Fully Alive
Chapter Twenty
Sherlock groaned. "Oh, for god's sake. Will you just tell me?"
"Nope!" Vivienne laughed. "Everyone will be here shortly and you'll get to know then."
Sherlock shouted in frustration. "Oh, come on! I don't understand why you sent me out of the room, anyways. I already know what it is."
"Oh, you do, do you?" Vivienne grinned.
"It's a boy." Sherlock stated.
"I'm not telling you. Your parents are ten minutes away. You can wait a little while longer."
"No, they aren't. I called them. Told them not to come. Just tell me!"
"Your mom just called me. Try again." Vivienne replied.
"It's a girl."
"I'm not telling!"
"Fine. It's a..." Sherlock trailed off.
"Run out of options, did you?" Vivienne giggled and kissed Sherlock on the nose. "You're cute when I know something you don't."
Sherlock just grumbled as a "Yoo-hoo!" came from the door.
"We're in the kitchen, Gran!" Vivienne called out, crossing her arms over her stomach.
Mrs. Hudson entered the kitchen and sat a deli tray down on the counter. "Are you two having a domestic? I heard shouting."
"Sherlock is just mad because I won't tell him the sex of the baby." Vivienne laughed. "He's been up all night researching wives tales."
"He does get a bit grumpy when he stays up all night." Mrs. Hudson agreed. She stepped towards Vivienne and placed a hand on the ever-growing bump. "This is so exciting. A great-grandbaby! Oh, how I wish your father was here to see this. Have you phoned your mother?"
"I tried, but she had no idea who I was. I could have been the fucking President for all she knew." Vivienne shrugged.
"It's getting bad, yeah?"
"The bad days outweigh the good. Most of the time, she still thinks it's 1979 and Jimmy Carter is in office." Vivienne laughed. "Good days, she thinks it's 1995 and she's appalled by computers. The best days, she's lucid enough to know it's 2014. I caught her on one of those days once. She asked me what twerking was."
"Have you told your aunt to let you know when she has her best days?" Mrs. Hudson looked sad for her granddaughter.
"Yeah, but she never does. You know she hates me. Like its my fault my mother developed early onset dementia."
Mrs. Hudson rubbed Vivienne's arm. "I'm sorry, my dear." She took a deep breath and decided to lighten the conversation. "So, how are you announcing the sex? Young people come up with such clever things these days."
"Well, actually, I have a cake. The doctor told me what it was, I went to the bakery and told them I needed a cake with the right color in the middle of it, and a gender neutral theme on the outside. It was all really exciting." Vivienne glanced over at Sherlock, who had grabbed his laptop, and smiled. "I'm gonna make Sherlock cut the cake and reveal the color inside. Blue for a boy, pink for a girl."
"You're carrying low and have been craving salty foods. The cake is blue inside." Sherlock said, not looking up from his laptop.
Just then, a knock came at the door. "I'll get it." Mrs. Hudson said, smiling.
Vivien grew nervous as she heard Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, and John and Mary enter. She turned to Sherlock. "You go greet everyone. Tell them that we have an announcement. And then I'll come out. I'm going to go text Kati really quick and remind her to come down. And I have to pee." She grinned as she heard Molly and Lestrade come in.
Sherlock rolled his eyes and sat hours laptop on the counter. "I still don't understand why we're doing this. We could have just called."
"I'm doing it because it frustrates you. And because it will make your parents happy that we did it face to face." She kissed Sherlock quickly and made her way to the bathroom.
She had her hand on the doorknob to exit the bathroom when she heard Sherlock say, "Alright, alright. Everyone settle down. Mother! Quiet." He glanced down the hall to see Vivienne walking towards him. "Mother, Father, we have an announcement of sorts. Vivienne is... with child."
"Oh!" Mrs. Holmes gasped as Vivienne walked into the room, her shirt right over her belly. She stood up, stopping at Sherlock to hug him tightly, and moved over to Vivienne. "How far along are you?" She asked, hugging Vivienne.
"19 weeks today." Vivienne smiled.
"And you've been keeping this from me every time we talked? You naughty girl." Mrs. Holmes grinned.
"Well, we wanted to wait to tell everyone until the first trimester had passed. But John and Mary found out on accident. And Gran has the eyes of a hawk."
"We're the last ones to know?" Mrs. Holmes looked a little disappointed.
"I didn't mean to wait this long. But the timing for us to get together was never right and I couldn't bear to do it over the phone. I wanted to see your faces." Vivienne smiled. "Good news, though. I found the sex out early this week. And i'm the only one who knows. There's a gender reveal cake in the fridge. I'll bring that out later."
"Well, any excuse to eat cake." Mrs. Holmes laughed. She cupped Vivienne's face in her hands. "A grandbaby! I never thought we'd have the privilege."
The two women glanced over at Sherlock, deep in quiet conversation with his father.
"I know." Vivienne smiled. "It was all his idea, too. Well, mostly. He knew it's what I wanted. So, he took initiative and decided we should."
"I'm glad he found you. You're good for him." Mrs. Holmes grinned, rubbing Vivienne's belly.
Kati entered and gave a nervous side-eye to John on the couch.
"Oh, good. The prodigal friend has arrived. Can we get on with this stupid thing now?" Sherlock half-shouted.
"I'm not late, am I? I was... caught up."
"Yes, I'm sure that was it." Sherlock mumbled.
"You're fine, Kate." Vivienne smiled nervously at her friend. "I guess I will go get the cake, then."
She exited to the kitchen and came back a few minutes later holding a cake covered in white fondant with pink and blue elephants decorating it, small paper plates, and a knife. She smiled, biting her lip, as she sat it down on the table. Everyone gathered around, chattering excitedly.
"Darling." She handed the knife over to Sherlock. "Would you do the honors?"
Sherlock grumbled as he cut into the cake, but stopped when he pulled the piece out and laid it on a plate. "Well, I wasn't expecting that." He said, starting at the half-pink slice of cake.
"Oh, my god, it's a girl." Mrs. Holmes broke the silence from the group. "A girl!"
Everyone in the small group cheered. Hey began making small talk as pieces of cake were passed around.
"Do you have a name picked out?" Molly asked, as she took a plate.
"Norah Charlotte Elise." Vivienne beamed. "I picked Norah because I liked it and Charlotte because it sounds a bit like Sherlock. And he picked Elise. It's my mother's name and my middle name."
"That's beautiful." Mrs. Hudson said with tears in her eyes. Everyone murmured in agreement.
They all made their way into the living room and sat to eat their cake.
"I'll come up a couple weeks before you're due and help you clean up around here. And if you'd like, I can stay after the baby is born to help you out." Mrs. Holmes offered.
"That's not necessary, Mother." Sherlock said quickly.
"Don't mind him." Vivienne laughed. "If you'd like you stay, that would be fantastic. Between you and Gran, I'll have all the help I need. As long as you make grumpy-pants do some of the work."
"Oh, I'll make sure he does his fair share." Mrs. Holmes grinned.
Later that evening, Sherlock and Vivienne were laying in bed after everyone had left. Mr and Mrs Holmes had decided to stay for a short visit and had taken John's old room for a couple days to be able to take Vivienne shopping for baby things.
"Did you see how excited your parents were? It was a good idea." Vivienne smiled and kissed Sherlock on the cheek.
"Whatever you say. I can't believe I was wrong."
"Well, wive's tales are called tales for a reason. It's all guesswork." Vivienne couldn't help but to laugh.
"Yeah, yeah."
"I'm going to get a drink of water. This baby-making business makes me thirsty."
Vivienne got out of bed and walked quietly into the kitchen. She filled up a cup at the sink and turned to lean her against the counter to take a drink when something caught her eye.
A teddy bear with a pink ribbon around its neck was occupying Sherlock's arm chair.
"Where did you come from?" She wondered out loud as she else to the bear and picked it up. She gasped out loud when she read the tag.
"Sherlock! Get in here!"
Sherlock stumbled down the hallway into the kitchen and looked around to find his wife. He saw her in the living room and walked to her slowly.
"What's the matter?"
Vivienne silently handed him the bear. Sherlock looked it over and grabbed the tag hanging from its neck. His eyes widened and his brow furrowed.
Best of luck! - Jim ;)
Xxxxx
A/N: Muahhahaha. Dun dun dun! Review, follow, favorite! Xoxo