"John, you can't just go out on a case!" Mary shouted as she ran a hand through her hair, her other hand resting on her inflated stomach. She had only lost one child, she had also been told that this time the child would be weak and small. She called him her blessing, he survived the miscarriage and she thought that meant something.

"Mary, this is important, Sherlock needs me on this case." John frowned, but his face softened as he looked at his wife.

"No, John. I need you! Sherlock bloody Holmes didn't just lose a child!" she shouted back, her eyes watering but she wouldn't let the tears out, not with John here. "Your child, may I add."

"You told me to spend time with him." John said as he walked slowly over to her and placed a soothing hand on her back.

"I told you to spend time with him, not do everything he wants." Mary said her tone taking a note of dismay as she stepped away from his touch and walked into the living room. Her dark trousers clung to her swollen stomach and she sat breathlessly on the chair, "I'm starting to wish he'd have never reappeared." She muttered as she picked up her book and flicked to the page she was reading.

"Mary, you like him too, you have to admit it." John tried reasoning with her and he sat in front of the chair. "Just please, give him a chance and let me go with him?"

Mary slowly breathed in and folded the corner of her book over, placing it on the table and looking at John. "Have you forgotten that I am almost 9 months pregnant with your baby? It would have been babies but Sherlock Holmes reappeared and so did Jim bloody Moriarty and you know, he decided to get his revenge on me, hence me losing one. All thanks to Sherlock, so no. I may have liked him at one point but now? No." She said softly, "I'm looking out for you, and the baby. I don't want him or growing up without a father." She rubbed her stomach, patiently awaiting an answer.

"He won't. I swear, I won't let him." He smiled and kissed Mary's cheek lightly. "Just remember that I love you and I will always come home to you."

"Fine. Go, but I swear to God if I go into labour and you aren't there then I will... I don't know what I'll do next, all I know is that it will happen and it will be bad." She teased halfheartedly as she put her forefinger on his chest, pushing him lightly to the door. "Go, have fun and be home soon? I'll miss you." She said seriously, her eyes locking with Johns.

"I will, I love you too, and no excitement for you. Watch TV or something but I want you to rest okay." He grinned as he walked out of 221 B Baker Street and down the path.

"Of course, have fun." She replied. She watched John climb into the taxi and watched the taxi drive away before going back in to the flat.

"Hello, Sarah. Hey, do you want to come round for a coffee? John went out and I need some girly time." She said after she rang her best friends number.

"Sure, I'll be over in five minutes." She grinned into the other side of the phone and then the line went dead.

Sarah'd be there soon so Mary got up and made a cup of coffee before doubling over in pain and collapsing on the sofa, clutching her stomach.

~oOo~

Ring-ring.
Ring-ring.
Ring-ring.
Ring-ring.
"Hello, you've reached John Watson. Well, you haven't because I can't come to the phone right now but leave a message and I'll get back to you. Oh, and if it's Anderson then I'm very sorry for whatever Sherlock said, he didn't mean it but he wouldn't like to apologise."

Mary almost laughed at the message, well she would have had she not been in the hospital, clutching her phone to her ear for the eighth time and feeling the pain of her fifth contraction in what felt like minutes.

"Get here now! Hospital—" She screamed as another contraction took her, "I need you here, John. Get off that god damn case and get here." And with that she threw the phone across the room. "Sarah, don't leave me until he gets here?" she pleaded with her friend and gripped onto her hand.

"Of course not." She smiled and looked at Mary, "You know, you should have had the epidural."

"I know that!" Mary shouted in frustration. "I can feel the pain! Get me the drugs, please!"

"Sorry, you turned down the epidural, there's nothing we can do now." A nurse shook her head. "Just push. Push, breathe. In and out, in and out."

"That's what I'm doing!" Mary shouted again, her face was red and she gripped Sarahs hand tight. "Where is my husband?"

~oOo~

"John, what is it?" Sherlock asked as he walked over to see John with his phone pressed to his ear, he instinctively looked into the mans eyes, glazed over. Something bad.

"Mary went into labour an hour ago and Sarah just called. We have to get to the hospital, she was crying. Sarah I mean, not Mary. I didn't speak to Mary, I mean, it was Sarah who phoned, Mary wasn't there." John was rambling now and Sherlock pushed him to a black car that Mycroft was sat in, not caring for once that his brother was there.

"Mycroft, hospital, now." Sherlock growled, his voice low as he looked at John, "It'll be fine, John. Everything will be okay." He smiled as best he could and he felt the car go into motion. He then looked around for his brother but it seemed he'd vacated the car.

"What if the baby's dead? We've already lost one, we can't lose another one." Another thought popped into Johns head but he didn't want to voice it.

"It'll be fine. You'll both have me and each other if that happened." Sherlock said softly. The rest of the ride was spent in silence, John bit his nails and stared into space and Sherlock had his thinking face on as his mind whirred around.

~O~

"John!" They could hear Sarah before they saw her.

"Where is she?" John said quickly, "Where is my wife?"

Sarah said nothing, she looked at John and then to Sherlock. He pulled John away down a corridor and went to windowed room full of newborns, "Far right corner is your baby. The little triangle on the paper, that means that the mother, she—John, Mary died while giving birth. Her body shut down from the stress of losing one child and then having another one prematurely."

Johns face, which was previously smiling at his son, fell. They trailed back to Sarah and he mouthed the words, "She's dead?" His eyes watered and he was struggling to hold it together. The one thing that he had refused to admit could happen, had happened.

With a slight nod of her head Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder, "It'll be okay." She said softly.

John just shook her hand off and turned around, walking out of the hospital and away from everything to go get drunk at a pub, what he did best.