Title: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Morning
Author: </a></b></a>tripleransom 
Rating: G
Universe: ACD
Characters: John Watson
Summary: Watson reaches a decision, but will Holmes welcome the renewal of their old friendship?

Author's Note:  ARGH.  I'm a day off.  Somehow, I was convinced my day was Saturday.  My apologies.  Here is my ficlet anyway, which will be continued on my second posting day.  (assuming I can remember to do it correctly!)

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Morning

 

I crumpled up yet another abortive story attempt and threw it in the general direction of the grate and sighed, wearily scrubbing my hands over my face.  The house was quiet - too quiet - and I was getting nowhere with trying to write.  Reaching a decision at last, I pulled a telegraph form to me, addressed it,  and scribbled a few quick words. 

Have you holiday guests?. If not, may I come? 

JW

Hastily, I rang the bell for Susan before I could change my mind.  

When she appeared, I handed her the form and told her to have it sent immediately.  She curtsied and left with it. 

I poured myself another drink and awaited the reply with some trepidation. 

Some hours later, Susan reappeared at the door with a telegram on the tray.  "Your reply, sir," she said and handed it to me.  I looked at the envelope for several minutes before I screwed up the courage to open it.

Come at once [it read] Train arrives ten o'clock am weekdays

SH

*********

I had not seen Holmes more than  a handful of times in the several years since his retirement to the Sussex Downs and my subsequent remarriage.  He had been invited to the wedding, of course, and had duly arrived, shaken my hand, kissed Emmaline's hand and departed.   Oh, we corresponded occasionally and I had not meant to let the time go by, but there was Emmaline to consider and there always seemed to be some demands on my time that prevented me from going down to the country. 

Having made the break, Holmes seemed not to wish to return to London at all, except on the infrequent occasion when he had some urgent business to conduct.  We met for lunch, but our old easy cameraderie was missing.  We seemed uneasy with each other, as if we were nothing more than polite acquaintances fulfilling some social duty.   

In the old days, our conversations had been free-ranging, covering any and all topics that came to Holmes's brilliant mind.  Now, there seemed to be so many subjects that both of us shied away from.  It made for stilted encounters that devolved into banal small talk and trended to awkward silences.  I mourned the loss of our old easy friendship, but I could not think of any way to regain it.  When we parted, we always pledged not to make it so long until the next time, but the times between meetings grew longer rather than shorter.

Then a telegram came from Holmes at a time when I happened to be away from the house and Emmaline somehow misplaced it.  When she remembered it, the time for our meeting had passed.  Torn between loyalties, I was loath to try and explain to Holmes what had happened and so the distance between us became a yawning chasm.

In any case, Holmes seemed happy enough with his new life and I began to think that he missed me not at all.  I certainly missed him - fiercely at first, then with a sort of steady slow ache, like the pain from a missing limb that never quite went away.  Marriage, I found - at least to Emmaline - was no sort of substitute for the companionship I had lost.

In the beginning, I had optimistically hoped that she and Holmes might at least tolerate each other, or form some alliance as he and Mary eventually had, but that hope was dashed at the wedding when they took each other's measure at a glance and the hostility was as plain as if battle flags had actually been waved.  Emmaline eventually began  to resent my continued publication of our adventures together, even though the resulting revenue formed a large part of our income.   It was that which drove the first wedge between us, although I suppose our separation was inevitable in any case. 

Eventually, Emmaline, no doubt weary of my tendency to live increasingly for my writing - for there, at least, I could re-live some of Holmes's and my vanished closeness -  announced that she was leaving for an extended visit to her relatives in America.  Neither of us was under any illusions that she really intended to return.  With myself as the sole occupant, I found the house too quiet and as the Christmas season approached, I grew increasingly low in spirits, until finally, driven to desperation, I chanced it all on a telegram to Holmes.

***************

So it was that I found myself, suitcase in hand, standing on a deserted platform in the small hamlet of Eastbourne,  watching my train disappear into the wooded landscape and wondering if I had made a colossal mistake. 

 

TBC…

So the subject of apocafic came up the other day and it got me to thinking about angst in general. I know there's plenty of that to go around in the Holmes 'verse, but I don't remember specifically any apocafic. Can anyone recommend something? Or superangst in general? I know there's Alone on the Water from BBCSherlock, but what else?

Just please, nothing based on Elementary. I can't deal with that show. As always, my heart really belongs in 1895.

Is there anyone still in the Buffyverse on my flist? This is the one I dredged up from remote storage. It's a riff on Neville Shute's On the Beach - very well-written, angsty, and romantic. I was pleased to see that http://www.allaboutspike.com is still out there and available.

Here's the direct link to the fic: http://www.allaboutspike.com/fic.html?id=132 It's called The Last Summer and it's by Annie Sewell-Jennings.

Title: The Food of Love
Author: tripleransom
Fandom: ACD Canon
Word Count: 560
Rating: PG
Summary: Holmes plays, Watson listens.
A/N: For JWP 31 - Once More With Feeling. I would like to revisit this prompt at a later date when I have more time. Seems like there is a real story here, but for now, this is what there is.

The Food of Love
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Title: What is so Rare?
Author: tripleransom
Fandom: ACD Canon
Word Count: 326
Rating: G
Summary: Watson attempts to write the story of Holmes's death
A/N: For JWP 28. After several humourous prompts (and yesterday's Epic Fail) today's prompt brings another visit from the Angst Fairy.
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Title: For No Man
Author: tripleransom
Fandom: Ritchie
Word Count: 180
Rating: G
Summary: There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. But what if you miss it?
A/N: For JWP 20 - Turn of the tide. Wow, the Angst Fairy seems to have snuck into the Rabbit Hole 'verse.
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Title: Unreliable?
Author: tripleransom
Fandom: ACD Canon
Word Count: 60
Rating: G
Summary: Unreliable? Maybe just discreet.
A/N: For JWP 18. I struggled with this prompt, so a 60 is all there is.

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Title: The Wedding March - continued
Author: tripleransom
Fandom: ACD Canon
Word Count: 618
Rating: G
Summary: Watson dances with his new wife, but what about Holmes?
A/N: Prompt fill for JWP11. This story continues immediately on from my story at JWP#03.

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Title: The Wedding March
Prompt: #03 A cardboard box: whether it contains human ears or nothing at all, include a cardboard box somewhere in your entry.
Author: tripleransom
Rating: PG-13 (drug use)
Universe: ACD
Characters: Watson, Holmes
Words: 466
Summary: Holmes returns to 221B immediately after Watson's wedding.
A/N: Whoa! The angst fairy stopped by for this one.


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