***
I do believe that this is the way Watson really felt after Holmes' return in "The empty house":
"I could only recall the feeling of finding that note on that day three springs ago. How it felt to think of my dearest friend, lying under all those tons of water, torn up by sharp rocks with the only man in this planet perhaps capable of defeating him. If only he knew how much it hurt, how I was nearly sick with regret that I couldn’t have been there to catch him.
But it was all a lie. He hadn’t trusted me.
That hurt more than anything.
That was what hurt most of this new situation."
From "Confessions of the Master" Chapter 9
"I could only recall the feeling of finding that note on that day three springs ago. How it felt to think of my dearest friend, lying under all those tons of water, torn up by sharp rocks with the only man in this planet perhaps capable of defeating him. If only he knew how much it hurt, how I was nearly sick with regret that I couldn’t have been there to catch him.
But it was all a lie. He hadn’t trusted me.
That hurt more than anything.
That was what hurt most of this new situation."
From "Confessions of the Master" Chapter 9