I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 21 : Birthday Party

Gregory hanged the last balloon to the door and stood back to look at his work. He was really please with how the decoration had turned, making the usually formal living room looking nearly as friendly and joyful then his son's room upstairs. He was still contemplating his achievements when his husband entered the house, a cake box in his hands.
"That's fantastic Greg !" he congratulated the detective. It was the second birthday of Alden and they had invited few family and friends for tea to celebrate. It was actually Lestrade's idea as Mycroft, like Sherlock and the rest of the Holmes family see no point in celebrating the passing of years, but it seems to make him happy so the auburn had agreed on a little party.
The official had just gave the cake box to his cook when he heard the doorbell announcing the arrival of his brother and John, the little boy in the arms of the latter. The consulting detective nodded to his brother before taking a seat in the living room and going to his mind palace, not seeing any use for his mental presence at the party. Doctor Watson put the toddler and the floor and shook the elder Holmes hand.
"Nice to see you John." smiled the auburn. It wasn't only a convenience as he was really pleased to see the doctor thanks to whom Sherlock was starting to improve his behaving and comportment.
"Happy to see you to Mycroft." replied the blonde looking around him. "Nice decoration."
"Oh, it's Gregory. He... insisted." advised the official. He then turned to his son and lifted him to his chest. "Hello young man." he told him with a soft smile. The little boy placed a clumsy kiss on his father's cheek then sink his head into his neck.
"He is a bit tired, he didn't wanted to take a nap this morning." explained John with anapologetic smile. Mycroft nodded then lead Watson and his son to the living room where Greg was lightening a fire in the chimney. The detective turned around to greet john and kissed his son on the top of his head.
"Oh look at this grumpy little boy." he smiled, seeing that his son would not move from the official neck. John and the official had just sat down when the bell rung again. With a little nod toward the other man who was trying to make his son sleep a little, Dr Watson raised to his feet and reached the door to let Rudolf Holmes in. The old man hanged up his coat in the corridor before entering the living room . Seeing that Sherlock wasn't aware of anything that was going on in the room he gave up with the idea of saying hello to him and went directly to his other nephew, patting him on the shoulder and placing a gentle kiss on his cheek. The official winked back at him, not willing to move not to wake up the baby who was finally asleep against his chest. Gregory who had finally lightened up the fire shook Rudy's hand with a large smile.
"Nice to see you Rudolf." he said.
"Oh come on, call me Rudy please Gregory !" scoled the old man with an amused smile.
"Only if you call me Greg." agreed the detective. "Take a seat !".
Rudy sat beside his nephew on the couch, looking fondly at the sleeping boy. "He really reminds me of you as a baby you know ?" he said in a low voice, not to disturb the toddler, to the auburn.
"How would I know that ? I was a baby, I can't remember." replied the other, deadpan.
"Myc' don't play this little game with me ..." giggled Uncle Rudy. "I remember the first time I've been allowed to babysit you, you wouldn't sleep for the entire day, way to excited and concerned by trying to scratch all the pages of the copy of the Penal Code I owned with a red pen."
"A law defender from an early age as we can notice." laughed the DI, taking a seat.
"The most surprising is not that I scratch a book, it's more that you let me do it for an entire day." remarked the official to his uncle.
"I was a lawyer, do you really think I had only one of those ?" smiled Rudy. " At least when you were doing this you wasn't ruining the family portraits."
They all laughed, except Sherlock who seems to be deep in his thought, looking at a point on the opposite wall, not even winking. A couple of minutes later, a new ringing of the doorbell announced the arrivalof Mr and Mrs Lestrade and their son greeted them inside. They saluted everyone before taking a seat in the couch beside John. The only person missing now was Molly Hooper who had advised Greg that she was going to be late because of her work so they decided to start without her.
Michael brought them a large tray on which was displayed a large tea pot and eight cups of fine white china with discreet blue and gold arabesques. He poured six cups and gave them carefully to the guests, except Sherlock who was still not aware of anything. Mycroft took the last cup cautiously with his left hand, the right one still on his son's back.
Michael disppeared with the tray, letting the pot and the two remaining cups on the coffee table. The official drank a gulp from his cup. Without even having to tell him, his cook had prepared his favourite tea, a Shan Tran Vietnamese tea absolutely exquisite that the auburn could enjoy at nearly anytime in the day.
"Is your brother feeling right ?" asked Mr sLestrade, looking quite worried about the consulting detective's silence.
"Don't worry Vera, he is just ... focusing ... on something else. He does that often, sometime for days but there is nothing to be concerned about." smiled Mycroft, reassuring her.

She glanced a disapproving look at the consulting detective but didn't add anything more even if it was clear to everyone in the room that she was considering that the younger Holmes was being really rude by behaving in this way.

Changing subject quickly, Gregory turned to Rudy. "So you were a lawyer ?".

"Yes." smiled the old man. "I was a member of the Bar, no crimes, financial most of the time. But it was a long time ago ..."

"He used to be a private adviser to some government members in the time to." added Mycroft. "But that's off the record of course ..."

"It was years ago. And I wasn't the only one." retorted Rudy to his nephew.

"It wasn't a criticism dear Uncle." smirked the auburn. "In fact he has worked quite a lot with Father in the old days." he added, to the other member of the audience.

"Quite against my will I have to admit. But well, I'm over with this for 15 years now or so ..." concluded the man.

"And what are you doing now ?" enquired Hugh Lestrade with a smile.

"Oh ... Hmm, I often give some lectures at the Imperial College and in such places but I'm more or less retired. I play golf and go to concert as a routine." replied Rudy. Once again he wasn't saying the entire truth as most of his time was used in giving off the record advised to other attorney and officials, and Mycroft knew about it as it was not uncommon that the two of them met in the Diogene club's lounges where the old man also own a member card.Nevertheless, he kept his mouth shut, laughing to himself. Secrecy was a trait the all the Holmes were taught at a very early age and that had allowed the family to occupy powerful governmental positions for generations and Mycroft himself was a perfect example of this education.

Greg was drinking a gulp of his tea when he heard the doorbell, announcing the arrival of Molly Hooper. He put his cup back on the table and raised to his feet to greet her in. She said hello to every of the guest, even trying to have a response from Sherlock before giving up when realising that he was deep in his thoughts and placed a kiss on the head of the sleeping little boy. Rudy poured a cup of tea and offered it to the young woman who had sat beside him.
"Nice to see you again." he addressed her. "Long day at work was it ?"
"Well I'm not sure you would like to have too much detail, especially at a birthday party, but let's say that thanks to Greg I've been ask to work on pretty nasty murders ..."she giggled awkwardly.
"I've always wondered, how do you come to work on post-mortem, was that any kind of childhood dream ?" asked Vera, politely.
"Oh no, no not at all. I wanted to be a paediatrician when I was a girl but then in my third year of study we had this internship to do and I didn't find any paediatrician who would take me as a trainee and ended up in the morgue and well, I felt like this could be an useful job." she answered with a little grin. "I mean, every doctor are useful, but this is a job nobody really wants to do, nobody really dreams of working with dead people, but it is a really helpful job for the police." Greg nodded, so does John. "And at least my patients are less fidgety than children." she laughed.
"So post-mortem people got the same training than any kind of doctors then ?" wondered Hugh.
"Well yes, we got the general training then specialize in post-mortem, but I got the same basic training then John before he specializes in war wounds and injuries more or less." retorted Molly.
"She is as competent as I am with colds and fever." smirked Watson. "But if you are to take a bullet, I really hope for you you come to see me first, her cares would be rather definitive.".
Everybody was still laughing at John's joke when Michael brought the cake. He had displayed two little candles on the top of the red icing and lighted them while the official was waking up the toddler.

The little boy blown the candles, sat on his fatherlap, at the third attempt – not without the discreet help of Rudy –and the cook cut the cake in pieces, placing them on china plates matching the teapot decoration. Alden started to eat his own piece of cake in the plate that Mycroft was holding, daubing his own face with the strawberry cream the cake was filled with, making the guests laughing even harder.