From V Tsuion: Genderbend (anyone or everyone)

It was shortly after the case involving unfortunate Ms. Melas that I received a private telegram from none other than Mycroft Holmes, inviting me to dinner that evening.

"Mycroft?" Holmes turned the letter over, inspecting it closely. "Whatever would Mycroft want with you?"

I shrugged uneasily for I had been thinking much the same. Truth be told I had found the elder Holmes somewhat intimidating when we met, although admittedly I had welcomed the rare insight into my friend's life.

"I suppose I will have to go and find out."

Holmes must have noticed my unease, for he handed back the telegram with a reassuring grasp of my shoulder. "Have no fear old fellow. I'm sure it's only to thank you for your part in the case."

"It is you who should be thanked," I grumbled. "I hardly even did anything!"

"You saved Ms. Melas's life," Holmes pointed out. "And that is not to be sneered at. Besides if there is one thing Mycroft knows well, it is food."

"Thank goodness for small blessings," I said, but it was with anxiety that I tucked the telegram back into my jacket pocket and went about my rounds.

I awaited Mycroft in the visitor's room at The Hypatia Club [1], the one room in which men were granted access, and shuffled my feet awkwardly. I had felt odd being here during the case, but was even more so now, without Holmes to keep me company.

Finally Mycroft appeared. I had never met another woman of her stature; nearly as tall as her brother and at least twice as wide as he was, with no bother for the corsets that were the fashion of our time. Indeed she seemed to care little for fashion whatsoever, which fit exactly with what Holmes had described of her way of life.

She smiled sympathetically as she approached. "Doctor, there really is no need to be so worried. I have called you here to ask a favour, and thought dinner was only fair recompense for your time. Ms. Melas actually recommended the restaurant in question, as a little thank you of her own."

I stammered something or other about how it was Holmes who should really be there, but Mycroft would not accept that.

"My brother gets enough praise," she said in a dismissive manner I am sure most siblings would recognise. "I have heard his name all over the place since you became his chronicler. You, on the other hand, deserve a reward."

"I do not accompany him for reward."

I resisted the urge to squirm as she pinned me with an interrogating look. "No. I don't believe you do. And you forget, Doctor Watson, that I was raised with Sherlock; so I know exactly what your friendship means to him. Now, shall we go? It would be a terrible shame to miss these reservations, as I have heard excellent things of the chef."

The dinner was, as Holmes had predicted that morning, excellent. Mycroft and I made some desultory small-talk which was pleasant enough and, midway through our pudding, I decided to broach the real reason I was there.

"You mentioned a favour?"

She took a napkin and dabbed at the corner of her mouth. "It is in fact to do with your publications, Doctor Watson. I don't know how you decide which stories you write, but I thought it might be that you had intended to publish this last 'adventure'?"

"I would never publish without your permission," I assured her ardently. "I hadn't yet given the matter thought, but if you are worried about protecting yours and Ms Melas's privacy then I won't even bother writing the thing up."

"You misunderstand me, although I do appreciate the sentiment. I invited you here to ask whether you would publish."

"Oh." This took me somewhat aback. "I see."

"'The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter', perhaps?" she suggested. "I leave the finer details to you, but I do have some... requests."

"Requests? What sort of requests?"

"My brother has told you already about the life I lead," she began delicately. "I have come far along a path not trod by many women. This owes, and I hope you won't think me arrogant for saying so, but to my superior intellect. However, even that would not be enough if I did not conduct the bulk of my work from home. When men correspond with me they see only "Mycroft Holmes" at the bottom of the telegram or letter, and they assume they correspond with a man. I thrive on their assumptions, for without these I would never have become so successful in my line of work. And with that in mind, I wondered whether the Mycroft Holmes in your story might not live up to those assumptions."

"You mean I should make you a man?" I tried to wrap my head around the idea. "And that wouldn't upset you?"

She huffed a soft chuckle, a noted contrast to her younger brother's staccato bark of laughter. "Not in the slightest. Our world's definition of a woman is not one I aspire to. Me and Sherlock are alike in that way - neither of us fit the mould."

This, I supposed, was true. But I had never met a woman so willing to part with her femininity. Then again, before I had met Mycroft, I had never given the matter much thought. "It is only that it is such a compromise for you, Miss Holmes. What if I wrote you as a woman, to showcase just what women are capable of?"

"Then I shall be seen as a freakish anomaly," she answered me flatly. "This may be a compromise, but it is one I have been making all my life so that I might live as I please. Will you help?"

I did not have to consider her question too long. I had changed details in other stories, it was nothing new. And to be owed a favour by Miss Mycroft Holmes seemed a valuable thing in itself.

"Of course, if it is what you wish."

"Excellent!" she exclaimed, and nodded to a waiter to begin clearing our crockery. "Now Doctor, do feel free to return home. There is a cab waiting outside and I understand you have a long day of it tomorrow?"

I did not bother to ask her how she reached these conclusions, or how she had timed the cab to arrive at the right time. No doubt she had always known I would agree to what she asked. She was, after all, the more intelligent of the two Holmes siblings.

[1] This AU's equivalent of The Diogenes Club - "Hypatia (born c. 350–370; died 415) was a Hellenistic Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was a prominent thinker of the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria where she taught philosophy and astronomy. She is the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well recorded. Hypatia was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counsellor."