Author's note: I have many feelings about Reichenbach, most of which hurt too much to think about. However, I'm going to stand up and applaud Benedict's acting in The Fall scene. He was fantastic *claps*. What really got me though, was not the fact he was about to jump, or that John was going to witness it - what got me was the small tear that rolled down his face as he said goodbye to John. To me that tear represented so much and I wanted to explore that (rather unsuccessfully, I'm afraid) here….Enjoy.
It says so much
"Goodbye John"
Sherlock drops his phone. A single tear runs down his face.
The tear is not for what he is about to do. It is for what he has already done. He has broken his own rule, he has let down his barriers – he has started to care.
That tear is Sherlock's greatest gift to John Watson. It is a bond of the intimacy that was forged between the two men who had nothing. It is a salute to the two men that found each other, not by chance, by fate.
Sherlock was certain that he and John Watson were put on this earth to find each other. And find each other, they did.
But now, the only happiness that Sherlock had ever known was to be shattered. As shattered as his skull on the hard pavement.
The tear that ran down his face, was his pain.
It was his pain in asking the impossible of John Watson. He was asking John to disown him, to believe the lies, but even as he asked he knew that it couldn't be done. Sherlock and John were connected in such a way that neither would stop believing in the other.
The tear was his pain in having to leave his best, and only, friend. John Watson.
Disclaimer: I'll just add a quick one - I do not own Sherlock or anything that you recognise from ACD or the BBC's interpretations.
...Although if I did, I'd want Benedict.