1. Child
When the young girl fell asleep in the doctor's arms, Holmes could only frown that fate had denied his friend even the possibility of children.
2. Now
The Irregulars quickly learned which tasks were urgent and which could wait until they had begged a treat from Mrs. Hudson.
3. Shadow
A shadow and a whisper of movement were his only warnings.
4. Goodbye
They stood silently at the station, each hoping that this goodbye would not be final.
5. Hide
That keen gaze could hardly fail to note the man trying to hide in the bushes nearby, but it was the doctor that called the warning.
6. Fortune
He would never be rich, he thought as he left the Irregular's headquarters, but he would rather be useful than rich any day.
7. Safe
The door locked behind them, and he finally relaxed.
8. Ghost
He knew better, of course, but that knowledge did not make spending another night in an eerie graveyard any better.
9. Book
He could think of no better way to spend a quiet evening than with a book by the fire.
10. Eye
There was nothing wrong with his eyes, but something was wrong with his eyes.
11. Never
For all his eccentricities and despite his lack of social niceties, there were some things even he would never do.
12. Sing
The voice captivated him, and he wished they had the time to sit and listen.
13. Sudden
He barely avoided colliding with the oblivious detective when his friend stopped in the middle of the path.
14. Stop
Only after a very specific retribution did some of the derisive comments taper off.
15. Time
It was the one thing of which they never had enough.
16. Wash
The Irregulars' idea of a wash involved a heavy rainstorm and a full gutter.
17. Torn
His flatmate received a lesson on not touching someone else's things the day he returned to find a damaged book.
18. History
One day, she wanted a friendship like theirs—one containing so much history they could speak with looks and gestures.
19. Power
Contacts high in the British government became useful after a less-than-legal information gathering went slightly off plan.
20. Brother
Blood relation was not a prerequisite for that bond.
21. God
Neither were particularly religious, but nor were they able to deny the instinct to pray when something went wrong.
22. Wall
Just because he made it over the first wall did not mean he was willing to jump the second unless absolutely necessary.
23. Naked
For one that so rarely showed any sort of emotion, it was surprisingly easy to read the relief in his gaze.
24. Drive
There were days she was sure she would end up in Bedlam, but there were other days she struggled to fathom how she had lived without her lodgers.
25. Harm
In the aftermath of an intruder, he was forced to acknowledge that his preferred method of escape might not be as harmless as he had thought.
26. Precious
Time eventually dulled the ache of grief to a fond nostalgia.
27. Hunger
He ignored the hunger twisting his stomach; there was no time to eat.
28. Believe
If his friend believed it, so did everyone else; he used that concept frequently.
29. Ring
Within a day, he felt sure the telephone in the kitchen would drive him mad.
30. Hero
His friend flushed the first time someone described him thus, but Holmes merely grinned.
31. Memory
It took years, but eventually he learned how to remember without falling through time.
32. Box
Watson laughed when the stray kitten not only bolted inside before he could stop her, but then proceeded to make herself comfortable in one of the many boxes Holmes had left lying about the room.
33. Run
A chase of a mile or more would not result in the painfully slow pace his friend set climbing the stairs.
34. Hurricane
When on a case—and sometimes when not—the sitting room frequently looked as if a windstorm had swept through it, tossing papers, files, and books haphazardly around the room.
35. Wings
Watson would go along with almost anything, but he dreaded the day Holmes decided he needed to test the wings he was designing; there was no way they would ever work.
36. Cold
Very few ever saw the true warmth hidden in the stoic detective.
37. Red
When his friend could not find the words to speak, the tips of his ears often spoke for him.
38. Drink
After placing a drink in the trembling hand, he gently placed the fallen telegram on the nearby table.
39. Midnight
It happened many times, but only twice a year did he willingly stay up to see in the new day.
40. Temptation
Even with a key, sometimes the presence of the lock was a strong enough deterrent.
41. View
The view from his room almost dissolved his irritation at the train's cancellation.
42. Music
He relaxed as the voice carried through the floorboards; he would be free shortly.
43. Silk
After the third day of listening to Holmes monologue about a caterpillar, Watson decided an evening at his club was a fine idea.
44. Cover
When he obeyed the order to run, he had not expected the volley of gunfire to sound behind him.
45. Promise
He would forever be willing to aid in the keeping of such a promise.
46. Dream
He fought to leave the sitting room, needing to prove to himself that it had been a dream, not a memory.
47. Candle
The light flickered and died, but he was too deep in thought to notice.
48. Talent
His futile efforts to learn proved that his friend's ability was built more on talent than study.
49. Silence
For the first time in a week, he could hear nothing from the room above.
50. Journey
The first step had been taken; they would finish together.
51. Fire
A blast followed the command, and he jerked awake as the pictures rattled on the walls.
52. Strength
He might not be able to bend an iron poker, but he refused to let his friend fall.
53. Mask
His friend had used one since before they met, but he did not build his own until the long, lonely months after the third death in as many years.
54. Ice
Somehow—without him even realizing it—his flatmate had become his dearest friend.
55. Fall
He breathed a sigh of relief, grateful beyond words that he would see another season at the cottage.
56. Forgotten
Despite his claims to the contrary, the detective's "brain-attic" was not infallible.
57. Dance
He did not know his friend could dance until the wedding.
58. Body
They waited for hours, but he didn't care; dream or no, he would do anything to have his dearest friend back—including try not to get caught staring while sitting in a room on the top floor of an abandoned house.
59. Sacred
The vows he had taken did not require him to abandon his friend; now if he could only convince his friend of that.
60. Farewells
Slowly, time and action showed the detective that "I do" was not the same as "goodbye."
61. World
Three years of travel showed him the true meaning of home.
62. Formal
Even Mycroft never knew why they habitually used last names.
63. Fever
One had been working himself feverishly, and the other had been treating the fever running through the city, but neither of them was the one that did not get out of bed one morning.
64. Laugh
It was a rare victory to make his stoic friend truly laugh, though it did become more frequent as time went on.
65. Lies
His friend was too honest to lie, so why did that statement ring untrue?
66. Forever
Only when the published cases were still popular decades after their publishing did he realize the gift his friend had given him.
67. Overwhelmed
She stared in silence, wondering if she had finally gone mad.
68. Whisper
Even a whisper was deafening when one could communicate with a glance.
69. Wait
Few things were harder than waiting for news.
70. Talk
Travel taught him the necessity of the spoken word—at least in certain topics and times.
71. Search
His search had taken him through most of London and the surrounding cities, but the reaction was worth it.
72. Hope
After nearly a week, he was beginning to wonder if they would ever find him.
73. Eclipse
Even the detective was speechless when they happened to be in the right place at the right time to see a rare solar eclipse.
74. Gravity
Of all the things Holmes tried to test, Watson was grateful gravity was not among that number.
75. Highway
The fastest travel felt like walking when all he wanted—needed—was to know his friend was alright.
76. Unknown
The unpredictable was always the most dangerous.
77. Lock
He was sure that after this incident, he would find himself forced to practice picking locks rather more frequently.
78. Breathe
He coughed, desperately trying to draw a full breath through the heaviness in his chest.
79. Anniversary
He was sick the first year, and he tried to close himself in his room the second, but Holmes breathed a faint sigh of relief when the third year after Mary's death, Watson not only willingly came down to the sitting room, but spoke more than he had in days.
80. New Year's
He would have preferred to toast the new year from their normal place by the fire, but he should have known better to think they would be able to do that every year.
81. Halloween
He had grown up treating the last day of October as a day of pranks just like the first of April, but apparently Holmes had not, judging by the confusion contained in that surprised stare.
82. Firsts
On a hot day in July, it was not until he happened to glance at a calendar just after noon that he understood why his flatmate has been out all day.
83. Middles
Holmes still refused to eat during a case, but detouring past a café on the way to the witness' house was at least a start.
84. Lasts
If only it did not take something drastic to change the stubborn detective's mind, Watson thought.
85. Nostalgia
Years passed before he could look at that watch with nostalgia.
86. Rendezvous
"Sorry I'm late," he said as he hurried towards his friend, "but you will never believe who I ran into on the way here."
87. Death
His return trip from Switzerland passed in a haze, and the weeks following were hardly any clearer.
88. Life
Slowly, the old spark rekindled in his friend's eyes.
89. Birthday
His lockpicking skills were put to the test in his search for his friend's birthday.
90. Wedding
Mary only laughed at the disruption; she had known all along what to expect.
91. Spring
Major events tended to happen in the spring, he noticed, so the news, while certainly unwelcome, was no great surprise.
92. Summer
Of all the years he had lived in the cottage, that summer was the longest.
93. Fall
When the cooler weather forced him to retreat indoors, he found ample diversion in watching his new flatmate.
94. Winter
London did not often get snow, but he thought he might prefer the snow to the ubiquitous, cold rain that seemed to permeate everything with a wet chill.
95. Morning
His east-facing window would have ensured his early rising even if his time in the military did not.
96. Afternoon
The sun reached its zenith and started to sink, and still word had not come.
97. Evening
It was disconcerting just how quickly that had hit.
98. Rebuild
Of all he had imagined that he would do after he returned, "regaining trust" was not one of them.
99. Visit
More than once, subterfuge had been required to prevent Watson from returning to London too quickly.
100. Student
He continually tried to learn his friend's methods, never knowing just how much his friend learned from him.