It was one of the rare Sunday afternoons they all spend together.
Sherlock and John helped Rosie on the slide, while Mary sat on a bench nearby and watched them. John and Sherlock watched smilingly while Rosie rushed down the slide gurgling with laughter. Even though it went on for over a year now, there were still moments where Sherlock still couldn't believe his luck to have become a part of this family. He put his arm around John's waist while they watched Rosie climbing up the slide again.
John realised, that a mother, watching her own child climbing up the ladder right behind Rosie, smiled affirmingly at them. Yes, the younger generation in a city like London was very eager to make gay couples and parents feel welcome. He was really thankful that at least the situations in which he was assumed to belong to that group weren't a problem anymore, but with Mary sitting just a few meters away, John saw danger lurking.
Sherlock picked Rosie up who came running towards them. "Daddy, Daddy...", she called when her eyes landed on John. She held her arms out to him.
"He's been on a seminar for three days last week. She missed him, it's not my fault he has the higher stakes right now" Sherlock explained to the mother beside them, when he passed Rosie on to John's arms.
She nodded friendly. "I always wondered" she finally said genuinely interested. "what does she call you, if he is Daddy?"
"Sherlock!" Sherlock answered. "We thought about alternatives, but we decided that it is important for her identity to know from the start who of the three of us are her biological parents." Yes, Sherlock had done his share of research on what was best for little Rosie considering the unusual family situation she would be growing up with.
'Here we go!', John thought, when the other mother's eyes followed Sherlock's nod towards Mary on the bench when he said "three of us".
John still saw several possibilities of a patchwork family with all previous and current partners getting along unusually well to explain everything the other mother had witnessed up to now.
"But the next one is mine!" Sherlock added smiling proudly and pointing at Mary's belly that started to show first signs of her second pregnancy.
Rose started to squirm herself out of John's arms. "Mommy!" she called and ran towards Mary on her little legs. John saw, that questions were forming in the other mother's head, but that she considered them inappropriate to ask to people she just met on the playground.
"No, she's not our surrogate, then Rose wouldn't call her, Mommy, would she?" Of course Sherlock saw the questions even clearer than John, but contrary to John saw no reason to not answer them, even if they hadn't been vocalised. "She's his wife and my girlfriend." Since the mother had already witnessed Sherlock having his arm put around John there seemed to be no necessity to further clarify their relationship.
John sighed inwardly. If Mary would have said all this he would have gotten angry again, because she would have said it to screw with the other mother and her obviously displayed tolerance towards atypical families. He couldn't really get angry with Sherlock though because he really just wanted to be friendly and answer the questions the other mother had had.
John smiled and nodded friendly back at her before he and Sherlock joined Mary who had started to pack up their things, because Rose started to get cranky and it seemed to be time to go home now.
