Lestrade

The inspector knelt at Sherlock's side; the man had obviously already thrown up, so now he would just have to suffer until the remaining alcohol worked its way out of his system. Donovan stayed perfectly still by the door, but she didn't matter right now. He quickly told her to go into the kitchen and get a glass of water, the detective was going to need it.

"Sherlock" Lestrade called gently giving the mans shoulder a shake, "Hey Sherlock wake up"

"John?" Sherlock mumbled opening his bleary eyes and blinking slowly, they dulled slightly when the detective realised it was Lestrade in front of him, not John.

"Afraid not mate" Lestrade sighed, "You're a right git y'know? What on earth are you doing to yourself"

"Here" Sally re entered the room, water in hand. Lestrade could see two aspirin pills fizzing in the bottom as well. Sherlock stiffened slightly. Thankfully Lestrade took the glass and held it up for Sherlock to drink, the detective pulled away, or at least tried to, he only managed to move an inch or so.

"Come on" Lestrade coaxed, "Trust me this will help"

"Get away…" Sherlock moaned, weakly swiping at the glass and turning his back on the two.

"Donovan you'd better go, you will be no help" Lestrade said finally, "I just bought you here to prove you were wrong"

Donovan shrugged and walked out a little too quickly, happy to be away from the ill detective. Lestrade looked over the empty bottle, it was strong stuff, Sherlock was going to have one hell of a headache.

"Sherlock, you need water" Lestrade sighed, "You are going to be very dehydrated and it will help"

"Lemme sleep" he demanded, he reminded Lestrade of a kid with a flu, all moaning and insufferable bad moods.

"After you drink," Lestrade demanded, propping Sherlock up despite the mans weak struggled to not become vertical. Dejectedly the young man drank the water, Lestrade didn't let him lay back down until he had downed it, aspirin and all. He fell asleep in an instant, leaving a very tired inspector to get comfy and wait. It was going to be a long night.

Sherlock

When he woke the first thing he became aware of was the pounding in his head. He felt awful and achy all over, so this was what it was like to be hung over. He didn't like it. He moaned involuntarily as he opened his eyes, the lighting of the room was dull, but even the slightest beam of sunlight seemed to burn itself into his eyes.

"Well look who's awake" Lestrade grinned passing Sherlock a bit of toast, which he took, "Enjoying the after effects"

"Sod off Lestrade" Sherlock replied dryly, happy to see his voice had returned properly.

"You need to look after yourself" The older man implored, "John wouldn't want you destroying yourself like this"

"I know" Sherlock sighed, he couldn't help but flick his eyes around the room looking for John. He had to be here somewhere but for now i looked as if he was invisible.

"Here, I bought this to give to you at the funeral but I never got round to it" Lestrade offered the detective a manila folder filled with case files.

Limbs, especially hands, were being found in dumpsters all over London, strung together. Yet nobody was coming forward about being attacked and nobody was reporting into hospitals with missing limbs. Sherlock felt a small buzz of excitement due to the mystery. He could spend a few days working on his, perhaps John would join him for a bit. At least he wouldn't be wallowing in his guilt if he had this.

He nodded in thanks to Lestrade and began reading through the case, hopefully Lestrade would take the hint and leave so John could reappear. It seemed he did because he man got up to leave, Sherlock couldn't help noticing the creases in his clothes indicating he had slept in them, he must of been here a long time.

Several minutes later John appeared and glanced over the papers looking pleased.

"There now you have something to do" He smiled

Indeed he did. Sherlock spent the next few days solving the case of missing hands and feet, which turned out to of been cut from corpses, hence the lack of living people missing their extremities. The minute he finished that case Lestrade gave him another, this cycle went on for weeks. It was after the fourth case that Sherlock began to catch on.

"Lestrade is trying to keep me busy isn't he?" Sherlock asked the air, John appeared once every day or so now but he knew the man was there. At least he was most of the time.

"Took you a long time to catch on" John replied materialising in thin air a few feet from Sherlock, the latter grumbled.

"It worked" John smiled, "You've been happy these last few weeks, I'll bet you I could stop appearing soon"

'NO!" Sherlock yelled, "You can't leave"

"Sherlock..." John sighed, "I've explained this to you"

"Yes about passing on and all that" Sherlock growled, looking at his experiments instead of John angrily.

"I've been here almost two months, most people only stay a few days" John said quietly

"You want to leave" Sherlock said finally feeling a sense of betrayal building up within him. John wanted to leave him. He wanted to. It wasn't a matter of having to he actually wanted to go and leave Sherlock all on his own again.

"In a way" John admitted, "I'm miserable, lonely and almost completely numb being stuck here in, limbo"

Lonely, what did John know about being lonely? Sherlock had only had one friend in his entire life. John had many, he could tell. Sure he couldn't speak to them anymore but he had Sherlock, that was something.

Deep down though Sherlock knew John was right, he did need to move on. Both of them did. He just didn't want to. While he had cases sure he'd be alright but in those dull times in between he couldn't bar to be alone again. Once he had done it but once he'd actually had a friend he found it hard to go back to being on his own again.

So closing his eyes and taking a deep breath Sherlock did something he should of done months ago. He accepted John was dead. He wasn't really there, he was gone, he was dead.

But it wasn't his fault.

"Thankyou"

Sherlock looked back up to John who had acquired a strange golden sheen around the edges. Small balls of lights were coming off him as he faded, floating upwards and solving. John was disintegrating before his eyes! John looked at his hands curiously, faint smile on his features. Sherlock bit back tears.

"Do you have to?" He asked quietly, John looked him in eye and nodded.

"Don't do anything stupid, alright?" john asked, his voice had a strange kind of echo to it, Sherlock let the tears fall, John wouldn't care.

"It's not fair" Sherlock sobbed, John was almost completely gone now, the strange ethereal light engulfed him, leaving Sherlock completely alone. He tried to take a step forward towards where John had been standing a few seconds earlier only to end up falling onto his knees, tears dripped onto the ground, his head snapped up when he heard John's voice again, faint and echoey, he could tell it was his final goodbye.

Remember Sherlock, you were loved by me, and you made my life a happy one.

And there's no tragedy in that...

There will be an epilogue chapter which wont be very long, Im working on it now. The final line is actually an altered version of the last lines of the film Third Star which has Benedict Cumberbatch as the leading role. Its one of my faves, Id recommend it to anybody but fair warning its very very sad