But that plane ride was just the tip of the iceberg. By the time Sherlock and Mycroft were leaving the airport, Daniel had once again awakened and had defaulted to crying. Mycroft seized the opportunity when he saw it and turned the baby over to Sherlock car seat and all the moment a taxi cab stopped to pick the sociopath up.
"Goodbye and good luck," Mycroft said cheerfully as he slipped down into his own car.
"No," Sherlock said sharply. "No, no, no! You absolutely cannot leave me here with this little terror."
"He seems to me to actually be a very good child, Sherlock; you'll be fine. Get to Baker Street and hand him over to Mrs. Hudson for minding, and all will be perfectly fine."
Watching his brother drive away, Sherlock nearly screamed in frustration before he remembered Mrs. Kong's warning about Daniel mirroring his own emotions. So he kept his mouth shut and dropped down into the cab with the baby in tow, having no idea how to calm the little monster down. It took forty-five minutes to get to his flat from the airport, and by then Sherlock, Daniel, and quite possibly even the cabbie were all very near losing their minds.
At least Sherlock had thought to gather the troops, as it were, though, while he was still headed towards his residence.
Calling John was always a good first step to solving any crisis. When Sherlock had explained the situation, John had voiced his shock in amongst a few choice words before promising that both he and Mary would be at the flat when he got there to help him with Daniel.
"John, wait!" Sherlock said the second before John hung up the phone. "Perhaps you ought to go to the store instead; I am afraid I forgot to pick up anything for him."
"You don't have a single thing for him?"
"No."
"You didn't even see to it that he had proper food?"
"No!" Sherlock snapped. "Why is everyone so bloody hung up on that?!"
"Because it's important!" John took a deep breath to reign in any possible fit of temper, and then continued, "Alright then, it sounds like me and Mary will be going to the store instead and getting things for you to set up parenthood." Sherlock growled, Daniel screamed, and John asked, "Are you sure you'll be alright there with just you and Mrs. Hudson taking care of him for that long? Molly has a niece, I think; maybe you ought to call and ask her to meet you at Baker Street."
"Very well," Sherlock agreed before hanging up with John and doing as he had suggested.
The woman in question answered the phone upon his call with a simple, "Molly Hooper."
"Molly, I am in absolutely dire straits. I need you to go to Baker Street and meet me there when my cab arrives."
"Are you alright? Ill? What is that terrible noise?" Molly fired off the questions anxiously, and Sherlock answered in monosyllables.
"No, no, and child."
"Child?" Molly repeated. "In the cab with you?"
Sherlock sighed and relayed the story to her like he had just done to John.
Once he was through, Molly asked instantly, a blessed voice of calm in the cacophony, "How far away are you from your flat?"
"Sixteen minutes," Sherlock ascertained by looking out the cab window.
"I can be there in fifteen," Molly replied.
"Alright," Sherlock agreed, moving to hang up his cell.
"Sherlock?" Molly said, stopping him.
"Yes?"
"I can hear you panicking. Don't. Everything will be fine for you and Daniel, you'll see. I promise you, Sherlock Holmes. If you can capture Moriarty no less than twice, then you can do this."
Sherlock paused before saying in a voice only loud enough that it could barely be heard over Daniel's screaming, "Thank you, Molly Hooper."
There was a smile in the pathologist's voice as she replied, "You're welcome, Sherlock Holmes."
"Oh my goodness, Sherlock Holmes!" Mrs. Hudson cried when she saw her tenant come in the door with a screaming infant. "What in the world are you doing with that baby?!"
"He's my nephew," Sherlock called over the noise of Daniel's protests as he dropped the car seat onto the kitchen table.
Mrs. Hudson stood from her chair and began rocking the car seat Daniel was in, in an effort to calm him as she asked, "What's wrong with him?"
"I have no idea!" Sherlock cried.
Molly came tumbling down the stairs and into the kitchen then, wide-eyed as she asked, "Is he hungry?"
"I believe his nappy needs a changing," Mrs. Hudson remarked, and despite the baby screaming in her ear she was amused to see the famous detective pale as if his death sentence had been pronounced.
"Here, Mrs. Hudson, let me," Molly said, stepping between the landlady and the car seat as she realized that the woman was struggling to free the child from his car seat's restraints. "Why, hello, little one," she cooed as she took the boy into her arms. "Let's see if we can't get you more comfortable, alright?" She looked up at Sherlock, asking, "Where's his diaper bag?"
"He doesn't exactly… have one," Sherlock confessed, suddenly shifting uncomfortable from foot to foot as he looked away from the pathologist. "Yet! But John and Mary are currently out rectifying that situation."
"Well, we can't just leave the poor thing like this!" Mrs. Hudson objected.
"No, of course not; he'll get a rash if we do," Molly said, apparently taking charge of the situation. "Mrs. Hudson, do you have a raggedy towel that I could use? And a safety pin or two? Sherlock, go find something for Daniel to eat."
Sherlock darted gratefully up to his flat and Mrs. Hudson obediently hunted around her kitchen until she came up with the desired items and handed them to Molly, who hurried up to Sherlock's flat with Daniel and the things in her arms. The baby had now exhausted himself again, reduced to weepy red eyes, draining nose, and the occasional hiccup as Molly closed the door to the flat and carried him into the bathroom. She knelt on the tile floor and carefully lowered Daniel onto the floor in front of her, undoing his onesie and divesting him of the offending nappy. She'd tossed it into the garbage bin and was doing a reasonable job of repurposing the towel and safety pins into a cloth nappy when Sherlock came over to stand in the doorway.
His eyebrows drew together at the unusual sight of a child in his flat, let alone one who's nappy was being changed, as he informed Molly, or rather the top of her head, as she was still below him with her back turned to him, "I've found a can of green beans, if that will suffice?"
"Perfect," Molly said, taking a deep breath as she took Daniel in arms once again and stood to her feet, turning towards Sherlock. "So long as he likes them, that is. Lead the way to your nephew's dinner, Uncle Sherlock."
Sherlock rolled his eyes and made a noise of displeasure in the back of his throat, but turned obediently towards the kitchen. He was already feeling calmer, since there was someone obviously much more capable than him here and taking over the situation. Daniel was calming, so Sherlock was calming down as well. Maybe Ms. Kong had been onto something there after all…
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