Author's Note: Hey guys. Thanks for liking the New Year's chapter so much. I still haven't made any decisions about the drama/fluff ratio yet so if you want to still give me your thoughts on maybe what you could or couldn't handle that would be great. I'm really trying to feel out the audience on this one. I actually had quite a bit of fun writing this chapter so I hope it shows. 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 Eurus Recording

A stark white envelope sitting on Anthea's desk was like as obviously out of place to her as a big red flag. With her work and her organisational skill something unexpected like this was an eyesore and immediately alerting. What made it particularly annoying was that it had come in the half an hour Anthea had taken for lunch and she couldn't have worked out what it was from the deliverer.

Anthea put her coffee down, sat down at her desk and picked up the envelope. The handwriting on it took the alert and concern away immediately. Sherlock. He had written her name, fake name thankfully, on the front. Opening it revealed a note written on paper ripped from a notebook and a silver and blue USB with a medical company's logo on it. Probably a free USB from John's work or something. She unfolded the note and read it.

I asked to have this put together for Margot's sake and maybe partially Mycroft's too though only a little. I understand that you may not appreciate or want it. Do with it what you will, you're the mother. I don't care, I did what I wanted to do.

Oh. Great. Immediately Anthea knew it had to do with Eurus and immediately the room went cold. She felt breathless and flushed. She rubbed her hand down her face as she looked at the little thumb drive in her other hand.

So Sherlock wanted Margot to have or to know something and obviously it was about Eurus. Surely it was nothing confronting. Surely he wouldn't have already compiled something that would be inappropriate until she was a teenager. If that was the case he would have run it passed Mycroft and not just given it to Anthea… Hopefully. So what was it? Something nice? Was that even possible in this context? What on Earth could be on here that would be good for Margot and Mycroft but understandable if Anthea didn't want it?

Anthea let out a long and heavy sigh that bordered on a groan. She stuck the thumb drive into the computer and opened it up. Inside was a video file. Sherlock hadn't even been bothered to give it a real name and instead it had some sort of filing code as its name. With a moment of trepidation Anthea pressed play.

The footage was grainy and distant, a wide shot of the entire room. Then it wasn't the action that was important but the audio which had obviously been enhanced. They cold grey interior and the plexiglass was immediately recognisable as Eurus' room at Sherrinford. You didn't need to see the dark haired woman dressed in white sitting on the floor in the middle of the room doing absolutely nothing to know that. Not to mention Anthe had been suspicious that this would be the case the moment she saw Sherlock's handwriting and more so when she read the note he left.

Sherlock was in there too. His mop of curly hair above a black suit jacket visible to the far left of the frame. He had his violin with him but was not using it. Eurus' was nowhere to be seen. It was not a good day as far as music had gone apparently. Sherlock was saying something about a hospital and what he had to do there.

"Who does she look like?" Eurus' voice came suddenly. The youngest Holmes did not look at her brother as she spoke. He eyes were trained somewhere on the floor. Sherlock hesitated and spluttered, thrown off by the change in conversation.

"Who?" He asked.

"The baby." Eurus insisted. It was obvious to her and it should be obvious to him. Sherlock hummed as it clicked.

"Both of them, really." He replied. It was interesting to hear him talk to Eurus. He lost the petulant little kid voice in favour for a more mature tone. It was odd. Like he was playing the wrong role.

"Don't be stupid." Eurus said flatly. "Ratio wise who does she look more like?"

A pause.

"Honestly, I'd say Anthea by… oh… fifteen percent as far as can currently be gauged." Hearing Sherlock word it this way made Anthea sniff a silent laugh out her nose as she watched the screen. Eurus gave a subtle nod. Blink and you'd miss it, especially in this quality.

"He's staying, then. I'm sure you know." She said.

"Because of that?" There was another pause as Anthea was certain Eurus was silently lamenting having to explain herself.

"Mycroft has never successfully looked after or saved a little girl in his life. He succeeded as far as he is concerned with his brother, but his sister was a failure. That coupled with the fact that the new little girl looks more like the woman whom broke his resistances means not only will he feel compelled to try and protect, as always, but he was probably immediately captivated."

Anthea and Sherlock appeared to both take the same amount of time to process this.

"Very interesting." Sherlock said.

"No." Eurus practically yawned. "Just as predictable and boring as any other human being. Although it does leave us with a protégé."

The next scene was the same shot with only a slightly different composition. Sherlock remained in the same place but Eurus lay flat on her bed. Her feet were on her pillow and her head was hanging off the edge, hair dangling on the floor. Immediately Anthea knew Sherlock was happily talking about Margot's development – and therefore those experiments. And just as she suspected he was indeed comparing it to Rosie. He'd get a speaking to about that later, or more effectively a poignant look.

It was interrupted when Eurus grabbed at her hair and pulled on it hard. Sherlock stopped and stepped up to the glass.

"Eurus?" He sounded hesitant and concerned. "What are you doing?"

"I don't care about the development of babies." She seethed. "I've read about it and it's boring. They're all the same. I don't care." Sherlock held his hands up in surrender.

"Okay." He said. He took two steps backwards. "Okay, I apologise."

"Just because you have a weak sentimental heart that makes you interested in such things does not mean you can waste my vital energy listening to it. They're all the same. Boring. I want to hear about new illnesses and diseases." He hands lowered from her head and you could see Sherlock's shoulder's relax.

"Mycroft's bringing you journals next time he comes." He assured his sister carefully. She said nothing. "And I apologise. I am sentimental and I enjoy sharing information about these children in my life." He stopped and Anthea could imagine the face he was pulling. "I never thought I'd say that."

Five minutes of silence elapsed. Anthea counted.

"You can tell me information one only gets from hands on experience. If I can't read and or experience it I won't entirely dislike it." Eurus said. Surprise! She was opening up for her brother. Anthea was suspicious but… pleased for the family's sake.

"Okay." Sherlock hummed. "Like what?"

"Is new baby smell real?" Eurus asked. It sounded so naive. It was like a seven year old girl had asked.

"Oh yes." Sherlock said with a chuckle in his voice.

A beat. Eurus shifted down on her bed.

"Given her parents I'd like to imagine Margot smells like books."

"Did she like them?" The scene opened straight away with Eurus asking Sherlock a question. This time they both had their violins out. Gathered by the way Sherlock's bow halted on the strings this question had come right in the middle of a duet.

"Pardon?" He asked.

"The puzzles you bought for Christmas. Did Margot like them?" Eurus elaborated. Sherlock lowered his violin.

"She was engaged as I played with her so I assume so, yes." He said. He plucked at a string. "It's difficult to tell with the really small children. I don't know how Mycroft dealt with us."

"Good." Eurus nodded. She had totally ignored the second part of Sherlock's words. Obviously. It had nothing to do with what she was talking about so she didn't care. "We should take that as a good sign that she'll be logical. She needs to be interested in at least one school of maths or science to be bearable."

"I know." Sherlock groaned, agreeing with his sister. "If she doesn't we'll have to trade her in for a new niece."

A pause.

Anthea could see Eurus' deathly stare at her brother even in this footage it was soul crushing.

"Don't say that." She said.

"It was a joke." Sherlock replied. Eurus took a slow and careful step towards the glass.

"You wouldn't play with me. I didn't replace you." She said. Yeah… She got rid of his friend instead. The thought sent a chill down Anthea's spine but she kept watching.

"I was joking, Eurus. My niece is important to me like you are important to me. No one gets replaced."

A pause.

"Good." Eurus said. She walked back to where she had been previously standing. She lifted to violin into playing position. "Shall we?"

They began playing again.

The next scene began with the ringing noise in the air that was somatic with an orchestra right after a piece had been finished. Eurus and Sherlock had finished a duet, hopefully uninterrupted this time. It could have been the same day as the last one to be honest but skipped forward a few hours. It was hard to tell with the timestamps removed, Eurus wearing the same thing and Sherlock always wearing a suit jacket. Then again it could have been weeks later or even before. Who was to say these were in any particular order?

Sherlock turned around and began packing his violin away. You could only see it partially in the frame but the care he took was that of someone packing away their prized possession. Eurus, not so much. Her violin was discarded on her bed.

"When Margot is older I'm going to teach her violin." Sherlock announced after he had packed up his violin. Then he turned back to face the glass and his sister.

"Why?" She asked, sounding honestly perplexed.

"Because I want her to learn." Sherlock sounded just as perplexed as she did. It didn't matter which siblings were interacting, sometimes them talking was like pulling teeth. Anthea rolled her eyes. Eurus' lips pulled together into a pout and she almost looked directly at the security camera.

"Did Mycroft ask you to teach her?" She asked Sherlock in measured tones.

A beat.

"No." Sherlock drawled. "I just want to. Like how we just want to play together." He gestured between them with a smooth hand motion. Eurus twitched.

"But I'm better than you." She insisted. "Mycroft should want it to be me who teaches her."

There was another pause. A physically painful pause where Anthea could feel all sorts of emotions and trepidations oozing from Sherlock and maybe from herself.

"Think about why that isn't possible." He replied. He sounded like his brother. "Why we wouldn't send an impressionable child into Sherrinford."

"I'm not going to hurt my niece." It would have been a scoff if Eurus had put in just a little more emotion into it. It came off robotic.

"Eurus." Sherlock warned.

"I wouldn't kill her." Eurus rectified. Oh yes, that was so much better for a mother to hear. Anthea had to stop herself from gritting her teeth. "I understand you and Mycroft wouldn't like that."

"No." Sherlock agreed. Eurus stared at him for a moment.

"Then let Mycroft teach her some piano first. He can teach discipline first. Your technique is slack and would not benefit a beginner." Now she was the one who sounded like Mycroft. Sherlock made a breathy noise.

"We'll see." He placated his sister.

"Perhaps if we work extra hard on your elbow now you'll have fixed it before the time comes." She added.

"There is nothing wrong with my elbow." Sherlock muttered despondently.

As the file stopped playing Anthea stared at the thumb drive. She stared at it the way she did with anything to do with Eurus. Fear, contempt, indecision and a little bit of sympathy all mixed together in her mind and in her stomach. They churned around in the same motion she rubbed her hands together on the desk. There were so many reasons why Anthea would happily pretend Eurus never existed like they used to. There were so many reasons she wanted to just shield Margot from the idea of Eurus forever and if not from the idea than at least the real person. There were so many good reasons to throw this away forever.

Anthea put the thumb drive back in the envelope. When she got home that night she taped the envelope into the inside of Margot and Anthea's baby shower book. The one with the messages from friends and family.

Author's Note: I think I always have a lot of fun when I get to do something different. Like I actually wrote the ending second last and the opening last and I could do that due to the format. It was a really cool chapter to write and it was inspired by something on the blog from just after that New Year's so timeline wise it was perfectly timed. I hope you had fun reading it. Thanks to our guest reviewers; Guest A, Guests x3, Ako, and Tilly. Thanks to all my readers – you guys are the best! This every seven days thing is working out really well for me while I'm still recovering and doing assignments so I'm going to keep it this way for now. See you in seven days! Don't forget to continue to weigh in on the fluff/drama ratio!