Chapter Text
Greg heard the sound of the door as he started to plate up the children's dinners. He had managed to assemble them around the table without any arguments or tantrums breaking out, and Will had even started to help by sitting next to Adam, contained in his high chair, and shovelling baby food into him. Adam happily chomped on each spoonful, his left hand clenching and unclenching in excitement.
He knew Mycroft would appear within a few minutes, or one of the children was likely to wander off and look for him. Greg put the plates in front of Will, Nathanial and Georgina.
Adam gave a cry as Will paused feeding him to concentrate on feeding himself.
"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Greg paused checking his other children to give Adam another mouthful, then he went to the sink to start washing up the pans. Adam bloated his cheeks out before letting some of the food dribble down his chin.
"Urgh!" Will exclaimed. Georgina giggled.
Greg stopped running hot water onto the pans and came to see what all the fuss was about.
"You horrible child!" Greg told Adam, who stared up at him, baby food dribbling out of his mouth. Scraping up the mess he reinserted it into Adam's mouth. The little boy chomped again, this time swallowing before looking at Greg expectantly.
"I don't know what you're pulling faces for, you used to spit food everywhere."
Will looked shocked, he turned his head as Mycroft strolled into the room and pulled a face very similar to Will's as he surveyed the chaos.
"Did I used to spit out food Daddy?" Will asked Mycroft.
"Yes," Mycroft said, and although he had never witnessed such an event, he presumed that information came from Greg, and he had no reason to contradict his omega on such a subject. Will looked offended and ignored both his parents as he ate his dinner.
Greg went back to the sink and turned the tap back on, adding more washing up liquid before attempting to clean the pans. Mycroft eased around the eating children to go to him.
"I have a few phone calls to make."
"Fine," Greg said shortly. Mycroft frowned.
"It's nothing immediate."
Greg shook his head. "Oh, it's fine, that's what you always do."
At that moment in time Mycroft wondered if he should have always been doing that.
"You look tired," he told his omega.
"I feel tired. I...."
Adam gave another wail. Greg almost moved around Mycroft to go to him but Mycroft was quicker, rolling his sleeves up and sitting at the table to take up the duty of feeding Adam.
Will, still feeling offended, studiously ignored him. Nathanial looked baffled and stared at Mycroft with wide-eyed awe. Georgina, realising Mycroft was a captive audience, wittered away at him. Adam continued to demand his dinner. Greg watched them, clearing away what he had used to cook the children's food and setting up what he needed to do his and Mycroft's.
The little domestic scene was quite sweet, Mycroft inserted himself into it with a minimum of fuss. But he had been forced to take over when Greg had been kidnapped, he had managed for a year, he had had help but in the end, he had taken the role as parent very seriously. He continued to watch from a distance as Mycroft wiped Adam's face up, the baby gurgled and slapped his hands against the plastic tray of the high chair while he waited for his drink. Mycroft gave him the plastic drinker and Adam started to guzzle.
"Don't let him go so fast," Greg warned. Mycroft looked slightly alarmed and had a brief battle with Adam to get his desire to gulp his juice under control. Greg watched with some amusement.
"Does this child ever stop eating?" Mycroft asked as Adam finished and turned to try and get hold of Will's dinner.
"Yes, because I make him. He'd only stop to get some sleep and just start up again if he could," Greg said. Adam twisted in the high chair, trying to locate Greg. Setting the pans aside to dry off Greg came over to pick him up. Adam settled happily against him while Greg patted his back. The baby gave an almighty burp, kicking in excitement and looking very pleased with himself. Greg patted his back indulgently as Adam gurgled in delight.
"Right you can stay in the play pen for half an hour while you lot finish then the bedtime relay."
"Do you require assistance?" Mycroft asked.
Greg debated that idea but then gave a shake of his head.
"No, I'll be fine."
Mycroft didn't comment, but Greg knew that didn't mean Mycroft entirely believed it.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Working from the youngest upward Greg put the children to bed. Adam never objected, almost looking as if he indulged Greg's desire to bathe him and tell him a story.
Georgina always seemed endlessly full of questions, which Greg did his best to answer, while trying not to yawn.
Nathanial just seemed to like snuggling up to Greg as he sorted him out and got him into bed.
His second son was the one that worried Greg the most. There were enough hints that Nathanial was developing into an omega and Greg knew how complicated that could be. He kept his opinions to himself. Mycroft was certainly happy with Will's alpha status, and he had probably formed conclusions about the others. He would want Nathanial able to breed where as Greg would much prefer his omega son to be sterile, quite hypocritically really. It would have been better if Georgina had been the omega, but she was another clear alpha.
Nathanial settled in the bed as Greg tucked him in, his thumb slid into his mouth and he curled his other arm around his panda toy.
"Ight 'addy."
"Goodnight." Greg said kissing Nathanial. Will, lingering next to him, reached over to do the same. As sweet as it was, there was a very clear, 'go away and leave daddy to me' undertone to Will's actions as he watched his siblings put to bed, and he had full, clear, hour of Greg to himself. It was hard to now. He put as much time in with all the kids as possible, but Will had been the first, and it had felt special. All of them were, Greg said to himself, as he picked Will up to take him for his bath. But Will had also suffered the anxiety of a year's separation from him and that made him both vulnerable and protective.
So Greg spent that hour with Will, listening to him chatter, behaving like a child, more than he did so if the others were around him. It was as if Will took responsibility for them, when he didn't really need to, but his instinct was to support Greg, so he bossed them around, and got them to do as they were told. That caused untold arguments with Georgina, Nathanial always quietly acquiesced to any demand, and Adam didn't care, he was too young to. Plus Greg got the feeling that Adam would be a beta.
"Daddy?" Will asked, as he was tucked in, after two stories, and a little bit of chatter.
"What little man?"
"Are you all right Daddy?" There was clear concern in the question and tone in which it was asked. Greg blinked and looked at Will, who did look seriously worried. Moving closer Greg hugged him tightly, which Will reciprocated.
"Daddy?" he asked, like a dog with a bone, he wouldn't let it go until he was done with it.
"I'm just tired," Greg said. "Now I've done it for you lot, Daddy will feed me and put me to bed, and look after me."
There was likely to be some form of lecture involved as well. Although Greg failed to see what could be done about the situation. He had four children, and was expecting another. Four and a half months into the pregnancy he was bound to feel a little bit tired, and that was all there was to it.
Heading downstairs, after Will had finally settled, Greg went into the kitchen to find Mycroft wearing an apron and competently putting the ingredients Greg had laid out together. The table had already been laid and a wine glass sat on the table by Greg's place setting. He got the hint and sat down sipping at the grape juice in the glass. Mycroft concentrated on what he was doing, but he kept glancing over at Greg, who had pushed things around slightly to fold his arms on the table and rest his head on them. He smirked as Mycroft carefully measured out the amount of soy sauce he needed.
"You can just put a few splashes in, you don't need to be that exact."
Mycroft continued what he was doing and then put the small measuring cup to one side to wash it.
"If I choose to be accurate, then that is my prerogative."
"It's a recipe not a science experiment, and why did you bother rinsing it just to measure something else, which is being put in the same pan."
"Because that is how I choose to do it," Mycroft said, doing exactly that. "Do I criticise your methods?"
Greg let that question hang in the air for a moment. "Yes."
"Let us agree to disagree."
"As always," Greg said, and staying silent merely watched.
As Mycroft again rinsed the jug out a few minutes later he turned to check Greg's reaction, to find he wasn't really going to get one. Greg still lay sprawled on the table, looking entirely comfortable as he slept soundly. Mycroft frowned as he looked at him, aware of the fatigue his omega currently suffered. In one way or another the pregnancies he had gone through had been hard, this one because he was also dealing with four young children at the same time, all with different demands and needs. Mycroft really needed to do something about it, starting with feeding Gregory, then getting him to bed for a full night's sleep.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"But... if Will wakes up..." Greg wasn't putting up that much of a fight as Mycroft got him up to bed, strategically putting his omega in his room, so he could be in the study ready to head off any waking children. Who could possibly panic if they didn't find Greg in his room.
"I will hear them, and I will tell them. And Will is generally unlikely to rouse. There is no particular reason why any of them should wake, and I am perfectly capable of looking after my sleeping children for a few hours, while you get some rest."
There was logic to that, and Greg forced himself to concentrate on that, despite his worry. Mycroft could manage his children perfectly well, Greg needed to get some sleep. He ran that sentence through his head as Mycroft bullied him into bed. In the end, Greg snuggled down into the covers.
"You're not coming to bed then?"
"I still have work, and I am not exhausted and falling asleep at the dinner table. I will join you later."
Mycroft added the last bit to appease Greg, who snuggled down with that incentive in mind. Feeling disturbed by that Mycroft retreated to his office. He worked while he thought it through. His life had turned quite domestic over the time he had been with Greg, and presumably it would get worse, since the omega had signed the life contract, to stay with Mycroft permanently.
He had been prepared to change that in the future. Mycroft was aware it could have been nothing more than a kneejerk reaction to the year that Moriarty had held Greg hostage, taking one child away from him the moment that he was born and impregnating him with another. Greg had been appallingly vulnerable that the time, and had signed without hesitating. As bad as he was at reading Greg's behaviour and reactions Mycroft felt aware of not wanting to leave Greg with any regrets, or force him into anything he didn't want. The purpose of that contract was to make him feel secure, since their relationship had appeared to be working towards such a conclusion, as far as Mycroft could tell. But they had managed dealing with Georgina, and had Adam after that, with another child on the way. It was fair to say that perhaps Mycroft could change the contract and remove the separation clause he had carefully added.
Still, fiddling with it, just for the sake of it, might cause more trouble than it was worth. As he decided to leave it alone he heard the sound of shuffling in the passage. Getting up from his desk he went out into the hallway.
Georgina had woken, and as she heard Mycroft she turned to stare up at him, blinking sleepily, and for a moment her eyes took on a hint of her alpha father. Then the pout wiped Moriarty off her face.
"Where's daddy?"
"Daddy's sleeping, he's tired. I'll have to do."
Georgina debated that, shrugged and trotted over to him, lifting her arms so she could be picked up. She snuggled against him.
"Is that 'cos of baby in tummy?"
She had clearly taken in the careful explanations that Greg had given the children about his condition. Not that things took much explaining. All of Greg's children seemed to be highly intelligent, and that did not come just from their alpha parent. It helped that Greg had a knack of explaining things to the children to make them make sense.
"A little bit, but daddy has to rush around after you as well, which makes him a little tired."
"You could do it," Georgina informed him.
"I am, now," Mycroft said carrying Georgina back to her room. She seemed to agree with that as she put her head down on his shoulder as he carried her.
"I'm not tired," she informed him. Mycroft sighed inwardly. Georgina could chatter on for England, and he still had some work to do. However, the little girl had to come first. He had promised Gregory he would look after them.
"Would you like a story?"
Georgina pouted again, her eyes shifting, so when Mycroft put her down on her bed, she looked up at him with Moriarty's eyes. He did think it somewhat unfortunate that she hadn't taken on Greg's features, as Will had. Most of the time her alpha father didn't show on her innocent little face but Mycroft would have preferred there to have been no glimpses of him at all.
"How did the baby get into daddy's tummy?"
Mycroft cringed. That was a conversation he had thought Greg would have dealt with, when the time was necessary. It seemed to be the problem with their brood of highly intelligent children. They worked these things out far too quickly. Gregory had to have told them something but probably not the complete facts of life. Mycroft had a few seconds to debate what Gregory would have said to the direct question.
"There is a process, known as reproduction. All animals have a system of having babies. Some lay eggs, like chickens, and in people, and mammals like cats and dogs, they grow inside."
"How do they get there," Georgina asked again.
"Daddy has eggs, inside his tummy, in a special place."
"Like a chicken," Georgina asked wrinkling her nose.
"No, different but the principle is similar. Animals need eggs. Some of them take the eggs out for the baby to grow, daddy needs to carry it in his tummy."
"But how did it get in there?" Georgina demanded for a third time.
Mycroft cringed again. He was tempted to tell her to ask Gregory in the morning but the alpha got the feeling that such a response would not go down well. Without even saying anything about it, and certainly not asking, Greg had made it very clear that he expected Mycroft to interact with the children.
"The egg was already in there, but it needed to be fertilized for the baby to grow. I have to help daddy with that."
"How?" Georgina asked, which she would, quite naturally; Mycroft thought to himself.
"That's why daddy needs an alpha, like me, I help him fertilize the egg and then the baby has to grow in daddy's tummy."
Please don't ask any more than that, Mycroft thought to himself. He was not qualified for this conversation. He needed Gregory to explain all this to her. Georgina, however, picked up on one word and redirected the discussion slightly.
"Like putting poo on the garden?"
Mycroft blinked and then realised. Fertilize, she was thinking of Greg and helping in the garden. It was good enough.
"A little," Mycroft said. "But it makes daddy tired to grow the baby and make sure he looks after you. You get tired after helping daddy in the garden."
"But it makes daddy happy to have lots of flowers," she said. Mycroft nodded.
"Yes it does, daddy likes the garden."
"Daddy likes babies too, and he has lots of babies now," Georgina mused after a further few seconds of pondering. "He doesn't need any more."
Mycroft raised his eyebrows. Perhaps somewhere in that innocent little statement his daughter had given him an answer.
XxxxxxxxxxxxX
"Thank you for coming," Mycroft said. John looked around the upmarket looking cafe, which Mycroft had requested him to come to.
"A text is politer than a kidnapping."
Mycroft raised his eyebrows and signalled to the waiter. "They do a very good afternoon tea here, and I think our relationship has progressed from the kidnapping stage."
"Good to know, on both counts. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
John frowned as Mycroft waited for the waiter to lay everything out, which seemed rather a rigmarole. As he waited John asked innocuous questions, to see if he could at least get a small hint. He had a ball park idea to work with.
"Is Greg all right?"
"Yes, although tired. My parents are driving down, they have likely arrived by now. It will take some of the pressure off Greg dealing with the older children."
John nodded. "Nothing's wrong with Sherlock."
"You would know more about that than I do," Mycroft informed him.
"Your parents are presumably all right?"
"Of course. I merely need to ask your opinion on a subject, and with it being a medical matter you seemed an ideal candidate."
"Not Greg?" John half asked, half confirmed. Mycroft nodded and John rolled his eyes, but he kept them on Mycroft, looking him up and down with some concern. It was, Mycroft guessed accurately, not direct concern for him but more if there was anything wrong with him, how it would impact on Greg.
In the end John wondered if Mycroft deliberately waited until he was sipping his tea before bringing up the pertinent subject.
"I was debating whether or not to have a vasectomy."
Unsurprisingly, John nearly choked on his tea.