Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for the nice feedback last chapter. I love how most of you felt the same as Anthea – you didn't like it but you understood. Can I tell you something about this chapter? I thought it was going to be 1500 words long…. NOPE! I was SOOOOO wrong. Like I should be banned from estimating the lengths of my chapters now. Anyway I am really happy with this chapter but that makes me nervous because I'm going to hope you enjoy it too. 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 Felt The Baby Move

It took a while after James was promoted for him to begin to be invited to top society events. He might have been a big name, but would he be someone that this group of people could respect? Thanks to his almost singlehanded job of retaking over Sherrinford he apparently was. There was even a whisper of him getting invited to the Diogenes Club which make him excited and both Jamie and Mycroft concerned.

The good thing about James being invited to these events meant now Jamie would experience the weirdness of some of these people herself. It also meant that Anthea actually had people to have fun with. It was well established around social circles that Mycroft Holmes' assistant had make fast friends with the new top agent when she'd begun working in the area. So naturally it wouldn't be surprising that she also got along with his wife. While Anthea loved being able to dance with Mycroft there was a formality in place always. She had begun coming to these events as his assistant and while a number of people knew they were dating Mycroft didn't like to play it up. She had yet to be kissed at one of these events, she'd barely gotten her hand held. With James and Jamie here she'd get to relax a little when she wasn't making sure Mycroft wasn't having a stimulus overload.

That being said, this event wasn't how she imagined it to start. She thought that when this happened she'd get to show them the game. Mycroft would point someone out and Anthea would go flirt a little and get them some free drinks. Jamie would find it hilarious and James would be shocked but not surprised. She thought they'd all have fun together and drink, or at least three of them would have fun and they'd all drink. Instead she had to soberly watch as James and Jamie held hands the entire time and giggled and showed how totally in love they were as they were introduced to people. While Anthea was pregnant and in heels and Mycroft talked James up, dismissing questions about the pregnancy before they could be brought up.

Jamie looked so beautiful, too. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a sleek pony. She wore a grey evening gown with chiffon sleeves with beading. Minimalist look in full force, she wore no jewellery except her wedding ring. Of course she was flawless, it was her job. Not to mention she was a new mum. She had lost her baby weight and this was her first formal night out in a long time, and she was trying to be perfect for James. Anthea hadn't done too badly for herself. She'd found some pregnancy gowns that were actually beautiful. She found a flowing dark blue dress that itself would be strapless if not for the black lace that was sewn onto the bodice to give it short sleeves. She didn't wear a necklace with it but she did wear her earrings from Mycroft that matched that very special necklace. The colour was perfect for the dress. Mycroft asked her how it was possible that she always found a way to look flawless. She dismissed it as sweet flattery. He'd muttered something to himself after that and had straight away fallen into his outside of the house persona.

"See, that is flawless." Anthea had whispered to Mycroft when they'd met up with Jamie and James. Mycroft quirked and eyebrow and pulled his lips down.

"I can see a few flaws." He'd answered. Anthea had looked at him right in the face.

"And you can't with me?" She asked, laughing playfully as she did.

"Well I can now." He barked flatly, addressing her attitude. She would have lightly hit his arm if she wasn't supposed to be in assistant mode.

It got more fun after the first hour of walking around making small talk. It was a charity dinner event and Mycroft had pulled some strings to get James at his table. That meant not only did Anthea get to get off her feet for an hour or two but she got to watch James and Jamie try to talk to the other people at the table. An old couple who thought anything out of their generation was doing it wrong and a middle aged couple where one of them always got drunk while the other was sober and angry. The old couple could be very friendly, and so could the other two on the occasion you got them when both were sober or drunk and not one and the other. By the time the second course came about the blond couple got the general idea that you didn't have to talk to people unless you had some business with them and that it was socially acceptable to only talk to your guest and only make the occasional small talk.

Before desert was brought out Mycroft struck up a conversation with the old couple. The woman's family owned a number of businesses and the man managed them. Mycroft's agenda for the evening was to talk the out of buying a building that his colleagues were interested in buying. Or at least if they did want to storefront allow them to use the upstairs and tell people it was for storage. What would his colleagues want with half an old storefront? They asked Mycroft. Well, that wasn't important he smirked charmingly at them.

Anthea was about to chime in. She was going to sell them a story about office space and moving some unimportant government department to that space like the one she used to work for. But when she went to join in the conversation something stopped her.

She didn't know what it was. She had to stop and frown. It had felt like a thump from within her. It wasn't like a pang of pain, it was different. It was like a tapping. Like someone tapping on you but from the inside.

Anthea zone in onto herself mental, surely frowning and with a strange expression on her face. She placed a hand on her side where she had felt the strange feeling.

Was that it? Was that the baby moving or kicking? She had been told to expect butterfly movements earlier but she had missed that. She couldn't tell what that was and what a general bodily feeling was. Similar to now but this was more obviously not from her organs. She'd been told not to worry and that she'd feel it later when it was stronger. Like now? Was that what this was?

"A?" It was Jamie's voice that pulled Anthea's mind away from her insides. The beautiful blonde woman was looking at her with concern in her hazel eyes. "Are you okay?" She asked, worrying for the baby. James was watching over her shoulder too but trying to look more grounded and less worried. Anthea licked her lips and tilted her head.

"I don't know." Anthea answered. "I-" She stopped and focused on feeling within herself again. "I think the baby kicked." She said. Jamie's eyebrows shot up. She looked at James and the two shared a silent word.

"What?" Jamie turned back to Anthea. "Really?" She was trying to keep her voice down but she was getting excited. Her sheer joy was infectious and Anthea fought the urge to smile.

"I said I don't know." Anthea repeated. Jamie turned to be sideways on her chair facing Anthea.

"Here, let me see." She flailed her hands a little above Anthea's growing bump. She was an excited little school girl as always. Anthea took Jamie's hand and placed it next to her own.

"I don't know if it will do it again." Anthea said.

"Oh, they always do it again." Jamie scoffed. Her face went serious and she fell silent. Both women focused so intently on waiting that they had no idea what was going on around them.

They waited.

And the waited.

And they waited just a bit more.

Then there was the tapping again, a little harder this time. It was more of a tumble than a tap, like the child rolled over to find a better position to nap it. Anthea bounced in her seat and held her breath to stop her yelp from escaping her mouth. Jamie did not. The blonde bounced and squealed.

"That was it!" She was vibrating as she announced it.

"It was?" Anthea asked.

"It totally was!" Jamie nodded vigorously. Anthe laughed despite herself and Jamie began giggled.

"You should have let me join in." James moaned, though his face was nothing but happy.

"What is happening over there?" The old woman asked from across the table. All the other members of the table, including Mycroft, were looking at the three bubbly people with blank faces.

"I'm sorry." Anthea smiled politely and shook her head.

"She's our best friend," Jamie gestured between her and James and to Anthea. "And her baby just kicked for the first time."

"Aww, how lovely!" The tipsy woman pouted her lips as she cooed. "I remember that feeling! That was so… lovely." She smiled at herself for not finding another word. "Wasn't it, Gary?"

"Mmmhhhmmm." He humoured his wife with a miserable sour look on his face. Mycroft's grip on his scotch was tight as he tapped on the glass with his index finger.

"Is that so?" He asked. His voice was very measured and his steely eyes were unreadable. Polite smile still on her face, Anthea nodded.

"That was amazing, A." Jamie beamed. Anthea's thumb caressed the fabric on her bump.

"It's real." She said only to Jamie. The blonde tried her best to keep her squeal as quiet as possible.

"Our kids are going to be best friends!" She practically hissed.

"About this building, Mycroft." The old woman, very much uninterested, attempted to continue her debate with Mycroft. Anthea and Jamie looked up at the table again. Mycroft's eyes were on Anthea. He hadn't moved a millimetre since she'd last looked at him. She caught the faint signs that he clenched and then unclenched his jaw. She saw his brain yelling silently at him as he forced himself to look away.

"This is good news, I hope." He was putting on his usual arrogance but it sounded strained.

"Someone needs another drink." James muttered to the girls. Jamie laughed. This laugh she did not try to hide.

For the rest of the evening Mycroft was in a mood. Well, he was in an actual mood as opposed to just being distant. Even once free of any social interaction and safe in the town car he outright refused to speak. He offered a thank you to Walter but not another word came out of his mouth. At first Anthea was concerned and then she realised his problem had to be with her. This lead her to become increasingly annoyed until she finally had to confront the sulking genius.

"What is this about?" Anthea asked Mycroft. He tapped his umbrella into the floor of the car and said nothing. "Is this because I wouldn't accept your compliment?" She asked, trying to catch his eye. He scoffed and looked out his window. Then she got it. She leaned forward. "Are you mad about dinner?" She stated rather than asked.

"Why would you share that with Jamie and not with me?" Mycroft barked as he faced forward and glared out the front window. Anthea leaned back again and shook her head.

"So that is what you're mad about." She jeered. "You?" She looked him up at down, just catching him scowl.

"Don't you think I deserve to be told before your little friend?" He sneered.

"You were working." Anthea threw her hands in the air. She could tell Walter was trying his best not to listen as he was avoiding watching them through the mirrors.

"On a miniscule project that is so unimportant it borders on unnecessary." He argued, pulling all the correct dramatic faces like the actor they both dreamt of being in school. So was he trying to say that he would have been happy to be interrupted with such news? Even how he'd been acting at work?

"Weren't you the one who told me you held your cards close to your chest?" Anthea asked in a more reasonable volume for the car and poor Walter.

"Don't try to outmanoeuvre me, Miss Clarke, it won't work." Mycroft taunted though he still avoided looking at her. "You know as well as I do that our professional friendship would allow for even the most oblivious to accept you sharing that piece of information with me as normal and those people there tonight are a synch more clued on to the love affairs of the rich and powerful than you give them credit for." Anthea was stunned. He was actually hurt by this? She could not keep up with him these days. She silently watched him for thirty seconds.

"You're serious?" She asked.

A minute of silence followed.

Mycroft looked down at his umbrella. He twisted in his hands. "If it were anyone else's you would have told me immediately. This should only further that impulse not diminish it." His voice was soft and not angry anymore, just mournful. Anthea swallowed nothing.

"I'm surprised." Anthea said. "I was trying to do the right thing." She said.

"The right thing for your state of mind, not mine." He said quietly. "You're protecting your memories in case of any outcome and by doing so removing my chance to create them." Anthea blinked.

"You want them?" She asked. He said nothing. She exhaled and shook her head. See this is why she couldn't keep up with him. This was not what he wanted even her to see of him. "Sentiment is a defect." She echoed him to herself to remind herself that this was absurd.

"This is not about sentiment, this is about memory." Mycroft finally looked at her.

"Isn't it the same thing?" Anthea asked, shrugging a shoulder.

"No." Mycroft answered. "No matter what the outcome, Alice, you will have those future sentimental moments with your child. You'll fuss over them and try to protect them from the world the way so many parents do. You'll fail but you'll both develop sentimental feelings of love because you tried." He paused. His knuckles on the umbrella handle were turning white. Anthea only waited for him to continue. "As for me, no. If I decide that this child would be better off without me then I get none of that. All I will have is memory. Memories of you and your excitement at every new development. These ultrasound recordings and small movements will be all I have to remember this child by when I am all alone with nothing but my thoughts." The determination in Mycroft's face mixed with his words broke Anthea's heart. They weren't full of emotions, they were facts to him. He delivered these words like they were truths about the world that he believed. It was Mycroft's way of expressing himself. "In the end all we have is memories, Alice, and you denied me one tonight." Anthea leaned forward. She slid her hand onto Mycroft's knee.

"It doesn't matter whether or not you think it's better off without you. It's whether you love them that matters." She said, her heart coming out in her words. Mycroft snatched his knee out from under her hand.

"Well I don't know." He muttered.

"You don't know if I'm right or you don't know if you love it?" Anthea asked.

"I don't know." Mycroft repeated with vigour. He wasn't looking at Anthea anymore. "I don't know what I'm doing, okay. It's supposed to be getting easier to decide but it's getting harder with every passing day and I'd appreciate it if you let me have all the information I need to make an informed decision." He was rigid. Mycroft looked like if you touched him wrong he'd shatter into a thousand pieces. That genius never did know how to handle his feelings.

"An informed decision is different to making a decision that involves your heart." Anthea tried to nudge him in the right direction. It seemed she'd only managed to tap him and create a rather large crack in that fragile, rigid form of a man.

"I don't want to talk about it." He spoke in nothing but a heavy exhale. Anthea would love nothing more to reach out and stroke his face but she feared breaking him some more.

"Okay." She shook her head as she said it like arguing with herself. "Next time it happens I'll tell you straight away. Will that make up for it?" She asked. Mycroft eyed his umbrella like he suspected it of stealing his chocolate.

"It'll do." He muttered.

"Good." Anthea bowed her head in a single nod. "And I'm sorry." She said. Mycroft nodded a few times. "Can I put my hand back on your knee now?" She asked, smiling her famous naughty smile. Mycroft's whole posture melted into something closer to human. He didn't let her hand onto his knee. He shifted his body back to a relaxed seating position and silently offered her his hand. She took it.

"And I did think you looked beautiful tonight." He said. Anthea looked at him with amused accusations. "Truly." He nodded. "I've not once doubted your appeal, even in those ghastly pyjamas of yours." Anthea laughed. She squeezed Mycroft's hand.

"Pretty as a coffee table." She sighed.

"Ornate coffee table." He corrected.

Anthea couldn't sleep. Her temperature was up and down either leaving her shivering or in a sweat. It was getting harder to find a comfortable position too but that would be easier to ignore if she could just keep a moderate temperature. Meanwhile Mycroft was sleeping peacefully. The sleeping habits of the house this night had been completely reversed. On nights when Mycroft was struggling to sleep like he often did they had a lot of late night talks about topics that never came up during the day. Not tonight. Tonight Anthea was left to her own devises.

She'd settled for checking her phone and scrolling through the social media accounts she officially didn't have. A part of Anthea's mind chimed in about how blue light stopped sleep but at this point Anthea really didn't care. She just wanted to absentmindedly scroll through and see what people were complaining about or ate for dinner last night.

Oh look at that, Robbie and Kate were in Japan. He'd mentioned something about that.

Molly posted another photo of her cat.

James took a selfie with Hope and posted it on Jamie's account… again.

Someone in the comments was asking why Jamie hadn't changed her name on her social media accounts. And James had made up an excuse of "My girl is an independent woman who doesn't need to be identified by her husband's last name." and an emoji with sunglasses. Poppy had responded with a sarcastic looking emoji. Katie posted a laughing face and said "Yeah, and that's why both you and mum use fake surnames? SSSUUUURRREEE Mr 'Awesome'." That was deleted five minutes later. Carol probably saw it.

Tim had his nephew over for the week. His status read "Should be working on 'homework'. Nephew got me playing Halo instead. No sleep for the wicked." And his lame friends had all liked it already.

Aunt Rose posted a really old meme about wine.

Tap tap.

The pushes inside Anthea's uterus caught her once again by surprise. When you live with Mycroft unexpected sensations were definitely a surprise. Ones coming from the inside were going to take Anthea until the end of the pregnancy to get used to. She widened her eyes and looked down from her phone to her bump.

"Little one?" She whispered.

Tap.

Anthea inhaled. It felt like a response. It wasn't and Anthea knew it wasn't but by God did it feel like her and her baby were communicating. Her joy escaped in a silent laugh. Mycroft wanted to know when this happened again. She had to tell him. With a soft groan Anthea pushed herself up into a better sitting position. She flicked on her bedside lamp then leaned over and gently shook Mycroft's arm. His back was to her.

"Myc." She spoke gingerly. "Myc, please wake up." He sniffled and made an inaudible soft noise. He rolled over, tired grey blue eyes wearily looking up and over at Anthea's face.

"Ali?" He croaked. He must have been have been in deep sleep. That means he must think of her as Ali in his subconscious and that pleased her greatly. Anthea smiled. The genius closed his eyes and frowned. They opened again and stared up blankly at the roof.

Rumble.

"The one time I manage to get a good, restful sleep and you wake me up?" He moaned as his voice came back to him. "You better be dying." Always the dramatic one. Anthea would have liked to tease him and answer sarcastically but now was not the time for that.

"The baby is moving." She said, keeping that soft knowing smile on her face. Mycroft's expression shifted as he looked at the ceiling. He suddenly sat up and looked at Anthea liked she'd woken him up to tell him the Koreas were at war.

"Now?" He asked in a low serious tone. Anthea rolled her eyes but her smile remained.

"Yes, now." She spoke through a laugh.

Mycroft inched closer to his partner. He lifted his hand but froze with it hovering in the air. It turned into a fist and moved towards his chest. He wanted to close up now? Why? Apprehension? Fear? Whatever it was it would be his fault this time if he missed it. Anthea took his hand and placed it on her stomach where she last fell the baby move or roll or kick or whatever that rumble was. She left her hand against his and held it firm enough to ensure he felt it. The genius had looked startled when she had taken his hand but he quickly got over it. Consciously or not, he was leaning in towards Anthea now. He wore a focused expression that was no doubt similar to what Anthea and Jamie had used when they were focusing on it.

"It might take a bit." Anthea said.

"Mmhhm." Mycroft answered, not really listening.

"And I don't control it so if it doesn't happen again, I'm sorry." She said.

"Shh." The genius shushed her as his brows furrowed. He was lucky Anthea found it hilarious.

Tap tap.

Mycroft perked up like a dog when its name is called. He looked at Anthea, his eyes now wide awake. She met his eyes, her own shining brightly.

"That was it?" He asked.

"That was it!" Anthea nodded three or four times. They sounded like she and Jamie had. Anthea began laughing and Mycroft stared at Anthea's abdomen with bewilderment he couldn't shield from his face. "Hello little one." Anthea whispered to her child. "W-" she almost said we but stopped herself. "I already love you so much, you know?" She said and used her hand not on top of Mycroft's to stroke her swollen belly. "And this guy and I always appreciate some late night company." She felt like a fool but she couldn't stop herself. This was a fact of life now, she spoke to her unborn child, especially when it was talking to her. "This one really gets what it's like to be awake all alone so I'm glad you joined in the conversation."

"It's the product of an over active brain and a vivid imagination. I suspect you have already fallen prey to the same curse." He said dryly. Anthea frowned and looked at him.

"What?" Mycroft pouted. "They can hear you. Did I once criticise James for talking to Hope?"

"It's not that." Anthea half shrugged her shoulders and half shook her head. "It's…" What? Surprising? Unexpected? Too loving for someone trying to distance themselves? Out of character? Not within the natural order of the world? "Nice to have some company in my insanity."

"Well…" Mycroft quirked an eyebrow. "You're alone in that. I will however keep you and your active little friend company if you're both awake." Anthea's hand was still on top of Mycroft's hand against her stomach.

"You can go back to sleep." She said, releasing his hand and using that hand to smooth back Mycroft's hair. "I just wanted you to have your memory." Mycroft pursed his lips. He looked at the light on Anthea's bedside table, then glanced at the door, then back at her.

"I'm awake now." He sighed. "We might as well talk until one of us falls back asleep."

"I'd like that." Anthea cooed. Mycroft offered her a rare sweet smile.

Author's Note: Okay, okay! First of all how far off was I on that length guess? Secondly; please, please, please tell me what you think! Did you like it? I really can't wait to hear what you thought – positive feelings towards characters or negatives – its all good! Thanks to our guest reviewer Christie. Thanks to everyone who reviews – you keep me excited. I'll see you in five days! MAYBE six if this assignment causes trouble but so far I think I've got it down so probably five :).