A/N: Spoilers for S2x3.
Side note: I am so g**damn happy Moffat and Gatiss didn't actually kill Sherlock I just about had a heart attack at the end of the episode. Now—bring on series three.
He hid in the shadow of the tree and watched.
"Stop it," John told his headstone, and Sherlock almost called out, almost ran to John, almost pulled him into a hug (John had introduced him to hugs a few months ago and they were simultaneously suffocating and soothing—an odd juxtaposition).
But he didn't. It wasn't safe—if Moriarity's minions realized he had faked the jump... well.
Putting John, Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade in danger (mostly John, he thought ruefully, but the other two were important as well) was too much.
So Sherlock watched as John talked to his grave and wondered why John was so damn noble and so damn unwilling to believe he was a fake and so damn loyal and how he had ever deserved a friend that was so bloody wonderful.
You could bring him with you, his mind whispered. He would come without a moment's hesitation.
But then John would be In Danger, and that was... well, that was entirely unacceptable.
He's a soldier, he could help, his mind pointed out, and Sherlock shook his head minutely, cutting the thought off midway.
John was simply too important, and as terribly (heart wrenchingly?) miserable as Sherlock was, he could not put John in that position.
John touched his headstone with shaking fingers, and pained, Sherlock furrowed his brow.