Fic for rachelindeed: Particular Debts

[holmesticemods]

Title: Particular Debts
Recipient: rachelindeed
Author: sanguinity
Source: Nicholas Meyer, The Seven Percent Solution; ACD, “His Last Bow”
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Non-explicit discussions of sexual assault and medical abuse
Summary: “And for another, Dr. Freud has saved my life. Had I not come to Vienna, and had your

Comments

[rachelindeed]

Hello, I'm back to share some of the lines that particularly struck me as I read :)

I was looking forward to recovering my own skin, what I remembered of it, and I could think of no surer method than spending the evening in Watson’s company.

This opening sentiment says so much about Holmes. The idea that he feels most himself in Watson's company resonates with me; that is often how I feel about my most important relationships. This opening also, of course, sets up the dilemmas of a man who has been away for so long that he cannot smoothly fit himself into the roles and expectations that would previously have come naturally to him.

Watson would have found a way to call her beautiful, notwithstanding her long nose and wide mouth, but it seemed to me that the quick intelligence in her eyes might serve her better than imagined physical graces.

I always enjoy seeing Holmes snipe about Watson's writing style :) And I appreciate his inclination to admire mind over matter, particularly in his female acquaintances.

“My friend and colleague, Mr Sherlock Holmes,” he said, and then stood there like a bounder. He expected me to be able to deduce her identity, then. I shot him an unamused glance: it was unlike him to risk embarrassing a third party in his games.

I really enjoy the complex micro-dynamics of this introduction, with Watson's rare theatricality giving both Holmes and your readers a moment of suspense, while Holmes reminds us of the complicated period etiquette in play between these gentlemen and the woman who came to them for help.

Watson had forgiven me everything, both my reckless disregard for my own welfare and my concerted efforts to injure his, and had asked nothing of me but that I be well. And yet the implicit demands in his generosity had been nearly more than I could bear.

As I said in my previous comment, I really love this characterization. A lovely glimpse of Holmes's heart, all the more human for its regrets and insecurities.

I could not explain to myself the intensity of my fury, neither by my general dislike of seeing a woman brutalised, nor even by the particular debts I owed Miss Freud and her father. In another man, I might have called it paternal feeling, but a few conversations with a girl’s dolls does not make a man a father.

Oh, I love that. It was a surprising and lovely scene when Watson overheard them in the novel, and I'm glad to see that the memory has lived with Holmes and startles him with its weight. I've always thought that Holmes had an affinity for children, perhaps because of the Irregulars.

You must be ready to travel on a moment’s notice. No more than one bag - Yes, that one will do.

Ha! I see you have anticipated him, Miss Freud. Well done.

What a shining paragon of the medical profession. The more doctors I meet, Watson, the more astonished I am that we are friends.

Too true! This brought to mind Holmes's comments on Dr. Roylott in Speckled Band. They have nerve and they have knowledge, and as this story points out, their social standing could give the unethical among them terrible advantages over anyone regarded as dependent.

One might be moved to doubt my brother’s wisdom, if this is the perspicacity of his so-called best agent. My apologies, Watson.

Holmes may apologize only rarely, but he can be relied on to do it both wryly and beautifully.

Mycroft enjoyed an understated kind of showmanship, very different in style from my own, and yet driven by similar satisfactions.

I've always thought so, too! It's one of the things that makes his character so fun to play with.

“I did hear something about the borders becoming more difficult to cross with every passing day,” he teased me.

I love it when Watson scores a point :)

“That is not how it was.” I was at a loss to explain to him the terrifying enormity of his devotion, and how little of me there remained, after the drug had finished with me, to rise to meet it.

This is so moving. Your writing is elegant throughout, but this passage really caught my heart.

Thank you so much for writing this gift for me. It matches my taste perfectly and I feel so lucky to have received something so special. Happy holidays!

[sanguinity]

...and you pulled out lines you particularly liked! I reveled in all of them, of course, but ones for which I had follow-up:

This opening sentiment says so much about Holmes...

There are times that I cannot for the life of me come up with a smooth entrance to a story, but this one provided a smooth statement of thesis on the first try. (I love it when that happens!) This is very much a Last Bow fix-it for me; I've never been satisfied with that single evening in Watson's company as sufficient antidote to two years spent under an assumed identity as a double-agent. If there's a bit of a fantasy in here -- one more substantial adventure together to re-establish themselves and their partnership before settling into the grinding, soul-destroying business of the war -- then so be it.

Watson would have found a way to call her beautiful, notwithstanding her long nose and wide mouth, but it seemed to me that the quick intelligence in her eyes might serve her better than imagined physical graces.

Haha, writing Anna's introductory paragraph was a rude shock: as a fic writer, I pretty much never have to physically describe characters, and it quickly became clear that I had no idea how to manage it. (In the draft that went to beta, there was nothing more than an ellipsis here.) I am SUPER PROUD of this sentence, as it managed to do several kinds of work: physical description of Anna, but also characterization for Watson and Holmes and their relationship, and even some backdoor meta about the stories. (Are all your clients really that beautiful, Watson? Should I be worrying about the homely women of London, and whether they have had your assistance in seeking justice?)

BTW, Sophie (the middle sister) and Anna were referred to by family members and acquaintances as "the Beauty and the Brains," which apparently young Anna really hated. I hope that Anna eventually came around to Holmes' sentiments about the relative utilities of beauty and brains.

I've always thought that Holmes had an affinity for children, perhaps because of the Irregulars.

*nod nod nod* And because he's genuinely compassionate, and doesn't think much of the accepted norms concerning who counts and who doesn't. Too, children are more likely than adults to actually look at things, which Holmes would wholeheartedly appreciate about them.

You must be ready to travel on a moment’s notice. No more than one bag - Yes, that one will do.

Ha! I see you have anticipated him, Miss Freud. Well done.

I was experimenting here with one of Doyle's devices -- having Holmes' monologue indicate the other characters' responses and actions directly -- and completely missed what that device might suggest about Miss Freud. As you say, ha! :-D

And yet the implicit demands in his generosity had been nearly more than I could bear. // I was at a loss to explain to him the terrifying enormity of his devotion, and how little of me there remained, after the drug had finished with me, to rise to meet it.

Watson is the very best kind of friend one can have, but sometimes you cannot bear the presence of friends, and crave strangers instead. Strangers want nothing and expect nothing, and if you want to hole up and be miserable, they'll let you, and if you honestly don't know if you can touch a thing without breaking it, at least strangers won't let you anywhere near the most fragile parts of themselves. It's one of those terrible ironies about being loved: sometimes what you really need are people who don't love you.

I can easily believe that these two never talk-talked about any of this, but what is there to say about it, really? Watson would never begrudge Holmes what he truly needed, just as Holmes would always chastise himself for having needed strangers instead of Watson.

Fortunately, Anna needs to get home to Vienna. Not much point in talking about unresolvable issues when there's someone who needs their help, is there? ;-)

Thank you for your lovely comments, and you're very welcome for the story!