Prompt Fill: Moriarty kidnaps wee!Sherlock, traumatizes him, then dumps him outside Lestrade's house, who tries along with his friend John to help the kid. John gets attached to Sherlock and eventually adopts him.
Fair warning: This hasn't been brit-picked and no beta has looked at it. Feel free to point out any errors.
The morning starts out normal enough- or what is now Lestrade's version of normal, following his divorce from his now ex-wife.
He wakes up, washes and tries (often failing) to find something to have for breakfast. Most days, it's a simple cup of coffee. It's not much, but it helps when he's had little to no sleep the previous night.
Lestrade struggles though most of the day. A case has turn up on his desk in which a man was murdered and there are loads of suspects that want the man dead. He has Donovan start questioning the suspects while he looks through evidence again, hoping something stands out and they can quickly close this case. (That doesn't happen, though they manage to narrow down the list to ten people- mostly family members that have some sort of grudge against the dead man.)
He heads home at the end of the day, grabbing another coffee and some takeout, knowing he's going to burning the midnight oil trying to figure this case out.
He stops quickly in his tracks when he sees there's a young boy sitting on stairs leading inside the house.
Lestrade's first though is that it's his neighbor's kid and the boy has locked himself out of his house again. But as the man approaches closer, he can see that the hair is too dark, and the frame is too small.
The boy in front of him is at least six or seven years of age, with a shock of dark curly hair that stands out against his quite pale looking skin and he looks a bit of the malnourished side. He has on a thin white t-shirt and gray cotton pants- but no sneakers or socks on his feet at all.
'Runaway, maybe,' is Lestrade's first thought, or perhaps a homeless child separated from his parents for whatever reason. But it doesn't explain the pale complexion-
"Are you Detective Inspector Lestrade? Greg Lestrade?" A small voice break him from his concentration. He nods and the boy digs into his cotton pants, pulling out a folded piece of paper. "'M suppose to give this to you." He hands over the paper, eyes focused on the ground, as if he's trying not look the man in the eyes.
Lestrade unfolds and reads:
I've grown tired on my little pet. I've decided to return him to his previous owners, or you can keep him, seeing as you have been helping look for him over the past six years. It might take a while for him to readjust, so try and be patience. I even trained him for you!
-M.
He rattles his brain, but he's not putting the puzzle piece together yet the 'six years' comment ring a bell, but he's not sure who the boy is-
"Sherlock," The boy speaks up, and it's almost as if he's reading his mind.
Lestrade snaps his head up and instantly the boy's head lowers his head to the ground. He continues to speak, though his body is rigid and tense, as if he's preparing for something. (To be hit, maybe?)
"My name is Sherlock Holmes,"
Lestrade eyes widen in shock because suddenly it's all making sense now. Sherlock Holmes was a boy who went missing just after his second birthday, in an outing at the local park. There were no clues, no one saw anyone suspicious at the park and no one saw the moment the boy was abducted.
After his parents were clear in any wrong doing, and having no new leads, the case went cold very fast. While most of the community gave up the boy for dead after a year or so, his parents never gave up searching, along with their other son, Mycroft. He took the active role of keeping the search for Sherlock alive after the death of their parents.
Lestrade was placed on the case on the day of the disappearance and constantly looked over it whenever he was able too. To be honest with himself, he was on the edge of giving up hope of ever finding the boy alive and was instead prepared to find skeletal remains somewhere.
"You're Sherlock Holmes," Lestrade repeats numbly, barely believing the miracle he has prayed six years over, has actually happened.