Emotional Context

Work Leave & Baby Troubles

ELIZABETH'S POV

About two months had passed since the situation surrounding the case about my mum.. There had been a fair amount of backlash from my father's new wife and family, but Greg and Sherlock has taken care of that. We were now less than a month away from John and Mary's wedding, and a little over a month until the baby was due. Between both of those and work we were beyond busy.

Currently I was at Scotland Yard working on a case. It wasn't a big case, but enough to keep me busy. I walked back into my office after the umpteenth trip to the bathroom today, looking around I saw all my papers from the case were gone.

"Greg?" I walked into his office "Do you know what happened to the stack of papers for the cases that were on my desk? I ran to the bathroom and when I came back they were gone."

"I took 'em. You don't need them anymore." He gestured to the papers that were now on his desk. "Once you finish this article you're good. Go home, relax, everything will be here when you get back."

"I'm sorry? I don't think I understand.."

"Sherlock and John stopped by the other day, I'm surprised you didn't notice. Anyway, Sherlock voiced his concern about you working and suggested you start your maternity leave. Says you don't really need to be working, so you're good to go after this case. Go relax and get yourself ready for that baby."

"And you agreed with him on this?" I put my hands on my hips and paced back and forth in front of his desk. "I am only now just entering my eighth month, I work at my desk all day. I'm fine! I can still work. It's silly of me stop working."

"Well, the three of us agreed, so you're taking your leave. Liz, don't worry about it. You have more important things to worry about." He looked down at my stomach. "Just enjoy yourself."

As much as I wanted to argue, I knew it wouldn't do me any good.

"Alright. Thank you, Greg. I'm going to head home. I'll email you the article tomorrow afternoon. I need to go have a talk with my husband."

"You know you won't win that one." He stated as I began to walk out.

"I can bloody well try." I then grabbed my bag out of the office, taking all of the papers that I needed and headed to Baker Street.

"Sherlock!" I yelled, walking into our flat. "What do you think you're doing telling Lestrade that I need to go on leave now? I am only eight months pregnant and I'm very capable of working."

"I knew this conversation was going to come up, but I was hoping you would have had more sense to understand." He said as he looked up from his experiment. "Let's go sit down and discuss this." He sprang up from the table, took my hand and sat me down in John's chair.

"You realise that I'm going to get irritated by almost anything you say." I snapped.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time." He sat across from me. "Do I honestly have to explain this to you? Elizabeth, you're eight months pregnant and at this point of your pregnancy you need to be relaxing and allowing your body to prepare itself for birth. I know you work at your desk most of the day, but I prefer having you here at home, especially with some of the problems you've been having."

"Wha-" I went to object until he cut me off.

"It's clear you've been having difficultly sleeping due to the activeness of the baby and the discomfort you're starting to feel. Also, you're carrying a bit larger than most women so you have constant back pain. The swelling of your ankles and such as well as weight gain, as I hear you complain about while in the bathroom, is also rather obvious. So, under these circumstances John and I feel that it's best for you to take leave. Don't try to argue with us, it's doctor's orders."