Because you left me.
Throughout the ambulance ride and Sherlock's hospital admittance, those words rang through John's ears.
Because you left me.
Even when he closed his eyes, the scene played over and over on the back of his eyelids; because you left me hanging over Sherlock's pale and quaking frame like a caption in a comic book.
John sat in the waiting room with the wives and mothers and sons and uncles, unable to define his relationship to the man in room 342. Friend? Associate? Lover?
He stopped himself at the last one. He had never truly understood what categorized one as a "lover". Yes, he loved Sherlock, more than anyone else on earth. And he felt that Sherlock loved him back. Because you left me rang through his head once more. Did that make them lovers?
He did not have time to answer this. A perky young nurse came up to him and interrupted his train of thought. "Doctor Watson?"
John nodded.
She rattled off Sherlock's chart, mispronouncing enough words for John to figure out that it was her first day on the job.
He cut her off. "Is he going to be alright?" he asked warily.
She bit her lip, hurt at his rude interruption. "Yes. You can see him now," she said stuffily, turning on heel and storming off. He thought he heard her add the word "queer" under her breath, but he couldn't be sure.
Miserable twat, won't last a month, John thought to himself as he hurried to Sherlock's room.
He stopped dead at room 342. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath before turning the cold knob and entering the room.
Sherlock lay on the bed, looking even more pale and thin than usual. His eyes were closed, and the only noise in the room was the irritating beeps coming from the heart monitor. He looked so small in the bed, John couldn't help but start to cry. The world's greatest detective had been reduced to this, and it was all John's fault.
He shuffled over to the bed and took Sherlock's hand in his own. He brought the fragile white hand to his lips, and brushed them against the knuckles.
"I'll never leave you. Never again," he whispered.
Sherlock's thin lips twitched upwards, ever so slightly.
Fin