Title: Believe
Author: upsidedownbutterfly
Summary: John wasn't sure why he was still here. Post-"The Reichenbach Fall". 221B format (221 words, the last beginning with "B").
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Suicidal thoughts.
Spoilers: "The Reichenbach Fall".
Disclaimer: They're not mine, people.
John would be lying if he said he hadn't thought about it.
It wouldn't have been the first time. The handgun in his drawer had brought him a perverse sort of comfort in the empty days before he met Sherlock Holmes. Reassurance in knowing that if living became too much to bear, release was just a bullet away.
Only living had become too much to bear the moment he watched Sherlock step off that rooftop, saw his body lying broken on the sidewalk, clutched his pulseless wrist between his fingers.
Yet John was still here. He just didn't know why.
It was a rainy day three weeks after the funeral when the answer came to him in the form of a soggy newspaper lying crumpled in the gutter on John's way to work, its headline screaming SUICIDE OF FAKE GENIUS in huge obnoxious letters.
Even as pain and rage ripped through John anew, so too did understanding: This was why he was still here. Because if he wasn't, there would be no one left to believe in Sherlock Holmes. Life without Sherlock might be too much to bear, but John would bear it; it was the one last thing he could do for his friend.
Death was one adventure Sherlock would have to face alone. John would stay behind and believe.