Sherlock Fic: One Step Ahead (3 of 3)

[goldvermilion87]

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

 “Let him go, Doctor Smith.”

“I don’t know how you’re not dead already, Holmes. But this here? This is the same virus I sent you. I may be done for, but I won’t go down alone. You’ll get to see! See this glorious weapon I’ve made! You all will. And it will be this poor fool…”

John had just noticed that Sherlock was looking behind Smith, not at him, when he felt a sudden fine spray of something warm on the back of his neck, and jumped forward as Smith crumpled to the floor with the syringe still grasped tightly in his hand.

“What just...”

“Are you alright, John? Did it touch you? I didn’t think it did. But it didn’t, did it?”

John looked at the dead man on the ground, and the living man standing a foot or two in front of him, and opened his mouth but couldn’t quite make a connection between it and his brain. At that moment Mycroft walked in.

“Ah, Sherlock! One of your best performances, I think. Congratulations are in order, and your country thanks you. A knighthood, perhaps at this...”

“Mycroft, you know I will not ever accept a knighthood. Your sniper has killed your rogue scientist, and I have avoided utter boredom for a few days. But now I want to eat.”

“Wh-what...” John was staring from one brother to the other, occasionally glancing back down at the corpse.

“Ah, yes.” Mycroft paused the never ending staring contest between himself and Sherlock to look at John. “I should explain.”

“Yes...” John wasn’t really sure of anything at the moment, but that sounded reasonable. 

“Not forgetting, of course, that I am in the room, Mycroft, and can hear you if you decide to utter some absurd falsehoods.”

“Thank you, Sherlock. I will bear that in mind. Several months ago, it was brought to the attention of the government that a British scientist was experimenting on the Ebola virus, and perhaps a new super-virus was about to be launched on the world. We had been able to track this criminal as far as a specific government-run facility that you need know nothing more about, but no further.”

“Shocking!”

“Sherlock, be quiet! I then called on Sherlock, who also was unable to identify the perpetrator.”

“I described him correctly.”

“‘A white male between the ages of twenty five and fifty-five with a doctoral degree in medicine or chemistry’ did not narrow the suspect list significantly, Sherlock.”

“It’s still more than...”

“Will you allow me to proceed?”

Sherlock folded his arms and rolled his eyes. But he did stop talking.

“We then decided that the only way to deal with this man was to draw him out. We calculated the amount of time he would take to respond to a clear threat, and then coordinated our actions so that his response would fall during the weekend in which you visited a Mr. Bill Murray, formerly of the Royal Army Medical Corps, in Cardiff, and went to a rugby match with him…”

“So I wouldn’t have to hear John talking about that wretched sport anymore...”

“Sherlock then made sure that all the possible suspects knew that he was trailing them, and waited for a response.”

“Which came in the form of a primitive box with a loaded spring contaminated with the virus. He must have thought I was very stupid to fall for something like that.”

“Sherlock, do not tempt me by saying things of that nature.   Sherlock feigned his illness. And here we are.

“We had calculated on your overly emotional reaction as another way of convincing the perpetrator that this was genuine. We had not--and I can admit my mistakes, John, even if my brother cannot--counted on your getting into the room this quickly, and thus creating a potential hostage for Doctor Culverton Smith to utilize when he revealed himself as our aspiring bioterrorist.”

“Smith came in to draw my blood, so he could test it. I suppose I was not dying fast enough for him. And I may have been his first human test case. But of course, once he was that close, he could see that I was perfectly healthy. And he brought out a vial of the virus. Then I fought him off, and Mycroft’s sniper killed him.”

John knew he would need a bit of time to process all this information. Somehow Sherlock’s “I fought him off” felt wrong, among other things. But his brain wasn’t running on all cylinders. He was fairly clear on the main point, though: Sherlock was not dead. He might be emaciated and weak. But he was not dead. He was not dying. John was so relieved that he walked forward, and for the first time in their long acquaintance, he threw his arms around his friend. When Sherlock immediately stiffened, and shoved him backwards...and John realized that Sherlock was not wasting away. And when he looked up at Sherlock’s I-just-sucked-on-a-lemon face, he realized it was...caked with makeup? 

That was when the truth of the situation hit him. 

“You...You complete bastard!” And one swift left hook had dropped Sherlock to the floor.

Mycroft looked at his unconscious brother as if he were an interesting work of modern art. “You should know, John, that for his own fantastic reasons, Sherlock has had a paternity test. He is our father’s son.”

John just stared. Then he sighed and crouched down next to Sherlock, who was waking up.

“You okay, Sherlock?   I didn’t think that would knock you out.”

“I haven’t eaten anything in four days. That’s quite a while--even for me, John.”

“Oh…well...sorry.”

“John.”

“What?”

“I’ve had a paternity...”

“Yes, Mycroft just told me, you git!”

“John?” He reached an arm up, and John hoisted him back to his feet.

“Yes?”

“Never, ever hug me again.”


 

A/N:  This was indeed my attempt to Sherlock-ify Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Dying Detective.” It’s an interesting story. I find it at least as frustrating as it is interesting, but that’s why I wanted to update it! I recommend giving it a read. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2347/2347-h/2347-h.htm

Comments

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

*EVIL GRIN*

I had to decide whether it was worth it to get people all worked up and think maybe Sherlock would die and risk losing anyone who didn't want to read character death...and I went with being evil, because and hoped it wouldn't scare off too many potential readers. :-) I'm glad you decided to read it in the end.

I never thought of DYIN as particularly h/c because in the end the only person who gets hurt is Watson and the comfort is nowhere to be found, unless you count Holmes including him in his dinner plans...which I never thought was good enough. And Watson really needs to get some backbone in that story, too. *sigh* So John punching Sherlock was as cathartic for me as it was for him. Hehe.

Anyway, thanks so much for reviewing. I'm very glad you enjoyed the story.

[derry667.livejournal.com]

I never thought of DYIN as particularly h/c because in the end the only person who gets hurt is Watson and the comfort is nowhere to be found, unless you count Holmes including him in his dinner plans...which I never thought was good enough. And Watson really needs to get some backbone in that story, too

You probably have a point. I was really quite young when I first read it and I don't think I looked at it with a critical eye in any way. Maybe it was sort of an OTT angst + "but then he got better" = h/c equation going on in my head.

I don't think that the original ACD canon version of Watson ever called Holmes on the (more-or-less unintentional) mental cruelty that he inflicted. Not even letting Watson think he was dead for 3 years.

In the BBC series, he's a little more forthright about Sherlock's social shortcomings and lack of empathy. If they do indeed recreate Reichenbach and it's aftermath in the series, I can't see John Watson (circa 2011?) being quite so sanguine about it as his Victorian counterpart.

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

It's BBC's forthrightness about his lack of empathy, etc. that makes me love the series so much. And despite the fact that John is generally willing to do what Sherlock tells him to do, he isn't the pushover that Watson can be, because he is willing to tell Sherlock when he's being wrong.

I have thought a bit about the Reichenbach issue, and I recently learned that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was (see discussion here: http://goldvermilion87.livejournal.com/72341.html) but I hope John will still be less easygoing than Watson was.

[derry667.livejournal.com]

Well, I do sort of agree with your male friends. I don't think John would hold a grudge for any significant length of time. Male non-issues with abandonment or not, John himself doesn't seem the type to hold on to that sort of anger. Like when called Sherlock on his lack of concern for the humans lives at stake in The Great Game, John is as genuinely angry as he gets with Sherlock, but after fuming for few moments, he gets on with the job of helping solve the case and by the next scene it's apparently all water under the bridge.

So, yeah. I don't think John would be "girly" about the Riechenbach issue. But I do think he'd tell Sherlock plainly that it was a hurtful thing to do (a punch may or may not be the way he'd do it).

Ideally, I'd like Sherlock to be momentarily worried that he'd broken the friendship and seem unsure of the answer he'd get when he then asks if John if he'll join him on his latest case. That could lead to a lovely hark back to John's "Oh God, yes." from Study in Pink. And then, yeah, from THAT point onwards things could alll be back to normal between them. Because, yes, John Watson is awesome in that way.

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind a moment of worry from Sherlock, though I think Sherlock angst needs to be a very very subtle thing. (As I said to a friend, to have angst, you have to have a modicum of self-doubt. Haha!) I imagine,though, that he'd have to be told that what he did was "not good"--at least from an emotional standpoint--because logically it was the right thing to do. That being said, I did write a story where Sherlock had a moment of angst before seeing John for the first time after Reichenbach...but it is kinda/sorta AU...so...

I completely agree with your estimation of John though. He really holds things in, both, I think, because he is understanding of Sherlock and because he just isn't much of a talker. Every once in a while he EXPLODES, and then he's all better. I guess I'd like to see a minor explosion when Sherlock returns. (whether of the decking or non-decking variety, I don't really care. Though I would like one canonical decking of Sherlock by John in the Series. I can imagine it, but I'd like to ACTUALLY SEE IT at least once--John's look of determination. Sherlock's dazed what just happened?!!??!?! IT WOULD BE AMAZING!) :-P

Should note that I now agree with my male friends as well. And I never thought that Watson would be in a snit for weeks. I just thought it was completely unrealistic that he is shocked and then says. YAY, you're back! And isn't quite hurt for a long while. It just had not occurred to me FOR YEARS that I was thinking like a girl. :-D

[derry667.livejournal.com]

It just had not occurred to me FOR YEARS that I was thinking like a girl. :-D

I hear ya! I'm not the world's most girly girl even in Real Life. And with characters in fiction I certainly prefer - women who are kickass and men who don't suddenly turn into "premenstual women" at the first sign of adversity.

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

Same here.

It's just hard to be certain I'm not doing it. I have a friend who suggested that along with Brit-picking there should be Male-picking, where a real live male reads and say...umm...you know that makes him sound like a girl, right?

:-)

Too bad there aren't many guys in fanfiction-dom.