Wounded With His Wounded Heart, Ch. 8

[harmony_lover]

This chapter is slightly shorter than normal, but I ended up having the perfect place to end it, and since I originally intended for it to be longer, I've already started on the next part. We get a little less of Sherlock and a lot more of John, Mrs. Hudson, and Willoughby in this chapter.

Comments

[harmony_lover]

I'm so sorry to hear that you weren't feeling well! There's been all kinds of odd, 24-hour or so bugs going around among my students, although the most common thing has been this virus that seems to have the symptoms of a sinus infection, but behaves like a cold - lingers for weeks, even after you feel mostly better. My other half and I both had it - not pleasant. It sounds like whatever was attacking you was not pleasant, either, and I'm glad you have recovered so quickly from it. :) (And yay! You were writing another chapter. More for me to read later.)

I'm so glad you enjoyed so many different things about this story! I spent a lot of time thinking about how John operates with his girlfriends, and how he negotiates his friendship with Sherlock. You should have seen the PMs I sent to my beta! It took me a long time to sort through what I finally came up with as the probable reasons behind John's behavior - his need to separate his job and his relationships, his view of anyone in his unit as both more important and apart from ordinary life, his need for some space that was normal with his lovers/significant others.

Bringing back details from the series was also very deliberate; I did a lot of re-watching in order to refresh my memory and again, to try and create some kind of logical emotional progression from "flatmates and acquaintances" to "best friends" to "we're both in love but we're both idiots." And the more re-watching you do, the more rewarding it is - Benedict and Martin give us so much in the way of little nuances, small facial expressions, tiny gestures. There is so much there if you are looking for it, which is just one of the many things I love about this show.

I even spent a decent amount of time thinking about Mycroft - he has problems showing concern, and even more problems knowing which lines to cross and which ones to leave alone, but he's not a monster. I think he really does care about Sherlock, and he tends to be overprotective in inappropriate ways because he worries so much. Of course Sherlock resents it (wouldn't anyone?), but it doesn't mean Mycroft's intentions are bad, just expressed badly.

Don't feel insecure! Oh, my gosh, I love your writing. I'm always so happy when there is more to read. It delights me that you have enjoyed this so much because I think so highly of your work. :) Thank you again for being so willing to chat about this. Hopefully there will be more in the not-too-distant future.