The look on John's face wore Sherlock down and he reluctantly picked up the phone and dialed his brother's number. John's face lit up with hope.
"I presume you are reconsidering?" Mycroft questioned, a hint of smugness in his voice.
"The way you are running this experiment, is it possible for the child to have two parents?"
"Why, it is required. We're not cloning. That is the reason we needed you. I already donated my half of the DNA."
"For God's sake, I don't want to father a child with an addiction to cake. It would be a nightmare. Your DNA will not be used or I will most definitely not participate."
Ignoring the cake insult, Mycroft replied, "Who ever said anything about you fathering the child? In your hands, it would be dead within a month."
"You seem to be forgetting that I live with John, who is perfectly capable of being a father. Which brings me to my set of demands."
"Oh, dear brother. What is it now?"
"John will supply the other set of DNA, and yours will be completely out of the picture."
"It will take some convincing, but I can probably make that happen."
"And my other demand is this." Sherlock grew more serious and said in the most demanding tone he could muster, "Once the kid is born or grown or whatever your scientist people are calling it, it comes home with us. We keep the child as our own, and you can monitor its progress on our terms."
The other end of the line went silent for a moment. Then Mycroft replied quietly, "That will be a bit harder."
"Oh come on, you had to have deduced that I would ask of that. I made it rather obvious." Sherlock was obviously enjoying getting the best of his brother for once.
"Of course I did, dear brother, I am not an idiot. I was just hoping for once in my life that I had deduced wrong."
"You're desperate, I can hear it in your voice. You're not very good at hiding it."
"As I hate admitting, you are correct on that front. I will try to make it happen. I will get back to you as soon as possible."
Sherlock nodded and hung up the phone with a smile. He turned around to a beaming John Watson, who had risen from the couch and was now in the process of tackling Sherlock in a bear hug. Sherlock, taken by surprise, fell to the ground, and they shared a beautiful and happy kiss.
