A/N: I wanted to finish this part really quick so as not to keep those of you who were so worried about Scarlett waiting. Thank you so much for all your reviews and worrying. It's almost like Scarlett's a real kid now...LOL. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! And be on the lookout this week- some Christmasy one-shots are forthcoming. There will be Gabriel, Scarlett and the Twins, some Sherlolly and maybe even some Christmas jumper shenanigans!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"She looked so sad this morning," Molly said, clutching Sherlock's hand as they walked toward the school. It was a sunny morning, but she didn't feel sunny. Scarlett's behavior was troubling her and what was worse: she hadn't known. She felt so guilty that the child, her baby, was having some kind of crisis and she didn't know what was going on. "How can we not know what's happening with our own child?"

"Children are very skilled at keeping things hidden," Sherlock replied. He knew this to be true. He'd listened to children lie very efficiently to police in order to preserve their status quo. "Scarlett doesn't want to be different. If she discloses that she's having a problem, she's afraid we'll think she's different."

"Well of course she's different!" Molly exclaimed. "She's beautifully unique."

"I know, but despite how she is with us—Scarlett is very shy. I've watched her at school. Her hearing problem makes her very shy and soft-spoken with outsiders."

Molly nodded. "Do you think… I dunno… maybe we shouldn't have put her in school just yet? Or found a school for deaf children?"

Before Sherlock could reply, they were at the doors of the school. The first thing he was aware of was the noise. The preschool was a small building with four classrooms, all of which had their doors open. There were children from barely walking all the way up to Scarlett's age and they seemed to be everywhere. Immediately Sherlock realized what the first problem was: it was too loud here. There was no way Scarlett was able to filter all this noise out. He was having trouble himself.

Molly was cheerful as she walked up to the reception desk and spoke to the secretary. Sherlock stood back. He hated being engaged in polite conversation. He leaned against the wall and observed the activity. A little boy with glasses and a sour expression sat on one end of a tiny waiting couch. His clothes were disheveled and his skin was pale save for tiny blushes on each cheek. Obviously sick and waiting to go home. Another girl with blonde hair and tearstained cheeks rushed in. The girl's hands were clenched into tight fists and her tiny mouth was a hard, straight line. Obviously angry. She looked somewhat familiar, but Sherlock had no interest in searching through his mind palace for her identity. As luck would have it, all was revealed when the little girl began whining at the secretary that Miss Morgan was needed in her class. Miss Morgan was Scarlett's teacher. Sherlock zoned out as the child began to explain the situation to the aforementioned administrator who rushed out of her office at all the commotion. He had almost tuned out the noise when he heard three words very clearly: that awful Scarlett.

OoOoOo

Scarlett ran down the hallway and into the playground. She wanted to hide. She would just hang around by herself until it was time to go home. Then she'd tell Mary what happened and she would tell her mum and dad and then they would insist that school was not for Scarlett and she'd never have to go again. If that didn't work, maybe she could just play sick for a while. She looked around for someplace where she could hide. Unfortunately, there was none. Unless she wanted to go inside the slide tube. Suddenly the wind blew hard, reminding her that she had run off without her coat and scarf. It was very cold. She hadn't realized how cold it was when she was walking with Gabriel this morning. She was about to go inside to find someplace to hide when something caught her eye. She turned to see a bunch of older kids filing out of the school across the street. Gabriel's school. Scarlett ran to the fence and watched as the class of kids came outside. Her heart leapt and she felt a twinge of hope when she recognized Gabriel's coat as he walked along with his class.

"Bre!" she called, but he didn't hear. She would have to go to him. The gates around the schoolyard were locked, but as Gabriel often observed—Scarlett was like a monkey in a tree. She was wicked good at climbing. She had a confidence about her body that rivaled her father's. When she was two, Molly had found her perched on top of the refrigerator. With a glance over her shoulder to be sure no one was around, Scarlett scaled the fence.

Getting over the fence was easy enough, but getting across the street to the school was going to be more difficult. There was a lollipop man still standing at the corner, but he would never let an unaccompanied child of four across the street on her own. It would be obvious she was trying to escape. No, she'd have to cross here. Scarlett chewed on her lip, remembering how she'd been told over and over not to cross the street without a big person. Or the near beating she'd gotten when she ran toward the street that one time. But this was worth it. She'd rather stand down the wrath of her father than stay there with Annemarie. She stopped on the sidewalk and waited for the traffic to go by. It was a small side-street. Not nearly as much traffic as Baker Street. When the cars stopped, she looked both ways to make sure that nothing was coming and then sprinted across the road.

"Bre!" she shouted, running toward the class that was filing into another building. She ran alongside them, looking for her brother. She thought she saw a flash of his coat, but when she tugged on his sleeve, the boy that turned around was not Gabe. "Bre!" she shouted as she continued to run down the hall. "Bre!" The class she'd been following walked inside another classroom, closing the door behind them and leaving Scarlett in the corridor alone. She looked around, examining the doors that were laid out before her in every direction. They all looked the same and there were no clues. His name was not written on any of the papers that hung outside the door. "Bre, where are you?" she whined then burst into tears. She sat down on the floor in the hallway and hid her face, weeping into her hands. What could she do? If she went to the office, they'd probably just take her back to her school. Miss Morgan would be so mad that she would call her mum and dad. And then, she'd be destroyed. Scarlett clenched her fists that were pressed against her eyes. That Annemarie! This was all her fault. If she could just keep her big mouth shut, then she wouldn't be in this mess.

"Scarlett? Is that you?" Scarlett looked up to see Katie Adams standing over her. "What's the matter?"

"Oh Katie!" she cried, standing up and throwing herself against the girl. She was so relieved that she could only cry harder into Katie's coat.

"Hey, what's the matter Scarface?" Katie asked, hugging the little girl and kneeling down on her level. "Why aren't you at school?"

"I ran away," she sniffled. "Can you help me find Bre?"

"Don't you think we should go back to your school?"

"No! I want to see Bre!" Before she could stop herself, she was crying again so loud that Katie was shushing her and wanting to put a hand over her mouth.

"Okay, Scarlett. Come on, I'll take you to Gabriel. Just don't cry anymore, okay? We're going to get in trouble."

Scarlett nodded. "Okay, Katie," she said with another sniffle. She took the older girl's hand and allowed herself to be led down the hall.

OoOoOo

Ms. Grainger, the administrator, was desperately apologizing to Molly as they rushed to the classroom. "Mrs. Holmes, really. This has never happened before. The children are supervised at all times."

"It's really all right, Ms. Grainger. These things happen," Molly said. She knew how willful Scarlett was. And what her temperament was like. It was not difficult for Molly to believe at all that Scarlett would pull another child's hair, push her down and take off out the door. What it was impossible to believe was that Scarlett would do these things unprovoked. "The important thing is to find her."

"Quite right," the administrator said as they arrived at Scarlett's classroom. Inside, the little blonde girl was weeping in a nest of other four year olds who were telling her that she would be okay. The assistant was desperately trying to engage the others in something else to diffuse the situation and Miss Morgan was on the phone, apparently putting out some kind of watch for Scarlett. "Miss Morgan, have you heard anything yet?"

The teacher turned. "Mr. and Mrs. Holmes!" she said with a breathless sigh as she slammed the phone down. "I don't know what happened. The children were having puzzles and games while I checked them all in. Scarlett was over there with her friends and the next thing I know, Annemarie was crying and Scarlett was gone!"

Sherlock completely bypassed Miss Morgan and went directly to the sniffling Annemarie. Molly tried to contain her cringing. Sherlock already has his collar popped. One of the children looked up at him and gasped. "You're Sherlock Holmes! The detective in the funny hat!" the boy said, already attempting to climb him.

"Yes, goodbye," Sherlock replied, setting the little boy on his feet and nudging him away. The rest of the four year olds scattered from Annemarie like roaches in the light. "Annemarie, is it?" The little girl nodded. Immediately he took in as much information about her as he could. Funny, children were usually harder to read, but this one was virtually transparent: spoiled, ignored, liar, family has money but not as much as they'd like others to think, insecure.

"Yes?"

"So what happened? You mentioned 'that awful Scarlett' before. What did 'that awful Scarlett' do to you?"

Annemarie wiped her nose on her sleeve. "She pulled my hair and pushed me down for no reason at all! She's always being mean to me."

"Oh? And why do you reckon that is?"

Annemarie shrugged.

"You should never shrug when someone asks you a question," Sherlock said. "Shrugging isn't an answer."

She glared up at him. "Maybe she's jealous 'cause I can hear and she's deaf!" Annemarie spat.

"Or perhaps retaliation," Sherlock mumbled. "So what about after she pulled your hair and pushed you down for no reason whatsoever?"

Miss Morgan leaned over to Ms. Grainger. "Should we be letting him interrogate the child like this?"

"Shut it," Molly growled, then smiled when both women gaped at her.

Sherlock felt something tug his sleeve and he turned to see a small boy with black hair that stood up all over, impossibly green eyes and an overabundance of freckles. "Yes, what is it?" Sherlock asked, trying not to sound impatient.

"Scarlett didn't do anything. Annemarie was making fun of her voice," the little boy stated.

"I was not! You're a liar, Seamus!"

"Yes you were," another little girl piped up. "You said she should use a hat to cover up her robot ears!"

Seamus tugged at Sherlock's sleeve again. "Annemarie is always mean to Scarlett. Today she just got mad and pushed her."

The adults turned a heavy stare at Annemarie. She could only sit there looking miserable.

OoOoOo

Scarlett held Katie's hand obediently while they waited outside Gabriel's classroom. "Now we're going to say hello to Gabriel and then we're going right back across the street to your school, Scarlett."

"I don't want to, Katie," she whined.

"Well what difference does that make?" Katie asked. "Sometimes people have to do things they don't want to. Even cute little redheaded girls."

Katie's words drew a small grin from Scarlett as the teacher opened the door. "Kate, I sent you to the office forever ago. Why are you just now getting back?" the teacher scolded.

"I'm sorry Ms. Allen. We're having a slight problem. Can I see Gabriel out here for a second?"

"What's going on?"

"Nothing much. His sister just needs to see him." Katie opened the door slightly wider to show Scarlett standing beside her.

"All right. Just hurry up." Ms. Allen beckoned to Gabriel and within seconds he'd appeared in the doorway. As soon as he did, Scarlett threw herself against him, nearly toppling them both. The tears that had dried up in the hallway came back now with a terrible vengeance. Gabriel stared from Katie to his baby sister who was weeping into the tail of his jumper.

"What's up, Scarlett?" he asked. "And how did you get to my school?"

"I ran away, Bre!" she signed angrily as she spoke. "And I not going back!"

"Oh yes you are!" he said. "We're going back over there right now. Your teacher must be frantic!"

"I don't care! I never going back to that school again. And you can't make me! Not even Daddy can make me!"

Gabriel looked up at Katie who could only shrug in response. "I don't know, Gabe. She was sitting in the hall crying when I found her. All she'll say is she's not going back to school."

"Okay, Scarlett. Dry up and tell me what's wrong. I can't understand you while you're wailing like that." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bit of tissue. He held it to her nose and instructed her to blow.

Katie grinned, watching as Gabe cleaned up his baby sister. "That's so cute, Gabe," she said.

"Shut it," he growled with a smirk. "So spill it, Scarface. Why don't you want to go back to school?"

Scarlett related the story of all that had happened at school that morning, sniffling shuddering at the part where Annemarie made fun of the way she spoke. "I can't help it, Bre! Mr. Phillip helps me, but I still don't talk right!"

"You talk just fine, Scarlett," Gabriel said with a squeeze. "If she can't understand you, she's an idiot. You can't get upset about kids like that."

"She hurt my feelings, Bre!"

"So tell her that. Tell her to leave you alone. Stand up to her and she'll shut her fat mouth."

"I pulled her hair and pushed her down."

"But you'll get in trouble for that. You have to use your words, Scarface." He finished mopping the tears from her cheeks. "You can't be so shy all the time. You aren't like that at home."

"It's scary, Bre."

"I know. But you can't go running to me every time somebody makes you mad."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't." He squeezed her tight and stood up, offering his hand. "In the meantime, don't you worry, Scarface. I'll take care of Annemarie."

OoOoOo

Sherlock, Molly and the administrator were almost out the door when they saw Gabriel tromping across the schoolyard with Scarlett in tow. She was clutching his hand like she might fly away if she let go, rubbing her eyes with the other. Her cheeks were pink with the angry tears she'd shed and her hair was wild, having slipped from the long braid down her back. "Scarlett!" Molly cried, rushing the little girl and scooping her up in her arms. "Where have you been?"

"I went to Bre's school, Mummy," she said simply. Turning to Sherlock, she said sheepishly, "I cross the street by myself, Daddy."

"I know," he replied with a raised eyebrow. "And I am not happy about it."

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Scarlett said sniffling against her mother's shoulder. While she began relating the whole story to her parents and teachers, Gabriel made his way into the classroom.

He was trying to be unobtrusive as he walked up to the small girl in the corner with the blonde hair. He recognized her as the girl that Scarlett had been talking to at Angelo's the other night. Just thinking of the way her voice was shaking and her tear-stained cheeks was enough to reignite Gabriel's anger. Obviously this kid had been messing with Scarlett for some time. "Hello. Are you Annemarie?" he asked, swallowing his anger. After all, she was just a little kid.

"Yes," she said with a huff. "What do you want?"

He stared around him to be sure nobody was watching then knelt down in front of her. "My name's Gabriel. Scarlett is my little sister."

"Yeah. So?"

"So, I'm just stopping in to warn you that if you make my baby sister cry again, you'll wish you hadn't."

"Yeah? Why?"

"Our uncle has a direct line to Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Queen Elizabeth. You'll never get Christmas again and all your teeth will fall out."

"No they won't!"

"Are you sure enough to risk it?"

She seemed to think this over and the shrugged haughtily. Gabriel narrowed his eyes to dangerous slits and put his fist under her nose. "And I got five other really good reasons. Want to hear them?"