Two Weeks Later...

“John you have one last patient to see and then you are finished for the day.” The receptionist said through the intercom. It had been two weeks, since John had last seen Sherlock. Every day he texted him to make sure he was ok but Sherlock never answered them. When he didn’t reply, John made sure to ask Mycroft to watch over him because he didn’t want Sherlock to go back on the drugs or hurt himself because of him. That would break his heart.

Suddenly the door opened and in walked Sherlock, tall and well dressed, the definition of handsome. He walked across the room and sat down in the plastic seat that was placed opposite to John. He took one look at John then slumped in the seat, his head falling into his hands, forcibly rubbing his eyes before running them through his hair.

After a minute or two of silence, Sherlock looked up and John and started to speak.  “I haven’t slept much over the past few weeks. I have been thinking a lot. I’m still angry, very angry but I don’t want to waste any more time with my daughter.”

 Over the past two weeks, Sherlock had not taken any cases, not because he didn’t want to (he thought at one stage that it would be a good distraction from everything that had happened) but because he couldn’t focus on anything other than Alex. Every time he thought about her he got a mixture of feelings in the pit of his stomach that wouldn’t go away. 

At first he felt happy because the Alpha inside of him had managed to succeed in making his omega pregnant but then when he remembered said omega he felt an intense anger, one that he wasn’t able to control. He had missed out on so much because of John and he knew that he would never be able to get that time back with his daughter. Maybe they would never get a good father-daughter relationship like one was meant to with the Alpha father. But then he realised that he couldn’t blame it on John entirely. If he had been a better Alpha, a better partner, a better father figure then John wouldn’t have felt the need to remove himself from Sherlock’s life. In some way, he only had himself to balme. 

There was more silence as John was not sure if Sherlock had finished talking. When it was obvious that he had he spoke for the first time. “You’re bound to be angry Sherlock. It’s a lot to take in.”

“It was a lot to take it but I think I have managed to understand the truth.” Sherlock looked at John straight in the eye, refusing to break eye contact. “Last time we spoke you said something about spending time with Alex.”

John smiled, happy that Sherlock wanted to see Alex again but at the same time he felt a hint of sadness over the fact that this probably meant that if he had told Sherlock about Alex all those years ago then they would have been able to stay together, as a family. “Yes of course. She goes to school Monday to Friday, 8:30-3:30. Maybe you could take her or even collect her from school. She would love that.”

“Yes. I would like that also. I don’t know how we could come to arrangement on that though as I never know when I am free. As you know, cases are often sprung onto me and I spend days on them without noticing when the days past but other times they only last a few hours so I can’t really see Alex on set days for a set amount of time like some fathers would.”

John rested his elbow on the table and let his chine sit on his hand. “Well... how about you text me the night before you want to see her and I will see if I can arrange something. We should probably stick to one or two days a week to start with, to get her used to the situation but then we can increase that if you wish.”

Sherlock sat up in the chair suddenly, smiling a bright smile. “Yes. Yes. That’s a good idea. I think I could work with that.”

John turned around and started to log out of his computer, wanting to get home as soon as possible to talk to Alex. She had been off with him since she first met Sherlock  and he knew that possible, just possibly, she would begin to talk to him again if she knew that Sherlock wanted to start picking her up and taking her to school a few days a week. “Maybe you could pick her up from school tomorrow if you’re not busy?”

“I don’t believe that I will be busy then so yes, I would like that very much.” Sherlock smiled at John. He had worried that John had possibly changed his mind about him being able to see Alex but it was obvious now that was not the case. If anything John was encouraging Sherlock to see Alex.

Seeing that there was nothing else to talk about John started to pack the remainder of his things away. When he had finished he stood up and turned back around, noticing that Sherlock was still sitting in the plastic seat watching him intensely. “You coming?” John asked walking out of the office door. He quickly said goodbye to his colleague as he went to reception, dropping off his patient notes as he went.

 “I’ll walk you home.” Sherlock said as they reached the car park. He immediately started to walk off in the direction of John’s house, not turning around to see if he was folowing.

“You don’t need to do that.” John replied, smiling warmly at Sherlock because he knew that Sherlock would never have done this before and it was... nice.

“I can’t let you walk home in the dark just because my appointment took longer than it should have.”

As usual, it seemed that John had nothing to say. Not that he minded. He quickly caught up to the detective, walking beside him. He had to take almost two steps just to match one of Sherlock's. A small smile came to John's face, remembering running through streets and over rooftops after the man as they gave chase to a criminal. 

Sherlock kept a slow pace, giving himself time to think about everything before he finally spoke up to John. “How did you find out you was pregnant?” 

"Oh. Well I was throwing up in the mornings and just thought that I was ill. I didn't even consider the possibility... Then Sarah poked my stomach and made a joke about me being pregnant... I panicked and did a test..." John shrugged, not wanting make a bigger deal out of this. 

“Oh.” Sherlock mumbled. If Sarah had noticed then he defiantly should have. It wasn’t right that he had to go through that all that on his own. “Did the pregnancy go ok? No complications?”

John nodded. "Yeah. It was all fine. She was born in May. Eighteenth. Just after two in the morning. She was a little bit early and really small. Scared the hell out of me. I felt like I'd hold her too tight and crush her"

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Sherlock confessed, totally out of his depth in this conversation but knowing that he needed answers. “But she’s ok now?”

John grinned. "She is. More than okay. She plays for the rounders team, loves sports. Maths too. She's already smarter than me..." He trailed off, a smile on his face. 

“I bet that’s not true. You’re smart... in your own way.” Sherlock smirked.

John laughed gently. "Which is your way of saying I'm an idiot that doesn't have the 'right' knowledge or whatever." Despite his words, John's tone showed he doesn't mind being called stupid by Sherlock, or his daughter for that matter. 

“I wouldn’t say that you don’t have the ‘right’ knowledge. Your medical knowledge often came in handy in the past but some things you retain in that head of yours is pointless and a total waste of space.” Sherlock admitted, remembering the good old times.

John just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Mr. Space isn't important"

“It isn’t. It really isn’t.” Sherlock muttered, slowing his steps down as he was rather enjoying his time with John. “What school does she go to?”

"Oh, one not far from the house. It's called St. Richmond’s even though it's not overly religious. I think it was, once upon a time" John shrugged. "She doesn't talk much about it beside the lessons and the people she hates"

“That’s good.” Sherlock approved, trying to think if he had ever heard about that school before. “What are her favourite lessons? She looks like you so she must have my intelligence.”

"PE, like I said. She loves sports and Maths. She's just a whiz with numbers. She's good at science too, physics and chemistry, but she doesn't like them quite as much" John told him, remembering all the faces Alex had pulled when she told him about her chemistry test that she had had the previous week. 

“Shame... Chemistry is a very interesting subject but it’s good that she like maths. Seems that she is more like my mother than me.” Sherlock commented, remembering his mother who was a mathematical genius. She would love Alex, especially as she is her grandchild...

John looked down, realising that it wasn't just Sherlock he had deprived of a relationship with Alex. It was all of Sherlock's family, except for Mycroft... 

“Does she play any instruments?” Sherlock asked, loving the amount of information hat he was gaining about his daughter in such a small space of time.

"Harry's been teaching her a bit of guitar but she seems more interested in playing for the rounders team. She's thinking about running for captain, but you know how girls can be. Just vote for their friends and well... Alex doesn't have any. Well, I suppose she does have two friends in particular but they aren’t that interested in sports so they can’t vote for her" 

“Oh.” Sherlock said. When he was younger he didn’t have any friends either but that didn’t matter to him. People were stupid anyway. However the matter was clearly upsetting his daughter. 

"She doesn’t want friends, if that's what you're thinking.” John assured him. "She just wants to be Captain and boss them about"

Sherlock laughed at that. She seemed to be more like him than he first thought. “Uhmm... how are you doing?” Sherlock asked curiously, wanting to hear more about his daughter but at the same time interested in how John was. He was still very angry with John but the love that he once had for John was still there, hidden behind a paper thin wall that could easily be broken once the anger had disappeared. 

John wasn't expecting that, at all. He smiled anyway, happy that Sherlock still seemed to care, maybe not as much as before, but he still did a bit, enough to ask how he was. It was... nice. 

John must have found that question uncomfortable Sherlock thought to himself, rubbing his hands together due to the cold of the night. John didn’t love him anymore. He had probably moved on. Possibly found a new mate..... Damn. Sherlock needed to make John forget about it. Quickly. “How come you and your sister are getting along? Last time I heard, you two weren’t talking.” 

"Oh, we still disagreed. A lot. But she's family and I needed help so she helped me... Time of need, all that lot. And now we're close again. It's all because of Alex, really" John laughed even though it was very true. Without Alex he'd never had been close to his sister again. Maybe Alex could help him and Sherlock become close again.

Sherlock smiled at John, not because he was happy but because it was good mannered to do so. ‘Time of Need’ ... Alex brought John and his alcoholic sister and them apart....Yet she split himself and John  up in a weird way... how did that work... “That’s nice... Alex must like having her aunt around?” He asked, again only to be polite.

"She does, especially now that Harry has kicked the booze. She sobered up for her niece but not the woman she loves. Funny how things like that work..." John gave a feeble laugh. 

“That’s good.” Sherlock replied simply, not really wanting to talk about John’s sister any longer. He didn’t know what else to say so he just silently continued walked next to John, not too close but not too far away from his side.