John bit his lip. "Before we contact them and everything, I should tell you something..." He sighed and lowered his eyes to the floor. "Alex, my daughter, she... Her... She's the reason I left... She's y... She's ours. She's your daughter too. I left because..." 

(****) 

Sherlock stopped still, trying to process what John just said. Breathe caught in his throat and he was unable to breath. Did he just hear what he thought he did? 

His heart raced at 100 miles per hour. Daughter. His daughter. Sherlock didn’t believe that it could be possible. They were always carefully. Very carefully. John’s contraceptive pills sat on the shelf above the sink in the bathroom reminding John that he had to take them every night. They were always taken, like clockwork and even if he forgot them, once he realised his mistake he could easily take the morning after pill? 

Sherlock could still remember the last heat that they had shared despite the amount of time that had passed. It was unlike any heat they had shared in the year that they had been together. It was not rushed nor paced. It left him lost in the moment. On the edge for so long but not long enough. Left adrift in the eyes that stared up at him with adoration, devotion, passion. Finally speaking, no shouting as the waves of his orgasm came over him. John... 

At first, everything went on like normal, running around London, solving cases together but just before John’s heat was due, he started to act weird. He started working longer hours at the surgery, ignoring his calls when he needed help with a case, sometimes not even coming home for days at a time with only a stupid excuse as to why he was gone. Sherlock had no idea as to what was going on but he just ignored John’s strange behaviour and acted like everything was normal. A few weeks later he found John’s clothes missing and a note next to his experiments saying: 

I’m sorry, I love you –JW x 

Sherlock tried calling John but every time, he was informed that John’s number no longer existed. He searched all through the flat, turning everything upside down, looking for clues as to where John had gone but found nothing. It was like he had vanished into thin air.  

That’s when he found his secret stash. He walked back through to the living room, making sure not to trip over the mess that he had made. Sherlock carefully opened the small package, letting everything he needed, fall onto the coffee table. He looked at John’s note one final time and plunged the needle into his arm, hoping to forget that the omega he loved, had walked away from him... 

John sobbed once before collecting himself. "I’m sorry Sherlock. Mina's parent's number is in the address book beside the phone... I'll just go ring them..." John trailed off before heading for the door, avoiding Sherlock’s gaze as he did not want to see the hurt in

Sherlock’s eyes. He had hoped that he would never have to come face to face with Sherlock again let alone tell him the truth about why he left.  

Sherlock stayed in the same spot, not moving a muscle, still thinking things over. Even if he wanted to move, he didn’t think that it would be possible to do so. He was in shock. Complete and utter shock and he didn’t know how to disconnect with this feeling inside of him that kept making him feel....upset. Upset with John because he never told him about his daughter. Upset that he missed years with said daughter. Upset with Lestrade because apparently he knew where John was and never told him, even when he was so close togiving up on life after John left. 

John returned a moment later clutching his phone, sobbing quietly to himself. He looked proud, yet extremely angry. So very angry. He walked over to Sherlock and gave him the phone, where a message was displayed, intended for them both.  

I knew you'd called him. I'll be back in ten. -AW 

"She's always asked about you and wanted to meet you..." John explained through a sob, letting all the worry go as he knew his baby was safe. 

"She wanted to meet me." Sherlock asked with disbelief, moving slightly for the first time since he had been told about Alex. “You told her about me?” 

John nodded. "Always... She knew from a young age that her daddy was out there somewhere but he was busy fighting criminals so he couldn’t be with us. She always asked why she couldn’t see you but always avoided her questions. Then as she grew up, she became more and more intent on finding you, looking through my stuff, finding the old blog, listening to the conversations that I had with Greg and my sister. Then she saw an article about you in the newspaper. Your name was there in big bold letters and she put two and two together. Then she found out that I had never told you about her. She became even more adamant asking me every day if she could see you but I was still scared so I said no, then she disappeared and I automatically reached for your number. Harry stopped me at first..." John looked down, ashamed. "She's always been smarter than me..." 

Sherlock kept staring at John throughout his little speech. He really didn’t know what to think of the situation. It was a good thing that John had told Alex about him right from the start but at the same time he never let Alex see him. "Why were you scared?" He finally asked nervously, hoping that John would not confirm his fears: that his ex was scared of him. 

"I... I panicked. We'd been together for just under a year and I didn't want you to tell me to leave and that you didn't want children... you love the game so much... all the crimes and puzzles... I didn’t see how you could want a child. So I ran before you could find out. I ran because I was scared." John's voice was quiet as he spoke. 

"We could have at least spoken about it! I can't say that I would have reacted calmly but we would have sorted something out.” Sherlock paused for a moment, trying not to get too angry and frustrated. He put a hand through his hair and began again. “I should have been there to help you, at least financially... How on earth have you managed to cope financially getting all the things that a child needs and paying for a house? You could hardly manage to keep up with the rent when you lived in Baker Street and that was without the additional cost of a child?"  

John blushed, knowing that this next bit was going to make Sherlock angrier than ever. "M... Mycroft. He's helped us... A lot. He understood why I was running and he helped me... I am so sorry. Honestly. I am. I regret it... and I have no excuse, you have a right to be angry, just know I am truly sorry and I won't stop you seeing her. That'd be stupid now anyway..." 

"MYCROFT. MYCROFT KNEW! How many people knew where you were and didn’t tell me?! And what do you mean by a lot?" Sherlock went from annoyed to furious in a matter of seconds. The sibling rivalry between the pair had always been a little bit... extreme but the fact that his brother had firstly, helped out his ex when he didn’t even know where John  was and secondly, knew about his then, unborn child, before he did, annoyed him more than words could express. He paced across the lounge hoping to find something that he could take his angry out on. 

There was a knock on the door and John froze. He placed a hand on Sherlock's arm. "Please, calm down. That's Alex... Listen, I'll get Harry to come by later and watch her, we can go for a walk and you can shout and scream at me all you like then but for now, please, calm..." 

"How the fucking hell am I meant to calm down. In under 15 minutes you have told me that not only do I have a teenage daughter that I was never told about but that you left me because you was scared of how I would react, and that my brother, my brother who I hate, knew about this before I did and subsequently helped you out when that was meant to be my job." Sherlock let the string of words exit his mouth at such a speed that even he was shock about how fast the words had come out. His alpha nature was starting to rise to the surface as he was getting angrier and angrier.  

John knew he was wrong to hide this but he was extremely protective of his daughter because she meant everything to him. He didn't want Sherlock to scare her, even if she didn't scare easily. John took hold of Sherlock's arm and pulls him to a stop, looking him in the eyes. "Listen, Sherlock. That girl is my whole world and I know you probably want to kill me right now but unless you calm down right this second, I am going to shove you out that backdoor until you cool off. You are not meeting our daughter for the first time in thisstate." 

The contact between the pair in that moment was electric, especially for Sherlock. For him it was like nothing had changed, that they were back in the past to when they had just revealed their feelings to one another. But that was not the case. "I think that shoving me out the backdoor for a minute would do me some good. I need to regain my composure before... I... I see her." 

John nodded, pushing Sherlock towards the backdoor, his hand on his lower back as  he opened it, allowing Sherlock to step out before he flashed him another smile and closed the door. He then went to the front door to let his daughter inside, breathing a bit heavier because he could still feel Sherlock’s back underneath his fingertips. 

Alex strolled in with a grin, not seeming to care she worried her dad sick. "So, where is he?"  

John sighed and sat down, giving her a good talking to about disappearing. 

While Sherlock was outside he took a couple of deep breaths, trying to regain his composure after such a stressful night. He couldn’t believe that this was happening to him. Everyone he spoke to told him that John didn’t tell them that he was leaving so he thought that John had left him because he had found another alpha, one better at looking after him, one who wouldn’t keep human remains in the fridge. But this had to be a better outcome, right? 

When Sherlock heard girl's voice, echoing through the kitchen window and into back garden, he froze. This was.... this was his daughter. A child who he and John had made. She had literally been made out of their love and was now the only thing that showed that they had once loved each other.  

He didn’t even know what to say to her... his daughter. He didn’t even like children. He remembered the time when he showed a child, pictures of a murder scene in hope to keep the child quiet for 10 minutes. But John came home and shouted at him, saying that children shouldn’t be exposed to such brutal things and instead, John took the child through to his room so that they could watch a funny movie on John’s laptop. From then on, John had always dealt with any children that they had come into contact with because he just couldn’t deal with children. But now... now he had one of his own. One he would actually have to talk to and get along with... 

John spent almost half an hour telling Alex off. By the end of it, she definitely understood why John was upset about what she did, but much like Sherlock, she didn't seem to really realise why what she had done was wrong. But it was wrong, even if what she did meant that Sherlock finally knew the truth. Wasn’t that what he had always taught her, that telling the truth was alwaysthe best thing to do? He had learnt that the hard way after Sherlock had come back from the dead. 

It was as if John should just be accepting of what she did. Maybe he should but God, the girl had worried him. Although she didn’t understand that what she did immoral, he was already thinking about forgiving her... he really was a bad father. 

He was going to send the girl up to her room as punishment for her bad behaviour when he remembered Sherlock who was in the garden, probably freezing by now. He rushed to the backdoor and opened it, smiling at Sherlock and gestured for him to come in. 

Alex perked up, knowing that she was still getting want she wanted, to finally meet her father. The father she has dreamed about for so many years. Hopefully he would be exactly how she imagined him to be....