ihadabadday | The Black Book - AU - Locked to seaweed

"I love you Mum. I'll call soon. I promise." John took Sherlock's hand and then pulled him through the portal back to their flat.

"How are we going to tell your sire? Does he even know we've mated?" John asked the vampire as he set the bag down and went to go make them some tea.

Sherlock let out a long breath. That had been one long series of awkward and tense moments, one after the other. He was quite happy to be safe in his own home.

"Oh, I can assure you that he knows." The voice was smooth and rich and posh. Sherlock turned to see his sire sitting in his chair, legs crossed primly, his hands steepled under his chin, umbrella resting against the side of the chair.

"Mycroft." Sherlock almost spat out the word.

"Sherlock" He said quickly, interrupting Sherlock before he could say anything else. "I will only be a moment." Mycroft stood while Sherlock murmured "One moment too long." under his breath. Of course Mycroft heard, but he ignored it.

"I must take the same stance as Malthyne." Despite their rivalry, Mycroft still called her by her true name as a sign of respect for her station. "This is quite a dangerous undertaking that you are endeavoring in. " He looked over to John. "I care not for the half demon.." He looked back to Sherlock. "But I am concerned for the welfare of the child. It will be a child of the Darkness, unable to walk in the light. It will be of Old Blood, the blood that I bestowed upon you. It will be my progeny, and therefore will be under my protection."

He paused, looking even more serious. "But know this, half Demon." he looked to John. "You are a child of two world, this will be a child of three. If it does survive to be born, it will not have an easy life. It will not belong to humans, or Vampires or Demons. It will forever be an outcast of all three. I do not condem this child and on my oath will do nothing to harm it, but think hard about bringing this child into the light. It may have an immortal life of bigotry and hatred."

He picked up his umbrella and headed to the door, looking back. "Good day, brother mine. John." He nodded his head, not even giving John the honor of his true name.

And with that, he was gone.

John jumped and swore. He walked out of the kitchen and over to Sherlock. He touched his mate's shoulder and then looked to the vampire before them. He could feel the power of the First Blood in front of him. Christ. No wonder Sherlock was the way he was. This was what it must be like for people meeting his mother for the first time. Now he understood.

He put a protective hand over his belly, feeling his magic starting to come to his hand. The instinct to protect his unborn child was strong already.

He listened to the words from his mate's sire and then his shoulders slumped. He practically collapsed into a chair.

"Are we doing the right thing?" He asked looking up at Sherlock, "Bringing this child into this world when they could face so much hatred?"

Sherlock hated to see John so upset. And for the health of their baby, he knew that John needed to stay as calm as he could. He walked over to John, slumped in a chair, and gently put his hand on his shoulder.

"I wish I knew the answer to that, John." Sherlock said, after Mycroft had left. "This is unprecedented, like they both said, so there is no blueprint for how we should do this." He sighed and went into the kitchen to make them tea. He came out a moment later, handing a cup to John. "Herbal, non caffeinated. You'll have to watch your caffeine intake." he smiled. John being a doctor, he would know this already, but he wanted to bring some levity into the tense atmosphere.

He took the tea and sipped it. It took a few minutes, but he started to relax, letting the tension leave his body. No, they didn't have all the answers, but who did? No parent did. Every child and every birth was different. Sure, some had it easy. Demons, humans, even vampires. He finished his tea before he looked up at Sherlock.

"Do you want this child?" He asked. He knew he had already asked. But John needed to know, needed to hear it again.

"Yes." Sherlock's tone was resolute. There was no wavering or unsureness in his tone. He knew that he wanted this baby as much as John did.

"And I know that you do as well." He said, sipping his tea. "So, I guess that answers the question, doesn't it?"

"I just wanted to make sure, before we went through with all of this." He said after a moment.

John let out a breath and then laughed slightly. "We're going to be parents." He couldn't help but smile.

"God..." Sherlock ran his hands through his hair. "I guess in all of the craziness of what is going on, I forgot about the most obvious thing." All of a sudden, his smile faded.

"What.. what if I'm a mad parent? What if I don't know how to take care of the child? What if it doesn't like me, or I accidentally hurt it?" All of his doubts and worries suddenly came to the surface. "What if I'm not cut out to be a father?"

"Then we'll stumble through this together." He said.

"How do any of us know how we're going to be as parents?" John got up and walked over to where Sherlock was. He reached out and touched his cheek. "All that matters is that we do it together."

Sherlock had to chuckle at that. "Yeah I guess there are no first time parents that are really prepared for what is going to happen. But this is going to be anything but normal, both the pregnancy and the birth.. and whatever will come after."

He leaned into the warm hand on his cold cheek. "Together." He replied. "Us against the world."

Things had not been easy. John was able to get a leave of absence from his job. Of course, the so far seven and a half months of bed rest was driving him mad. But he remained as relaxed as possible.

This particular day found him sitting on the new couch that sherlock had bought after he complained about the couch cushion being lumpy.

Was his mate nesting?

He sipped his (herbal) tea as he watched the vampire fuss about the flat. "Sherlock. Sherlock. It's fine." He said, "everything is fine."

It had been a long 7 and a half months. There had been a few scares along the way. John went back to visit the healer in the Underworld more and more frequently to make sure that everything was OK with the child. He would adjust his powder a bit every time a little bit, tweaking it to the particular issues he was having.

There had been bad stomach cramps- of course they had both been afraid that they meant the baby was gone, but thankfully that hadn't been the case. John had also had bouts with both diarrhea and constipation (at different times), nausea, vertigo, water weight gain, low sodium, high blood pressure and almost every thing else that one could think of, John had weathered it.

And all through it, John had been a trooper, while Sherlock had been a bloody disastrous mess.

One good thing was the, at least temporary truce between Mycroft and Martha. They never met, but they both tried to help in their own way.

And as the 7th month passed, and the baby (who the healer had said he could tell them the sex of the baby but they had decided not to find out) was still doing okay, a bit on the small side, but still active and slowly growing, Sherlock found himself... anxious.

He bought another couch, he bought baby proof light switch covers, even though they wouldn't need them for almost a year, he changed out pillows and had someone paint the room upstairs that was ostensibly John's room but he didn't need it. Then he got a crib and a travel cot and a changing table and a rocking chair, and a rocking chair for the living room and..

Maybe... he was nesting a bit...

" I know.. I know..." He was pacing around the room as John sipped his tea, deciding on his phone which mobile to get for the crib, he was leaning towards the one with the planets. One can't start learning about them too early..

Sherlock was anxiously pacing, a nervous wreck. John had been having some back pains and soft cramps , but it was nothing so far. But it COULD be the start of something, and that scared him.

"Come sit with me." He said patting the spot next to him, "you're going to wear a groove into the floor if you keep pacing like that."

John had adopted a very zen like state about everything. He had to, he was too worried he would work himself into a panic otherwise.

"Do you like the couch? Maybe I should have gone with that other couch, the one you liked at first, I can take this one back, and go get the other one, and maybe a new rug as well so it won't have to crawl on the wood, it will be bad for it's knees..."

He stopped when John invited him over to the couch. "Oh... um.. yes." He walked over and say next to John on the couch, but he was still, sitting up ramrod straight, hands in his lap.

"Have you had any more cramps? Does your back hurt? Are you tired or nauseous or diarrhea?" She asked, looking John over with a fine tooth comb.

"Sherlock. The couch is fine. I'm just glad I didn't reccomend redoing the whole god damn fault. Though we could use a bigger bathroom." He shrugged a bit.

He looked at his mate and leaned in to kiss him. "Relax. It will be okay, everything will be okay. The healer thought I'd be lucky if I got to thirty weeks, which was a month ago. If I can keep this little one in for another few weeks, we should be doing good."

Sherlock jumped up. "Bathroom!" He yelled, starting to walk towards the hallway. "Of course. I totally overlooked the bathroom! We'll need a bigger tub so we can wash the baby, and we need to get one of those baby tubs to wash him while its small.." He wandered down the hallway and into the loo to figure out what else needed to be done.

John groaned and dropped his head back.

He straightened and got his phone. He sent a text (not a group one) to each Mycroft and his mother.

Sherlock is nesting. If construction crews start showing up, I'm going to move into a hotel.

A text came back immediately from Mycroft

I will make sure that any construction permits are not granted. Thank you for the warning. I am quite sure that he will make a very capable father. He is concerned for you both.

A couple of minutes later, his mother responded.

I find it hard not to laugh at the concept of Sherlock nesting. But it does reiterate the idea that he has the well being of both you and the child foremost in his mind.

To Mycroft he sent:

Thank you. Any suggestions on how to get him to calm down?

And then to his mother:

He does. I'm just somewhere between being done and even more in love.

John rubbed his belly, making a noise. "Child, your Papa is being... Not irritating. But interesting." He chuckled.

Mycroft texted again immediately.

I would suggest getting his mind on something else, but I shudder to think what that might entail. Perhaps take him out for lunch, or a walk, something to get him out of the flat for a bit.

His mother texted back afterwards.

For his sake, I hope it is the latter.

The baby, who was now sitting much lower in his belly- a sign that he was in the final stages of pregnancy, decided to kick when its Daddy spoke to it and rubbed over when it lay.

John ignored the two messages and instead smiled at his belly. "And Papa isn't even here to feel you kick. Sometimes he wonders if you do that on purpose."

He heaved himself off the couch and went in search of his mate. Mycroft did have a good idea. Get his mind off it...

Sherlock was just walking out of the loo. "John!" He called, thinking he was still in the living room, when he almost ran into the man.

"Oh. John. Sorry." He spoke in a regular tone. " I think I've made some plans. I'll need to call an architect to get them on paper. Hopefully we can get things done before the baby decides to get here. "I'm going to go look up architects. I'm sure my dear brother can suggest someone." Sherlock is used to calling Mycroft his brother to other humans, so he usually says it even in private so he doesn't accidentally call him his sire, which he actually is.

John calmly plucked the phone out of his hand, and the pad of paper. "Go in the bedroom, undress and sit on the bed." He ordered.

He stared at his mate, the expression brokering no room for arguement.

"Oh.." His face went from surprise to almost running into John, to excitement about working on the bathroom, to confusion about taking the phone and paper away from him, and then final realization.

Without another word, the walked into the bedroom, stripped off his dressing gown, his t-shirt, his socks, his trousers, and finally his pants. Just thinking about what his pregnant mate might do to him was already making him harden a bit. He laid down on the bed, wondering what John will do.

John smiled and nodded as he saw Sherlock obey his orders. He ran a hand over his belly and nodded.

At a slower pace, he went into the bedroom and smiled. "Good boy. I'm proud of you for following orders." He purred. John pulled off his shirt, which allowed Sherlock to see his expanded belly and breasts.

"What should I do with you?"

The Black Book - AU - Locked to seaweed_writes

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