Tear Up Your List - Sherlock & John - complete (mostly gen [brief John/OFC het], R, 30K)
Hi, everybody!
Today's my day to post my fic for casestory! This one is called "Tear Up Your List" and it's a very loose sequel to my fic Bricoleur; if you didn't read that one, all you need to know is that Sherlock solved a case for John's sister Harry during that fic, and that she and her estranged wife Clara got back together and are now part of John's life, and Sherlock's too, by extension.
I have some acknowledgments to make: oxoniensis, kate_lear, and pendrecarc all performed clear-eyed and kind-hearted betas on the rough draft I sent them and improved this story immensely. And martinius composed a piece to illustrate the story, which is just flat-out cool any way you look at it.
Of course, this story owes a hell of a lot to Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories. One thing I thought I'd never do was to try to write my version of the hiatus story, but the Cumberbatch/Freeman adaptation opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for me - I wanted very much to write a story that simply wouldn't have been possible had it been set in the time of the original canon. The other author who inspired this story was, oddly, P. G. Wodehouse - that's odd because my story isn't funny, and Plum is one of those authors who can always make me laugh. There's a bit in his novel French Leave (one of my favorites) that goes like this: "'I wandered through a world of women, seeking you,' said the poet, and Jeff felt how true that was. And there was another poet who said 'Once you're kissed by Amy, tear up the list, it's Amy,' and that was true, too. These poets hit the nail on the head." For who knows what reason, those lines have stayed with me from the first time I read French Leave (which was not much later than my first taste of the Holmes & Watson stories), and I suddenly realized that there was a plot there, just waiting for me. (Thanks again to these fine folks who helped point me in the right direction.)
The wordle above should give you a clear sense of what the story's about, but a header never hurt anyone, so:
Title: Tear Up Your List
Author: innie_darling
Pairings: Sherlock + John friendship, brief John/OFC het
Warnings: Real and presumed deaths of ACD- and BBC-canon characters. Killing, some by good guys, some by bad guys.
Rating: R
PoV: Sherlock's
Wordcount: 30K
Summary: As Moriarty keeps baiting him with seemingly random acts of violence, Sherlock struggles to keep up and keep John safe, but then there's one puzzle that shakes Sherlock's support system entirely. The story is ostensibly a modern-day spin on hiatus fic - John thinks Sherlock is dead, Sherlock is trying to destroy Moriarty's criminal network. But it's really about Sherlock working through what John and Mycroft mean to him.
Happy reading!
1/3: Oh, dearest, what have you done?
2/3: Sherlock had no idea how it was possible to look at John Watson with such pitiless eyes.
3/3: Mycroft could wash his hands all he liked, but he'd still have to answer for what he'd done sooner or later.
Today's my day to post my fic for casestory! This one is called "Tear Up Your List" and it's a very loose sequel to my fic Bricoleur; if you didn't read that one, all you need to know is that Sherlock solved a case for John's sister Harry during that fic, and that she and her estranged wife Clara got back together and are now part of John's life, and Sherlock's too, by extension.
I have some acknowledgments to make: oxoniensis, kate_lear, and pendrecarc all performed clear-eyed and kind-hearted betas on the rough draft I sent them and improved this story immensely. And martinius composed a piece to illustrate the story, which is just flat-out cool any way you look at it.
Of course, this story owes a hell of a lot to Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories. One thing I thought I'd never do was to try to write my version of the hiatus story, but the Cumberbatch/Freeman adaptation opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for me - I wanted very much to write a story that simply wouldn't have been possible had it been set in the time of the original canon. The other author who inspired this story was, oddly, P. G. Wodehouse - that's odd because my story isn't funny, and Plum is one of those authors who can always make me laugh. There's a bit in his novel French Leave (one of my favorites) that goes like this: "'I wandered through a world of women, seeking you,' said the poet, and Jeff felt how true that was. And there was another poet who said 'Once you're kissed by Amy, tear up the list, it's Amy,' and that was true, too. These poets hit the nail on the head." For who knows what reason, those lines have stayed with me from the first time I read French Leave (which was not much later than my first taste of the Holmes & Watson stories), and I suddenly realized that there was a plot there, just waiting for me. (Thanks again to these fine folks who helped point me in the right direction.)
The wordle above should give you a clear sense of what the story's about, but a header never hurt anyone, so:
Title: Tear Up Your List
Author: innie_darling
Pairings: Sherlock + John friendship, brief John/OFC het
Warnings: Real and presumed deaths of ACD- and BBC-canon characters. Killing, some by good guys, some by bad guys.
Rating: R
PoV: Sherlock's
Wordcount: 30K
Summary: As Moriarty keeps baiting him with seemingly random acts of violence, Sherlock struggles to keep up and keep John safe, but then there's one puzzle that shakes Sherlock's support system entirely. The story is ostensibly a modern-day spin on hiatus fic - John thinks Sherlock is dead, Sherlock is trying to destroy Moriarty's criminal network. But it's really about Sherlock working through what John and Mycroft mean to him.
Happy reading!
1/3: Oh, dearest, what have you done?
2/3: Sherlock had no idea how it was possible to look at John Watson with such pitiless eyes.
3/3: Mycroft could wash his hands all he liked, but he'd still have to answer for what he'd done sooner or later.