"Da... I'm not sure if this is a good idea." Roz watched him as he picked up the box of cake mix and looked dubiously at the instructions.
"It says, 'simply'... just add eggs, oil and water... How hard could it be?"
Roz looked over at Rocket who shrugged at her, "I've learned the hard way that any time anyone says that... I know he's a genius about some things, but that doesn't mean he isn't a fool about others."
"I know. But it's Papa's birthday, and he wants to, I don't know, surprithe him."
Rocket shook his head. "Nahhh, I'm not a big fan of surprises..."
Sherlock pulled open the cupboards looking for the necessary supplies and sighed. "This might be a bit trickier than I thought..."
"I wish Thtephen were still here -"
"Why?" Rocket asked. "Does he have a sideline as a baker?"
"No, but he might have been able to distract him long enough so I could go downstairs and ask Nana if she would bake a cake for Papa like she always has in the past. They liked to debate things, and Da would spend a lot of time in his mind palace trying to come up with an answer.
"Bowl. Seems safe..."
"Seriously?" Rocket muttered under his breath.
"He used to do 'speriments a lot, but it's been a while."
"Damn, says for best results use an electric mixer, it can't take too long to mix it by hand, right?"
"This is gonna take freakin' for-evah. I think we need a back up plan, Roz."
Sherlock looked at the box again and shook his head. "This box says 'serves 12'? Twelve what?" He looked down at them in confusion. "I need to go to the store to get another box, no way is one cake going to be enough. Roz, can you check to see if Mrs. Hudson can watch the two of you - don't get huffy, Rocket, I know you don't need 'watching', it's just you would be a bit hard to explain at Tesco."
"No apologies necessary. Humans tend to freak out easily over stuff. And Mrs. H has quality biscuits." He took Roz's hand and they went downstairs to 221A.
"Roz and - Rocket, what can I do for you?"
"Da needs to go to Tesco - so he needs you to watch us. But we need your help."
"He's not going to try to bake your papa a cake again this year is he?"
Roz and Rocket looked at each other, then back at her and she nodded gravely.
"Oh, dear. It was before you were born Roz, come in, come in, it will take your Da ages to come back - Tesco is always a bit unnerving for him, it's why your papa usually does the shopping. The fact that - there he goes - that he is even attempting to go shopping indicates how serious he is. Now, you both need biscuits and your tea, yes? Good. I think I'll go ahead and bake a cake, just in case. Roz, watch so you can learn, so maybe in a couple of years you can bake a cake for your Papa, hmm?" She put on the kettle and took out her tin of biscuits. "You do prefer the chocolate ones, yes, Rocket?"
"Yeah, I'm a bit partial to 'em, Mrs. H. You put a little of that espresso stuff in these don't you?"
"Ah. I see you know your biscuits."
"I wasn't always - well, you know -"
"A red panda?"
"Right. You were about to tell us about when Sherlock tried to make Doc a cake?" He shoved a biscuit in his mouth and sat back on the couch, waiting for her to begin.
"Yes, it was, let's see, early on - I think he's quite forgotten, if he had recalled the last time he tried -" She preheated her oven and began taking out all the necessary ingredients for John's favorite cake. "You see, they had gotten into a bit of a domestic, over some little thing, and then Sherlock happened to discover that John's birthday was that same week, don't ask dear - you don't want to know. Anyway, John's favorite -"
"Red Velvet."
"Right, Roz, it's tricky, anyway, it's like anything else, it takes time and patience, very little of which your Da had right then. He wasn't always so calm as he is now. And he had a case on his mind, and he was worried about the little domestic, though he wasn't about to admit that -"
"Perfect storm," muttered Rocket.
"Got it in one, dear." She began sifting the dry ingredients together as she waited for the butter to soften, it wouldn't take long, as of course, John's birthday always managed to fall on the hottest day of the year, when it wasn't snowing. And there wasn't a cloud in the sky that morning. "Any way - Sherlock got it into his head that baking was just a question of chemistry, which of course, part of it is, and he went about experimenting about how to get the best and brightest 'red' velvet he could make. You can imagine." Roz nodded her head, as she definitely knew the messes her Da made even now; Rocket shook his head, as even he could see it all, though he had only known Sherlock for a couple of days. Though to be fair, part of his ability to imagine the chaos was his knowledge of what Quill was capable of on a really bad day. He shivered, but stuffed another biscuit into his mouth as the kettle screamed. "John was still working at the surgery in those days, so Sherlock had all day to -"
"Oh no."
"Oh yes, Roz - at five in the afternoon, Sherlock came bursting into my flat, covered head to toe in flour, red food colouring, and cake batter - but the cake had of course, met a very loud and messy demise in their oven. To this day, I've never quite had the nerve to ask him what it was that he put in the batter to make it blow up quite that badly. Let's just say that he was very well behaved for the next, oh, two months. He put the two of them up, or I should say your Uncle Myc put them up in a very nice hotel, that night and for the rest of the week; fortunately for Sherlock, one of his former clients knew how to get him a stove of the same year and model, and knew a guy who could install it for free - to this day, Roz, your Papa doesn't know."
Rocket rolled his eyes, and spluttered out, "humans..." as Sherlock walked into the flat and joined them at the table.
"I got halfway to Tesco when I remembered, Martha. I thought I had deleted that day completely, but, it was a rather nice birthday that year..."
"Yes, dear, I do remember... that wild case that kept the two of you up for days, elephants and what was it - "
"A circus was staying in the same hotel and..." Sherlock looked doubtfully at Roz and Rocket, then shook his head. "A story for another time. Ah! You are making him a cake, then? Do you mind if I sit and watch, maybe someday..." Roz glanced over at Rocket and they burst into laughter. "What? Mrs. H - you didn't tell them - Roz - your Papa can never know... promise?"
"I pwomise, Da." Roz grinned up at him as she climbed up into his lap and kissed his cheek then settled back into his arms, as Mrs. Hudson began to tell them all about the first time she blew up an oven.