"What a very... attractive woman."

"Was she? I hadn't noticed."

Those were the last words exchanged before Holmes had fallen into a deep slumber. Now, he approached his friend with some concern. He touched his friend's elbow gently. "Watson?"

His friend shuddered, startled. "Huh? Holmes, what is it?"

"Good Lord, man, what's the matter with you? For a moment I thought you'd perished here at the window. I've been asleep for hours, and here you are, in the exact same position I left you in. You didn't answer me when I called. Come away from there, Watson, Mrs. Hudson has brought us some lunch."

Watson did, mumbling something about smoking and thinking. Holmes didn't comment on it further, only droned on about some experiment he was going to complete later while they ate.

"Watson? Watson, you're not listening," Holmes accused.

"Hmm? What was that?"

"It's of no consequence," Holmes replied stroppily, waving his hand through the air.

"Oh. That's just as well, then… did you hear her, Holmes? How she spoke of the treasure? I've never met a more virtuous woman. For that matter, I'm not sure I've ever known anyone, man or woman, who wouldn't be upset that the treasure was gone. Your own good self excluded, of course."

"I suppose," Holmes replied flippantly.

"And her eyes when she thanked us. It was as if we'd actually done something for her besides expose her to potential danger, lose her treasure, and give Athelney Jones credit for making an arrest."

Holmes shrugged, finishing his food and standing. He stretched himself out like a cat, his fingers wide and back arched. Then, he shook himself out and readdressed Watson. "She did thank us, didn't she? I can't remember. It's of no consequence to me, however. I took her case for its own sake, not for thanks."

"Of course not," Watson murmured, "but the way she looked at me, was it only gratitude?"

Holmes looked at him oddly and didn't answer because Watson wasn't quite looking at him back.

"We did protect her, I suppose" Watson continued, speaking more to himself then to anyone. "She was in danger. She was scared. To take advantage of the fact that I protected her and she was grateful to me wouldn't be right…" he nodded to himself as if he'd made up his mind about something. He rose, not acknowledging Holmes, and went to his room.

Holmes watched after him for a moment before shrugging and turning his attention to his experiment. Later that night after presumably having taken a nap after an exhausting night of nearly getting themselves killed, Watson came back into the living room to eat. Holmes ignored the food in favor or science and only half noticed as Watson finished and tried to offer him some. Watson soon gave up on the attempt and sat in his chair to read, but Holmes noticed his friend was distracted.

"Watson?" he said after some time had passed and he'd gained the reaction he'd been looking for.

"Hmm?"

"Help me clean this?"

"Of course," Watson agreed, because he was far too amiable a flatmate when it came to helping Holmes clean messes which he himself had no part in creating. The two of them cleaned Holmes' beakers and ensured his chemicals were properly put away as Holmes explained his experiment once more.

"I don't think I shall sleep tonight," Holmes sighed as they were finishing. "That nap I had today has sustained me for some time. I will do my best to stay quiet however. Goodnight, my friend."

"Goodnight, Holmes," Watson said.

"Oh and Watson?"

"Yes?"

Holmes raised his fingers to his lips in that peculiar way that he liked to do when he was thinking. "I may not understand these things," he said softly, "but Ms. Morstan is gone home, not disappeared. You can see her again."

Watson looked back at him steadily. "You're right, Holmes," he replied softly. "You don't understand." He turned, then, and went to his room.

They didn't discuss Ms. Morstan again, not even on the day her obituary appeared in the paper, but each knew the other had seen and read it. She had since married a man named Henry Jackson, and was survived by him and her two sons: the eldest, Henry, and her youngest, John. That was last they heard of Mary Jackson nee Morstan, and the last they ever would.

They never knew that John Jackson was too young when his his mother died to remember her, and so he cherished all that he could get of her. Primarily, he latched onto a certain story called "The Sign of the Four" in which she appeared. The document containing the story was only a manuscript, sent to her by the author in order to obtain her permission to put it in print. She had denied that permission, not out of malice, but out of respect for her new family. She had wanted the past to stay in the past.

The author had respected her wishes and never published it, but he had written other stories since. John read them as well, cherishing each one as being, in a way, connected to his mother. That was why, at the still young age of twenty as a sergeant major in his majesty's army, he paid special attention to an evacuation station near the front lines.

It was his special attention that saved that station during a defeat. And it was that special attention that got him killed. He was buried like so many othersーhis brother includedー in a mass grave on foreign soil far away from the home he loved.

Elsewhere, an old doctor made it home to London and lived the rest of his days in relative peace. He died on a Tuesday. By Wednesday, his belongings had been thoroughly sorted through by scholars who bullied his few beneficiaries into letting them search for unpublished stories of Sherlock Holmes.

They only found one.

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading my story. I hope you have enjoyed it. This story is an imagined continuation of "The Sign of the Four" Granada television episode starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, Edward Hardwicke as Watson, and the legendary John Thaw as Johnathan Small.

The scene where Hardwicke's Watson watches out the window as the woman he clearly cares for walks away from him forever is simply heartbreaking. Harwicke's acting and the fact that Watson gets to marry her in the canon but can't in the show combine to make one of the most memorable scenes from the show (also, Holmes just kind of casually wanders a rooftop and waves at Watson like 'look at me! aren't you proud?' in this one, so that's memorable too!).

Currently, the episode is available to watch on YouTube. If you've never seen Brett as Holmes, do yourself a favor and check it out :)

To my Dear Faithful Reader: I know this isn't quite an answer to your prompt, but this is what your prompt sparked for me. So, I suppose my answer would be if the Sign of the Four didn't happen, it would have, just later, and Watson would have let Mary go. Any other prompts? I hope you enjoyed.