"So we have an abandoned baby with only a photo that may be the mother?" John asked as he was leaning forward in his chair with elbows on his knees.
"Precisely," Sherlock replied as he was sitting in the chair in front of him with his fingertips together and grey eyes narrowed. "Why would anyone want to abandon their child and leave only a photo?"
"Maybe she was poor and didn't want to give up the baby?" Molly asked as she was feeding the chid with a bottle from the couch.
John gave a small shrug. "Sounds like it." He looked at the detective. "So if she can't take care of the child, why try to find her?"
"Obviously she wanted to be eventually reunited with the child," Sherlock answered as he stood up, hands behind his back, staring at the photo that was pinned on the center of the wall above Molly. "She didn't want to put out too much information like name or anything, but didn't want the child to be empty handed. She clearly didn't want the child forget about her." He looked down at Molly. "Where exactly did you find the child in the alley?"
She looked at him with concern. "He was laying on the floor behind a dumpster. All wrapped up."
He looked straight ahead of himself, then to the baby. "Clearly she cared about where she placed the child. She didn't carelessly throw him him away, but placed him in a safe area by a dumpster."
"So if she wanted to reunite with her baby," John began, "that means that she never wanted to give him up. Which means that we have to find this woman?"
"Exactly."
"Why not just place her photo in the news-"
Sherlock gave him a glare that looked as if the doctor was stupid. "If we post her photo in the newspaper, we'd have a bunch of desperate look-alikes all wishing they could be mothers."
"There are people like that," Molly added.
John nodded, accepting it as an answer. "Alright. So the case of the Abandoned Baby then."
"'Family Ties' you could call it," Molly chimed in, making them both look at her. "Reuniting a mother and child." She smiled gently. "I think it's lovely."
Sherlock and John gave each other small smiles, knowing that if this case ended well, it was going to have a good end.
"Now then," Sherlock clapped is hands together. "We need to start the search." He walked over to the couch, took down the photo, and headed for his coat.
"Let me guess," his friend muttered, looking at him over his chair. "Your homeless network?"
"Of course." He looked at his friend with wonder as he was placing his coat and his scarf on. "They would know." He looked at his friend. "Stay here with Molly. You're a dad. You know what to do."
John was about to say something, but he was already opening the door and Molly hurried to the detective's side to give him a quick kiss. "Be careful, alright?" She asked with concern.
He smirked. "I am I not always?" He then walked out, closing the door behind him.
"So says the detective who was a drug addict," John grumbled while standing up. He then noticed something strange in the eyes of the little lady. "Is something wrong?" He quickly waved his hands. "If I said anything to worry you, I-"
She lightly shook her head. "It's not that," her voice was low. She looked back at the dark-grey door. "I always worry about him."
John nodded his head, knowing what she felt.
Two hours had past when Sherlock returned to the flat at two in the afternoon. Forgetting that there was a child, he was about to close the door, until and John and Molly silently gestured to him to be quiet, pointing at the sleeping baby on the couch. Annoyed, Sherlock silently closed the door.
"The baby only fell asleep fifteen minutes ago," Molly whispered.
He rolled his eyes. "Great. Now I have to worry about a sleeping infant," he grumbled in a whisper. He looked at John who was sitting in his chair. "Thank God you're here."
John gave a proud smile. "Good thing I have a baby now myself."
"John helped me with him while you were gone," Molly explained with smile. "He even got temporary supplies, but," she looked at the detective with concern, "the child needs mother's milk."
Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Won't formula satisfy?" He hissed.
"Sherlock," John whispered, standing up. "The baby's only six months old. Mary is still nursing."
The detective quickly waved his hands. "Not now. First, I got a tip."
Before they could say anything, he pulled out the photo from his coat. "No name, but supposedly she used to go to the local pub every Saturday, but hasn't been seen for awhile."
"We need to search the pub on Saturday," John stated.
"Indeed we do."
"So that means," he heavily sighed, "we have to wait six bloody days."
All three of them sighed as Sherlock was in annoyance. As long as the kid was quiet, things were going to be fine.
Three days had past and the last night the child kept crying, making Molly get up to comfort the baby in the living room.
Sherlock just ignored it and carried on to sleep.
In the morning, Mrs. Hudson came by. "I thought I heard a-"
There, sitting on the couch, was Molly bottle-feeding the baby.
The landlady's face dropped with confusion, then smiled as she closed the door. "I didn't know you were pregnant."
Sherlock, who was in the kitchen working on a experiment, nearly dropped a glass beaker at those words. Sighing with annoyance, he made his way over the living room as Molly was trying to explain what happened to the older woman, who was leaning over the baby. "It's a orphan," he coldly announced, catching the landlady's attention. "Molly found it in a alley and we're looking for the mother."
Mrs. Hudson looked sympathetically at the child and placed a hand over her heart. "Oh, poor dearie." She then smiled at the couple. "You two would make lovely parents."
Sherlock rolled his eyes.
"Are you thinking about it?"
"We aren't even married," Sherlock answered lowly as Molly looked embarrassed.
"Well, I know you aren't always just sleeping. I could see the way when Molly looks at you and I know that you-"
"Mrs. Hudson!" Sherlock cried.
"I'm just saying it's healthy for a relationship," the landlady stated, looking slightly offended by the outburst.
Sherlock pinched the bridge of his nose as his girlfriend looked away with a smile of embarrassment.
"Well," the landlady began as she headed for the door, "I'll off to the market. Need anything for the baby?"
"We're good, thanks," Molly answered with a smile.
She gave a final smile, then walked out the door.
Sherlock didn't look at Molly, clearing his throat. "That was interesting."
"It was," Molly agreed as she was finished feeding the baby, placing the bottle down on the floor, and stood up, walking to her boyfriend. "You can hold him if you like."
He just looked down at the brown-eyed infant with his own eyes. "Hmmm no." Then headed for the kitchen. "I don't deal with children, Molly. Only search for their mother," he explained. He was never the kind who had a soft spot for a child and never will be.