After breakfast and clean up, Molly took Victoria upstairs to get her dressed in her fairy princess dress.
Unfortunately, Victoria did not seem too impressed with her special dress. There were sequins on the top, and Molly could see that they caused some discomfort when Victoria's arms rested at her sides. She had a feeling Victoria would not want to wear the dress for too long, but she wanted to at least get some video of her opening her presents. But oh, her birthday girl did look adorable!
Molly took her back downstairs to the front room where Sherlock had put Christina onto her play mat. He smiled as they entered. "There's my princess," he said.
Molly set Victoria down so she could return upstairs and get the bags of presents.
As Molly put the presents in front of Victoria, she could see that her daughter was moving her arms and squirming a little.
"Why is she squirming?" asked Sherlock, looking a little confused. "Does she need to be changed? I don't smell anything."
"No. Unfortunately, it seems the sequins on the dress are bothering her arms a little. I'm going to have to take it off of her after she opens her presents, so you'll have to make sure you get some video while you can. Hopefully, she'll be distracted while she's opening her presents."
Sherlock had already brought down the video camera the night before, and he picked it up to record the special memory.
Molly handed Victoria her first present while keeping an eye on Christina, who seemed to be quite content in reaching up for her suspended toys, batting at them. "Don't forget to take a little bit of video of Christina as well," she told Sherlock.
"Yes, dear," responded Sherlock, and Molly laughed.
Molly had to help Victoria with the sellotape, but her daughter was able to tear off the wrapping afterwards.
They had bought a various assortment of clothes, toys, puzzles and books. One of the puzzle boxes, with pictures from Frozen 2, contained three 49 piece puzzles. The age on the box stated 5+, but Sherlock had insisted that Victoria was ready for them. Her 24 piece puzzles gave the 3+ age, and she was completing them now unassisted. Another present was the Blu-ray of the film Frozen 2, because it was not due to be available on Disney Plus until July. Truthfully, Molly was the one who really wanted to see it, having missed the cinema release because she was almost due to give birth to Christina.
But the best present Molly kept till last. She handed the rectangular box to Victoria. "Last one."
When Victoria saw her unwrapped gift, her eyes grew round with delight, and she beamed. "Baby!"
"Yes, now you have your own baby to look after," said Molly. "She even comes with a bottle so you can feed her."
Victoria clapped her hands. "Baby. My baby!" Sherlock and Molly had considered buying a push chair for the baby doll as well, but had decided it could wait for another year.
"Daddy will take the baby doll out of the box for you, Victoria," said Sherlock, taking the package from her.
As he removed all the little ties that held the doll in place, Sherlock looked over at Molly. "Don't forget, she has two presents to unwrap that came in the post on Friday."
"Oh yes, I almost forgot."
"Apparently, you did forget, or I would not have had to remind you."
Molly poked out her tongue at Sherlock and retrieved the presents from the mantelpiece.
She handed Victoria the first package. "This is from Uncle John, Auntie Kayla, Rosie and Adam."
Good news had come during the past week that John was getting better and looking forward to returning to work. All being well, he would have one more week of recuperation, then be back in the thick of things. Now that the UK was second only to America in deaths from the virus, Kayla had told Molly that John felt even more than ever that he was needed on the front lines. Kayla had also confessed that she felt less fear about it, now that she knew John had had the virus and recovered, which would mean he was almost certainly rendered immune to getting it again, at least in the short term.
Molly helped Victoria with the sellotape, then took Christina from the play mat. "Look, Christina, your sister is opening her presents."
Christina, decidedly unimpressed, struggled and reached again for one of her hanging toys over the play mat.
"Fine, I'll put you on your tummy then, and you can see if you can roll to your back." Molly had been giving Christina "tummy time" each day to encourage her to roll, and the baby had almost done so a couple days earlier.
Victoria managed to get the wrapping off, and Molly saw a board book for "The Adventures of Paddington."
Molly knew Sherlock was very pleased that Victoria was now watching the show on Nick Jr. She still enjoyed her Teletubbies, but was now just as likely to ask to watch "Paddin" as "Tubbies".
"There's something still in the wrapping paper," commented Sherlock, and Molly looked down at the paper, which Victoria had discarded.
Molly picked it up. "Look, Victoria." She held out the object, and her daughter took it. "It's a magnifying glass. Now you can be a detective like Daddy."
"'tective," said Victoria, holding the children's magnifying glass to her eye. Sherlock had shown Victoria how he used a magnifying glass for his investigations.
"Yes, we shall have to work together, Victoria," said Sherlock with a chuckle. Then he added to Molly, "I don't know the last time I had such a long hiatus from doing detective work." He sighed slightly, and Molly knew how much he missed the job he loved. He never complained about being home with their daughters though, and she appreciated his forbearance on the matter.
"I'm sorry, honey."
He shrugged. "We must all make sacrifices, and really, I feel that this time has given me a new appreciation for the role of stay-at-home parents. I don't begrudge spending more time with our daughters. If I was still a bachelor and living alone, I think it would be a different story. With nothing to occupy my time, I would be going stir crazy. The girls keep me busy."
"And you are getting better at it all the time, my love," Molly told him fondly. She had told several people how proud she was of Sherlock and the way he had adapted to his new role as primary care-giver, but she realised she needed to tell him more often as well.
A smile illuminated his face at her unexpected praise. "Thank you, sweetheart. I can never replace you, but I think God has been teaching me a lesson in patience and appreciation since this pandemic started."
Molly felt Victoria tugging at the other present still in her hand. "Pwesent."
"Oh, sorry, lovey. This one is from Uncle Greg, Auntie Lori and Joseph." As close friends, the Lestrades had been deemed worthy by Sherlock to be considered an honorary uncle and auntie, just as the Watsons were. Molly much preferred it this way too, rather than the more formal use of Mr. and Mrs. Lestrade. She helped Victoria again to remove the sellotape.
Two books emerged from the wrapping, and Molly had to grin at Sherlock's murmured, "Thank goodness it isn't anything to do with an ear-hat." She still found it amusing how much Sherlock detested his now long-departed deerstalker, and the disparaging way he sometimes referred to it as an ear-hat. The look he had given the sweet little Pusheen toy with the deerstalker when Victoria had received it as a gift from the Lestrades for her first Christmas had been priceless. Molly still thought that little cat was adorable, but Victoria had finally passed the phase of needing to sleep with the toy every night and had moved on to sharing her affections with a various assortment of soft toys.
Molly looked at the titles of the two books. They were Dr. Seuss ones, obviously Lori's influence. The book titles were One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham.
Molly saw Sherlock grimace at the title of the second book. Green eggs and ham did not sound appetising, but it sounded amusing. Then she saw Sherlock's eyes shift towards Christina and he lifted the video camera back up to his eye. "Molly, look, I think she's going to do it."
Molly's gaze flicked to her other side where Christina's legs were working madly. Her arms were beneath her, pushing upwards. Even as Molly watched, Christina swung her one arm up, twisting her body, and the motion propelled her up and over along with it so she was on her back. "You did it!"
Molly turned back to Victoria, whose finger was tracing the image of the green ham on the book cover. "Gween."
Sudden tears pricked her eyes. Molly felt so thankful to have been able to see this milestone with Christina, and to be sharing this special birthday with Victoria, who was already recognising her colours. This was what being a parent was all about.
She knew Sherlock understood when he said, "We have clever daughters, don't we?" before he bent from his position on the sofa to reach over and scoop Victoria into his lap, book and all.
Instead of cleaning up the wrapping paper as she would normally have done, Molly leaned over to Christina and took her into her arms as well, then seated herself beside Sherlock as he opened the book and read the story to Victoria.
Molly noticed Sherlock's eyes shift in her direction several times as he said the often repeated phrases. She could tell he wasn't overly impressed by this type of repetitive story narration, but Victoria seemed to enjoy it. Molly had a feeling the book would grow on him, and he would find it useful for helping Victoria to sound out the words that repeated over and over.
Once he had finished, Molly took Victoria upstairs and changed her into more comfortable clothes. By the end of the story, Victoria had been looking uncomfortable again with those sequins scratching at her arms. Oh well, at least she had some pictures and video, courtesy of Sherlock.
As the morning progressed, more birthday congratulations came for Victoria. Molly's mother and Sherlock's parents called to wish their granddaughter happy birthday with the promise of presents to come when they were able to see her again. Cards had arrived in the post for Victoria from them already.
Martha called as well. She apologised for forgetting to leave Victoria's birthday present outside her door for Sherlock to take when he had last dropped off some groceries for her. He had been doing this each Wednesday, because Mrs. Hudson had found it difficult to get a delivery time slot from Tesco. Molly knew that Sherlock enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the house once a week to do their shopping and getting those few extra items for Martha, anyway.
In the afternoon, while Molly was putting a sleeping Christina into the swing, and Victoria was watching a Paddington episode, Sherlock's phone rang again.
"It's my brother," Sherlock said, before answering the call. Mycroft had asked Molly a couple weeks earlier for ideas on what to get Victoria for her birthday. She had told him that Victoria enjoyed puzzles, books, Teletubbies. After saying the latter, Molly felt a little guilty in letting it slip that Victoria enjoyed that show, and she hoped he would not decide to get anything related to it.
Molly sat next to Sherlock and listened to his side of the conversation. "Hello Mycroft...Thank you. Yes, she is enjoying her birthday. It's nice of you to acknowledge hers with an actual phone call rather than relegate the duty to a text from your son as you did with my birthday last month."
Molly couldn't help grinning at Sherlock as he rolled his eyes at her before responding to another comment from his brother. "No, not cross at all, merely making an observation about your priorities...Yes, Molly is fine, and Christina as well." There was a pause, and then his eyebrows rose. "You are?" He looked over at Molly again, and she gave him a curious look. "Alright. You have me intrigued."
Molly listened as Sherlock made his goodbyes and rang off.
"What did Mycroft have to say?"
"Aside from wishing Victoria a happy birthday and asking after you and Christina, he wanted to let me know he is planning to bring over Victoria's birthday presents in a few days' time. He said he has something else to give us as well."
Molly furrowed her brow. "Something to give us? I wonder what that means?"
"No idea. I should probably have told him he should not come and see us when we are still on lockdown, but he's had the virus already, so I suppose he is immune to a recurrence of it for now, at any rate."
Molly sat back on the sofa and pulled her legs in front of her, clasping her arms around them. "Sometimes I wonder if it would have been easier if I came down with the virus and recovered as John is doing. That way you wouldn't have to be always worried about me getting it when I'm at the hospital."
Sherlock slid his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. "Molly, I would rather not see you get the virus at all. Who's to say whether you would be one of those who has mild symptoms or more severe ones? There have been cases of people with no underlying health issues who have died. No, we will just keep praying that you remain healthy."
"I know, I'm being silly." Molly blinked back sudden tears. "What broke my heart this week was seeing that the United Kingdom is now at over thirty-one thousand deaths, second only to America with over seventy-eight thousand. I just realised if I was still living alone, I'd be so lonely right now too. I really feel for Martha and all the other elderly people who live alone. Isolation is a terrible thing."
"It is. But we can still hope that this situation will draw people closer to God. Perhaps when things start returning to the way they were, although it seems a long time away, we will discover more people wanting to attend church, to give thanks to God for bringing them through this time."
Molly leaned against him, feeling grateful for his strong, solid presence.
The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Victoria enjoyed playing with her new toys, especially her baby doll.
"What are you going to name your baby, princess?" asked Sherlock, as he took a photo of Victoria "feeding" her baby while Molly fed Christina.
"Baby Wose."
"you want to call her a name like Rosamund, I mean, Rosie?" he questioned.
Victoria shook her head, "Not Wosie, Baby Wose."
"Her name is to be Rose. Very nice."
Victoria frowned up at him. "Not Wose. Baby Wose."
"Ah, I see, thank you for the clarification." Sherlock's voice was solemn, but Molly could see a hint of laughter in his expression. "Baby Rose it is."
After dinner, which consisted of Victoria's current favourite food, chicken nuggets and chips, Molly brought out a chocolate cake and placed it on the tray in front of her.
Sherlock had purchased the same kind of cake as he had bought for Molly's birthday, and he had even remembered to get a candle for it.
He lit the candle on the cake, then Molly and Sherlock sang Happy birthday to Victoria, as Molly held Christina in her arms.
"Now blow out the candle," instructed Sherlock, demonstrating how she was supposed to do it. She bent forward and let out a little puff of air, not quite enough to extinguish the candle.
"One more try, Victoria," Molly said, gesturing with her head for Sherlock to be close by to extinguish it if Victoria was unable to do so. Fortunately, she let out a bigger puff of air and blew out the candle, then looked around proudly.
"Great job, Victoria!" said Molly
"Well done, princess." Sherlock ruffled his daughter's hair.
Molly took away the cake and cut slices for them.
Victoria made a big mess, of course, but seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. Molly dipped her finger in the chocolate icing and held it to Christina's mouth. It was rather amusing to see Christina's face wrinkle up as she tasted the chocolate, then thrust her tongue out in disgust. Molly realised she could probably start Christina on baby rice cereal at this point.
"Sherlock, next time you go to Sainsbury's, pick up some Aptamil Baby Rice cereal like I used for Victoria."
He furrowed his brow. "Is Christina old enough?"
"She's four and a half months old, and that cereal can be introduced at four months. I started giving it to Victoria at about the same age."
"Come to think of it, I remember the first time you gave it to Victoria. Most of it came right back out of her mouth."
"Par for the course, honey. She has to get used to the texture of solid food. I'll even let you be the first one to try doing it this time."
He looked doubtful. "If your first attempt was singularly unsuccessful, do you imagine it would be any better if I tried?"
Molly shrugged. "Only one way to find out. Besides, I plan to record it for posterity."
He groaned. "Just don't say you are going to post any video on Facebook."
Molly pouted. "Why not? It would be adorable. John could put it on his blog too, so all your fans could see how good you are at being a stay-at-home dad while you can't do your detective work."
The black look Sherlock gave her made her back down immediately. "Okay, no blog."
Just before seven o'clock, Sherlock turned on the news to watch the broadcast with the prime minister.
When he appeared on-screen, Molly thought the man looked decidedly better than the last time she had seen him. His hair was orderly, unlike the rather wild look he had sported during his videos when he had been self-isolating after testing positive for the virus.
"He uses his hands a lot," commented Sherlock as they watched, each with a daughter on their lap.
"And he's very enthusiastic in his speaking as well."
Boris Johnson outlined the plan for the UK to reopen slowly, establishing a new COVID alert system to avoid things going back to "square one". The alert level would be mainly determined by R, representing the rate of infection plus the number of cases. The alert level would then determine the strictness of social distancing measures.
A graph was shown with 5 levels representing level one in green, meaning COVID-19 was no longer present in the UK, going to level 5 red, with material risk of overwhelming the NHS.
Sherlock echoed Molly's thoughts when he said, "Well, I don't see us getting to level one for a very long time, perhaps years."
"Me neither. I think there would have to be a vaccine for that to happen. But God-willing, we never reach level 5."
Boris Johnson said the country had been at level 4, but the lockdown measures had prevented the worst case scenario, and he was hoping the country could slowly move towards level 3.
Although the prime minister stressed it was not yet time to end the lockdown, he said it was time to get people who could not work from home, like in construction and manufacturing, safely back to work. He recommended avoiding public transport if at all possible.
A possible projection was given for getting some students back to school in June, then a July projection if all the numbers were positive, to reopen some of the hospitality industry.
The necessity for continued social distancing was a big theme of the address.
Molly listened to the prime minister repeat what she had already heard about the quarantine for incoming international arrivals.
Molly sighed when the address finished. It had lasted for fourteen minutes, and Victoria had already wriggled off her lap to play with her baby doll.
"There's still a long road ahead," she said to Sherlock, who was trying to put his finger in a suddenly fussy Christina's mouth.
He looked at her. "Yes, but I can see the government is doing its best to take baby steps towards the life we once knew. It may never be the same as it was, and who knows how many people will change as a result? I, for one, have changed. I've gained a new respect and appreciation for not only those in the health care industry, but also those who stay home with their children to raise them."
"And just think, Sherlock, if you had been out on a case, you might have missed seeing Christina roll over for the first time."
Christina's protests became more audible, and Sherlock handed her over to Molly, who was already getting ready to feed her.
"Those precious moments highlight even more to me the beauty of God's creation, as we watch the milestones in our children's lives."
Molly smiled at him as she positioned Christina at her breast. "I was just thinking that this morning." It was uncanny how she and Sherlock so often seemed to echo one another's thoughts.
Sherlock bent down to pick up Baby Rose's bottle for Victoria, who obviously wished to now feed her own "baby", upon seeing Molly doing so with her sister.
Later that night, they carried two sleepy little girls upstairs. Sherlock was ahead of Molly, carrying Victoria. "Baby Wose," she said, reaching her arm back downstairs.
"Oh no, we can't forget your baby doll, can we?" said Sherlock, as he passed Molly to return downstairs with Victoria and retrieve the doll.
By the time he returned to join Molly in Christina's room, she had placed the baby in her cot and was just giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"Did you want to say good night to your sister?" asked Sherlock as he bent towards the cot with Victoria in his arms.
"Night, night, Cwisty." She opened and closed her little hand in the bye-bye gesture.
A couple minutes later, Victoria was settled in her own cot, her new baby doll clutched in her arms.
"Good night, Victoria," said Molly, leaning down to kiss her older daughter good night.
"And Baby Wose." Victoria lifted her doll for a kiss as well.
"Good night, Baby Rose," said Molly, giving the baby doll a little peck as well.
The same ritual was followed by Sherlock.
For once, Victoria cuddled with her doll and closed her eyes, not needing to be read a story or sung to sleep, and Molly left the room with Sherlock, closing the door softly behind them. "Wow, that baby doll is a definite hit. She loves her already."
Sherlock gave her a smouldering look. "I quite like babydolls myself." He tapped her bottom.
"I need to take a shower, Sherlock."
"Shall I choose a babydoll for you to wear for me?" Another smouldering look that had her insides warm immediately. The man really had way too much power over her.
She decided to play a little game of flirtation herself. "Only if you don't want to join me in the shower and scrub my back."
His eyes lit up. "I'm assuming you are using a euphemism for what you'd really like me to do."
She gave him a coy look as she put her hand on the doorknob of the bathroom. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Holmes."
"Like hell you don't." He grabbed her about the waist.
"Well then, I suppose you had best join me and find out." She curled her own arms about his neck and pulled his head down to hers, enjoying the feeling of his lips meeting hers in the usual promise of passion.
Sherlock's uneven breathing matched her own when he raised his head, and she knew she held the same power as he did over her, but that was okay, because love truly was a tremendously powerful thing. "I have a better idea. I think," he bent his knees slightly and slid his hands downward to cup her bottom, "that we should forget the babydoll and just make love, then use the shower for its intended purpose to clean ourselves afterwards. More comfortable that way."
Her grasp around his neck tightened as he lifted her, and she curled her legs about his thighs, enjoying his strength. He was already moving with her towards their bedroom when she answered simply, on a sigh of deep contentment.
"Yes."
Author's note: Thanks to those of you who joined in the fun and took the time to venture a guess about Victoria's presents. Well done to Aslan's Princess, MossRose10, mamabear04 and comp1mom! It always makes me so happy when I get a response to the questions I ask in my author's notes!
I really feel the way this story evolved gave me an opportunity to show how precious life, as God intended it to be created, is. There is so much joy to be found in watching a child grow to maturity. I have witnessed my oldest daughter's journey towards adulthood, and I am so proud of her, as I am of my other two daughters.
There is a little foreshadowing here for my next story, which will basically be a rewrite of my I love you - Three Years Later story. When I published that story in January to coincide with the third anniversary of the final episode of Sherlock, I set it for the date in my personal canon for the events at Sherrinford. There are references in that story which now are not compatible with my current series. Therefore, the original story will be a "what if COVID-19 had not happened" AU, and the new one will be the "real" story. So that's my next project.
So, it looks like the UK has its own plans in place for slowly easing lockdown measures. I know a lot of people love to complain about the lockdown, and whether it was done too early or too late. Personally, I feel we should not be throwing stones at our leaders in government. Yes, perhaps things could have been handled better, but I also think they could have been handled much worse. Instead of complaining, we should be looking towards the future and at ways of making things better. I have much admiration for the hard work of our leaders in finding ways to slowly move forward. It is interesting to see the different approaches different nations are taking. How are things going in your area or country? Are your lockdown restrictions slowly easing? I'd love to hear from my readers, especially those in other countries, to know what is happening.
If you are a fellow Christian or person of faith, I encourage you to pray for our nations and leaders, that they make wise decisions, and that as a global community we emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever and more united.
Are you still enjoying following this Journey with my version of Sherlock and Molly? Don't forget to click those favourite/follow buttons and leave your review if you want to encourage me and support my writing.