For anyone who can't figure it out, this was set during A Study in Scarlet, near the beginning during the cab ride to the crime scene in Brixton, when Sherlock deduces about John and John asks what people normally say….
Smile
When he was a child, his father left him, his sister, and their mother without a single warning. It was a blow that left a once talkative and happy eight-year-old John Watson very quiet and barely smiling. When he was twelve his mother became severely depressed, so much so that she was moved to a hospital for constant suicide watch, and John and Harriet were put into the care of their uncaring uncle. Harriet was always out with friends, and John had none, so he spent his days alone.
Harriet came home drunk one night with her new girlfriend, Effie, and insisted she be called "Harry" from then on. John decided then and there that he could rely upon no one but himself.
When he was sixteen his mother was well enough to reclaim them, and while Harry was thrilled to have a mother again, it was too late for John. It pleased every party when he became an army doctor, he thought, and was sent far away to Afghanistan. Still, however, it did not please him enough to bring a smile to his face, not when so much suffering and death abounded on the battlefields.
He awoke in a dirty, crowded hospital in the middle of some godforsaken desert, surrounded by moaning and dying soldiers and completely alone. He was wounded, feverish, and in great pain. When he was at last healthy enough to go back to his homeland of England, he discovered that his mother had died while he was away.
Harriet tried to reach out to him, but he had never forgiven her and did not appreciate being her last resort for company in light of her sudden loneliness.
So when he found himself actually grinning for the first time in years, John Watson glanced over at his new companion and suddenly realized that perhaps it wasn't coincidence that they both were looking for a flat mate.
This one is not necessarily my absolute best, I'll admit, but I do have to say that it was written during class today when I was trying to listen to Spanish 1 at the same time. I made it sort of choppy on purpose, too, so that's why it seems that way. Hope somebody enjoyed it, anyway, and there are more coming soon…