It was a day before John had the chance to sit down and write his curious new pen pal. In a way he was glad for the time in between, because it gave him time to think of what to write. Unlike Mr. Holmes, he wanted to say something that would intrigue the so-called high-functioning sociopath. Not that he thought he had any hope of that. Once again, after his shift, he retreated to the solitude of his tent to pull out a notebook that was slightly worn around the edges, grabbing a pen out of his pocket before he begins to compose his reply.

~oOo~

Dear Mr. Holmes,

Thank you for your letter, anonymous though it may have seemed to you at the time. I received a few other letters from the same program and you're right, the empty platitudes were impersonal and empty. Your letter made me smile and distracted me from my surroundings, which is what I crave the most, a momentary distraction from the fighting around me.

Right now, I am not a soldier on the front lines. I am Dr. John Watson. Or Captain if you prefer, since that is my proper rank. I am a medical doctor, part of Her Majesty's medical corps. I try and heal the wounded that come back to our camp. And I have had more than one die from their wounds on my table, even if my success rate is higher than others. There has also been more than one young man or woman who I have sent back to England because of their wounds.

I have been in the Army most of my adult life, after medical school of course. I miss London and its rain, its people, the bustle of the city. Hell, I even miss the bloody pollution. But mostly the rain. You're right, it hardly ever rains here, and when it does, the evidence seems to be gone within a few hours, it seems like. Maybe that's just my perception though.

I am interested to know more about you, though. How did you get into drugs? And I have no doubt that it was quite a problem if you are in a facility to help you break it. And how old are you? From your letter I would guess fairly young, but maybe I am just getting so old that everyone sounds young. Heh. Old of mind at least, I would like to think I am not too old physically yet. I know I can't do much from thousands of miles away, but if you want to talk about it, I'm willing to listen. I am a doctor after all.

Not sure what else I could tell you or even how long this letter will take to reach you, but I will loom forward to your reply sometime in the next month. Make sure to let me know how the treatment is going. You can even tell me about others who are there with you, if you like. I suppose I will end this since I've run out of things to say. Feel free to ask me anything, I'll do my best to answer you.

Sincerely,

John Watson

~oOo~

When the letter arrived, Sherlock was holed up in his room, bored and trying not to think about needing something to distract him, even a cigarette at this point, but sadly even those are forbidden. The slightly battered letter with the military return address is delivered to him, making the young brunette stare at it for a few moments. After opening it reading about this Dr. John Watson, Sherlock smirks a little, leaning back in his desk chair, he steeples his fingers in front of him. Oh, yes, this could provide a pleasant distraction, indeed. But before his reply, he has to do a little research on this army doctor, see what he can to turn up, so he pulls out his laptop to log onto the facility's wifi and bring up a search engine. A slow smile spreads over his face before he excitedly mutters, "The Game is on!"

First of all, thank you so much for the amazing response you guys have given me in regards to this idea. You guys rock and you make me want to write more and give you more to (hopefully) enjoy! :D

Unlike a lot of my stories, I'm not paying attention to word counts on this one, so sorry if some chapters are really small and others are larger. I'm truly trying to write them as letters. And I don't know about anyone else, but when writing a letter, I just put in what I put in and it will be as long as it needs to be. :)

I hope you enjoy this as much as the first one. I am aiming at eventual Johnlock, just to make that clear. :) I have a bunch of chapters finished already, but I will only be updating this once a week, on Tuesdays. This chapter is a little early because I don't really have anything else to update tonight, and I wanted to update SOMETHING. :)

I hope you guys enjoy! Reviews/Comments welcome!