Disclaimer: I do not own Sherlock.

AN: Another short, random idea of mine which I had to write down...rather pointless character study taking place during the last moments of The Great Game. Please enjoy, reviews are loved. :)

Sherlock Holmes has a heart of stone.

Unfortunately, this metaphor is easily misinterpreted; after all, what is magma but molten rock? It boils and it burns, seethes beneath the surface with a terrible, terrifying heat.

But there it remains; trapped under the crust, never quite still and never, never gone, but almost always forgotten, almost always out of sight and out of mind, so people no longer think of its depths and its fiery core, hidden as they are behind the cool, hard barrier above, impenetrable as it is.

People forget that stone and lava are one and the same, and all it takes to turn one to the other is heat. That even the solid exterior of rock, immovable, unchangeable, is worn and broken by the wind and the rain, battered and reformed by the oceans.

People forget that all the magma needs to be released is a crack, a weak point in the surface, some flaw where a single event might send it suddenly above its shield – and they do not think of the magnitude of the cataclysmic eruption which will follow.

First there is a tremor; the initial signs of approaching danger.

John...what the hell?

The pressure will build, pushing the magma forth, forcing it towards this weak spot that it might break through...

I can stop John Watson too...stop his heart.

Still the cool exterior remains, but it must fail eventually, it is not strong enough to hold back the fury within. The Earth trembles in apprehension, and it will burn.

Alright? Are you alright?

And then the dam breaks; it cannot be held in check any longer and in a massive eruption the destruction begins, the shield at last blown away.

All that I have to say has already crossed your mind.

Probably my answer has crossed yours.

An explosion.