Author's Note: Hi guys. Thanks for the awesome reviews last chapter. I was really happy with it and your feedback just makes me even happier. I decided after my first exam that I probably shouldn't do any big/serious chapters when I don't have the time to work on them… So thanks to all the Tumblr people who helped me think of some pregnancy firsts for the next chapter or two. They're things that I should have on my list anyway but I've been too busy to think of so it's really helpful. 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 The Pregnancy Affected Her Smell

It was one of those really long meetings at the Diogenes Club. A meeting between a bunch of old men talking about stuff that Anthea had to take note of but didn't really care about. None of it affected her job or were really anything important to her unless Mycroft asked her do something. Yet she had to be here. Partially out of her own pride; showing the club and these men that a woman was important. The rest of it was because she was Mycroft's assistant and considered more important than most of the men in this room. Really what all this meant was Anthea drained her phone battery by playing games on it while these men talked about whatever they were talking about and Anthea would do what Mycroft told her to do. At least she was being paid for this. Better than being shot at.

A meeting this long also meant complimentary beverages and food on behalf of the club. As much as Anthea hated them they did do good food. They had some great chefs hired that could make risottos and pastries that others could only dream of.

As if on cue a member of the club staff came into the room carrying a large silver tray. The men's talking lulled into silence, not wanting to discuss these matters in front of staff. You could see the heat radiating off the tray. Good it was warm food. But a scent hit Anthea's nose that made her crinkle it in displeasure. Whatever the food was it did not smell good. It was only just in the room and bothering Anthea like a faint smell you could not identify. The staff member put the tray down in the middle of the large wooden desk and the men all muttered polite and insincere 'thank you's. Mycroft said nothing and Anthea offered a small smile instead of saying anything.

The food was mini quiches. She could see ones with bacon, some with spinach, and some with both. Quiche? That was it? Anthea liked quiche when done right. So why was this smell undesirable? A product in them couldn't be bad, the staff would never allow such a thing and if they did they'd get fired. Then what was it? The staff member maybe? But they had bowed and left the room and the smell was still here.

Oh well. Anthea turned back to her phone deciding it would be best to just try and ignore it.

Instead of disappearing the smell only increase. Just as the warmth radiated off the quiches so did the smell, filling the room. A few times Anthea cleared her throat or sniffed her nose to try and clear her senses of the smell. It was pungent and bordering on don right disgusting. She tried her best to continue to ignore it. Finally Anthea's whole body disagreed with the scent. A shiver went down her spine and her stomach churned. She couldn't stay in here.

"Excuse me." Anthea said. She began to lift herself up out of the chair but found the same issues she had in the office chair. Her centre of gravity had shifted and she couldn't get up out of the chair in one swift movement. Because she had spoken everyone was looking at her. So she turned to Mycroft. "I need to leave them room." She said to him. Face unchanging, the genius stood up from him chair with ease. Lucky. He offered Anthea his hands. She took them and he pulled her out of her seat. "Thank you." Anthea said quietly, not looking at the others in the room. Quickly she walked out of the room.

As soon as she was out of the room, Anthea coughed. She rubbed at her forehead and inhaled as much clean air as her lungs could hold.

"Ugh." She shuttered. That smell had been the worst. There was no reason for it too. Not only that, she then had to deal with the embarrassment of not being able to get out of her own chair! So much for her pride. Anthea wondered how many preconceived notions of women she just accidentally affirmed for at least one of those men.

Anthea dropped her hand from her face to see a staff member glaring at her. She had coughed and then made a verbal noise. Oh no, how dare she! These stupid rules. Anthea pulled a face at the staff member and rolled her eyes. They walked off looking snubbed.

That smell, it was the pregnancy, wasn't it? Anthea had seen on telly and movies that it affected scent for a lot of people. Jamie hadn't been effected but Mary couldn't be around cooked lamb. So it must have been something in the food. Eggs, bacon, spinach, cheese, pastry, it was all nice stuff in quiches. Something in them had gotten to Anthea and that would be just another nice thing she couldn't have. Just like coffee…

Anthea resisted the urge to sigh by rubbing her face. She wasn't going back in that room. Down to the dungeons with her.

Click.

The door into the dungeon closed softly behind Mycroft. As the genius stood at the door he did not look annoyed. Instead he looked concerned.

"Anthea." He spoke from just inside the doorway. "Should I be concerned?" He asked. Why was he asking? It was obvious that he already was. Still, it was cute. Even with her he still tried to conceal him emotions slightly when she could see right through most of his attempts.

"Ah." Anthea did something between a pout and smile as she jutted her bottom lip out but smiled as well. "Everything is technically fine, sir." She said. The tall man took his time to assess her and the context and what technically meant.

"But?" He spoke in a singsong voice, prompting Anthea to continue. She shook her head, it was nothing for him to be concerned about. She would tell him anyway because he would never take no for an answer and she told him almost everything anyway.

"It was the food." She explained. "The smell." Anthea crinkled her nose.

"Ah." Mycroft sung as he nodded slowly. The genius walked coolly into the room now he knew there was nothing to worry about. "Oh, my dear." He hummed. "Given your trauma induced fear of the smell of bleach the last thing you needed was for your pregnancy to create other scent related aversions." Anthea blinked and looked down at her page. The mention of her issue with bleach, the reason she couldn't use it in the bathroom or on the floors, reminding her momentarily of that uncomfortable time. Uncomfortable was putting it lightly. Uncomfortable didn't make her heart rate increase. She hummed in agreement. It was annoying to be a difficult person with smells. "Do you have any idea what in particular about the scent it was?"

"No." Anthea looked back up at her boyfriend/boss. "It could be anything. Cheese, egg, bacon, spinach." Mycroft licked his bottom lip and pouted his lips in thought. A few seconds passed and the genius hummed thoughtfully.

"We'll do an experiment when we get home." He said.

"We have hardly any food at home." Anthea pointed out dryly, enjoying correcting the genius a little bit.

"We have eggs and cheese." He rose his eyebrows as he spoke. "That's a good place to start."

As soon as they got home that afternoon Mycroft lead Anthea straight into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and began searching the empting abyss for what he was looking for.

"So what are we going to do?" Anthea asked as she leant back against the counter. "Cook some eggs?" Mycroft made a noise or hum of disagreement from within the fridge.

"That requires more effort and would be step two." He said. Mycroft emerged from the fridge with a plastic container. He held it out towards Anthea triumphantly. It was the blue cheese that they had in there. Anthea sighed.

"Oh, Myc." She said. "That stuff is strong anyway."

"Precisely." He gave her that Cheshire grin. "It means faster and more accurate results. Before Anthea could argue further his long slender finger peeled away the lid and he was pushing the container further into Anthea's personal space.

Anthea gagged. She physically gagged. She pushed the container out of the way and walked over to the sink. She leaned over it as she coughed a few times just in time. If the quiches were pungent than this was life force consuming. The smell had hit Anthea like a tonne of bricks. Blue cheese was never her favourite smell but that had sapped away some years from her life.

Anthea heard the click of the plastic against plastic as Mycroft put the lid firmly back in place on the cheese container. Anthea was just beginning to be able to breathe from her nose again as Mycroft chuckled softly and put the container back in the fridge.

"Don't laugh." She waved at him. "I already can't drink coffee. It can't be cheese. The little one can't take cheese away from me, too. That's not fair and not something to laugh at."

"Maybe I started too strong." Mycroft mused, his nose still in the fridge. "Maybe it's not all cheeses." He emerged from the fridge with an unopen camembert in his hands. Anthea groaned and rolled her eyes.

"No more experiments, Myc." She whined. The genius walked right past her to get a knife out of the drawer.

"Hear me out." He hummed. He opened the wrapper and cut a wedge out of the soft cheese. The genius brought the wedge up to Anthea's face. As soon as a whiff of smell hit her nose Anthea hit Mycroft's hand away.

"Don't." She hissed, turning back to the sink. She shut her eyes and scrunched up her features. "It is cheese." She huffed. "Oh, this sucks." She glared at the ceiling of the kitchen.

"It is a pity." Mycroft's voice came from the opposite side of the kitchen. Anthea looked over to find him. He was in the pantry. Anthea frowned.

"What are you doing? We solved it." She said. He came out with a packet of crackers, checking the best before date on them. "Mycroft, don't eat the cheese!" Anthea exclaimed.

"What?" The genius asked defensively, widening his eyes. "I opened perfectly good camembert. I'm not letting it go to waste just because you can't stand it." Ugh! He was such a Holmes. Sometimes Anthea just couldn't believe his behaviour and how innocent it was. He had no idea what he was doing was rude or offensive to her, because if he did there was no way he'd be doing it.

"I can't believe you." She laughed, shaking her head.

"It's good cheese." He argued, opening the packet of cheese.

"I can't stand the smell!" Anthea almost yelled.

"That's why I'm eating it." He said like it was obvious and Anthea was being the idiot. Anthea scoffed. She wasn't mad but she was annoyed by the behaviour. She left the kitchen and headed up to the bedroom. She needed to lie down and forget this day. She'd dream of a large cup of coffee and a toasted cheese sandwich that she could eat.

"Here."

Anthea was woken up from her nap on her bed by the sound of Mycroft's voice. She was still fully dressed from work, only having removed her shoes, and laying on the still neatly made bed. It was one of those naps that left you feeling disorientated rather than any better or refreshed than before. Anthea sat up and stretched out her back as much as her baby bump would allow her to do. She blinked her eyes and looked up at the expectant genius in front of her. His steel eyes were focused on her face…

He had said something, hadn't he?

"Hmm?" Anthea asked him to repeat himself as her brain began to kick back into gear. She could use a coffee right now. She could really, really use a coffee. The baby kicked as if to rub it in.

"Here." Mycroft repeated, jutting his already extended arm out further. He had long ago mastered the petulant child or teenager tone. Anthea took the items from his hands and looked at it. It took her tired eyes a second to register what she was looking at. One was a block of rich chocolate and the other was just a packet of chocolate covered caramels.

"Is this your stash from your office?" Anthea asked as she looked at the packages. The genius didn't even question how she knew he had a stash.

"Yes." He replied straightforwardly. Anthea quirked an eyebrow and looked up at Mycroft.

"Why are you giving it to me?" She asked.

"Because the amount of dairy products you can eat has just become severely limited." He smirked a little as he spoke. "If you can't eat cheese you can have my chocolate." He shrugged his shoulders. "I can always buy more and I can still eat cheese so this is no skin off my nose." There he was, trying to justify his kind behaviour and act like it wasn't just a nice gesture. Anthea silently laughed at his little jab.

"You're both mean and sweet at the same time." Anthea said to him, grinning playfully. Mycroft cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow.

"Thank you?" He asked/said. Anthea laughed again.

"You're welcome. And thank you." She said, referring to the chocolates. She patted on the bed next to her for Mycroft to sit down. There was a beat as Mycroft considered this, his body a little tense, and then he sat down. Anthea took his hand in her own and he tightened his fingers around hers. "Want to share the block of chocolate with me before dinner?" She asked. Mycroft grimaced and shook his head.

"I just ate too much camembert. I'm not entirely sure I even want dinner at this point." As soon as he finished speaking Anthea hit his arm. The genius chuckled evilly.

"Why do I put up with you?" She asked.

"Because I've conditioned you to put up with my behaviour through rewards and gifts." Mycroft replied. Anthea scoffed.

"I don't think so." She sung. "Those are all 'I'm sorry' and 'what would I do without you?' gifts." She crinkled her nose. Mycroft pursed his lips and moved his head side to side as he weighed up this opinion.

"Perhaps." He said. "But it's worked."

Anthea continued to smirk and rolled her eyes. She opened the block of chocolate, broke off a piece, and put it in her mouth. Mycroft held out his free hand. Anthea broke off another piece and handed it to him.

Author's Note: What did you think? Fun? Okay? I'm pretty satisfied with this chapter but I hope you will be. I love reading your thoughts. Speaking of which… Thanks to last chapter's guest reviewers; Guest, Christie, and Madalina. Thank you to all of you reading this.

I have two exams next week and I'm doing more studying than my brain can handle. Instead of outright skipping a whole update, I'm going to do what it would have been back when I wrote every four days. So I won't update for 8 days. Please forgive me, Wednesday Exam and Thursday exam = nonstop work. See you then! Sorry! If it's any consolation I'm pretty sure I aced Tuesday's exam.