The Consulting Detective, the ex-Army Doctor, and the Child //BBC Sherlock

~CHAPTER 4~

It wasn't for an hour that John arrived, and when he did he found the two young boys curled up together sleeping. He smiled and pulled his son's arms away from his friend. He picked Xavier up and walked out. 

"Excuse me," Officer Lahey said, walking up to John. "Is he your son?" John nodded. "He has agreed to give a statement, is that ok with you?"

"Yeah, of course. What day would you like him to come in?"

"Are you free tomorrow?"

John nodded. "What time and what's the address?" The officer wrote it down and handed it to John. "Have a good night," John said as he left the hospital, Xavier still in his arms.

--

Xavier slept in the next morning, staying in bed until 11. He changed into a black and white striped shirt and dark jeans before making his way downstairs.

"Morning," John said. Xavier waved at him and went to the kitchen to get himself a bowl of cereal. "We're going to the police station at one."

"Why?" Xavier asked, looking up from the newspaper.

"The officer at the hospital said that you had agreed to give a statement about what happened last night so I agreed to take you in today." Xavier nodded and went back to the paper.

"Hey, there's a photo that you're in in here," Xavier exclaimed out after a few minutes, pointing to an article on the third page. "Did Sherlock really almost die?" John nodded. "Were you the one who shot the guy?" John remained silent, which Xavier took to mean that he had. "Cool!"

--

"Can we go check on Brandon on the way home from the police station?" Xavier asked as he switched off the tv.

"If you think he'll be up to it, you may want to wait a few days though, he's going through a lot right now and probably doesn't want to talk much."

"Yeah I know, I just want to make sure that he's ok. We don't have to stay long."

"Ok then. I guess we'll go see Brandon later."

--

One o'clock rolled around and Xavier sat in a chair, swinging his legs as he waited for someone to come talk to him. 

"Are you Xavier?" a young woman asked. The boy nodded. "Great, if you just want to follow me then," she said with a smile leading Xavier over to a desk where officer Lahey sat. 

"Hi, Xavier, it's nice to see you again. How are you?"

Xavier shrugged. "As good as you can be knowing that some guy tried to kill you last night. Can we just move onto what I'm here for?" Xavier asked, wanting to get out and go see his friend.

"Yes of course, do you know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, I'm just telling you what I remember from last night, right?"

The officer nodded. "Do you want to get started?"

"Sure. I was going to Brandon's house for the night , Dad was going to take me there, but he was running a bit behind and trusted that I could walk there before so he gave me his phone and told me to text the friend he was with if I needed anything. I walked down a few streets when I noticed someone behind me, I didn't think much of it at the time since the chances he was just going home were high, but a few streets later he was still behind me, so I picked up my pace, and so did I. That was when I realised something was wrong so I turned down Brandon's street and began running, so did he. I ran into Brandon's house and locked the door and explained to Brandon's mom what had happened. The man was still waiting outside at the time. She locked all the doors and windows and called 999, who told her to just wait for them and make sure that the man couldn't see her so she took Brandon and I and hid in a corner. Then the man started to bang on the door, trying to break it down. She told us to go hide upstairs so we did. The man got in, shot her and then you guys came in."

"Ok, I think that that's all we need so if that's all that you have to say then I think that you're good to go," Officer Lahey said.  "I'll make sure to call your Dad if we need anything else," he called out as Xavier left without even saying goodbye. 

Xavier walked outside and smiled weakly at John. "How was that?" John asked. Xavier gave a shrug and John put his arm around his son hoping to be able to comfort the boy who was clearly upset. "What do you say to going to go see Brandon?" John asked. "The hospital isn't too far from here and I highly doubt that Brandon has left there since he has no where else to go." Xavier agreed but still didn't say anything.

John was right and Brandon was still at the hospital, sitting beside his mom, her hand sitting loosely within his own. Xavier still didn't say anything as he sat down next to Brandon and took the hand that wasn't holding his moms'. Brandon smiled at Xavier for a second but went back to staring at his mom sadly afterwards. John hadn't seen the boys' face for very long but from the little bit that he'd seen when Brandon looked up he looked terrible. His eyes were bloodshot and there were dark bags under them. John was almost certain that Brandon hadn't slept at all since the incident last night and with everything that he had been through he could really use the sleep. There were still tear tracks on Brandon's' face so he obviously hadn't stopped crying too long ago.

"I'm going to stay with my grandparents," Brandon said after a few minutes of John and Xavier coming into the room. "They're picking me up later today."

"That's good isn't it?" Xavier asked. "You seemed to like staying with them whenever you talked about it."

"Yeah, I guess," Brandon mumbled slightly.

Nobody said anything for the next little bit but soon John announced that he and Xavier had to leave so Xavier picked his messenger bag off of the back of the chair that he had pulled next to Brandons', said his goodbyes and followed his father out. John and Xavier didn't talk on the way home, neither of them wanting to talk about the scene that they had just witnessed and not having much else to say to one another. 

They didn't talk when they returned home either, Xavier immediately went up to his bedroom ignoring Sherlock lying on the couch talking to some random guy who seemed to have a mystery for him and John who was calling his son down to talk. He locked his bedroom door and pulled out a small box from under his bed. Inside of the box were dozens of drawings done over the past six years of Xavier's' life, as well as a box of crayons. He had other drawings that hung on his walls or that used to hang on the fridge in his and Johns' apartment but these ones were different, they weren't for other people to see. They were of the creatures that haunted his dreams and night when he was little or all of the horrible endings that he saw to his father's life when he was away at war. There were countless horrendous images in there and more were added each month. Currently on the page in front of Xavier was a small black line in the centre of the page but that small black line soon became many and turned into a cemetary with the large grave in the middle reading Maria Jones. Brandon was the most prominent figure but there were other people surrounding him. The photo was put into the box and shoved under his bed as soon as he was finished with it. After we was sure that it was out of view again he crawled into his bed and was asleep within ten minutes. It had been a long day for everyone.