AN: Sorry for the lateness! My Beta took AGES despite my complaining at her...

I've started a new facebook page called 'Mycroft's name literally opens doors' I'd be very grateful if you could like it please!

MycroftsNameLiterallyOpensDo ors

Link if you want to use it! Just remove spaces and a dot.
Thank you!

"Oh, he was awesome."

"What?"

"Him. The dead guy. He's a fantastic actor,"

"In what? I've never seen him."

"From Emmerdale."

"Si, seriously? We've told you it's not cool to watch Emmerdale!"

"Well I like it."

"The body,"

"Right, sorry dad,"

"35mm bullet,"

"You're looking for a male,"

"Male? Yes obviously, have you seen the marks on his shoe?"

"About 6 foot 3,"

"30-35 years old,"

"Murderer works in Tesco,"

"Yes Tesco, look at this man's hair."

"Murderer also has long blonde hair,"

"They obviously had a struggle."

"I'm sure even Anderson could have seen that."

"Fingernails, dur!"

"So the murderer will have scratches on his face or arms or even both."

"Murderer, left handed."

"Entry of wounds, really Dad did your guys even look at the body?"

"Yes, Evan they did."

"Obviously not very well."

With that the four 13 year olds and one 43 year old stood up straight and left the crime scene with a goodbye to Greg who waved them off in amusement.

"Well," Greg shouted to his team, "Didn't you hear them? A blonde, left handed man, 6 foot 3, scratches on his face and/or arms, works in Tesco. On with it."

His team got on with it quickly after hearing the simplified version, Donavon could never understand how Greg actually understood the five consulting detectives when they got on with a rant about the murderer.

The taxi took them straight to Sherlock's house where they knew everyone else was already, except Greg but he would join them later. Sherlock had barely handed the driver the money when he heard a scream from inside the house, a scream he sadly knew all too well.

Evie.

They all immediately took off running straight into the house, pushing the door so hard it slammed into the other wall, their eyes darted around the room looking for the danger. To find Evie standing on top of a table and everyone was staring at her in a confused manner. John was holding a gun; tea was slowly spreading around Mary's feet and 4 year old Amelia had stopped playing with her teddy bear to stare at her mum.

"Spider!" Evie yelled. Everybody in the room sagged in relief, John put the gun away carefully, Mary begun to clean up the tea and Mycroft stood to help her, "Croft! Spider!"

"Really?" Mycroft asked, looking where she was pointing to a spider on the floor beside the table, it was quite large but not enough to actually be terrifying.

"K-Kill it! Or get rid of it!" Evie ordered her voice shaking; Mycroft rolled his eyes but obeyed, placing a glass on it and got paper underneath throwing it outside. "Thank you." Evie relaxed, falling into a sitting position still on top of the table and waving at Sherlock and the kids who were all attempting to calm their breathing and take in the fact that Evie and everyone are safe.

"You're still afraid of spiders?" Mycroft couldn't help but ask, "After everything you've been through? Spiders? Really?"

Evie hesitated, glancing at Sherlock who knew what she was about to say, "H-he p-put me in a ro-room full of th-them once," Evie looked back at Mycroft who looked shocked, she had told him a lot of what happened with Moran, but nowhere near as much as she has told Sherlock. She never told them the worst of it though and didn't plan to. "Little one's I'm fine with b-but b-big one's l-li-like th-that, r-reminds of it." She shuddered, "They're creepy." Mycroft held out a hand to help her climb off the table silently. He never knew what to say when she told him something about her time with Moran.

"Who's 'he'?" Amelia spoke up curiously looking at her mum for help, Mary smiled at her 4 year old daughter, they hadn't planned on having any more children but when she got pregnant again with Amelia everyone immediately fell in love with her and the four other kids were very protective of her. She was born at 30 weeks and had to be kept in an incubator in NICU for over a month before they finally allowed her to go home, since then she had no problems, she spoke, walked and crawled at the right times growing up and was just like any other 4 year old, just smarter.

"A very bad man that hurt your aunt Evie many years before you were born."

"Oh, did unc-y 'Lock stop him?"

"And Uncle Croft." Evie answer grinning at Mycroft, "At least I'm not scared of Butterflies!" Evie said that at the wrong moment as the door opened and Greg walked in.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, Sherlock was helping Mary make the second batch of teas and the kids were about to turn the TV on while Evan pulled Amelia onto his lap, and Greg froze as he closed the door. Slowly everyone slowly turned towards Mycroft who closed his eyes in embarrassment. Over 13 years they had managed to get through without anyone knowing.

"He's scared of butterflies?" Greg was the first to speak, his voice rough with holding back a laugh.

"Yep." Evie confirmed poking her tongue out at Mycroft who glowered at her, she just grinned in reply.

"Why Evie? Why tell everyone? 13 years without that being found out. Thirteen!" Mycroft moaned falling backwards onto the nearest chair.

"I was thinking about getting a tattoo, I'll get a butterfly and put it there," Greg reached behind himself pointing at the small of his back.

"Why on your back?" Amelia asked innocently.

Nine pairs of eyes turned to stare at her, John even looked at his newspapers he had begun 'reading' and nobody knew how to answer that question to a four year old. "We'll uh...tell you when you're old." Simon answered carefully, looking vaguely disgusted. All four kids cringed; thinking about their parents having sex was just weird!

"To change the subject quickly," Evan spoke loudly making everyone chuckle, "Why are you scared of butterflies dad?"

"Hundreds of them attacked me when I was younger."

"I was there; I think you need to take your own advice with exaggeration." Sherlock commented, staring at the tea he was stirring intently.

"You were 2 years old."

"I still remember it, we were in the garden you were taking me around the woods we were stuck there. While you were freaking out, I played with the few butterflies until the gardener found us." Mycroft scowled, Sherlock was correct in every aspect of it.

"Although anything like that happening could begin a deep fear in anyone." Mary spoke up, "Like Batman."

"So you're saying Mycroft is going to be 'butterflyman? Or just butterman?" John chuckled, everyone else laughed at the mental image except for Mycroft who put his head in his hands stifling a groan, he lost his 'ice man' image at home many years prior but he attempted to maintain it in some ways. This did not help.

"This reminds me; I never got my lollypop." everyone sobered up in their confusing staring at Evie as she moved to lean against Sherlock on the sofa, who placed his arm around her before Mycroft let out a burst of laughter that shook through his entire body.

"I've given you quite a few lollypops Evie." He managed to say after calming down.

"Yeah but not that Lollypop. I want that one. My options were either to stay sitting on your lap or for you to go into the cupboard and grab me a lollipop which I still haven't got." She frowned looking at Mycroft.

"We are talking about the sweets right?" Greg thought to make sure, always the one with his mind in the gutter, making both Evie and Mycroft cringe in disgust.

"Yes! The sweets." Both stated at him looking repulsed.

"Although, Sherly can give me a 'lollypop'." Evie spoke slowly and snuffled closer to her husband.

"And we're gonna leave before this gets too disgusting!" Alexis spoke for all four kids, they stood simultaneously and all but ran towards the door with Amelia in Evan's arms, making all the adults laugh but call them back.

"Sorry, we'll stop."

"You sure?" Evan didn't believe them but slowly returned to his place on the floor leaning back against the wall next to the TV with the other three doing the same. They always sat there when they were together, it was their spot. Amelia sat in front of them oblivious to what was going on.

"Of course," Evie thanked Mary for the tea she had just made for the second time.

"I have one question," Mary spoke up as she sat down next to Greg on the sofa, "Who the hell let acid burn through the mug cupboard?"

She looked between the four kids and Sherlock, all looked way too innocent. "All of them," Evie answered, "I came home yesterday to find them moving the mugs to the shelf above and studying the green...goo."

"Technically I should arrest you for letting minors handle acid." Greg murmured. "Especially my son."

"I think your many years late." Simon spoke with a small laugh in his voice and Greg nodded.

"Maybe I could get him a 20 years sentence or longer,"

"Hm, Croft maybe you could get help to get it longer." Mike grinned cheekily.

"Oi! Why am I going to do in prison?" Sherlock spoke with wide eyes, "And Mycroft is my brother, and he's finding me a good lawyer!"

"He may be your brother, but my dad and he'll listen to me first."

"Jawnn!" Sherlock moaned softly looking towards his friend for help.

John glanced over the newspaper than he obviously hadn't been reading, "Don't look at me."

"Evie, they're being mean."

Evie put on a stern face and looked around the room, "Okay everyone. Stop planning to get him into prison." Sherlock nodded with his arm around Evie, "You can sort that out tonight after he goes to bed." Sherlock pulled away from Evie glaring at her, she just stared back cheekily, everyone laughed at Sherlock's offended look.

"Oh, yeah! Dad, did you catch the killer?" Evan changed the subject and looked at Greg.

"Yeah, some uniforms have gone to collect him from the airport, he was about to leave the country. But I wasn't needed any longer, just complete my paperwork tomorrow."

Everyone fell silent for a moment, just watching TV or reading, when Simon's voice caught everyone's attention. "So what's happening for dinner?"

"Hopefully Lexi doesn't try and cook." Mike answered with a cheeky grin on his face making Alexis whack him on the arm.

"I so can cook!"

"Oh yeah, and what happened to the beans yesterday?"

"They...uh...burnt."

"And the toast?"

"It was soaked."

"Soaked? How did you do that?"

Alexis shrugged looking very confused, "I didn't defrost the bread when I put it under the grill to toast..."

"And it got wet." Mike finished grinning at her sister as she pouted.

"And the cake a few weeks ago?" Simon poked.

"Blew up." Alexis answered with a sigh.

"I was wondering why the kitchen smelt of chocolate." Evie murmured, "Made me crave some."

"So what's happening today?" Simon asked, his stomach rumbling as if to force the answer out of someone.

"Pizza." Mary answered, "It should be here soon actually,"

The doorbell rung and everyone turned to stare at it critically; they could clearly see through the frosted glass that it was a man carrying four large boxes. "Speak of the devil," Greg murmured standing up to answer the door.

Evie and Sherlock stood and went into kitchen; Evie got the different sauces whilst Sherlock got the plates and a pizza cutter. A few years ago, this would have sent Evie running and screaming. But not now. The last remnants of her year with Moran where drifting into nightmares, only bothering her occasionally. The year that never was, she called it. It was all done and dusted and in the past: it was rarely talked about, it wasn't mentioned and she was quite happy that way.

Happy with Sherlock, with Alexis, Mike, Mycroft and all the others.

Happy.

THE END

AN: There we go. It's over. Whoa, scary...

I'm starting the prequel to it which will be called 'Good Friends' and I'll start posting soon.
I'm also writing 'Case in Naples' which is set a few years in the future when the kids are 10, but it focus' more on Sherlock and John on a case.

There will also be a sequel to 'Old Friends' but there probably won't be started for a while as I've got the other two to concentrate on for the moment, but it will be started at some point!

Thank you to my Beta and various people that have helped 'Catherss' and some friends at school

Thank you to my usual reviewers:

Gwilwillith

Annabeth Black

Amirizar20003

Agent077Tomato

Hiding in the Shadow

And everyone else that has reviewed and read.