Written for the LiveJournal community Watsons_Woes for their July Writing Prompts challenge. The prompt for day 19 was: "A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave." - Mohandas Gandhi
Part of my Spencer-verse (primarily canon with a few details borrowed from the Granada TV series-in this case, I've borrowed the fact that Watson is not married at the time of The Final Problem).
While deciding what to title this, I came across a poem of the same title; it very nicely expresses the sentiment that I had in mind for this piece.
_Love, of a Kind_
I was teasing Spencer with the lace from an old boot when Holmes spoke for the first time all day. "Why attach yourself to an animal?"
"Pardon?"
"Why take care of this animal when he's just going to die in a few years?"
"You'll die eventually, yet we share rooms."
"There are economic benefits to sharing rooms, and intellectual benefits to conversation. A cat offers no such benefits."
Spencer jumped into my lap and curled up, purring. "Spencer offers companionship and love, of a kind. And it can be beneficial for people to have someone or something to care for. You might try it sometime."
Holmes scoffed. "I do not devote time to absurd undertakings."
Despite his harsh words, in the following weeks I saw him gingerly stroking Spencer several times, and even found him with Spencer on his lap one evening. I did not think he understood the concept of loving a cat, but he tolerated and sometimes encouraged Spencer's affection.
For a while it seemed that Spencer had outlived Holmes, and I was so very grateful for his quiet presence in the otherwise empty rooms.
When Holmes returned from the dead, his second inquiry was about Spencer's welfare.