Author's Note: Hey guys, thanks for the lovely reviews. I'm so relieved you liked that chapter. I wasn't sure I'd have this ready in time but I totally did. It was easier to write than last chapter was so that was nice. I hope you like it. 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 They Organised Maternity Leave

Mycroft sat Anthea down in his office. He made her sit in her usual chair, offered her a cup of herbal tea or maybe some water. She turned him down. He offered to get her something to eat and she only gave him a quirked eyebrow. She didn't like this nice routine that was going on, it was too saccharine for Mycroft. They were at work, he wasn't even supposed to ask after her here. It was her job to keep an eye on him.

Mycroft sat at his desk. His elbows were on the wooden desktop, his palms pressed together with his two index fingers against his lips. He watched Anthea silently. She sat as comfortably as possible in her seat and watched him in return with that quirked eyebrow still in position. Mycroft took a breath. He looked down and moved the handle of his tea cup so it was facing him just at the right angle.

"I understand that neither of us wanted this to happen anytime soon." Mycroft's velvet voice flooded the room. Anthea shifted so she sat straighter in the chair. Those words were ominous. "However, for you safety I believe it should happen soon." Mycroft's piercing blue gaze fell onto Anthea. It might make a weaker person squirm but not Anthea.

"What should happen, sir?" She asked darkly. Mycroft took a breath. His hands were now folded together on the desk.

"Your maternity leave." He replied. Anthea rolled her eyes and laughed. "I am offering an extended leave. Naturally I can give you as long as you need after the birth of your child but I do think you should go on leave soon."

"No." She said with a smirk. "I think I'd like to work for as long as possible, sir." She told him jovially. Mycroft's face was stern like wrought iron.

"Anthea." He warned.

"I'll get bored without either work to do or a baby to look after." Anthea replied, giving Mycroft a teasing look. "Don't let me die of boredom."

"Anthea." Mycroft said again. Anthea rolled her eyes again. "Need I remind you of the multiple times we've been under fire? Or even how dangerous travelling can be?" Yeah, she got that. She understood where he was coming from but Anthea loved her job. She wasn't looking forward to maternity leave anyway. What would she do? Sit around reading all day? Hang out with no one?

"Understood, Mycroft." Anthea nodded. "But let me come in and do all the emails, correspondence, documentation, and planning."

"You can do that from home." Mycroft leaned forward. "You constantly have my ear so I do not see a problem with you keeping yourself occupied from home." Anthea folded her arms across her chest.

"Why are you trying to get rid of me?" She asked. Mycroft scoffed and leaned back in his chair. "You got a younger woman around?" She joked.

"Man, actually." Mycroft replied sarcastically, eyebrows dancing up and down once. "As it so happens I can be sexually attracted to a very specific kind of person." His mouth pulled into a smirk and Anthea crinkled her nose and pulled a face at the genius.

"You could just invite him home." She continued the joke.

"Stop deflecting." Mycroft ruined the joke.

"It's not that dangerous here, sir." Anthea shrugged her shoulders. "What's wrong with me doing office work?"

"I want you to be comfortable." Mycroft hissed. "For Heaven's sake, Anthea, I am sick of seeing you rub your ankles because your feet hurt. I am always willing to help you up but I can feel the second hand embarrassment and anger radiate off you when you need help out of your seat. If you're at home and you feel fatigued you can just have a bloody nap and not force yourself to keep working on files." His eyes were piercing her skull. It was Anthea's turn to sit back in her seat quietly. She looked Mycroft over. He was serious, really serious. This wasn't about safety, this was about her comfort. But to Anthea her comfort also meant having something to do.

"Will you bring me important files home to look at and do for you?" She asked softly. Mycroft curtly nodded. A second later he replied verbally.

"Of course." Was the response that went with that nod. Anthea tuck a curl behind her ear and took a deep breath.

"But what are you going to do?" She asked. "About errands and filing? You can't poach James anymore."

"I'll find someone to come in once or twice a week to do that. You can train them." He responded like he had it all worked out.

"You'll need to find someone quickly." Anthea replied. She pursed her lips as she thought about this little part time job. "It'll have to be someone trustworthy who can keep their mouth shut too, which is hard." Mycroft smirked.

"I know." He hummed delightfully. "Do me a favour and tell Carol about this conversation but do so as if it's a friendly conversation that means positively nothing." He said. Anthea pulled a face. Mycroft nodded. Anthea sent Carol a text.

"Mycroft Holmes, what are you doing?" Anthea asked with a sigh.

"Getting someone we can trust so that you can relax." Mycroft said smugly. Anthea couldn't help but feel just a little suspicious even if it was apparently for her benefit.

At first Anthea had no idea what Mycroft was planning. Carol and Anthea had discussed the issue the way they normally would as friends; vague and only complaining about it. Carol probably didn't enjoy maternity leave that much either so it was easy to complain to her, especially given that she couldn't have worked from home the way Anthea and Mycroft had set up for Anthea to do. Some people, like Jamie, thrived in time off from work, others, like Anthea, didn't so much.

It was when Katie turned up knocking at the government office door that things began to click together. She stood there, her brown hair with highlights pulled back into a neat but stylish pony, and shy and polite smile on her face. She wore a suitably modest but pretty blue dress and carried some files in her hands. All of a sudden all of those pieces clicked into place and Anthea could see what Mycroft and thought out. They could trust Katie. A quiet daughter of a high up agent. She had been brought up in this world of secrecy, she adored James and Anthea, and was respectful to Mycroft whenever confronted with his imposing figure. Mycroft wanted Katie for the job. If she could live through the interview of course.

"Hello." Anthea sung when she realised she'd been looking over the young lady and she hadn't said a word. Katie smiled politely. She still did her make-up how Jamie taught her to do it a few years ago.

"Hi. Can I come in?" She asked. Anthea nodded and extended a hand to gesture to the space in front of her desk. Katie quietly closed the door behind her and approached Anthea's desk. With those long legs she towered over the desk but she had none of the muscle of her mother. If she learnt to own that height she could be great.

Anthea smiled. Katie did too.

Silence.

Looks like Anthea was going to have to be the talkative one for once.

"Did your mum drop you off?" Anthea asked. Katie shook her head.

"I came straight after class. I got James to text me the address." Her hands fidgeted against her files.

"Oh." Anthea hummed, eyebrows lifting as she nodded once.

Silence again.

"You know it's just me, you don't have to be scared by an office." Anthea crinkled her nose. Katie laughed breathlessly. She shrugged her shoulders.

"I've never been here." She said, finding her voice a bit.

"It's not as scary as the other office." Anthea rolled her eyes. "That one might as well be a cave." And Katie laughed again. Anthea smiled, happy to put the girl at ease. "Can I help you, Katie?" She asked. Katie bounced on the spot.

"Ah, I heard you guys, erm, you and Mr. Holmes need some help when you go on maternity leave." She tried to correct herself to make it more formal. She pulled paper out of her file and held it out to Anthea. "I wanted to give you my resume." Slowly Anthea took it. She looked at the front page. High school graduation, attending university, part time jobs. This was a sweet first resume but Mycroft didn't look at resumes and he had already made his choice anyway. So Anthea put the little document down beside her keyboard on the desk.

"Better yet, why don't we go have a chat with Mr. Holmes?" Anthea hummed. Katie's eyes widened.

"Oh. Now?" She asked. Anthea nodded.

"Is that a problem?" She asked. Katie bounced again.

"No!" She said. "No, I just thought you'd g… two would like to discuss it first." Anthea chuckled softly. She took some time to get out of her chair.

"We do things a little differently around here." Anthea said. She walked to the door that lead to the inner sanctum and knocked. She waited three seconds and pulled open the door. Mycroft looked up from his screen. "She's here." Anthea said, looking at him with amusement. Mycroft nodded.

"Bring her in." He said, closing something on the computer with a click.

Anthea pushed the door open all the way. She stepped to the side and gestured for Katie to enter before she did.

"Ah, Katie, so nice to see you." Mycroft sung as the Katie entered the inner sanctum. Anthea walked passed her to come and stand by Mycroft's side. Mycroft extended a hand to gesture with an open hand to Anthea's usual seat. "Please have a seat."

"Hello. Thank you." She smiled as she sat down. She crossed her legs by the ankles and tucked them under the seat. Her hands clung to the edge of her folder as it sat in her lap. Mycroft and Anthea exchanged a look that Katie was reading way too into. Mycroft cleared his throat and faked a smile.

"I understand you are here in search of part time work." Mycroft fluttered his eyebrows and kept that intimidating smirk. Anthea wandered if Katie had ever seen any other side of Mycroft than the bored face he put on at work events.

"No!" Katie jumped forward in her seat. She blinked and regained some composer. "I mean yes, sir, but only while Miss Anthea is on maternity leave." She was still a little shy but there was some of the girl Anthea knew shining though.

"Oh." Mycroft pouted his lips, acting the fool which he certainly was not. He looked at Anthea with a quizzical look, Anthea shrugged her shoulders playing along. "Why, pray tell, would you be looking for temporary employment, young lady?" Mycroft folded his hands together. Anthea cocked her head to the side. Katie looked between them as if she might have been catching on to their tandem act.

"All people my age need money, sir, but my mum and I talked and this would be good for my future too." She said, eyes shifting between the government worker and his assistant.

"Explain." Mycroft said. Anthea smiled innocently. Katie took a breath.

"I'm studying PR, sir." Katie forced herself to sound braver despite herself. Good, she needed that. "And there are contacts and possible clients I can meet through here and through you that I can't meet anywhere else, sir." Mycroft laughed and looked at his desk. He moved his pen away from his computer and near his files.

"Little Katie, I am only a government employee, I don't know who you expect me to know." He smiled. Something flashed in Katie's eyes – a recognition. She nodded in response.

"I know, Mr. Holmes." She nodded. "Just like James and my mum are just police officers, and Mrs. Watson was just a nurse." Anthea's mouth broke into a grin. Mycroft looked at her and she quirked an eyebrow. They both turned to Katie.

"What do you think your mother has told you?" He asked.

"Nothing." Katie replied. "Not officially, she just doesn't correct things and leaves things unsaid for a reason. She says smart people can connect the dots."

"Do you think you know as much as Jamie?" Anthea asked.

"I was asking Mum about her job before I even met you." Katie replied. Whatever Anthea's face did to show how impressed she was it got to Katie and the girl blushed.

"Would, um, would you like to see my resume?" Katie asked Mycroft. She looked at Anthea and only now seemed to realise that Anthea didn't bring it in.

"No need." Mycroft sighed. "What is there to see? High school graduate, studying at university, little to no experience in any field. Why should I let you touch my files when James can't even get them right?"

"Because Anthea can teach me?" Katie looked at Anthea quizzically. Anthea nodded, that was a right thing to say. "Because I'm already better organised than James and if I have questions I already have Anthea's number in my phone. And James'! So I could always ask him too." Her brows knitted together. "A-and I live with my mum, I know not to ask questions and to not open files that I'm not told to open." Yes, she was doing well. She needed to go on though. She stopped talking but Mycroft and Anthea waited silently begging for her to keep saying the right things. "And I know a lot about you, sir, from Anthea, and James and Jamie. I know things you can't stand in people and I'm pretty sure I can work around most of those things. Which is why it's good I have Anthea's number so I can bug her with questions instead of you."

"Mmhhmm." Mycroft hummed thoughtfully.

"A-and mum taught me kickboxing!" She added as an excited afterthought. "So I can look after myself." Anthea and Mycroft exchanged a look. They both laughed softly.

"It won't come to that, I assure you." Mycroft sung.

"We want someone to put the files away once or twice a week in the government office, not get into fights." Anthea said.

"That is what my brother is good for." Mycroft rolled his eyes playfully. Anthea laughed causing his lips to pull into something close to a natural smile. At lease Katie was accustomed to seeing Anthea making Mycroft smile, she always did that at work events.

"Also, your Carol's daughter." Anthea added.

"Ah, yes." Mycroft turned to look at Katie once more. "And no one will want to touch Carol's daughter. Lest the rage and might of James fall upon them."

"And we can't forget who James' greatest ally is." Anthea reminded Mycroft of his own power that people would fear. Mycroft waved it off like he wouldn't care but Anthea and James would care which means Mycroft absolutely would care.

"Um…" Katie looked a little weary. She was trying to hide her frown as she tried to find a way to turn the conversation back onto her skills. "I'm also a really fast typer. I know it's for filing mostly but I can do that if you need me to, and I'm cool with Mac and Windows." She stopped and bit her lip. "And I'm good at answering phones. Like I don't get shy like a lot of people do-" Mycroft held up a hand to silence Katie. She stopped talking immediately. Mycroft lower his hand and folded his hands together on the desk again. He looked up at Anthea then back at Katie.

"To be honest, Kaitlyn, my decision had been made before you even stepped foot in this room. As I'm sure was dear Anthea's." He sighed. Katie looked breathless and nervous. "If I didn't think you were a good fit then you wouldn't be sitting here. If Anthea didn't think you were a good fit she wouldn't even have notified me that you were here." Anthea smiled at Mycroft's words, hoping Katie would see the comfort. The young lady swallowed her breath.

"So…" She said. Mycroft rolled his eyes.

"You're hired." He muttered, a little annoyed at explaining himself. Katie bounced in her seat again but wide eyed and happy this time. "This time after class every week is acceptable. I believe you have Monday off from university too, correct?"

"Ah, yeah." Katie nodded vigorously.

"Good." Mycroft replied. "Come in next week on those days for Anthea to train you. We'll have a contract drawn up also."

"Oh, thank you!" Katie beamed happily. Mycroft leaned forward.

"And remember you will only be doing office work. I will not have you in any danger, your mother can hold me to that." He said seriously. Katie laughed.

"He means it." Anthea added sharply. Katie nodded again.

"I know." She said. "I'm just excited. Thank you guys, er, Mr. Holmes and Miss…"

"James." Anthea said. Katie pulled a face. "I didn't realise he was going to be my friend. I just named myself after the guy in the office." Katie laughed again. Even Mycroft let her see a bit of a smile.

"I bet he loves that." She giggled.

"It's why we routinely put him down around here. Keep his ego in check." Anthea crinkled her nose as she played with Katie.

"Oh, is that why?" Mycroft looked up at Anthea, joining in the game. "I assumed that's how everyone talks to James all the time."

"That's just you and Carol." Anthea stroked Mycroft's arm. Katie laughed again. Mycroft looked her up and down.

"Thank you, Katie, that will be all. Anthea will see you on Monday." He dismissed her. Katie was caught by surprise by the sudden words and Anthea walking to the door to escort her out. She'd have to get used to this.

"You know, you could have just told me." Anthea hummed to Mycroft. It was the end of the day and they were ready to leave the office. Mycroft was holding Anthea's coat open for her. She slipped one arm in as Mycroft pursed his lips and moved his head from one side to the other.

"I could have," Mycroft agreed as Anthea slipped her arm into the other arm of the jacket. He let go and Anthea pulled on the coat to neatening it. "But it was more fun this way." Anthea turned around and gave Mycroft a questioning – although clearly amused – look. Mycroft had a smug expression on his face.

"Making your puppets dance?" She asked. Mycroft hummed, looking up at the roof.

"No." He looked back at her. "Surprising you with the perfect solution." He leaned forward and kissed Anthea on her cheek. He straightened up and pulled on his sleeve. "That, and demonstrating how easy it is to manipulate people you know well."

"So making, your puppets dance?" Anthea repeated. Mycroft winced.

"As long as you understand that you weren't one of the puppets." He said, trying to keep the childish grin off his face. Anthea had one on her face.

"Obviously. I was the audience." She said. Mycroft pulled back.

"No." He sounded offended. "You were my assistant, as always." Anthea made a strange noise that was a mixture of a sigh and a laugh. She stroked Mycroft on the arm. He was a strange one but at least she could appreciate his strange behaviour.

"I don't want to go on leave already." She said quietly.

"It's not yet." Mycroft said, being pedantic.

"Mycroft." She called him out on it the way John would for Sherlock. Mycroft rolled his eyes.

"I know, but I don't want you to be unsafe while you're limited." He replied. Anthea's heart gave a strong heavy beat. She hugged Mycroft. He was tense with surprised but had relaxed into it by the time she let go of him.

"You wouldn't be this worried if it wasn't for that time I was at Baker's Street, would you?" She asked.

"I might be," Mycroft conceded, "But I may have trusted you more had it not happened."

"So it's my fault I'll get bored?"

"At least partially."

Anthea's face was full of forlorn as she looked at her boyfriend. He chuckled, face warm with a natural smile. Gently he pushed her on the shoulder to leave the office. This was more than just a little her fault. There were so many times where if Anthea had given up on Mycroft he wouldn't love her so much that he'd be this concerned. It was at least half her fault that he loved her.

Author's Note: What do you think? Okay? Thanks to our guest reviewers: Guest, and B. Thanks to all my reviewers. I love you all. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

By the way, this visiting the hospital all the time thing is really emotionally draining on my mum and I, and I have a Christmas related story to write for the Mythea Christmas fic swap I organised on Tumblr so I have to delay the chapter a day. Two at the most. But keep an eye out for that other story in the meantime. See you in probably six days.