First We Take London Chapter 15- THE ENDING

Author's Note: *Rather choked up, gestures for you to continue reading*

Key:

(TEXTING)

xXxXx

John and Lestrade watched as Sherlock and Mycroft twitched in the silence that followed their greeting to their mother.

A sigh sounded from the phone. "Boys, may I ask why this little war of yours started?"

Sherlock glared at his older brother. "Mycroft took the one of my experiments."

Another sigh, this one of exasperation, was heard from the phone. "Which experiment did you take Mycroft?"

Mycroft sniffed as he replied. "One concerning THAT topic."

Sherlock's eyes focused on his brother sharply, his expression changing into one of deep thought.

A third sigh emanated from the phone. "Sherlock, before you get lost in your mind palace, perhaps we should discuss the reason you gathered everyone at your flat and then allow the good Inspector to return to the job he is being paid for, though at this rate I began to wonder if I should pay him to babysit the two of you."

Sherlock, Mycroft and Lestrade looked at the phone aghast, with a good bit of panic in Lestrade's expression, while the others in the room tried valiantly not to laugh.

Sherlock continued staring-glaring, really- at the phone for a moment before speaking. "I did not gather anyone. I had planned on confronting John alone, but Mycroft insisted that Lestrade be confronted at the same time and that he be there."

"Perhaps I should explain how the sides of this war truly lie?" Irene cautiously spoke up from her seat.

"If you would, dear." Mummy's voice was calm as they heard her retrieve her tea cup from its plate.

Irene looked Sherlock and Mycroft up and down before speaking. "There were four sides to this little prank war. The two main ones were led by Mycroft and Sherlock of course. Mycroft's mainly consisted of politicians, while Sherlock's consisted of the police force, his homeless network, and John. The third side was led by Moriarty and consisted of his criminal network. He wisely removed himself from the war the other day, and asked me to return this to you, Sherlock." Irene retrieved Sherlock's missing skull from the bag she had arrived with. She smirked as Sherlock snatched it from her hands and returned it to its place over the fire before she continued. "The fourth, and frankly the winning, side was lead by three people. Mrs. Holmes is of course the one who makes most of the decisions. The other two are Mrs. Hudson and the Queen." She glanced over at John and Lestrade as they choked on their tea at this revelation. "This side consisted of myself, Mrs. Hudson's gathering of little old ladies, and Anthea at the beginning." Mycroft sent a calculating look at his assistant.

"Mycroft, Anthea will only give your information away to me. Besides that, she is completely loyal. Do not attempt to fire her. It will only cause you problems." Mummy interrupted quickly, knowing exactly how her sons would react to each of the revelations.

Irene smiled before continuing. "I approached John and Lestrade about turning to our side a short while back. Mrs. Hudson and your mother agreed that the two of you were getting out of hand and that it was time to bring things to an end, so they had Anthea and I set the plans in motion." Irene observed the two Holmes boys as they absorbed this information.

"So." Mycroft and Sherlock suppressed the instinct to jump in surprise as the voice of their Mummy once again sounded from the phone. "I believe that Detective Inspector Lestrade would like to return to work."

Lestrade blinked at the clear dismissal before standing and clapping John on the shoulder as he left.

Irene smiled and stood. "I should be going as well. That phone is disposable, so I'll leave it with you." She tossed a smirk over her shoulder as she left.

Mrs. Hudson stood as well. "Well, I think I will take these trays downstairs and clean them. If you would help me, Anthea dearie?" She asked as she gathered one of the two trays. Anthea swiftly retrieved the other tray and followed Mrs. Hudson out of the flat.

After a minute of silence in which John glanced between Mycroft, Sherlock and the phone lying innocently on the coffee table Mummy spoke again. "Will the two of you stop acting like children and start acting like the adults you are?"

"If Mycroft returns my experiment then I shall." Sherlock's voice was iron, his expression promising that he would not budge.

"If I give you back your experiment, will you cease these bothersome pranks? I will also need your promise not to release any results you may get to the public." Mycroft said in his usual manner.

"Oh, come on Mycroft. The only one I ever really tell my results to is John and he doesn't often care or really understand. By taking the experiment away in the first place, I am more likely to release the results to the press. Just to irritate you." Sherlock's expression showed just how idiotic he thought his brother was being.

"Sherlock. Promise your brother or I myself will make sure you never work on the experiment again." Mummy's voice was pure steel as it came from the phone.

Sherlock's expression turned to what on anyone else would be meek. "... Yes Mummy. I promise, Mycroft. Though I will tell John."

"I see no problem with John knowing, Mycroft. He has already proven himself quite worthy of trust. Now I want you two boys to behave. I have enough of my own work to do without having to come and wrangle the two of you. Mrs. Hudson has been keeping me informed and will continue to do so. I love you both. Now be good." The phone line goes quiet for a moment. "John, could you please take the phone off speaker? I would like to talk to you alone."

John jumps at being addressed and then hurries to do as asked. "Yes?"

"..."

"Really?" Surprise flashed over John's features.

"..."

"Thank you. Um, that, that could come in handy." John's eyes were wide as he processed what he was being told.

"..."

"Oh, yes. Goodbye."

John hangs up the phone and finds Mycroft and Sherlock looking at him rather apprehensively. John grins at their expressions, causing Mycroft to quickly conceal the growing worry he is feeling behind one of his usual masks. However, Sherlock felt no need to hide his feelings from John.

"What did she say?" Mycroft asked, a miniscule amount of apprehension slipping into his voice.

"I'm to contact her if either of you seem to be 'being a bad boy'. And if you give me any trouble, she will supply me with some...insurance." John's grin grows a tiny bit sharper as he spoke the last word.

Mycroft is unable to hide the way he pales at the implications. Sherlock splutters indignantly for a minute before falling silent as he tries to figure out what exactly this 'insurance' could be.

John just continues to grin as he watched the brothers' try to work out what their mother had told him.

xXxXx

Author's note: It's…It's done. I finally finished a story. The second story I began to publish on this site is the first one that I ever finished. At least until I start writing the sequel. And apparently, lazybum89 intends to help me write a third part and turn it into a trilogy. I have no clue how she is going to do that, but with the amount of plot bunnies she has already placed in my head I will not put it past her. *sighs* I placed some fairly vague hints about what the experiment was. Would anyone like to guess? It is incredibly important to the sequel, this mysterious experiment.

I would like to sincerely thank lazybum89. Without her, this story would probably never have even started, let alone made it this far. Seriously. She gave me this whole idea. She has supported me the whole way through and commented on each and every chapter. Love you!

I actually finished writing this on October 28. Wrote the last three chapters all at once. Because I decided to do NaNo WriMo this year. For those who don't know, that is short for National Novel Writing Month. The challenge to write fifty thousand words in one month. So I finished writing this story, but waited to post it.

This is actually one of the longest, if not the longest, chapters in this story. This was not a long story, but it took me a while to write it.

Thank you all so very much for sticking with me this entire time. I dearly hope that you enjoyed this crazy story.

Love, Lady of the Shards (Sorry for rambling)

I am not a writer! I am a puppet controlled by fictional characters!