"God, Rosie," my Dad choked, "No. I wanted you. I wanted you before you existed. Your mum and I both did… we were trying to get pregnant even before we were married."

Mum shot an irritated glance at him and came over and took me by the hand.

"Which is something you really should never do. But yes. I was already older, and we didn't know how much time we would have before it would be impossible. We always wanted you."

"Of course then she got pregnant the first try out the gate."

"About which your smugness remains misplaced, John," Mum said, drawing me over to sit between them on their bed.

"No, Rosie. What happened was-"

She exchanged a glance with my father, and sighed.

"You know, already, that there are secrets in my past. You don't know what they are. And at the time your father and I got married he didn't even know that much."

"Then a very bad man found out the truth about me. He was threatening to expose me-"

Dad frowned, and interrupted. "A couple years after you left, Charles Magnussen-" and here he made a rather unpleasant noise at the back of his throat, "Was that you?"

"No, that was Ajay. Giving me a thoughtful and unique gift."

"Ah."

I had clearly missed a bit there. I looked between them, the tears standing in my eyes.

"I didn't want your father to find out about me, so I was trying to stop him, and in the course of that… I shot Mr. Holmes, to keep my secrets safe."

I was horrified, and recoiled from her, and she flinched.

"But he's so nice!"

"He was less nice back then," Dad said mildly.

"John-" Mom stated, "It was wrong. I didn't intend to kill him, just... take him out of the game for a moment. I did it as carefully as I could, and he seems to have recovered well. But it was the worst thing I've ever done, and your father found the truth out about me anyway, so it was pointless. Then..."

Summer 2014, London, Baker Street

There'd always been softness in his eyes when he looked at her. It was gone. He couldn't manage it.

Mary had gone blank. Had the gentleness, the sweetness, that was always in her expression, just been another lie?

The door to the street level slams shut. A moment later the siren switches on, and the ambulance pulled out. The blocked late-night traffic on Baker Street begins to move again.

"You could have killed him. You still might," John drops into the silence, "What the fuck kind of monster are you?"

Blank, blank, blank face, and all of a sudden John feels like he could hit her, so he walks away and doesn't look at her any longer.

"I'm… I'm not a monster," Mary stammers, "I just-"

"Just what?"

"You were cornered, when you did it, and you made what you thought was the best decision available," Dad said with a sad smile, "It was wrong, but in the circumstances you didn't have many better ones. I could have figured that out, if I hadn't been-"

Fucking infuriated.

He could hit her.

Oh, and that's your Dad, popping back up to say "Hello" in your brain like he does in these circumstances, isn't it, John?

John, by sheer force of will, unfists his hands, spinning around to confront her again.

"Was any of it true?"

He speaks into the quiet of the flat.

"Did you love me? Did you want to live with me? Did you like Sherlock or was it all just… a lie?"

Blank. Now with added crocodile tears, oh that's great.

"I lied. Because I wanted you to love me. It was stupid to let myself…"

Mary takes a deep, shuddering breath.

"I love you. I loved you always. That's why I lied, I couldn't bear for you not to love me back."

"Do NOT," he barks, "Put that on me. This is NOT anything to do with me."

John pulls a hand through his hair, tugging hard enough to hurt.

"Jesus Christ, Mary. I wish to God I'd never met you. You're the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

Blank. Stillness.

"And… and the baby?" Mary asks. Quite calmly.

"Is it even mine?"

"I didn't actually think you weren't mine," Dad said, smiling ashamedly at me. "I wanted to hurt your mum's feelings."

"You did. You really did."

"Of-" Mary stammers, "Of course it's yours, John."

"Ah, so attempted murder, lying about your entire life, stealing a dead child's identity, those are all completely fine but fucking somebody else when you're married is just a bridge too bleeding far."

"I didn't attempt-"

She shuts her mouth on whatever she was going to say next, closes her eyes briefly.

"Okay," quietly, "Okay. If you're sure. I'll go."

And she goes.

"So she went," Dad said, "I thought just… home. Away from me. To let me clear my head a bit. But then a few days later this old fellow in a really expensive suit turned up at Baker Street, which is where I was staying at the time."

The solicitor presents a rectangle of heavy cardstock embossed in deep black ink with the name of a very important law firm in which he's a name partner, introduces himself.

"Two days ago, a young woman came to my offices and solicited our assistance in drafting a rather extraordinary document. It was unusual enough that I thought I might deliver it myself."

John receives a thin folder, and opens it to read a lot of legal boilerplate containing phrases such as, "The woman using the aliases Mary Elizabeth Morstan and Mary Elizabeth Watson," and "Having entered into matrimony by means of fraud" and "Does not intend to resume conjugal relations with recipient."

John blinks, and asks, "What's all this for?"

"Her stated intention was to facilitate the process of a divorce without her response, although given the extremely short duration of the relationship we advised her that decree of nullity would probably be more practicable."

The old man looks curiously at John, and says, "There's clearly an interesting story here," with the clear implication that he would like to hear it, but John is already out the door.

The house in Maida Vale is empty and clean. Mary's identification, her passport, checkbook and their two joint-account credit cards sit on the bedside table, along with two rings in a red velvet box. There are two suitcases missing, along with some (but by no means most) of her clothes. He will find, later, that she gave the cat to her friend Cath.

And that's the end. The story is over.

Dad rubbed his hands over his face.

"And at first I thought… good riddance."

He didn't make eye contact with me, as he continued on.

"I didn't… I didn't know you then, Rosie. I guess I still don't. You weren't a person in my mind yet, and so I was just able to... let you go. And I was so angry with your mother. For months."

He glanced over to Mum.

"A bunch of… really difficult stuff happened after that, and I did eventually get over it. But by that point you'd both already been gone for a long time, and, well- I was ashamed. I'd let a pregnant woman in danger of her life go haring off into the unknown with nobody to help her. I wouldn't have thought I'd do that to a stranger, let alone you. But I did."

"I'm unusually well equipped to look after myself, John," my mother quipped dryly, "But I… I could have put some nonzero amount of effort into staying. I could have tried. Given you a chance. But it was always easy for me to run away."

She stroked my hand, "Until you, my darling."

"There were so many times, over the years, I almost went to Sherlock and said, "Find them. Just so I can see them again," Dad said, "But I was ashamed, and I was a bit scared. As to what you might have done in a tight spot, Mary."

Mum arched a brow, and he muttered, "You're pro-choice and everything."

"Doesn't mean I go about aborting wanted pregnancies left-right-willy-nilly. That was never even a consideration, darling. I wanted you too. You're the best thing that could have ever happened to me."

She sighed.

"You and I are going to have to learn how to live with one another as… as adults. You're not there yet," she warned, "So maybe less with the fleeing the country bit. But it's happening sooner rather than later and adjusting to that is on me, Rosie. I just have to get the hell on with it."

Dad reached out and put his hand over where mum's and mine were clasped.

"Maybe we all can get the hell on with it. It's time we figure out how this family works," he said softly.

Notes: Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I have no valid excuses. Only one more to go!