The Missing Three-Quarter: Echo

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Title: The Missing Three-Quarter: Echo
Author: gardnerhill
Word Count: 60
Rating: G
Warning: You may get feels on this ride.
Summary: The denouement of this one must have really hurt Dr. Watson.

***

Holmes grasped Dr. Armstrong’s hand. “Come, Watson,” said he.

We left that house in silence.  In that same silence we walked back. After returning Pompey to his master we made for our room at the inn.

And only when we were safe behind locked doors did Holmes take me in his arms as I wept, remembering my own Mary’s death.

Comments

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Nicely done. You are right: Watson would have probably been shaken by the end. His use of the phrase 'house of grief' nods to this, too.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

A somber end to a solved case.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

This would have been a very sad reminder for Watson.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

A sad piece of continuity - even as Doyle gives us a happier one (Holmes getting weaned off cocaine).

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

“Come, Watson,” said he, and we passed from that house of grief into the pale sunlight of the winter day. I always find Watson's last line so moving. They may be going out from the dark into the light - but it's only a pale light and it's a cold day. Things are not all right again.

As you say, Watson has already suffered a terrible bereavement and he may also be thinking forwards to when he truly loses Holmes. And Holmes may be thinking of when he loses Watson. One of them will eventually be left bereft - there's no escaping that.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

That would resonate with both as a couple - a clandestine marriage that cannot be shared openly with the world, and grief that must be kept private for safety's sake.

[debriswoman]

Well done, and very sad.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I can't help but feel how painful this would have been for Watson.