A Study in Magenta

John's rarely ever sleeps a full night. As a four-year-old, he of course needs his sleep, but it's those dang nightmares that constantly get to him. Every time he has a nightmare, like now, John rolls around his bed until he's fully awake. John feels his puffy cheeks; tears again. John hates to cry, because only babies cry and big boys aren't supposed to cry. John takes a deep breath to steady his breathing, then sits up straight in bed.

John checks the floor for monsters, like his Daddy showed him how, and hops off the bed. With Trigger, the talking elephant in hand, John scurries to his desk, flicks on the lamp, and hurries back to his bed.

Then they start: the stars. Last year when the nightmares began, Daddy bought John a spinning lap that displays the stars. John loves them. Watching them dance around his bedroom helps him sleep, and John is thankful for them.

"Maybe you should draw in your book," John imagines Trigger say.

"I don't know, Trigger," John replies out loud. "I'm not a good drawer."

"But your Dad said that drawing in your book would help, remember? That day you saw the doctor lady? She said it would help, too. She said to draw everything you dream."

"I know, Trigger," John says.

The next day, John's Daddy gets him up early. John managed to sleep for a bit after his nightmare last night, so John still feels very tired. His Mum makes him eggs for breakfast, which John picks at.

Soon, John and his Dad arrive at the doctor's office. John knows it's the doctor's office because there's a large rainbow in the window. Though John can't read quite yet, he's sure the rainbow is saying something nice. He always smiles at the rainbow.

John's Dad leaves him alone with the doctor to talk.

"Hello, John," she says in a nice voice.

He pushes himself deeper into his chair.

"How are you today?" she asks.

John shrugs.

"Let's get right into it, John," she says, looking at her notes. "Did you have a nightmare last night?"

John nods.

"Did you draw in your book?"

John nods again.

"What did you draw?"

John's mind goes blank. He's not very good a lying, especially not that quick on his feet.

"You didn't draw in your book, did you, John?"

John shakes his head, no.

"Drawing in your book will help, John. It'll help you so much to draw how you feel and all the scary things, especially after the accident. It'll help to draw everything that scares you," she adds.

For the first time, John speaks. "Nothing scares me," he says.

After the doctor's appointment, John's Dad takes him to lunch.

"Do you remember that Mummy got a new job?"

John nods.

"And did you remember that I've got to take you over there? I've got to go to work after this."

John nods, again.

John's Dad glances over at Trigger sitting on the table next to John's sandwich. "Are you going to take Trigger with you?"

John glances at Trigger, then his Dad. "Yes."

"Are you sure you need to, Buddy? There will be a few kids there, I'm sure you'll make a new friend."

John carefully reaches over to Trigger and pulls the toy close to him. Glaring at his father, John tucks the elephant under his shirt.

John's Dad nods. "Ok, you can take him. Just don't lose him, ok?"

John nods.

John's Dad takes him to his Mum's new job after lunch. John's unfamiliar with the scenery, they have to drive far out of London. John pats Trigger's head as they drive, and every few minutes, John's Dad offers words of encouragement.

"Don't be afraid, son," he says. "New places are good." And, "I'm sure there will be a ton of kids your age, ok?"

John nods at everything his Dad says, but he doesn't speak much.

When they arrive, John smiles at his mother waiting outside for them. She runs up to the car and throws the door open. "How was the doctor's appointment?" she asks John's Dad.

"It was fine," he replies. "She said…" he glances at John. "Actually, we'll talk about it later."

John's Mum pulls him up to her arms, kisses his Dad goodbye, and carries John into the house.

She puts him down in the great entry room and kneels in front of him. "I've got to go wash the sheets now, love," she says. "Be good. Stay out of trouble. And don't make a mess!" She kisses John's nose. "There are more kids around here somewhere, ok? Go find them."

John nods and his mother leaves.

John doesn't stay in the entry room long. He's not very keen on the details of things, all he knows is there are lots of doors and two staircases. He walks past one staircase and through the entry across from it, into a long staircase. John walks and glances at each door, but doesn't stop to look at any photos. He just walks.

At the end of that hallway is the turn to another, so John turns to walk down that hallway. There are more doors, and as he walks past, John sees one door open. He looks in, just for a second, sees another boy, and walks past.

Seconds later, John hears, "John? John!"

John pauses and turns around. There before him, there's a boy his height with dark hair and thick glasses, but John can't quite place him…

"It's me, Mikie! Remember, our mums were at the Smith's house together."

John nods and shifts Trigger to the other hand. "Oh, right," he says. He sticks his hand out for Mikie to shake, just like his Dad told him to.

Mikie shakes his hand and smiles wide. "I bet you didn't notice me, 'cause I lost my two front teeth."

John examines Mikie's wide open mouth. "Oh, yes," John mutters.

Suddenly serious, Mikie says, "I heard you were in a accident with your Mum and Dad. What happened?"

John furrows his brows and states, "We were in an accident."

Mikie nods and takes John's hand. "Come on, I know where they keep the juice boxes."

John and Mikie sneak two grape juice boxes out of the kitchen and go to the garden. They take post on a little bench under a big tree, steering clear of the lawn mower and the hedge trimmer.

"So, your mum works here now?" Mikie asks.

John nods.

"What happened to the other place? Your mum didn't like it there anymore?"

"We just needed more money, so she came here."

Mikie sips his juice. "Well, there's more kids here," he says.

John doesn't say anything, he just begins to pet Trigger.

"Where's Harry?"

"At school."

"Ahh, you didn't want to go to school?" Mikie asks.

"They wouldn't let me. Not after the accident."

"So you wanted to come here with your mum?"

"I had to. I didn't want to come," John snaps.

Mikie ignores John's tone and continues. "We'll find you a friend," he says.

"Nobody wants to be my friend."

Mikie chuckles.

"What?" John demands.

"Someone else said that today."

"Who?"

"Come on," Mikie says, setting his juice down on the bench. "I'll show you."

"Where did you find this?" he asks, trying to make his tiny voice deeper than it really is.

"Mycroft's room," she replies, her voice squeaky. "I used to play with it. It was fun."

He completely ignores her. "Bring me the scissors," he says. He holds his hand out and in seconds, the child safety scissors are resting neatly in his hand. He doesn't say anything, he begins cutting away at the stuffed tiger's belly.

"You're welcome," she says.

He huffs. Mummy did tell him he had to be more polite. "Thank you, Molly."

Molly smiles. "You're welcome," she says again.

When he's finished dissecting the stuffed tiger, removing it's voice box, he sews the tiger back up and discards it into his collection of dissected stuffed animals. He drops the voice box into a glass of orange juice and scribbles in his notebook. There aren't words there, he can't write yet, but he knows what it says. He turns to Molly. "Are you wearing lip stuff? You weren't before."

Molly holds up a small tube of shimmery lip gloss. "I just wanted to try it," she says.

He looks away from her and continues scribbling in his book. "I need to know what happens to the voice box when this thing dings," he says to Molly, turning the egg timer half way.

Molly nods. As he's about to leave the room, Molly calls after him. "Would you like some hot chocolate?"

He smiles. "Double marshmallows, please. I'll be in the library."

He walks down the hall to the library. It's a large room, and there on the desk, he sees his objective: Father's laptop. He smiles wickedly as he goes to it, climbing into the large chair and opening the laptop up. He knows by now how to get onto the internet, so he double clicks the icon and waits for it to come up.

The internet opens up straight to Father's email, so he clicks the first highlighted one and tries to read.

"D-d-ea-r Mr.," he knows MR means mister, "Holmes," and he knows the letters to his last name. "P-pl-ea-plea—" He grows quickly annoyed with sounding things out and instead clicks the reply button. He quickly types away as if replying to the email, and clicks send. He smiles. Success.

He gets through two emails when he hears the library door open. He glances up and sees Mikie and…a stranger. He doesn't do well with strangers. When Mother and Father are around, they tell him to be nice and good, but without them he knows he has free reign of his own mouth.

"This is different from my Dad's office. This one's much bigger," the stranger says.

"Hello, Mikie," he says, "Can I use your watch? This one on the desk has hands and I want one with numbers."

Mikie looks at his watch, glances out the window, decides there's no way it's 20:06, and says, "Sorry, mine's broken."

He looks back at the laptop.

"I've got one," the stranger says. "It's got numbers."

He looks at the stranger, who is holding his watch out. "Oh, thank you." He takes the watch and checks the time. 13:25, almost naptime. He hands the watch back to the stranger, briefly looking the stranger up and down.

"This is my friend from the last place my Mum worked," Mikie says. "His name is John."

"Were you in an accident, or are you just shy?" he asks.

The stranger, John, looks shocked. "What?"

Just then, Molly walks into the library.

"Molly!" he shouts. "My hot chocolate."

"Here you go," she says, handing Sherlock the cup.

He counts the marshmallows to make sure there's double. When there is, he looks at Molly. "Thank you," he tells her. He stares at her face. "What happened to your lip stuff?"

"It tasted funny."

"Too bad," he says. "Your mouth looks boring now."

Molly looks sad, but he redirects his attention to the new stranger. "How do you feel about the violin?"

"What?" John asks.

"If you're going to be my friend, you should know I have to practice violin twice a day. And sometimes I don't like to talk. Would that bug you?"

John looks at Mikie. "Did you tell him I have problems with stuff?"

Mikie shakes his head.

"Who said I need a friend?" John asks.

"I told Mikie this morning that everyone here already has friends, and now he has you. And I don't know you, so you must be new."

John absentmindedly nods. "How did you know about the accident?"

He disregards John's question, hopping off the chair. "Spend the night here tomorrow night."

"What?" John demands.

He walks to the door. "Friends have sleepovers and we should have a sleepover."

"I only met you and you want to have a sleepover?"

"Is that bad?"

"I don't even know your name!" John exclaims. "I don't know anything about you and you don't know anything about me."

He stops in the doorway. "I know you had an accident, and that left you scared because you keep petting the elephant. And I know you have to go to the special doctor. That's enough to know, isn't it?"

John stares at him with wide eyes.

"My name is Sherlock and my bedroom is two doors down, the one with 221B on it. It's naptime now, so I'll see you tomorrow."

Mikie waves goodbye and John stares.

John looks back at Mikie with wondering eyes.

"Yes, he always does that," Mikie says.

The next day, John wakes up early, before the sun is up. Not from a nightmare, and not of his own will, though. John's Mum got him up early so they could go to the Holmes' Mansion. John packs a backpack of snacks, his drawing book, and Trigger.

John stares out the window as his Mum drives to Sherlock's house. He thinks about Sherlock and how absurd his request yesterday was, but John feels curious all the same.

When they arrive at Sherlock's house, John's Mum takes him into the spare room used as a playroom. John didn't get a chance to see it yesterday, and as he sees it now he's glad. There are toys everywhere. As John looks around, though, he sees Mikie and four other kids fast asleep on the floor in little sleeping bags.

"John," his Mum says, "All the kids come here so early that they come here and go back to sleep. Understand? You can go to sleep if you want."

John nods and sits on the ground.

"Look," his Mum pulls the backpack off her shoulders. "I brought your sleeping bag. When you're finished, roll it up and put it back in this bag. Ok?"

John nods and scoots to sit on the sleeping bag.

John's Mum kisses his nose. "I love you, buddy."

"Love you," he says.

John decides not to sleep, he wants to explore. At first he goes through all the toys in the room, finding a Nerf Gun with all of it's bullets (John's are missing) and then he leaves the room. He tucks the gun under into his the back of his trousers under his jumper, and walks down the hall.

He can't quite remember where Sherlock's room is, but soon John sees a shadow around the other side of the hall and he pauses. A small body walks around the corner.

"Ahh, John," Sherlock greets him.

"Hi, Sherlock," John says, sighing in relief.

"I'm glad you came. This way," Sherlock says, leading John down another hallway.

Sherlock stops in front of his bedroom door. He's about to reach for the knob when the door flies open.

"There you are! I've been looking for you!" a woman says.

"Mrs. Hudson," Sherlock sweetly says, "I told you I'd be right back."

"That was four hours ago!"

Sherlock looks innocently at her. "This is John," Sherlock says. "John, this is Mrs. Hudson. She used to work for my Mother, but now she is my nanny."

"Oh, hello, John." She says, smiling down at John. She moves out of the way to let the two boys in, then tells Sherlock she's going to get breakfast.

"This is nice," John says, looking around the room.

"Yes, I think so."

John wanders the room and looks at all of Sherlock's stuff. The walls are ocean blue, but they're mostly covered with posters and photos. There are posters of science things that John understands, but there are a few of skulls.

"What are these?" John asks, pointing to the posters of skulls.

"Skulls," Sherlock bluntly answers.

John continues through the room and stops in front of a real skull. "Is this…real?" John asks.

"It's rubber. My Father gave it to me. Well, I say gave."

John nods in acceptance.

Mrs. Hudson comes back into the room with Sherlock's oatmeal. "John, are you going to spend the night?" she asks.

"I don't know."

"There's another bed up there," Mrs. Hudson points to the top bunk of Sherlock's bed. "If you can reach up there."

"Of course I can!" John defends.

Mrs. Hudson chuckles. "Have you heard about these toys, then, Sherlock? Someone's taking all the stuffed animals and ripping their heads off. I thought you'd be looking into that."

Sherlock perks up and looks at the door. "Yes, I want to look into it—"

Just then, one of the boys from the toy room runs into Sherlock's room. "Sherlock, we need your help!" he exclaims.

"Another?" Sherlock asks.

The boy nods. "In the west wing."

Sherlock nods. "I'll be right there."

"Hurry!"

Sherlock grabs his magnifying glass, his scarf, and his coat. "Make yourself at home, John," Sherlock says. "I'm sure Mrs. Hudson would love to make you a snack."

"I'm your nanny, Sherlock. Not the cook."

"Maybe he'd like hot chocolate, Mrs. Hudson? I'd like some too, when I come back."

"I'm not the cook!" she calls after him as he leaves. She looks down at John sitting down on the floor.

"I'd like some hot chocolate," John says.

Mrs. Hudson pats his head. "Just this once, love, but after today you'll have to go ask the cook." She smiles down at him. "You look like you can use some rest, love. Here, lay down—"

"I don't want to rest!" he shouts. His eyes begin to water. He doesn't like when people baby him. "I'm sorry…" he says.

"It's ok, dear. Don't cry, I'll get you some hot chocolate."

John looks up at her with big eyes. "And a scone, plese?"

She smiles, nods, and leaves the room.

John watches her leave, and as soon as she's gone, Sherlock reappears in the doorway. "You look like you like adventures," Sherlock states.

"I've had a few," John says.

"Many scary?"

"Far too many," John says.

Sherlock steps close to John. "Want to see some more?"

John hops off the floor and grabs Trigger. "Oh, yes!" he shouts, following Sherlock out of the room.

As they pass the kitchen, Mrs. Hudson stands in the doorway. "Look at you two," she says as they pass. "Dashing around playing cops and robbers."

"This is no game," Sherlock says. "It's an adventure!"