Dying Men Make Promises in the Dark

by The North Wyn

"No!" escapes brokenly from his lips, "No, John, don't die! Don't die. You promised."

Warnings: Character Death, brief mention of cancer

A/N: Tiny fill for the prompt: "Sherlock BBC, Sherlock &/ John, "John, don't die." from the Bite Sized Bits of Fic comment fic comm on LJ.

You stroke his face, pale in the harsh hospital light (gentle, you must be gentle, they said). But it is too late for gentle and you pull him towards you roughly and try to shake him awake.

"No!" escapes brokenly from your lips, "No, John, don't die! Don't die. You promised."

And he did promise, in quiet nights, face half-hidden in the darkness, as you read everything you could find on the sickness. "There's a cure out there, John. I will find it." (But he's already fallen asleep, though you never could, then.)

He slept and you dreampt and now you know you were just two dying men making promises in the dark.

In the end, it comes down to this. All your knowledge could not save him.