Maisie

Genre: Family

Pairings: Greg and Molly, Sherlock and Sally, John and Alex, Background

Main characters: John, Rose, Julian, Alex, introducing Maisie

"Seriously? John said, with a frustrated huff.

"I think he is, Daddy," Rosie said.

Julian looked on. He'd done his own Google research and had come up with essentially the same results that Rosie had.

"They are a good family dog," Rosie finally replied. "Maybe a bit stubborn, a bit…"

"Obstinate," Alex said. "Remind you of anyone Rosie Rose?"

Rosie stifled a giggle. She adored Alex for her frankness, and her ability to make her dad smile no matter what the situation was.

"A bit maybe," Rosie admitted. Julian snorted beside her.

"But which one of them, Rosa?" Julian asked. It made no matter to him – HE didn't have to live at 221 Baker Street. "All the grownups here are stubborn!"

Alex herself smiled at this. As John's nurse first, she had come to know everyone at Baker Street as patients, before she had come to know them as family, through her blossoming romance with John.

"Any, either, all," Alex finally said. "There seems to be something about this address that makes people especially ornery." Alex didn't live there either, so really it didn't mean much to her, any more than it meant much to Julian Bailey. John gave her a sarcastic smile and rolled his eyes. For as much as he loved the woman, he had never known her, either before, or after, they had begun their relationship, to call a spade a spade.

No, his beautiful and beloved Alexandra preferred to call it a "feckin' shovel". John readily admitted to himself that this was one of the many reasons he'd fallen for her so utterly.

"She's only a pocket beagle, Mr. John," Julian reminded him. "They're like any other dog, you only have to be sure to train them from the start," he added hopefully. "Maybe you just have to out-stubborn her for a bit is all."

John glanced at his daughter, her best friend, and his own girlfriend. They weren't opposing his opinion, so much as offering ways for him to adjust it voluntarily.

And, having lived with Sherlock Holmes on and off over the years, he was well-versed in the fine art of out-stubborning someone.

"Well. Sherlock seems to think a pocket beagle would be ideal. He IS the cleverest man I know. Not the wisest though maybe…"

Rosie smelled what her dad was cooking.

"Uncle Greg looked into it too," Rosie confirmed. "He thinks that if a beagle puppy is introduced to Toby and Morrie from the very start they'll be okay. Best friends maybe, even."

"Really?" John wanted a puppy as much as anyone else at 221, but was worried about their ultimate choice. "Beagles have a high prey drive. Who knows how she'll get along with Toby and Morrie…"

In the end, Sherlock's advisement of a pocket beagle was embraced, and the puppy who would come to be known as Maisie would be welcomed by all, including one initially (though briefly) resentful senior tom cat in the basement flat, otherwise known as Toby, and the other young tom cat - feeling a bit more ambitious towards a newcomer and playmate - Morrie.

"I think the last baby has arrived," Mrs. Hudson said one evening, sitting with Rosie while John was out for the night with Alex.

Maisie snored audibly, in contentment, amongst part of her new family. Mrs. Hudson was confident that the chewing habit would one day pass, as would the tendency to nose around in things she had no business being in.

Then again, as Sherlock's puppy, she already came by that nosey trait honestly.

Maybe she wouldn't necessarily grow out of that.