Fic for what_alchemy: The Bricks o' the "Might 'Ave Been.”

[holmesticemods]

'Follow me on by the paths o' pain,
'Seeking what you 'ave seen,
'Until at last you can build the "Is,"
'Wi' the bricks o' the "Might 'ave been."
from: “Well?” a poem by the Revd. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, MC, known during the Great War as “Woodbine Willie”

Recipient: what_alchemy
Author: tweedisgood
Rating: PG 13
’Verse: ACD canon
Pairing: background Holmes/Watson

Comments

[fleetwood_mouse]

I loved A Case of Discovery and I love the theme you followed up in this. The description is so vivid and beautiful, and the interaction between Holmes and Watson at the end was so sweet and natural. Very nice :)

[tweedisgood]

Thank you so much. Bit of an experiment to write in 3rd person and I'm not sure I'll do it again, but I'm glad it still worked :-)

[saki101]

What a wonderful ghost story on many levels. I love the fiction of the real men becoming real in their own right and I love the language, so many beautiful lines. I'll quote but a few ~

A man flees, on his feet and in his mind, from what he has only nearly wrought: flees, indeed, all the faster and farther than from a settled deed.

“Sure that there are angels, out there in no man’s land, but who will not stop the slaughter, or sure that there are none? And if not there, where they are needed most of all, can they be anywhere?”

In a villa on the Sussex downs, clothed only in each other, two men slept.

[tweedisgood]

Thank you, and I'm pleased you picked out some lines I rather enoyed writing :-)

[what_alchemy]

I am just beside myself about this gift. It haunts - PC Mason's guilt, Holmes's "death," the way a story can become real and the real can become a story, the specter of war itself. I felt so much for everyone here, even Mason, who has lost his son and his contentment. I'm so glad Holmes and Watson get to be old together here, old and comfortable in love and no longer as uncertain as they were in "A Case of Discovery," for which I must thank you for bringing to my attention. What a lovely, aching story, and what a gorgeous follow-up you've written here for it. I just love Watson here - barely able to hold his tongue anymore when confronted with Mason's opinions on his life, but holding it nonetheless because Mason is in pain, going home and basking in Holmes's presence because he has that luxury. I love that people think Watson has made Holmes up - and I love that that very falsehood keeps them safer. I'm a sucker for our boys in retirement, so thank you for that, and thank you so much for this gorgeous story.

[tweedisgood]

Wonderful, and thank you for the kind words. Your prompt was full of so many great possibilities, but I too love retirement stories, so was glad to have the chance to write another :-)

[red_chapel]

Wow. Such a voice, such a mood. You've woven fact and fancy, the real and the imagined, into one beautiful cloth. This is simply stunning.

[tweedisgood]

Thank you!

[cccahill18]

Very lovely story. I love the ending, with the contrast between the real and the fictional. The Holmes/Watson relationship was sweetly done here, and I love the images of them together in old age after so many years together.

[tweedisgood]

Yeah, happy retirement stories are ficcers' revenge on ACD for letting them drift apart. Glad you enoyed it.