up the stairs and unlocked the door. He has spent an enjoyable day at Mary's and his lucky socks had worked. He had only left because Mary was working the night shift and had to get some sleep. Well some, he smiled. As he opened the door he could hear the sounds of the telly, slightly muted.
"Sherlock?" he said as he walked in, "Squish?"
"Shh, John." Said Sherlock from the sofa.
John walked into the living room, and stopped dead. Squish had her head resting on Sherlock's chest and was obviously sound asleep. Somehow Sherlock had managed to maneuverer his arm to get the remote, and was watching an omnibus of 90210. His arm that was not resting on the back of the sofa was around her shoulder. John hadn't seen Sherlock as much as hug anyone before and he must have been this way for hours.
"John would you mind taking the remote off me for a second?" Sherlock said like this was a normal occurrence. Without a word John did as he asked.
"Thank you" Sherlock carefully manoeuvred himself so that he was on the edge of the sofa then somehow managed to straighten up. John found himself staring at Sherlock who stared back bemused.
"She needs to sleep and I think she'll do so better in a bed" he said. Without another word he picked her up and took her into her bedroom. John stared after him, and then sighing went to put the kettle on.
Sherlock Holmes laid his daughter on her bed. He tugged the duvet over her and watched as she automatically pulled her legs to her chest. She curled up and pulled the duvet closer to her and turned to face the wall in her sleep. He waited till her breathing was regular and slow again then left the room. He took one final look at the sleeping figure on the bed and gently closed the door behind him. John was waiting in the kitchen, sipping a cup of tea.
"So?" he said, looking up at Sherlock.
"What John?" Sherlock said
"I have never seen you like this with anyone before" John said, "I mean you're not exactly known for your huggable nature"
"John, be quiet." On seeing his expression Sherlock sighed and softened his voice, "Please. Just drop it ok"
John watched as he slammed into his bedroom and sighed. He was going to need more tea.
Over the next few days things returned to normal, John drank tea and left for the surgery, Sherlock sulked; limbs appeared in the fridge, Lestrade called up with cases and the world returned to what had been its previous state.
After a week Squish came out of her bedroom and started sorting through the files and folders that had spilled their contents onto the floor. Sherlock was sitting at the table resting his chin on his fingertips.
"Sherlock! Have you seen my bag?" No answer, "Ahh"
"It's by the fridge" said John coming into the room, "and where are you going in such a hurry may I ask."
"I'm so late for work its stupid, my set starts in…" she glanced down at her watch, "half an hour, shit!"
John laughed, "I'm still getting over the fact that you work in a gay bar."
She glared at him, "It's not a gay bar! It's a music bar, that just so happens to have a clientele of a certain sexuality"
"It has multi-coloured bar lights, velvet upholstery and an entire lighting team for a giant stage.2
"ok, it may be a little gay, but it pays me twenty pounds an hour and I get a fair amount of attractive men cheering me on without them perving on me, so I view it as a good life choice."
She retrieved her bag from behind the fridge
"Right I'm off; I'll be back around, six"
By the time she got to 101 it was twenty minutes to her set.
"Shit, shit shit" she muttered as she snuck into the locker room, and was just managing to put her stuff in her locker and was trying to sneak backstage when she was spotted.
"And what time do you call this" said a man wearing a mike and a clipboard
"I'm so sorry Brian; I had to help Sherlock sort out a small problem."
"Oh well if it's Sherlock's fault that ok" The other man giggled.
"Brian, your engaged to Mickey"
"But that guardian of yours has one fine ass" he moaned.
"You keep telling yourself that" she laughed, she walked off towards the wings. She went and got miked up before heading out on the floor, she checked her watch. She had fifteen minutes till her set which was enough time to go out and serve maybe one or two drinks, and if she was incredibly lucky she might be able to get a twenty quid tip.
She went and grabbed a tray and a menu and waited until she saw a large party be seated by Marie the hostess.
"Hello and welcome to 101, I'm Squish O'Connor I will be your waitress for this evening. What can I get you?" she said with a smile.
"Well" said a soft irish lilt that made Squish's blood run cold, "I think I'll have… a little bit of leverage."