Please ensure you've read the previous two chapters (Boy and Belittled) before this one.
Hamish studied his father for a moment before stepping into the main sitting room.
"I didn't mean what I said either, Father. I'm really sorry about that, and that I ruined your experiment."
"Sod the experiment."
John stepped quietly into the kitchen, close enough to be nearby if he was needed, but far enough to give Sherlock and Hamish a bit of privacy. Sherlock nodded at him through the doorway and sat down on the sofa, gesturing for his son to come sit next to him.
"I'm not sure if your dad has ever explained this to you, but before he came along, I was virtually impossible to live with. I was on my own for a very long time. Sure, Mycroft and Greg were around, but I'd gone out of my way to distance myself from everyone, convinced myself that relying on other people, caring about them, was a sign of weakness. It's not that I had no feelings, rather the opposite. But feelings are messy, distracting. It was hard to focus on my work. So I shoved everything to the wayside..."
Awkwardly, Sherlock wrapped an arm around his son's narrow shoulders. Hamish smiled and leaned into him.
"And then you met Dad, and realised that sometimes having someone - or two someones - to care about can be beneficial."