Author's Note: Thanks for the very lovely reviews last chapter. We were all very happy to see Anthea get a few words in with Charlotte, despite whatever Mycroft was up to. I'm really happy you all liked it as much as I did. Now this chapter isn't one of my big ones, since my attention was writing the 1000 Review Myc POV Chapter which is up, but more on that at the end. I came up with this with some help with my best friend since she's the one who got me into Sherlock. She loves Sherlock, we have a Holmes brother each ;P. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy it, it's not too bad. Please read, review, and 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 She Called Him A Pet Name

Jamie and Anthea stopped at a bar on the way back to London from Cardiff. They'd been meeting with members of another government agencies to discuss a mutual meeting. They found the man in charge obnoxious and about three quarters of the way home they still couldn't get the bad taste he'd left out of their mouths. James' solution? Stop for a drink and rinse it out.

Two beers in for James, Anthea ordering her second scotch, and the taste was finally gone and the pair were beginning to feel like their jovial selves again. It was nice to hang out the two of them, no Mycroft, or Carol, or Jamie.

"Why does she just kick off her shoes like anywhere?" James placed his bear down on the cardboard coaster. Anthea cracked up laughing as she settled back into their booth with her new scotch.

"She's always done it, James. At school, our room just had shoes everywhere." She pouted and gestured widely, helping put the imagery in her friend's head.

"Is your flat covered in shoes now?" He asked, looking at Anthea. He turned away to look at his beer before nodding to himself. "I bet your flat is now a maze of shoes." Anthea shook her head proudly.

"My flat, my rules. She doesn't pay rent, she can keep her shoes in her room." James sniffed a laugh as he looked up at Anthea.

"Do you think I could try 'my flat, my rules'?"

"Not if you want a girlfriend." Anthea chuckled. James huffed in defeat and Anthea patted him on the back to console him. Jamie was a fire cracker – there would be no telling her what to do. Compromise, maybe, but not rules. Breaking out back into his trademark grin, James leaned back in the booth, giving Anthea a light tap on the arm.

"Speaking of difficult people, 'Thea." He raised his eyebrows cheekily, Anthea rolled her eyes. "How's-"

Crackle.

James' head shot up, bright eyes flickering around the room, a frown forming.

"What was that?" He hissed. Anthea shrugged as she looked down into her amber liquid.

"Always in agent mode." She mumbled. "Calm down, it was nothing."

Creak.

Anthea froze, slowly tilting her head to angle her ear in the direction of the noise.

"Alright, that one was worrying." She tapped her fingers on the table nervously, looking about. "Did it come from above us?" James' eyes narrowed as he continued to look around.

"I think so." The blonde spoke quietly. "I think I'll need to do some credentials flashing and check the building's co-"

CRASH!

…

Darkness.

Darkness and pain.

Where was she? What had happened?

Anthea groaned as she forced her eyes open. Her head hurt – it stung like hell – and felt wet, like there was something trickling down in her hair. She also felt various places stinging at the feeling of air against them – particularly one side of her body – but the head is what hurt so badly as rolled over onto her back.

Wait. She was on the floor. Why was she on the floor?

Slowly pulling herself into sitting position, Anthea looked around. She was… in a bar? She was in a bar! She had come with James on the way home, and then they'd heard the noises. But then, why did it look like this?

The place was in a little bit of a shambles. Half of the roof seemed to have collapsed right into the club, debris covering everything in sight, even the parts of the bar unaffected by the cave in. People were yelling and climbing over pieces of roof to try and dig through and save anyone caught underneath. Wasn't that her and James' job?

"'Thea." Anthea heard her name. She blinked and looked around. Where had that come from? "Anthea, over hear." She looked down to the left and found it. James was just near her, stuck. A piece of the roof had landed on top of the table, when they were knocked from the booth, and broken it. The tabletop had broken off and was being pinned to James by a rather large looking piece of concrete.

"James!" She exclaimed, crawling over the metre or so on her hands and feet. "Are you okay?"

"Um." He winced. "I think so. Something might be broken, but it doesn't feel like anything penetrated the skin." He shifted under the weight of the… table? Anthea moved to help him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! A! What do you think you're doing?" She blinked in confusion.

"Helping you?" Anthea asked, cocking her head to the side. James frowned.

"A, there's a huge block of building material on it, I don't think you can move that." Anthea looked at the site surrounding James. So there was, a rather large piece of concrete. Wait, didn't she know that already. "'Thea, are you okay?" Anthea sat back down on her legs and took a moment to think about that question.

"Yeah, better than you." She smiled. "My head just hurts." James smiled, but there was concern in his eyes.

"Well yeah, you're bleeding a lot there, beautiful." Anthea put her hand on the top of her head and pulled it back into sight. She saw it slick and red with blood. Huh. How strange, it didn't hurt enough to warrant that amount of blood.

"You're right." She pouted and nodded, wiping her hand clean on her dress. It was then that she noticed the grazes up her arm. Further inspection showed they were up her leg on the same side too, bleeding in places. "Ah." She hummed. She looked back at James and shrugged numbly. He looked concerned for a fleeting second longer before it was shaken up.

"Listen, A. I need you to do something." He spoke slowly and carefully. "Can you do that?" Anthea nodded. "The emergency services will be on their way. I want you to check if the door is blocked in anyway. We need to make sure they can get in." Anthea nodded again. "Just sit up a bit and peer over to the door, okay?" And she did. Anthea stretched up and had a peer around the room. There were shards and debris in the way, like anywhere else in the bar, but nothing big." She sat back down and shook her head, only to regret it.

"No. Nothing big." James seemed to relax slightly. He nodded and smiled.

"Thank you, beautiful." He grinned as much as he could. "There's one more thing I need you to do for us."

"What is it?"

"Get out your phone and open your text messages." Anthea found her blackberry in her bag, the trap still across her chest from when she'd returned to the booth. It was still working, so she opened the messages.

"Okay." She awaited further instructions.

"Send Carol or Mycroft, either one, the following thing. It's just going to be a quick code and a few words, Are you ready?" Anthea clicked open her top message thread.

"Yup."

"380 – No foul play." A pause as Anthea typed. "Got it?"

"What was the number again?"

"380. And no foul play – that's important too. Got it?"

"Yup."

"'Atta girl."

Anthea was awoken by a hand stroking her hair back off her face. She opened her eyes only to be momentarily blinded by the fluorescent lights of the safe house. As her eyes readjusted to the light Anthea could see the stern face of Carol above her. The woman was in a pantsuit that she wore to the office, but she had a yellow backpack slung over her shoulder. The older woman's frown pulled into a smile as Anthea came through.

"Hi there, A." The hash agent used the tone reserved only for her daughter and occasionally for Anthea. So soft, so motherly. Anthea allowed a tired smile to fall over her features.

"Hi, Carol." She whispered before she found herself yawning. She leaned her head to the side and looked around. "Where's James?" She asked with some panic in her voice. Carol stroked her head again.

"He's still being examined; you're in the recovery area. Remember, you went first?" Anthea frowned. No, she didn't. She believed that she saw it, but she didn't remember.

"Shouldn't you be with him?"

"I sent Jamie in there with him. She likes him more than I do." Her lip pulled into a scowl, causing Anthea to chuckle lightly. Not too hard though, it made her head hurt. Oh that's right, she'd been bleeding. If she remembered correctly, there were stitches, or glue, or something, at the top of her head and slightly to the right, where all her grazes were. Anthea rubbed her eyes and groaned.

"Good, I'm glad." She mumbled. Carol tilted her head and looked down at Anthea warmly.

"Not until after she came running in here to make sure you were breathing." Anthea sniffed a laugh. "She's very mad at both of you for getting into trouble that doesn't even have to do with work. I told her James is a walking disaster zone." Anthea nodded softly in agreement, closing her eyes again.

"What's with the yellow bag?" She asked, keeping her eyes closed. It was nicer that way, away from the harsh lighting.

"It's your clothes. J1 packed them and I borrowed some of my husband's for J2." Anthea couldn't help but laugh at this. "Jamie already told you when she came in." Jamie had actually spoken to her? Anthea was under the impression she was asleep when Jamie had come in. Another black out apparently, great. She heard Carol place the bag down with a soft thud.

Silence fell as Anthea kept her eyes closed. She heard shifting followed by a creak. When she opened her eyes, Anthea saw Carol sitting in one of the plastic chairs.

"I've got something I've been ordered to ask you." Carol had her agent voice on, and it made Anthea frown.

"Yeah?" She asked quietly.

"You'll both need observation. The options I have for James is that Jamie can stay with him or he can stay with me." Anthea turned to look up at the roof again. She bit the inside of her lip as she thought. James would like to have Jamie, and he was worse off than Anthea was. That would be nice of her, she supposed.

"He can have her, I see her all the time." Anthea shrugged, turning back to Carol. The woman nodded. Everything was starting to get fuzzy and it was getting hard to focus.

"Then my second question is where to take you. If Jamie's not home tonight then I've been instructed to either take you home with me, or to drop you off at Mr. Holmes' house." A pause as Anthea frowned. "I was even given his address." Anthea sighed.

"I better go to Myc's…" She yawned. Carol chuckled. What was she laughing at? What had she said?

"I got the impression that was the only acceptable choice on his end, too."

Anthea would have agreed if she didn't fall back to sleep.

Mycroft opened his front door to a very dazed and tired Anthea.

"Hi." She sung. Mycroft quirked an eyebrow in amusement as he scanned her injuries. Probably making sure the report he'd have already received didn't leave anything out.

"Hello." He greeted back in what Anthea assumed was a mocking tone but couldn't quite be sure. He nodded back to Carol's car before ushering Anthea into the house, a hand placed firmly on the small of her back. To be honest it made her squirm a little and she was thankful to have enough of her mind together not to giggle. "Come in." He pushed. As they crossed from the entrance hall into the main living space Anthea escaped from Mycroft's grasp and waltzed over to flop into his couch. He stopped to look her over again. "Would you like a cup of tea or coffee, or would you like to go to your room?" Anthea heard the question but was enjoying the fancy couch too much. She collapsed onto her left side and lay the whole length of the couch, her feet up on the arm rest.

"My head hurts." She sighed quietly.

"Mmm." Mycroft nodded. "So I heard." He folded his arms across his chest, standing in that prim and proper way he always did. "Tea, coffee? Water perhaps." That question again? Anthea frowned and waved him off.

"Jamie is at James'."

"I know." Mycroft sounded somewhere between amused and annoyed. "Would you like to go to bed?"

"They love each other. Maybe more than they love me." Anthea yawned, shutting her eyes.

A pause. Hesitation from Mycroft Holmes?

"Don't be ridiculous." He sighed heavily. "Alice, would you like to be escorted to your room?" Anthea closed her eyes tighter and shook her head.

"Your couch is really comfy." She heard some kind of scoff noise.

"I'm certain your bed is just fine, and far better for your back, my dear." Anthea opened her eyes, allowing them a moment to try and focus again as she stared at her boss. He pulled a face as she smiled at him.

"You're so sweet when you're trying to take care of people, cutie. You have no idea what you're doing." Mycroft visibly flinch backwards.

"Excuse me?" He asked. She wasn't sure if it was rhetorical or not, so she shrugged.

"I said you're adorable when you're awkward. It makes me want to hug you every time." She shut her eyes again. "Maybe not hug you, but, like, pat you." Mycroft cleared his throat.

"Well then, bed, Miss Clarke?" He tried again, causing Anthea to giggle.

"There you go again." She smiled, opening her eyes again. "Why don't you try 'feel free to sleep on my couch, Ali. You deserve it.'?" Mycroft tilted his head to the side and gave Anthea a bizarre look that was something like a mixture of confusion and fondness. She'd have spent longer trying to work out what it meant if she wasn't drifting off again.

"Feel free to sleep on my couch, Ali. I suspect that you do deserve it."

"Thank you Myc," Anthea mumbled, falling deeper into the darkness. "I think I will…"

Anthea awoke to a sunlight room and a massive headache. She shouldn't be surprised that the top of her head felt like it would split open – that's precisely what had happened to it yesterday. She was also aware of the stinging of her grazes. They were all up her right side if she recalled correctly, which meant in a few days she'd be covered in scabs. That would look attractive at work. Taking a deep breath to prepare her brain, Anthea sat up on the couch.

Couch?

Mycroft turned around from his seat at the kitchen counter, giving Anthea a smug smile.

"Well," He sung. "Look who has returned to the realm of the living. Any longer and I was going to have to check your vital signs." Anthea rubbed her eyes and groaned.

That's right. Carol had dropped her off and she'd chattered away in the car to Jamie and James before they were dropped off too. She remembers Jamie laughing at her, but holding her hand. She'd then come here and… refused to get off the couch? She didn't remember getting Mycroft's Mum's blanket, though. She was sure she hadn't just let herself into the linen closet.

When she uncovered her eyes Mycroft was still watching her with humour sparkling in his steely blue eyes.

"Good morning, sir." She sighed. Mycroft sniffed a single laugh and finished watching her. He gestured to the kitchen.

"There is coffee and paracetamol up here for you, my dear." He hummed as he went back to reading something, most likely the paper. Slowly Anthea put her feet to the ground, pushed the blanket off herself and stood up. She took each step excruciatingly slow to avoid getting dizzy or a head rush of any kind. She didn't even want to think about what kind of task brushing her hair would be like.

As she approached the counter she could see that there was indeed a cup of black coffee and two tablets waiting a seat over from Mycroft. Anthea pulled out the stool and gingerly sat down. She popped the tablets on her tongue and took a long sip of the coffee. She stopped to enjoy the warm liquid heating up her throat and stomach, almost moaning in joy. When it landed in her stomach, however, she could feel it land on the pit of her stomach, indicating its emptiness. She wasn't one to have breakfast but she must not have eaten for close to twenty hours at this point. Mycroft continued reading silently so Anthea took it upon herself to enjoy the coffee quietly.

A few moments later Mycroft closed his paper and got to his feet. He went back into the kitchen and brought Anthea over her usual breakfast banana. The girl burst into laughter as she took it from Mycroft. He knew her far too well.

"Thank you." She spoke as her laughter began to subside. Mycroft didn't answer verbally, but he gave her that naughty little boy smile of his. Anthea went to begin pealing the banana when she realised there was probably a good couple of questions to ask first. She lowered her hands onto the counter, still holding the fruit in hand. "Um, sir?" She asked.

"Hmmm?" Was the answer she received.

"Did I text you or Carol yesterday afternoon, sir?"

"Me, of course." Mycroft answered as he brought the coffee back up to his mouth. Anthea nodded. She thought so, she was running on half power, after all.

"And um," She winced as she thought of her next question. "Did I say anything embarrassing yesterday?" She watched as Mycroft lowered his mug once more. "I made both Jamie and Carol laugh, and James gave me a lot of concerned looks." Mycroft pursed his lips and she could tell he was considering his answer. That only served to worry her.

"Not particularly. Other than calling me 'Myc' of course." He scowled at the nickname.

"Oh no!" Anthea rubbed her hand down the side of her face. "I didn't even do it as a joke, did I? Sorry, sir." He waved her off. Anthea sighed as resumed pealing the banana. "Well, if that's the worst I said, then that's good." She shrugged.

"That was all." Mycroft hummed as he opened the newspaper up and continued to read.

"Wait a minute." Anthea stopped pealing the banana once more. "I contacted you, so you told Carol to go get Jamie." A pause as Mycroft frowned into his paper.

"Your point, Anthea?" He huffed. Anthea crinkled her nose as she began to smile cheekily.

"You were planning to bring me here so Jamie wasn't just for me." Mycroft clicked his tongue and folded his hands on top of the paper. He turned to face Anthea with a tired expression.

"Have you decided to take my brother's role as the long winded detective, here?" Anthea chose to ignore that comment as she continued to smile.

"You brought her to go home with James. You we're doing something nice for James." Mycroft sneered and turned away.

"Eat your fruit, my dear." He mumbled. Anthea chuckled and shook her head.

"You claim to not like people…"

"I don't. James is a valued employee."

"You sent him his girlfriend."

"I've spent most of James' adult life training him to work for me perfectly. If I have to send his silly little girlfriend over to make sure he doesn't do further damage to himself than I will." There was an edge to Mycroft's voice.

A pause.

"And you don't trust Jamie around me with a head injury."

"She'd find a way to make it worse."

Author's Note: So? What did we think? A pop up from our favourite agents but a fair amount of Mycroft. Though this wasn't a big chapter, I feel we still had some development, yeah? Time to thank the guest reviewers! Thanks to; Corrine, Anon, bunnyrabbit00, Guest, Lemon (Jess, go away :P), Wink, Wheezzy8, Sweet Pea, bgeiner, and EggsBenedict. Every reviewer is absolutely amazing! Which brings us too.

The 1000 Review Special Mycroft POV Chapter is up! Go check my profile, you'll find it. It is, of course, the Kiss. It's my big thank you for reading this stupid fic. I love you all!