A/N- This idea seized me, after reading numerous other ones like it, and I knew I had to write my own. You can probably tell, but the italics are taken from "The Final Problem."
THE BEST AND WISEST MAN
He stares at the magazine he has just bought off a very startled passerby. He reads the first lines of the article, and then snaps the book shut. Taking a deep breath, he reads the sentence again.
It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished...
Watson. The name hurts him like a blow to the chest. He misses his Boswell with an intensity that he never knew was possible. Taking another breath, he forces himself to keep reading.
…I had often admired my friend's courage, but never more than now, as he sat quietly checking off a series of incidents which must have combined to make up a day of horror…
"He admired my courage?" he thinks, "Watson, who has lived through war, and emerged from it a better man, admires my courage. He has much more than me, that is perfectly and painfully clear. My dear Watson…"
...I shall be brief, and yet exact, in the little which remains for me to tell. It is not a subject on which I would willingly dwell, and yet I am conscious that a duty devolves upon me to omit no detail…
He takes another deep breath here, and forces himself to continue reading.
...As I turned away I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world...
He reads the next part, of Watson shouting his name. He remembers it all too clearly, and wishes, for Watson's sake, that this deception was not necessary. He had almost shouted Watson's name back at those wretched falls… nobody had any idea how close he had come to doing, how much it had pained him hearing Watson's heart-wrenching cries.
… clear his memory by attacks upon him whom I shall ever regard as the best and wisest man whom I have ever known.
He puts the copy of The Strand down, and, so softly that it is almost inaudible, says, "My dear Watson… …you said you would be 'brief, and yet exact,' but I am afraid you are sorely mistaken. You are the best and wisest man whom I have ever known."