Authors Note: I don't own any of these characters (no matter how much I wish I did)
His eyes opened slightly as he felt a searing pain in his chest. "What happened?" John asked shakily. He turned to face Sherlock and saw his eyes were bloodshot. Sherlock replied with a broken voice "you got shot." John remembered feeling Moriarty's bullet speeding towards his chest and then nothing until he awoke. "You're extremely lucky. Moriarty missed all of your vital organs. It was almost as if he was trying to send a message and wasn't trying to kill you." Sherlock said with a slight quake in his voice. John's head felt extremely dizzy as he tried to focus on Sherlock's words. "I was worried that you might not make it..." Sherlock trailed off. John felt himself slowly slipping from the realm of the conscious. "... I thought I might lose you. And I couldn't bear that because I..." Sherlock spoke as John completely lost consciousness.
The remaining words Sherlock said were unable to reach the ears of John and instead flew up into the air unheard. He stood, rolled up the collar of his coat, and went off to face Moriarty, perhaps for the final time; but not before leaving a small envelope on John's bedside table. As he left the room Sherlock glanced back at John fleetingly, fully aware that this could very well be the last time he would ever lay eyes on him. For with John existed a bright future, that thanks to Moriarty could never exist. The contents of the letter told John to find happiness, to move on, and that Sherlock would always hold him close in his heart. It was odd that Sherlock the man who once had no friends, was now going to lay down his life for the person who meant the most to him. The person that he couldn't bear to live without. The person that made his life worth living, helped him to get over his addictions, and the only person to ever see Sherlock as a human being.
When it was time Sherlock was not afraid of death but rather he greeted it like an old friend. His last thoughts were of John and the pain he was going to be put through. Sherlock and John would never be the roommates of 221B again.
John awoke and noticing the missing presence of the man once called Sherlock glanced around the room. His eyes fell upon the letter and he reached out for it. This letter was the goodbye he never wanted to hear. The words of love he wished Sherlock would say, but also the words informing him that John would be alone from now on. Tears slipped down his face soaking on the letter as John read the words "I will love you always, and I am sorry that I never got to say it in person, S.H."