John jolted awake at the bit of land by the mouth of the Reichenbach waterfall with no recollection of how he had gotten there. His calves down were submerged in the water, and he pulled them out to resist the stinging cold. He felt lost and confused; the evening sun was setting now and he could not remember how he'd spent the day.

"John, no..." A small voice yelped. Impossible, he thought. Quickly he sat himself up, feeling the wet soil beneath his hands. His suspicions were confirmed, but he received only a moment's delight from it.

Sherlock stood but a foot away from him, his skin a ghastly white with dried blood painted along the side of his head, climbing across his nose and into his ear. He did not look at John, but instead at the rushing white water. His expression was one visibly drained of hope, and his strong posture as John had known it had devolved into a defeated slump. He was no champion now, no great detective.

In his disbelief, the words "You're alive..." escaped his lips. Sherlock did not blink. He stood there, as still and cold as a statue.

"No, John…" he responded in a choked whisper, tears forming his eyes; the first indicator that the man he saw was not just a porcelain sculpture, or a mirage that John's disoriented mind had manifested. Slowly, Sherlock raised a pointed finger toward the water where his eyes had been fixed. John cautiously turned his head to follow it and soon beheld a mass that shook him, bringing his senses back to a few minutes before.

John remembered now; stepping unto the rocks after the long climb, raising his arms like angel's wings and muttering a prayer to his lost love before he at last… took flight.

His hand moved to his mouth and his breath escaped him. He watched his mangled body floating but a few yards away. Sherlock knelt down beside him and gently kissed his shoulder, holding John's hand is his own. "You didn't have to do this for me to be with you, John." he whispered, trying in vain to mask his disappointment. "I never left."

He buried John's face in his chest to shield him from the horrid sight.