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It was a single tear and then another and then a series of bursts.
It was near 4 in the morning. Alpha Dr. John H. Watson (retired), was awake looking over the final proof of his latest novel before it goes to print when he felt it the first tear.
It was as near silent, as the taking apart the plies of a facial tissue but felt as a sharp incise, then a slow rip, a tear across his body. A wrenching asunder from his very core that tore itself from of his body and took every capillary, every synapse with it that seared and caused him to gasp aloud and left him with an odd sense of something that was there a moment ago but no longer and then an echo of loss that lingered.
The next tear reminded John of the blink when a bulb suddenly goes out and there's an unexpected absence of light. In fact, he flicked his eyes to the desk lamp expecting to see a darkened bulb, but the lamp is fully on, its light bright in the otherwise dark room. The echo of loss amplified, but knew it was not his loss he felt now.
The Alpha-Patriarch does a quick scan of Pack Holmes-Watson. As always, he searches for his omega first. Sherlock was asleep upstairs; the latest case had worn him out. The alpha misses the days when the children were young, they were all under one roof and he could physically check on his family. Of their offspring, only two lived with them at The Mews. Two of their adult grandchildren lived at Baker Street. He can directly sense the children he and Sherlock sired, and while he can communicate with and compel any alpha or omega he has at least visual contact with, the lives and well being of the grandchildren and so on can only be sensed by their respective parents for that is their pack line.
{Omega?}
Seconds after the first tear, just before his pack scan, Alpha felt the sudden distress from Omega as Sherlock immediately woke up.
{ALPHA!}
Alpha knew then the first tear he felt was for him, the second tear was when he felt his omega’s tear through their connection and then knew what it meant.
Oh God! No! NO!
John gritted his teeth as he tore from his office. He felt it as Sherlock tore out from their bedroom. The two met midway on the stairs and fell into each other’s arms.
The infamous Holmes control is shattered. Sherlock was not even trying to contain his emotions. The feel of Omega Hurt pours over John in unyielding waves that tore at him. He instinctively tried to send love and comfort, but he knew neither were going to be of much use to the omega, when his own Alpha Hurt poured off him in equal waves.
{Papa...? Dad...? NO!} Francois, their youngest child, who lived at home, awakened. Francois along with twin sister, Francesca were always somehow the first to sense important things within the family.
{Oh No! Oh Papa...! Oh Da…!} Though living on the other side of London, Francesca's thoughts, came through almost simultaneously with her brother’s as she also felt the pain that tore through the parents. He knew she come to The Mews with her own family soon. Thus, he is not surprised they are first to sense the distress.
John felt as Evelyn Thérèse, their third daughter, and the other offspring living in the home, reigned in her anguish.
{Go, Papa…Daddy. Papa, please shut down. We will contact the rest…}
John knew the twins and Evelyn felt the tears through the combined hurt of he and Sherlock which caused bursts of pain that woke them. They were all part Holmes after all: they immediately deduced what happened.
Another child of theirs, Ben, awakened in his own home and yet another burst of pain was sparked. Sherlock whined just as John felt Ben’s pain, which meant Sherlock also felt it.
Evelyn met them on the landing with Francois. Knowing the protocol, the siblings held each other’s hand, but did not reach out for either parent, until they were ready to be touched.
John knew they had not felt the tear as he and Sherlock had, but their offspring felt their hurt because John’s mind was open to all. Sherlock and John's pain joined with theirs in brutal spiral. Anyone within reach not yet awake would be soon and each new burst of hurt would be felt by all while he was open to them.
{Shut them off Alpha, please!} Sherlock begged. {I can’t… I can’t…}
{One moment my omega. I will.}
He linked the minds of the four who now knew to his and Sherlock’s.
{Your father and I are going to our room. We need time to ourselves and to wait for the notification. Natalia will let us know and Ulani…know when it’s…official. I will contact the Vahrka-tanū when it is time unless we drop first, then you make the call Evelyn. Don't forget the Pack Associates and your Aunt Harry. Prepare the Mews. Your uncles and Natalia will take care of Ulani and prepare Musgrave.}
{Yes, Papa} is heard from all four and then silence as he shut them off only staying connected to Sherlock.
John knew Evelyn and Sherlock were right. He and Sherlock simply could not handle that much emotional traffic in their minds right now. Let alone that much added Alpha and Omega Hurt as the remaining siblings learned. John could only focus on one thing right now, Sherlock. He wrapped an arm around his omega, and they went into their room. The two said nothing, thought nothing. They simply let their cores take a moment as their arms surrounded each other knowingly.
There were protocols, traditions for these things, but John took one look at his silent omega and knew he it was right in getting the two of them away from everyone else for a moment. John can shut out people’s thoughts and most emotions but the painful stab of fresh grief in the moment when a pack member knew was not one of them.
Sherlock sat in a chair by the balcony. John pulled his chair closer and sat opposite him, foreheads together as they held hands.
“Do… do you… do you know what happened to him?” Sherlock asked after a while his voice soft distant.
“No. I felt exactly what you felt… and just knew.” John answered in kind.
John vaguely noted the sun had risen when there was a knock on their bedroom door. “You may come.”
Mycroft entered with Natalia Olivia in his wake.
“Alphas.” Sherlock gave the proper nod in acknowledgement of Alphas entering a room, even if one was his own daughter. John knew Sherlock did not mean to, he simply could not help it. Even now, the lessons of the conduct of a proper omega beat into him from childhood, in his case literally and were a trained response nearly as knee-jerk as the habit to bless a person who sneezed. Mycroft raised a slightly surprised brow, Natalia grimaced, but said nothing. They both knew Sherlock would be annoyed to know that happened, but the fact that it happened also showed the state of his mind.
As Pack Associate to Pack Holmes-Watson, as Alpha Familiar and Proxy to Sherlock and head of Pack Holmes, and simply as family, John knew Mycroft Holmes would have been notified. Though long retired, John still thinks of Frosty the Spookman by his former position as Antarctica. It is now Natalia Olivia, who currently occupied a minor position in the British government, as Actum when Anthea aka Frost and her personal assistant Lauren McParland retired ten years ago. As the junior alpha in the room, she automatically sat by her omega father.
“He who has danced under the Alpha sun and howled at the Omega moon has travelled.” Mycroft pulled up a chair to sit by John with the greeting of condolence among Alpha Omega.
John gritted his teeth as he and Sherlock squeezed each other’s hands in the confirmation of what they already knew. Mycroft and Natalia waited.
Knowing this day would come to them does nothing to ease the pain of facing the reality of it for the very first time.
“Does everyone know?” John asked of no one in particular.
“We all know the who by process of elimination of course, but not the how. The ones overseas are on video call and wait for you as they arrange to come home. Ulani as a beta who can't feel was told. She is already on her way to the airport now.” Mycroft answered.
"It is time then..." Sherlock sighed.
John squeezed his omega’s hand gently. "I'm afraid so, my omega."
Hands still held, they stood.
Sherlock looked to Natalia. “I know protocol dictates you tell us alone first, but how many times has Pack Holmes-Watson broken dictates? Let us take this downstairs so you only have to do this once, child.”
“Thank you,” she whispered gratefully as she and her uncle also stood.
Tradition decrees that before the official announcement of the death of a loved one, the head of the Pack, usually the Alpha-Patriarch must greet each direct family member with a touch and remind them of the first time they met or a dear memory as far back as possible. It was a reminder that their travel on this plane of existence has not ended yet. The words are usually spoken out loud, but John and Sherlock, being who and what they are, made use of their unique talents instead.
John opened his mind to Natalia Olivia and pulled his daughter into his arms. By protocol she would have been the fifth child he addressed, were they altogether. But as at work, though Siån an omega living in the States as the eldest of the siblings overall and her twin brother Sionyn as the eldest alpha of the siblings here in London, they often ceded to Natalia's advice. John and Sherlock's fifth in line, was in duty, if not in rank, third in charge of the Pack Holmes-Watson behind John and Sherlock, and all accepted that. Even Mycroft, who now in his mid-80s had finally started showing clear signs of slowing down mentally, also ceded to her intellect. The woman, who was a physical twin to her omega father had winced at first as she felt their pain of loss, but then gave a bittersweet smile as the fathers sent her a memory of when they first held her in their in their arms at birth.
Sherlock automatically looked to Mycroft, but they are still the Holmes brothers even now, even in this.
“Oh, for God’s sake!” John shoved Sherlock towards Mycroft and the two brothers embrace. The near bald Mycroft gave the still dark curls of his baby brother a toss. It was a subtle nod that he understood exactly the unique pain the two of them were going through. Because he had opened his mind to Mycroft, John felt Mycroft’s surprise and affection when through John Sherlock sent him the memory of being a toddler and the first time that he remembered being called Brother Mine.
The four go downstairs.
In the two hours since John shut them off, Francois, Francesca, Evelyn, and the grandsons who lived at Baker Street and were closest had prepared The Mews for mourning. The gray and off-white bunting of Lycan, with the royal blue and deep purple trim of Pack Holmes-Watson colors was hung across the reception hall and drawing room of The Mews. A wreath of the same colors hung on the front door and the covers of the outdoor sconces that will not turn on for seven days marked it as a pack house in morning.
The drawing room was full of people and the various conversations that reached them on the stairs fell silent as the Alpha Patriarch of Pack Holmes-Watson entered with his omega.
The last time they were together like this was for the passing of Violet Alexandria Scarlet Vernet-Holmes. Mycroft and Sherlock felt the loss as the children of the omega matriarch. John and Greg felt it indirectly because of their bond to the Holmes men as their mates. The rest of the pack felt the sorrow, mixed in with their own, but nothing more.
This was different. John and Sherlock as the Alpha and Omega sires felt the tear directly. Because of whom they are as Aadeshyakar, they had accidentally shared that horrible moment from their core with four of their offspring before John shut them down. They were about to share it with more on purpose. Only the betas in the family who cannot sense and feel as they do, with the sole exception of Greg Lestrade-Holmes, would be spared.
John and Sherlock looked once more to each other and began to touch.
Hands were held. Faces were caressed. Hugs were given. There was gentle sobbing all around as backdrop as first memories were shared.
“Faran þær min lupus filium arwierþe …” Sherlock started the common phrase in Ancient Form.
“...Bidan æfter til þam gretan...” John continued it.
“…Becuman sona scæl mos.” And each who is touched finished it.
Sherlock and John stood side by side at the fireplace when done. Mycroft and Greg as senior Pack always faced them on the other side. The second generation in attendance stood closest to John and Sherlock, three holding tablets with live connections to the ones overseas. Their children’s respective Packs spread around them all in a rough hierarchy of bond mates for those who had them, and then offspring. Anthea and Lauren along with Harry and her family were also with them. John gave a nod to Natalia when they were ready.
“Alpha Ianto Spéir Holmes Watson has travelled there…” She began with the call.
“He who has danced under the Alpha sun and howled at the Omega moon is here no more,” was given by all in response.
Air Commander Ianto Spéir Holmes Watson-Alpha, beloved sixth Alpha, eighth child and fourth son of Alpha John and Omega Sherlock of Pack Holmes-Watson was killed when a surface to air missile brought down the Chinook helicopter he piloted during a reconnaissance and rescue mission in hostile territory. He is survived by his wife of three years, Ulani Holmes-Watson (née Lanuola).
It is in effect an obituary for the Pack. Natalia segued into her brother’s accolades and accomplishments as brother, a man, a fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force and as an alpha.
Natalia Olivia had stoically started to give the facts, but the Holmes control in her blood had slowly shattered as much as her omega father’s had and tears streamed down her face as she finished.
{We are ALL going to share in this one moment and it is going to HURT.}
As he and Sherlock had no warning; John gave them no other warning as he then opened his mind to all of the Pack Holmes-Watson offspring. He shared how it felt as for them as Alpha and Omega when one of their children is torn from them.
Several in the room had cried out, one or two fell to a knee, all felt the tear all before he shut them out again.
"Papa?" Evelyn blinked when she heard the sound.
John had not realized he started an Alpha Keen. Sherlock had began the low harmonic hum of an Omega Keen in counterpoint as both fathers suddenly dropped.
“Mycroft, what are they doing?” Greg Lestrade-Holmes pointed in John and Sherlock’s direction as they started walking.
“Open up!” Mycroft called out as he realized what happened.
Neither John nor Sherlock were aware as a space opened. They were not aware of anything except the core need to shut down.
Francesca gasped as she grabbed her twin brother’s hand in realization. Francois, always on par with her and nodded. They looked to their fathers as the crux of that truth truly hit.
“Yes, he is the first of Pack Holmes-Watson to wait for us…” Benedict Martin pulled his youngest close as he confirmed what all of them knew but did not want to acknowledge.
It was pure core instinct that guided Alpha and Omega to their bedroom. It was not as extreme as when bond mates die, but it had begun, nevertheless.
Severance.
It will be two days before they are seen again.
John and Sherlock were Alpha and Omega, and they were also Aadeshyakar. The blessing that made them unique as alpha and omega came at a cost. The saying a parent should not outlive their children did not apply to them. The two octogenarians, were physically no older than their mid-30s. That miracle in the universe which gave them gift of a very long life also gave them a curse: the reality that they will indeed out live all eleven of their children.
And Alpha Ianto Spéir Holmes-Watson was the first tear...