Author's Note: Hi guys! Thanks for the reviews last chapter! I really enjoyed reading them. This chapter turned out better than I expected. I really like this one too and I hope you do! I don't have much to say so… Happy Easter or any other holiday you might celebrate. 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 Hope Said Anthea's Name

Jamie was over and Anthea was pleased. Just as spending some time at work had done something wonderful for Anthea's soul so did seeing Jamie for the Alice part of Anthea. Why she had stayed away and decided now was safe to invite herself over once again was hard to say but probably had something to do with her own experience with early motherhood or how she expected Anthea and Mycroft to react to a baby. Anthea actually wished she hadn't stayed away so long. Sitting on the floor playing with Hope made Anthea blissful. Hope passing Anthea a toy like she wanted to share was just as incredible now as it was before Anthea had Margot. Her niece was still just as special. It was all the James and Jamie in her.

"Thank you." Antea said to Hope. She took the toy and pretended to be amazed by it for a few seconds. Hope giggled and smiled, pleased with this reaction. Jamie giggled too, amused by seeing Anthea like this. Once Hope had moved on Anthea discarded to toy back into the pile Jamie had brought over.

"You're getting better with kids already." Jamie said cheekily, her eyes bright and mischievous. Anthea rolled her eyes.

"Shut up." Anthea muttered. "I'd always do anything for Hope, even look like an idiot." Hope held up a rattle or something like that to Jamie who didn't see it. She was too busy snorting at Anthea.

"You won't look like an idiot for me?" Jamie teased. Hope shook the toy at Jamie.

"Didn't we do enough of that in school?" Anthea asked.

"Yeah." Jamie sniffed her laugh.

"Mmmama." Hope burbled. Anthea's heart burst into tiny pieces. It had earlier in the day when she first heard Hope say it, too. Jamie's hazel eyes looked down and saw the toy. Jamie dramatically gasped, complete with gawking mouth.

"For me?" She sung. "Thank you!" She held it close to her chest. Once again Hope was satisfied and returned to her mindless play. Anthea's heart was slowly stitching back together.

"You should have brought her over as soon as she started saying that." Anthea chided Jamie. Jamie shrugged.

"I sent you a video." She said.

"It's not the same." Anthea crinkled her nose. It was kind of the same but Anthea was doing a Holmes type argument here and not relenting on her point.

"You just had a baby! I didn't want to bother you with my baby! She already said Dada and you saw it." Jamie raised her voice in both volume and pitch. Hope didn't seem phased in the slightest.

"It's still not the same!" Anthea insisted. It kind of was. Jamie was under no obligation to tell Anthea about every new development and nor did Anthea want to know about them. She wanted the important ones though, like her flighty best friend being called mum by her kid for the first time ever.

"Sorry!" Jamie whined. She relaxed a little and with it her voice went back to normal. "I was thinking of you."

"You thought wrong." Anthea smiled.

"Apparently." Jamie pulled a face. Anthea laughed at her. Hope was happily chewing on something that Jamie insisted was okay for chewing.

"Your husband sends me photos of birds." Anthea levelled. "You texted me that your favourite lipstick got discontinued."

"But that was important!" Jamie interjected. Anthea eyed her.

"It's all more important than birds." Anthea said. Hope was more important than lipstick too, but Jamie might take that to heart. Jamie laughed in her throat.

"Point taken, I'll keep you up to date on all things Hope." Jamie said. Anthea nodded stubbornly and proudly. Jamie tossed her hair and rolled her eyes. "One day at work and you're all bossy again." She teased.

"I'm bossy?" Anthea asked, looking Jamie up and down accusatorially. Jamie seemed to miss that as she nodded.

"In a like all passive aggressive kind of way." She said.

"What?" Anthea scoffed.

"Like heavily suggest something or use your pretty face to manipulate people."

"No!" Anthea held up a finger then pointed it at Jamie. "You do the face thing."

"Yeah but I just do it to sales people. You do it on a high stakes scale." She explained. Anthea laughed. She covered her eyes with the palm of her hand and shook her head.

"Yeah sure. That's me." She said to Jamie.

"No seriously, Ali, it to-"

"Ali." Jamie was interrupted by a high voice coming below them.

So maybe it wasn't quite the world 'Ali'. It was somewhere between 'Awi' and 'Abi', but the meaning was clear. It meant the preferred name of one Alice Clarke also known as Anthea James, and it had just been said by the smallest member of the Baker-Thompson family.

Jamie and Anthea stared at each other, their eyes wide in surprise. The looked down at the baby still happy with her chewable toy and then back at each other.

"She didn't?" Anthea choked on her words as she question what she heard. "That's too many words for her age, isn't it? It couldn't have been meant. It was an accident." Jamie shook her head in short quick vigorous motions. "And my name wouldn't be the third word. It would be something close to Thatch's name!" Anthea justified. Jamie blew air threw her mouth and ran a hand through her hair.

"I dunno." She breathed. "If we can get her to do it again…" Anthea's chest tightened at the thought of it. If she repeated it then it really was her third word…. She'd be the third most important thing to Hope… Or maybe Hope's parents just said her name a lot. Or both. We'll go for both.

Jamie sat Hope up in her lap. She looked around the toys searching for something that had an identity to Hope. She picked up a stuffed white unicorn.

"Is this Ali?" She asked. Hope's little brows furrowed and she looked at the unicorn like her mother was absolutely bonkers.

No verbal response from Hope.

Jamie put down the unicorn. She took a breath and looked around the pile. Instead of choosing another toy she positioned Hope so she could see her mother's face. Jamie pointed to herself.

"Ali?" She asked. Hope blinked her brown eyes. She scrunched up her face.

She giggled.

"No, I'm Mummy, aren't I?"

"Mama." Hope repeated. Jamie stroked Hope's little blonde head then repositioned her. Finally Jamie pointed to Anthea.

"Is that Auntie Ali?" Jamie asked. Anthea waved sweetly as Hope's eyes filled with recognition.

"Ali." She said.

Jamie gasped.

Anthea felt frozen in place.

"Who's that?" Jamie was double checking. "Is that Ali?"

"Ali." Hope repeated again, a little less audible and more like 'Abi' again but it was correct.

Jamie and Anthea looked at each other. They both turned their body in the direction of the home office.

"Mycroft!" Anthea yelled. Mycroft would hate that.

"Myc!" Jamie yelled louder.

"Mycroft! Come in here!" Anthea yelled again.

Hope was not bothered. She'd crawled over to the unicorn and was cuddling it.

Thirty seconds passed.

A disgruntled looking genius entered the room. He had no jacket and his sleeves were rolled up. Whatever he was doing he was frustrated with and now he had been summoned – by screaming across the house no less – he was less happy.

Hope didn't care about Mycroft's apparent mood. As soon as she saw him she dropped the unicorn and smiled brightly. She held a hand out to him waving. He lazily held a hand up in response to appease the baby.

"Both you adult women are in possession of mobile phones which contain my number." He muttered at them, clearly very annoyed. "Better yet; you both possess function sets of legs." Jamie snorted. She looked like she wanted to say something in response but chose not to. Anthea ignored the mood.

"Mycroft, you have to see this." She said. Jamie positioned Hope once more and pointed at Anthea. Anthea, for some reason, pointed at herself too and smiled at the blonde baby.

"Say hi to Auntie Ali." She said. Hope held her hand out to wave. Mycroft quirked an eyebrow and Anthea's smile faltered. It was always when you tried to show someone cool that it didn't happen. Jamie pouted.

"Wrong wording?" Anthea asked. Mycroft folded his arms across his chest.

"Let's try the other thing again." Jamie sighed. Jamie pointed to Mycroft. "Ali?" She asked.

Hope blew a raspberry. She waved at Mycroft again. He sort of waved his hand from where it was crossed on his chest. Jamie pointed back at Anthea.

"Who's that? That's Ali." She was speaking in that tone you only used for babies and baby animals.

"Ali." Hope said. Jamie and Anthea began laughing.

"Hi!" Anthea cheerily peeped at Hope. Mycroft pursed his lips. He raised his eyebrows then looked down to his shoes, rocking on his feet once or twice.

"So?" Anthea asked Mycroft. Jamie looked up at him expectantly, bouncing Hope in her lap. Mycroft looked up from his shoe and returned Jamie's gaze.

"Congratulations," He drawled. "Your child is learning to basic building blocks of communication." His face was neutral. Anthea rolled her eyes, while Jamie looked thoroughly annoyed.

"Come on!" She scoffed.

"Myc," Anthea chided. "It's cute."

"And exciting." Jamie added. Mycroft's steely gaze went between the women. He tilted his head to the side and regarded Hope.

"I suppose it could be." He sighed. "For me it's disappointing. She was my favourite in the family because she didn't speak. James had a great many things going for him but being quiet and picking quiet spouses are not two of them." Mycroft was so lucky that neither Jamie nor Anthea took him seriously as he smirked at Anthea's best friend like someone he had just bested in a chess match. Jamie pulled a face at him.

"I hate you." Jamie said to him. Mycroft shrugged so smugly it almost made Anthea want to grimace. "You think you're so cool, you weirdo." Mycroft licked his bottom lip to stop from smiling more.

The genius crouched on the floor next to Anthea. He held his hand out to Hope. In a practiced manner Hope reached out and took hold of Mycroft's index finger. Gently Mycroft shook her hand.

"Congratulations." He said. Hope giggled happily. Mycroft stood up and smoothed down his pants he placed his hand on Anthea's shoulder.

"You're happy, and that's good." He said softly. Anthea crinkled her nose and tilted her head as she gazed up at Mycroft. She was certain that was meant as something good but if anyone else said that it would have seemed backhanded.

"Thank you?" She said. Mycroft's lips pulled into a smile. He moved his hand from her shoulder and touched the top of her head affectionately. He then began walking away from the room.

"Weirdo." Jamie said.

"Nice to see you to, Jamie." Mycroft said as he walked away. Anthea shook her head. She looked Hope in her dark brown eyes and pointed to where Mycroft had gone off to with her thumb.

"Remind me why we like him again?" She said. Hope silently handed Anthea the unicorn. Anthea took it.

"Whatever." Jamie shrugged dramatically. "It's cute, and awesome, and Hope is brilliant, and our daughters are the best." She said adamantly. Anthea sniffed a single breathy laugh as her fingers ran through the unicorn's mane.

A screenshot sent from James to Anthea with a message saying 'Don't show Jamie'.

Your daughter said Alice's name today. That could be dangerous if said in the wrong crowd. – M.H.

Oh. Sorry, sir. I should have made sure we called her Anthea or A or something. Sorry, sir. – James.

No, it's understandable. Alice loves it. What I am saying, James, is that we need a reasonable excuse to allow her to continue to do so until she learns the other name also – M.H.

Sure, sir. We'll talk about next time I see you. Could just be the fake name we chose to use around the baby or something easy like that. People don't know that Jay and A go way back. – James.

Was it cute? – James.

Cute is a relative term. What you think is cute is not necessarily what I think is cute. In fact I doubt I find many things cute. – M.H.

Yeah, of course sir. But was it what the general public would consider cute on a whole? – James.

Oh yes. – M.H.

Author's Note: So!? What did you think? Did you like it? Please tell me what you thought! I'm excited! Thanks to our guest reviewers; Guests x2, and Marie. Thanks to all of you reading this. I'll see you in six days because uni is busy… Cya!