Living in the Present

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Title: Living in the Present    
Author: gardnerhill
Form/Wordcount: 400
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson (or Sherlock Holmes & John Watson)
Rating: G
Warnings/Content: None
Summary: Their true gifts to each other cannot be wrapped.
Author’s Notes: For the Holmes Minor December 2016 prompt: Gift


A new ivory stem for a favourite pipe, a set of cufflinks, a leather chequebook, a bottle of wine.

Gifts, some would call such items, these tokens we purchase and wrap and hand to each other on the 25^th of December. They are not our actual gifts.

Only Watson can gauge the value of the gift I give him, but his own to me is immeasurable and never-ending.

It’s not even the few moments in our association when Watson has literally made a gift to me of my life – pushed me to safety just as a villain fired at us, shot a vicious mastiff, dragged me out of a self-induced descent into fatal madness.

It’s the cup of tea he poured and made me drink when I’d been up all night swathed in tobacco smoke and mental blind-alleys, despairing of saving a client’s life.

It’s the sight of him in his chair, cigar in hand, looking up at me with an endearingly puzzled look that nonetheless radiated absolute trust when he let me soliloquise to his wordless presence as I combed out the knots of a case.

It’s the humming over the scratch of his pen in the same room where I cut out my newspaper stories, a combined sound that settles my mind as nothing else does, and bathes me in peace.

It’s his exclamations of wonder at my deductions that lift my heart at even the most sordid crime scenes.

And most of all, above all these others, it was his shouting that cut off my furious rant one day, saying of course he bloody cut the solution strength of my cocaine in half, that after seeing me end the careers of so many other murderers he wasn’t going to stand by and watch me goddamn murder myself, that I was ending this goddamn filthy habit of mine once and for all, with or without his help. That long, horrid, painful year he put me through, and from which I emerged free of my cocaine addiction after over twenty years, is something I can never repay though we both live to a hundred.

So it is that we observe Christmas at 221b, murmuring our thanks as we unwrap a new dressing-gown or a box of chocolates from San Francisco – even as our gratitude for the true gifts we give each other shine from our eyes without a word.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really like the idea of it not being the physical gift which means so much, but the true gifts.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Exactly. (Though I couldn't resist giving them Ghirardelli chocolates!)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Aw. The real reason for the season, 221b style. I especially like the auditory impression of Watson's pen and Holmes's scissors, that's really wonderful.

And so glad to see you in full fluff mode. This year it is so difficult to manage.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

The original white-noise generator - a peaceful day in Baker Street. (There's some places on line that provide background noise for fictional places such as Hogwarts study rooms - and several are for 221b Baker Street, though one uses a typewriter effect rather than a pen-scratch.)

I'm relieved that I can still write some fluffy stuff too. We're gonna need it.

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

I love this idea. Their true gifts to each other are precious and intangible. Second the 'glad to see you in fluff mode'. This has been a tough year for so many people, it seems.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I love that a story that includes a profanity-laced rant about another man's drug addiction counts as "fluffy"!

And I couldn't resist giving them Ghirardelli chocolates for Christmas.

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

Comparatively speaking. At least no one lost a hand. ;)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

*cough*freakin'pirates*cough*

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I was just smiling over your reply to tripleransom ^__^ I suppose it is that acknowledgement of the harsher realities of caring for Holmes that stops the story from being schmaltzy, but paradoxically makes it all the sweeter ^^

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

There's a Russian saying that an enemy will agree, but a friend will argue - and they are absolutely staunch friends to each other (as Mrs. Hudson will attest, banging on the ceiling with her broom at times to tell them to keep the shouting down).

[debriswoman]

Very well put, and a great title:-)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I am pretty chuffed about the title's double meaning.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

"And finally, it takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends, I award 10 points, to Dr John Watson."

So much universal truth in this story! (Christmas is not about things. Real gifts are intangible. True friendship is the greatest gift.)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Exactly - and a gift both enjoy 24/7 every day of the livelong year.