I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 136 : A royal deal

Sherlock was yet again conducting one of the dangerous experiment  only he knew the goal off when his brother opened the kitchen's door,  glancing a contemptuous look to the chemistry set on the table and it's  owner.
"Brother mine." he coughed to make the other man aware of his presence.
"Oh look who is here John, the Queen herself." the consulting detective chuckled while looking up to his brother.
"John is in Brighton." remarked the elder Holmes, not even bothering to scold the younger one on his rudeness.
"Oh,  that's why he was being that quiet for a few days ?" retorted the  sleuth, taking off his experiment's glasses and taking a sip of his tea  from the cup resting between what seems to be like pieces of brains.
"Indeed it might be, yes." the auburn quipped, taking a look around him to the flat that was in its usual state of mess.
"However, why are you here ?" wondered the younger Holmes, suspicious.
"Can't I visit my baby brother without a sinister reason ?" smirked the official, taking a seat in John's usual chair.
"No.  You've cancelled a meeting with the Prime Minister to come here, not  that you actually cared about this meeting as the PM is an idiot in your  view and I can only agree with you for once, and if you only had looked  for an alibi for not going there you would have asked your PA to get  you an appointment with the Queen or whoever of importance." the  detective denied, taking a seat in his own chair. "You could even have  used my nephew as an excuse, like you've already done what, 7 ? 8 times  ?"
"Stop that right now Sherlock." the auburn snapped, not willing to admit that everything his brother had said was true.
"So,  tell me why are you here ? You know you can't hide it from me anyway."  the younger Holmes chuckled lightly, delighted to have put the other man  in a mood.
"I need your help." Mycroft admitted, more than reluctantly.
"You,  the Great Brain, need my help ?" nearly chocked the sleuth. "You should  prepare me before saying such a thing, I nearly thought Christmas had  come in advance !"
"Oh shut up would you ! It's a matter only you can  solve and trust me if anyone else could have done at least half good as  you I would have gone to him." snapped the elder Holmes.
If the official had looked even so slightly joyful when entering the room earlier, he was now quite pissed  and even his brother was able to notice that it was time to listen and  stop the taunting, at least for now. Sherlock sat back in his chair and  took a look at the stack of paper pinned on the mantel piece by his  favourite knife. Of course, he could have argued to his brother that the  pile of cases he still had to solve was too important to take anything  new, but firstly it would mean that his eldest would make sure he didn't  receive anything new for at least a month and, more importantly, if he  was the last recourse to his brother, the case must, at least, be  fantastic.
"Alright, I'll help you, but only if you take down the  CCTV camera you've installed in my bedroom and in the bathroom." nodded  the detective. "And the microphones pairing with it of course."
The  official was feeling awfully cornered there. Of course, he needed his  brother's help but if it was to the expense of his future security, he  wasn't sure anything in the world was worth the price, even if it could  imply the death f others. Yet again, he tried to stay professional and  nodded in agreement.
"Alright. I need you to retrieve Prince George's birth certificate." he explained stiffly.
"What ?" replied his youngest, genuinely astonished.
"Someone  purloined it from the safe where it was kept at the Bank of England.  CCTV shows no evident suspect and extensive search through the staff  have shown nothing unusual." Mycroft developed. "And be assured it's  from the greatest interest of the nation we find it back or that could  lead to not having any legitimate heir to the crown when William will  eventually come to an end."
"You are telling me that the only  official paper marking George as William's son and by doing so, names  him as the legitimate heir to the crown has disappeared and not a single  one of you knows where it can possibly be ?" the sleuth reformulated, still not believing what he was hearing.
"Yes. That's pretty much what it is." nodded the auburn.
"And  no other certificate were seized ? Charles, William and Harry's are  still safely secured in a safe ?" the detective wondered, starting to  rule out the first suspect that had come to his mind.
"They were all  perfectly safe. They since then had been removed from the safes they  were kept in, which were all different, unmarked safe, as per the one  that had been stolen, and sent to three different secured location  across the Kingdom." the official confirmed before placing a file on the coffee table near his brother's armchair. "You'll find a copy of the certificate and all you need in this, if ever you require anything else, please call me before bursting into the Palace and slapping the Queen, she is a good friend of mine and I intend it to stay as it is."
"Is Gavin in charge of the investigation ?" questioned  the younger Holmes, opening the file idly, his eyes browsing over the  birth certificate, a smile cracking through at the mention of the  father's occupation.
"It's Greg !" Mycroft sighed even if he knew  that it would probably make no difference. "And no, the Yard isn't even  aware of this disappearance. We have to be very careful it doesn't go  out. It is a very sensitive subject Sherlock, I hope you understand  that."
"You'll owe me one." simply retorted the consulting detective.  "And don't think I haven't remarked you've been repainting one of the  spare rooms last weekend."
The official, who already had raised up from his armchair and was nearly reaching the door, stopped mid distance and turned on his heels.
"What ?" he jerked, gobsmaked.
"You  were right, by the way, this grey will be way more fitting for a young  child than the hideous emerald green Father had chosen ..." the younger  Holmes continued in a mocking smirk. "Apparently you still could become  more domestic than you already were. That's a performance, even for  you."
"Bitterness doesn't fit you, brother dear." the auburn spilled  out before exiting the room, cursing the other man under his breath.
Of  course, he shouldn't have taken his brother' allegation too seriously,  that was, after all, not an unusual behaviour of the detective, but he  still couldn't repress himself of feeling a little hurt by those remarks.
Sherlock  on the other hand was trying to focus on the case he just had been  offered and that was, even to his standards, quite of an interesting  one, but his mind kept coming back to what he had deducted from his  brother. A second child. That was indeed meaning  that domestic life suited the official more than both of them could  have augured a few years back and despite the allegation that he was  married to his job and repressing himself from any emotion, the sleuth  had to admit that everytime  he saw his nephew he couldn't help but feel a little envious at the  happiness that seems to diffuse from the family his brother and Geoff  were forming. Of course, Sherlock had never seen himself as a potential  father and had to agree that his lifestyle was definitely not child-compatible, although he also had to admit that he was always looking forward to the next time he would be asked to babysit his nephew and had always been really careful with the little boy, unlike what he was most of the time.
In an attempt to push those thoughts  away and to focus on the case he was supposed to solve urgently, he  raised up on his feet and made his way to his bedroom. He then smashed  the two CCTV camera he knew where hidden in the room and get hold of the  microphone tat he then thrown by the window. That savage destruction  acts done, he grabbed the pack of nicotine patches in the drawer of his  bedside table and apply three of it on his left arm before returning to  the living room, not without carrying more destruction acts in the  bathroom.

The said room refurbishing was going as smoothly as it  possibly could go and when Mycroft returned to his house after visiting  his brother, he found Greg kneeling in the room, Alden by his side,  trying to understand how to put together the bed they had had delivered  the previous day.
The official placed a soft kiss on both of their  foreheads and retreated to his dressing room, getting rid of his formal  suit en route. He decided himself for one of the policeman's light blue  pair of jeans and his favourite stripped t-shirt, the one matching one  of his son's own top, although it wasn't the one the little boy was  wearing on that day. Barefoot, he then returned to the grey room, just  beside his own and kneeled beside his partner. He knew he would probably  be of no help to actually craft any of that, his manual abilities being  very poor, but he supposed that a little mental support could be nice.
The bed was one of the last piece of furniture that needed to be assembled and soon enough the room would be ready to shelter a new member to the family, but even in its messy state,  with wrapping paper all over the soft and heavy carpet and the  furniture not being in their final position, the room already looked absolutely perfect and comfy for a little girl and, even if he haven't  been very effective in putting it together, the auburn was quite proud  of himself and of his choice. The room was looking girly enough in his  eyes, without screaming 'Pink ! Flowers ! Princess !' and that achieved to convince him that those 'blue for boy' and 'pink for girl' things were complete nonsense.