Sherlock knows he's overstepped the mark as soon as the words leave his mouth. There's a moment's pause and then, John explodes.

'Fuck you,' he spits, rage filling each syllable, 'You selfish, egocentric bastard. How dare you? I cared about you.''

For a moment the rage subsides, morphs into bitter humour, and John chuckles darkly, 'Stupid me, eh? That'll teach me to listen to Sally Donovan, won't it? She knew, y'know, she knew. Knew you were a psychopath and, in the end, you'd screw me over.'

Inside, Sherlock feels each vitriol-laced word hit him like a blade slicing open his organs, but outside, he stands impassively. He lets the words wash over him, let their flames lick at his heart, because he knows he deserves this. His apparent lack of emotion, however, serves to do nothing but further enrage John.

'Do you even care now? Do you? Or is their only space in your genius brain to care about yourself? You've done nothing for weeks, Sherlock, nothing. Did you think that'd be okay? To just fester on the sofa? Did you expect everything that needed doing to do itself?' John laughs again, 'No – of course you didn't. You just expected me to do it. I'm not a dog, Sherlock. I'm a fucking human being. Your friend. And you just treated me like shit whilst you wallowed in your misery.'

John shakes his head, and suddenly, it's like the anger has gone. Deflated, and defeated, he just seems to collapse in on himself, like the anger was the only thing holding him together.

'He's dead, Sherlock,' John's voice is barely more than a whisper, 'Moriarty is dead. The sooner you realise there's more to life than the distractions he provided, the better, because everyone who ever cared about you is being dragged down by your selfishness. He's gone, Sherlock, gone. You need to accept that, and move on. For everyone's sake.'


Sorry it took me so long but I've kinda been swamped in all of my lack of motivation to do anything but sleep (aka I have no reasonable excuse for not posting this sooner but hey-ho it's here now). Anyway, this was more extension of the argument. Woops. I can't seem to let it end - but hopefully, I'll get my shit together and the argument will be over and done with (yay for the upcoming fluff) in two or less chapters. Hopefully.