She's Coming
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously, if I owned Sherlock, do you think I'd be writing fanfics about it?
"John," Mary breathed, wincing a bit as she sat in her car seat. "She's coming."
"Ok, we're almost there," John said, his voice tight with nervous excitement.
As soon as the taxi cab pulled up to the hospital, John hastily helped Mary out of her side of the cab.
"Easy now, you ok?"
Mary nodded, holding her belly.
Inside the lobby, while John filled out the forms, Mary looked around.
"Where's Sherlock?"
"I don't know," John answered without looking up. He glanced at his watch. "4:41am," he muttered as he wrote down the time on one of the forms.
"I hope he wasn't too upset from last night."
"Sherlock will be here," John insisted and kissed her. "He wouldn't miss it."
"Sherlock, please eat something," Mary sighed. "And for goodness sake, stop looking at me like I'm about to explode."
Sherlock, hardly touching his food, had been continuously glancing at Mary throughout the evening as the three of them sat there at the dinner table. He frowned at his food like it was deliberately insulting to him and said calmly, "So, you're due fairly soon, aren't you?"
Mary smiled in exasperation. "Any day now."
Sherlock pushed away his plate of food and leaned back in his chair. "Well, I can hardly wait to be there when you deliver."
Mary smiled fondly but John paused at Sherlock's words.
"Sherlock, when you say, 'be there' you do mean out in the waiting room?"
"Of course not," Sherlock said, a little confused. "Why would I be out in the waiting room?"
John and Mary exchanged glances before John said carefully, "Sherlock, they only allow one other person in the delivery room beside the doctor."
"I am aware of all that, John," Sherlock said, unaware that he was missing the obvious. "I don't understand why you are confused about all this."
"Sherlock, I'm not Mary's primary doctor…"
"You are to me," Mary grinned.
John waved a hand at her to shush her before continuing. "Mary's doctor is not going to be me that night when she delivers. My job that night will be to provide my wife support and encouragement." He smiled ruefully as Sherlock fell silent. "Sorry mate."
Sherlock's eyes flickered over at Mary for a brief moment before abruptly standing up.
"I think I better leave," he murmured.
"Sherlock," Mary protested.
"I'm fine. Really." Sherlock insisted. "Something came up. Client." He held up his cellphone and continued in his usual rapid fire speech. "Came in last night and requested my help. His brand new boat was sinking in the harbor and it was leaning on the starboard side at a 45 degree angle and if I didn't get it corrected it would capsize." Sherlock paused. "Fortunately, I was able to solve his problem in a matter of moments without exercising any effort."
"How," Mary asked before John could stop her.
Sherlock shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, I simply let him pass out on the floor. He was drunk."
"You're upset about all this, aren't you?" John stated rather than asked.
"I will see you two later," Sherlock said as though John hadn't spoken. He pushed open the door and left without another word.
"Where's the doctor?" Mary asked, her forehead beaded with sweat. "Where is he?"
"I asked one of the nurses to page him. They said he would be here soon."
Almost on cue, the door opened and in walked the doctor as well as the nurse. Both were wearing surgical masks and the nurse was doing her best to avoid eye contact with everyone. The doctor on the other hand approached Mary, his hands fumbling with his clipboard and documents.
"Mrs. Watson, how are we doing?" the doctor asked, his voice slightly muffled from his surgical mask.
"I'm having a baby," Mary answered, her voice somehow dripping with sarcasm.
'Oh, yes. So you are," the doctor said, glancing at the clipboard in his hand. "Umm…" He frowned as he skimmed the papers that were there. "Just a…moment. Oh dear…" The doctor's shaky hands slipped and dropped some of the papers. He bit his lip. "…that's fine, not important," he muttered to himself. He noticed Mary's eyes narrowing and he quickly cleared his throat. "Well! Have you had your epidural?"
Mary gritted her teeth as she arched her back. "John, it's Sherlock."
John could only gape at Sherlock as he took off his surgical mask with a sigh.
"Alright, fine. It's me."
"Can I take off my mask too?" the nurse asked, her voice familiar.
John made a spluttering noise as Molly took off her mask while holding up a hand defensively.
"I'm so sorry, John…"
"What the hell are you doing here, Molly," John asked, trying his best to remain calm. "With Sherlock?"
"It wasn't my idea!" Molly insisted. "Sherlock told me that he had gotten rid of everybody on Mary's deliver team so I thought…"
"Everybody?!" John exploded finally and made a mad attempt to strangle Sherlock as Molly tugged his arm to stop him. "Molly, quit it. Go get another doctor."
"John, there is nobody else available," Sherlock said loudly as he struggled to break John's grip. "Besides, the baby is going to come with or without the doctor's help…"
"IT BETTER COME!" Mary yelled as another contraction went through her body.
"…so I thought that…"
"Are you telling me that you did this," John panted, his voice thick with rage. "just so you could be in the delivery room? Did you think of anyone who mattered other than yourself?"
There was a pause before Sherlock spoke. "…well, I thought Molly might want to see…"
His words were cut off again as John's fingers tightened around his throat. They didn't struggle for long; something hard sailed toward their faces and bounced off Sherlock's cheek and John's nose.
"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP, I'M HAVING A BABY!" Mary yelled. She had somehow reached for the closest object on her side table and had managed to throw a pair of scissors at them.
Remembering what was going on, John and Mary snapped to attention while Sherlock stood there with a hand on his cheek which was beginning to bleed.
"She threw scissors at me," he said to himself indignantly.
"Mary, when I tell you to push, push," John ordered in a loud voice. "Molly, go get me some gloves and everything I don't have time to say" His eyes widened slightly. "I think I can see the head."
"Scissors!" Sherlock said a little louder and he squatted down next to John to show him his cheek. "John, I think you and Mary need to have a talk about—," He paused as his eyes glanced at where the baby was coming out. Without warning, his eyes rolled backward and he slumped to the ground, out cold.
"So," Molly said. "Are you going to stay out here in the waiting room or are you going to go see the baby now?"
After Sherlock had passed out, they sort of ignored him as John and Molly helped Mary deliver the baby. Once the baby was out, Molly clumsily shoved Sherlock outside into the waiting room where he groggily woke up.
"What happened?" he muttered.
"You passed out," John smirked. "And Molly took a picture and posted it on my blog."
Sherlock closed his eyes and groaned. John squatted down and placed a hand on Sherlock's shoulder.
"So come on, you want to meet my new daughter?"
"It's a girl?"
"You're not awake yet, are you?" John smiled and helped Sherlock to his feet. "Come on, easy there."
"Isn't she beautiful, Sherlock?" Mary asked in a tired but happy voice.
Sherlock didn't say anything; he stood there and stared at the tiny thing in Mary's arms.
"Sherlock?" John asked.
"Beautiful," Sherlock murmured. He cleared his throat. "Uh, what's her name?"
"We were initially going to call her Louise after my mum," John said. He paused and looked at Mary. "But, Mary decided that would be her middle name".
"I had time to think while I was having her," Mary continued. "And, I thought about how lucky I am to even be here. I could be in prison right now but I'm not. John and I would not have remained married and I would have been completely on my own raising this child. So, I thought I would name her after the one person who kept this family together." She smiled.
"You—," Sherlock started to say before his voice caught and he fell silent.
"Come on, mate," John grinned. "You want to hold your first godchild?"
"I don't think I—," Sherlock stammered as John carefully took his daughter from his wife and helped Sherlock hold her.
Sherlock stared at the creature softly breathing in his arms and he felt something give inside him. He began to blink rapidly but failed to stop the tears. John noticed and smiled.
"You alright, Sherlock?" he asked.
"She's beautiful, John," Sherlock murmured in answer. "Utterly unique."
"Well, with a name like Sheri," Mary grinned, "Of course she's going to be."
"Sheri?" Sherlock repeated, a slight laugh in his voice.
"Sherlock," John said. "Did you honestly expect us to name our daughter entirely after you?"
"Well, I did all those things for you…" Sherlock grinned in protest.
"Two Sherlocks," Mary shook her head. "Good god, can you imagine?"
"I don't see the problem," Sherlock shrugged and glanced down at the child in his arms with a smile. "The world can stand to use another genius."