Check chapters for specific trigger warnings.
Makes reference to events in 'Becoming' chapter 10 and 'Trefoil' chapters 14 and 15.
May Brent did not dislike her name, she merely found it an inconvenient, flat, boring, nondescript sort of thing. It had been so long since she'd actually used it that she had almost forgotten its existence. When she had first been instructed to create several aliases, for security purposes, she ran rampant through the alphabet and several languages, relishing the freedom to be dramatic. Her handler had tutted, suggesting that at least some of her aliases should be almost as non-descript as her own birth name. After all, for every Titania, she would have need of a Helen. That was the nature of spy-craft.
When she was recruited to be personal assistant and bodyguard to Mycroft Holmes, he asked her what she preferred to be called. At first she contemplated giving one of her more exotic aliases, however, she knew that any of her previous identities would be burned, and she would not risk her new position and her new charge being compromised by her previous life.
"I will, as a matter of course, change my code name on a regular basis as per protocol, however, I prefer Anthea."
"Ah yes. An excellent choice. Meaning 'blossom' in Greek and an epithet to that most vengeful of goddesses, Hera. Most appropriate."
Not many discovered her name. Those who did were either trusted colleagues, or could only pass their newly acquired knowledge on to the denizens of whatever afterlife they had so abruptly joined.
When she first met Sherlock Holmes, younger sibling of her mentor, Mycroft introduced her as Anthea. So for Sherlock that is who she remained.
When Dr John Watson settled himself and his cane next to her on his way to his first meeting with Mycroft Holmes he, ever the gentleman, introduced himself, quite superfluously, and asked her name. She had ceased to be Anthea to anyone but the younger Mr Holmes some time before. However, it seemed natural to impart it to her temporary companion.
"That's not your real name is it?" Oh, what a clever boy. This one may just survive the encounter. Although whether he survives the younger Mr Holmes remains to be seen.
"No."
After Mycroft ordered her to increase security on both Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson she knew her instincts had been correct. John Watson was going to be around for a while. Watching the backs of the two men disappear from view she noted two things, Dr Watson no longer required his cane and Sherlock Holmes was laughing, his shoulders visibly shaking under his great Belstaff. She smiled, feeling that she may be Anthea, at least to some, for a while yet.
When Mycroft suggested she choose a code name for her increasingly frequent encounters with the growing number of people associated with Sherlock Holmes, she considered selecting something new, but her mind kept swirling back to the name she had selected so long before. Mycroft had, of course, long since ceased to use it, but for the friends and family that now orbited 221B Baker Street, when she met for coffee with Mary Morstan, later to become Mary Watson, and when she occasionally met up for a girls night with Molly Lestrade, Mary, Noor Panesar, Sally Donovan and the rest of the gang, then she was Anthea.
It seemed appropriate, to bear a name meaning 'flower' when spending time with a circle of friends that had grown together in the unlikeliest and harshest of circumstances, and yet had blossomed.
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