Though he'd desired to spend the afternoon with his family Mycroft was unfortunately called away by yet another phone call of woe, and, knowing he'd likely be gone a while, he'd wondered what Artemis and the kids would do while he was gone.

"I'll find something." She answered as she adjusted the eighteen-month-old in her arms.

He smiled to himself. "More lockpicking?"

"During my Hebe training we were given locks until our fingers bled and refused water-"

"Maybe something else then." He interrupted and slipped his cell phone back into his inner pocket.

"I'd assume so, yes." She paused a moment and glanced around at her surroundings. "Concealment training would keep them outside."

The suit-clad man breathed out a laugh; unusual for him. "Yes, when children are involved we call it 'hide-and-seek', it sounds less violent."

Green orbs peered up at him then, by God he adored those eyes, had done from the very second he'd met her. Had those eyes been even just a slightly different shade of green their first meeting could have gone very, very differently.

"What are the rules?" Inquired Artemis.

"Simple. The children hide in a given are, you close your eyes and count to a number – say twenty – then you go find them."

"So not dropped into a wilderness that is unfamiliar to them with no supplies and tell them to blend in lest they be shot by enemy combatants."

"No." Mycroft stressed.

"Understood, we shall play via your rules."

Pleased he'd not just accidentally turned his gardens into a makeshift boot camp Mycroft breathed out a sigh of relief and leant in to kiss his future wife.

"You need anything just let me know. I will deal with this little problem as quickly as I am able."

With that he turned and headed off back to his home office again. Artemis watched him go for a few seconds until he reached the steps to the house before turning those dazzling green eyes down to the young boy at her side.

"You're father suggests hide-and-seek, shall we play this game?"

Took him a few seconds to get over the suspicion of what this really was because Hades didn't play games, they did violent training designed to kill off the weakest. Also, Artemis had been with Hades longer than she had Mycroft, but eventually he nodded. The game seemed to have some kind of familiarity to him but Artemis didn't question it.

Artemis backed away from the five-year-old, just a few steps to give him space, then closed her eyes.

"Go hide." She instructed. "I'll count to twenty then track you."

The boy didn't waste a moment, she heard him flee off north-east. Artemis slowly counted to twenty while the younger child rested against her shoulder as if intending to doze; something which would make tracking easier for her.

When she reached twenty she didn't open her eyes right away, instead Artemis listened to her surroundings for any tell-tale signs of her new son. Birds chirped somewhere behind her, probably on the other side of the house, and there was a rustling of leaves as the wind danced through trees but nothing of the boy. Her eyes finally slipped open and the boy wasn't anywhere to be seen, but of course that was the idea. Artemis knew he'd not take long to track down, he was small and couldn't have been very far through training when it came to terrain. Regardless, Mycroft had said that his was a children's game so she supposed that it was meant to drag on a little. Intent on doing things the way Mycroft had suggested she casually walked to the three most likely of hiding places he could have hidden in but the dark-haired kid wasn't in any of them; perhaps he'd be better at this game than the former Reaper had first anticipated. Clever boy.

Knowing that this wouldn't be quite so simple Artemis started to track him properly and sure enough his tracks showed him heading off back into the forest in a north-easterly direction. Come to think of it Myc probably would have preferred it if she'd narrowed the containment area to avoid miles of woodland. Still, it wasn't like she'd lost him so the dark-haired woman just continued to silently follow. While to Artemis his trail was fairly easy to spot and pursue she could see his attempts to remain concealed, probably would have fooled most people who hadn't known any better so clearly he'd taken some of his training on board.

About ten minutes into her walk through the woods the child in her arms finally fell asleep but that didn't stop Artemis completing her task, she followed deeper into the woods until the trail suddenly stopped dead. That had her raise an eyebrow as she glanced left and right for a broken twig or something to indicate her new son's location. Well, if he didn't go left and he didn't go right he had to have gone up. Long raven hair poured over her shoulder and down her back as she tipped her head upwards to gaze at the tree and its thick leaves. He'd covered over his tracks as best he could a few meters back but Artemis had kept coming, she'd not even noticed the attempt to hide them until they'd stopped all together.

Listening a moment she heard nothing until finally there was a rustling overhead and a pigeon fluttered quickly out of the next tree over as though it had been startled by something; something that wasn't meant to be up a tree. Just as silent as she'd been for the last few minutes Artemis bent down carefully, picked up an acorn, which had clearly been there some time, and threw it semi-forcefully into the tree where she heard a sudden scuffle as the boy clung tighter to the branch he'd wedged himself onto.

"I believe I with this game." She announced to the large tree. "Come down."

The five-year-old didn't grumble or complain in any way, just slowly – expertly really – climbed down the tree's thick trunk and returned to the side of the woman who was now his mother.

Artemis crouched down then and looked him firmly in the eye as she'd seen Mycroft do when he wanted the child's full attention.

"Never stop if you have the option not to." She told him in what was probably the firmest tone of voice she could muster. "People always reach a point where they think they're safe and stop to hide, that is when they're most vulnerable. Don't ever stop if you don't have to." Artemis rose back to her feet. She didn't know how to be a mother but she thought that the most important lesson she could teach a child, her child. Maybe it wouldn't be for her son but in Artemis' experience stopping meant a death sentence. "I think your father intended for us to play multiple rounds of thing. Should you ever need to conceal, would you like to try again?" The boy nodded, seemingly more at ease than he had been originally. "All right, go hide. Some advice though, watch what you're walking over, your prints were easy to spot."

She watched as the dark-haired boy charged off again and, just as before, Artemis let her eyes slip shut. That was how it went for almost two hours and, of course, Artemis found him every single time but she had to admit that he'd improved immensely.

~X~

Over the next month the newly formed family gradually got used to being together and Mycroft felt a part of him which had been empty for so very long finally start to fill while the decades of longing subsided. 'I'm not lonely', how long had he professed those words to others, to Sherlock, Gregory and even Anthea on occasion. Of course he was lonely, he'd hit middle age with a brother who did all in his power to hate him, a deranged sister he couldn't tell anybody about and parents who he'd rather avoid. Every relationship he'd ever been in had either ended in disaster or quiet disdain of one another because of his complete inability to stop working. Now though, now the storm had cleared and Artemis was in his life, fatherhood was in his life, so loneliness would be evicted.

One thing, however, continued to weight heavily on him … the boys still lacked names of their own. Needless to say he hadn't expected Artemis to just spit out a set of names the morning after he'd left the task of thinking them up at her feet, but he still desperately wanted names for them. Wanted to be able to take a photograph of the four of them and be able to name everyone there.

When he'd returned from the office Myc had spotted Artemis out in the garden with the boys sat rolling a bright yellow, foam ball from the ball pit back and forth to one another while Artemis set the pit itself up for them. He couldn't help it, Mycroft just stood and watched them with a soft smile from the kitchen window for what felt like hours; this was his family. Like Artemis it may have been marred by scares of all shapes and sizes but it was his and he'd not trade it for the world.

Clouds had started to roll in as his car had approached the house but now they were firmly settled overhead turning it a dull grey. Rain drops had started to tumble from the heavens as well but Holmes the elder was fairly certain none of them had actually noticed; seemed Hades trained out the ability to register rainfall as well. Something told Mycroft that though they may not have taken notice of the rain all three were aware of him watching them from the kitchen, especially Artemis, she knew if a shadow lingered too long.

Half way through her task Artemis halted and turned to face him; small raindrops spattered her white t-shirt sending sections a faint shade of grey. The auburn-haired man suspected that if she'd turned to anybody else they'd have been deeply unnerved but not Mycroft, he knew her too well for that. He smiled at her, a soft expression only she every got, and crooked a finger to gesture for her and the children to come inside; darkness would fall soon anyway.

It didn't take Artemis very long to haul the half built ball pit back to the house while the five-year-old carefully carried his brother along behind her. In the kitchen Artemis found her fiancé sans suit jacket and tie loosened with a large take-out bag sat dead centre of the kitchen table. As he unloaded it's hulking contents of Chinese food Artemis quickly took their youngest back from his brother and settled him in his high-chair. Rice of every kind, beef dishes, chicken dishes and everything else one would imagine from a Chinese restaurant as well as most of the 'English selection', that Chinese places in England seemed obligated to have for some reason, just in case the boys didn't like what the adults were having. Artemis looked at the slowly filling table clearly with questions and Myc was quick to notice.

"All right, I admit it, I may have over ordered." He sighed.

"You think." That was about as close to sarcasm as Artemis was likely to ever get; Mycroft just continued.

"Was being stared at the entire time I was there as well."

"You're wearing a four thousand pound suit in at a Chinese take out place." She said simply.

Mycroft unconsciously straightened his waistcoat. "It's five thousand, and I take your point but Grieves and Hawkes are very talented, they tailored for Ian Fleming I'll have you know."

Neither the children nor Artemis looked all that impressed or interested in Mycroft's attempt to defend his Savile Row suits so he cleared his throat and moved the subject along.

"Shall we sit." It wasn't really a question but they all took their seats anyway; Artemis and Myc sat across from one another and so did the brothers.

While yes, Mycroft had gotten a lot of food, far more than his ever present diet wanted to allow, he had wanted the boys to feast. They were still so thin and then there was Artemis of course, the girl who'd grown used to eating once every three to four days. How someone had actually managed to survive living like that he wasn't entirely sure.

The elder child still hadn't spoken a word – not that they expected him to any time soon – but Mycroft was grateful for the head nods and shakes when asked questions; at least it was some form of communication. Clearly he understood English but Mycroft was certain it wouldn't be his first language; German was most likely followed by French or possibly even Romansh. The auburn-haired man pondered those thoughts for a brief time while looking at his eldest. The boy hadn't responded when Artemis had essentially gone through Europe asking what languages he understood but that didn't mean he hadn't understood.

"Gefällt es dir hier?" (Do you like it here?) Mycroft asked off-handed and conversationally, a question which got a quick nod from the blue-eyed boy as though he hadn't noticed the sudden language chance.

Well, that answers that question, muttered the British Government's mind. The boys had originated from Austria, Switzerland or Germany itself and considered where the Hades bunker had been located the latter two countries were most likely. Mycroft sighed internally as he took up his chopsticks, he supposed it really didn't matter where they'd come from any longer.

For a time everybody ate in silence, not an uncomfortable one just a group of people who weren't good at small-talk. Sure the eighteen-month-old needed help eating but that was no hardship for Mycroft; that boy really liked rice.

It wasn't until Mycroft felt his shoulders drop and his spine give up it's rigid posture that he realized he was actually relaxed. Oh the tall man could get used to this. He'd spent a lot of late nights at MI6 during the last few weeks so family dinners were still unusual to him; normally he wanted to escape them since they mostly involved his parents. That loneliness really had nowhere to call home any longer.

"Lysander, you have satay sauce on your cheek."

Quickly Mycroft proffered a napkin to the mute child but as it was taken from him he stopped dead and his brain took a second to reboot. That was a name. That was a name!

"Lysander?" He questioned quickly, eyes wide as a fluttering of excitement burst to life within him.

Artemis nodded, chewed and swallowed a bite of squid. "You told me to name them, so I did. Lysander Gregory Holmes, unless you disagree."

"No! No, not at all." He was a little too quick to say eyes still on their oldest.

Mycroft wasn't looking at 'the elder boy' or 'the five-year-old' anymore but Lysander, a name which gave him pause for thought. The tall man's mother and father had always favored unusual names and he had apparently done a similar thing with Artemis but Lysander? Not a bad name but definitely different.

"Why Lysander?"

The child just carried on eating, understanding that the adults spoke about him rather than to him in that moment.

"You let me read the books in your library." Started Artemis easily. "There is a Shakespeare play that has a Lysander."

"A Midsummer Night's Dream, yes." He supplied.

"He is a loving and noble man, as well as brave and clever. I thought you'd appreciate the sentiment."

Oh had Mycroft not been so used to playing his role, wearing his mask, he could have cried. She really had put so much thought into this; more than he'd imagined.

"And the baby?" He asked curiously, he'd gotten one name and craved the other.

Artemis regarded the youngest child while he chewed on his rice then back at Mycroft. "Galahad."

Myc lifted an eyebrow. "Like the knight?" Artemis nodded. "A man pure of heart and yet still a warrior, still courageous. The perfect knight.

"Exactly." She confirmed. "Are these acceptable names?"

Well, the Holmes' hadn't ever done normal names so Artemis' choices seemed fitting in a way.

"Let us find out, shall we?" With that he turned fully to face his son and tapped him on the shoulder to gain his full attention. "Would you be all right if we called you Lysander and your brother Galahad? You'll be our sons, we'll be a real family once you have names."

The dark-haired boy paused as if attempting to decipher if this was some kind of test but he and his brother had been in the Holmes house now for a little over a month and not been harmed, threatened or suffered anything else while there. Mycroft hated, truly hated, that a kid so young had to make these choices and consider such things. Eventually though, after several moments of hush the child nodded and Myc released a breath he'd not known he'd been holding as gratitude flooded through him like a tidal wave.

He lifted an eyebrow then as a small thought crossed his mind and his blue-grey eyes turned back to Artemis.

"What about Galahad's middle name?"

Artemis shrugged as she continued to eat, not because she didn't care but because it was the easiest way for her to get her thoughts across.

"You pick."

Mycroft didn't even need a second to think about it. "Rudolph, after my Uncle Rudy."

His children had names! They could be real people again rather than the damaged placeholders they'd become. Now they had names he could make the paperwork truly official, and that was exactly what he did. The very next morning he had Anthea push all his meetings so he could make sure everything had been finalized and made watertight. His sons were more important than the Spanish Ambassador anyway. Mycroft wouldn't be satisfied until he saw their new names printed on the documents and sighed by his and Artemis' hands.

Lysander Gregory Holmes and Galahad Rudolph Holmes. His sons.