Author's Note: Thank you for all your lovely feedback last chapter! I love that people had strong reactions one way or another. As the writer of it I kind of saw both of their points of view so I loved reading who you felt more in line with. Also…. 700 reviews already? ALREADY! You guys are freaking fantastic! This chapter is one you've guys have wanted for a little while and I've been waiting to write, for timing's sake. I really like it but I hope you guys do. I'm still in a lot of pain and have been put on even more medication so I'm finding it a little harder than usual to write but I feel like this is still up to standard. I think you'll like it… Please read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!

Disclaimer: Clearly I don't own Sherlock. The show is the baby of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, while Sherlock Holmes itself is the creation of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The First Time He Was Speechless

Getting ready for a fancy gala in the bathroom of your office is not exactly an ideal situation. When the event is on a Friday night and you and your boss had three projects with a Friday evening deadline, getting ready in the bathroom of your office becomes an absolute necessity.

This was one of those few times in her life that Anthea was seriously envious of men. All Mycroft had to do was change from a suit into a tuxedo in his office and then probably comb his hair. Anthea had limited room to get changed in, wash off her work makeup and reapply new makeup, plug in her curling iron to fix up her hair, and then style it. Anthea had brought a duffle bag full of supplies to work in order to get away with this. The good news was she was finally getting to wear that dress. The dress. That absolutely stuffing dark candy apple dress with the black lace overlay Mrs. Holmes had bought for Anthea after they'd both fallen absolutely in love with it. She couldn't wait to wear it.

Anthea had done her hair and makeup already to stop any powder from falling onto that lovely lace. She'd curled her hair more than usual with very soft curls framing her face. The makeup she'd only done slightly heavier than her day look. With the colour of the dress being so rich, if she'd warn too much dark colours it could easily make her look as if she were trying too hard and that was certainly not the case. Now the dress. Even as Anthea opened up the dress bag to get it out she had to stop and stare, eyes following the pattern of the lace.

Anthea slid on the dress carefully, twisting in strange positions with the dress on almost sideways in order to get the zip on the back all the way up. Once she had it up and adjusted the dress back into the position it should be work, it fit like a glove. Anthea ran her hands down her hips, feeling the material. It felt like it was made for her. Even the colours of the dress seemed to go amazingly with her skin tone and dark chestnut hair. She smiled at herself in the mirror, pleased. Anthea has never possessed a self-esteem issue – she was always very confident within herself – but tonight she felt positively stunning. This is what she needed after everything recently – she needed to feel confident and have fun. This gala was well timed.

When she exited the bathroom and re-entered the main office Mycroft was leaning on the edge of her desk, dressed sharply in his tuxedo. He was sipping a glass of scotch, another sat on a coaster on the desk. As his silvery eyes fell onto Anthea the man almost choked on his drink. He lowered it from his mouth, placing his free hand on his chest as he tried to clear his throat. Anthea frowned slightly as she tilted her head and put on a smile. Steel eyes studied Anthea's entire figure in detail. That wasn't so out of the ordinary for a Holmes.

"Are you okay, sir?" Anthea laughed lightly. Mycroft raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath, still recovering. Instead of answering her, he picked up the extra scotch, walked over and handed it to his assistant. "Thank you." She muttered as she accepted it. Anthea got a quick half smile in response before Mycroft's face dropped back into a neutral expression and he looked down into his own glass, twirling it slightly, watching the liquid dance. If she didn't know any better Anthea would almost say that Mycroft was flustered.

A moment of awkward silence past as the pair sipped their drinks. Mycroft's eyes remained on his glass while Anthea looked around the room and occasionally checked her phone. Silences weren't unusual for the duo, awkward silences, on the other hand, were exceptionally rare.

"Um…" Anthea spoke up. "Is Walter downstairs waiting?" Mycroft nodded. Anthea raised her eyebrows as she looked to the side and sighed.

"So," Mycroft paused to clear his throat and scratched the side of his eyebrow with his ring finger. "Is this the, ah, I'm assuming this is the dress." It was the most unsure Anthea had ever heard her boss sound before. What was wrong with him? He was perfectly fine earlier today. Had he received bad news while she was in the bathroom getting ready? But if that were the case, wouldn't he just tell her about it straight away? Still, she smiled wryly and nodded.

"We told you not to worry about how appropriate it was." She said as she gave a slow turn and posed playfully. "I honestly think this is the best dress I've ever owned."

"It's," Mycroft winced. "Well, you're right. It's fine."

"Fine?" Anthea scoffed, still playing around. "You, sir, clearly don't understand women's fashion, then if you think this is fine." She crinkled her nose as she smiled. She managed to get a small honest smile in return for her efforts. That was at least something.

"Well, my dear." Mycroft sighed, tilting his head faintly to the side. "Shall we get this over and done with?"

"Yes, sir. Let's go suck up to your colleagues."

Anthea had long gotten over being in awe of the splendour and extravagance of these galas and other such events. She did however still very much enjoy the beauty of the ballrooms and dining rooms, the music, and the general atmosphere of the whole thing. Tonight the ballroom was decorated in soft muted colours with white, pink, and yellow flowers. There was a small band playing easy listening type music that were easy for those of a wide range of tastes and ages to enjoy or at least not be annoyed by. It was quite lovely. The only thing that would have made it better was if the alcohol was free. Alas, the host of this event was stingy where it mattered most, and it was a pay par. Well, you received one free glass of champagne upon entrance and then you had to pay. It was also one of those wine only events and Anthea much preferred her spirits and liqueurs.

"Quick socialisation lap and then find a dark corner?" Anthea quirked an eyebrow at Mycroft as she brought the flute of champagne up to her lips. Mycroft rolled his eyes, a faint playful expression in place just over top of his favoured neutral mask.

"My dear, do you even need to ask?" Anthea chuckled as she stepped closer to her boss.

"So," Anthea began as she surveyed the room full of the rich and powerful. "Who here is drunk and gullible enough to buy a pretty girl a couple of drinks?" That sly smile of hers on her painted lips. It was always so easy to play this game at these events with people flinging their money around, particularly when you had a Holmes to pick out an easy mark for you and list off their weaknesses. Anthea had already spied someone in the crowd, she just needed Mycroft's input. "The boy with the blue shirt and black tie has been eyeing me all night. I think he'd be good, what do you think?" She was already mentally preparing herself to smile a lot and flutter her eyelashes.

"No." Anthea whipped her head around, curls hitting her gently in the face.

"No?" She questioned. "No, as in he doesn't fancy me?"

"No." Mycroft looked away and sighed in exasperation at himself. "That is not what I meant. The dullard has been looking you up and down since you smiled politely at him."

"Then what's the problem, sir?"

"There are a lot of influential people here, Miss James, and the children of a lot of reasonably powerful people. I would rather you not get some boy upset for them to go home crying to daddy about how Mycroft Holmes' assistant played a mean trick on them." He turned back to Anthea. "We can both easily afford a few drinks, my dear. Let's not be cheap." Anthea frowned. She looked from the boy, to the bar, then back to Mycroft.

"Sir, you've never had a problem with this before." She tucked a dark curl behind her ear. "I thought it was just a bit of fun for us to stop you getting completely bored."

"No, it is mildly entertaining." Mycroft's expression looked almost pained. "I simply don't feel like playing it tonight, my dear. Just," He raised a slender hand and seemed to move to stroke or touch Anthea's arm before he thought better of it and dropped the hand back to his side. "Stay here. Alright?" Anthea pursed her lips as she looked back over to the guy in blue. A couple of girls had found their way to that group of men and were pretending to laugh at blue shirt's joke.

"Okay." She shrugged. It was Mycroft who had been invited to the event after all, she was just a plus one. "If that's what you want, sir." A pause followed. Shortly after there was a heavy huff from Anthea's side. Mycroft handed her his empty glass as he began to walk off, seeming slightly annoyed.

"Let me go buy you that drink."

Mycroft and Anthea had found somewhere to sit. They'd been spending time laughing at the expense of other guests. Anthea would point someone out and Mycroft would point out some sort of flaw, weakness, or secret they had, then Anthea would make a joke or two. They did this for as long as possible, only socialising whenever someone approached them which did happen from time to time. Like now, for instance.

This time it was that young man from before. The young man in the blue shirt that Anthea had planned to get a drink from, who chose to approach the pair. He smiled politely with a crooked smile and made a kind of awkward bow when he approached. It had made Anthea honestly giggle.

"Hollo, I'm Richard." He spoke with a raspy voice, eyes only on Anthea.

"Sarah." Anthea chose the first name that came to her mind.

"What a beautiful name." Richard hummed. Mycroft clicked his tongue wile Anthea pretended to be flattered. She hushed him playfully with a light flick of the hand and a quick shy look away. "I was wondering, Sarah, if you would like to dance with me." He looked as earnest as a puppy. "Just one." Anthea looked over to Mycroft. His face was neutral, mouth in a straight line, as he looked out into the crowd of people. Anthea turned back to this Richard in the blue shirt.

"I suppose one dance can't hurt." She breathed, nodding. Richard, as eager as the puppy he looked like, offered her a hand to help her up.

The dance was… fine. It was clear that neither Richard nor Anthea had any formal training in dancing of any kind. Neither of them having any knowledge or skill on the subject led to Richard awkwardly leading the dance and a lot of stepping on Anthea's toes. It would have been horrible had Richard not been profusely apologetic the entire time and eventually he and Anthea just had fun with it – laughing anytime something awkward happened or went wrong. At least it was kind of fun. After the song ended Anthea thanked Richard for a fun time and turned down his offer for another dance stating that her toes couldn't handle another round. She did however take his business card with his mobile number and email on it.

Anthea found Mycroft where she left him. He gave her a quirk of his eyebrow and a sardonic smile as she stopped in front of him. She took a moment to appreciate a fairly normal Mycroft Holmes expression, one of the firsts of the evening.

"What?" She laughed.

"That dance was shocking." He stated it like it was a known fact. Anthea rolled her eyes, biting her lip as she smiled.

"Not everyone can have ballroom dancing listed as a skill on the CV." She jested and folded her arms across her chest. "I'd say you owe me a proper dance after you cost me a free drink with him. I could have probably gotten us free drinks all night from that one." Mycroft pursed his lips, eyes narrowing as he thought. Eventually he nodded once.

"Okay." He said as he stood up. Anthea froze.

"What?" She almost spat.

"You said I owned you a dance," Mycroft spoke down to her sarcastically, as if dumbing things down for a child. "And I agreed to it. That's what okay means, Miss James." Anthea blinked.

"Okay." She echoed. Getting a dance from Mycroft Holmes did not usually come that easy, Anthea usually had to get it in writing before the event. She followed him back to the dancefloor.

It was exactly how she remembered it to be. She could feel the warmth of his body radiating off of his chest, the comfortable feeling of his hand pulling her close by her waste, and her hand placed gently on his shoulder. Most importantly, was the absolutely beautiful way he led the dance – keeping it simple and perfect for Anthea. This was the polar opposite of that dance with Richard. Richard's dance had been fun but awkward and a lot of fumbling around. This just felt right.

At this rate Anthea would never get over her crush. Great.

They hadn't stayed very long after their only dance. All the people and their inane chatter had begun to get to Mycroft, and Anthea could see that he was beginning to feel stressed. The poor man could only spend so long in the fish pond before he needed to get out and catch his breath. She'd sent Walter a text, informed Mycroft, and they were soon out of there and back on figurative dry land.

Mycroft and Anthea were back in the comfortable surroundings of the familiar black town car, in their usual seats with that empty spot between them. The alcohol having made Mycroft a little more readable to those who knew him – Anthea could see that he was already beginning to calm down. He seemed to feel claustrophobic when around a large group of 'ordinary people' for far too long. That didn't explain why he'd been slightly off since the beginning of the night.

The car pulled up in front of Anthea's building. Anthea sighed contently as she looked up the building to her own window. Getting home meant taking her heels off. She was looking forward to that, he toes were aching.

"Thanks, Walter." Anthea called cheerily to the back of the driver's seat.

"You're welcome, Miss James." Walter called back.

"I had fun tonight, despite having to pay for all my drinks." Anthea spoke to Mycroft. "I'll see you tomorrow, sir." Anthea unclicked her seatbelt and opened the car door. She was just about to step out when Mycroft stopped her.

"Wait. Just a moment." Anthea turned back to look at her boss. He was looking at his hands like he really missed the comfort of his umbrella. "You looked. That dress was." He stopped and sighed, clearing his mind. After composing himself, Mycroft turned to look at his assistant, "Anthea, you looked positively beautiful tonight." Anthea could feel herself blushing. He wasn't being polite, the fact that he had even struggled for the words meant that he had meant them. She looked at the back of Walter's seat then back to Mycroft, her eyes locked onto the steely gaze. How do you answer a compliment like that from a Holmes, that was so completely honest?

"Thank you, sir." Anthea breathed, barely over a whisper. "Goodnight."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

Author's Note: I told you guys it was coming! What do you think? It was a lot of fun writing another gala. Thea enjoys them even though Mycroft kind of hates them. I can't wait to hear from you all. Guest reviewer thanking time! Thanks to: Corrine, Guest x3, Sophie, Britta, Wink, Wheezzy8, and ovejalucifer. I love all the readers and reviewers so much. You guys are wonderful. Thank you!

Also, I'm going to have to hold off on another special chapter. I haven't even done one for 600 reviews yet. You guys have got to bear with me, I have work, appointments with people about my arm, and have a lot of tablets for the pain and the inflammation. I struggle to stay awake sometimes so I'm just going to wait until I'm doing better and then I'll do something super awesome for you. Thanks for being so supportive guys. In the meantime the chapters will always be up in time and Anthea's blog is always a lot of fun.