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Chapter Text

Louise Roussimoff had yet to lose the feeling of giddiness that washed over her every time she was reminded that her youngest son was back in England to stay. She had done precisely nothing to hide her dissatisfaction with his original career choice, and though she had been quite enamored with the daughter-in-law it had brought her, she would never forgive the British Army for time away from home and heartbreak that it had brought upon her son. Now he was close by, almost always able to answer his phone, and she was equally enamored with the charming young man David was now spending his time with. 

Shortly before Christmas that year, Louise’s doctor had instructed her to see a specialist in London for an old knee injury. She was ecstatic when David and Mycroft invited her to spend the night before her appointment. 

After their initial meeting, Louise had assumed that Mycroft was well off based solely on the quality of the suit he had worn, but seeing his home for the first time was still a bit of a shock. 

“This is where you live?” She asked her son in a hushed tone as he led her up the walkway to the front door. “You’re taking the piss, aren’t you.”  

  “If I was taking the piss would I have the key?” David shot back at her with a grin as he unlocked the door. 

“I don’t know what sort of things you get into. You might have taken up burglary.” 

“This would be a tremendously ambitious house to attempt to rob,” Mycroft chuckled as he met them at the door, going up on his tiptoes to kiss David on the cheek. “Hello Louise, how are you?”

“Oh, I’m wonderful, sweetheart, thank you for asking,” Louise grinned widely and pulled the young man into her arms. “Look at you, darling, so skinny. I do hope you’ll let me cook for you while I’m here.” 

“Mum,” David sighed, “you’re a guest, you aren’t cooking.”

“Dinner is on the table already,” Mycroft assured her. “You don’t need to lift a finger while you’re here.” Louise beamed as her son and his partner led her into the dining room, stopping to hang up her coat and drop her bag in the guest room. She ate and laughed and hugged her son tightly before she headed off to bed. 

It was so wonderful to have him  back home.

~~~

The next morning David took Louise to her appointment, squeezing his massive frame into a tiny chair in the waiting room while she headed into the office with the doctor. He had missed his mother terribly while he was stationed around the world. Even something as simple as driving her to a medical appointment made him so happy. 

After the appointment David had to drop a few things off at the office, where he would pick up Mycroft and then the two of them would take Louise out to lunch before David drove her back to Sheffield. 

“You look so much happier,” Louise mused after they had pulled out of the parking lot outside the surgery. 

“Mycroft makes me really happy,” David agreed, squeezing his mother’s hand. “You like him, right?” 

“Oh, darling, I adore him. He is so lovely, and so sweet to you. I wish I could have found a man like that.” Louise looked out the window for a few moments before continuing. “We don’t speak about your father.” 

“I don’t have much to say about him, Mum.” 

“I know, I understand.” Louise pursed her lips for a long moment. “I want you to know though, I know he wasn’t a good man. I know that my failure to leave him caused you and your brothers a lot of pain. I did love him, but he didn’t deserve that love. I know that. He gave me the most important things in my life, you and your brothers, and I ignored the worst about him to focus on that. His heart attack, as financially devastating as it was, was the best thing to ever happen to me. That heart attack gave me my life back, but it took so much from you and your brothers.”

“We don’t think about it like that,” David started, but Louise cut him off with a look. 

“Matthew quit school so we wouldn’t lose the house, Davey, don’t give me that. The amount of debt your father left us with…” She trailed off, looking out the window for a long moment. “I carry a lot of shame that I couldn’t handle it on my own.” 

“You shouldn’t. You did everything you could have. None of us blame you.” David pulled the car into a spot in the small underground lot that the members of Mycroft’s team used. “You were and are the best mum any of us could ask for.” 

“Oh, David,” Louise murmured, blinking back tears. “What did I do to get a son like you?”

“Just lucky, I guess.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, leaning down and kissing the top of her head. “Alright, Mum, I’m going to drop these papers off and grab Mycroft, I’ll be back in one second.” 

“Well now hold on just a moment,” Louise stopped him with a firm hand on his arm. “Why don’t you want me to come see where you work?” 

“Because I work for a top secret government agency and my coworkers are all very dangerous.” David answered very matter of factly. Louise narrowed her eyes, trying to detect a lie in the statement. 

“I’m still coming in to meet your friends,” she announced. David rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. He had fully expected this from his mum. He shrugged and walked over to open the passenger door, leading Louise into the building. 

Inside the office, Mycroft was leaning against Anthea’s desk, reading a file over her shoulder. O’Leary was thumbing through a series of stills from security footage near Sadie’s desk, while the woman was grunting orders into the phone. All of the activity stopped immediately when David stepped out of the lift, his mother in tow. 

“Everyone, this is my mum. Mum, these are my co-workers.” David grunted. “Excellent, now you’ve met them, Mycroft, shall we go?” 

“David, please,” O’Leary gasped dramatically. “You can’t just bring your mother here and not properly introduce us!” Louise shot her son a triumphant smirk and O’Leary walked up, holding his hand out to Louise. She placed her hand in his and chuckled when he softly kissed her knuckles. “Paddy O’Leary, my dear. It’s truly lovely to finally meet you, I’ve heard such wonderful things.” 

“O’Leary? I’ve heard about you as well.” Louise smiled warmly at the younger man. 

“Only good things, I’m sure?” 

  “Mostly that you’re a smooth talking serial monogamist who will rush any woman willing to talk to him for more than five minutes down the aisle.” 

“I see,” Paddy nodded with a smirk towards David, “any thoughts about that?” Louise followed O’Leary’s gaze to her son, and a conspiratorial grin spread across her face. 

“Well, I certainly like the monogamy part.”

Chapter Text

That year, David and Mycroft spend Christmas Eve with David’s family, Sherlock tagging along, somewhat reluctantly, but in the end even he had to admit that he had really enjoyed himself. It was a warm, comfortable holiday. 

After spending the night, David kissed his mother goodbye, and the three headed out from Sheffield, traveling west to the cottage in Wales where Siger and Violet Holmes made their home. 

The tension in the sedan was palpable as the Holmes brothers and David drove along. The invitation they had received to Christmas had been somewhat…non-negotiable. As they grew closer the bone deep depression that his parents inspired seemed to overtake Mycroft and when they pulled up in front of the cottage his hands had begun shaking. 

The moment the car was in park Sherlock was out the door, his boundless energy having built up to a near catastrophic level during the drive. Mycroft was slower to move, his fingers ghosting over the door handle without actually touching it. 

“She won’t be kind, I need to know that you’re prepared for that.”  

“I’m a big boy, My, I can handle your mum.” David wrapped a massive hand around the back of Mycroft’s neck, his fingers carding through the short hairs at the base of his skull. “The moment things get bad, Mycroft, I swear, we will leave. You don’t need to put up with that from them.” 

“They’re my parents, David,” Mycroft sighed. “I feel that I need to make an effort.”  

“I’ll do the same,” the giant promised, his voice a soft, comforting rumble. “But you, you’re my priority. They will not hurt you in my presence.”

~~~

Lunch was tense. Past the introductions at the door, Mummy had not said a single word to David, seemingly determined to pretend he didn’t exist. Mycroft’s father, Siger, was much more friendly, making a point to engage with David as much as possible.  

“I’m the youngest of four boys,” David responded to Siger’s most recent inquiry. “Mum lives out in Sheffield, da passed a while back.” 

“Four boys,” Siger laughed, “can you imagine that, Violet? We barely managed our two!” Violet grunted in response, glaring down at her plate.  

“Is there something you’d like to say, Mummy? Because if your intention is to stonewall until I decide to pretend to be straight I fear we may never hear your voice again.” Mycroft stared daggers at his mother who maintained her stoic glowering. 

“Myc, it’s alright,” David murmured to his boyfriend. 

“No, son, it’s really not,” Siger sighed. “Violet, regardless of your thoughts on the matter, he is our guest. I know you weren’t raised to treat a guest like this.” 

“He is not a guest,” Violet snapped. “He is a gold digging whore who has latched onto my son in order to get his hands on his money.” 

“Mummy, stop it,” Mycroft snapped. 

“With all due respect, ma’am, you don’t know me,” David said softly. 

“I know that you work for my son. I know that you were previously married to a woman. Inexpensive ring, clearly she didn’t have money. You left her and then you came to London with hardly any possessions and after only a few weeks you were living in Mycroft’s flat rent free. I know you grew up poor and you wanted better. Suddenly you are gay, and living in my son’s home, where you pay no bills. The conclusion is inescapable.” Violet sneered as she spoke, and despite a valiant effort on David’s part to appear unaffected, the words clearly hurt him.

Mycroft stared at his mother, his voice caught in his throat. His rage boiled within him, searing flesh and bone. He had long since gotten used to his mother’s bullying and belittling and berating but it was always directed at him. He could put up with it, but no one else should have to. Certainly David shouldn’t have to. 

“Not only are you incorrect--which you are, by the way, you managed to miss a great number of entirely simple deductions--you are a malignant bitch. An absolute waste of your talents and intellect. Any meager contributions you may have made to the study of mathematics are utterly overshadowed by the outstanding detriment to polite society that is your very presence.” Everyone was staring, but Mycroft’s rage at years of mistreatment was bubbling out of him, boiling over so violently that he didn’t care that he had already said enough to win the encounter. “The audacity, the unmitigated gall it takes to sit here and act as though you give a damn about my fortune, that you’re trying to protect me. It would be impressive if it wasn’t so pathetic. You have no standing to feign concern about me or my life. You have never had my best interests at heart, you don’t get to pretend you do now.” 

He took a deep breath, everyone’s eyes wide and fixed on him. Mummy’s mouth hung open but no words came out. 

“David has been there for me,” a quiet, deep voice suddenly said from the end of the table. “He’s sat up all night with me helping through withdrawals. He didn’t get mad when I was sick all over his trousers, he just cleaned it up and helped me back to bed.” Sherlock had never discussed his drug use with his parents, and his words clearly pained them. “David cares about Mycroft so much that even if he was in it for the money, he deserves anything he can get. He takes care of him, so much more than you ever did.” 

David pressed his fist against his lips and closed his eyes, pushing back tears. This wasn’t a family he could cry in front of, he knew that. 

“He literally will not let anything bad happen to Mycroft, to a really annoying degree, frankly. It’s only because he cares about Mycroft that he hasn’t picked you up and snapped you in half, because he can definitely do it.” Sherlock glanced over at the giant, a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips. 

Violet sputtered, attempting to snap back at her children but finding herself at a loss for words. 

“Well boys, we seem to have made it all the way to 2 o’clock before diplomatic relations fully broke down,” Siger announced, sitting back and grinning ruefully. “One of our better efforts, to be sure. I remain hopeful, as ever, that next year we can make it all the way to dessert.”