AN: This one is a 221B, and a missing scene for "The Empty House."
Written: 10-27-12
Prone
Rarely had a man cursed himself so thoroughly in the history of Britain, much less so furiously that the one who ought to have been saying the words would have scolded him for being too hard on himself. The latter fact simply drove him to panicked distraction, however, and he was later in an abstract way grateful that the source of his anguish had been prone in his arms.
Because of him.
As Holmes carefully laid his best friend on the floor, he cursed a thousand times his flair for the inconsiderate, thoughtless dramatic that had lain his self-professed hardened army doctor flat on the floor without a sound, besides a strangled gasp which reminded him far too much of that of a dying victim from a past case.
His doctor. He had far too long shoved away any thought of his friend, his constant comrade of years past, in fear of the inevitable pain every thought of those two syllables brought to him.
Watson.
He might never forgive himself for those years of ill-conceived deception…
"I'm so sorry,"he whispered, and his acquaintances would have stared at the raw emotion evident in his voice as Holmes helplessly tended the friend in his arms, heedless of his surroundings and mourning the loss of those three years as bitterly as a brother.