"What is your middle name, Elizabeth?" John asked one day. "I just realized that I don't know it."
"And you never will." Elizabeth replied, not looking up from Anna Karenina.
"Why not?" John was really curious now. "Why won't you tell me?"
"Because she hates it." Sherlock said, glancing at John. He was stretched out on the couch, his legs across Elizabeth's lap. She had her novel balanced on his shins.
"What's so bad about it?" John wondered.
"He chose it." Elizabeth answered, glaring at her father, who grinned.
"You did?" John's tone was disbelieving.
"Yes, I did." Sherlock responded. "Elizabeth's mother was adamant that she have a nice, lady-like, first name, so I agreed as long as I chose her middle name."
"Oh, God." John looked to Elizabeth sympathetically. "How bad is it?"
"It's not bad!" Sherlock exclaimed. "Why is it bad just because I chose it?"
"Says the man that fills the fridge with body parts and talks to a skull." Elizabeth retorted.
"You tend to be eccentric, Sherlock." John agreed. "Is it Shaylock, Mycroftanna, or something like that? Tell me you did not name her after yourself! Elizabeth Sherlock Holmes, that would be cruel."
"I would have preferred to be named after him."
"Well, if only you would've told me when I chose it." Sherlock remarked sarcastically. "But all you did was sleep and cry."
"You didn't choose it beforehand?" John asked.
"No, he chose it the day I was born." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "His reasoning was that he couldn't choose properly until he'd actually seen me."
"If you won't tell me what it is, at least tell me why you don't like it." John pleaded, wanting some kind of clue.
"It's too...pretty." Elizabeth complained. "When he told me he'd chosen it, I thought it would something cool like Henna, Venus, or Bella. My middle name is much too pretty, fancy. It makes me feel like I have to be elegant or something."
John considered that, and name ideas floated into his brain. Unfortunately for him, the conversation ended there. Sherlock had gone to his Mind Palace, and Elizabeth refused to answer his questions.
A few hours later, Elizabeth had gone out. Sherlock and John were still in the living room. Sherlock hadn't moved at all, and John was typing up a blog entry.
John's curiosity still burned, but he hadn't mentioned any more about Elizabeth's middle name.
"It's Angelica." Sherlock murmured suddenly.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I said it's Angelica." Sherlock answered. "Elizabeth Angelica Holmes."
"Sherlock, that's beautiful. What made you choose it?"
"Angelica means 'like an angel'. All I could think when she was born was that she looked like an angel. A perfect angel. My perfect angel."
