What do you want to be when you grow up? I don't want to be alone.

2

"Here we are then." I rushed out of the TARDIS and into a street, smacking straight into a little boy in my hurry.

"S-sorry sir." his voice sounded familiar and I spun around to look at him, deducing him as I did so. He was short for his age, which I estimated to be ten to twelve. His clothes were a size too big, likely hand me downs from an older sibling. His sandy brown-blond hair was raked over his left eye, but not enough to hide large dark bruise. Marks around his neck too, from attempted strangling. Father by the look of it, judging by the size of the hand. The boy’s collar was drawn up a bit in a failed attempt to hide the marks. He smelled faintly of alcohol, the father drank. His mother was dead. But there was something more than that... Something about the boy himself was familiar.

I bent down and looked the boy in the face. "What’s your name?"

He drew himself up to be as tall possible. "John Watson."

I felt as if I had been punched in the gut. "SHERLOCK!" I heard the doctor call my name as he rounded the corner the TARDIS was parked on the other side of. I shushed him and turned my attention back to John.

"What happened to your eye John?" I asked, brushing his hair back so I could see it better.

He hesitated a moment before answering. "I-er-I got into a fight," he said, eyes flicking around.

"Oh, I don’t think that’s quite true."

John folded his arm across his chest and looked down at his feet. "How would you know?"

"The same way I know that you have an older sister named Harriet who you call Harry and that you want to be a doctor when you get older. You know what else I know? You’re going to be a great one."

He looked up at me and squinted his eyes. "Who the hell are you?"

I felt myself smile. John never changed. "I’m a friend. Now, why don’t you tell me about your father?"

John looked down at his watch and shook his head. "I’ve got to get to school. Will-will you meet me after?"

"What time do you get off?"

"Around three."

I nodded and stood from my kneeling position. "I’ll meet you here." John smiled and said a quick bye before hurrying off in the direction of his school.

I turned around to find the doctor looking at me. "What?"

"Sherlock, you can’t meet him!"

I glared at him. "I can and I will." I started to walk off down the street, not knowing where I was going, when the Doctor grabbed my hand and whirled me around.

"This isn’t 2012 or 2013! We landed off. That wasn’t any boy there! That was John."

"Yes, I know," I growled. "And I don’t plan on leaving him with that abusive dad of his."

"Sherlock," he hissed, "this is his personal timeline. If you take him away from this, he won’t be the same John you know. He will be John Watson, but not your John Watson. Not to mention one small event can change the whole of space time! You have no idea what one decision can do."

"I can’t just leave him." With that I broke from his grasp and stalked away through the streets, memorizing the path so I could meet John later. I pulled my phone out as I walked. One new text from John.

You got my hopes up there for a moment. Don’t play with me. Whoever you are, just... Just let me alone.