The Three Garridebs: Envision x 3
Aug. 27th, 2013 01:34 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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Canon Story: The Three Garridebs
Title: Envision x 3
Author:
spacemutineer
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Three 60s for this one. I kept thinking they would have had to discuss what happened afterward, even if Holmes probably wouldn't want to.
"Would you really have killed him?"
Holmes puts his fork down with a clang against his plate but doesn't look up.
"Of course I would have."
"Vengeance solves nothing. You are too wise for such waste."
"It would not have been vengeance."
"What then? I don't understand."
"I would not have had time to chase him, can you understand that?"
---
"You forget how quickly my mind works. When I saw you'd been shot, the entire scene played out instantly. You on the floor. Me on my knees. Evans, ignored, breaking for escape. I stop him how I can while still trying to keep you with me. The only question is whether I would have been successful on that second point."
---
"Holmes."
"Don't. I am finished discussing it."
"Let me say this, please. You are not the only one who fears the end of our partnership, our friendship. But I am the only one of us who has ever actually seen it. Your imagination is wrong. We are smarter and stronger than how we envision ourselves."
"No, Watson. We're just luckier."
Title: Envision x 3
Author:
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Three 60s for this one. I kept thinking they would have had to discuss what happened afterward, even if Holmes probably wouldn't want to.
"Would you really have killed him?"
Holmes puts his fork down with a clang against his plate but doesn't look up.
"Of course I would have."
"Vengeance solves nothing. You are too wise for such waste."
"It would not have been vengeance."
"What then? I don't understand."
"I would not have had time to chase him, can you understand that?"
---
"You forget how quickly my mind works. When I saw you'd been shot, the entire scene played out instantly. You on the floor. Me on my knees. Evans, ignored, breaking for escape. I stop him how I can while still trying to keep you with me. The only question is whether I would have been successful on that second point."
---
"Holmes."
"Don't. I am finished discussing it."
"Let me say this, please. You are not the only one who fears the end of our partnership, our friendship. But I am the only one of us who has ever actually seen it. Your imagination is wrong. We are smarter and stronger than how we envision ourselves."
"No, Watson. We're just luckier."
no subject
Date: 2013-08-28 12:07 am (UTC)Well done:-)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-28 06:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-28 12:16 pm (UTC)If Holmes acts this humanely in the first shock of Watson being injured, it seems unlikely he could later shoot an unarmed man. I wonder if Holmes meant: "if you'd killed Watson with that shot - if he'd died instantly - I would have killed you then, rather than disarmed you." Not: "if Watson had bled to death in my arms, I would have come over and shot you as you lay dazed on the floor."
And in your stories, you see it from another point of view again: if Evans had made a run for it, Holmes wouldn't have left a seriously injured (as he momentarily believes) Watson. Watson would always be his priority. But he couldn't let Evans escape either and get away with attacking Watson - shooting him (even though Evans was unarmed) would have been the option he chose.
Holmes' pragmatism versus Watson's optimism and resilience is rather moving. (Sorry for going on so...)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 08:01 pm (UTC)That issue of whether Holmes would/could kill an unarmed man gnawed at me too. A man devoted to justice as he is would find that an abomination, no matter how much he might want to go through with it. Still, he said he would have. It is always possible that was just pure adrenaline talking, but if that's the case, maybe it would be pure adrenaline that would pull the trigger too.
I love your thinking out of this problem, and I think you're absolutely right about the timing. Watson dies right away, and Holmes seems unlikely to bother trying to peacefully disarm his killer.
On the other hand, if it's not too morbid, what do you think would have happened if Watson really had bled to death in Holmes' arms as Evans lay dazed off to the side? I honestly am not certain. I've played with these dark sorts of scenarios in prototype ideas for 3GAR based fic, and I end up with a different ending almost every time. It's such a volatile moment of sheer emotion for a man who holds his feelings tight, and that makes the outcome a wildcard. I hope for Holmes' sake he'd be able to hold himself together, but I don't completely believe he could.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 10:16 pm (UTC)In the end,I like to think of "If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive," as an indirect message to Watson. Holmes can't say: "You're my friend, I love you and I was frightened you were going to die." Instead he tells the would-be murderer what he would have done to him - expresses the emotion that way.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-29 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-01 07:50 pm (UTC)I'm so happy you liked this!