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Can't think of a title (4/?) brightest_wings March 28 2011, 03:51:18 UTC
"Okay," John says evenly, and draws a long breath and looks down. "Why am I not supposed to ask about you?"

Sherlock runs a finger along the lifeline in John's palm, and John feels like he's been hit with a lightning bolt of ice. "I wasn't very good but there were worse people than me. I hunted them down and they killed me. They're still alive."

"Hunted them down how?"

"The world's only consulting detective." Sherlock makes another sound that isn't quite a laugh. "I was very good, really I was. You don't believe me because I'm dead, but I was the best."

"I believe you. I don't know why I haven't heard anything of you."

"Lestrade took all the credit. Scotland Yard. I always--" Sherlock winces, and the chill around John's hands deepens. "--you, you, you're getting too cold, I can't--let me go. I can't do this to you."

"What--" John looks down: his hands are white, verging on blue.

"Verging on addictive behaviour." Sherlock steps back, fading. "Come back again. Please come back."

"I will," John promises, and Sherlock vanishes.

--

John can't sleep that night, staring at the ceiling. He'd soaked his hands in warm water until the feeling came back, and now he twitches a few of his fingers experimentally, just testing.

He wonders what colour Sherlock's eyes would have been, his hair, his skin. He wonders what his hands would have really felt like.

--

When he returns, he brings pink roses.

"Mummy tried growing these one summer outside our house," Sherlock says, sitting on top of his own headstone. It's a casual gesture that looks far too surreal. "No other plant, just roses. But they died fast and she didn't bother hiring a gardener."

"Is your mother--"

"I haven't seen her." Sherlock swings one foot idly. "Not yet, anyways. You want to know all about the afterlife."

"I want to know about you," John confesses, and Sherlock tightens his grip around John's hand involuntarily.

--

"You give me feeling," Sherlock says, pacing from nowhere to nowhere, voiceless in the dark. "You give me a heart. I cannot be without you. I remember with you. You remember me. I need you. I want you."

--

"He keeps visiting the headstone and bringing flowers," the man reports. "Should we pick him up?"

James Moriarty leans back in his chair, thinking as he taps his keyboard. "Still under surveillance... no," he says aloud, coming out of his reverie, "shoot him. Send Mycroft Holmes a message."

--

That day it's late afternoon, and John stumps across the grass and curses under his breath as he wrestles with his cane and paper packages.

He leaves a small bouquet of apple blossom for Nicholas Hatmer, and picks up a wrapper and a piece of a glass bottle nearby, and gives Bill a bundle of white lilies, and props up Craig J. Degan's gravestone again--he was ninety-four when he died, maybe he's being cantankerous--and finally makes his way to Sherlock's spot.

The yank on the invisible cord is almost instantaneous, so sharp it makes John double over. Sherlock's whole face is lit up, which quickly changes when he sees John. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, just--one moment," John manages, wincing, and straightens up. "Really, it's fine, I'm okay. It's good to see you."

"Tell me about the conference," Sherlock orders, settling in.

"You should've been there, you would've actually understood it." John rubs the back of his neck, smiling crookedly. He's living for two now and it's very exhausting and bewildering. He finally has a purpose again, and he wonders if he can handle it. "The keynote speaker was this guy talking about robotics and artificial intelligence--whoa, sorry--" the last bouquet slips out of his hands and he bends down to retrieve it, then awkwardly props it up against the headstone. "Er. There're your flowers."

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Can't think of a title (5/5) brightest_wings March 28 2011, 03:51:38 UTC
Sherlock is looking straight at him. "Red roses."

"Yeah," says John on a short exhaled breath, tense, wide-eyed. This is the most certifiably insane thing he's ever done in his life and the thing he's been the most sure about.

Sherlock steps forward, and then the world goes black.

--

The two people walking by outside the graveyard, one with their dog, couldn't agree later on what it was they heard. The dog started jumping and barking like a maniac, which didn't help. They agreed that it was high-pitched, and loud, and creepy, but one insisted it was human and one insisted it wasn't, and one thought he'd heard words.

They met up at the archway, looking at each other with brief terrified stares, and ran together towards the sound. Lying at the foot of a grave was a short blond man, and he was bleeding from a bullet wound to the head, and the woman fumbled for her cellphone with shaking fingers while the man went to his knees beside the victim.

The ambulance arrived inside a few minutes, and only then did the noise--which no-one else could seem to hear--come to a stop.

--

On the outside, John is being strapped up to tubes and machines and hauled into a bed, doctors standing over him with shining lights and glinting instruments, the smell of cotton and antiseptic and floor cleaner everywhere.

On the inside, John is floating.

He feels himself slowly drifting, sinking except in no direction, getting closer. He feels something approaching. No sound, no light, no emotion.

John, says Sherlock, and he's beside him. Stop. Stop moving. Don't go. You're getting too close, stop it.

Go where?

Beyond. Don't go.

Why not?

Because I need you with me.

Then come with me.

I can't--

It feels right.

Don't say that. You have to come back to me.

Sherlock, let me go.

I won't let you, I--no no no, stop, stop it, don't--don't, please--please, John, stop it, don't leave me. You can't, I love you--John--

--

The thing about cords is that really, they're threads.

The thing about threads is that all the time they're being spun.

The thing about spinning is that sometimes, there are knots.

--

John Watson wakes up in a hospital, with Harry sobbing over him and hitting him and hugging him, and feels wobbly for the next twenty-four hours.

He passes this time comforting his sister, doing medical tests, going to the bathroom, changing the channels on the telly, leafing through a book, and dozing off. He picks at the meal they give him but doesn't eat much. He watches the people walk past in the hallway.

He's waiting for something and he can't figure out what for.

And then a nurse comes in around midday, with a clipboard and pen, and clears her throat to get his attention. "Sir, you have a visitor asking to see you. A Mr. Sherlock Holmes?"

Sherlock's hair is black, and his eyes are gray, and his skin is very pale. When he takes John's hand, his hand feels like a violinist's or a surgeon's--long precise fingers, cool and dry and unyielding.

"You're not making my life make much sense, are you," John croaks.

"I don't think you mind," Sherlock says. "You'll help me figure this out, won't you?", and leans down to kiss him for a solid minute.

--

The day John leaves the hospital, Sherlock brings him a bouquet of coral and orange roses.

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) celebutaunt March 28 2011, 04:04:53 UTC
OP HERE. EXCUSE ME AS I SCREAM AND FLAIL INCOHERENTLY FOR DAYS. (This will not be a coherent comment.)

Ah, this was absolutely beautiful! So heart-wrenching and perfect and oh, my heart, I felt so bad for Sherlock when he appeared for the first time and John ran away. :( But you made it all better in the most spectacular way possible. Bravo, this was a fantastic fill and I am off to read it a dozen more times. :)

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) shiverelectric March 28 2011, 04:48:43 UTC
HAAAAAAAAAH, That was so sweet and just, woooooow, when John was dying, and then Sherlock keeping him (and so fast, holy mo!) BUT WHAT BROUGHT SHERLOCK BACK, zomg?!

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) brightest_wings March 28 2011, 06:33:32 UTC
Oh god. I- This- What.

That was perfect all the damn way through. Amazing!

I have a really stupid soppy smile on my face, and I feel you should know it's entirely your fault.

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) brightest_wings March 28 2011, 16:25:30 UTC
This is easily one of the most enchanting pieces I've read on this meme. It was so serene I felt like I was in a graveyard. Really beautiful

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) shortcrust March 28 2011, 18:48:15 UTC
Gosh, this was stunning. Absolutely lovely.

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) indusnm March 28 2011, 21:17:04 UTC
OMG OMG OMG I love you and this ending. Fantastic.

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) jesse_kips March 28 2011, 22:47:52 UTC
Well, this was just amazing. You wrote the graveyard scenes so well, and the ENDING! SO HAPPY, OMG :DDD

Beautiful <3

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) the_tire_swing March 29 2011, 02:17:51 UTC
Wow. Ghost Sherlock dancing because someone remembered his was so sweet and sad. And then it just got sweeter and sadder. And then John got shot and I honestly don't know what happened exactly -- Sherlock didn't want John to go "beyond" and John didn't, but he didn't stay a ghost either and that somehow allowed Sherlock to become alive again? -- but it was awesome.

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) brightest_wings April 25 2011, 09:20:03 UTC
I think Sherlock was never dead, and the whole thing was in John's head while he was unconscious in the hospital. Sherlock telling him "not to leave" was really him saying "don't die."

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) brightest_wings March 29 2011, 02:38:32 UTC
Wow. That was awesome. I love how John ended up having sort of relationships with all the graves he saw, he didn't just pass any of them by.

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) brightest_wings March 31 2011, 01:13:40 UTC
That's so so so lovely.

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) brightest_wings April 1 2011, 12:32:50 UTC
That was beautiful! Wonderful fill. <3

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) uwsannajane April 3 2011, 13:55:31 UTC
Oh, LOVE. So beautifully written, and so many delicate and lovely details - esp. the petals. And splendidly nerve-wracking to read :)

(And thank heavens for the Sunday recs, because I don't know when I would have found this otherwise!)

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Re: Can't think of a title (5/5) mushroom18 April 3 2011, 15:18:40 UTC
This fandom is the most amazing thing, especially with alternate universes like this. Lovely. *wibbles*

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