Sherlock sighed, as he placed his hands under his chin. John was in bed. Sherlock was laid out on the sofa.
Sherlock's thoughts raced about his mind palace. Mycroft's presence popped up the most.
"Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock." Of course he had contradicted this, when talking to Sherlock.
Sherlock's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Caring couldn't be an advantage. He thought of all the possible scenarios and none of them showed it.
John and Sherlock's attacker, the 'James' appeared in his head. Sherlock had already locked him up in his mind. However he kept leaking through, bit by bit.
"Always choose your head, over your heart." He was smiling maliciously, as he sang this.
Sherlock kept thinking of this. He knew that he was selfish, wanting to look after John. Maybe John would be best in a children's home? His brain pondered. Maybe he would be best with 'normal' parents. Sherlock sighed.
In the middle of his palace, he heard a noise. It sounded like shuffling, like prey trying to get away from a predator. He heard panicked gasps. He knew that noise. He would know that sound anywhere. It was John. Forcibly opening the door of his palace, he ran out.
Sherlock opened his eyes and immediately jumped up. He sprinted up the stairs to John's room.
When there, there was no time for social situations. So instead of knocking he went straight in.
John was tangled in his blankets, whist sweat dripped off of his face. He kept moving, trying to run. His panicking whispers sounded like pleas. John was begging. Sherlock observed the tears running down John's face. They made different ways down, but always ended up falling.
Sherlock knew he needed to stop this. Sherlock started hurting, but Sherlock knew that John could hurt himself more.
He started by whispering,
"John you're here, in the flat, with me Sherlock."
John apparently hadn't heard him, as he continued panicking. Sherlock started panicking. What was he supposed to do? John, as well as other children, can get comfort out of physical contact, he thought. He put his hands on either side of John's arms and continued talking.
"John it's okay, you're here. You're here in 221B. You're not there.
John's panicking reduced, and Sherlock silently rejoiced. He continued talking. Eventually John looked up at Sherlock. Sherlock looked back, John was back with him. Sherlock smiled, as John tried to stutter an excuse.
Sherlock wrapped his arms around John, and John broke. He wept in Sherlock's shoulder. 10 minutes later, Sherlock had an idea. He and John reluctantly let go and Sherlock ran downstairs.
When he came back upstairs with two mugs of hot chocolate, he could have wept. John was trying to cry silently into his hands.
"John?" He started.
John looked up. A deer caught in headlights, was the only way Sherlock could explain it.
"You're back." A smile appeared on John's face.
Sherlock smiled and nodded.
"This is for you." He said as he handed John the mug.
John's smile lit up even more, but Sherlock could still see sadness within his eyes.
"Do you want to tell me, what that was about?" Sherlock tried the gentlest voice that he had.
John's face looked panicked again. He took a sip of the hot chocolate and nodded. He took a deep breath and began,
"My mother was punishing me..." John looked down at his hands. Sherlock silently pushed down his anger, at John calling the women who hurt him 'mother'. "I kept silent, but when I looked up again..." John fought down the tears. "It was you." His voice cracked on the last bit and confusion hit Sherlock's face. "You were hurting me." John looked and gazed up at Sherlock tears free fully falling. Sherlock stared back. No words were forming from his mouth. John ducked his head and stared at the floor. Sherlock read his face and it was guilt, mixed with something else. Sherlock finally found words,
"John..." The younger snapped his head up at Sherlock again. "I am a ridiculous man and yes I do experiments with all sorts of...meat...products." He cringed and John smiled. "Although I may do 'unnormal' things, I will never hurt you. I will never hurt you intentionally. I may punish you if you do things wrong." John's smile faded. "However they will be normal punishments. For example grounding you or by...cleaning." Sherlock furrowed his eyebrows, is that how normal children were punished? John picked up on this and laughed slightly. Sherlock looked back to him and continued, "I will never hurt you, like that. Okay?" John nodded and they hugged.
They stayed like that way into the night, until they both fell asleep.
A/N: lizzie1250 hopefully this chapter's got a little bit more of Sherlock taking care of John. However I will add more of him taking care of John in future chapters. Thank you for the review! :)
I start college soon again (year 13). So my plan is to do an update of this story once a week, at the very least.
Thank you for reading!