Chapter Text
It was a Thursday evening in early March. John was at work, Sherlock was writing up notes from a case he had finished earlier in the week, and Cathy was knitting a baby’s blanket.
“Is it normal that you have only put on five pounds? I thought by now you would look like you were carrying a basketball under your dress”
“And thank you for the compliment Sherlock! Do you always have to comment on my weight? It’s rather personal, you know.”
“It wasn’t meant to be... oh, sarcasm? I’m just anxious. You put on half of that before Christmas and surely if we’re nearly at the halfway mark, the baby must be about three or four pounds and you have to keep your strength up if you’re to carry our baby around all the time. Surely I’m allowed to worry a bit.”
“What do you mean, I’d put on half? Have you been keeping records of my pregnancy? Am I an experiment???”
“Well of course you are. Where else would I ever get the chance to totally record another human being from womb to tomb? Well hopefully the baby will outlive me, so from your womb to my tomb. It’s all set out in a spreadsheet, plus I’ve set up a file to expand on my observations. It’s quite fascinating to see the changes in you, just in this short period of time, but it’s easy to see that you aren’t putting on enough weight for the baby to grow enough.”
Cathy laughed. “What? What’s so funny? Don’t you want me to be concerned?”
“Of course I do Sherlock. I love that you are so concerned about our baby, but it’s actually rather exciting to know more about something than you do. Makes a nice change! The baby only weighs about half a pound at the moment. It’s shorter than my hand, yet alone yours. My doctor is actually very pleased with my progress. I did put on a little weight at first, but I think that was mainly because I stopped going to the gym. And then when I had morning sickness through January and February, I hardly put on any weight at all. In the next four and a half months I’ll put on another twenty pounds. And the baby will put on about seven. I know this might sound a bit radical, but if you want data for your spreadsheet, why don’t you ask me? I can tell you whatever you need to know and you won’t have to guess.”
“Guess? I never guess. I deduce. Surely you know I NEVER guess. Is the baby moving yet?”
“It probably is, but it’s too small for me to feel yet. My doctor thinks I should feel it moving sometime in the next month. I’ll let you know as soon as I can after I tell John. I don’t want everyone patting my tummy, so don’t you dare tell anyone, but as soon as we can feel it, you can put your hand right here.” She pointed at her bump. “Just don’t tell anyone else, or everyone will want to touch it.”