Girl Talk

They were halfway through dinner when Eleanor started to grumble, before breaking into a full blown cry. Sherlock started to get up, but Molly's hand on his arm stopped him, as he suspected she would.

"I'll take care of it. She's hungry. Excuse me." She said, getting up and lifting Eleanor out of the high chair that the Buckley's had provided for her, setting her on her hip as she dug through the bag looking for the bottle of breast milk she had pumped earlier. She gasped as she found the bottle empty, the contents all spilt in the bag, soaking all Eleanor's spare clothes and nappies.

"Oh no." She groaned, moving closer to Sherlock and explaining in hushed tones "Sherlock, the lids come off the milk, and I didn't bring anymore."

"Well, not bottled." Sherlock smirked not bothering to keep his voice down, and unashamedly casting his eyes down to her breasts and back to her face just in time to see her go bright red from embarrassment. He'd pay for that later, he was sure.

"It's okay." Elsie said, dabbing her mouth with a napkin as she rose from her seat the other side of Sherlock. "I'll take you somewhere you can feed her in peace." She offered, leading the way. With a screaming Eleanor in her arms, Molly had no option but to follow Elsie through the long winding corridors of the big house. It seemed they were the complete other side of the manor when Elsie finally pushed on of the doors open for Molly to enter.

It was a nursery, complete with two cots, a changing table, a rocking chair and a plethora of toys stacked around the room.

"Oh. You have kids here often?" Molly asked, taking in the well-stocked room.

"No." Elsie shrugged "This was mine and Lottie's nursery. When we outgrew it we simply moved to another room. It's been pretty much empty since then, except the maids coming in to clean."

"That's one advantage of a big house I suppose." Molly sighed in awe.

Elise narrowed her eyes calculatingly. "Sherlock has money, you know. If this is the kind of life and house you wanted, he could provide it. All you'd have to do is ask."

Molly shook her head, smiling softly "I don't have to ask to know that it's not what he wants. In fact I'd go as far as to say he'd hate it. And to be honest, I don't know what I'd do with all this space. I'm happy with what we have."

Elsie smiled and nodded, and Molly had the strange feeling she'd just passed some kind of test.

"Well, I suppose I should leave you in peace to feed…" Elsie sighed, turning towards the door.

"You… you don't have to." Molly extended the invitation hesitantly. "It's not like breasts are anything you haven't seen before."

Elsie smiled and nodded again, leaning against one of the cots as Molly made herself comfortable with Eleanor in the rocking chair, and undid her top and bra to let her feed.

"I was so jealous when Sherlock told me he was married." Elsie sighed "I spent days wondering what his wife would be like. You're not at all what I expected. Don't get me wrong, you seem nice enough… too nice maybe. I bet he walks all over you."

Molly was quiet for a few seconds, pondering her response. It was another test she felt. The last part of her admission was definitely meant as an insult, and she clearly was interested to see what Molly would do about it, to see if she really was a pushover. She would be in for a surprise.

"That lid didn't come off on it's own. It couldn't have. Sherlock wanted to get me and you alone together, so we'd talk, so he deliberately undone it." Molly told her, relishing the look of surprise on Elsie's face at how Sherlock had played her "Sometimes he does walk all over me, manipulate me, like he does so many others. But only when I let him. And he knows that. I'll probably tell him off later about the milk thing, but I wouldn't have played along if I didn't agree it was a good idea for us to talk."

"Well played. You and Sherlock, I'm really starting to see it now. I guess you took him by surprise as well, and that's not an easy thing to do." Elsie grinned.

"Something like that." Molly grinned, before bursting into a full blown laugh "He was in shock for 3 days when I defied his logic about love not being a bad thing."

"Uh, he wasn't following Mycroft's maxim was he? You can blame Lottie for that; he did have a heart once, before she broke it." Elsie winked

"Nooo!" Molly gasped "What could she possibly have done to turn him into… Mycroft?"

"Oh well he already had his doubts about love since their Father died, but if there was one person who he was willing to change his mind for, it was Lottie…"

Sherlock was relieved to see that his plan had worked. By the time the women came back, with a contented and well fed Eleanor, they were laughing and joking like old friends. And the amity not only held through dinner, but for the rest of the evening as well, and they left with promises to keep in touch, and plans to meet up for shopping. He couldn't help but smile to himself as they got into the cab taking them home.

"I know about the milk." Molly told him softly, mindful of Eleanor sleeping.

"It worked, didn't it?" He replied unapologetically.

"Better than you know… Captain."