"John?" Sally stepped forward examining the man in front of her, "John Watson is that really you?" The haggard blonde man in front of her clearly hadn't shaved in several days, but the piercing blue eyes were there.

He seemed to be thinking about running off but sighed instead and ran a black hand through his wild hair, "Yeah its me Sally, but can we talk somewhere out of the way?"

"Sure, there's an alley right over there." Sally let him lead the way since she wasn't sure he wouldn't disappear the instant she looked away.

John leaned against the rough brick wall, hissing slightly when he accidently ran a hand down it.

"John, how are you here?" Sally reached forward hesitantly wondering if the man was really there, "They had footage that you jumped, we all thought you had killed yourself."

"I tried to Sally, I really did, but somehow I survived." John examined his hand and spoke to himself, "It's no wonder my paws hurt when I run."

"What?" Sally inched closer to see what he was looking at, only to flinch away in horror, "My God John, your hands are ripped up and there are burns all over them, what the hell happened to you?"

"I saved a couple of kids in a fire, got all cut up cause of the debris." John sighed, "I really should clean them soon."

Sally nodded, "I tell you what, stay here and I'll go get a first aid kit."

"All right, I promise I'll be right here." John leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes as she all but ran for a kit.

While Sally was getting the kit from the trunk of her car she thought about how different John seemed now. His appearance had never been so haphazard, she'd never seen the man so scruffy or so dirty. It was as if he had let himself go completely wild. The only thing about his appearance that truly had remained the same was his eyes.

The fierce determination and almost dominating look in his eyes was still there, despite the tired lines around his eyes that were darker and larger than ever.

She got back to John's side in record time, "Here, I got a full kit plus I have protein bar and a bottle of water."

"Great, set it on that crate over there for me will you?" John motioned towards a tall wooden packing crate a little farther down the alley.

"Sure," Sally sat the kit down and pulled out the antibacterial wipes, "give me your hands and I'll clean them up." She watched John's expression change rapidly from surprise to resignation.

"I can do it myself."

"Not with both hands messed up you can't." Sally placed her hands on her hips and leveled her very best, I'm going to have my way, look at him.

John reluctantly held out both hands, "Just be gentle, and no band aids please, gauze only if you must."

"I'll be gentle, I promise." Sally took his left hand by the wrist and tenderly started cleaning each cut and burn.

"So what are you doing here of all places?" She'd known sooner or later he'd ask that question and she sighed.

"Long story short a bit after the whole fiasco with Sher-him, it came out that he was actually innocent and as one of his main accusers I was...transferred here." Sally could still feel the bitter sting from when she received her transfer papers.

"Ah." She looked up to see John's expression become even sadder, "I'm sorry Sally."

"Why? It's my fault that he, did what he did in the end." Sally hung her head as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, "And when I heard you had jumped, well, I realized London had lost not only one, but two great men." Her voice was so very soft towards the end of her sentence that John had to lean forward to hear her.

"Its not your fault Sally, you were just doing your job, albeit you were a bit nasty about it at times."

"I know, and if I could do it over again knowing what I know now I would do things differently." Sally looked up to see John's sad eyes fixed on hers.

"We all would if we had known." He spoke softly, "I was shattered after he jumped, so I decided to jump as well, I had no reason to keep living."

Sally finished cleaning his left hand and moved on to the right using a clean wipe, "None of us realized how badly affected you were John, someone would have helped you if we had known."

"There wasn't anything anyone could have done." John sounded resigned and tired as though he had been wrestling with his inner demons for too long.

She felt John tense as she pulled a nasty splinter out of his hand, "The good news is we're almost done here Doc." She flashed him a small smile of reassurance.

"Thanks, do you know how to dress it and wrap it?" John smiled back softly.

"Yes sir, I learned some first aid in basics."

"Good, everyone should know some first aid." John nodded approvingly as she spread ointment on his hands and wrapped them in soft gauze then a heavier wrap.

"There, good as its going to get." Sally gathered up her trash and opened the bottle of water for him.

"Thanks." John drank half of the bottle in one gulp.

"So what now?"

John looked at her seriously, "I need you to not say anything to anyone about me being alive."

"Why? You could go back to London, I'm sure it wouldn't take much to get you back into a comfortable living environment."

"No, that's not what I want right now." John shook his head.

"Well what do you plan on doing then?" Sally raised an eyebrow, curious as to the blonde's plan.

"I'm going to vanish again, go vigilante, maybe save a few lives and knock a few heads." John gave her a dark grin, "It should be more fun than sitting in an office all day taking care of sniveling people."

Sally couldn't help the shudder that ran down her spine at those words, the friendly John Watson she and the rest of the police force had known had changed into a much colder, harder man.

Something must have shone in her expression because he said, "Yes Sally, I'm different now, but no I'm not a psycho, I promise." John laughed hollowly, "I do need you to promise you won't tell anyone I'm alive though."

"I won't tell anyone," this time she sighed, "I swear, the fact that you're alive will go with me to my grave if it must."

He nodded sharply, "Thank you Sally Donovan, we may not have always seen eye to eye but you can be counted on to keep a promise."

She shrugged, "I was raised that way."

"I need to leave now though, and you should get back to your job." John's gentle reminder that she had a job she was supposed to be doing made her turn around for just a moment to see if anyone was looking for her, but when Sally spun back around the man was gone like the wind.

She noticed the protein bar was gone, along with the bottle of water, and just a little ways from where John had been there was one giant paw print.