Author's Note: Hello everyone. The reviews were so kind for the last chapter. I'm really pleased with how well this is all being received. But a bigger thank you for being so patient! That lab report really got the best of me and I had to work hard on it… so hard I had a migraine for two days after I finished it. Therefore this got delayed. I didn't receive one 'where update?' type message and that was amazing. I'm sure my regular update schedule helps because you all know it is a priority for me but I also juggle a lot of things. Anyway this chapter is short but it really does not need to be longer. I like it the way it is. 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.

Margot's First Word

Anthea was done with the moping – completely and utterly done. She was not going to have it anymore. No more Mycroft locking himself in his home office and exiling himself for some bad deed. No more punishing himself or feeling bad for himself for that matter. What was done was done. It was over. Try again. Anthea had given him the respectful amount of time to lick his wounds but now she was missing him.

She missed Mycroft like crazy. It wasn't that he was at the club all the time or complete ignoring her. They spent all their time together. Its just he was distant. Occasionally the real Mycroft would spark through for a moment but for the most part it was fake smiles that would reach the eyes.

Anthea told Mycroft this and it was really that last sentiment that finally got him out of the office.

"I miss you." She had said earnestly and openly, leaning over his desk.

"I'm right here." He had said, as expected. Steel eyes looking at her from behind a wall or two of ice. Anthea had cocked her head to the side and smiled sadly.

"I know. And yet I still miss you." She said softly. "Doesn't that tell you something?" Mycroft had searched her eyes. Really, he searched her entire face. After a moment or two of thought and reflection he sighed. He put his pen down, pushed out his chair, and picked up his laptop.

"I suppose I can work in the same room you are playing with Margot in." He said. The walls were still up, shielding his emotions and hiding the inner turmoil, but he was making a step and he meant it. If he didn't mean it he wouldn't even do it. If he didn't mean it he wouldn't have even tried to smile when Anthea said thank you.

"Margot will like that." Anthea said. "She misses you, too." Mycroft sneered.

"Margot is a baby, she doesn't know any different." Is what Mycroft said. You'd have to know him well enough to see the slight change in posture that suggested his walls had been penetrated and that had got to him. Anthea smiled – an appropriate response to the real reaction and the faked one.

Mycroft's laptop sat open but discarded on the couch. He was leaning forward, elbows on his knees and hands folded together, trying to hid a smile while he watched Margot attempting to stack her blocks. Anthea sat on the floor, knees up and back against the couch, also watching. She wasn't helping Margot. The little girl was determined to play with the blocks by herself even if that meant she couldn't exactly make the best structure in the world before it came crumbling down.

"She's so determined." Anthea laughed as Margot's blocks feel over again.

"She's independent." Mycroft added. Anthea looked up at Mycroft.

"Does she get those from me or you?" She asked. It could go either way, to be honest. Mycroft looked down at Anthea and met her eye. Then he looked immediately back at Margot.

"I like to imagine it's from you." He hummed. Anthea scrutinised what she could see of Mycroft's face. She pushed her lips together and turned to look at her daughter again.

"Either way it makes her such a Holmes." Anthea said mostly to herself, smiling.

A beat.

"Is that a good thing?" Mycroft asked. Anthea frowned. She turned to look at Mycroft. He was still watching Margot. Anthea opened her mouth to answer when Mycroft's mobile began ringing on the couch next to his laptop.

Mycroft picked up his phone and looked at the number. Anthea closed her mouth and went back to watching Margot.

"Excuse me." Mycroft muttered.

"Mmm." Anthea hummed. She folded her arms together around her knees as Mycroft pressed the answer button.

A bunch of work jargon and conversation followed. Some days Anthea might be interested in listening. There were three reasons why today she was not interested; one – it sounded like it was the CIA, two – Margot was more interesting any day, and three – they interrupted what could have been good progress with Mycroft.

Margot abandoned the blocks. She was now interested in that material cube with pictures on either side. It flashed when pressed on some sides and made music on other sides. It had come from Anthea's aunt and uncle as well as some clothes. Margot chewed on one of the soft corners.

As Anthea watched Margot plays she couldn't care less if the world was falling to pieces right now. If it was an emergency she wouldn't move. She'd keep watching Margot. Anthea would rather just make her family happy again. The only people she'd get off the floor for were Jamie, James, Violet and Siger, John, Sherlock, Hope, and Rosie… And maybe Eurus but not for her own sake.

Margot pushed the cube to the ground causing the side on the floor to start chiming some copyright free song Mycroft would probably know, and the side facing the roof to start flasing pink and blue. Margot giggled with delight. She turned back to her parents grinning. Anthea laughed and smiled back at her.

Mycroft got up off the couch and apologised to the American on the other end. Anthea rolled her eyes. As Mycroft started to walk off Margot held up her cube in two hands towards him. Mycroft patted her on the head and kept walking out of the room for some quiet for his conversation. Margot pouted.

"It might be important, sweetie." Anthea tried to explain to her daughter who didn't understand. She rubbed Margot on the back but the little girl had no interest in her mother who was here to play with her. She wanted her Daddy because she was stubborn and determined.

"Da." It wasn't loud and it wasn't said with the most clarity but there it was. It was in the softest, sweetest, highest little voice that it broke through all of Anthea and Mycroft's training as an unknown sound and stood out.

Anthea's eyes widened. Mycroft froze and stopped talking. He turned around.

Mycroft and Anthea looked at each other. Mycroft questioned her silently. Anthea nodded, laughing softly. Mycroft looked down at Margot. She was holding out a little arm to him. Her big blue eyes were pleading for her Daddy to come back to her.

That makes two babies who have called out to Mycroft for the first time in order to stop him going away. The first to stop him hiding by himself and the second to stop him from burying himself in work. What did that say about him? Better yet, would results be repeated?

"I'm sorry, I'm going to have to call you back." Mycroft said into the phone. His voice sounded distant and not all here. It sounded as stunned as he looked. The walls were down – shattered. "Something very important has come up." Mycroft hung up the phone before the person on the other end even had time to comprehend what Mycroft had said.

Immediately Mycroft leant down and swept Margot up into his arms. He held her close and placed a kiss on her forehead. Margot smiled brilliantly.

"Da." She murmured softly. Anthea felt her heart ache heavily before it melted. She pushed her hair out of her face and rubbed on the side of her face just to deal with all her feelings.

"Yes, little one, how can I help you?" Mycroft's voice was full of so much fondness it didn't even sound like him anymore. "What do you need? Anything at all, I'll get it for you." He rested Margot's head against his shoulder and stroked her head. It didn't look like he was prepared to put her down any time soon. Mycroft looked at Anthea, sniffed in disbelief, and shook his head. His face. He looked almost as emotionally wrecked as he had been after Sherrinford. Anthea had to laugh to stop herself from tearing up.

"I think she got what she wanted." Anthea said. Her voice cracked. Mycroft's face changed to a small honest smile.

"Yes well," Mycroft hummed. "She can have me for however long she wants."

Good timing, Margot. Anthea thought to herself. You're such a Holmes.

"Alice."

Anthea was just about asleep when she heard Mycroft call her real name. Her brain took a few minutes to realise and then a few extra minutes to kick itself back into awake functionality. Anthea stayed on her side with the blankets pulled right up to her neck but she opened her eyes and stared at her bedside table. She expected to open her eyes to darkness but she can't say she was entirely surprised to see light coming from Mycroft's lamp.

"Mm." Anthea sniffed. She rubbed her face on the blanket. "Yeah?" Just by the weight distribution on the bed Anthe knew Mycroft was sitting up on his side. The distance between them had been there since the proposal but he'd never stopped sleeping in the bed. He needed her after all.

"I never wanted her and I'm not going to start pretended that I ever did." Mycroft said. It took Anthea a few blinks and some serious concentration in her sleep fog to realise Mycroft was talking about Margot. "But every day, particularly a day like today, I find myself grateful that you knew you had to have her and I knew I wouldn't be able to live without you." That woke Anthea up a bit. She let the words wash over her, stirring her brain to think deeply. They were beautiful, yes, but why couldn't he have said something even half as lovely when he proposed? Office or not he might have gotten a better answer then. She couldn't say this to him. If she did it might cause him to shut off again and feel like a failure. So Anthea focused on the words and how nice they were and what they meant.

"Me too." Anthea hummed happily. She yawned and pulled the blanket closer to her like it was the warmth generated by her family. It made her feel… secure. "I'm so glad we're all stubborn." Halfway back to sleep; Anthea didn't know if she was joking or serious. Both, probably.

Click.

The light went off. Anthea sighed, blissful now there was no longer light behind her eyelids making it just ever so harder to get to slip.

Then there was a shift in the bed.

Arms found their place around Anthea. The blanket was no longer the best thing keeper her warm. Anthea smiled as she felt breathing on her neck. Yes, this was the way it was supposed to be. That's what her brain was saying in its half active state. This was how you got the best sleep.

"Alice." The voice was right behind her now, speaking softly as to not frighten her. Anthea didn't open her eyes this time.

"Mmm?" She asked.

Hesitation. Anthea felt the absences of air as Mycroft's breath hitched in his throat.

"Just because I don't say it very often doesn't mean I don't love you." Mycroft said. As if Anthea didn't know that! If she didn't know that she'd either be a mess or long gone by now. Anthea laughed silently. She found Mycroft's hand and took it in her own, entwining their fingers.

"I know." Anthea said as she squeezed Mycroft's hand. "I love you, too." She said. "Both of you." Anthea added the little girl who said her first word today… If one syllable counts.

"Me too." Mycroft whispered.

Anthea fell asleep holding Mycroft's hand.

Author's Note: I hope that was worth the wait. Let me know what you think, please. I love your reviews so much, especially when something fun happens. Speaking of, thanks to last chapter's guest reviewers; Madalina, Guest, Observant Potato, Bear, and Valkyrie. Thanks to all my readers. You're all awesome. Really, thank you! I'll try to make the big delay up to you guys. I'll try to have something ready by Saturday night my time, which is five days from now. I'm on study break and my exams don't start for a little while so I SHOULD be able to pull it off. If not then Sunday. I'm going to try and pull us back to the regular day, even if it takes a while. See you next time!