Author's Note: Hi guys. Thanks for the nice reviews on my unorthodox anniversary chapter. It meant a lot. I am so appreciative. This chapter is a short one and I'm posting it a little early because I have to drag myself out of bed early tomorrow and I'm still sick so I want to go to bed early for once. I seem to have forgotten how to write in the last week soo… Haha. 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 Found The Source of the Leak

Hey, I have a meeting with Holmes today but I want his assistant there. Drop Margot off with Jamie and I'll pick you up from our house, yeah? – James.

It was a strange message to get from James, not that half of James' messages weren't weird but give that Anthea was on maternity leave this seemed odd. What it suggested to Anthea was that James was afraid of this meeting and wanted someone else there as a buffer or he wanted someone there as support for Mycroft. So James had done something wrong or someone else Mycroft cared about was in trouble.

Does Jamie know I'm dumping a baby on her – A.

Anthea asked.

Yeah, I rung her first. – James.

Ah, he had really planned ahead. Then Anthea was right.

Normally she wouldn't attend half their meetings anyway. She usually sat in the front office doing her own work while they met. But James was not someone to be mistrustful of. His reasons were usually well meant.

Just give me a time. – A.

At least Anthea would feel in the know about something happening at work. It would make her feel less uneasy at home. That was something to be glad about any time she got called into the office during her leave.

The office was sombre and reverent as James stood in front of Mycroft's desk and Anthea stood beside the seated genius. His fingers were pressed together and held against his mouth as they listened to James. It's not like this type of atmosphere was unusual for this place but it should still be noted as something important to this particular moment.

"We haven't finished our initial investigation so we're not one hundred percent sure yet." James said. Mycroft looked at him bored look. He knew all about investigations and he was hating how James was explaining things. But James was apprehensive and that's why he was doing this.

They were talking about the leak of information to other organisations. James' people had come up with preliminary results long before anyone at P-A-L-L had. To be fair to everyone involved, Mycroft wasn't trying as a way to make a point, and this was James' people's jobs. They did this type of work every day as just another one of their daily duties.

"But I just wanted to tell you, sir, before it comes out on its own. Because I wouldn't want to deal with this without consulting you." James said. His hands were clasped behind his back. Mycroft gave Anthea a side-eye, kind of mocking James. Anthea didn't want to encourage this behaviour by reacting but she smiled anyway. Even under this atmosphere it was nice to be back here by Mycroft's side.

"Go on, James." Mycroft hummed. "What have you found?"

James squared off his shoulders. He took a breath. He looked like he was staring down the barrel of a gun with no regrets.

"We think it's your uncle, sir." He said. Anthea closed her eyes to keep from rolling them.

"Rudy…" She muttered under her breath along with a few obscenities.

Anthea didn't know much about Rudy as a person – not really. The family never spoke in detail about him. Mycroft loved Varya and she felt like she was still almost a stranger to Anthea. She didn't know Rudy but she wasn't surprised. What she did know was a history of keeping secrets and an underlining jealousy of all things Violet. What she knew of his working career… Maybe he should have been better but where was the loyalty.

Varya and Oscar's mother was Russian after all. Anthea always wanted to ask Mycroft about that.

Looking at James he looked like a doctor delivering bad news about a loved one's operation. Sad but there was also an underlining responsibility there as if he could have done something to stop it or being from the same line of work as Rudy made the whole agency responsible.

Mycroft hadn't moved. He hadn't stiffen and he hadn't relaxed. He was still there with his fingers against his lips, steely eyes looking at James.

"I know." He said.

James looked at Anthea. Anthea frowned and shrugged as discretely as she could.

"You did?" James asked. Mycroft placed the long fingers of his right hand on his desk and leaned back in his chair.

"Or rather, I suspected." He clarified. He was watching his own hand on the desk. "It's part of the reason I wished to wash my hands of P-A-L-L's own mess." His voice was flat. "They brought him in, it's their fault." Anthea felt like taking Mycroft's hand in her own. It was something to do with the flat voice that made her want to. She thought better of it but not enough to do nothing. She put her hand on Mycroft's shoulder. He looked over at it, examined it, and left it there. James shifted on his feet.

"That's kind of why I wanted to tell you, sir." James said. "When it's confirmed I wanted to talk to you about what to do. I wanted to give you a chance to do something before I went to everyone. I don't want you…"

"What?" Mycroft quirked his eyebrow challengingly at James. James clenched his jaw and unclenched.

"He's your family, sir." He said carefully. "Sherlock and Eurus-"

"I didn't call my uncle, James." Mycroft stared James down as he spoke. "That was them. That was their punishment for me. They cannot blame me for this."

"But coming to us first was a good move." Anthea interjected calmly. Mycroft looked up at her through his walls. "It gives us the upper hand and gives you a chance to deliberate, sir." She said. He knew all this. She knew that he knew all this. He did not tear her a new one regardless. He looked back at his desk.

Three minutes of silence passed.

"The moment your team has concrete evidence, James," Mycroft said, tapping on his desk. "You come right to me with it. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." James nodded. Mycroft flicked his wrist. James bowed his head and walked towards the door. Then he stopped. He turned around with a rather haunted look on his face. "Sir?" He said.

"Mmm?" Mycroft hummed.

"All the top agents, the guys I used to admire, they turn out to be out for themselves and jerks." James voiced his own personal concerns. Rudy and Richter, those were who he was talking about. Anthea knew what he was asking silently. He was wondering if he was doomed to go down the same path.

Mycroft fingers tapped against the wood of his desk, making a rhythm.

"These men that you admired, did either of them mentor you?" Mycroft asked – tone way too harsh like any Holmes when trying to give advice that does not come across quite right. "Richter certainly was your boss, yes, but did you learn any of your principles off him?"

"Not really…"

"Because it seems to me that you are forgetting the two people who did indeed teach you everything you know and while one of them is no role model the other one should not be disregarded simply because your luck has lead you to surpass her." It had that quickness to it. A Holmes brain unable to slow down. That was a sign to Anthea that Mycroft cared about all this more than he was letting on. That's why James wanted her here. Her thumb rubbed Mycroft's arm and he tensed like suddenly becoming aware of himself. James looked…. Well, he had a good agent poker face, but his eyes weren't full of that brilliant life of his.

"Sorry, sir." He said.

"James." Mycroft sighed. His hand rose to rest on top of Anthea's that sat on his arm. "Only you control the legacy you'll leave behind." James made a noise in his throat. It might have been a strangled laugh or a sigh of relief. He looked back up with a smile.

"Thanks, sir." He said. "Bye, A."

"See you." She said, smirking at the agent as fondly as she could.

Click.

The door close behind him.

Mycroft buried his face in his hands. Anthea sat herself down in the chair across from Mycroft.

They sat for ten minutes.

Anthea shifted.

"Mycroft?" Anthea spoke softly. Blue eyes rose to look at her. "Varya's mother. Was she?"

"One of us, you mean?" Mycroft raised his eyebrows as he spoke. "Absolutely. The marriage to Rudy was part of her deal to work for us, yes. Did she love him? Absolutely? Was she surprised he left her for a man the moment he quit working? Not at all." Anthea mimed an 'oh'. She wasn't surprised. It was hard to be surprised once the dead sibling card is played. Mycroft quirked an eyebrow. "Regretting the fact that you mixed your genetics with mine, now?" He teased though his heart wasn't in it. His eyes were steely and dull, not a wonderful stormy blue that they could be. Anthea sniffed and shook her head.

"Did you like her?" She asked. Mycroft shrugged.

"Mummy did." He mewed. "She frightened Sherlock. For me she was just…" He waved his hand a few times. "There." Anthea found herself nodding again without anything else to do. It felt stupid but she couldn't respond to that. Not with what had just happened. She was hoping Mycroft would talk on his own but that was not going to happen, was it?

Silence fell for a further ten minutes.

"Rudy." She said. Mycroft scowled and looked at the wall beside him. "Why do you think he did it?"

"I couldn't care less why, my dear." My sneered. "He came to my work during an instable time – somewhat caused by him – and put me at further jeopardy." Mycroft's nose twitched. "Imagine if Sherlock did that to Rosie. Imagine if Hope is sitting in James' office one day." He pursed his lips and shook his head. Anthea's heart twanged.

"Mycroft." She said. Mycroft tapped on the desk.

"I know it hardly matters, I know it means even less to Rudy, but James was the one most likely to lose his job over this nonsense if a culprit was never found." Mycroft continued.

"Lady Smallwood wouldn't let that happen." Anthea said, not sure if she believed it herself, as she tucked a curl behind her ear.

"I don't even want to think about telling this to Sherlock or Mummy. Or Eurus. I'm already surprised Eurus hasn't tried to kill the man."

"Me too." Anthea crinkled her nose.

"Maybe I should have done it years ago. In training. Made it look like an accident." Mycroft's face was twisted in disgust. Anthea leaned forward in her seat.

"Well…. No." She said.

"There's whole bloody building that will have to be renamed now to take the Vernet name off of it because of his disgrace." Mycroft was speaking at the wall. Anthea sighed. She stood up. "Grandmother and Grandfather would be so embarrassed. Mummy will feel it, of course. I'll have to keep it out of the papers somehow."

Anthea walked around to Mycroft's side of the desk. She stood in front of the wall his chair was facing as he was talking. He was looking at her now.

"The only saving grace is that the only person carrying the Vernet name with any worth these days is Varya. Oh, she'll be furious. I -"

Anthea wrapped her arms around Mycroft and embraced him. She buried her face in his neck and held him tight. As soon as she did he froze stiff and stopped talking. After a moment he relaxed and returned the hug. Anthea could practically feel his heartrate decreasing and his breathing calming by the passing second.

She wasn't going to say it's going to be alright because that was stupid and Mycroft would tell her so. Of course it would be alright. They'd deal with Rudy and everything would go back to normal for everyone but him. She wanted to say she'd help him work out what they'd do with Rudy but he knew that too. Mycroft, Anthea, and James would do it and then Mycroft would run it by Lady Smallwood. P-A-L-L as a whole would decide how they'd go about confronting and arresting Rudy – if that was the plan. She could easily just say the all family suck sometimes but he knew that better than anyone right now.

"I'll tell your mum when the time comes." She said. Mycroft's grip around her waist tightened.

"That would be lovely, thank you." He said. Anthea ran her hand through Mycroft's hair – combing it.

"That's what PA's are for." She said, crinkling her nose. Mycroft almost laughed.

Author's Note: Was it okay? I hope so. This won't be the end of this but I haven't decided whether it'll be next chapter or the chapter after… we'll see. Thanks to last chapter's guest reviewers; Guests x2, Observant Potato, and .ever. Thanks to all of you! I hope to see you again in five days.