"What do you want to know?" Clara asked abruptly as herself, Sherlock and John sat down in the flat, after they had made their journey back from the hospital. John started at her, unsure of what she meant by this question. "I know you've got questions you want to ask and I want to ask and I want to help. I wasn't there for Harry at the end, so I want to try and make it up to her."
"There's quite a few legal issues that need to be sorted out." Sherlock answered for John, correctly interpreting the floundering look upon John's face. "Custody and guardianship, that sort of thing."
"Can I help with that?" Clara had been entirely silent, eyes closed, the whole way home; it seemed as though she had been steeling herself for this.
"The father, Paolo, or whatever…" John croaked, "He's got the legal powers of custody, so we need to find him so that when I apply we've not got any objections."
"Are you applying for custody?"
"Well, yeah… I want to adopt him if I can." John nodded, Clara was biting her lip.
"Paolo disappeared on me too… if you give me a day or two, I can try my best to get in contact with him." She told them. "I can't promise anything, but I can try."
"Someone trying has to be better than me not knowing where to start looking."
"I thought you would get automatic custody, you were her brother after all?" Clara questioned.
"Paolo is the baby's father though, if I want to adopt then I need his permission; otherwise he could turn up at any time and have the authority to take him away." John informed her.
"Oh right…" She nodded, comprehension dawning on her. "I'll try for you."
"Thank you." John thanked her.
"IS there anything else I can do?" She sounded nervous, as though she couldn't quite decide whether she wanted to offer any more help.
"I haven't thought of a name for him yet…" John muttered slowly. "I was kind of waiting for you to arrive before I made any kind of decision about it." Clara was staring agog at John.
"Why on earth would you wait for me?" She exclaimed in obvious surprise.
"You were with Harry for a long time Clara, I haven't forgotten that, and I won't. I know how important you were to her and how much she valued what you thought." This answer seemed to make Clara feel worse, as her eyes began to well up with tears once more. There was a long period of silence as she looked down at her feet and chewed her nails.
"Have you thought of any?" She asked finally, her voice clearly evident of her upset.
"Harry did mention that she wanted to use the 'Watson tradition' to name him." John replied suddenly, seizing upon the moment of speech to break out of the silence.
"What's that?" Clara muttered, still not meeting the eyes of John,
"We name the child in alphabetical order in relation to the rest of the family." John explained.
"Oh…" Clara's eyes widened. "You could call him Harry…" This suggestion had already occurred to John, however he had the answer to this pre-planned.
"I thought about that, but I don't want him to grow up thinking he has replaced her… I don't want him to ever forget her, but I really don't want him to think he's being compared." John said placidly, he had thought about this seriously and definitely hadn't wanted to give that burden to a child so young, especially one who was going to grow up without ever knowing his mother.
"Hmmm… Yeah, I get that." Clara agreed. "What letter are your family on?"
"Technically we're on M…" John answered, "But my dad missed I because he couldn't think of a name beginning with it, so I kinda wondered whether his name should begin with I." Again silence filled the space between them, John noticed how raptly Sherlock was listening in to this to this conversation; he was ensconced in his armchair, but his eyes were incredibly alert.
"I…?" Clara pondered aloud.
"It's a tricky one, I know." He agreed, nodding.
"Ian?" Clara suggested after a long period of quiet.
"Hmmm…" John hummed. "I don't know."
"Can I think about it for a while?" Clara said, rubbing her hand across her face and John nodded
"Shall we have lunch then?" Sherlock proffered suddenly, standing up from his armchair and proceeding through to the kitchen area.
Lunch was a fairly silent affair, both Clara and John were mulling over the thought of a name for the baby. Every so often one of them would give a suggestion, but neither of them seemed to settle on any of them: there was Ivan, Isaac, Igor, Irvine and Izzy. None of them seemed satisfactory to both of them…
As important as Sherlock knew this was to John, he couldn't keep the bite of impatience from inside himself.
"I is a difficult letter, why don't you think of names with M instead?" Sherlock impatiently prompted, but John's reproachful gaze made him shut up for a moment.
"I really is difficult, isn't it?" Clara laughed weakly.
"How about Isaiah?" Sherlock asked, trying to think of some way to alleviate the surrounding issues of this name.
"It's just like Izzy though, isn't it?" John protested.
"Ira?" John made an uncertain noise to indicate that he wasn't sure.
"Innes?" Sherlock continued, sighing in a slightly exasperated way; he had his eyes closed as a mark of his frustration, but he snapped them open when he realised how silent Clara and John were. John was frowning slightly, but not in a manner of annoyance, more as though he was deeply considering this.
"Innes…" He murmured to himself, "What do you think Clara?"
"What does it mean?" She asked, taking lead from John's apparent enthusiasm.
"Uuuh…" Sherlock moved to pick up his phone from the counter; he was attempting to Google this as quickly as he could before John changed his mind about the name. "It's an Anglicization of Aonghus, it means 'one's strength'." Sherlock read from his phone.
"One's strength?" Clara sounded incredulous, Sherlock nodded. "That's perfect, don't you think?" She was addressing John, "He is the last piece, the surviving essence of Harry – he is the strongest part of her!" John didn't reply instantly; Clara reached out her hand and placed it on top of John's. "I don't mean that Harry was weak…" She confirmed in a low voice, "I mean that her greatest thing was her strength and her love, what is better emblemise both of those than her son…?"
It felt like the moment stretched out forever, but John's brows seemed to be set in a resolute manner as he finally nodded his head and said: "You're right… He's Innes."
A/N: As always, I'd love to hear what you think about this chapter/story so far!