Author's Note: Hi guys. Thanks for your reviews last chapter. I always forget just how liked Walter is. So I think I am definitely feeling better because I actually really like this chapter. Like I'm really proud of it. It's also the usual length of a chapter these days. So I look forward to hearing your thoughts. 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 Meeting

Anthea and Mycroft walked into the board room with the same level of sophistication, shadow, and general lack of interest that they normally do. The presence of a pram certainly took away from Anthea's level of intimidation but less than you think it would. She had made sure to look like Anthea today, all neat, dark and beautiful. No messy mother Alice here.

The rest of the members of the strange secret government sat at the table with their phones out and looking different levels of impatient and bored. Lady Smallwood looked the most bored, Porlock looked the most impatient. Mycroft cleared his throat and pulled on his cufflinks.

"I would apologise for our tardiness however you did have me retrieve a new mother and her premature baby out of her maternity leave to attend a meeting to fix a mistake that she did not do." Mycroft was so smooth and suave as he spoke. He commanded control like no one else. It was hot. Anthea missed this being a daily sight. "But I will hear any grievances if any of you have any."

A beat.

Lady Smallwood looked around the room, Porluck tapped his fingers on the table, and Langdale looked at the smooth wood of the desk like it was somehow interesting.

"No?" Mycroft asked, eyebrows raised. "Good." He hummed proudly.

Anthea set Margot's crib down in the back of the room away from everyone. It made her feel nervous to do so but she was close by and at least allowed the table to look somewhat professional. Lady Smallwood watched as Anthea did so. She looked like she might have tried to spy a look at the baby but was in too much of a professional atmosphere to ask to.

Anthea and Mycroft sat down at the table proudly, owning the space.

It was nice to be back in this environment despite the added layer of fatigue. It felt nice for Anthea to feel like she knew what was going on in the real world again. She felt helpful again even if it was just through sitting there and silently listening as the men through blame around. They were all pretty desperate to find the leak, it was hard to suspect any member of this group.

"Upon closer inspection it appears that any truly valuable information was sold to countries regarded in a status closer to allied than those we're in a venerable situation with." Mycroft interrupted, speaking really for the first time the whole meeting. Anthea watched from the corner of her eye as she drew on a notepad.

"Yes, I noticed that too." Porlock said. He placed his hand on the arm of his chair and pulled himself forward. "A technique to lower chances of being caught perhaps?" He looked around the table. Lady Smallwood glanced over at Mycroft.

"Possibly, but I doubt it." He said.

Margot made a noise.

The whole room froze for a second. Anthea inwardly winced.

Mycroft continued without a fuss.

"What I conclude to be the most likely is that this is a person who does not necessarily wish to ruin the country." He said. "They are simply strapped for cash." Mycroft's eyebrows danced up and down playfully.

"Selling to allies to save themselves?" Lady Smallwood asked Mycroft. The Holmsian genius nodded.

"Blackmail?" Langdale asked.

"No, I doubt that." Porlock said. "We-"

Margot wailed.

Langdale winced.

Smallwood blinked.

Porlock inhaled.

Mycroft looked down.

Anthea closed her eyes.

She pushed herself up from her chair muttered pardons. Anthea approached the crib. Poor little Margot was crying and it could be anything but her own mother just wanted to quiet this quickly for both of their sakes. Anthea felt like a sad excuse for a mother. She whispered gentle words to her daughter and stroked her cheek.

Patches had fallen away out of Margot's grip, hopefully that was all it was. Anthea grabbed the bear and as quiet as possible sung a song and made it dance. Once Margot's crying disappeared and she focused on the bear Anthea put it close to her little body and made her way back to the table.

"Sorry." She said, sitting down.

"No need for apologies." Mycroft muttered, interrupting her.

"She wanted her bear." Anthea continued, as if she needed to explain.

"A girl?" Porlock said. The signs of being annoyed at the interruption were still plain to see in his posture but at the very least his face had softened at that. Anthea nodded. Lady Smallwood licked her lips like she was trying to stop herself from smiling. Anthea tucked a curl behind her ear.

"Shall we continue?" Lady Smallwood said.

The discussion moved on – very slowly – from who could possibly be the source of the leak to ways of managing it. They weren't focusing on what to do with what had already been leaked – that was up to the individual departments – rather how to monitor for further mistakes and how to stop it. This being P-A-L-L of course they discussed ways to flood out the rat by perhaps leaving bait out.

They were in the middle of discussing just that. Mycroft was telling them that it depended on how smart this person was and whether or not they'd take it. It also depended on whether they were done or not. If they were after money or if it was blackmail they may be satiated again.

Lady Smallwood was about to speak when Margot began crying again. The reactions were almost exactly the same as last time.

Anthea flipped over her phone to check the time. It wasn't time for a feeding yet which to Anthea meant Margot either needed attention or a change. She looked at Mycroft. He was looking at the time on his pocket watch too and glancing over to her. She pursed her lips and he nodded. Anthea got to her feet.

"Pardon me." She murmured. Porlock groaned. Langdale looked put out too, but Porlock verbally groaned. Immediately Mycroft's eagle sharp eyes flew to his face.

"I beg your pardon?" He said accusatorily. Porlock looked from Langdale to Smallwood. Neither seemed too willing to help him out.

"It's another interruption." He explained. He looked between Mycroft and the standing Anthea whose face was a neutral as she had ever managed before.

"This whole meeting is an interruption to the child's schedule and Miss James' maternity leave." Mycroft sneered.

"True," Porlock shifted. "But perhaps bringing a baby to this group was not a wise idea." He said. Langdale nodded. Mycroft leaned forward.

"This meeting was last minute and I was informed that the only assistant trusted to aid us was my own. Is that incorrect?" He asked. This time Langdale shifted and shook his head.

"No, that is correct." He said.

"Then if you would be so kind," Mycroft seethed. "Allow the put upon woman to tend to her daughter. We are all adults who can wait, the child cannot." He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands together. "Unless of course there is further arguments to be made." The men said nothing. Lady Smallwood smiled. She nodded at Anthea to continue.

Anthea silently walked over to the crib, only her heels making noise as they echoed on cold floor.

"Sometimes, gentlemen," It was Lady Smallwood speaking. "It is good to be reminded that the world does not revolve around the actions of this council."

"Indeed." Mycroft hummed.

"That is how issues like this leak crop up undetected before it's too late." She added.

Anthea picked up Margot to comfort her and immediately knew that the little girl needed to be changed. With a silent sigh Anthea picked up Margot's bag while still cradling the baby.

"I'll be right back." She said to the table.

"Take your time." Mycroft, back to her, said, sounding cocky. His expression would be one of two things; a cocky smirk or a stern look at the others. Either way it warranted a smirk in return that the others could see as clear as day.

Anthea walked off to the bathrooms to change Margot. She was surprised this office was considerate enough to have one of those collapsible change tables on the wall of the women's bathroom but there it was. She doubted the men's room had one, it wasn't that kind of place. The government weren't the greatest at forward thinking.

"Did you see all the action in your defence, little one?" Anthea said to Margot as she put her down on a towel – Jamie's advice for sanitation and Mycroft concurred. "That is why we make powerful friends." She said, touching Margot's nose. Anthea sighed as she started to remove Margot's bottoms. "But that's going to be you, isn't it, if Daddy stays? You're going to powerful friend who has access to all the cool toys." Margot kicked her feet.

Anthea took her time and was in no rush to get back to the meeting. When she arrived it didn't look like anyone had even moved a muscle let alone been allowed to go get a coffee or anything.

"And here I thought I was the one missing the action." Anthea felt confident enough again to be a little mocking. She placed Margot gently back in the comfortable crib. "Turns out little girl and I were having all the fun."

"I know where I'd rather be." Mycroft muttered. Anthea tried not to laugh as she placed Patches close to Margot.

After the meeting was over and done with Anthea, Mycroft, and Lady Smallwood waited for the other two to leave. It had been Smallwood, after all, who had a secret reason for really wanted Anthea and Mycroft there.

You wouldn't know that was the reason they stayed behind now, however. With the men gone and no longer having to put up the many tough layers women like them had to the Lady had asked Anthea if she'd bring the pram over. Currently she was slightly bent over peering into the crib. She hummed.

"Is she small?" The Lady asked the two. Anthea knew she knew who the father was. Others might guess correctly but Lady Smallwood knew. "She looks small." Anthea hummed and nodded.

"She wanted to come early." Anthea said. She rubbed her neck. "I keep saying its all those dramatic genes that run in her family." Lady Smallwood made something like a snort noise. Oh yeah, she knew exactly who the father was.

There was a silence that fell. The Lady continued to look into the crib and Mycroft stood tall besides her doing the same thing. Only Anthea, from where she was standing, could not see Margot, so she just waited.

"Do you want to hold her?" Anthea asked. Lady Smallwood stood up straight immediately.

"Oh, no." She said quickly. "It's been far too long since I've held a baby and I'm not confident with other people's children." Anthea nodded, accepting this. She kind of felt the same way about others except for Hope. It was better to let Margot continue to sleep anyway. Mycroft's face was the unreadable stone mask it always was in this place unless he wanted to give a specific reaction.

The kinder moment passed. After a brief follow up silence they turned back to business mode. Lady Smallwood crossed her arms against her chest.

"So," she began, looking from Anthea and Mycroft with stern serious eyes. "Is it either of them?"

"No." Anthea said before Mycroft had even turned to look at the Lady. Smallwood's eyebrows perked. "They're too annoyed by it."

"But that could be a farce." She said. Mycroft hummed and tilted his head.

"Those aren't fake ruffled feathers, my lady." He said. "Otherwise distractions from the topic would have been better received. Not to even begin to go into the subtler nuances and human body language." If they weren't getting paid for this Anthea would have rolled her eyes at the typical Holmsian behaviour of acting like they were free from 'human' behaviour.

"So?" Lady Smallwood asked. Anthea and Mycroft exchanged a deep look.

"You keep looking." Mycroft replied with a sigh.

A pause.

"Will you help?" The Lady asked. Mycroft raised his eyebrows.

"When I return from my requested leave, yes." He said. "But not a minute sooner." Anthea's lips tugged, threatening to smirk. "I also suggest you stop excluding James. He found it, he has the training to sniff these sort of things out. He might outsmart you all." Anthea let that smirk come onto her face. Mycroft caught it and let his eyebrows jump up and down in return.

Anthea couldn't do what she wanted to do in the offices – that would be highly unprofessional and she doubted Mycroft would be much of a fan anyway let alone in such a way. She couldn't do it in the car either. The car seat between them made it really hard to do it in the way she wanted to. Instead Anthea had to keep herself busy fussing over her little daughter. So when the car pulled up to the house Anthea was relieved and excited.

Anthea jumped out of the car and walked quickly over to Mycroft's side. She waited for the genius to get out. He didn't shut it, instead stepped out of the way. The new routine was that Walter would come around to this side with the pram set up and Anthea would put Margot in. That's not why she came so quickly to this side.

"I'm sorry," She purred. "But I have to do this." Anthea wrapped her fingers around Mycroft's neck and pulled him down. She kissed him hard. He stumbled a step backwards before bracing himself against the sudden force of the kiss. Anthea's free hand grabbed at his lapel. Mycroft's hands froze just shy of both sides of Anthea's face before any base instinct kicked in and they buried themselves in her curls.

Anthea let the kiss go with some hesitation. Both hands now grabbing at his jacket she rested her head against his chest. Mycroft was trying to find his voice. He blinked, turned his head, and cleared his throat.

"Well…" Was all he managed to get out.

"You did so many great things today." Anthea said as she unclenched Mycroft's clothes and patted them to attempt to smooth them. "I love seeing you in your element just ruling over people." She couldn't quite read Mycroft's expression. Fondness, pride, general smugness, love, and maybe even that occasional bit of lust. But smug absolutely.

"Thank you for your feedback, Miss James." He teased. Anthea laughed, looking to the side. She caught sight of Walter leaning against the car. His hands were clasped in front of him and he was doing his best not to watch but there was too much amusement on his face to suggest he had managed to miss all of it.

"Whoops." Anthea laughed, stepping away from Mycroft's personal space. Walter smiled. Mycroft scoffed.

"It's just Walter." He jeered dismissingly. Lucky for him Anthea and Walter knew him well enough to take that as a compliment rather than an insult. The two employees shared a look.

Anthea went forward to take Margot out of the car seat. She was probably very happy to be back in a safe and familiar environment. That was enough shadow government disagreements and secret work love affairs than any baby needed to be exposed to… even if she was the result of said relationship.

Author's Note: Man I hope you see why I like this chapter. More importantly I hope you liked it too. Thanks to our guest reviewers last chapter; Marie, Guests x2, Observant Potato, and B. Thanks to all my readers; you guys are the best! I'm going to try and take five days for the next chapter but if I delay it for my assignment (and it's very close by due date) it'll be by one day.