He really should have anticipated it. But somehow Sherlock was still annoyed when he showed up after a case to find a familiar car in front of 221 B.
He gritted his teeth before heading up the stairs, pushing the door open to stare at his brother standing at the window.
"Mycroft," he muttered, moving over to sit on the couch. "Get out."
"Not until you explain to me how the accident happened?" Mycroft said, turning to look at him. "As an intelligent person, you should have been aware to use protection."
"What are you blathering about? Get to the point!" Sherlock snapped.
"I presume you've begun looking into options?" Mycroft said, he moved over to a chair and sat, still giving Sherlock a fierce glare as he did so. "You can't wait too long you know. I'm sure you can persuade Molly. After all, she wouldn't want you to leave her, now would she? So I think she'll put up with putting this little mistake aside. I'll pay for everything of course."
Sherlock thought for a moment, trying to figure out what nonsense Mycroft could possibly be talking about, when it suddenly hit him.
"How the hell do you even know about it?" Sherlock demanded. "We've only told one other person so far."
"Oh don't be stupid, Sherlock," Mycroft said with a wry smile. "I monitor you well enough to know you bought two pregnancy tests. The only reason you'd need two is to make sure there was no mistake. And I am aware Molly has been suffering some nausea and dizziness in the last few weeks. Or am I mistaken?"
"She is pregnant," Sherlock said. There was no denying based on Mycroft's research. "But your delusion about us having a mistake in our hands is quite false. Molly and I are both quite happy about it. Or don't you do your research well enough to know Molly stopped going to pick up her birth control at the pharmacy in the last few months."
Mycroft sat there for a moment. It was the closest to stunned that Sherlock had ever seen him.
"And why did she choose to do this? Were you aware of her decision? I would hope your observation skills haven't shrunk that low," Mycroft sneered.
"Unlike you, some of the rest of us like the premise of having people around us we love," Sherlock said. "And while I have been dubious about domestic life before, I've actually come to find it suits me quite well. And I'd like to continue that with a child of my own."
Mycroft let out a short bark of laughter. "My god, Sherlock, you're serious? You raising a child?"
"You forget I already am, Mycroft," Sherlock muttered. How much more of this would it take to convince Mycroft to leave?
"A boy, not a baby," Mycroft pointed out. "Or don't you remember how John hardly let you near Alexander right after his birth. And if you're being honest, you didn't care much for being around him either. All the screaming and messy diapers…is that really what you want?"
"You don't know a thing about what I want," Sherlock said. "Now leave, before you piss me off even more."
Mycroft sighed and rose from his chair. "And when will we be receiving the happy announcement then?"
Sherlock shot him a glare, effectively silencing him. Mycroft went to the door, Sherlock waiting until he was all the way down the stairs before finally sitting back on the couch.
Mycroft did have a point. He did find infants rather appalling. No capabilities to reason or act independently. They were helpless fragile little things that smelled and cried. What was he getting himself into?
Just as he was beginning to have his doubts, however, Alex appeared in the doorway.
"Sherlock!" he cried, breaking into a bright smile.
Over the past few weeks Sherlock had noticed a gradual improvement of Alex's mood. Therapy did seem to be doing the trick, even if there were still moments Alex had nightmares or seemed to become somewhat clingier than normal.
Alex ran over and launched himself into Sherlock's arms, quickly squeezing the detective in a tight hug. Sherlock was incapable of withholding a smile as he pulled Alex to him, moving one hand up to ruffle through his soft blond hair.
"Good day I take it?" he asked.
"Yeah," Alex said. "Got a really good mark on my test, and the other boys said I should be captain of the football team next term."
"Impressive," Sherlock said, even if those things didn't mean much to him. "And you're ready for your Taekwondo lesson in an hour?"
"Hmm…can we practice?" Alex asked. "I really want to get my purple belt soon."
"Of course," Sherlock said. "Go get changed and we can do a little warming up."
"Sherlock?" Alex said, pausing in the doorway. "Do you think the baby will want to do Taekwondo with me when it's older?"
"I can't speak as to what he or she will be interested in, Alex," Sherlock said with a sigh. "Now go on, go put your uniform on."
Alex shot him a grin before heading up the stairs two at a time from the sound of it. Sherlock sank back into the couch. Well, he'd done better with John's son than he'd ever expected. So it stood to reason that the same would be true with his own. Perhaps he would be a decent parent. If nothing else it would be fun to prove Mycroft wrong. Again.
Sherlock was in a state of dread already, and he still had two hours until it happened. If only he hadn't allowed Mrs. Hudson to goad him into this, everything would have been fine.
He still remembered it. Not too long after Molly had told her, she'd pulled Sherlock into her kitchen and started lecturing him about taking good care of Molly.
"Whatever she wants you give her," Mrs. Hudson had chided him. "You need to be as supportive and caring as you can, Sherlock. Honestly, if you aren't she's going to never want to have sex with you again."
He'd been half tempted to tell her that wasn't that big of an issue for him, but she'd continued on without giving him a chance.
"Molly's such a lovely thing. You need to be so good to her Sherlock. Anything she wants," Mrs. Hudson had insisted. "You don't say no to her, you hear me?"
And he hadn't. Even when Molly had told him instead of a shower she'd rather have all of their friends over for a party to make the announcement about the pregnancy.
"Isn't the whole point of showers to get gifts for the baby?" Sherlock had asked.
"And to spend time with people you love and celebrate the happy occasion, for me I'd love my guy friends to be there too," Molly had added. "Oh please, Sherlock, this is what I want. Before I'm feeling all fat and ready to pop. We can have gifts after the baby's born. It will be better that way anyhow, since we'll have the gender later so we can have people buy gifts for the right one (I don't care all that much if our son has pink things or our daughter blue, but people are silly that way)."
Sherlock had just remembered what Mrs. Hudson had said and reluctantly agreed. He hated the thought of putting on a party of all things, but for Molly he'd put up with it. Even with all the silly pomp and circumstance and traditions with which people liked to surround births.
Hence why at five there there was a knock on the door before it was pushed open and a skinny extremely tan whisp of a woman stalked in, putting her hands on her hips and glaring around the flat.
"Well this is going to take for frickin ever," the woman muttered, sighing as she opened her purse and pulled out her phone. "I told you we should have just done this at my place."
"Pleasure to see you again too, Meena," Sherlock said. "Still sleeping around with that married man I see."
She glanced up and shot him a glare. "If you're listening in on Molly's conversations you need to stop. It's seriously rude."
She pursed her lips, emphasizing the dark red shade she'd chosen to paint them.
"No, you just might want to discourage him from grabbing your arm so hard during sex. I can see the imprint of his hand when your sleeve rides up, and I can make out the ring too," Sherlock said.
Meene glared at him as she reached to tug a sleeve down one of her far too skinny arms.
"Charming," she sighed. "I have and always will tell Molly she's an idiot for settling with you. After all the other men who are interested in her, she picks some loser."
Sherlock cleared his throat. "I believe the point of this is about Molly, not our feud. Now, perhaps we should focus on readying ourselves for the party rather than arguing about ourselves."
He'd initially thought Molly and he would be running the party together. But unfortunately once Molly had told Meena (apparently best friends were under some sort of obligation to tell each other things first), she'd demanded Molly let her run things, especially if she wasn't going to have a shower. Which had left Molly scooting to the side and telling Sherlock he could help out. All in all it was a terrible idea really. But the more he could make Molly happy, the better things would go in the future—or so Mrs. Hudson had made it sound.
Meena pursed her lips and glanced around the flat. "Well, at least it looks like you cleaned recently. Though the floor could do with one last sweeping."
"I'll get that done while you fix the place up how you think it should go. Mrs. Hudson should have most of the food up right before the party starts."
"And invitations? You invited everyone?" Meena asked, narrowing her eyes.
"I invited Lestrade, Alex's aunt and her wife who Molly has become closer to in the last few years…mmm…a few other people I think…oh my parents of course."
"Good, and I invited all of our close friends," Meena said. "I tried contacting her brother and sister, but they both live too far away. But it should be a good sized group."
Sherlock nodded, trying his best to not give way to the panic he was feeling. Why did people insist on doing these ridiculous things? Why couldn't Molly have simply settled for having some gifts and calling it good?
"I'm so angry Molly isn't doing a shower. I had great plans for the gender reveal. Now what are we going to do?" Meena demanded as she started furiously pushing the chairs into the corner, showing surprising strength considering her tiny size.
"Not make a big deal out of pathetical things," Sherlock suggested.
"Oh sod off," Meena growled. "You're telling me you don't care whether it's a girl or a boy?"
"No," Sherlock said. "It doesn't make any difference."
Meena let out a harsh laugh. "Are you joking? Sports and toy cars and scraped knees vs. hair bows and dolls and princesses? They're completely different worlds."
Sherlock's jaw clenched. "Those are stereotypes and social constructions. Molly and I have both agreed the child can do whatever it wishes."
"Weirdoes," she muttered. "If I was going to have a kid I'd want a girl. Much easier. But you've already got some bratty boy from what I hear."
He whirled around suddenly, facing her and trying his best to consider his actions even as he wanted to do something very rash.
"Don't you ever say anything bad about Alex again," Sherlock snapped. "I'm sure if Molly heard you say that she'd be equally angry."
Meena just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. He's her stepson. Once she has her own baby it's all going to change."
Whatever Meena thought of her best friend, Sherlock was confident she was wrong. All the evidence pointed to the contrary. Molly spent so much time with Alex, loving on him, cuddling him, telling him how much she cared about him. She went to all of his football games. She helped him with studying. Sherlock wasn't even sure if it was humanly possible to love someone any more than Molly did Alex. And he certainly didn't think her having a baby would change that.
He went back to work sweeping up the floor before proceeding to help her move the furniture around a bit. She had started working on blowing up some balloons and hanging some streamers. It didn't take long to transform the small flat into a festive celebration area.
"Do you have a good cover story for the decorations?" Sherlock asked. "Because otherwise Molly will have to announce from the first minute people walk in the door. And I believe she wants to build anticipation a bit."
Meena sighed. "Er...it's your son's birthday?"
"We had that last month," Sherlock said. "And most of them will know that."
"Fine, what about your birthday."
"Nope," he said popping the p noisily.
"Well the best thing to do is stick close to the truth when telling a lie," Meena said.
Sherlock cocked his head a bit, studying her closer. Maybe there was something nice about this obnoxious woman. "Excellent point."
"So Molly can say she's found a new job. Not entirely untrue."
"She'll go back to working after maternity leave," Sherlock said. "I guarantee it. She enjoys the work too much."
"Being a mother is a job whether she has a paying one or not," Meena snapped. "So regardless she's just earned a new job. As have you."
"We already have one child," Sherlock reminded her again.
"Yeah a kid is child's play compared to a baby—" She frowned on realizing that had sounded odd. "Never mind, the point is you'll find out what true parenting is in the next few years. Guarantee it. Now, if you're quite done bothering me with stupid little details go make sure the food is ready and bring it up if it is. We have fifteen minutes until guests start showing up and Molly should be here with your brat—I mean kid any minute."
Sherlock's hand twitched, and he debated if he'd have enough time to murder her and hide the body before anyone turned up. It was certainly tempting. For Meena he felt like strangulation might just be the best method—
His thoughts were interrupted by Molly appearing in the doorway.
"Oh it looks lovely!" she exclaimed.
But while Molly seemed captivated by the room, Sherlock couldn't deny himself a lingering glance at Molly herself.
Pregnancy glow. He knew of course that it was merely the hormonal changes producing a bit more oil on the skin. Thus far she hadn't suffered too many problems with blemishes, but Sherlock was expecting them to come. Regardless, the scientific explanation didn't do justice to the extra beauty it gave Molly. Though most of that was probably due to the obvious joy in her face, the way her eyes had lit up, smile brightening into the most brilliant he'd seen on her.
She was wearing a dress that he knew had to be new—in fact based on the price tag she'd forgotten to snip off, that really was the only good explanation. Dark green, nicely suited to her slim frame and small curves. Her makeup was light and her hair was down. He felt a bit stunned looking at her.
"It looks lovely," she said with a smile his direction.
"Yes, er…I need to go fetch the food, I'll be back in a moment."
He pushed past her towards the kitchen, especially glad of the task when Meena ran over cooing at Molly and pulling her into a tight hug. How Molly could stand the other woman he wasn't sure. But the sooner this whole thing was over the better, in his mind.
Alex was already helping Mrs. Hudson finish up the last touches on the different dishes she'd prepared. He offered a warm smile as he saw Sherlock in the doorway.
"You ready?" he asked.
Sherlock shrugged. "Possibly."
"I can't wait to see everybody's faces when Molly tells them! It's going to be so funny!" Alex said. "Is Mycroft coming?"
"No," Sherlock said. "Or I would assume not. I could call him, but I imagine he'll simply tell me that this isn't his thing. He hates any occasion that might give people the slightest hint of joy."
Alex giggled. "Does not! He can be nice sometimes."
"Hmm…" Sherlock said with a frown. He had to disagree.
"He's your brother, dear," Mrs. Hudson said. "He might rub you the wrong way, but you can't try to pretend you don't like him."
Sherlock's brow furrowed even more.
"It's okay, we'll have a great party without him," Alex said as he took one of the trays. "Come on, Sherlock. Let's go get the food setup before people get here."
"He's right, you go on up, Sherlock. I'll be up with the punch in another few moments."
Sherlock scooped up a platter of biscuits and another one with vegetables and headed to the stairs.
Meena had already started some music up and he walked into the still very empty rooms to find Molly helping her pick out some choices for further music selection.
He set the dishes on one of the tables and went over to her.
"Are you ready for this? Anything else you'd like me to do?" he asked her.
"No, it's so wonderful! Oh, Sherlock!" She pulled him into a tight hug. He stood there stiffly for a moment before giving in and wrapping his arms around her.
"Anything for you," he said, remembering Mrs. Hudson's advice again.
Molly pulled back and pecked him on the lips, before giving him the most adoring smile.
"Ew," Alex said to the side, sticking out his tongue. He hadn't been given much of a chance to adjust to the idea of them using physical affection with one another.
"Oh you be quiet," Mrs. Hudson said, having come up with the bowl of punch. "I think it's darling when they kiss each other. Now, is everything in order, Sherlock? Anything else you'll be needing?"
Sherlock shook his head. "No, I think that's about everything."
"Well, I'll go wait at the door and let people up. You let me know if there's anything else you need. Do you think there's enough to eat?" Mrs. Hudson said, glancing fretfully over the table laden with various types of food.
"I think it will be splendid, Mrs. Hudson," Molly said. "Don't you worry about a thing."
"Oh, all right. I'll be downstairs. Call me if you need something!"
She headed back towards the stairs. Sherlock continued staring in her direction.
"I think we broke her," Molly whispered.
"Indeed," Sherlock agreed. "Are you ready for your big announcement?"
Molly laughed. "Our big announcement," she corrected. She pulled his hand down to put it on her still relatively flat stomach. "It's ours Sherlock."
"Yes. Do you want me to say something?" he asked. He did his best to keep his expression neutral, even as his brain began to work frantically to construct something to say if he should have to.
"No, I'll manage," Molly said. "But thank you. I appreciate the offer."
There was a noise from the doorway and they spun to look. Molly's brow furrowed slightly as she found the source of the noise.
"Er…did you invite him?" she asked.
Sherlock glanced at Bill Wiggins who was standing a bit awkwardly near the door.
"You said to invite people I generally tolerated."
Molly rolled her eyes but nonetheless strolled over towards him.
"Billy, it's good to see you again!" she said.
"It's good to see you too," Billy said, glancing around. "Not much of a party yet now is it? You still waitin' on some people?"
"Oh we've only just started. Go ahead and grab some food," Molly offered, never losing her smile. "How are you, you have to tell me what you've been doing lately! It's been a while since we last saw each other."
"Yeah. You done a nice job a cleanin' up in 'ere. Looks good."
"Yes, thank you," Molly said.
She headed off to the food table, still chatting with him, asking him something about chemistry and if he'd done anything interesting. Sherlock's attention had refixated on the door where his parents were coming through.
"God help us all," he muttered as he headed over in their direction.
"Oh Sherlock! My boy!" his mother said, coming over to put both hands on his face and smiling up at him. "What's the special occasion? Are you finally going to set a date?"
She winked at him and Sherlock shifted uncomfortably.
"Hmm? Oh Molly's got herself a new job. She'll explain all of that I'm sure, lots to talk about and all that. But for the moment I'm sure she'll just be glad you're here. Why don't you and father go find something to eat and drink."
"Oh but I'm sure you have so much to tell us. It's been a while since we last saw you what with you opting to not come to Christmas this year."
"On second thought, why don't you go say hello to Alex. I'm sure he'll be delighted since it has been so long," Sherlock said quickly. "Best idea actually."
His mother seemed to catch onto that idea rather quickly and was soon going towards Alex instead. Sherlock was relieved that Alex at least was being quite receptive and friendly as he normally was.
"Sherlock."
He spun around to see Lestrade in the doorway.
"So, what's this all about?" he asked, surveying the room that was slowly filling up with people. A few more of Molly's friends had appeared, all of whom had started congregating around her.
"Oh, it's just Molly wanting to celebrate getting a new job," Sherlock said, wondering how long they could really keep the ruse up.
"She's leaving Barts? Cor, that's going to be strange. I'll miss seeing her!" Lestrade said.
"Indeed. Would you like something to drink?"
"Yeah, sure. Blimey, Molly taking another job. What's it in? Where's she going?"
Sherlock sighed. "I'm sure she'll say. She wants to make a little announcement about it at some point."
"Oh yeah, makes sense. Say, who's that bird Molly's talking with. The skinny one?
Sherlock looked over and frowned. "Meena?"
"Yeah. You gonna introduce me? I wouldn't mind chatting her up."
"She's appalling," Sherlock muttered. "And sleeping with a married man."
Lestrade sighed. "Yeah, guess you're right. She's pretty tidy though. It's been too long."
"It was a week at most since you picked up some girl at a bar, really, Lestrade, stop thinking with your d—"
"Sherlock, can I go help Mrs. Hudson!" Alex chirped to his side.
Sherlock groaned. "Yes, go help her. Did you get tired of my mother bothering you?"
Alex frowned. "Yeah, sort of. Sorry."
"No, I understand. Go on. Go help Mrs. Hudson for a bit and I'll deal with her."
He apologized to Lestrade and headed back over to his mother, though she had apparently started talking to Bill in his absence.
How long did these things last? Sherlock glanced at his phone for the time, trying not to let out a noise of disgust upon seeing barely a quarter of an hour had passed.
A few more guests had turned up. Most of them Sherlock didn't know. The one exception was Anna who came by with baby Ella for a bit. She told him Harry had opted to stay home since she didn't really care for parties. Sherlock of course, realized that this was to avoid drinking since she'd apparently been struggling more recently, but he let Anna get away with the lie.
He was relieved, of course, when Molly finally called the guests into a circle around her and began her big announcement.
"So, I've called you here to celebrate something very exciting with me," Molly said, raising her glass with a smile. He wondered if she was intentionally trying to show she'd chosen the virgin punch rather than any of the alcoholic options.
"So most of you have probably been told by now, since most of you asked, that I am getting a new job. And that is very true." She smiled at them all. "Now, this job probably sounds terrible from the description. It's ridiculously long hours. Night shifts especially for the first year or so. I basically will be in charge of the whole operation myself, though I will have one solitary coworker to help out a bit. Possibly an assistant too." She looked towards Alex at that, though no one seemed to realize she was intentionally pointing him out. "And to be honest, no one is going to pay me a pound. In fact, I'll be spending money on supplies and other expenses and I won't make it back."
Everyone was staring at her, a few people attempting to whisper and failing to do so quietly.
Molly took a deep breath. "Now, what is this job you might ask? Well, I think there's only one word that describes it the best, though you could include quite a few others. In the next few years I'm going to be a nurse, a chauffeur, a maid, a caretaker, a mentor, and a supervisor…all while maintaining my position at St. Bart's. To put it as simply as possible—in about six months I'm going to be a mother."
There was an uproar at the announcement. His mother practically began sobbing at the news, saying it was too good to be true and she was finally going to be a real grandmother. Mrs. Hudson had let out a little squeal of delight, clapping her hands at the news. Lestrade looked like he might pass out at any moment, and the rest of Molly's friends seemed equally startled. Only Bill Wiggins looked bored. Standing there seeming a bit lost with all of the other people he didn't really know.
Alex had thankfully managed to snag Sherlock's parents, probably just looking for someone to share his own excitement with, bouncing up and down like an overexcited puppy.
Which left Lestrade to make a beeline for him.
"You're bloody joking. You two are having kids? I mean seriously?" He stared at Sherlock searching his face for signs it was a trick.
"Yes, we're having a baby," Sherlock said.
"God. That's going to be interesting," Lestrade muttered. "At least you've got Molly as the mum. She'll do great I'm sure."
"If you're implying I'll be a bad parent, you should remember I've already done quite well with Alex," Sherlock muttered.
Why was everyone treating this as though something was new? There was no difference in raising his own child and raising Alex. He would do just fine either way.
"Oh, yeah, well…still," Lestrade muttered. "Anyhow, congrats and all that."
Sherlock handled Mrs. Hudson next. The woman seemed to have gone half hysterical, laughing and crying and wanting to hug Sherlock in her joy. Even though they'd already told her, apparently all of the revelry had made her overly excited and a bit emotional. Sherlock did his best to try to calm her down, wondering if there was an easy escape.
But she was soon pushed to the side by Mrs. Holmes.
"I am so glad I got one of you to listen to me," she said. "If Mycroft won't have children at least you will. I'd honestly started to lose hope. Thank heavens for that wonderful woman you ended up with. She is just lovely, Sherlock. You've done so well."
The praise felt unnatural to him, so he did his best to wave her off, asking to be allowed to go see Molly instead.
She beamed at him from the circle of her friends as he approached. He moved so that he could stand beside her, taking her hand so as to give himself an excuse to not be torn away from her.
Molly pulled him in for a quick kiss, causing several of the guests to wolf whistle in response. Sherlock's cheeks felt a bit hot when he pulled away.
"Well, what are we all standing around for?" Molly asked suddenly. "We have a party to celebrate? So grab some food and drinks, and then let's start dancing!"
Sherlock's head jerked up. He hadn't even considered that, but it made sense. They did have music, and the furniture had been cleared out of the way.
There was a resounding cry of approval, and then someone cranked the music up. Molly took Sherlock's arm and led him away from a few people.
"I know you like to dance," Molly whispered. "I remember you telling me. Plus this discourages people from bothering you. And your parents might leave."
"I thought you liked my parents," he said.
"Oh," she paused and looked thoughtfully over at them. "They're lovely people. But I know they bother you. It's better if they leave early in that case."
He smiled. "More reasons I like you rather well, Molly Hooper."
"I'm aware of that fact, Sherlock Holmes," she said with a smile. "Now, dance with me!"
Sherlock gave in easily, moving in rhythm with the music around them, finding himself back in the relaxing state of concentrating only on movement and beat. A state of euphoria washed over him, even more so somehow when he looked at Molly. She appeared to be so happy in the moment. He recalled the last time he'd seen her dancing, at John's wedding all those years ago. When he'd wanted to go dance with her, but couldn't because she'd been with Tom at the time. But now it was just her and him. The two of them readying themselves to face the world together as parents.
"That was such a lovely party," Mrs. Hudson commented the next morning as she helped Sherlock and Molly rearrange their sitting room back to how it had been before.
"Indeed," Sherlock agreed, thinking of the time he'd spent dancing with Molly, forgetting for a bit that there was a troubled world outside of 221 B. It had been the most pleasant night he'd had in a long while. Probably his favorite part of the night was Meena coming up to him and admitting she'd been wrong to him, saying she was glad Molly was happy and all she wanted was to make sure Molly had a good life. That had been a nice triumphant little moment, almost comparable to the euphoria of being able to dance for a bit.
"So, what's its name going to be?" Mrs. Hudson asked.
Molly turned a quizzical stare her way. "What's name?"
"Oh the baby, dear? What are you going to name it if it's a boy or if it's a girl?"
Sherlock frowned at that, but let Molly handle things.
"It's a bit of a ways off," she said. "We haven't really started talking about it."
"Oh you can never start too early," Mrs. Hudson said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "You can think you really know and love someone until you start talking baby names and realize you have none in common that you like."
Molly glanced at Sherlock with wide eyes.
"We'll manage, Mrs. Hudson," the detective snapped, eager to be rid of her lest she worry Molly even more. "Now, don't you have some other menial tasks to be doing?
She frowned at him. "Mark my word, Sherlock. You two could debate the issue for a year. And you only have half of that. I'd get going as soon as you can."
With that she left at a brisk pace, leaving Sherlock to shake his head.
"Maybe she's right," Molly said, sinking onto the sofa. "Maybe we should start discussing."
"Discussing baby names? We don't even know the gender. It's the size of a chicken's egg right now. We don't have anything to worry about."
Molly's teeth worried her lip. "And if you had to name it right this instant, what name would you choose?"
Sherlock thought for a moment. "Well, I do rather fancy the idea of giving the child a unique name."
"Such as?"
Sherlock thought for a moment. "I suppose a namesake couldn't hurt either. What about Aristotle?"
Molly blinked a few times. "For a boy?"
"For either. We could call a girl Ari if you it needed to be more feminine."
"God she was right," Molly muttered, moving to lie down. "That's a horrid name, Sherlock. I don't care if he started the idea of deductive reasoning, we're not naming our baby after some ancient philosopher."
"Really? Oh well I was also thinking Archimedes or Galen."
Molly shook her head, making a face.
"Fine, a more modern scientist then perhaps. Albert…or Dmitri…."
"And if it's a girl?"
He pursed his lips. "Well there's Marie obviously, though I dislike that as a name itself. Hmm…Lise Meitner, I don't mind that as a first name. Different. Irene." He blanched as he realized the name he'd just said. "No, forget that one, awful. Can't stand it. Hmm…Dorothy Hodgkin—"
"All I can think of is The Wizard of Oz when you say Dorothy," Molly said with a frown.
"Rosalind Franklin," Sherlock said. "The name Rosalind is a bit…flowery…but it has a nice sound to it."
"Best of the bunch, I agree," Molly said. "Still not probably my top pick."
"And if you had your top pick, what would it be?" Sherlock asked.
She sighed. "Well, I'd love to name a child after one of my parents. My mother was Audrey, and my father was Richard."
Sherlock sighed. "Well, it appears we do have some differing opinions. What about…Hamish for a boy?"
Molly made a face, though after a moment it softened as she remembered. "Hold on, that's John's middle name isn't it?"
Sherlock nodded.
"It truly is an awful name," Molly said. "What about John if it's a boy?"
Sherlock hesitated, but did finally answer. "It would be…too strange for me. Calling a son by his name."
"Middle name then perhaps," Molly suggested. "I'm happy to stick it as a middle name since he did name Alex after you. Even if it's a girl we could make it Jeanne or something. I'm sure we can figure something out. So Rosalind Jeanne if it's a girl then?"
"Perhaps," Sherlock said. "Audrey Jeanne Holmes—or are we going to use Hooper…or hyphenate?"
"Holmes," Molly agreed. "So your family doesn't die out. Mine can go through my brother."
"I don't know that those old traditions are that important," Sherlock said. "But still, Holmes has a nice sound to it. Audrey Jeanne Hooper. But we're still at a standstill on a boy. I really prefer not to use the name Richard for a first. Maybe a second would be acceptable."
"But then you can't use John as a second name," she pointed out. "I won't have a baby named Hamish. I'm sorry Sherlock. It's just too nasty. John would agree you know."
Sherlock offered a half smile. "No, it's true. He hated it."
Molly thought a moment and then laughed. "Oh my god, I have a good thought though. Tell me what you think."
She leaned in and whispered into his ear and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Hmm…that just might work. Maybe." Sherlock looked at her and was unable to keep from smiling. "We'll make this work. No matter what name our little Holmes gets stuck with. He or she is simply going to know that you are a wonderful and thoughtful mother. And in the end that's what matters most."
A/N: Now would be a great time to toss any of your own baby name suggestions/ guesses into the ring. Not quite sure how quickly the next few parts will go.
Thanks to Anasthesia93 for reviewing!
My other WIP just overtook this one in terms of followers and had 10 reviews last chapter alone. I hate playing the favorites game, but I might have to devote a little more time to that one for a bit just to be fair to followers. But I want to keep going on this too! I promise I will do my best to keep doing regular updates. And hey- Reviews inspire my muse.
Anyhow, thanks guys! Hope to hear some great baby name thoughts from you!