John ushered Sherlock back in, leading him through his house. The panic and worry increased with every step, causing his mind to throb as he tried to calm it down. His mind palace was suddenly becoming over crowded with new knowledge and understanding that only causing him to pain further. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t calm down, his body reacting like he had just had several strong, black coffees.

He suddenly froze on the spot, unable to get his body to move. His daughter was in there. She was right there, waiting to meet him. He knew little about her but it seemed that she knew everything about him. It felt nerve-wracking thinking that this girl expected him to be the kind caring father that one saw in movies. 

But that was not him. He felt like he should just apologize and go home because no child should have him in their life. He was not good father material. He had no clue how to look after a child and if he was perfectly honest, he had never been interested in finding out. Before today.

He couldn’t walk away from his child- their child. He was responsible for her now and he would look after her to the best of his abilities.

He took one cautious step forward so that he could peek into the room. He was able to spot Alex pacing around the room, fiddling with her clothes and hair every so often. So far she had not spotted himself and John standing in the doorway as she seemed to be so nervous that she couldn’t focus on anything.

John was standing next to him, looking at his nervous little girl. He did not think that he had ever seen her so anxious in all her life (and that was saying a lot since he got extremely nervous before every rounders match that she participated in!)

Sherlock took another step forward, now standing in the room with Alex only a few paces away from him. Alex’s head whipped around, finally spotting Sherlock and was looked at him as though he was the largest Christmas present underneath the tree. 

There were a few moments where no one spoke. Alex just stared at Sherlock, a smile on his lips as her fingers twitch. John grinned at that a bit, knowing that Alex really wanted to rush forward and wrap her skinny arms around Sherlock more than anything in the world. He wondered what was holding her back. 

While she could be like Sherlock at times when it came to emotions, there was no doubt in John’s mind that she understood what she wanted, maybe even needed to do. But once she held onto him, he did not think that she would ever let him go, worried that he would walk away from her. John thought that maybe, just maybe he had painted Sherlock in a bad light, making him seem like all he cared about was the work but years ago, that was what he had lived for. Hopefully now would be a different story.

It was a relief for all of them when she finally took a few steps forward, keeping eye contact with Sherlock all the time. Her eyes widen as she looked him up and down, understanding after all these years hat her other father actually looked like in the flesh. Naturally she had seen pictures of him when she researched him every day but she knew that it would be nothing like meeting him in real life. Not at all.

Finally she smiled at him, her dimples showing as her cheeks were pushed aside. Anyone could see how happy she was simply by the look on her face in that moment and it looked like Alex was happy with what she saw. 

Then she suddenly hugged Sherlock, arms squeezing tightly around his waist as her face pressed against his shirt, an even larger smile on her face as she got what she wanted. Another person to call family.

When Alex wrapped her arms around Sherlock, he froze (he seemed to be doing a lot of that). As a child, he was rarely cuddled by his parents or by anyone for that matter so this meant that as an adult, he didn’t really know how to do so. Of course there was the occasional scary aunt that overwhelmed him with hugs and sloppy kisses but that just made him even more freaked out about the notion of hugging. The only good hugs that he had experienced had been from John but look where they had left him, all alone in the flat that they once shared.

So as the hug continued, her bony arms still around his rather slim waist and her chin wedged into his chest, he tried to figure out where he should put his body. Should he hug her back? Place his arm around her to pull her closer towards him? Place a hand on her head? He really wasn’t sure and even though part of his brain was telling him to get her off of him, he let her continue hugging him, eventually wrapping his arm awkwardly around her shoulders.

Alex didn't care much that her father seemed awkward with her hugging him. Physical contact probably wasn't his thing. Apart from with Dad she secretly thought. With everything he'd been told she didn't understand why her dad assumed that Sherlock didn't love him more than the work. Sherlock clearly loved him a hell of a lot from the look she had seen on Sherlock’s face when he looked at John a few minutes ago.

With a happy sigh, she pulled out of the hug and looked up at Sherlock. He was tall but she didn't find it intimidating. He looked exactly how he did in the newspaper. Both her parents looked rather lost and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. 

 "Hi" She said eventually, looking at her father. Her grin hadn't left and it didn’t look like it would be leaving anytime soon.

"Hello, Alex." Sherlock replied rather calmly considering where he was and who his reply was intended for. He still had not got his mind around the idea of having a teenage daughter. All he wanted to do was be left alone to go to his mind palace so he could think everything through, understand everything he had learnt in the past few hours. How Lestrade and his brother had betrayed him. How John had never told him the truth. That there was a possibility, a very small possibility that John still loved him.... but he couldn’t hold onto that, not only because the chance was very small, but also because he was not sure when he would ever be able to forgive John for what he had done even if the Alpha inside him was begging for him to forgive John.

When Alex smiled, she reminded Sherlock a lot of how John used to smile when he had done something amazing. Most of her appearance, for that matter, reminded Sherlock of John, everything except her hair. She had dark black curls that framed her face and went all the way down to her waist but were currently being held back by a hair tie. It seemed that her hair was the only thing that made her look like his daughter.

Although he didn't want to make a bad impression with his daughter, he had to say something to her about how worried John had been when she vanished like that. "I know your father has probably already shouted at you, probably given you the third degree about 'how worried he was and how you really shouldn't put yourself in danger like you did today' but even I have to say that what you did today was risky, necessary but risky nevertheless. And trust me when I say this, I know from experience that doing something that you may seem necessary, in your father's eyes will always be stupid."

Alex found herself chuckling at Sherlock's little speech. He'd pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one. John always thought the wrong things were stupid, like all her dishes in her room where she'd be growing moulds. She’d seen it in his face when he told her off, that she reminded him so much of Sherlock at times. It was clear it hurt him, to see that. 

She didn't understand why he never told him. He was scared, obviously, but he's an ex-army doctor who's been shot and once returned home he'd been kidnapped and all sorts. Yet he was scare to tell the man he loved that they were going to have a child together. Alex didn't get her Dad, or humans for that matter, at times. 

She looked at them both in turn and had enough decency to be ashamed at the sorry she'd caused. "I'm sorry I worried you. I won't pull anything like that again" 

The smile of John's face suggested that he knew she would. He knew deep down that she took after her other father, getting into trouble every five minutes but no one would be able to stop her, no matter how hard they tried.

Sherlock smiled at his... daughter. "Good" he replied, not entirely sure what he was suppose to do in this situation. All he was sure of was that he was not walking away from her. Even though he had only met her a few minutes ago, he already realised how important she was to him. Firstly because she could fill the hole that John left when he walked out on him, but also due to the fact that he could read her like an open book and he saw exactly what he was like when he was her age (but with a slight hint of John about her.)

As time when by, no words were exchanged as they were not needed. They both seemed to understand each other simply by deducing the other person. When Alex was nine, Mycroft insisted on teaching her how to deduce people, explaining that she would be able to do better in life if she could do it. At first John had said no. What was the point in making her spend unnecessary time with Mycroft when she didn’t need to? In the end, of course he agreed but now he could see exactly why Mycroft had done it. To make sure that when Sherlock was in Alex’s life, they would be able to read each other and instantly click.

It made John jealous.

While they continued to stare at each other, John decided that he couldn’t stand there watching them bond so he slipped on his shoes and a light coat before taking out his phone to check how close Harry was. He then walked out of the room and walked up and down the hall, waiting for Harry to reply so he knew how long he would have to wait until Sherlock killed him. As always, she sent back a message with a very colourful vocabulary saying she'd be five minutes. 

While John was out of the room, the staring continued until Alex randomly started to laugh at how strange the situation was, and Sherlock started to laugh with her. Once they had calmed themselves down Alex asked Sherlock about his cases and Sherlock was only too happy to talk to her about them, leaving out all the scary bits as he did not think that John would appreciate it if he told her about some of the really bad stuff.

When there was a knock at the door, John breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that although Sherlock was going to be mad at him (which he really wasn’t looking forward to), he would be able to get everything off his chest that had built up over the past few years.

He let Harry in and didn’t have to explain further than 'Sherlock's here' for her to nod and enter the living room. She'd even brought an overnight bag. She was an angel, at times.

John can't help but smile at her, knowing that this was another one of many favours that she had done for him. Harry had been a huge help to him, looking after Alex when he couldn’t, making sure that there was enough food in the cupboards, giving Alex the whole female and alpha/beta/omega talk when he knew that Alex wouldn’t listen to him. He had no way of repaying her for everything that she had done to help and he realised that he never would find a way.

He then walked back into the living room, turning to Sherlock. He smiled a small, fake smile at Sherlock before Harry ordered Alex to her room, only because she bribed her to do so. "Let's go" John said, already walking out of the house.

“Ok.” Sherlock replied, following John out of the front door. He stood on the curb of the pavement waiting for a taxi to come by so that they could go somewhere a little bit more private. They would definitely need some quiet too.