Title: Louder than Words
Characters: Holmes, Watson
Rating: K
Word Count: 221
Warnings: Pointless prompt answer
Summary: Possible scene that could fit in an AU of my A Case of Immortality. Basically, so you don't have to wade through the oneshot to get the situation idea, when Watson returns from the RAMC in 1918 or 1919 Holmes asks him to spend a few days at his cottage, at least until his house becomes habitable again (because Queen Anne Street was actually in a district heavily bombed by Zeppelins).. This could be a possible scene from that. Written for the prompt Ongoing repercussions of war on Watson.
A/N: Supposed to be a 221B but I'm too lazy to try to find a B word that doesn't sound contrived, and the W word fit. And I created the genre anyhow so I'm entitled to make it a 221W. So there. :P
He'd thought the half-hesitation merely an endearing reaction from awkward separation. The careful attention to every word would not have, unaccompanied, given him pause; but the sad suspicion intensified as details aroused disused powers before the day faded.
He tested his theory with a composition so screeching his housekeeper fled garden-ward. And when he received the delighted smile, heard the praise, he laid the Stradivarius aside and came to sit beside his friend.
For a moment their eyes communicated silently. Then dismay and embarrassment surfaced over perfunctory applause, and his heart sank. The hesitation, the attention and consideration of his words, the imperviousness to the clamour of sea-gulls that kept even him awake – each had played in his correct deduction, but the triumph tasted bitter.
He knew, and Watson knew that he knew.
"How bad?" he asked gently.
"It may improve…" Watson sighed at his look, and continued. "Not very…if you are in close proximity," he murmured, eyes downcast.
He could hear the despair, grief, acceptance in the modulated admittance, and thrice cursed the War and the sacrifices it had cost all of them.
"Well then." He waited until the Doctor had again made eye contact, and hoped his soul could be heard clearer than his words. "We shall simply have to make sure I remain that way, now won't we?"