Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews. Its worrisome taking an unknown figure like Rudy and bringing your own version alive when everyone probably has a different picture. It was great to receive such nice comments due to that fact. However, you haven't seen all sides of my version of Rudy yet, hence me saying that I had to split last chapter due to time constraints. I was so worried I wasn't even going to get this one done in time. So here's part two. 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 She Met Uncle Rudy

Thunk.

The sound of something being placed on her desk distracted Anthea from her work. A look across the table revealed a pinkish coloured tea in a white porcelain cup. Raising her vision from there revealed a carefully neutral faced Mycroft Holmes. Anthea smirked playfully. She pointed at the cup of tea with her index finger.

"Isn't that my job?" She teased. Mycroft's mask crumpled enough to allow his mouth to purse in an almost grimace.

"Consider it a poorly veiled attempt to disguise me approaching you for a personal conversation in the office."

"When I want to do that I just tell you, sir." Anthea continued to tease him naughtily. Mycroft quirked his eyebrows and shrugged.

"Yes, well, some of us have more class than that." He muttered. Anthea laughed from the heart and it felt good after the meeting earlier that day.

Anthea tucked a curl behind her ear and twisted her chair to better see the strange genius loitering around her desk.

"What do you want?" To an outsider those choice of words might have sounded harsh from the PA but she said it with a deep fondness. The genius didn't answer right away, appearing to internally freeze. He cleared his throat and looked down, straightening his sleeves. When he looked back up he shook his head free of its frozen cage before setting his eyes back on Anthea.

"I wish to discuss the future and…" He swallowed his breath. "Us." Anthea resisted the urge to put her hand on her still flat stomach by rubbing her neck. She nodded for Mycroft to continue. He held his hands out in front of himself and rubbed them together like wringing out a dishrag – free of dirty water and anxiety. "I would like to begin talking about my disagreements, my uncertainties, and my-" He stopped himself in thought.

"Fears?" Anthea raised her eyebrows, finishing the sentence for him. First Mycroft grimaced but then smiled knowingly at his assistant turned girlfriend.

"Those, yes." His eyebrows jumped up and down and his eyes glittered momentarily. Anthea laughed silently. Mycroft sat down on the corner of Anthea's desk. "This is difficult for me to express in words… to anyone." He sighed. Anthea said nothing and listened. "I don't… I… I've never been able to-"

Knock knock knock.

Someone knocked on the office door.

Mycroft's body completely froze while Anthea closed her eyes and inwardly cursed whoever it was. Anthea opened her eyes to see Mycroft hang his head and taking a moment to put all his walls up in place. She could kill whoever this was.

"Come in." She said in a sickeningly sweet tone through gritted teeth.

Stuart, Lady Smallwood's assistant, popped his head in through the door with the appropriate amount of bashfulness. In almost perfect unison Anthea and Mycroft raised their left eyebrows. It must have been both frightening and amusing to behold. Scott pushed the door open and gestured with a whoosh of his arm and a bow of his head for someone to go before him. With an aura of authority in walked Mr. Vernet – known better to Mycroft as Uncle Rudy. Anthea's expression fell completely flat and Mycroft's lip pulled up into a passing scowl.

Stuart walked in and closed the door behind him. Mycroft, still sitting on Anthea's desk, folded his arms across his chest

"Now Stuart," Mycroft looked dead in the assistant's eyes with an icy glare. "I know well that you are aware of our call or text first rule here in this office. We aren't always here and the notice is appreciated." Stuart looked uncomfortable under the intense stare.

"My Lady said that it was okay to come unannounced occasionally now to make sure you're not doing something illegal or inappropriate with your brother again." He did well to find the guts to say that. Anthea wasn't going to let it slide.

"Not all Mr. Holmes' work is for the government, he's a very sought after man." Anthea boasted. Rudy seemed quite amused.

"My Lady knows how sought after he is, and that's why so much is put up with." Stuart replied.

"What do you want, Stuart?" Mycroft rolled his eyes. The assistant's eyes were immediately drawn back to Mycroft.

"Mr. Vernet wished to ask you some questions. I brought him to the office and would like to make the formal introduction on my Lady's behalf."

"Calm down, Stuart." Uncle Rudy folded his arms against his chest and for a brief moment Anthea could make the connections between Rudy, Violet, and Mycroft. "I don't need a formal introduction to talk to my nephew just because it's work." Stuart turned to Rudy, looking blindsided. He opened his mouth like he was going to argue. Rudy nodded to the door. "Go get back to our dear Alicia. She'll be wanting some tea or something." The assistant looked offended. Anthea didn't blame him, she would have been too. None the less he left the room, closing the door with a little more force this time, leaving Rudy with Anthea and Mycroft.

The moment the door shut Rudy dropped his hands to his side. His face brightened with the same smile as his sister, if not just a bit more crooked than hers. His eyes filled with life and he seemed like an almost entirely different person to Anthea. She had seen the acting skills of all the Holmes siblings though, she wasn't totally believing this.

"Now we're behind closed doors we can drop the acts." He smiled. "Myc, it's great to see you again." With a bemused look on his face, Mycroft did not moved from his spot on Anthea's desk. Rudy did not seem surprised. With something close to a roll of his eyes he brought his attention to Anthea. "And you!" He held his hands out to gesture to her in a flamboyant nature. "Finally I get to meet the girl my sister raves about. The girl who captured an impossible heart." Anthea played with a lock of her hair. She looked at Mycroft for some direction but he hadn't shifted at all. "Violet is great and describing intelligence so I knew you were bright, but you're more beautiful than she said." Anthea smiled and looked down at her desk.

"I'd thank you if I wasn't sure you were just flattering me." She hummed. Rudy jutted out his bottom lip looking impressed.

"You're even better than my ex-wife." He sounded just as impressed.

"Be flattered, my dear." Mycroft finally spoke, albeit sarcastically. "He based his drag act on her, after leaving her for a man only two years older than their daughter of course." Rudy took a breath and sighed the way a teacher did when they braced themselves for dealing with a child in the middle of acting out.

"Now Myc," He sounded virtually like Violet. "If this was about the meeting today I had to establish power and respect amongst you children." Mycroft outright laughed, face fully animated.

"Oh, yes." He hummed. "Yes, I haven't answered your phone calls in ten years, and I haven't answered your letters in five. All that for reasons that were exposed recently and lead to numerous problems, including a giant rift in my immediate family, but my attitude is about a little power play." Mycroft smiled. "Once again you prove that you should have been the one to achieve the IQ results of a genius and not my mother."

"What was the meeting about today, sir?" Anthea cocked her head at Rudy. He ignored her, attention still on his nephew.

"You and I both never intended to make rifts in the family." He stepped closer to Mycroft. Mycroft scoffed.

"I'm not the one who faked my sister's death." He looked at Anthea. "I thought she was dead for years." Anthea gave him a sympathetic look. Rudy seemed to ignore Mycroft's interruption just like he ignored Anthea's and continued.

"You're not the only one receiving backlash, Myc. Violet isn't answering my calls."

"Good."

"And my children aren't speaking to me."

"Oh please." Mycroft scoffed and scowled fiercely. "Oscar hasn't spoken to anyone in the family in an eternity, and Varya only puts up with you out of a sense of family duty." Mycroft shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. As he did Anthea tried to reflect on where she'd heard that name before. "She speaks to me more often than she speaks to you. She speaks to Sherlock more than she speaks to you!" Mycroft chuckled. "Considering Sherlock rarely answers the phone unless he suspects there is something in it for him or for a case that is quite a feat." Then the name clicked in Anthea's head. She knew where she had heard it.

"Wait, Varya Vernet?" Anthea asked, leaning forward on her desk. "As in the artist?" Rudy smiled similar to Violet's proud parent smile.

"That's my little girl." He boasted. Anthea blinked up at Mycroft.

"So you mean that time you asked me if I wanted to see your friend's gallery opening and I said no, it was your cousin's show?" Anthea questioned Mycroft, remembering that time when she was showing him that he had to follow her sometimes instead of the other way around. If she had known it was his cousin, or a famous artist there is no way she would have never turned it down. And that was her answer there, he didn't even need to say it. He had wanted to spend time with her without making her feel obligated or like it was a work thing.

"I said it was a friend. She is my friend." Mycroft blinked, looking somewhat confused. My, my, what a compliment. Mycroft's cousin was good enough to be a friend. Not even James got that honour. Anthea took a moment to look at Mycroft with a little bit of surprise and adoration. So surprising and such a bigger heart than he gave himself credit for.

"We've made nothing but the right decisions." Rudy said, ignoring the side conversation once again. "The others in the family aren't strong enough to make these kinds of choices. Your brother might if given the right push, but you and I are the only ones who can see this was the right thing to do."

"It wasn't my decision." Mycroft muttered. "And yet here I am receiving all of the consequences." Rudy raised his eyebrows.

"I wasn't the one who took William and his sidekick to break into the prison. That's what all these," he gestured around the room. "Repercussion are about." Anthea felt a wave of protection and annoyance. Mycroft must have felt a similar wave of annoyance.

"Are you one of those repercussions, hmm?" Mycroft asked.

"I am your uncle."

"And Eurus is my sister, yet she still wanted to play games with her brothers." The two held each other's eyes.

"If you're not one of those repercussions, then why are you here?" Anthea tried to interject again, protectively. "What was that meeting about? Why are you still here, sir?" Rudy looked down at Anthea. He was finally going to answer her.

"Purely selfish reasons, I assure you." Rudy tried to charm Anthea with a smile. "Nothing against the family. If anything, my presence can help the family." Mycroft chuckled. He turned around and faced the wall, shaking his head. Anthea's eyes narrowed.

"Can you be more specific, sir?" She asked suspiciously. The ex-agent took a breath and examined Anthea. It was clear that he was choosing his words carefully. There was no reason to believe what was going to come out of his mouth next, but was there a reason to doubt them either?

"I'm taking the opportunity to keep my reputation in order." He said. Anthea and Mycroft exchanged a glance. "And you two don't believe me?" Rudy asked. Anthea looked down at her desk.

"No, we believe you, dear uncle. We're wondering what other secrets might come out that you feel your reputation needs to be protected from."

A pause.

"We all have secrets, don't we?" Rudy asked rhetorically. Mycroft chose to answer regardless.

"But not all secrets are harmful." He said. Rudy looked Mycroft's face over.

"Do you really believe that, Myc?" He asked.

"Pretty sure our secret chocolate stash in the kitchenette isn't hurting anyone." Anthea leaned back in her seat. "Unless Mycroft's diet counts." Mycroft's mouth pulled into a side smile. As expected it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.

"I came for a family chat." Rudy spoke firmly. "But I see you're not in the mood for that right now."

"No." Mycroft smiled sarcastically. "Unfortunately all my familial efforts are being dedicated to fixing my parent's distrust in me."

"In that case I should leave you for now and try again later." Rudy said. "I will be around, after all." Anthea held her hand out towards the door.

"There is the door, sir." She matched Mycroft's smile.

"Thank you." Rudy sighed with exasperation. He clasped his hands together. "I haven't given up on you two." He gestured between them, but stopped and focused on Mycroft. "Goodbye." He tried a final charming smile. He walked out the door, leaning a cold wind in the room. Was it from the door or from him? It was hard for Anthea to say. The real question was how was Anthea going to remove the chill from the air?

Anthea threw her head back and blew air through her lips. She shook her body like warding off the shiver that threatened to fall down her spine. Mycroft didn't react at all to the scene that took place in front of him, he was once again lost in his mind.

"Now that he's gone." Anthea huffed. She smiled at Mycroft warmly and at least one layer of defences fell off. That was nice. "I would ask about your cousin but I'm more interested in continuing our conversation." She leaned on her table, resting her head on her hand and looking up at Mycroft. "What were you going to say?" Mycroft clenched and unclenched his jaw.

"Nothing, my dear." He breathed. Anthea's brows twitched. They wanted to furrow but she didn't want Mycroft to see such a strong reaction.

"You were about to say something." She tried to gently urge the genius. "And I really wanted to hear what it was." Mycroft shook his head.

"It's unimportant." He muttered. An elegant hand stretched out and long fingers touched gently on top of soft feminine fingers. "We should get back to work."

"Yes, sir." Anthea whispered. Her eyes followed Mycroft's back as he walked back to his inner sanctum alone.

Author's Note: I hope the two chapter titles make sense. I was going for a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of thing (expect less horror), and I hope I at least somewhat pulled it off. He's never supposed to be an entirely likable person but… well, I'm not here to analyse my own writing, I'll let you do that if you want to :P. Either way let me know what you thought of it all! I get so excited to read feedback! Thanks to our guest reviewers last chapter; Tadaa, and Christie. The rest of you were account holders who I got to thank personally. Thank you so much, guys. See you in five days!

And just another note: University break time! And work break is in a few weeks too. You know what that means? POV chapter soon. Get thinking about one you'd really like to see and I'll ask for your opinions probably next chapter. I really want to have one ready before or for 200. I'll be up for doing some oneshots and spinoffs too but my Tumblr is really the place to request them.