(A/N: I seriously live on a steady diet of reviews, follows, and favorites on this story. It all means so much to me to know that I have readers enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying writing it in every moment of spare time I can find. This chapter is even longer than last chapter. Hope you don't mind that they seem to be trending that direction with everything going on in the life of Sherlock and Victoria!)
Chapter 18 – I'm Fine
"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."
That is a quote credited to the thirteenth-century Persian poet Rumi, which Victoria found in a lovely print and had framed as a gift for me, given without particular reason Thursday evening after she'd returned from a rather exhausting day at the university, administering the Stroop test to another group of subjects in her study. I hadn't yet found where to hang the framed quote, but I did quite like the meaningfulness behind it and would hang it somewhere I would see it often.
At least I would when I had enough time at home to do so.
"Exactly why did you call me again, Lestrade? This is getting rather tedious. Those four cases yesterday were ridiculous. Three were laughable twos at best. Albeit, the last was a six, barely, but still, you called after you'd mostly sorted it yourself. … And now this? Why did you even … For God's sake, please tell me you know what's going on here. It's so clear the man was having an affair, blatantly obvious enough to send his wife into a homicidal rage. She's doing a lovely job with her mourning widow, sniveling theatrics, but I'm sure one of your officers can find it within themselves to interrupt her performance and make the arrest anyway.
The Detective Inspector looked around the room, anywhere but at me. "I thought, you know, perhaps looks might be… deceiving or something. Best get a second opinion from a trusted source before accusing the wife. … That sorta thing."
"Gavin, did John call you?" I asked pointedly.
"Greg! Dammit, Sherlock, my name's Greg, and you should know that for as long as we've worked together! Christ. If you can't remember my first name then don't even bother. Just call me Lestrade, and stop trying." He stormed out of the house, and I followed, smacking myself in the head.
"Greg. Greg. Greg. Bloody hell, why can't I ever remember that?" Catching up, I jumped in front of Greg, stopping him short, and we stood face-to-face. "Greg, I'm sorry."
"You're sorry? Well, I'll be damned. A date, a girlfriend, an engagement, now an apology, I'm afraid to ask what might come next."
I smirked. Oh, if he only knew, but Victoria insisted I not say anything else until we had confirmation. My phone buzzed, and I suspected it was a list of a few things to pick up at Tesco on my way home. She'd begun having a craving or two in the past couple days, though she wouldn't admit that's what it was.
"Victoria?" he asked, gesturing to my phone.
'Mhmm' was the most coherent response I could give, stunned to near silence by the picture that popped up on my screen when I opened her text message. I zoomed in to inspect it more closely, but it was exactly what I thought it was at first glance, and I went back to looking at the whole picture, admiring it actually. Admiring it and smiling so widely I undoubtedly looked like quite a madman, but I didn't care one bit.
"This is what comes next, Greg."
He studied the picture on my phone's screen then gave me a puzzled look. "That's not a…"
"A home pregnancy test? Yes. And in this particular case, those two pink lines indicate a positive test result." She hadn't warned me she intended to take the test that morning, but no doubt she knew I'd hover anxiously waiting for the results, making her more stressed about it than necessary. "Amazing, isn't it?"
"What's amazing?" Donovan asked, sauntering over and into the conversation without invitation. "Photographs of human body parts you're experimenting on?"
Greg and I both chuckled. "Hardly," I remarked with a grin and turned the phone to her.
"Wait. Is that Victoria's?" I nodded. "You've got a little freak on the way?" Sally winked, her teasing far more good-natured than in the past. "Well, no more grand disappearing acts then, Daddy. Give Victoria a hug for me. I like her. Jury's still out on you."
"One time! One time I bring her to the Yard and now this? Have I honestly been that bad?"
"Yes!" they answered in unison, quite adamantly.
I huffed, shaking my head at the two of them. "Well, I see how it is. As you can tell by this," I waved my phone, "I have better things to do, so I'm just going to nick a few things off the ambulance and be off now."
On my way home. Can't wait to see you. Need anything? xxx
She didn't reply very quickly, which worried me, though it seemed I spent a lot of time worrying over her. My fiancée, the woman carrying my child, had been excessively fatigued during the last week and nauseous more often than not.
Yay! Strawberries would be nice. 3
And chocolate.
DARK chocolate.
A grapefruit.
Just one.
I laughed but told the cabbie to stop at the Tesco nearest Baker Street. Will get those and remember milk. Text anything else you think of. xxx
Ten minutes into walking around Tesco, I received another text from Victoria. Forget the grapefruit. Please buy oranges instead.
Quickly following that began an obsession over dinner plans.
Do you want Thai tonight?
I'm in the mood for Thai. Can't stop thinking about it.
We could go out.
Maybe get takeaway.
Not sure how I feel yet.
Are you okay with Thai again?
We'd had Thai three times in the past week. Anything you'd like. I'm fine. xxx I couldn't tell her enough how much I absolutely meant that. Anything. There wasn't anything I wouldn't do for her, any length I wouldn't go to ensure her health and happiness, especially during pregnancy.
I nearly toppled over with the shopping bags when Mrs. Hudson swung the door to Baker Street open, ushering me in quickly. "Sherlock, dear, is Victoria alright? She sounded ill earlier, and when I took some tea up for her, she was sound asleep on the sofa, didn't stir at all, passed out cold. Poor thing looked absolutely exhausted."
"In my personal opinion, Mrs. Hudson, Victoria is just fantastic, feeling a bit pregnant at the moment, but that'll pass roundabout early March, and I expect we'll be far too occupied then with the rewarding end result to concern ourselves with the minor inconveniences occurring at present."
Never had anything I'd ever said to Mrs. Hudson clicked in her mind quite so quickly to produce such an amusing reaction. "Sherlock! A baby! Oh my!" She exclaimed loudly enough for all of Baker Street, perhaps all of London, to hear, whilst attempting to hug me despite my arms full of shopping bags. "This is just wonderful news, Sherlock. I've got to tell Mrs. Turner."
With that, she ran into her flat, a tad more spring to her step, and I simply shook my head, climbing the steps home.
"Well, hello there, Loki." For being Victoria's cat, he'd taken quite a liking to me and made a habit of meeting me at the door anytime I arrived home, regardless if I'd been gone hours or stepped out to fetch the post. "Where's Mummy? Have you been a good boy for her today?" He followed me into the kitchen, and I heard Victoria talking in the bedroom, from the sound of it, on the phone with Aaron, who was due to arrive the next day and stay for three weeks, leaving the Tuesday after the wedding. "You're always good, aren't you?"
In the bottom of one bag, I found the cat treats I'd bought and set them aside, quickly sorting through the rest of my purchases, putting everything in its place before opening them. Once I'd finished, I took up residence in my chair, as usual, and Loki joined me, lounging on the arm, waiting for the three treats, as Victoria only allowed three per day for health reasons. I'd been scolded quite harshly for giving him an entire bag of treats the first day I'd been alone with the cat.
"What do you want, Loki?" He reached out, placing one paw on my closed hand I held in my lap with my legs crossed. "Come here if you want something." At that, he stepped off the arm of the chair and balanced his sleek black body perfectly to sit on my knee, tail curled around my leg, bright green eyes staring at me. "You're a smart one, aren't you, Loki?" He chirped in response, something he typically did instead of meowing like a normal cat, and thus earned his treats, one at a time, finishing off by curling up in my lap to receive his daily dose of demanded attention.
"Sorry about that," Victoria began the moment she exited our bedroom. "Aaron had to reschedule his flight. His biggest client had some kind of security breech on their server system or…" She pinched the bridge of her nose, and I imagined she was trying to recall the lingo Aaron used. He owned a relatively successful cyber security consulting business not exactly my area of expertise, nor hers. "You know, some big, bad computer thing happened, and it'll take him most of this week to calm it down before he can leave. Right now, he's booked to come in Friday night, but he still has to leave on the sixteenth for that conference. And you aren't overfeeding Loki again, are you?"
"Of course not. Have you eaten anything?" I inquire, nonchalantly adding, "I need to take your blood and can't have you getting dizzy afterward."
She simply rolled her eyes. "You need to take my blood. Of course you do. I'm pregnant. Why wouldn't you?"
Loki decided he was done with me and jumped down, freeing me to go to Victoria while she found the strawberries I'd just brought home. "I swear I have no intention of experimenting on you, darling." Standing behind her, I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her back against me, and ran my hands down over her stomach and further until they lay flat and protective over our baby. "But I texted Molly, and she's at the lab right now, so if I take a blood sample, it'll be no trouble at all to pop over, run the test, and have an absolute confirmation of the home pregnancy test's results." I kissed her shoulder, swaying side-to-side slightly. "Please. It would make me indescribably happy to do this. I still want you to make an appointment with a doctor right away, but I want to do this myself."
"Fine. It'll be a fun story to tell later about how Daddy ran the lab test to tell us beyond a doubt we were going to be parents for the first time." She turned to look at me over her shoulder, a smirking grin on her face. "Anyway, I'd rather let you do it now than wake up to you poking me with a needle, trying to sneak off with my blood."
I couldn't get to Bart's fast enough, running down the stairs instead of taking the lift, and bursting into the lab out of breath. Molly lifted a brow into a quizzical expression, and cocked her head, eyeing me carefully. "I didn't realize you were on such an urgent case, Sherlock. Don't think I've ever seen you come through the doors quite like that before."
"This isn't for a case, far more urgent … and of a personal matter, Molly"
She opened her mouth as if to ask questions then said nothing more and left me to go about my business.
The procedures for running a quantitative serial beta hCG test were incredibly basic and not at all time-consuming; however, the wait for machines to produce results when the results are paramount to one's personal happiness is an infernal eternity. Eventually, I had the results in hand, studied the numbers and compared them to the reference chart. "No. That's not…" Frustrated by the discrepancy, I pulled out another reference book then did a search online for yet another source of comparison.
"Sherlock, are you crying? What's wrong?" Molly moved to put an arm around me, no doubt wanting to comfort me in her own way, but I side stepped her effort, folding the printed results and slipping them into my pocket.
"I'm fine. Excuse me for a moment."
In the hallway, well away from the door to Molly's lab, I pulled my phone from my pocket, took a deep breath, and grudgingly made the very necessary call.
"Brother mine, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" He reveled in me calling given the rarity of it happening, always hoping I required something of him, something only my brother could provide.
Unfortunately, that was exactly the reason I had called. "Cut the pleasantries, Mycroft. I'm calling in a favor, and whatever you ask in return, consider it done."
"Do tell. What could you possibly need so desperately?" All smug amusement had dissipated, and a hint of genuine concern laced his tone in its place.
"I need an appointment for Victoria with the top obstetrician in London, first thing Monday morning, and any additional evaluative procedures necessary; sonograms and such, will happen immediately in their office, not be scheduled for later. Surely a task such as this is a simple one for you."
"Simple?" He huffed, a sort of derisive laugh. "You amuse me, brother. I can see to the arrangements with a single phone call. The question is, why the sudden urgency? You knew Victoria was pregnant a week ago."
"I just ran a quantitative hCG, and the results aren't what I expected." With a sigh, I leaned against the wall, letting my head fall back, and closing my eyes as I explained. "I know the exact date of her last menses and am quite positive regarding the date of conception, as it was an intentional act with me being perfectly well aware Victoria would still be ovulating. The concern I have is that her hCG level is forty-eight percent above the median norm, and that, combined with her particularly… noticeable symptoms at such an early stage…" I swallowed hard and took a deep breath, steeling myself to say the words aloud. "Those are indicative of multiple pregnancy. … Brother, Victoria may not simply be pregnant with my child, she may be pregnant with my children; therefore, you must see the compelling logic behind my desire to see her under the care of the best doctor posthaste."
There was no air of smug arrogance, condescension, or even a slight teasing in the swift response he delivered. "Indeed. Expect to hear back from me with the appointment details shortly."
While I waited for his return call, I went to the rooftop of Bart's and sat, looking out over London. Perhaps I didn't realize it for some time, but I did kill myself that fall, not physically, of course, but metaphorically speaking. The man who thought himself a sociopath, wanted no one in the world to touch his heart, kept humanity at a distance, he died. I might have returned in the façade of that man, but in truth, he was gone, his spirit buried in that empty grave and left behind.
Taking another look at the print out of the results, I sent a text to Victoria.
We are quite definitively expecting! Will bring home Thai to celebrate. The vivid image of us together with, not one, but two tiny babies turning us from a couple into a family made me smile, tears in my eyes, and I added to the text with trembling hands. You are my every infinite possibility. I love you. xxx