Welcome! (Prompting: part i)

[sherlockbbc_fic]

Please check the Sticky Post to find the newest active part and post your prompts there.

Prompts from this post can be filled on the Overflow Post

This is a fic prompting meme based around the BBC series Sherlock, written by Stephen Moffat & Mark Gattis.

Comments

Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

John Watson is no longer used to the sound of his ringtone, still less to the sound of his landlady-not-a-housekeeper-dear. Particularly not when she is frantically begging him to come home because Sherlock has had 'one of his turns'. After briefly wondering how one is supposed to know what is unusual in the behaviour of a man like Sherlock, he suggests and ambulance. He is told that last time the poor boy tried to kill himself in the hospital waiting room with a pickpocketed penknife because the doctor insisted on talking to him. He had had to be sedated for three days. He had nearly been sectioned. With a feeling in his stomach that equal parts fear and determination John runs, not quite limping, for the nearest tube station.

When he arrives he finds Mrs Hudson dithering in the corridor and his grey-faced housemate huddled on his bed, clutching a syringe full of God knows what and muttering to himself in what might be Greek or Latin or Elvish for all they know.

Somewhere in the chaos John finds something... familiar. The persona of an army doctor is there, waiting for him to step into it. He sends Mrs Hudson to fetch a basin and his medical kit - he feels brisk and competent.

His first task is to remove the syringe from the clinging fingers before it can do any damage. Next the pulse (just on the slower side of 'oh Christ, call an ambulance'), breathing too rapid, pupils dilated and forehead feverish. It reminds him of overdose, panic attack, breakdown, or a two year old having a really magnificent tantrum.

"Sherlock, what's wrong?", he holds the man's face firmly between his hands until the grey eyes focus vaguely in the region of the doctor's face.

"Too much"

This is not particularly useful information, "Too much what? Did you take something? This is important, Sherlock!"

"Stop it. Idiot. Talking. Too much *everything*. Stop it!"

John may not have the intellect of the great Sherlock Holmes but he is pretty good in a medical emergency. Too much of everything - an overload of information to a brain trained to notice every detail. What must it be like in that over-crowded brain of his?

He thinks of ways to decrease sensory input. He closes curtains to shut out light, shuts doors to close out the noise from the street and sends Mrs Hudson away to be very quiet somewhere else. He removes a plate of half-eaten food because even he can notice the smell. He then tries to treat whatever crisis this is symptomatically, the last resort of the medic without a definite treatment in mind.

Re: Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

A cold flannel is thrown off after some dramatic shivering and shuddering and water is spat over John's jeans because of the appalling taste. He doesn't bother to try the paracetamol, and anyway he has no idea what else the foolish man might have taken in this state. Squinting in dim light is giving him a headache and his jeans are rather soggy. His patience is wearing rather thin, but this is Sherlock and John can't leave him even if he is reminding him more and more of a toddler winding himself into a state beyond all reason because something is beyond his capabilities.

Observing the constant fidgeting of his colleague... friend... Sherlock, John remembers with sudden clarity the time he was in Afghanistan and he had to treat a young boy who had had his legs blown away. The boy, Tom, had screamed and panicked and John had held his hand tightly, to give him something to hold on to while the other medics tried to stop him bleeding to death on foreign soil.

Shaking his head to clear the image from his mind, he grabs Sherlock's hand and holds it as tightly as he can. There isn't much logic to apply here, so instinct will have to do. Sherlock whimpers and tries to pull away, insisting that touch hurts him.

"No, it doesn't, it's just psychosomatic," he says, letting his mouth twist into a grim smile and keeping his hold. "No matter where you have wandered off to in that amazing mind of yours, sometimes you need something to hang on to". Sherlock doesn't bother to reply, but he stops fighting to get away.

Time passes and John's leg grows stiff. His shoulder aches and Sherlock is still staring somewhere near the ceiling. Suddenly he stops staring and jerks upright before being horribly and violently sick into basin that John has grabbed with all the instinct of a medical professional. Watching the other man spitting and coughing, he wonders if this is the sign of a return to normality. Vomiting without a care for who might be in the vicinity is probably a good sign.

Wordlessly John passes over water and a towel to wipe his face. Sherlock is sitting on the edge of the bed and looking unexpectedly vulnerable. His hands are trembling visibly.

"Nobody is meant to see me like this"

"No" John reaches for one of those slim wrists and checks heart rate and temperature. Both seem to be returning to more normal levels. Any frustration he had about being covered in water and nearly thrown up on is vanishing in a sense of relief.

"You aren't nobody, you're somebody" Sherlock's eyes lock with John's and his tone is wondering. There is an openness and trust which John has never seen before. He has a moment of doubt - is this just a sociopath being manipulative? John's gut instinct says that sociopath isn't quite how he'd describe this man.

In an effort to preserve the calm, he fetches water and helps Sherlock into pyjamas with the minimum of noise and conversation. He plies him with water and a glucose tablet that provokes winces but is swallowed nonetheless. The oddity of tucking his comparatively new flatmate into bed finally hits him but he dismisses it as another unimportant strangeness in his current life. What matters is Sherlock, looking better and apparently falling asleep. He watches the face relaxing, noting the purple bruises beneath the eyes and the overly prominent cheekbones. The man clearly needs looking after.

John thinks about leaving and then notices that he is still holding Sherlock's hand. Sherlock, despite being asleep, shows no inclination to return it. Oh. He gives a mental shrug and settles more comfortably into the chair by the bed. He wouldn't want to disturb him, not now he is finally asleep, and it's not as though it feels bad to be holding this hand. Violinist's hands, with long slender fingers and feeling somehow right.

John considers that perhaps something important has happened, but he's too tired to think about it now. He welcomes the blank thoughtlessness of sleep, aware only that hand in hand with Sherlock, he has something to hold on to.

Re: Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

Thank you! I haven't written in so long I thought I might have forgotten how!

OP here

[marill_chan]

Yay! A second fill! This was really awesome! Lots of h/c which I'm always fond of. Thank you!

Re: OP here

[anonymous]

Very glad you liked it! I'm a complete sucker for h/c and your prompt just wouldn't leave me alone

Re: Holding on (2)

[unrequited_rain]

god, it's like you've reached into my brain and picked out exactly how I characterize holmes's drug use (at least in this verse) it's kind of crazy.

Re: Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

It's been in my head from first watching the first episode that this is why he uses drugs. As Watson says - can you imagine him doing anything recreational? When I saw this prompt I had to write it.

Re: Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

Thank you! I've never seen 'The Sentinel' but perhaps I ought to watch it. :)

Re: Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

Wow! I will definitely have to look in to this. I've really never heard much about it beyond the name (I think a friend might have seen it).

Perhaps I should find some to watch and develop this a bit more...

Elena

Re: Holding on (2)

[blueskypenguin]

What I know of the Sentinel lore is based on Keira Marcos' Stargate Atlantis verse, but you are so very, very right.

Sentinel!Sherlock and Guide!John. *wants*

Re: Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

Gorgeous image, and I loved how John flailed and yet took care of Sherlock in exactly the way he needed.

Re: Holding on (2)

[anonymous]

Thanks :) I love that aspect to John - he's been knocked around a bit by life but he knows how to take care of people and even if he's not thinking about it, in my head at least he knows Sherlock matters and needs looking after.

Re: Holding on (2)

[warriorbot]

Oh wow - that was beautifu. I particularly loved this:

"Somewhere in the chaos John finds something... familiar. The persona of an army doctor is there, waiting for him to step into it."

So. Damn. Good.