#uncle mycroft

[discordantwords]

Unremarkable

It's an unremarkable day. John has a date. Sherlock has a case. And both Mycroft and Rosie have just been shoved into the boot of a car.

A 2024 Fandom Trumps Hate gift for @podfixx!

Chapter 1 of 5 is now posted!

[starkraivennemad]

Surprise!

Mycroft could not help but admire the young woman as she slept on the sofa. Hair, the same shade as her father’s, a hand pushed away an errant curl that dared to irritate her in her needed slumber.

She was her fathers’ daughter. One cannot separate nature from nurture, with her.

While abroad during her gap year, she fell in love with an army doctor.

That was a surprise. Who does she think she is– my brother?

She then went and eloped with said army doctor.  An American army doctor.

Also, a surprise. But none could deny the joy on her face or the way he cared for their daughter when they met Dr. Hernández last year.

Currently deployed, no one was surprised when their daughter came back home to London. Yes, she had friends and his family Stateside, but her family was here.

Where else would she be while she waited?

He was in the Baker Street kitchen when he heard her call for him.

“Yes, Rosamund?”

“I need to say something, it may surprise you.”

“Nothing you can say will surprise me.”

“Sure?” she scoffed.

“Quite so.” Mycroft said with confidence until he reached the living room.

He was wrong.

“We’re naming him Juan Lockcroft Gregory– yes, they know...” Rosie stood.

“…And call my Dads, my water just broke.”

[ace-sher-bi-john]

All of these are going to be pretty Sherlock and Rosie centric. Here we go:

Sherlock calls Rosie, my dear Watson, Watson, or sometimes he calls her his little Bee. I love the idea that Sherlock can never just call her by her actual name and just sticks with loving nicknames. Unless they're in a serious situation, then he brings out the Rosie or even Rosamund.

Uncle Mycroft only ever refers to her as Rosamund or child like he did in Indefinite Lines.

John sticks with Rosie

Rosie calls Sherlock, Sherlock. As others have said in the past, it makes no sense for her to randomly wake up calling him dad, as she would have been taught her entire life that he's Sherlock. Rosie would tell everyone that she has a daddy and a Sherlock.

Even when she's older and understands that both of them are in fact her dads, she never wants to call him dad. Not because she doesn't see him as her dad, but because it feels more special. Almost everyone has a dad, but she's the only person in the world who gets to have a Sherlock as well.

Sherlock becomes an expert on all things babies when Mary's pregnant. As described this post Sherlock is one of Rosie's main caregivers, along with Mary, John and Molly. Rosie is just so comfortable with him at a stage in her development when she should be developing a fear of strangers. Sherlock must have watched her a lot then for him to be one of her primary caregivers.

Sherlock researched everything from milestones to tummy time to the exact temperature the nursery should be kept at, everything.

He made sure that 221b was babyproofed whenever he was supposed to be watching her. Even if he was on a case, he would find himself distracted and preoccupied by the baby. He made sure to buy extra nappies so that he would never run out, Mycroft hated him for this (Sherlock never accepts money for his cases, so Mycroft allows him to use his money).

He unintentionally annoys John and Mary with his expertise. He corrects them on facts they get wrong about infant care. Even if his constant corrections and infodumps annoy them, they really don't mind that much. They are thrilled that Sherlock loves Rosie so much and that he cares enough to do extensive research that most parents wouldn't think of doing.

Little baby Watson is his whole world outside of crime solving. When Mary dies and John doesn't want to see him anymore, it breaks his heart that he may never see Rosie again.

Sherlock lulls baby Watson to sleep with his violin playing. Sometimes he lulls John to sleep too. Oopsie!

Sherlock unironically says oopsie all the time while helping raise Rosie. The Operation scene was one of my favorite parts of TEH.

Rosie has curly hair, like Mary did in season 4. John is so glad that he has a resident expert on curly hair. Sherlock ends up being the one to do her hair when she's little, and the one who teaches her to do it herself when she's older.

Rosie is Autistic just like Sherlock and John feels a little outnumbered, being the only Allistic in the household.

Jokingly of course. He's really supportive of them both.

During the pandemic, Sherlock has to take a break from being a consulting detective. Not being an official member of the team at Scotland Yard means it would be really dangerous to bring him in to help and clients he would get from the website are rightfully to scared to go to him.

John has to work even more hours than he used to at the surgery and Sherlock spends most of his days bored out of his mind. The only feature of interest to be found is his five year old daughter, who is also bored out of her mind.

In order to get them both out of their boredom, Sherlock decides to teach her. He buys her her own violin and teaches her to play the violin. He teaches her to dance (usually to Disney music, which starts to grow on him after the first hundred times they listen to For The First Time In Forever). He teaches her the science of deduction, how to observe like he does. Sherlock even teaches her to build her own Mind Palace.

Eventually, Sherlock decides why stop there? Why not teach her things she will learn in primary school so she can have a head start?

So he teaches her kindergarten level maths, he helps her improve her reading skills, he teaches her to write. In no time at all, she is way above the preschool level she would be at if she were still going to daycare (they pulled her out of daycare because they thought it would be safest to keep her home).

Months later, when she starts primary school, she is slightly ahead of her peers because of all of the things that Sherlock taught her out of pure boredom.

Contrary to most people's headcanons, I think that Sherlock would definitely not want Rosie to go anywhere near a crime scene. Yes, if it was absolutely necessary, if it were his only option, and if the crime scene is a "code green", then he'll bring her along. But he made a vow to protect her and he's not going to let two Watsons die under his watch. He also loves her more than almost anything else in the world, the other being John. Her loss would break his heart.

But like the first scene in Indefinite Lines, if a client were to show up at the flat and Sherlock was in the room with her, he would allow Rosie to practice her detective skills on clients.

If you haven't read Indefinite Lines and you're comfortable with Explicit fics, you should read it. It's awesome!

The weekend before Rosie starts primary school, Sherlock finds himself crying as he looks through her old baby things, because his little girl is growing up so fast. He's a sentimental mess for his family.

Sherlock gives up his dangerous/self-destructive vices when John and Rosie move into his flat. He makes sure the flat is completely drug free and goes to great lengths to ensure that he is able to give up for good. It's definitely not going to be easy, but it's worth it for Rosie. He doesn't even smoke regular cigarettes, opting once more for nicotine patches.

He buys a mini fridge for his bedroom to keep body parts in. He keeps his gun in another room so that he's never tempted to use it on the wall. He baby-proofs everything. He makes sure to teach Rosie how to be safe around his experiments and sometimes just doesn't do them when she's in the room. He puts them away when he's finished with them.

Rosie and Sherlock gang up against John sometimes. For example, Rosie has been begging for them to get her a dog and when John said no, Sherlock started begging right with her. They basically teamed up and annoyed John into allowing her to get a dog.

I can't come up with a good dog name at the moment that isn't Archie (listen to Sherlock & Co. if you haven't). But a hilarious idea would be Bluebell. It's so not a dog name, but can you imagine the absolute heart attack our favorite duo would have if Rosie suggested "Let's name him Bluebell!"

Yeah, John ended up being the one in charge of Bluebell more often than not, due to Rosie being four years old and Sherlock being extremely forgetful. But he loves Bluebell the dog and doesn't mind.

One of the only real arguments against parentlock that I agree with is that 221b is not a safe place to raise a child. Like, at all. Even with the baby proofing and Sherlock getting rid of all his dangerous habits, it's not safe. It's never going to be safe so long as it's Sherlock and John who are raising her.

Due to John's association with Sherlock, the only way Rosie would ever be safe would be is if he were to move to another country, change both of their names and wear sunglasses all the time in case of the off chance that someone recognizes him as John Watson. Both of the boys have made too many enemies for Rosie to be safe any place in the world.

I think that 221b is about as safe as any other place, so why not raise her there? She would be in danger either way.

As for Sherlock and John having a dangerous career which means they aren't guaranteed to come home each day, the only thing which makes their career different from parents who work in the police force or parents in the military is that Sherlock conducts most of his business in his own home. If a situation were to go south, it would not only put him and John in danger, but Rosie as well.

I feel like Uncle Mycroft would place an even higher security detail on 221b and Lestrade would be on speed dial in case something happened.

In the case of any dangerous happenings at 221b, I think John with his military training would be able to put it to good use in order to ensure that no one gets to Rosie. Sherlock is a skilled boxer and sword fighter, so he would also stand a chance against any bad guy who even thought for a second that they could go anywhere near her. Any bad guys who try to go near her would be skillfully taken down by her papa bears without a single thought.

Rosie would definitely be taught self defense strategies by both her daddies too. She could definitely hold her own in a fight, but she should also never have to.

I also think that in the case that a case is simply too dangerous, Sherlock would send John home. Rosie needs one parent alive in the event that something happens, it might as well be John.

Sherlock would try his best to pick cases that are unlikely to be too dangerous, but it's impossible to predict the way a case will turn out until it's too late. He would never go out of his way to pick a case that is likely to put himself or his family in danger, but it's impossible for him to tell how safe a case is at first glance.

I think they would just take their chances.

Maybe they would install a bedroom door for Rosie which is impossible to break down and locks from the inside? A metal door which would hurt the bad guy if they were to attempt to break it down. Rosie would be safe as long as she's in her room.

I guess problem solved!

Rosie grows up to be a forensic artist, combining her passion for crime solving and her passion for art. She works for Scotland Yard, which means that since she's a skilled amateur detective, on slow days she may get called in to help investigate.

When she was little she wanted to be a consulting detective just like Sherlock. Sherlock was and still is her hero, even though he tells her over and over that heroes do not exist and if they did he wouldn't be one of them. He is her hero.

In the spirit of her parents teaching her things they're experts on, John teaches her lots of medical stuff as well. Everything from basic first aid, to more advanced medical care you can provide at home, to of course, how to break every bone in someone's body while naming them.

He's also the one in charge of most of her self-defense training, teaching her things he learned in the military that a civilian could legally do in the case of an attack. He is careful to remind her that she should only use these moves in an emergency. When someone is really in danger.

Despite his usual lack of tact, Sherlock proves to be better at handling teenager problems than John.

When Rosie gets her period, Sherlock is able to deduce the exact kind of menstrual product she prefers and gets it for her each time. John tries his best, but he doesn't know the difference between brands and gets the wrong one each time he's sent.

When Rosie brings partners over, John is always completely oblivious to who they are, while Sherlock deduces that they're dating Rosie immediately when they enter the room. He can in fact tell if someone is a platonic friend or a romantic partner, and rarely gets it wrong. If he deduces that someone is Rosie's romantic partner, he gives them the threatening dad talk when she's out of the room.

It is said to be a good sign that someone is a keeper, if they can survive Sherlock's dad talk. Teens fear him even more than her Captain John Watson war hero father. It's very effective in weeding out the ones who are just simply not worth it.

Sherlock can be surprisingly patient and caring, but only when it comes to Rosie. When she's experiencing difficult emotions and needs to talk about them, Sherlock is all ears. He read somewhere on the internet during his early days with Rosie that it's important to give children a choice, "Do you want advice, or do you just want me to listen?" and Rosie picks listen about 99% of the time. So Sherlock listens. He tries his best to bite his tongue whenever he has something to say, it doesn't always work. But Rosie knows he tries and it means the world to her.

Of course if she does need someone to talk to about her emotions who will give her good advice, she goes to John. While they are both good listeners, John is better at both the listening and the advice.

In order to not make the same mistakes that their parents made, Sherlock and John both turn to the internet for advice. They try to use some elements of gentle parenting when parenting Rosie.

Sherlock basically memorizes the scripts of gentle parenting posts he reads on Pinterest in order to not be too much like himself when interacting with Rosie. He really doesn't want to get this wrong.

John grew up with emotionally abusive parents and he knows that if he doesn't do something, he'll end up repeating their behavior with Rosie. He also takes to memorizing what Pinterest has to say on dealing with various situations.

(I'm obsessed with parenting Pinterest and I'm only 19. I think there's something amusing about John and Sherlock being "Pinterest Dads")

John didn't even want children before he had Rosie. While it's perfectly valid to regret having children (as long as you try your best and make sure that they know they are loved), John doesn't regret having Rosie for a second.

As much as he was terrified of having a child, from the second he found out about Mary's pregnancy, he was filled was so much love for the baby, that he was willing to do anything to give her a good life.

Sherlock loves babies and had always wanted children of his own. But being aroace (well greyroace, because he does fall in love with John), mentally unhealthy, having a dangerous career, and being all around completely unsuited for potential fatherhood, he never thought it would be possible.

But as indifferent as he at first appeared to being named Rosie's godfather, it is his greatest privilege to be able to help look after her.

As an infant, Rosie had this onesie I found at Walmart (it only came in preemie size, so I couldn't add it to my hope chest :( but it's perfect for Rosie!)

Jawn onesie! It's perfect is it not?

I know we tend to go for bees when it comes to Rosie's wardrobe and I am obsessed with that too. But come on. She needs at least one hedgehog and one otter themed outfit, stuffed animal, something, okay?

Here is a link if anyone wants to buy this onesie :)

(to clarify, it only came in preemie size at the Walmart I was at, it does in fact come in other sizes online. I just don't need an infant onesie badly enough to justify ordering one online.

I simply buy them when I see them in the store and add them to my hope chest to ensure that my future children will have what they need in the event of a financial emergency)

That kinda got away from me! I saw this post a month ago when you first posted it and couldn't come up with anything.

Sorry for dumping all of these headcanons on you! But it was certainly fun to come up with all of them!

Sherlock post season 4!

Enough of serious discussion, I want the sweetest and most comforting headcanons of yours post s4. What do you think Sherlock, John and Rosie is doing? Pranking Mrs Hudson? Making fun of Mycroft? Molly taking care of Rosie while the boys are out with lestrade? Rosie cuddling to Sherlock to sleep every night instead of his father? Come on feel me in.

[blooms-in-april]

I continue to be fond of the idea of Mycroft having an extremely cute, happy, fat baby. And of course Mr. Iceman himself just melts around his loveable ball of butter. Sherlock tries to make Fatcroft comments but Mycroft shuts that down quick (he gets nicotine patches taxed sky-high until Sherlock apologizes to his nibling.)

[lokijiro]

I 100% refuse to accept the whole Eurus mess as canon, but I do like the idea of Mycroft having had an uncle who worked for the government. An uncle who was a genius and a "freak" who saw something of himself in his even cleverer nephew, and a potential successor. An uncle who was there to answer Mycroft’s questions and understood him. Someone Mycroft felt close to, since before Sherlock was born and became old enough to be a companion.

Of course, being the nephew of such a man would have helped Mycroft to have connections when he started working (although it took him about five years to rise higher than his uncle ever did).

[fandomcentralsposts]

Is there some unspoken rule that says andrew scott is not allowed to win a best actor award no matter how incredible a performance he gives??

[oxalisvulcanicola]

Headcanon time. I think Mycroft counts on that there is a possibility that he will end up in Sherrinford should his mind ever deteriorate in some way. His brain is too dangerous to unleash upon the world if he loses control of it.

I think he also fears that the drugs will ruin Sherlock's brain so he needs to be sent there. He knows that this would kill him, because he's like a wild animal that should not be caged.

Maybe Uncle Rudy had to go there before them. Maybe he is still there?

[mzannthropy]

Rewatching The Irregulars made me wish, once again, that Sam Claflin was Mycroft in this, rather than in Enola. Not only does Mycroft have a better characterisation, the episode he appears in (ep 3) is my favourite--a locked room mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie. And I recognise one of the locations! The folly you see on the grounds of Mycroft's estate is called The Cage and is situated in Lyme Park, Disley, near Stockport (not far from Manchester). (Fun fact, the 90s Pride and Prejudice mini series was filmed here!) I'm happy for Jonjo O'Neill, he did a fine job in this, I really should not take it from him. But, you know... :(

[birdie-0318]

Here is the title page to my mystrade story, Welcome To My Life

HAVE AN AWESOME DAY!!

[imprvdente]

@governmentofficial sent: "Do you plan to reproduce? Are you going to procreate at some point?" best friends verse :) from: Questioning Sentences, Vol. 5

While Fish was used to her best friend's sometimes unfortunate choice of words, the question still gave her whiplash. She lowered her cup of coffee slowly, placing it down on the kitchen counter.

"Are you asking me if Abel and I are planning on having a baby?" she asked with her eyebrows raised, politely demonstrating a more proper phrasing.

She didn't think Mycroft would enjoy it if she had a baby. He didn't like sharing her, and accepting her relationship with Abel had been difficult enough. But she also didn't like lying to her friend. And now that he even knew her deepest, darkest secret, it felt silly tip toeing around the subject of 'procreation'.

"Maybe. He already has two children, so I don't know if he would want another kid. But I would, to be honest."

[therealsaintscully]

To be fair she her mother's genes, so...

“I never told you to train her, I told you to protect her!”

“Her training will protect her.”

“But you turned my daughter into a bloody assassin!”

[starkraivennemad]

The Favor...

Mycroft asked to do a favor. An unusual one. One he really cannot say no to. “For your sake, I most certainly hope, however lacking at humor, that was in fact – jest.” Mycroft evoked the full Iceman at the favor being requested. Read on AO3

[me-myself-and-my-fos]

I’m making the Holmes kids in sims and Odelia is Mycroft coded

[bccksmarts]

❧ 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 ☙

➤ @curiosityshop asked: " i protect my investments. " - Mycroft that is NOT HOW YOU BE AFFECTIONATE TO YOUR NIECE

  Having being the youngest of the group, but also one of the most intelligent, Hermione's eyes narrowed. She'd never talk back to her uncle—she never had, or intended to, but this alone ground every gear that was turning in her head. ❝Investments?❞ She repeated, her tone almost offended. Her dad had sat her down and talked to her about this, about his brother. He cared for Sherlock, of course, but he wasn't the type to really... express it properly. Her dad still wasn't that type, really. He tried, especially when it came to her and her mum, Molly, so she can't complain.

  Though, trying not to be upset at being called a bloody investment was a rather difficult thing altogether. It was better than being called some sort of ❛asset❜, though. Similar thing, when you think about it.

  ❝Is being a family member really an investment, dear uncle?❞ She almost mocked, but not quite. She loved her uncle, she couldn't do that to him. After all, he was a man of poise, and his brother had a thought process like no other, solving every case Mycroft requests, give or take. ❝I don't know how that would be, considering you have so many children of your own to invest in.❞ Fact. ❝Though, I do appreciate you looking out for me. My mum and dad appreciate it too, no doubt, too.❞

[hopelesslyprosaic]

A Different Kind of Queen of Crime- five ways that Dorothy L Sayers changed the way we see Sherlock Holmes

For my first Holmesian post- a crossover with one of my more usual subjects on my other blog! For when one is talking about Sherlock Holmes, in particular Sherlock Holmes scholarship, there are nor many more pivotal names than Dorothy L Sayers. Sure, Christopher Morley may have had a greater impact on Sherlockian culture, and Richard Lancelyn Green on Holmesian scholarship, to name only a few- but Sayers's contributions to scholarship and "the game" were early and underratedly pivotal.

If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan who is unfamiliar with Sayers's influence, or a Sayers fan who had no idea she had any interest in Holmes, keep reading! (And if you're a Sherlock Holmes fan who wants to know what I think about Sayers, check out her tag on my main blog, @o-uncle-newt. Or, more to the point, just read her fantastic books.)

There's a great compilation of Sayers's writing and lecturing on the topic of Holmes called Sayers on Holmes (published by the Mythopoeic Press in 2001), though some of her essays are also available in her collection Unpopular Opinions, which is where I first encountered them. It's not THAT extensive, and it's from an era in which Sherlock Holmes scholarship, such as it was, was still very much nascent. While a lot may have happened since Sayers was writing and talking about Holmes, she got there early and she made an immediate impact- and here's how:

She helped create and define Sherlockian scholarship: Don't take this from me, take it from the legendary Richard Lancelyn Green! At a joint conference of the Sherlock Holmes Society and Dorothy L Sayers Society, he said that "Dorothy L. Sayers understood better than anyone before her the way of playing the game and her Sherlockian scholarship gave credibility and humor to this intellectual pursuit. Her standing as an authority on the art of detective fiction and as a major practitioner invigorated the scholarship, and her...Holmesian research is the benchmark by which other works are judged. It would be fair to say, as Watson said of Irene Adler, that for Sherlockians she is the woman and that …she 'eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.'" We'll go into a bit more detail on some specific examples below, but one important one is that, as Green notes, Sayers was not only a mystery writer but an acknowledged authority on mystery fiction, whose (magisterial) introduction to The Omnibus of Crime, a then-groundbreaking history of the genre of mystery fiction, included a highly regarded section on the influence of Holmes on mystery fiction. She was able to write not just literate detective stories but literate critiques of others' stories and the genre (as collected in the excellent volume Taking Detective Stories Seriously), and as such, the writing she did on Holmes was well received.

She cofounded the (original iteration of) the Sherlock Holmes Society of London: While the current iteration of the Society lists itself as having been founded in 1951, a previous iteration existed through the 1930s, founded as a response to the creation of the Baker Street Irregulars in New York and run by a similar concept- the meeting of Sherlock Holmes fans every so often for dinner at a restaurant. Sayers, who seems to have been much more clubbable than Mycroft Holmes, helped run the Detection Club on corresponding lines as well. (Fun fact, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was invited to be the first president of the Detection Club! However, he refused on grounds of poor health and, either right before or right after he died, the Detection Club met for the first time with GK Chesterton as president.) While the 1930s society didn't last, and Sayers didn't decide to join the newly reconstituted club in 1951, her presence from the beginning was key to the establishment of Holmesian scholarship.

She helped define The Game: Sayers didn't invent The Game, as the use of Higher Criticism in the study of Sherlock Holmes came to be called. (The Game now often refers to something a bit broader than that, but it's a pretty solid working definition to say that it is the study of Holmes stories as though they took place in, and can be reconciled with, our world.) Her friend Father Ronald Knox largely invented it almost by accident- as Sayers described it, he wrote that first essay "with the aim of showing that, by those methods [Higher Criticism], one could disintegrate a modern classic as speciously as a certain school of critics have endeavoured to disintegrate the Bible." This exercise backfired, as instead of finding this analysis of Holmes stories silly, people found it compelling and engaging- and this style of Sherlockian writing lives on to this day in multiple journals. Sayers, with her interest in religious scholarship as well as Holmes, was well equipped to both understand Knox's original motivations as well as to carry on in the spirit in which further Game players would take his work, as we'll see. She also wrote the line that would come to define the tone used in The Game- that it "must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's; the slightest touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere." While comedic takes on The Game would never vanish, her establishment of tone has lingered, and pretty much any in-depth explanation of The Game will include her insightful comment.

Some of Sayers's ideas became definitional: Here's a question- what's John Watson's middle name? If you said "Hamish," guess what- you should be thanking Dorothy L Sayers. (When this middle name was used for Watson in the BBC Sherlock episode The Sign of Three, articles explaining its use generally didn't bother to credit her, instead saying that "some believe" or a variation on that.) She was the one who speculated that the reason why a) Watson's middle initial is H and b) Mary Morstan Watson calls Watson "James" instead of "John" in one story is because Watson's middle name is Hamish, a Scottish variant of James, with Mary's use of James being an intimate pet name based on this nickname. It's as credible as any other explanation for that question, but more than that it became by far the most popular middle name for Watson used in fan media. Others of Sayers's ideas include that Watson only ever married twice, with his comments about experience with women over four continents being just a lot of bluster and him really being a faithful romantic who married the first woman he really fell for (the aim of this essay being to demolish HW Bell's theory of a marriage to an unknown woman between Mary Morstan and the unnamed woman Watson married in 1903, mentioned by Holmes in The Blanched Soldier); that Holmes attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (she denied that he could have attended Oxford, having gone there herself- fascinatingly, Holmesians who went to Cambridge usually assert that he attended Oxford! Conan Doyle of course attended neither school); and reconciling dates in canon (making the case that one cannot base a claim for Watson's mixing up on dates on poor handwriting as demonstrated in canonical documents, as it is clear from the similarity of different handwriting samples from different people/stories that they were written, presumably transcribed for publication purposes, by a copyist).

She wrote one of the only good Holmes pastiches: Okay, fine, I'm unusually anti-pastiche, and genuinely do like very few of them, but this is one that I love- and even more than that, it's even a Wimsey crossover! On January 8 1954, to commemorate the occasion of Holmes's 100th birthday (because, of course, he was born on January 6 1854- Sayers was more in favor of an 1853 birthdate but thought 1854 was acceptable), the BBC commissioned a bunch of pieces for the radio, including one by Sayers. You can read it here (with thanks to @copperbadge for posting it, it's shockingly hard to find online), and I think you'll agree it's adorable. The idea of Holmes and Wimsey living in the same world is wonderful, the way she makes it work is impeccable, and it's clearly done with so much love. Also you get baby Peter, which is just incredibly sweet!

I got into Dorothy L Sayers, in the long run, because I loved Sherlock Holmes from childhood and that later launched me into early and golden age mysteries- but it was discovering Sayers that brought me back full force into the world of Holmes. Just an awesome lady.

[shanastoryteller]

Merry bday! A continuation of Enola Holmes marrying the viscount of Basilweather would be really cool 😀

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

She wrinkles her nose when Tewksbury passes over her cup of tea with two sugars, unstirred, and she knows.

She puts down the cup too quickly, blood pounding in her ears, and Tewksbury frowns, reaching for her hand. "Enola?"

"Got to go," she says, pushing herself to standing, almost just leaves him sitting there, hand outstretched, but he's her husband and she loves him, so she darts over to smack a kiss on his lips before she's running for the door.

"Enola!" he calls out again, but now he sounds less worried and more exasperated, which is better, which is good. There's nothing for him to worry about.

She wants her mother, who's banned from London and is causing political unrest in Southern France currently, or Edith, who's doing something clever and illegal in Scotland. She'd take Victoria, but Mycroft will be there, and he's the last person she wants to see right now. Sherlock, while beloved, is useless, but his boy is a doctor.

She drops in at 221B Baker Street, picking the lock like always, and is relieved that Sherlock is still asleep and decides not to have any opinions on the various bones scattered about the kitchen table. She assumes there's a reasonable explanation for them.

"Oh, Enola!" John grins and shoves some femurs to the side to make space at the table. "Here, join me, would you like some oatmeal? Are you looking for your brother? I can wake him-"

"I'm pregnant," she blurts out, then bites her bottom lip.

John blinks once, then twice, then says with a gentleness that had made her like him in the first place - because Sherlock wanted to be gentle, but was quite bad at it, so someone had to teach him - "This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

Wanted seems like not the correct word, although of course it is, because she and Tewksbury had been, not trying, but not-not trying, which probably amounted to the same thing, considering how often they - well.

"I can fix it," he says, voice low and serious, "if it's something that needs to be fixed."

Enola lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "No. No, it doesn't need to be fixed."

She loves that he offered. She loves John, more her brother than Mycroft will ever be, sometimes even more her brother than Sherlock is. If nothing else, her brothers had picked their partners well. Victoria and John are a delight.

John is the functional one between them, explosions and skeletons notwithstanding. John is the one that coaxed her brother into a proper relationship and John is the one that knew they were like parents to all the Irregulars and John isn't normal but he grew up normal.

"Are you worried something's wrong?" he asks. "I can look you over."

"No," she says, although, "I mean, yes, that'd be nice because Tewksbury will go spare, but no, I'm not worried anything's wrong."

He leans back in his chair, looking her over, and after almost ten years of dealing with her and Sherlock and even occasionally Mycroft he can read them almost as well as they can read everyone else.

"It's alright to be scared," he says finally. "Lots of women are when they find out, even when it's wanted, even when the baby's healthy."

"I'm not scared," she says, but for the first time her words feel like a lie. "I shouldn't be scared. What do I have to be scared of?"

She wishes her mother was here.

Will her children miss her like this too?

Sometimes she misses her mother even when she's right in front of her, and if nothing else, she's her mother's daughter.

John gets to his feet, stand in front of her, and opens his arms. She looks away even as she steps forward, like if she doesn't look at him when she does it then it doesn't count as weakness.

His arms close around her. He smells like chai and antiseptic and it's only years of association that make the combination comforting. "I can't wait to be an uncle."

He'll be an uncle. Sherlock will be an uncle. Even Mycroft, and Victoria will be delighted to be an aunt, and to raise her children with Enola's. Of course there's her mother-in-law, and Tewksbury's uncle, who have been angling for her to have a child from the day they married.

There's Tewksbury, who loves her, who isn't going to die on her or leave her if either of them have anything to say about it, who isn't going to leave her to raise their children the way her mother raised her.

Alone.

She's been saying she wasn't going to do this alone from the beginning, but standing here in Sherlock's kitchen, with John holding her steady, she really believes it.