Chapter Three: New York to Mexico City

A/N I'm so sorry this is really short, there's supposed to be an extra 500 words but I've lost it and only vaguely remember what I wrote! So sorry! If I find it, I'll add it here. Thank you to everybody that's read/reviewed this story so far I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it definitely gets better in the next chapter where the tension definitely explodes…

Disclaimer: No sadly its not mine.

The child was annoying. He hadn't stopped screaming since Irene had left them in order to talk to her contacts. This was Sherlock's first time alone with the child and it hadn't been through choice, but Irene had stayed up the majority of the night with him trying to work out a plan of action to destroy the web. He'd been wary of sharing everything with her, but he'd come here for a reason and even if he didn't want to admit it, Sherlock needed her help. Irene had unfortunately been a great help, they'd achieved more in the 8 hours they'd been up than in the past 8 days he'd been there. They truly did complement one another and she came up with ideas that he wouldn't have even contemplated, her inside knowledge had had also helped tremendously and Sherlock was forced to realise that he would never have been able to achieve this without her. He strangely admired her ability to fight her fatigue and juggle both trying to compose a plan to destroy Moriaty's web and care for the child when it woke up, it still wasn't sleeping through the night he noted.

Whereas, Sherlock had never even considered becoming a parent and despite the fact it was now being thrust upon him he was not welcoming it with open arms. In theory it would be a fantastic opportunity to delve into the depths of hereditary traits, to work out whose genes Nero had for which features. That was in theory, if the child would shut up for once. Sherlock even contemplated texting Irene, but shopped himself before pressing send; texting her would be admitting defeat and even mundane games must be won against the woman. How hard could it really be? The boy after all was half him. In the past week, despite his apparent disinterest in the boy, he'd watched Irene care for the child and deal with his screams. If she could do it, so could he.

However it continued to scream, even when Sherlock picked it up, patted it awkwardly and jammed a luke warm bottle in its mouth. The bottle fell out almost immediately, dropping to the cream carpet with a thud. Almost as if on cue, Sherlock's phone notified him of a new message:

He's a screamer. Like father like son.

Sherlock rolled his eyes and read on.

Take him outside if he's not settling, there's a stroller in the closet by the door. - IA

So that was how he, Sherlock Holmes, came to be pushing a stroller through a New York City park on his first outing with his son. Nero had settled down and stopped screaming after the first block, thank goodness. Although Sherlock was almost unrecognisable to the infamous detective (what with his now much longer blonde hair) and although he doubted many New Yorkers would even know of him, Sherlock still made an effort with his diguise. Today he was a nervous but incredibly proud new father and despite his innate annoyance of constantly being stopped by cooing women, he acted very much in character by smiling and embracing their comments.

They'd been in the park for no more than half an hour however when Sherlock's suspicions were confirmed. He most definitely had a tail. Steering the stroller in the direction of a large group of other parents and Nanny's, Sherlock tried to deduce who they were. There were two business-like clad men, that were seemingly just two Wall Streeters on the way to a meeting, but they'd also been stalking Sherlock for at least 3 blocks before he'd entered the park. They could have been Mycroft's agents, sent to keep a watchful eye on him, but he'd definitely evaded them back in London and anyway they'd be searching for a single man, not a man with a child. One of the men in a Burberry trench coat shifted slightly and Sherlock was able to see when glancing to his left that the man was carrying a firearm. The longer Sherlock stayed in public, the longer he could prolong confrontation with these men and Sherlock hurried out of the park's East entrance. He joined the crowds of native New Yorkers and tourists and headed north, although he didn't know New York half as well as he did London he had some knowledge of the city. He turned slightly after the second block in order to establish whether or not he had lost the tail, but he hadn't. If Sherlock hadn't had this child with him, he would have already confronted the men, but even if he didn't feel any attachment to this child, he also did not wish the innocent being to get hurt.

Sherlock pulls his phone out, if he had suddenly encountered a tail then it was equally feasible that so had Irene.

I have a tail. 2 men. Moriaty's? - SH

He continued pushing the stroller but quickened his pace, crossing the road with a large group of tourists, increasing the gap between him and his tail. Sherlock had just made the split decision to enter a department store when his phone buzzed in his hands.

Me too. Its the NY network. Can you get rid of them? -IA

Of course. - SH

Meet me at JFK in 2 hours. -IA

He had no idea what Irene's plan was, but he had no option but to follow it and hope for the best. She was after all very accomplished in this area.

Sherlock manoeuvred the stroller further into the store, but kept an eye on the door to see if their pursuers entered. He wanted them to follow, as in a way it would be easier to deal with them in a quite area of the store than in the middle of a New York street, however just as Sherlock noticed one of them enter, Nero let out a cry. Sherlock swore loud enough to encounter stares from nearby shoppers. This was not going to plan in the slightest.

He notices her almost immediately as she enters the airport. She's wearing a disguise, a vacationing mother in a sunhat and white dress, he'll be her businessman husband of course. She doesn't visibly look like Irene Adler what with recently dyed red hair worn down and dressed in such summery clothes, but Sherlock knows her and he could recognise her and her body anywhere.

"They won't be following us anymore." Irene says as she approaches.

She wraps her arms around him and kisses his cheek to retain their new cover as a married couple. Sherlock flinches as her soft lips touched his skin but smiles nonetheless, trying to retain their apparent new cover.

"What about my plans?"

"I put them into action dear, it was already collapsing without Jim, we underestimated that completely. I just gave it the final push."

"Completely?" Sherlock asked.

"He didn't like the Americans so much, its one of the smaller parts of his web as it was only concentrated to New York, DC and Miami."

"Yes we already established that fact."

Irene rolled her eyes at his impatience. "The New York ring is dismantled, the ringleaders dead, it was a pleasure to put a bullet to McCormac's head to tell you the truth. There's enough evidence for the FBI to do the rest."

"You got them involved?" Sherlock panicked slightly.

"God no, but they'll join the dots, I left a paper trail that even the ditziest of agents would be able to comprehend."

Sherlock nodded, secretly impressed. "How many dead?"

"Six." She said simply. "I realised I had a tail after I met with my contact, I decided to bring the dance with the devil forward a few hours but apparently thugs don't like it when you take out the head of their local crime organisation so there were still two on me when I got back to the apartment, they had to die of course."

Irene was direct with her actions and although it wasn't a method that Sherlock would have always chosen, it was of course effective.

Sherlock nodded at her in silent approval.

"What happened to your tail?" Irene asked.

"There were two in Bryant Park, they followed me into a department store. One's dead in the changing room,

The other died trying to chase me across the road, got hit by a taxi, it was fatal." Sherlock adds.

He noticed she had two large suitcases with her and it was evident as she chose to now direct her attention to the baby that she was not going to reveal their next location unless he asked.

"Where are we going?" He sighed, giving in.

"I booked us flights and a hotel for Mexico City. That was where we agreed we were to go to next was it not?" Irene questioned, leaning down to touch their son in his stroller.

Sherlock pressed his lips together and nodded. "Yes, he appears to have a large network and influence in the drugs trade. It will be dangerous." He adds with a smirk.

"Good."

Irene fished in her bag and withdrew three documents, she handed him one of them without checking. He turned the blue passport over in his hands, American of course. It had five stamps in it, from a honeymoon in Italy, business in London, Dublin and Madrid and a vacation to Cuba. Sherlock skimmed the empty pages to find the page with his name (now Edward Lynch) and a picture he hadn't realised Irene had taken on it, it was doctored he thought, although the passports were definitely authentic. He wondered briefly when she'd had the time to get them developed, but he'd barely paid attention to her in the last week and she'd had lots of time to do so. She'd known he'd invite her with him though, although he was still yet to formally do so. Sherlock smirked at her presumptuousness.

The plane ride was bearable, Sherlock usually spent flights mentally deducing things about the other passengers, however that was a feat harder to achieve when there was a baby that constantly needed entertaining and had a tendency to cry. He'd started out in the aisle seat but as Irene needed to get up every so often to change Nero or to get his bottle that he ended up in the middle seat, in between Irene with the baby and an older woman, divorced and apparently did not like having a baby so close to her. He couldn't really see the other passengers from his new seat and so he too became quickly bored. Two hours into their five hour flight, Nero began to settle, to the delight of everybody on the plane and particularly Sherlock who found he could not concentrate with a screaming baby in his left ear. Irene finally sighed in relief as the boy's breathing evened out on her chest. She was just not cut out to be a mother, nothing came easy to her and everything took far longer than it would have done for other mothers.

"Why did you keep the child?" Sherlock asked.

The question took Irene by surprise and she really could have done with out it. She brought her free hand up to rub her temples slightly, she was quiet for such a long time Sherlock was sure she was ignoring his question.

"I wasn't going to at first." Irene sighed again but continued. "I walked to the abortion clinic four times, the fourth I even got prepped for surgery, but I couldn't do it. Sentiment." She spat at him. "It was sentiment. I knew I was never going to see you again, my entire life had been turned upside down. I was a fugitive, for the rest of my life I would have to live in exile, I could never return to my old life and that scared me. But this baby, Nero, he was like a gateway to the past. He was my only connection to my old life and to you." Her voice trailed off, she couldn't believe she had shared so much, but quite frankly she was exhausted and it no longer mattered anymore.

"Sentiment is a chemical defect-" Sherlock began but she interrupted him.

"-seen in the losing side." Irene finished for him with a snarl. "You've already said that and you've already been proved right." She turns away from him and they don't speak for the rest of the flight. The tension surrounding them increases.