Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for understanding. Turns out I really needed the extra time. I ended up being sick, helping my even sicker mum, drama with my sister, three assignments, work, and making a costume from scratch. So I've been very busy. As far as last chapter goes I am very happy with all your lovely reviews. For this one… Well… I only managed to finish it a few hours ago so I really hope you like it. I wish I had more time to edit it. So 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 Refused A Gift

"It's a nice day out, Miss James." Mycroft hummed lightly, having emerged from the inner sanctum to saunter around Anthea's part of the office. He was looking around and moving things. Anthea frowned to herself. She'd been out not long ago and it wasn't exactly what she'd call a nice day. The ground was wet and covered in snow. Not the beautiful crisp white freshly fallen snow either, but the kind that was left over when there hadn't been a fresh fall in a few days. The snow near the road had turned brown and when you trudged through it you felt like you were trudging through someone's frozen bath water. "Why don't we go for a walk?" Mycroft asked. It was a strange request. Maybe once upon a time it wasn't so strange but now it was. When was the last time Mycroft left the office for the sake of leaving the office? And when was the last time he actually asked Anthea to spend some time with him? He had just had those few days off and he did return a little bit more like the old Mycroft, but this was still jarring to the personal assistant. She'd built her walls up so high and was so used to being left alone that Mycroft even suggesting something as simple as a walk during work was awfully alien to her. She glanced at the time on her computer screen and tucked a curl behind her ear.

"I don't know, sir…" The hesitance in her voice was obvious was anyone to hear. Wouldn't he rather be alone? Wasn't that what he'd told himself? That he needed more time to himself to think and not to feel. She didn't want to comply but at the same time she didn't want to discourage any step he was making towards returning back to normal. He cocked his head to the side and faked a smile at Anthea.

"Come now, my dear," Anthea flinched and Mycroft did his best to ignore it. "I'll buy you a coffee." Anthea stared at the time on her computer. She was trying to come up with a reason not to go but her brain was coming up blank. Maybe she wanted go, deep down. Anthea huffed out her breath.

"Alright, sir." She stood up and walked over to the coat rack to get her coat. If she was going to be forced to go for a walk today she was going to be warm.

There was a faint awkwardness to the walk. It was better than it could have been, better than before Mycroft's breakdown. He talked and she talked, and there were a few laughs, but there were definitely some awkward silences. Moments where one would normally take hold of the other's hand and moments where there would be a flirtatious comment, those were the moments filled with silences. Where Mycroft would clench his jaw and look ahead while Anthea suddenly found interest in the snow before her feet. For the most part Mycroft was trying very hard to be as normal as possible despite his level of stress. If anyone was causing the problem it was Anthea. Too used to being pushed aside or hurt at this point she subconsciously didn't want to give him a chance to do it again.

They walked past the park where they sat and people watched so many years ago and where they went often during their understanding. Another time they would have stopped for the sake of her sentimentality even though Mycroft secretly held those memories close by too. Not today. Today they kept walking. They walked until on the way back Mycroft decided they needed to stop for that promised coffee. They stopped at a familiar coffee shop that Mycroft approved of. He went in to order and she found them a quiet table outside.

The smell of the coffee was amazing. It was rich, vagrant, and welcoming, and the warmth felt like it was doing her very soul good. A warm drink on a cold winter's day was like coming home after a long hard mission. She might be slightly addicted to coffee at this point but that was one of the downsides of this job. If you could call it a downside.

It was here with warm cups of coffee outside in the cold that Mycroft and Anthea felt themselves at their most comfortable. Suddenly the walls were gone and all the baggage of the last month, give or take, had disappeared. Suddenly this was a few years ago, even. This was a couple of work friends with feelings for each other comfortably chatting and enjoying each other. This was a genius laughing with one of the few people in the entire world who could genuinely make him laugh, and not in a sarcastic or pompous way. This was a lost little orphan feeling like she belonged alongside of someone once again. It was amazing how a cold exterior but a warm inside could do this. How the world could disappear and they could talk again. Anthea had almost forgotten how heavy she'd been feeling and it was only now when the weight was lifted and she felt like she was floating that she remembered that she was genuinely a happy person and that she could make the man in front of her a little happier too. Why had Mycroft ever thought he'd be better off without this?

"Now Anthea," Mycroft placed his cup of coffee down and crossed his legs. "I know you meant it when you said you don't want any gifts from any men for a long time." A wave of dread crashed into Anthea, burying deep into her stomach. She closed her eyes and did her best to mute her groan.

"Mycroft." She warned, pain in her voice.

"No, I understand completely," He implored with an open tone. "But," He opened his jacket and pulled a small box out of his breast pocket. "On my time off I saw this and it had to be yours." He slid the little box across the table so it was in front of Anthea, in line with her coffee. By the size she knew it wasn't just a trinket or a silly little gift that happened to make him think of her. It was clearly a box from a jewellery store and Mycroft did not have cheap taste. Her heartstrings tugged at the thought that she was still so close to mind that he could be distracted by a jewellery store for her but her gut didn't like any of this. Her fight or flight instincts were setting off alarm bells and her gut wanted her to get out of there as soon as possible. He wanted to be alone and she had listened to him at her own expense. She'd dealt with just as much as he did and now he just expected to throw gifts at her? No. She promised to be his friend but this was something else. Gently but firmly, Anthea pushed the box back to Mycroft.

"Myc," She looked deep into his blue-grey eyes. It was so difficult to find the words to say when she didn't even know what she wanted to say. "I don't know about this." He pushed his lips together and gave a lazy shake of the head as he pushed the box back again.

"Think not of it as an early Christmas present. It's merely a token of appreciation. You've been understanding beyond what is expected of you." Anthea covered her mouth with her hand and stared at the offending box. He was being kind and that was such a good thing but she didn't want kindness from anyone, not even Jamie. But Mycroft had a stronger will than she did so she was probably better off opening it. Inwardly sighing, Anthea snatched up the little box. Inside were earrings with a single sapphire stone each. While clearly new compared to her antique necklace, they were modelled to have the same ornate look. This was not something someone stumbled upon. This was something that took thought, and that was made to order. This was something that was planned months ago, before any of this happened.

Anthea shut the box so fast it made a slap noise as the top hit the bottom. Her heart was beating heart and fast in her chest as she leaned over and pushed the box hard into Mycroft's side of the table. She leaned back in her seat, rubbing her arms as if suddenly overcome with cold and shook her head. She shook her head for ten seconds before she could talk.

"No." She managed to say, still shaking her head. "Mycroft, no." She kept shaking her head. Deep eyes were watching her carefully, his own feeling guarded by the steel. "If you expect me to accept a girlfriend gift then you're crazy." She pointed an accusatory finger at the small box. Mycroft clenched and unclenched his jaw.

"It's not a girlfriend gift." He spoke to her like he was trying to calm down a hysterical child.

"Oh, it is." She laughed despite herself. "And I'm not doing that right now. I –" She cut herself off. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed. What did she want to say?

I love you too much to be able to take this.

I'm afraid this will break me.

How dare you?

Do you think you can do this?

Do you even know what this means?

"I'm trying it your way." She said. "I just want to be left alone." Anthea couldn't meet the genius' eyes as he looked her over. Even if he wore his mask to cover his emotions she didn't want to see anything there. She didn't want to know how he felt.

"Okay." She heard. Anthea looked up enough to see Mycroft gracefully swoop up the box and put it away. "That's absolutely fine, Miss James. I apologise."

That was any atmosphere built up over coffee gone. Evaporated into thin air like the steam that rose from the coffee. It was as if all the effort was for nothing and that was mildly devastating.

Jamie was still dressed in pyjamas at midday when she went to check who was at the door. Anthea, sitting on the couch, watched the back of Jamie's head.

"Oh," Jamie peeped cheerfully out her front door. "Hello Mrs Holmes." Violet. It absolutely had to be Violet. She'd come during all the family stuff to see Anthea, how absolutely sweet and unnecessary. How Violet, the perfect Mother bear.

"Oh Jamie," Jamie leaned forward, no doubt to receive a quick hug. Jamie gestured for Violet to enter. The grey haired woman stepped into the house but immediately turned around to keep talking to Jamie. "You're one of those girls that get prettier every time you see them." She doted, pushing Jamie's hair away from her face. Jamie was grinning and blushing, Violet's charm never failing. "You look stunning. You're practically glowing."

"Yeah, well…" Jamie shrugged bashfully, shutting the door behind her. "It's my job to make people look good." A strange knowing look crossed Violet's face and her cheering smile turned into a smirk.

"No, this is different, dear." She hummed much like her sons when they knew something. She turned back to the room to find Anthea on the couch. She clicked her tongue, cocked her head to the side and outstretched her arms. Immediately Anthea was beaming, this woman being one of the few people Anthea could never be sad around. Violet made her feel warm and welcome. Anthea stood up and met Violet in a hug. "And my dearest Ali is always so gorgeous." Anthea laughed breathlessly as she rubbed Violet's back. "I miss you sweetheart." She squeezed Anthea.

"I miss you too." Anthea squeezed her back. They let each other go and Violet did what Mycroft always did. She searched Anthea's face and deduced everything she could, but unlike Mycroft Violet's eyes gave away her feelings. You could see the pity and the sadness as well as the love. Jamie shuffled her feet.

"You're obviously hear to talk about what I get told off for talking about." She mumbled, pulling a face and making Anthea roll her eyes. "So I think I'm gonna go see if I can get myself a doctor's appointment."

"Call John if he's working." Anthea called out. Jamie shrugged and left the room. With Jamie gone, Violet took Anthea's hands and lead her to sit back down on the couch. Sitting down she kept hold of one of Anthea's hands, gently stroking it with her thumb. Anthea could imagine her doing that to calm her sons who would refuse hugs. "I didn't know you were in town." Anthea said to her. Violet smiled sadly.

"I am. Siger is at home." She sounded tired. "Myc and John needed more members of their make sure Sherlock doesn't escape again defence force and he happens to listen to me." She rolled her bright blue eyes and Anthea snickered, scrunching up her nose.

"If I knew I would have helped." Anthea said. Violet placed her other hand on top of theirs and patted Anthea's hand gingerly.

"I know, sweetheart, but Myc is trying to shoulder as much as this as possible." Again Anthea rolled her eyes. "Oh, I know. He's going to give himself a heart attack."

"He already threw stuff around the office."

"Yes. I heard all about that." She had? Sometimes Anthea forgot that Mycroft was always the good son who called his parents regularly and that his mum was amazing at extracting information from her sons. She was amazing, a role model. "He also told me he tried to give you this." She let go of Anthea's hand to pull her handbag onto her lap and open it. She pulled out the cruel little box and put it on the couch between them. Anthea closed her eyes, feeling a panic attack rising again.

"Violet, you don't get it."

"No Alice, I do." Anthea opened her eyes. Violet was watching her with warm open eyes. "But you've got to stop being so hard on both of you." Anthea scoffed as she tucked a curl behind her ear.

"You're just defending your son."

"I know he's been a right proper twat, dear." She cracked a small smile as Anthea blinked at the language. "I had him trying to justify to me why he kicked you out from sunrise to sunset." She sighed dramatically, much like Mycroft and Sherlock. "I told him how stupid he was and he didn't listen to me. Which means this," She tapped lightly on the box with her fingernail. "Was him working that out for himself." Anthea gritted her teeth and looked across the room to the turned off television than to look at that box or into the eyes of a genius.

"Good. I'm glad he's opening up," She sounded far bitterer than she thought she was. "But I can't do this all again. I got kicked out of my home." Violet gently took Anthea's chin and turned her to look into her eyes once more.

"We know why Mycroft did that, because he gets scared of losing people and the way to fix that is to not have people around him. It's pathetic and not how I raised him." Violet's face fell stern. "He's realised his shortcomings in this area but you haven't." Anthea's brows furrowed and she was taken aback. "You do the same thing, dear." She continued. "While he runs to avoid the pain all together, you experience pain and then you run. He has difficulty comprehending and processing emotions and you have abandonment and commitment issues."

"I have a reason for that." Anthea mumbled quietly to herself.

"I know, sweetheart." Violet patted her hand again. "But you both need to stop hurting yourselves and each other. Get over your issues together. He needs to accept that people care about him and you need to learn to forgive people." Did she have an issue forgiving people? Like her uncle? Was there a reason why she avoided friendships? She had to have some level of forgiveness to talk to Tim like a friend. A friend, yeah, but she always said she'd never truly forgive him for what he did even if they were on a break. Anthea took a breath and rubbed the side of her face suddenly feeling tired.

"I don't, Violet." Her voice reflected the weariness. "I love him but he's still shutting people out. Less, but he is. And I don't know if I can allow myself to depend on someone like that again."

"I'm not asking for you to take him back, or even to start dating him, dear." Violet picked up the box and placed it in Anthea's had. "I'm asking you to accept his token of apology and to stop torturing yourselves." Anthea looked at the little box in her hand. It wasn't that scary. It was a jewellery box with earrings in it. She'd accepted far more extravagant gifts from Mycroft Holmes before. They were beautiful and chosen carefully, and Anthea was tired. She licked her lips and nodded, keeping her eyes on the box.

"Okay." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Okay. I'll keep the gift." She looked up and met Violet's sky blue gaze. "But that's it." The smile that crossed Violet's face was gentle and full of motherly love.

"That's wonderful, dear."

Author's Note: So? Was it okay? I really hope so. Please let me know. I have a whole week off before exams so I'll be able to update in time this time. Thanks to our guest reviewers; Guest, Christie, heysoulsilvia, Louise Pond, Guest 28, and PinkFiday28. Thanks to all my reviewers. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter and I'll see you in five days!