In all honesty no one is very surprised when instead of giving an inspirational farewell speech Sherlock announces his pregnancy during his year's graduation ceremony. This lack of amazement is partly due to Sherlock's well known love of dramatics but mostly due to his small yet rather obvious baby bump.
Indeed given the fond looks he and his Alpha had been exchanging all afternoon it was more of a surprise for the parents of other graduates to learn that it was only his first pregnancy.
"I should've known something was up when you refused to have wine at lunch last week." Mycroft admits on Sherlock's return from the stage, suddenly feeling rather awful for having made a joke of Sherlock's recent weight gain a few hours ago (when he had been blissfully ignorant of both his brother's loss of virginity and impending motherhood*).
Feeling rather pleased to have upped Mycroft for once, Sherlock laughs, steals his bowl of strawberries and heads off through the crowd to free John from his horrible Aunt Margaret's clutches.
Her loud irksome voice carries over the dull chat well enough that he manages to hear a great deal of their conversation from afar.
"So irresponsible… the two of you are deluded if you think you can raise a child together, why you're hardly kids yourselves. Sherlock will be bored out of his mind; he won't want to stay home all day. He's not mother material. Probably end up neglecting the poor thing if he doesn't experiment on it first." She snorts dreadfully, amused by her own words.
"I'm sure we'll do just fine." John says shortly, his voice seething with anger.
Far too drunk to care about upsetting the younger Alpha or notice the tenseness of John's jaw and the way his hands curled into neat fists she continues undeterred.
"Well how are you going to afford to raise it? Your parents weren't all that rich, from what I heard, leaving you with a pittance after the car accident. I suppose his parents will provide a generous allowance to live off until Sherlock comes into his grandfather's trust fund."
"You speak as if I'm unable to provide." John growls angrily at the unjust accusation, having spent many sleepless nights staring at budgets with Sherlock until the numbers were at last sensible.
"Aren't you?" She sneers trying to take a sip from her already empty champagne glass. "You might have fooled them but you don't fool me, why else would you bond with that freak but for his money?" She asks squinting at him with bloodshot eyes.
"Because I love him." John snaps, his face red with fury and eyes burning with intense hatred for the Alpha in front of him.
Realising they are probably on the verge of public sparring Sherlock decides to intervene before the party is spoilt beyond repair.
"I think that's enough of an inquisition Aunty today is meant to be a celebration after all." He says stepping out from his hiding place, subtly creating a barrier by placing himself and the baby between the two of them.
Surprised and embarrassed Aunt Margaret's cheeks flush vividly.
"I-I think I'll just get another drink" she stutters, hurriedly excusing herself.
"Well I think that's one name we can remove from the baby shower." Sherlock declares earning himself a smile from John as they watch her disappear into the crowd. John turns to look at him again and the smile disappears from his face.
"God, you must've heard everything she said." He states sounding upset. Sherlock nods and finds himself being embraced in a loving hug.
"She's a bitch, ignore her." John mumbles pressing a kiss against his ear before resting his head on Sherlock's shoulder. "You'll be wonderful. I know you will." He adds, placing a hand on Sherlock's bump.
Relaxing into John's grasp Sherlock finds himself cuddling back, wrapping his long arms around John and holding him close, glad to be able to use his hormones as an excuse for his soppiness.
They stay curled up together in that quiet corner of the gigantic hall until mummy finds them.
"Oh there you are my darlings. I'm so pleased! My first grandchild!" She cries pulling them both into a hug. "A degree and a baby, oh I couldn't be more thrilled!"
"Siger's ecstatic as well- aren't you dear?" She adds casting a glance behind her at her mate, Mr Holmes who nods awkwardly.
"You know I had a suspicion you might be expectant, when your John started looking for a two bedroomed flat so I got you a little something." Mummy announces with a gleeful smile.
"Don't look at me like that Shirley; you'll like this gift I promise." She says pulling a paper shopping bag seemingly from nowhere and handing it to Sherlock who promptly pulls out a little yellow baby grow.
"I know it's a little early, what with you being just over three months pregnant and all but I just saw this in the shop and had to get it. Daddy thought you might prefer a book on baby development but well, Gran said you'd been devouring those at an alarming rate so I thought it best to get you something else in case you had the title already." She explains casually hinting that Granny Watson (who had come down to stay with Sherlock because John could not) had not been quite as tight lipped about the pregnancy as they had hoped.
"Are you sure you like it? Because I can always take it back and exchange it if you don't."
Enthralled by the delicate bee motif on the front of the gown Sherlock doesn't answer, even so his satisfaction is obvious.
"It's wonderful." John assures her smiling widely.
* Note in this universe mother is a perfectly acceptable term for the person who gives birth to a child regardless of them being male or female.
I think I should also mention that I have never been to a graduation and that I have no idea if Sherlock would be showing at around three months but given how thin he normally is I thought even a minor weight gain would be noticeable.