The next morning John woke up to Josie crying and Sherlock holding her tightly.
“What’s wrong?!” he cried. Josie looked up at him with sad eyes and handed him the letter Miss Hudson had given her yesterday.
Dear,
Miss Thomas,
We are saddened to hear the tragic death if your family and would like to inform you that we have found a place for you to stay while we conduct a search for your new Guardians. We will be picking you up very soon and we will escort you to your temporary foster parents.
“It’s the orphanage; they found out that I don’t have any legal parents. They’re going to take me away!”
“Oh God, Josephine…” John breathed
“But I don’t want to go! I want to stay here!” (it’s been around 2 weeks since Sherlock invited Josie to live at Baker Street.) Sherlock let go of Josie and walked out of the flat
“Sherlock!” John shouted but the door had already slammed shut. John looked back to Josie who was sobbing into a pillow and muttering ‘I don’t want to go.’ over and over again.
“Hush now Josephine. I’m sorry, Josie, I am so, so sorry.” A few hours after Josie packed her belongings another letter arrived from the orphanage
Miss Thomas,
We are delighted to inform you that we have found a new family for you. John cursed from Josie’s shoulder where he read the letter The search didn’t take as long as we suspected but we will be picking you up later today. Josie’s eyes widened and she scrunched the paper up
“Why do I have to go John?!” she screamed and John held her tightly “Why does this always happen to me? Why can’t I just stay here?”
“I don’t know Josephine, I really don’t know.” John whispered and Sherlock burst into the apartment.
“Sherlock?” John said and the tall figure looked at him “Read this.” He handed the letter to Sherlock but before he could read it Miss Hudson was at the door with a woman holding a clipboard.
“Hi!” she said brightly and everyone could tell that her smile was fake “You must be Josie.”
“It’s Josephine.” Josie snarled and the Woman blinked in surprise at the coldness of her voice
“Of course, have you got all your bags packed?”
“Yes…”
“Good now let’s go.” Josie gave John, Sherlock and Miss Hudson huge hugs and repeated thank you over and over before leaving Baker Street for the final time.
The woman shifted uncomfortably during the ride.
“Ahem. I would just like to say that when you get to the orphanage, you will have to sign some papers to say that you are happy with your new carers, and they will pick you up there.” Josie grunted –clearly not interested- and stared out the window. The rest of the ride was silent and they finally arrived at the orphanage. It was a huge building the seemed to loom over onlookers, the doors of it looked like a mouth which was twisted into a sneer. Josie shivered but ignored it as she was escorted into a small room which consisted of a small table, 3 chairs surrounding it and a pen and a piece of paper.
“You will have to sign that paper. And I might inform you that we have only met one of your new guardians and not the other. Fantastic Josie thought as she signed the paper with her scruffiest handwriting.
“Please have a seat while you wait.” Josie did as she was told and waited with her arms folded. She got bored after about 30 seconds so she decided to read the paper that she signed, she skipped all the boring bits and went to the part in which it had the names of her new ‘Guardians’. Her heart skipped a beat as she read the names
‘Sherlock Holmes and John Hamish Watson’ it read. Surely it couldn’t be the John and Sherlock she kn- her thoughts were cut off as Sherlock and John burst into the room with ridiculous grins plastered in their faces.
“Hello Josie! We’ll be your knew fathers! It appears that Sherlock decided to tell me after you left that while he was out, he took the liberty of adopting you with the help of Lestrade and Mycroft!” John and Sherlock grabbed Josie in a ferocious hug and she giggled.
“Does that mean I can call you both Dad?” John smiled at the question
“You can call us anything you want to.” Sherlock whispered
Someone cleared their throat behind them and their cute reunion was interrupted.
“Miss Thomas, I forgot to inform you that your knew parents were gay.” John’s face was enveloped in anger but he calmed
“I am not gay!” he shouted
“So then why is your name on the Adoption Certificate?” the Woman asked
“I don’t know! Ask him!” John pointed at Sherlock who shrugged
“You know what? I give up. Sherlock, Josie, let’s go home.”
When they did get home, Lestrade was sitting on the sofa with a hint of a smile playing on his lips.
“Ah, I see it worked.” He quipped
“Indeed, I thank you.” Sherlock said with a smile of his own, and for once, it was a genuine one. Lestrade left not long after that and for the rest of the day, they played talked and all 3 of them fell asleep, Sherlock in his room, John in his, and Josie on the couch.
John woke up to the sound of muttering downstairs followed by a few thumps. He moaned as he got up, annoyed at his sudden awakening. He was half way down the stairs when the muttering stopped, to be replaced by quiet but soft music. John made his way down the rest of the steps and approached the living room doorway. He heard someone playing soothing music with a violin. He peered round the corner and saw Sherlock sitting on a chair by the couch. John realised that the previous racket was because of Josie, she was having a nightmare, Josie jerked sideways on the couch as she slept. Sherlock stopped playing and Josie began to moan, her brow furrowing.
“Shhh…” Sherlock said ever so softly as he stroked her face causing her to relax, he. John did to and –without a sound- made his way to bed.
The next morning, John woke up very early to go to work, to see Sherlock and Josie –once again- sleeping together on the couch. However this time Sherlock was sleeping on the couch hugging Josie close to his chest. John couldn’t help but take a picture; his hands shook drastically as he laughed quietly.
When he came home at least 5 hours later Sherlock was on John’s laptop
“Where’s Josephine?” John asked
“She’s in my room. Sleeping”
“You did a fine job with Josie last night.” John said, a grin forming as Sherlock tensed
“You saw what I did?” He snarled but not in a threatening tone
“Every second… Why’d you do it?”
“She kept muttering as I did my experiments, it was… distracting.” John chuckled “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing at all.” John reached into his pocket and dug out his phone, he showed Sherlock the pictures he had taken and laughed so hard he was gasping for breath due to Sherlock’s reaction
“Delete those immediately!” Sherlock cried
“Nope!”
“Well, at least don’t show anyone! I’ve got a reputation here!”
“Haha! Don’t *gasp*worry I won’t *gasp*show anyone.”
“Promise?”
“Y-Yep!” John managed to gasp. After John had calmed down to a mere fit of giggles, they were surprised to find that Josie had woken up.
“John? Sherlock?” she said rubbing the sleep from her eyes “I’m hungry.”
“Oh!” John exclaimed as he checked the time “How about you and I go to a fancy restaurant?”
“I’m not coming.” Sherlock muttered
“I know. Come on, Josie let’s go out. We’ll see you later.”
However when they got home, John’s jaw dropped at the sight…
