Whatever Remains

Summary: "When I've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how mad it might seem, must be the truth." Post-Reichenbach, John uses Sherlock's method to make a decision, with surprising results.

Chapter 2: No matter how mad...

From: Greg Lestrade
Subject: John, you need to read this.
To: John Watson

John read the email for the tenth time. It didn't take long. The only thing in the email was a hyperlink, and Lestrade's statement that he should read it. It hadn't changed from when he first read it five hours before. The web address was from a large news site. It looked like a link to the comments section of an article. That sounded like hell right now. The articles about Sherlock were bad enough; the comments were downright vicious.

If Lestrade thought he needed to read them, then it must be important. Maybe the fervor against Sherlock had gotten bad enough that people were ready to turn on his associates as well. John couldn't really bring himself to care if it spilled over against him, but Mrs. Hudson could end up in the line of fire, too. He took a deep breath and clicked.

1895 Comments
"I believe in Sherlock Holmes."
"Sherlock Holmes was no fraud!"
"Moriarty was real"
"RIP Sherlock Holmes. I believe."
"I believe in Sherlock Holmes"
"I believe in Sherlock Holmes"
"Richard Brook was the fraud."
"Moriarty was real. I believe in Sherlock Holmes."
"I believe in Sherlock Holmes."
"I believe in Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty was real."
Read more comments →

John stared at the screen. He clicked through a few more pages of comments. And a few more. A few nasty comments remained, but the vast majority were much like the first page. Finally, many pages deep in the comments, he found the first "I believe in Sherlock Holmes" comment in the thread. It linked to his last blog post.

"Well, isn't that...mad."