A/N: Combining the prompts of days five and six for this one. Also trying something a bit different. :-) High praise as always to mrspencil for inspiring these attempts – I still don't know how you do it!

Prompt 05: From Hades Lord of the Dead – An unexpected birth.

Prompt 06: From Book girl fan – The best and bravest of women.

Life

Darkness has descended and Watson is dreaming;

of sands burned by sunlight and a mist-covered moor.

Comrades lift weapons and he gasps and awakens ...

breathes deep, not an invasion, but fists on a door.

/-/-/

He slips on his dressing gown, descends seventeen steps.

A hysterical urchin falls into the hall.

"Thank heavens!" he cries. "It is you I am after!

Please, Doctor Watson, it is a most urgent call!"

/-/-/

A rough sketch of events is laid out before him;

the boy's mother in labour, yet her baby not due.

Watson quickly dresses and hails for a hansom,

a deep and icy foreboding of what he can do.

/-/-/

The hansom pulls up near the outskirts of London;

a small, brittle building, a woman's moans from within.

Watson nudges the door, fears and instincts confirmed,

life has been taken before it can even begin.

/-/-/

He tends to the mother and consoles the boy,

stays until the wash of dawn envelopes the room.

Leaves with the promise he'll return later that day,

and heads home, sun warming, but his heart deep in gloom.

/-/-/

Memories follow in his footsteps, unbidden;

of brave, darling Mary, eternally sleeping,

as Watson looked on, his world shattered beneath him;

those dark days that followed, the long nights spent weeping.

/-/-/

He reaches Baker Street and stops on the threshold,

painful recollections running deep through his heart.

A beautiful wife, the chance of a family.

Two lives harshly severed,

one before it could start.

End