A Wife for Sherlock Holmes
Chapter 14 – Future Tense
Marion panted as she lay on the floor looking up at the sterile walls. She looked about. Beside her was of all people, the Prime Minister of England. Her husband was God knew where and John with him. Her brother-in-law was back from her looking at what she had translated, but watchful.
"Mycroft if you don't get him here soon, I am going to break your hand!" She growled.
"Soon, sister." He said lifting a hand. He then looked to the Prime Minister. "Are they always so hostile?"
"You try being in labor to bring a melon from your body and see how you do." The minister smiled. "You are doing fine Marion. We have our best people going to the flat to get him."
ZzZ
Sherlock walked into his flat and walked upstairs he sighed. "Well she isn't here." He said looking about. He went to his bedroom and then looked at the flat. "Where did she go?"
"Try calling Mycroft."
"I can't. The whole system is down." He said.
There was a knock at the door. John went to the flat door and looked down as two men in suits came in. "Dr. Watson?"
"Yes. Is Mr. Holmes with you?"
"Yes, of course he is. What do you want?"
"We have been summoned to fetch you both."
"Oh? By whom?" Sherlock asked joining John.
"Mycroft Holmes and Marion Holmes."
"Marion?" Sherlock said. "Where is she?" He asked stepping forward. "Is she all right?"
"Safe. We will take you to her."
He nodded. "All right." He walked out with the men and climbed into the car with John right behind him. He looked at the pair of intelligence men. "Where are we going?"
They remained silent.
ZzZ
It took less than an hour for them to arrive. John and Sherlock were put onto a lift and sent down a few floors. There several men stood and patted the two of them down. Sherlock rolled his eyes and tolerated it.
"They are clear." The man said into a microphone on his wrist.
"Let them in." Mycroft said on the line.
Sherlock and John walked into a large room with many video feeds, computers, several tables, and many people. Mycroft came forward. "Ah there you are little brother. Your wife has been calling for you."
"Calling for me?" Sherlock asked.
A scream made everyone freeze what they were doing. John gasped. "Where is she?"
Mycroft led the way to the room where Marion was on the floor, surrounded by blankets, pillows, and a woman trying to feed her ice chips. Her hair was sodden from sweating. Sherlock paused at the door as John ran in and knelt down by the woman who was on her side sobbing.
"Marion." He said softly. He reached for some gloves as he pressed his hand to her head. "How long has she been like this?"
"About an hour." Mycroft said. "A lot of fuss." He said making a face.
Marion looked up. "John." She whispered. "Where is…"
"He is there." John said nodding to Sherlock. "Can I check you, Marion?"
She nodded as Sherlock went to her. He gently looked her over. "Are you all right?"
"Yes. Now that you are here."
"We need Sherlock to focus." Mycroft said.
John had shifted and lifted the sheet she had over her. He leaned forward checking her over. He smiled and patted her knee as Sherlock looked down at him.
"Well?"
"She is about seven inches dilated and nearly fully afaced." John said. "We will be having a baby soon." He smiled.
Sherlock looked at his wife. He took her hand and sighed. "We need to find the bombers my love. I will come back."
She took his hand. Clenching it hard. "Solve me a case, Sherlock Holmes." She whispered looking at him.
He smiled and pressed a kiss to her brow. "I will." He looked at Mycroft and then rose to his feet.
She looked at him leaving and she swallowed as John moved to her, wiping her brow a little. Sherlock took a breath as he looked at his brother. "All right. What do we have?"
"We know the bomb maker. We know what is going on. We know how to access the records. We just need you to put it all together."
Sherlock nodded and walked into the main room leaving Marion as she labored.
John sighed and looked at the woman. "Do you have any cool water?"
"Sure."
"Good. We are going to need it." He said sighing. "She has a ways to go."
"Was that her husband who just left?"
"Yes." John said. "He does that a lot."
"But this is his baby."
"Yes."
Marion whimpered as another contraction hit. John then looked at her. "Easy, Marion. Don't push yet." He said softly.
ZzZ
Sherlock sat in the room looking at the drawing before him, the bomb fragments, and the information from the translated letter. He sat in silence reflecting on all the facts before him. The Gifted. The Enlightened. Bombs. His mind reviewed all the bombing history in London.
"What is he doing?" The Prime Minister asked softly.
"His mind palace." Mycroft said watching as he spoke softly. "He is putting together all the pieces of the puzzle."
ZzZ
Marion had been in labor nearly six hours when Sherlock looked up as the TV broadcast something. He rose and went out to look at it. A fourth bomb had gone off, but it had done far more damage. He looked for the clues and sent Mycroft's people out in a search of London while he told Mycroft he needed to leave.
Mycroft would not let him and the silence was broken by a scream of agony. Marion was still in labor and Sherlock needed to solve this case before he could go to her.
ZzZ
Marion looked at John who was between her knees. "You are doing well, sweetheart."
"It hurts. Make it stop. Tell Sherlock to make it stop."
"I can't Mari. You are doing really well."
"It hurts so much."
"Well remember you are in a bunker without drugs to help you." John said gently.
She reached down and he took her hand. "Thank you John."
"For what?"
"For being here. For always being here." She said.
He smiled. "My pleasure, Mari."
ZzZ
Sherlock looked at all the information and then looked up. "It's Downing Street." He said.
"What?" Mycroft said.
"10 Downing Street. It is the target."
"No one is there."
"But to blow it up would make an impression."
"True." Mycroft nodded.
He nodded to his orderlies to go check it.
ZzZ
Sherlock, Mycroft, and the Prime Minister stood together watching through a camera on one of the agent's head as they went into Downing Street. Inside they found someone, in his early thirties setting a bomb. Incomplete he was arrested and brought out.
Mycroft blinked. "The Gifted. Well I may just gift wrap him for Israel."
"How do you know him?" Sherlock asked.
"He is very well known." Mycroft said.
"Sir, we found some papers." The leader of the team said to the camera.
The man spoke in Turkish and then coughed. Mycroft gasped. "Poison." He hissed. The man fell dead to the earth. "Such a pity. We could have gained much from the terror network from him."
"He was dying anyway." Sherlock said.
"Oh?"
"Look at his skin." Sherlock said. "Common signs from radiation exposure."
"What does that mean? There is a dirty bomb somewhere?" Mycroft hissed.
"Perhaps. Or not. He worked with dangerous compounds. That could also be the problem."
"Leeching. Yes. So not so much radiation as exposure."
"Yes. It would seem. What did he say?" Sherlock asked. "A pity my wife wasn't here to translate."
Mycroft lifted his head a little and then sighed. "Play it back. Copy the man talking." He ordered a subordinate."
"All is safe now?" Sherlock asked.
"He was contracted to bomb Downing Street, but it appears he wanted to give us a warning. No one would be hurt…except himself." Mycroft said. "Kardishim. Sister…" He blinked and then looked behind him. "She isn't screaming anymore."
"What?"
"She isn't screaming anymore." Mycroft said. "Why isn't she screaming if she is in labor?"
Sherlock gasped and ran to the room. He opened the door. No one was inside, but there were bloody towels and the room smelled of sweat and blood. He gasped. "Where is she Mycroft?"
"I have no idea." His brother said. He looked about and then found an orderly. "Where did they take the woman who was in here?"
"Oh, the Prime Minister gave the all clear and the doctor called for an ambulance." She said.
Sherlock turned and ran toward the lift. He pushed the buttons and started to lift to the surface. Once the door opened he rushed out to the street. It was raining and the paramedics were loading something into the ambulance.
The form was small and under a jacket as they lifted and put the gurney in. John jumped up into the ambulance as Sherlock arrived. "I need to go to!" He said.
The paramedic blinked and John looked out. "Yeah, let him in."
Sherlock jumped in. "What happened? Is Mari okay?" He asked fighting down his panic.
"Yes of course she is." John said pulling his jacket back to reveal Marion with an oxygen mask on her face looking up at them. She looked pale, small, and exhausted.
"Sherlock." She whispered, voice muffled by the mask.
He leaned closer. "Are you all right?"
"Yes." She smiled and shifted. "There is someone I want you to meet." She said.
"Someone?" He asked looking at her.
She pushed back the coat to reveal she was holding a bundle. She shifted the flap to reveal a tiny baby with dark curly hair looking up at him with wide open eyed. Sherlock's eyes opened wide. "She…she…she is here." He whispered.
"Yes." She smiled lifting a hand to his face as he looked down at his child.
"She is small, Sherlock, but healthy." John said. "We need to get her to the neonatal unit though. Make sure she is well, but she is breathing on her own. Good start for being two weeks premature."
Sherlock was startled. He had helped create this little being. He lifted a finger to look at her. He touched her cheek softly. "She is so small."
"I guess around five pounds. She isn't huge, but she isn't underweight really either." John said as the ambulance began to love.
"John…Why are my legs shaking?" Marion asked. She looked down and looked up in alarm.
"Oh." John looked at the paramedic. "Did you get that IV in?"
"No, her veins are difficult." The paramedic said.
"Sherlock take your daughter a moment." John said.
"What?" Sherlock said.
"Take her."
"I can't she is so…" John rolled his eyes and lifted her and planted her in Sherlock's arms so he could care for the mother.
"I…ummm." Sherlock sat down and looked at the tiny being he held. He looked in love and terrified at the same time.
"Mari, I'm sorry…" John said lifting her free arm. He looked in the boxes and found a butterfly IV. He sighed and then drove it into her vein. He got it on the first try and Mari gasped in pain. "Sorry…"
She nodded and then looked at her husband who was holding their baby. Sherlock was enthralled watching her as the baby moved a little. "Hello." He said softly to her.
John quickly did an IV push of calcium to calm the shaking. In a matter of moments, Mari was still and she sighed. They arrived at the hospital and Mari was unloaded. Sherlock hopped down gently carrying his daughter, holding her as though she were glass.
John walked in and began to speak to the doctors. A nurse came and smiled. "Can I take her?"
"Sure." Sherlock said, glad to not be holding his precious burden anymore. He was afraid he would hurt her.
Mother and child were taken to the women's area. Mari needed to be there over night to be observed. The baby would need a couple days at least. She had jaundice a little and it was discovered she couldn't suck when Mari was settled. She was given a feeding tube and put under ultraviolet light.
Mari and Sherlock got arm bands matching them to the foot band on the tiny foot of the baby. Sherlock smiled as his wife slept. He named his daughter. Elizabeth Genevie Noor Holmes in the grand tradition of naming family members.
With Mari being well looked after, he went to the NICU where his daughter was. The nurses took him to where she was under the lights, sunbathing in her tiny nappie. She had goggles on and a small tube down her nose to feed her with.
He smiled and took a picture and sent it to his parents and Mycroft with the caption. It's a girl. Welcome Miss Lizzy Holmes. He then put on a gown as instructed and touched the tiny hand. The tiny fingers curled around his finger and he smiled. "Hello, Lizzy." He said softly.
ZzZ
Sherlock's parents came down from the country. They gowned up with Sherlock and met their first born grand baby who was resting in an incubator that kept her warm. Though small, she was larger than many of the babies in the NICU.
"Do you want to hold her?" A Scottish nurse asked.
"Can we?" Elizabeth Holmes asked.
"Of course. It is good for them. Sit right there." The nurse said nodding to a rocking chair. Elizabeth dropped into it and the nurse lifted the tiny girl up. She still had her feeding tube, but she was healthy otherwise and looked normal other than being small.
The grandmother and grandfather made quite a production of holding and snuggling the baby and Sherlock watched. He had often just watched her sleep. He read email and such things as he had his hand on her as she slept as though he worried if he left her, she would just evaporate.
After two days she was brought in and had her first successful breast feeding while Sherlock's parents dragged him out for some food at a restaurant nearby. Once the little thing was able to suck down her first meal at her mother's breast, the doctors agreed she could go home that evening.
She would need to have her feeding tube much of the time because breast feeding exhausted her, but clearly it was good for her to do that.
Sherlock returned to his daughter in her carrier and his wife ready to go home. John was with her. Sherlock, Mari, and the baby went with Sherlock's parents and John took a cab home. Once there, Sherlock helped his wife up the stairs. She still moved with some hesitation. Elizabeth and George brought up the baby carrier.
Sherlock then shooed his parents out promising that they would have brunch with them in the morning. John settled into his chair as Mari occupied Sherlock's chair. She held Lizzy in her arms. She then stifled a yawn as she looked up at her husband.
Sherlock had been pacing a little waiting for his turn to hold her again and when Mari retired early to bed, Sherlock claimed his tiny baby. She looked very much like him, her high cheek bones, dark curly hair, but her dark eyes, and mouth were her mother.
He held her as he sat down looking at her. She was perfect. Small, but perfect. She looked up at him and gurgled a little and then had a big yawn. Sherlock made a face at her because everything she did was adorable.
John laughed.
"What?" Sherlock asked. "Hello, little one." He said as his daughter looked at him.
"Just you. I never would have thought you as a father and you are already up for father of the year." John said.
"Can you blame me? She is perfect."
"In every way, yes."
"Good genes." Sherlock said. "She is going to be brilliant."
The baby then made a face and then began to whimper. John watched in amusement as the tiny mouth formed into an O and began to sob, large tears in her eyes and Sherlock nearly coming undone by the tears.
"John what do I do…she is upset…I…" Sherlock asked in near panic.
"Undone by a five pound baby. Took on a CIA agent with a gun, but a baby crying is too much." John smirked.
"What is wrong?" Sherlock asked.
"She's hungry." John said. "Do you want me to take her?"
"What? Oh!" Sherlock said. He got up and moved about finding the bottle of breast milk. He measured the correct amount for the syringe and then held the syringe a moment. He cooed a little as his baby's muffled cries alarmed him. "Just a moment, sweetheart, I need to warm it a bit. That is what they told me." He said. He then moved back to his chair and pressed the syringe, slowly, filling her tiny stomach with the milk she wanted.
After a few moments she calmed and settled against him. He took a deep breath.
John was still smirking at him as Sherlock looked up at him. "Disaster averted?"
"You know that really isn't funny." Sherlock said.
"Oh yes it is. Seeing you so undone by something that weighs as much as your violin, yeah it is." John said.
Sherlock rolled his eyes. He shifted and pressed the baby into her bassinette that he had out in the room. He looked down at her. She squirmed a little and did not seem to want to settle down. He stood up and lifted his violin.
He began to play and Lizzy looked up. She let out a large sigh and then was still. Sleeping. Sherlock smiled a little as John shifted, listening as well. She really was Sherlock's daughter if all it took for her to go to sleep was her father playing his violin. It had calmed her in utereo. Why not now?
ZzZ
Mari walked into the room. Before her was glass. Solid glass. The room was cool, bare, and she felt ill at ease.
The door opened and a man was brought in and place on the chair behind the glass.
Mari smiled as the men left the room. Slowly the man's head lifted to look at her. He cocked his head at her. "Mari-on." He said slowly.
"Hello Sherrinford. How are you today?" She smiled. "I have news for you."
"You have had the baby. What is her name?" The voice asked, eerily like her husband's own baritone.
"Lizzy. Sherlock named her Lizzy."
"Sherl always did like that name." He smirked. "A real momma's boy he is as well as the family idiot."
"Yes." Mari said. "He has solved many crimes."
"Indeed. And Mycy is still in boring office work I suppose."
"Yes. He is Mycroft. One never really knows what he is up to." She looked at him. "Are you well?" she asked.
"I am better now that I have visitors." He said standing and moving about the small cell behind the glass. "It gets so boring in here."
"I can imagine." She said.
"I have rather become fond of these dates."
"Well someone needs to visit." She said. "It isn't right no one else does."
"Oh my mother does, for holidays, but how ironic is it that it is you who takes an interest in me."
"Do you need anything Sherrin?"
"No." He stepped to the glass, his eyes wild. "I look forward to seeing you again. Tell Sherl and Mycy I miss them."
"You know they never talk about you."
"Small wonder." He said. "They both put me here."
"For your own good."
"And everyone else." He said. "Good day dear sister. Give my love to Lizzy." He turned and walked to the door and knocked. "A pleasure as always Doctor Holmes."
"You as well, Sherrinford Holmes." Mari said as she rose to her feet and went to her own door to be let out.
ZzZ
"We have a video for you to look at." Mycroft said as he looked at his sister-in-law as she sat in his office.
"Oh?"
"It is rather graphic. We are hoping you can translate it for us."
"Another threat?"
"Confirming the end of one."
She nodded and he pulled it up on his screen. He turned it to her. The man spoke Turkish and then fell backwards. Mari gasped, a hand going to her mouth.
"Mari?"
"No. It is done."
"What did he say?"
"He said, 'This is the end. It is over. Tell my sister I love her, and I do this for her.'" She said tears running down her face. "Oh, Mustafa." She whispered.
"That was his name then? His real name?" Mycroft said.
"Yes." She said. She rose to her feet. "Is there anything else?"
"He is buried. I will tell you where."
"Thank you, brother."
Mycroft rose to his feet. "I am sorry, Mari."
She turned at the door. "You have never lost anyone in your family. How can you possibly know what it is like?"
"I have done far worse." Mycroft said. "And you know it."
She took a breath. "But he lives…"
"Does he?"
"Yes." She narrowed her eyes. "You just choice to forget him, as I did mine." She said. "Buried pasts come back to haunt you, Mycroft." She said. "I should know."
"You know what he is like and you know why I can't face that. Sherlock is enough to handle."
"Sherlock will never kill your parents, despite him finding them tedious." She looked down. "He won't kill himself to make sure your secrets die with you."
Mycroft moved and lifted a finger under her chin. "I didn't tell him." He said softly. "He should know at least in part. He knows there are things in your past unanswered."
She nodded. "I will tell him soon enough. Do I have your silence?"
"Your file has been deeply filed and is under inactive, associates, none, known location, unknown." He looked at her. "Will that do?"
"Thank you."
Mycroft nodded. "I do care." He said. "It is hard for me. I do not care for people, but I do care about your welfare, Lizzy's, and Sherlock's."
"And Sherrinford." She said. "Else you would have just killed him and made it look like an accident."
"Perhaps that would have been kinder." He said.
"Perhaps." She said. "You should lay that ghost with him and see him."
"No. In time. But not now."
She nodded. "All right." She said. She smiled. "Lunch soon?"
He walked to the window. "Yes of course. I need to find some new things for my new niece. I need to keep up on my 'best uncle in the world' title."
She chuckled. "Good day, brother mine."
"Good day, sister."