After breakfast Mary insisted she needed to talk to John, and so they sat down once again at the dining table.
"What's up?" John asked as he sat back down at the table after helping put away the food items.
"Well, I wanted to talk to you about whether or not you want to continue to stay here." Mary took a deep breath, "I don't mind if you want to stay but I understand if you want to leave. All I ask is that you give me fair warning before you leave and don't sneak off in the middle of the night or something crazy like that."
"I wouldn't sneak out in the middle of the night Mary." John gave a soft laugh, "I don't think I could find in me to leave you're good cooking to fend for myself again."
Mary's eyes sparkled in amusement as she laughed with him, "So the key to taming you is good food?"
"Exactly." John nodded sagely before cracking up laughing.
They both laughed for a few before Mary started to speak again, "Well, as long as you're staying here I'd like to ask you to take care of a few things for me, this old house needs a bit of repair work and if you don't mind helping me out I'll let you stay as long as you like."
"Sounds like a deal to me, I'm happy to help." John smiled softly at her noting how her warm brown eyes seemed to shimmer in the morning light.
"Good, we can start by cleaning the gutters." she stood up with a matching smile.
Four happy months flew by and the cold weather was creeping back when disaster struck. Mary had gone out to get groceries earlier, but hadn't come back yet and it was getting late, so John decided to go out looking for her.
He had shifted and was bounding along the side of the highway when he smelled smoke, turning the sharp corner in the road John found a sight he was unprepared for.
A small car and a semi had collided in the middle of the road, both were on fire, the car was crumpled like a tin can and the semi was flipped upside-down. From where John was he could see that the driver in the semi was trapped but he couldn't tell whether or not there was anyone left in the car.
He shifted quickly back to his human form as he sprinted towards the burning vehicles. It wasn't until he was right next to the car that he recognized it as Mary's. Forgetting all about the other person John tore at the driver side door of the little car trying to get to Mary who he could now see slumped over the wheel of the car.
The door frame had been bent in the crash though and he couldn't pry it open with just his bare hands so John wrapped his hand in his jacket and smashed through the window instead.
He managed to unhook Mary's seat belt and pulled her out of the car to safety just before the gas tank of the semi exploded and the car followed.
John shielded Mary's body with himself trying to keep her from being injured any worse. It wasn't until he had pulled back to examine her that John realized her neck had been snapped in the crash, and she wasn't breathing.
"No..." John touched her already cooling face, "No, no, no, no..." tears slipped down his cheeks to land on hers as the reality of the situation set in.
Mary Morstan was gone, his last friend in the world, the one who had saved him from the darkness of his depression had been ripped away just like that.
The sound of sirens brought John back to reality, and his fight or flight instinct kicked in, shifting in the blink of an eye John Watson once again disappeared from the world.
