Dominick stared in wide eyed wonder as Molly led him through the doors into the morgue. It was his ninth birthday and Molly had promised her little budding pathologist that he could see his first ever real dead body as a special birthday treat.
Molly stopped a few steps away from the table she'd laid Mr Jeffries out on before Sherlock had dropped Dominick off.
"Now darling, do you remember what you're not to do?" Molly asked as she knelt down to be at her son's eye level.
"I'm not to touch anything and I'm not to say anything about zombies" The little boy recited while he bounced excitedly on his toes. Molly swore she would never forgive John for letting him watch that zombie film, and she certainly wouldn't be letting him babysit again, not without supervision from Mary anyway.
"Can I see the body now mum?"
Molly thought he might explode from excitement as she stood up again and led him to the side of the table. Dominick stood up on his tip toes, eager to see. Molly giggled at the sight of him, excited to see a dead body, just like his father. The pathologist fetched the box she'd looked out earlier, it was usually used to keep the old microscopes in the lab but it would make a more than passable step for Dominick to stand on.
Dominick was soon situated on the box, no longer needing to stand on his tip toes. Molly watched him intently, not needing Sherlock's deduction skills to see every change in his young face. She saw awe, surprise, wonder and puzzlement.
"What's his name?" Dominick asked his mother, barely tearing his eyes away from the man on the table for a second.
"His name was Mr Jeffries." Molly answered. She wondered if Dominick was trying to deduce anything, his expression so much mirrored Sherlock when he was devoted to a crime scene.
"How old was he?" Dominick fired another question at Molly.
"How old do you think he was, darling?" Molly answered, wanting an answer to her own question of his deductive abilities. She watched as his eyes narrowed the tiniest amount, just as she often saw her husband's eyes doing. There was silence for almost a minute.
"40?" Dominick looked to his mother for confirmation. Molly beamed at him.
"Well done darling. Mr Jeffries would have been 41 next week."
Dominick's smile mirrored his mother's. Pathologist and son spent an enjoyable 30 minutes discussing the possible causes of Mr Jeffries death, with Dominick declaring that being a pathologist was sort of like being a consulting detective so this must be why his mother and father had gotten married.
The doors of the morgue swung open as Sherlock breezed in, 6 month old Isabel - who squealed happily at the sight of her mother and brother - in his arms. Molly asked one of the interns to see to Mr Jeffries while Sherlock handed Isabel over to her mother, placing a gentle kiss on his pathologists lips as he did so.
"Dad! I did a deduction!" Dominick announced proudly as Sherlock took his son's hand.
"That's my boy." The consulting detective smiled his lopsided smile and led his family out of the morgue.