Title: Blood
Fandom: Sherlock
Characters: John Watson
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 221B
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: While watching His Last Vow I was positive that the confrontation with Magnussen would play out differently than it actually did. This is something along the lines of what I half expected/half hoped would happen.
It's not the first time he's been underestimated. It is the first time he's allowed it to go this far.
His bearing and stance and file says Afghanistan veteran with all that it entails, yet people tend to focus on his medical degree.
But you're a doctor? they say, picturing sterile, air conditioned rooms tucked safely inside solidly defended bases, while John dreams of stinging sand and endless sky and flesh torn apart by shrapnel and bullet, of blood and burning fat and charred skin, voices raised in alarm and rage and pain and warning.
The man standing before him is dangerous, but so is John.
It's easy to catch Magnussen off guard, to raise one hand to grip his throat and hold him in place while the other plucks the gun out of John's coat pocket. The muzzle slots in nicely beneath Magnussen's chin, and John might be somewhat of a writer but in situations like these he's never been a man of many words.
He pulls the trigger and the bullet does the rest, burrowing through tissue and bone. Some of it splatters onto John's face. It's warm, and he can feel it even as Sherlock grabs his arm and twists him away from the falling body.
That's all right; John's a doctor. He doesn't mind a little blood.