Author's Note: Hello, dear friends. Thank you for your kind words regarding last chapter. I'm glad you liked it – I did, but I'm a little put off by how easily Magnussen comes to me. Bad guys have always been my thing. As for this chapter. Well, I asked those of you who follow me on Tumblr if you wanted fluff or an argument. This is what those of you chose. I planned the bones of the chapter with ovejalucifer so she deserves a mention for helping me. The chapter turned out okay. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I'm in one of those moods where even the kiss chapter wouldn't have satisfied me. Any who, it should at least hold up. 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.

His First Argument With Jamie

Mycroft placed his cup of tea firmly back down on its saucer as he watched a very familiar blonde lady cross the road, heading towards the café.

"What is she doing here?" He hissed quietly at his assistant. Anthea looked up at Mycroft from her blackberry. She followed his line of sight and brightened up upon seeing her best friend. She was dressed in a black skirt and a striped blouse that Anthea was sure both belonged to her, and not the blonde. At least the pink heels were actually Jamie's.

"Oh." Anthea hummed lightly as she raised a hand to wave, and to show Jamie where she was. The blonde beamed back, and began her way through the doors to the café. "She had a job interview at an upscale boutique and I told her if she finished around now, we'd be at lunch so to come join us." Mycroft was watching Anthea as if she'd just been speaking a language he didn't quite know how to interpret. Anthea tilted her head and chuckled. "What?"

"Why on Earth would you do that?" He asked flatly, still watching her, perplexed. Anthea rolled her dark eyes.

"Because she's my best friend and I love her." Anthea's smile fell faintly into something more polite as Mycroft quirked a brow and looked down at his coffee, turning the little cup around in an almost compulsive action. "I'm sorry, should I have asked?"

"Well, it's far too late for that." Mycroft muttered quietly as the blonde girl finally made her way to their table. She took a chair for an empty neighbouring table and sat down at an equal distance from both Mycroft and Anthea. The rigid aura Mycroft was projecting, and the glare his cup was receiving, suggested that he wanted to move over but was being stubborn and wasn't going to. Typical.

"Hey guys." Jamie sung. Anthea could see Mycroft barely keeping a scowl from forming on his lips. She chose to ignore him and his weirdness right now.

"Hey." She answered, pocketing her phone. "So how did the interview go?" Jamie's eye widened for effect and she nodded.

"Good, good." She gestured to Anthea's plate, asking if she could pinch a quarter of her sandwich. Anthea nodded and pushed the plate closer to Jamie. She chose not to look over and see if Mycroft was watching them with judgement. "They really liked my book and I know my old boss will give them a good references, so here's hoping." She crossed her fingers tightly. Steel eyes were rolled at the superstitious action, as Mycroft turned his cup once more. Jamie looked over to Mycroft playing with his cup of tea and back to Anthea, completely unfazed. "So what have you two been up to so far, today?"

"That is not information you need to know, Miss Thompson." It was barely audible, as both pairs of dark eyes landed on the brunette. Jamie pulled a face and Anthea dismissed him with a light shake of her head.

"Just stuffy meetings. Like three of them." Anthea sighed in exhaustion at the mere thought of the morning they'd had so far. Jamie stuck out her bottom lip, pouting in sympathy.

"We're any of them at least good, or entertaining?"

"Need to know basis." The sing song voice came. Anthea looked the man up and down with a faint frown, he seemed nonplussed by it.

"No. No good ones. Not even anyone we could make fun of." Anthea was far better at being polite when not revealing information.

"Not even mustard stain guy?" Anthea giggled as Mycroft shot up, staring at Jamie.

"Yeah, not even him." Mycroft slowly turned to look at his assistant.

"You've told people about private conversations?" Anthea frowned as she titled her head.

"No, not people. Just Jamie. And you know that I know better than that. Just anecdotal, harmless things." She looked him over, trying to work out his motivation, as Mycroft looked back down to his cup and fought of the urge to shrug. "Is that a problem, sir?"

"Merely curious." Jamie bit the inside of her lip as she and Anthea looked at each other in puzzlement.

"Ah, well…" The blonde sighed, ignoring the strange genius. "You get days like that."

"Try, a whole week." Anthea moaned. "It's that time of year where it's meeting after meeting. I never look forward to sleep more than I do during times like this."

"At least you have a fun weekend to look forward too." Jamie's large smile showed all her front teeth of. Anthea took a deep breath of relief and nodded. "So where are you planning to take Robbie?"

"Robbie?"

A pause.

Both girls looked once more at the government official. His eyes had finally left the poor porcelain teacup once more to be on his assistant. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only person you know who goes by a little child's nickname is your university boyfriend 'Robbie'." The way he said the name, like it disgusted him, like that was a name not worthy of a man. Anthea pushed her curls out of her face, before nodding slowly.

"Yes, sir. You're right. It's that Robbie." Mycroft's mouth pulled into a dubious smile as he sniffed a single laugh.

"And if I'm correct, you broke up with him multiple times because you, and I quote, 'just didn't quite fit'."

"Yes." Anthea nodded.

"So?" Jamie added shortly. Steel eyes flickered briefly over to her, like an afterthought, before returning.

"I'm baffled as to why you waste your time with people you had already deemed inappropriate for their original purposes." Jamie and Anthea shared a silent look.

"He's my friend, sir. That's all, not like it's something you should be concerned with."

Silence.

Jamie raised her eyebrows and took a deep breath.

"Sooooo…" She breathed out. "Any plans with Robert?"

"Well, I don't know. We're going to go out for a nice lunch on Saturday, and catch up with uni people for dinner and drinks. He said he'd like to see where I work…" Anthea trailed off as she heard the man in front of her scoff. Once again Jamie and she gave each other a look. Anthea folded her hands together on the café table and took a steadying breath.

"I'm sorry, sir?" She asked with irritation. "Did I do something wrong this time?" Mycroft leaned back in his chair, echoing Anthea's body language, crossing one leg over the other.

"Well, if you must know, Miss James, I do not approve of you bringing one of your exes to my office." A muffled scoff came from Jamie, which Anthea chose to ignore.

"You mean, our office, sir. I must have some claim over it by now." Mycroft nodded, seemingly only to placate the personal assistant. "Secondly, what do you care if a tech guy sees the outer office of our government office? He couldn't care less what a government official does, he just wants to see my wooden box."

"It's not him, I worry about, Miss James." Mycroft's fake belittling smile fell onto his face. "It's what he might accidentally see and what someone could pry out of him that worries me." Anthea's lip pulled into small ridicule as she shook her head.

"Who's going to try and pry information out of Robbie?"

"Who's going to lock Alice in a laundry or a bathroom?" Anthea swallowed hard as dark eyes held onto steel pools of water.

"Whoa, talk about below the belt." Jamie muttered, pulling a face. Mycroft clicked his tongue, steel eyes flickering over to the platinum blonde.

"Please try to watch what you say, Miss Thompson, you're a far larger security risk than some little creature who fixes electronics for a living." Jamie looked shocked and offended as she stared the man down.

"Mycroft." Anthea hissed.

"Excuse me?" Jamie held a hand to her chest. Mycroft turned back to the brunette with the tamed curls.

"This Robbie isn't the first of your little slips, Miss James. I can forgive perhaps Jamie knowing where the office is, after all James is to blame there, but you introduced them. The lawyer seemed to somehow know where we worked and waltzed into my office like he owned it. Last time I checked, my office was a secure location, not a little hang out for you and your flavour of the month." It was Anthea's turn to look at Mycroft with appal.

"Flavour of the month?" She repeated the words on her own tongue. Jamie twitched as in internal mother bear/sisterly instinct kicked in, her whole body turning to Mycroft, full of attitude.

"She said he wanted to see where she worked, not that she was going to. For a genius, you don't listen well." She sneered. "Plus, who are you to say who she hangs out with. You don't own her."

"Jamie," Anthea warned. "I don't need your help." She turned poignantly to Mycroft. "Though she's right, you don't own me. Sometimes you don't even want to know me." He barely seemed to listen as he watched the makeup artist instead.

"And who are you to jump to conclusions when you've been absent for the majority of the time I've known Anthea. She's a perfectly fine person until you turn up, then she regresses into whatever it was you two thought you were. Why don't you take your garish belongings and go back to your little town?" He gave her that smug, icy, smile, as Jamie crossed her arms across her chest.

"Really? Because I encourage her to see her friends. Friends, Mycroft, they're people who enjoy your company, but you wouldn't know that."

"I know what friends are, Miss Thompson." Mycroft scowled. "Of course, I could forgive you for underestimating another's intelligence when comparing it to your own. What do you do for a living? Draw on people's faces? My, how utterly stimulating." His sarcasm as cutting as always. Jamie's eyes narrowed angrily onto the icy many.

"It's an art form! I help people feel good about themselves. I help people feel beautiful. But I guess a walking computer can't really know what it's like to feel something. Does it hurt your brain when you see people hugging?"

"Jamie." Anthea hissed, rubbing her head with her forehead. Hazel eyes fell onto her. "You're not helping, okay? So maybe you should go home?" The blonde cocked her head and looked her best friend deep in the eyes.

"But 'Thea." She leaned forward.

"I'll see you later." Anthea insisted. Jamie looked over to Mycroft and sighed.

"Fine." She stood up. "Talk later." With a huff, the blonde was gone.

Anthea listened to her friend's retreating footsteps as she looked down at the table, preparing herself. She started straightening the table, putting her cutlery in the right positions.

"Please don't talk to her like that." Anthea moaned. "Imagine if I talked to your mother like that."

"Perhaps you shouldn't be interacting with my parents and I shouldn't be interacting with your little friend." Anthea looked up at Mycroft. She looked deep in his eyes with a disappointed expression.

"Don't do that." She sighed again. "Don't play this game with me again. Every time you get a little hurt, you run away, taking everything in you. I don't want to put up with the same old argument of 'stay away from my life'." She rested her head in her hands. "Do you want to make this easy and tell me what I did to put you in a bad mood?" She heard Mycroft shift in his chair.

"My work is secretive, Anthea." He explained in that neutral tone. "And you're spreading it around like wildfire." Anthea pulled her hands off of her face. She was too tired to argue as she leaned back in her chair.

"No one knows what we do." She sighed. "Tim and Robbie knew I was a PA for a government official, too minor to do anything important. Jamie has no idea what any of us do and it drives her crazy. I tell everyone else I work for the government." She paused briefly as she looked Mycroft over. He had is faintly annoyed neutral mask in place, and Anthea was just not in the mood to see through it right now. "Mycroft, the office has your name on a little placard."

"My name shouldn't even come up in conversations with your exes."

"Just one ex, sir." She shook her head. "One, and it comes up because all my stories involve you. I spend all my time with you." Steel eyes flashed down to the poor porcelain teacup once more as his finger danced around the rim.

"Clearly you don't if you have time to parade this Robbie all around London this weekend."

A pause.

Anthea frowned to herself.

She leaned forward.

"Is this about Robbie?"

No answer. Just a scowl.

"Are you annoyed that I'm spending time with Robbie this weekend?"

"Don't be absurd." The reply came too quickly. Anthea fought of the smile by pursing her lips.

"Let's make this clear, sir." She tapped lightly on the table for emphasis. "I'm single, so I'll spend time with whoever I want, whenever I want out of work time. You don't have a say in that, and last time I checked, you didn't want a say in anyone's business in that way. Isn't that why you sent me after Charlotte Cunningham?"

No answer. Just pursed lips.

"Finally. Robbie's a five out of ten in looks at best. He used to be a seven, but now he's a five."

No answer. Just a faint quirk of an eyebrow.

"And not because he put on weight, like I've said to you before, I don't care about that. It's because we're not in uni anymore, and he's a computer geek not a punk, he needs to stop with the eyeliner."

"How abhorrent." Mycroft finally spoke, expressing his distaste on his face. Anthea couldn't help but let a little smile slip.

"So I won't let anyone near the office if you don't say a word about my friends, sir. Deal?"

A pause.

"Fine."

"Hey, Jamie, listen." Anthea winced as she prepared to speak to her best friend as they ate. Jamie's fork full of spaghetti paused mid-air as hazel eyes filled with confusion. She placed her fork down, sensing the oncoming talk.

"What's with the seriousness, Ali?" Both girls already in pyjamas sitting at the makeshift dining room table with candles lit, like the jokesters they tended to be. "Did you bring me here to dump me?" Anthea rolled her eyes, smiling.

"It's about you and Mycroft at lunch."

"Ah, here we go." The blonde rolled her eyes, picking up her glass of white wine and bringing it to her lips. After placing it back down, she pointed at Anthea. "I was just sticking up for you."

"And I know that, and I love you for it." Anthea placed a hand on her chest in demonstration. "But I know how to deal with Mycroft, I defused him after you left."

"I didn't want to see him hurt you again, Ali. Not after before." The girl was so heartfelt. Anthea clicked her tongue the way a mother might at her hurt child.

"I know, thank you, Jay, really. But I'm okay. What will hurt me is if you two can never at least try to semi get along ever again." A pause, as Anthea smiled. "Remember when your names for each other were more playful than hurtful?" Jamie pouted as she filled up her glass. She shrugged. "You wear your heart on your sleeve, and Mycroft locks his away in a safe-"

"If he has one." Jamie muttered, interrupting. Anthea closed her mouth and gave her friend a flat look. "Sorry, of course he does. He has a pulse." Anthea ran a hand through her hair.

"You don't have to like him very much right now, Jamie, but if you're going to argue with him you're going to have to learn how to play it like a diplomat." Jamie groaned and slumped in her chair, bored by the word 'diplomat' alone. "Jamie."

"Yeah, alright." She shrugged, still in her limp position in the chair. "Only for you, though. And maybe James. For some reason James likes him."

Anthea's phone pinged on the table, light flashing. She picked it up and looked.

"Oh." She hummed, flashing a smile at Jamie. "Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear. An email from my boss."

"How nice." Sarcasm doesn't suit the bubbly little blonde.

Miss James,

I'd like to formally apologize for my behaviour earlier this afternoon. I have done some introspective thought and found that I may have overreacted. Only a little, however. Please excuse me for jumping down your throat about personal matters when I insist on keeping my own as my own business.

I understand that Miss Thompson will more than likely be very sour with me at this point in time. While I do not care for her, I recognize her importance to you and to James. As my formal apology to her, Jamie's next dinner date with James shall be on my dime.

Regards,

Mycroft Holmes.

Anthea sniffed, the side of her lip pulling into a wry smile.

"See, Mycroft gets it. He's trying to be nice." She eyed Jamie playfully.

"What? So I'll only have one assassin after me instead of three?" Anthea had to laugh.

Anthea left the issue well enough alone from that point on. She brought it up with neither Mycroft at work, or Jamie at home. She was probably going to tell Robbie all about it on the weekend so they could laugh at the ridiculousness that was her life, but the other two didn't need to know that. It was, after all, her business.

Of course, there was still the issue of Mycroft's weird behaviour. Anthea had a feeling that Jamie's unannounced appearance had been one of his problems, but it had not been the catalyst. He'd acted similarly before upon mentioning Tim when she was dating Tim, and once they'd spent the night together after their break up. But that was not Anthea's problem to unravel, it was complicated and would do nothing but give her a headache if she tried to rationalise that with the man she knew. No, that was Mycroft's thing to work through.

It didn't mean she didn't understand him, though. She understood that man better than she knew the back of her own hand these days.

A few hours into Friday morning, Anthea knocked lightly on Mycroft's door. As per normal she waited for the reply and entered. Anthea didn't go far in the room, choosing instead to lean on the door frame as she watched Mycroft skim reading over a document.

"How can I help you, my dear?" Mycroft hummed as he turned the final page. Anthea waited until he had completed reading it and steel eyes were upon her before she spoke. She wanted him to see the playful and mischievous smile on her lips.

"Next weekend, not this weekend, but next weekend," She stressed that she was not cancelling any plans with Robbie. "I have tickets to a fringe theatre production of Much Ado About Nothing." Anthea paused as Mycroft quirked an eyebrow at her. "Now, I was going to ask Carol to come, or see if her daughter would like to go, but I'd hate for you to think I was letting one of your workers or her child know valuable secrets about your government office she's been in many times." Mycroft pinched the bridge of his nose as Anthea's smile grew.

"Anthea, what game are you playing?" He breathed. Anthe crinkled her nose cheekily.

"If you want to keep me from blabbing about you, then I guess you'll have to come with me. Suffer through some amateur playing Claudio all wrong." She watched as Mycroft pursed his lips. Seemingly getting back to work, Mycroft closed the manila file of the document and turned to his computer, silent clicking open a few documents.

"I suppose that's a price I'll have to pay if I wish to watch what you say." Anthea bit her bottom lip. Was that an agreement to go to the theatre? It certainly sounded like it… almost.

"Shall I put it in your calendar, sir?"

"Yes, thank you, Miss James."

Author's Note: So, what do we think? Good enough? If you didn't, you guys chose it so it's your own fault :P. Not really, just playing with you. There are certain moments I am pleased with. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you to our guest reviewers; Corrine, Anon, Loyal Elf, Guest, Mary, Another Guest, Wink, and Wheezzy8. Thanks to each and every reviewer and reader, you're all insanely awesome.