29/5/2012: Sorry, there was some tech problem and had to replace the chapter. It is essentially the same chapter-6, but with a few minor errors corrected.

AN: Hello my dearest readers, here is at last the chapter which I was planning to write from the beginning of this story…The chapter which explains, how Sherline Holmes became the surrogate mother of John and Mary's child. And it is a really long chapter, so don't tell me that I did not warn you beforehand. ;)

Also, the writing style is a little bit different in this chapter as there are many dialogues here. And I'm even worse at this style than my normal writing; so I apologize in advance for my mistakes.

And please do remember that this story is still non beta'ed and non Brit-picked.

Happy reading! :)

WARNING: Mentions of communicable disease and a bit of its scientific technicality. More explanation regarding this is given in the end.

CHAPTER 6

SURROGACY

After her meeting with her brother, Sherline did not waste any time to reach home and tell her decision to John.

John: "Sherly, what non-sense are you talking about? I can't understand a word. I can only hear the words 'surrogate mother' and 'today itself'. Even after these many years, haven't you understood that unless you speak slowly, poor mere mortals like me cannot understand what you are speaking?" It seemed he had completely forgotten about the whole IVF issue due to the recent events.

Sherline: "Well technically that means you understood four words I spoke." But when she received a deadly glare from John, she thought correcting John's logic and grammar at this point would be unproductive. And so she continued, "John, don't be dull. What I'm trying to say is that, that I got a call from the IVF lab where you and Mary had given samples. And they told me that the next step of implanting it into the uterus of the surrogate mother, should be done immediately." Before she could continue John broke in to her sentence.

John: "What? Oh God, I had totally forgotten about it." He sighed mournfully and continued, "We both wanted to have a baby so much… And now see what has happened… I have no one. Life has become one big terrible mess..." John, who now remembered the whole issue suddenly, was filled with sudden barrage of guilt and grief.

Sherline felt guilty that she had brought tears to her friend's eyes again. But well, it had to be done and she couldn't back away now; there was no time. So she ploughed ahead.

Sherline: "John, I can understand that we cannot bring Mary back, but we surely can bring yours and Mary baby into this world, right? And we have to hurry John; they have to do the next step within 5 days for it to be completely successful after that the chances of failure are more. And they had called me yesterday, which means today is the fourth day, John."

John: "I really don't know what to think now. But anyways, what I can't understand is that why they called you when until yesterday you were dead for 3 years."After a moment's pause he added, "Oh right, you attended Harry's phone. But you know what Sherly I'm too depressed to even lecture you how inappropriate your act was, so just leave me alone. I don't want to bring a poor baby into this world of misery and for it to feel as miserable as me when someone he or she loves leaves them alone and goes. No, I don't want that for my child."

Sherline: "John, please listen to me. You are saying all this in a moment of grief, but when after few years, you realize that you have lost the only living memory of Mary, I'm sure you wouldn't be able to forgive yourself. So again I tell you John, come on, get ready and let's both go to the lab and get the procedure finished."

John was by now staring at some far away spot, likely very deep in thought. After few more minutes of tense silence, he said, "I can't think straight now, but I guess what you said about keeping Mary's memory alive feels right to me. But I'm still not sure how just for my selfishness, bringing a baby into this bad world and moreover who would never get the love of a mother, would be any good."

Sherline: "John, now you are just being dramatic! The world will always be that way; we can't do anything about it. And about being bereft of mother's love, well I understand that it is the greatest form of love but this baby will have so many others who would love it, that it won't miss a mother it never knew. And think of this John, if Mary could see you, wouldn't she want you to give her baby a chance of life?" Sherline knew the only thing that will work on John at the moment would be emotionally manipulating him regarding Mary's memories and thoughts. She wanted her friend to be happy for as long as he lived and if a little manipulation was doing something good, she found no harm in it.

But sadly her plan misfired when John suddenly turned an accusing glare at her and asked, "How would you know that? You have not met Mary even once in her lifetime." But when Sherly suddenly turned away, trying to avoid his eyes, he understood.

"You have met her, haven't you? You were stalking us without our knowledge. And Oh God, she was right then, wasn't she? When she said she saw you that day at Tesco and later another day on the street; it was you, wasn't it? And oh god I told poor Mary that she might be hallucinating… that the stress was getting to her. And I was blaming myself, thinking that it was because I was telling her too many stories about our adventures. Seriously God, I should have known… I really am out of words now Sherly, I really am…"

Sherly who by then felt quite ashamed and very deservedly at that, decided that, that was a conversation (or well an argument on John's part) for another time. At that moment what was important was the baby and not whether she was or was not stalking them. So she tried again in a desperate tone; "John, we can talk about that later. But since now you know that I know how Mary would think, I want you to concentrate on the things I said earlier…that is about bringing the baby into this world, because John, we seriously are running out of time."

Finally after few minutes of thoughtful silence, John wiped his eyes and turned towards Sherly with a determined look on his face. And Sherly knew half her battle was won already. But sadly, the remaining part, about her wanting to be the surrogate mother was the trickier one.

John, then said with a determined voice, "Let's go Sherly. Let's go to the lab and finish the procedure and give my baby life."

After a small pause where Sherly was waiting for John to catch up on the part that they needed to call the surrogate mother at this point; John finally caught up.

John: "Oh hell, I need to call that woman before we go the lab. I hope she is free. My God, I'm so callous, ain't I? I'm asking her to undergo such an uncomfortable procedure at a moment's notice. And what would happen if she isn't free? Everything will go to waste then. God… why do all the troubles in the world come to me and that too in wholesale packages?" He moaned ruefully at his fate.

Sherline: "About that thing, I wanted to ask you whether I could be the surrogate mother, John." She added quite sheepishly.

John: "Are you joking? Because this seriously is quite a bit not good, Sherly." When he didn't receive any witty come-back, John was taken aback that Sherly actually wanted to be the surrogate mother. He did not even know what to think or how to react in such an unfathomable situation.

Sherly knew John was flabbergasted on hearing her request, but the time was running out. So she thought she will aid him in his thinking process.

"I know that you are thinking that I'm not serious about this, John. But believe me, I very much am. I have even given serious thought to this and found that it is the most practical idea, since I will be here with you and you can monitor the growth of the baby during all the stages of the pregnancy. Also you know me better than any other surrogate you have chosen; which means I do not have any serious diseases or other infections that I can transfer to the baby unlike somebody else. Also you don't have to pay me! See, there are so many advantages!"

John who was so stunned suddenly scoffed when she said that he did not have to pay her to be the surrogate and said, "Sherly saying that I do not have to pay you to be the surrogate is the height of the 'bit not good things' you have said till now. And saying stuff like these is in no way going to endear me to the idea that I should allow you to be the surrogate. And Sherly, this is not an experiment that you can dump in the bin if the results are not in your favour; it is pregnancy and it is bloody complicated! Your body and mind will not be in your control like you always like to have them; they will start to have demands on their own. And you can't ignore them like you always do. You will have to sleep and eat regularly and you can't just run off behind some criminal at any minute like you always do. There will be so many restrictions, which I'm sure you will never agree to. And then later, will regret the whole idea. So sorry if I don't take you seriously when you say you want to be the surrogate mother, when you just came back to life a day ago." He added the last line with a sarcastic laugh.

Sherly who had been listening to John's monologue like it was a horror story, had kept her outward look as impassive as only Sherline Holmes can be. But inside she was thinking about everything John was telling; about all those horrific things she would have to do if she becomes pregnant like sleeping and eating nutritious food regularly! Truthfully when she made the decision to be the surrogate mother to John's baby, she never actually thought of how tough a job it is to be a carrying mother. She had just thought of the sadness in her friend's face, both now and all those times he had visited her grave. She had caused so much grief to him… and even though it was for his sake, she still felt guilty. So she thought her offering herself to be the surrogate mother so that John can always be near his baby will be a good idea.

But now after hearing everything John was saying, she was a little scared of all the unpredictable factors in this. But then, Sherline Holmes always did like unpredictable things; now didn't she? And mainly because predictable things were so mundane and boring for her. And moreover she never backed away from a challenge and now when her own body would be the challenge, how could she miss that chance?

Well, these were the things her practical brain was saying to her. But somewhere in her so called proverbial 'heart' part of the brain, she knew she would do it anyway, no matter what the risk was… Because she really wanted her best friend to be happy again.

But here in the real world outside Sherly's brain, John thought that he succeeded for once in his lifetime to make Sherly understand that what she was trying to do was stupid. And he was currently dialing the number of the other surrogate when Sherly came back to real world. So she suddenly panicked and tried to snatch the phone out of John's hands. And before John could yell at her, she blurted out, "She has Hepatitis B!"

But John just glared at her disbelieving and said, "Seriously Sherly, just because you want me to me to choose you, doesn't mean you can accuse some poor soul of such a deadly disease! Because I have seen her medical reports before choosing her as a surrogate and she was completely healthy!"

Sherline: "John, I may be a sociopath and a very high functioning one at that, but even I'm not that callous to say somebody has such an infection without proof." She paused for a dramatic effect and added, "Her currently 3 month old boyfriend is HBsAg* positive. And her vaccination history is more than 15 years old and she hasn't taken a booster dose since then because of the cost and she also didn't think it was that important. True that immunity can work upto many more years after vaccination, but she being continuously pregnant makes her weaker. And what you saw were her 4 months old medical reports, that is before she acquired the infection. And her latest reports show her to be positive since it was done especially to check for this; ofcourse without her knowledge, that is." She added smugly.

John was going to ask that how the hell she knew so much about the would-be surrogate when she did not even know about a day ago that such a procedure was going to be done, but her ending sentence and the smug grin answered his question. Ofcourse if someone could take your blood even without you knowing about that, could only be one Mr. Mycroft Holmes's handiwork.

So he said, "I really should have known that when you left so early in the morning to meet your arrogant prat of a brother to discuss your so called resurrection,when you were always in constant touch with him throughout these 3 years. That it must be for something like this sinister. And my God, he has all of mine and Mary's medical reports, hasn't he? No, seriously I don't even know why I'm surprised about that after all these years." He sighed resignedly.

Sherline smirked and said, "Anyway, it was a good thing that you chose her because now because of you we have found out she has the infection and she would be prevented from spreading it to other babies."

John in the meanwhile understood where this was leading now... that he did not have any further arguments to deter Sherly from choosing to do something she would regret later. But then suddenly he thought about Mycroft, because he was sure that he will definitely stop her from doing this folly. But he also knew that calling Mycroft in front of Sherly would not work, so he thought some acting would do some good. So saying that he needed some more time in private to think and decide on the matter, he left to his room upstairs.

…

After sometime John came down with a resigned look on his face and said to Sherly who was perched on the couch as usual that they both should leave now otherwise they would be late and the lab will be closed.

That Sherly was surprised beyond words, was an understatement. She had ofcourse deduced that John was going to call Mycroft to dissuade her from the so called mistake; John was a terrible actor. And she thought she would need to give him the same dialogue that she had given Mycroft earlier, that no matter what anyone thought, she would do as she pleases and all that crap. But she never expected John to come down so calmly and ask her to come with him to the lab without any more arguments.

And all this meant only one thing, Mycroft for some reason had agreed with her plan. But then on second thoughts, it actually meant that her parents had agreed with her plan. Because, ofcourse Mycroft being such a Mummy's pet, would have immediately called her to tattle about silly old Sherly...

But then Sherly decided that she would solve that mystery later because as now she had an even more important thing to do - to go with John and get things done. And like she already knew, a black car was waiting for them downstairs to take them both to the clinic.

*HBsAg : Hepatitis B surface antigen. If it is present in the blood, the person is called HBsAg positive, meaning that the person is infected. And the infection spreads through all the bodily fluids from one person to another, when the infection is active. It also spreads from mother to the child during child birth. For more accurate details, please refer some medical encyclopedia or Wikipedia. :)

AN: From here onwards, the story will be episodic and not like one huge continuous story, like it was so far. You can expect a barrage of such individual chapters in the following days, sometimes 2 or more chapters in one day. And no, I have not written them all already. But I will write them soon enough; mostly because I'm running out of time to finish this. So again, sorry in advance for any inconvenience that would be caused because of that.

And yeah, don't forget to tell me what you thought about this chapter. If you find that any of the explanation, either scientific or emotional was not clear, please do tell me. I will surely try to make it more clear. :)