It Started With Stealing | Sherlock Holmes

84 - Babysitting

"You're not. I'm offering because she's such a little cherub."

Little screaming demon more like, Sherlock thought.

Elizabeth checked, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. I still expect rent by the end of this month and Sherlock over there isn't doing too well money-wise what with having been injured and all."

"I'm doing just fine!" Sherlock spoke up suddenly, louder than anyone expected, "And I'm not incapable of taking care of a baby."

"Well then, you can help me, can't you, dear?" Mrs Hudson took little Ava from John and walked over to the detective, "You can start by entertaining her while I organise her a bottle."

Sherlock stared at the wriggling, gurgling, babbling human almost as though it would bite him. Sherlock looked up, looking past Ava at John and Elizabeth (who had crossed her arms) who were both waiting for him to show some care, to prove that he could be capable. The detective looked back down at the baby and begrudgingly took her from the landlady.

"Ba-bah-baba." Came her incoherent speech.

"Yes." Sherlock said, "You are a baby."

Elizabeth and John shared a look, both smirking at each other. Little Ava's hands went straight for his dark curls and tugged, catching the detective off guard.

"Ow. No. This - no. Ava, let go. It's socially unacceptable to grab people's - ow - hair. Ava! Mrs Hudson, could you - ow!"

Mrs Hudson hurriedly got to work on detangling Ava's grabby hands from the detective's hair as the thief and the doctor giggled, both heading for the door and both quite saddened by the fact they wouldn't get to see the day's events ensue. Elizabeth lingered by the door, watching the struggle briefly and watching it with a gaze full of love for him. She knew he had it in him to care for a small human, Elizabeth just thought he needed to feel challenged enough to unlock that potential.

She wondered what she would come back to at the end of her shift.

"Have fun!"

*  *  *  *  *

Elizabeth sat in the store room, taking a her little five minute break. She thought a call to Sherlock might be good. Dialling the number she sat and waited for him to pick up.

"Yes?"

"Hiya, Sherlock. How's everything going?"

"You've only been gone for two hours."

"Sherlock, if you avoid answering a simple question that only makes me worry more."

"Fine. Everything is - ow! Ava! We do not throw - ow!"

There was some scuffling in the background and Elizabeth listened, wide-eyed until she heard crying.

"Sherlock?"

"It's fine. I just took the skull away from her."

"Skull? Why are you letting her play with the skull?" Elizabeth pinched the bridge of her nose as she listened.

"Well, it was the skull or the chemicals - "

"Sherlock!"

"I'm kidding! I wouldn't let a baby play with chemicals, what do you think of me?"

Elizabeth didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Okay, look, I'm coming back."

"Finish your shift. Mrs Hudson is here - "

"Sherlock!" She heard the land lady over the phone, "Won't you give Ava that skull back? It clearly keeps her quiet."

"She keeps throwing it at me!"