Dancing With The Devil (part two)

Chapter 57: Your Fault

(A/N I'm taking 2020 out of the story for obvious reasons. Hopefully corona will all be over by next year. Also this is gonna get real domestic real fast...)

The next four years were nothing but peaceful. There were no problems, no disruptions of their tranquillity, no disruptions in the network and nothing big from Sherlock. Every know and then he would make some sort of attempt to contact Astrid, apparently to check in because he was 'worried' but Astrid would just smile sadly over the phone and say she was fine, before hanging up and smirking to herself.

Grace grew up well. She was home schooled for a while, before moving to the primary school in middle of the village. She had attempted to make friends with other children at her school and she did make some, however, she found at a young age that she was too clever for them and that they were too boring for her. It was fun to have a companion to trail around behind her everyday, so that's what she had. Disregarding her mother and father, she much preferred to spend time with Seb.

Sensibly, to the three adults's belief, they decided it was best for Grace to be aware of the situation they were in. Learning from her mothers mistake, she told Grace everything as soon as she was able to understand it- she knew that it's what would have been better, even despite it being more brutal for her daughter to know the truth at a young age. It would be better then her having to find out from someone else at an older age. 

So, Grace knew everything about her father's job and his faked death. She knew about her grandfather and her grandmother and step grandmother, as well as the root of her middle name. She knew of a man who had betrayed her parents, however not in detail. She knew her parents were criminals, she knew a bit about Sherlock Holmes, but not the specifics of the times he endured due to said parents.

She was promised that when she was older, she would be told everything.

Friday the eighteenth of December two thousand and twenty-one was the last day of school for Grace before Christmas. As usual, Astrid picked her up from school and brought her home, where, the second she got home, she attacked her father with a hug, before screaming out excitedly that they were seeing Seb.

"You saw Seb last week, Gracie," Jim said as she jumped about excitedly.

"I know, but I need to tell him what happened in school today."

Jim frowned, then crouched down to his daughters level, "what happened in school today?"

"Someone said something mean to my friend..." she began, calming down a little, "and I hit him."

Jim's eyes widened. He laughed and looked up at Astrid who just shrugged.

"What did he say?"

"He called my friend ugly," she then grinned, somewhat evilly, "but he was really ugly."

Jim chuckled again before looking at Astrid.

"She got that grin from you not me," Jim accused and stood up. Astrid shook her her head.

"Yeah, but I got that grin from you, so it's all your fault," she pecked him on the lips and them looked at Grace, "you wanna get dressed before we go to Seb's, or are you fine like that?"

"I'm fine like this."

Astrid nodded, "Okay, go and put some stuff in a bag to take with. Do you have any homework?"

"Just some reading."

Astrid nodded again before Grace ran up the stairs. She huffed out a tired sigh and Jim smiled.

"You okay?"

Astrid nodded shortly and Jim frowned, "she needs to stop hitting people."

"Why?" Jim said, failing to hide a smile.

"'cause the teachers keep mentioning it to me, and she's gonna get into trouble," she said as Jim came over, allowing her to wrap her arms around his neck and rest her head on his shoulder, "also it makes me look like a bad parent." Jim gave an understanding hum as Astrid removed her head from his shoulder, "they should come here and see what your like. They'd be appalled."

"Shut up," Jim said playfully and kissed her again, before being cut off by a sarcastic sound from above them.

"Yuck."

They pulled apart from each other and looked up to see grace stood at the top of the stairs with a bag on her back that was clearly too big for her. She slowly hobbled down the stairs where her dad took the bag off of her.

"What have you got in here?"

"Stuff," she replied and Jim raised his eyebrows and began to unzip the bag, "just books and school stuff."

"You've got a gun in here, Gracie."

"It's a toy gun," she corrected and headed for the door once Jim had rolled his eyes and chucked the gun back in the bag. She put her shoes back on and Astrid gave Jim a disapproving look.

"Okay, the guns are Seb's fault," Jim argued and Astrid chuckled and nodded.

"The guns are Seb's fault"

(A/N aaaahhh okay... I know it's got nothing to do with this but as I'm posting this it's the day after the WandaVision finale and holy shit. It was basically perfect, except for a couple lil things. Also I hate Paul Bettany. No spoilers ofc but... aGhHhHhHh!)