I is for [Requiescat] In Pace
Jun. 12th, 2025 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapiTitle: I is for [Requiescat] In Pace
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Notes: Angst, part 5 of Time Loop: Reichenbach, set during "The Final Problem, this is a linked series of ficlets in which Watson relives Reichenbach based on theories collated in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes about what happened on that day.
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson
Prompt: acidic
Warning: Major Character Death
Summary: Watson wakes up on 4 May 1891 in Switzerland with Holmes (for the fifth times) and elects not to accompany Holmes to the Falls.
“Watson.”
“Watson!”
“WASTON!”
I did not want to open my eyes, but I did so. There was an acidic bile which rose in my throat and threatened to choke me.
And I was tired, so very tired.
“So sorry to knock you up, my dear man. Are you ready for our walk to Rosenlaui? With the detour recommended by our good landlord?”
Tired.
How could I tell him that I had lived this day five times before? How could I say that Moriarty had been, by turns, imaginary, innocent, and the Devil incarnate? How could I say that once, he, Holmes, had been indurate to commit cold, premeditated murder? He would call me a madman, which was no less than what I deserved.
But what fresh hell await me if I rose and went with him?
Tired.
“I cannot, Holmes.”
He had a strange look in his eyes, but he made no protest. He said simply, “As you wish.”
I closed my eyes and listened to him move about the room. I was unprepared for the brush of lips against my temple and the soft ‘Good-bye, my friend.’
Unshed tears stung like acid.
The door closed. And moments later, I heard the fainter sound of another door closing.
In the still silence, I interrogated myself.
Who was James Moriarty?
Who was Sherlock Holmes?
What exactly happened on the fourth of May 1891 at the Reichenbach Falls?
Each question fell like a drop of something caustic or something hot, a drop of wax or an ember or a chemical solution which ate everything it touched.
And I had no answers.
How long I laid there, I did not know. I may have slept, but if so, my sleep was fitful and short and could not be given the name ‘rest’ in any language
Then, in a sudden flash, I got up, put on my boots, and hurried out.
Rushing as fast as I could I followed in Holmes’ footsteps, but halfway to the Falls, I was stopped by a lad.
He bore a message for me about a dying Englishwoman. I cursed him and hurried on.
And found the note. And the cigarette case. And the walking stick.
And no one else.
I returned to the Englischer Hof a shell of a man.
Sometime later, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to Peter Steiler the elder looking as sober and somber as he had probably ever appeared in his life.
“Herr, they have found him. And another.”
I identified both bodies though I had only seen one briefly and from the window of a departing train. I heard the voice of Mycroft Holmes in my head.
“Doctor Watson, if you find yourself in need of funds, you may resurrect my brother and continue his legacy. It is what he would’ve wanted.”
I could not imagine such a thing, but I did not say so.
Instead, I went to sleep and prayed that the day would restart once more.
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Notes: Angst, part 5 of Time Loop: Reichenbach, set during "The Final Problem, this is a linked series of ficlets in which Watson relives Reichenbach based on theories collated in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes about what happened on that day.
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson
Prompt: acidic
Warning: Major Character Death
Summary: Watson wakes up on 4 May 1891 in Switzerland with Holmes (for the fifth times) and elects not to accompany Holmes to the Falls.
“Watson.”
“Watson!”
“WASTON!”
I did not want to open my eyes, but I did so. There was an acidic bile which rose in my throat and threatened to choke me.
And I was tired, so very tired.
“So sorry to knock you up, my dear man. Are you ready for our walk to Rosenlaui? With the detour recommended by our good landlord?”
Tired.
How could I tell him that I had lived this day five times before? How could I say that Moriarty had been, by turns, imaginary, innocent, and the Devil incarnate? How could I say that once, he, Holmes, had been indurate to commit cold, premeditated murder? He would call me a madman, which was no less than what I deserved.
But what fresh hell await me if I rose and went with him?
Tired.
“I cannot, Holmes.”
He had a strange look in his eyes, but he made no protest. He said simply, “As you wish.”
I closed my eyes and listened to him move about the room. I was unprepared for the brush of lips against my temple and the soft ‘Good-bye, my friend.’
Unshed tears stung like acid.
The door closed. And moments later, I heard the fainter sound of another door closing.
In the still silence, I interrogated myself.
Who was James Moriarty?
Who was Sherlock Holmes?
What exactly happened on the fourth of May 1891 at the Reichenbach Falls?
Each question fell like a drop of something caustic or something hot, a drop of wax or an ember or a chemical solution which ate everything it touched.
And I had no answers.
How long I laid there, I did not know. I may have slept, but if so, my sleep was fitful and short and could not be given the name ‘rest’ in any language
Then, in a sudden flash, I got up, put on my boots, and hurried out.
Rushing as fast as I could I followed in Holmes’ footsteps, but halfway to the Falls, I was stopped by a lad.
He bore a message for me about a dying Englishwoman. I cursed him and hurried on.
And found the note. And the cigarette case. And the walking stick.
And no one else.
I returned to the Englischer Hof a shell of a man.
Sometime later, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to Peter Steiler the elder looking as sober and somber as he had probably ever appeared in his life.
“Herr, they have found him. And another.”
I identified both bodies though I had only seen one briefly and from the window of a departing train. I heard the voice of Mycroft Holmes in my head.
“Doctor Watson, if you find yourself in need of funds, you may resurrect my brother and continue his legacy. It is what he would’ve wanted.”
I could not imagine such a thing, but I did not say so.
Instead, I went to sleep and prayed that the day would restart once more.