The Secret Santa: A Better Ending

I do not own this show at all. Now that that is out of the way please enjoy the story.

Fire split through my shoulder followed by a piercing cry like thunder. My legs gave out under me and I knelt in the hot sand tears of pain burning in my eyes. I held onto my shoulder as Murray ran to save me, but I didn't pay much attention to him. My eyes were on the man that had appeared like a mirage from the heat and sand. William leaned down over me his scarf nearly brushing the wound on my shoulder. His eyes were piercing as ever as he glared down at me pain etched across his features. "You promised you'd come back to me."

I laughed something about it striking me as funny in a way I couldn't describe. I looked at my fingers leaking red onto the golden sands and I looked up at him drinking in the sight of his dark curls, pale skin, and those eyes that sparkled like crystal. A sad smile that broke almost as soon as it appeared touched my lips. "Looks like I lied."

Tears streamed down Sally's face as she put down A Diamond in the Dark. Her fingers tightened on the cover and her breathing grew hard. No! That wasn't how this series was supposed to end! It was supposed to end with the two of them happily married solving crimes and causing trouble until the end of their days! It was not supposed to end with Johanna dead and William Scott alone again! They deserved to be happy! She angrily swiped the tears from her face.

She'd thought that it was a gag at first. She'd finished the copy Sherlock had given her the day after she got it. She thought that it was a prank and Sherlock had gotten her a fake last book. So she'd bought a real copy the day it was released and read it through. The horrible ending that she hated enough to throw the book was the real ending.

Sherlock knew the author. The thought struck her like a lightning bolt. If Sherlock knew the author then it was reasonable that Sherlock would be able to introduce her to Dr. John Hamish and she could tell him exactly why Johanna and William deserved to be together. She could tell him that the ending was wrong and he could fix it, rerelease the book with a happy ending. No not a happy ending a perfect ending, the perfect ending. She picked up her phone and found Freak in the contacts and called Sherlock. The phone barely even had a chance to ring before Sherlock answered. "Hello Donavan."

"Hello Sherlock." She said choosing not to use the word freak and upset him. "I need to talk to Dr. John Hamish."

There was a pause as though he was thinking it over. "Why?"

She nearly shouted but stopped herself and said as calm as she could manage. "I have to talk to him about the ending to A Diamond in the Dark."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone before Sherlock spoke. "Ah you're upset about the last chapter where Johanna is shot."

"You know how it ends?" Sally asked unable to picture Sherlock reading a book that wasn't a true crime novel or a textbook.

He sighed and she could just picture him with the same expression he got when someone asked something he found stupid on a crime scene. "I've read all of them. Though I find them to be heavily romanticized nonsense, but then John was always a romantic. Now why should I introduce you to John?"

"I'll owe you." She said desperately hoping that that would be enough. "I'll do whatever you want just let me talk to John and explain why it can't end like that."

There was silence on the end for a minute before she heard a sigh. "I'll call you back."

Sherlock hung up and she waited anxiously for the answer. Five of the longest minutes of her life passed before the phone rang and as soon as she had it in her hand she had it pressed against her ear waiting for the answer.

"Seven at Angelo's tell the waiter you're meeting John, not John Hamish, just John. Dress casually." Sherlock said before he hung up again.

Sally nearly jumped up and down in excitement. She was going to meet John Hamish in person and she only had an hour to get ready. It took her nearly that long just to find the perfect outfit and by the time she was ready she had to run so that she wasn't late. She got into a cab nearly bouncing in her seat as they drove to Angelo's. She ran out of the cab the second she paid only to stop at the door as nerves struck. What if Dr. John Hamish hated her? What if he said her idea was horrible? What if she couldn't convince him that William Scott and Johanna Striker deserved happiness? But what if he listened to her and they got their happy ending? She took a deep breath deciding to go through with it and opened the door.

A waiter came up to her and she smiled nervously. "I'm here to see John."

"You must be Donavan. Right this way." He led her to a table right by the door and she took a seat in the chair across from the window.

"John should be here soon, would you like anything to drink?" He asked as he handed her a menu.

"I'll just have water." She said though she normally had wine with Italian food. She didn't want to be tipsy when she met Dr. John Hamish. She was too busy staring out the window looking for John Hamish to see him leave.

A woman in a bland oatmeal jumper came in the door and was led to sit across from Sally. Sally stared at her for a moment as she was offered and accepted her usual. Sally gave her order of chicken parmesan even as she stared wide eyed at the woman sitting across from her. She wanted to say something but waited until the waiter had left to say it. "Who are you? I don't mean to be rude or anything but I'm here to meet someone else."

"Dr. John Hamish, I know." The woman across from her said. "That's me."

Sally felt her brain take a little vacation before it started working again. "You! You are Dr. John Hamish, but you're a woman!"

"It's a pen name. My real name is Dr. Johanna Watson, but I've always gone by John and I would prefer it if you called me John." She pulled a pen and a notebook from her jacket and signed it Dr. John Hamish."

She handed the signature over to Sally. "Here you can compare it to the one's you already have."

She pulled one of the books out of her purse and compared the signatures. They were exactly the same.

"Johanna doesn't die in 'A Diamond in the Dark'. Sherlock said that that's what you're upset about." John said casually. "There's going to be another book but I don't have the material for it just yet. Sherlock and I haven't gone on any adventures since my return. I've been too busy with physical therapy to join him."

"Sherlock is William Scott, but William and Johanna are married!" Sally shouted her hands flinging out as though to express the impossibility of it.

John sighed as though she had suspected that that would be brought up and was still disappointed when it happened. "William Scott is based on my husband Sherlock Holmes; in fact all of the books are based on our adventures. I had to change the names and places of them, but they did happen."

Sally just stared at her blankly her brain trying to piece together a world where Sherlock Holmes was the hero of her favorite romantic novel series. Her brain went into emergency mode when she realized that Sherlock knew that he was the leading man in her favorite romantic novels. It practically broke when she realized that she had a crush on the literary version of Sherlock Holmes and he'd practically told her that he was William Scott at the Christmas party. She would never live this down.

Thank yous to everyone, who read, reviewed, followed, and/or favorited and Special Thanks to Amichalap.