Bonus fic: Brandy and Soda

[holmesticemods]

Title: Brandy and Soda
Author: sanguinity
Verse: Nicholas Meyer, The Seven Percent Solution
Characters/Pairings: John Watson, Sherlock Holmes
Rating: Teen
Warnings: major character death; past drug use
Summary: Holmes returns to Baker Street.
Author note: rachelindeed’s lovely prompt got me to thinking about post-Seven Percent stories, and what the novel’s revision of

Comments

[sanguinity]

I knew from some of your comments at 221b-recs that you can sometimes enjoy angsty works, but without knowing the particulars of "sometimes," it seemed best to set this aside and write something else for you. I'm glad that I did, but I'm also pleased that both pieces ultimately worked for you.

This was one of those stories that arrived fully formed in one go, which happens every once in a while. The brandy and soda was one of the few concrete details of their marriage in the novel, so I of course had to bring it forward; it wasn't until I was looking for a title that I realized how central it really was, in its own quiet way.

And yes, Mary sending for Holmes, and then fighting to hold on until he arrived. Mary may be off-screen throughout, but I had hoped there was enough here that she would register as a character in her own right. (And yes, she has a decided genius for investigation! In the branch universe of my heart, Mary didn't wait seven years to become a model client for Holmes, but pursued the question of the pearls herself.)

Mostly, though: I really didn't want this to be an angst-machine fic. I hate-hate-hate the implied Watson-whump of the hiatus, and 7PER gave me the opportunity to fix one more piece of that: Watson doesn't have to be alone during Mary's implied death. I could have them send for Holmes in this 'verse, and so I did. This was supposed to be a story about people loving each other well; I'm pleased that's the story you saw, too. :-)