The Man With The Umbrella

- 72 -

Two months later had led Tobias to be lying on his tummy in his parents bed trying his hardest to crawl at eleven o'clock at night.

It became constant over the weeks that as Mycroft worked late into the night that Viola and Emily would lounge about with Amelia in her bedroom until they were tired and left to retire to their own rooms.

Emily, was to say, thrilled and delighted with the news of finally being adopted because she adored Viola and she genuinely loved Amelia and Mycroft as a pair of oddball parents. In fact to further that statement the evening after the whole kerfuffle of making Siger and Violet aware of Eurus' incarceration and argument that trailed closely after, Mycroft had sat Emily down in one of the sitting rooms and made her open the letter attached to a recently bought artists easel as a welcome to the family kind of thing. Emily opened the letter to read the adoption papers and looked to the easel alongside other art suppliance's before jumping up to hug Mycroft around the neck, effectively knocking him further into the sofa.

Billy Wiggins had also become a regular visitor to the Kensington manor home during the days and dare he push it but despite the age gap, he began to see Amelia in a mothering light and Mycroft as some form of role model that was permanent.

As the girls sweetly hugged Amelia goodnight and kissed Toby, they left the bedroom leaving the door slightly ajar and Amelia slowly began to help her son crawl. She was encouraging and persevering considering that Tobias lost motivation quickly.

Placing him at the end of the bed, Amelia sat by the headboard with her legs crossed and she made grabby hands to her son for motivation. "Come on, Toby. Crawl to mummy." She called sweetly.

Tobias had already established lifting his head and being able to hold it up for a good ten seconds and he had began gurgling and cooing more when people spoke to him. It was true to say that he was ahead of himself in terms of his development considering that he came from a long line of intelligent beings but Amelia wanted to know how clever her little boy really was.

He looked across to Amelia inquisitively before dropping his head slightly and attempting to wiggle up the bedsheet. He needed to learn in terms with his crawling that he couldn't just grab onto objects in order to pull himself across. To Amelia, he needed to learn and understand how his legs worked so for every time that he pulled himself up by gripping the bedsheet; Amelia would place him back to the end of the bed until he learned how to use his legs.

Half an hour later, with Tobias at the end of the bed once more, he gripped the bedsheet again before looking down to his knees and slowly bending one. "That's it, move your knees." She eagerly encouraged. Enjoying the sound of his mother's voice, he carefully moved one knee up just as he moved the opposite arm up and he slowly began to crawl. He made it to Amelia's feet before he face planted and she classed it as a success.

Pulling him up, she settled him on her lap and smiled happily. "Oh, you good boy." She lifted him up slightly in order to pepper dozens of kisses to his cheeks and Tobias screamed out a laugh before carefully moving his arms upto hug her neck.

It was the state Mycroft had found the pair in that made him smile as he walked into the bedroom. "Look, Mycroft. He's hugging me." She spoke softly whilst tearing up and rubbing his back soundly.

He huffed a laugh as he walked to his desk, settling his briefcase across it. Tobias was quick to lift his head as soon as he had heard him and he cooed excitedly just as Amelia settled him into her lap again.

Removing his shoes and blazer, he plucked his son out of Amelia's hold and held him high above his head whilst walking around to settle on his side of the bed. "Are you upsetting mummy again?" He asked the young boy. As if he understood him, Tobias slightly nodded his head in pride just as Mycroft dropped his arms slightly in order to hold the boy close. "I suppose you're correct, Tobias. Your mother does have the tendency to be over emotional." He responded to the boy.