A Tin Man's Heart (A BBC Sherlock Story)

Please Don't Walk Away

John came home from work to find the flat empty. Addison should be home from Ballet surely, he thought. He went into her room to find her bed in the same way it'd been when she got up this morning. Panic was settling into the pit of his stomach.

He took out his phone and quickly dialed Addison. When it went to her voice he hung up and paced for a few minutes. Finally his phone rang. A blocked number showed up.

"She's at the cemetery. She isn't hurt, she fell asleep." And then a dial tone.

John caught a cab and ran up the hill and to Sherlock's grave. He stopped at the top with a sigh. Addison was curled in a ball on her father's grave. A small blanket covered her body. John knelt beside her and gently placed a hand on her cheek. Her eyes popped open.

"John?" She asked softly. John murmured 'yes' as he smoothed the hair from her face.

"I fell asleep?" John nodded as she sat up.

"I'm sorry." She blurted immediately.

"It's quite alright, darling. Let's go home." John helped Addison home and tucked her into bed and sat down to have a cup of tea and talk to Harry.

"Why did you agree to keep her John?" Harry asked for the 100th time.

"Because Harry, she's all I've got left of him." His sister sighed.

"She sounds like a bloody handful." John clenched his teeth.

"You only met her once."

"Yes, and she and her father insulted me the whole time." Harry said, John could almost see her pout.

"You most likely deserved it," the man sighed, "I'm going to bed, goodnight." And he hung up.

John was exhausted, he'd been exhausted for the last year. He settled into bed, his bed which always felt empty since Sherlock wasn't in it. Sherlock's smell no longer lingered on the sheets, or anywhere really. Except on his coat and scarf but they'd been buried with him.

John chuckled, sentiment was what Addison had said.

John felt sad for the girl, he remember what'd she told him after the funeral.

"Don't worry John. I'm a lot like him, and maybe, if we're lucky, by the time I'm 30 I'll have deleted these feelings and all feelings."

This made him despair for the girl even more. She was so much like him. So machine like, but towards the end Sherlock had been a bit closer. And when John would murmur softly to Sherlock that he loved him, Sherlock would actually respond a third of the time. Addison was the same, but a bit more distant.

John thought briefly about sending her to therapy but then decided Addison probably knew more than the therapist and decided that wouldn't be smart.

John just wished he could ask Sherlock how to deal with Addison. Surely Sherlock knew how. He'd been dealing with her on his own for the last six years. John also realized just how close Sherlock had been with his daughter which may have been how he dealt with her.

John sighed and attempted to sleep, but no it wouldn't come. And at 3:37 he woke Addison from her nightmares just like everynight.

This was John's routine, he liked routine, it made life seem almost normal.

***

Jim Moriarty lurked in the shadows of London. He trailed the girl. Watched where she went daily, although being as curious as Addison she hardly ever stuck to routine. Jim liked that about her, she never took the same route or talked with the same people, if she talked at all.