"Mary, I promise you, we will be fine. All right? It'll be good practice for us for when we have a child of our own in a few months. Besides, you two have been stressed out and need a break from work." Molly smiled reassuringly at the first-time mum as she rocked Charlotte in her arms, careful not to wake her up. Hugging her, Mary thanked Molly again as John and Sherlock packed the cab with their suitcases for their anniversary trip to France.
"The cab is waiting, darling," John called out from the bottom of the stairs.
"We should get going then," Mary smiled as she squeezed her friend's shoulder and kissed Charlotte once more before heading downstairs quickly to meet John. Molly headed to the window with Charlotte, seeing Mary look up and wave before she got in and the cab sped off. She felt Sherlock come up behind her, squeezing her waist.
Molly's watch beeped, telling her that Charlotte would be needing her nap soon. She made her way towards the kitchen, making Sherlock's hand drop from her. She laid the infant down in the crib that they had set up next to John's old chair that Molly had more or less adopted as her own. As Molly warned up the milk in the kitchen, Sherlock got down on his knees to watch the baby through the bars of the crib, fascinated by her tiny features. The detective grinned as the baby stretched her arms above her head and opened her eyes.
"Is she awake yet?" Molly whispered to him as she walked over. "Oh hello dear," she murmured quietly to the baby. "Your mummy and daddy will be back in a couple of days."
"Why do you talk to her? It's not like she understands you." Sherlock frowned as he got up from the carpeted floor and sat down in his chair.
"Oh hush, I saw a study that found that talking to infants leads to an extensive vocabulary when they grow up. You of all people should know that. I thought you knew everything," Molly quipped as she picked up Charlotte from her crib and began feeding her, holding her over her pregnant stomach comfortably.
Sherlock scoffed as he rolled his eyes. "Of course I knew that," he affirmed, muttering, "I was just testing you."
Molly hummed a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her as she walked around the living room, watching the milk in the bottle slowly disappear. The baby seemed rather content, being carried around by the young woman and didn't even fuss a bit. Sherlock watched in admiration of how adeptly she was able to care for the tiny infant. Every time Molly looked over her shoulder at Sherlock, however, he would look down at his laptop, pretending to be uninterested in the pair of them.
Finally, when Molly caught Sherlock staring, she smiled softly at him and asked if he wanted to try and hold her. "It isn't that difficult. Just make sure you support her head and bum," she instructed him.
"What if she starts crying once I hold her?" the detective protested. "That is what most babies do when I get near them," Sherlock mumbled as he nervously got up.
"You'll be fine." Molly reassured him as she carefully passed the now sleeping baby Watson into Sherlock's arms while she guided his hands. Sherlock looked up at Molly grinning once she stood back allowing him to hold her by himself.
"See? Not so hard. Soon you will be doing that for your own child. Sherlock, you're going to be a wonderful father." Molly smiled as she placed a hand on her small but growing stomach.
"Oh! Look! I can hold her with one hand." Sherlock grinned proudly as he balanced her on his arm. "I think I can hold our baby when I do my deductions at crime scenes. It will be nice to take her to work sometimes when you are too busy." Sherlock had deduced that the child was to be a girl long before the ultrasound had.
"Um, no. I don't want the baby to grow up around dead bodies everyday," Molly shook her head firmly as she pressed her lips together to show her disapproval.
"That would be your job. My job only has dead bodies sometimes. It would be fun." He grinned as he picked up Billy and talked to him dramatically as if he was in a Shakespeare play. He didn't notice his hold on the baby faltering until Molly whisper yelled at him.
"Sherlock! The baby is falling!"
Sherlock dropped Billy and caught Charlotte in one smooth motion, careful not to wake her up. He pulled the baby close to his body and covered her ears with his large hands as the skull hit the hardwood floor, leaving a large crack on the top of the skull.
"And here I was thinking you could have been a great father." Molly sighed in relief as she rolled her eyes, approaching him to fix the blanket around Charlotte.
"Hey! I am going to be the best father. Did you not see me sacrifice Billy to save Charlotte? I think that is something a great father would do." Sherlock frowned as he put Charlotte back down in her crib.
"Alright, fine. I will give you that. It was pretty impressive." Molly smiled as she looked up as Sherlock planted a small kiss on her lips, one hand going over her rounded belly, the other to her cheek as he tilted her head back gently.
"I can show you something else that's impressive," he said in a quiet, low voice, adding a wink at the end, making her cheeks flush scarlet. He pressed another kiss to her lips before bending down to pick her up bridal style, cradling her against him as he headed to their bedroom.
