gayalondiel_bak ([personal profile] gayalondiel_bak) wrote2011-07-23 09:31 pm

Fic: Holmes: WWJ: An Eye For An Eye

Fandom/’Verse: Holmes/canon
Challenge: [livejournal.com profile] watsons_woes July prompts challenge
Title: An Eye For An Eye
Character: Holmes, Watson
Length: 221B drabble
Rating: PG
Spoilers: 3GAR
Warnings: Slightly graphic description of wound complications

Disclaimer: The Holmes characters fall in the public domain and are the creation of the wonderful Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. No ownership is implied or inferred. This is done for love only.

Summary: Tag for 3GAR: Watson’s wound is not as trivial as it first seems.

Master prompt post

July 23: Alternate FINIS




The day after the bullet grazed his thigh, Watson noted that the wound was red and puffy and commented on it to Holmes.

Two days after, he sickened.

Within three days Watson was feverish, sweating and shivering equally. Holmes waited at his bedside, following the instructions given to him when Watson was conscious and reasonably lucid. He bathed the wound frequently, but it was progressing to a greyish violet in places, and blisters were forming. When he pointed this out to Watson the doctor paled further, and requested that he contact a surgeon.

On the fifth day Watson was in the Royal London Hospital. Although he was by now barely aware of his surroundsing, ether was administered until he dropped into a deeper unconsciousness. The bullet wound was debrided, taking with it the surrounding dead and infected purple tissue from skin and deep into the muscle. The rest of the leg was spared.

On the day of the trial Holmes rose early in the upstairs bedroom, collected his revolver and slipped away before Watson could emerge from the room that had once been Holmes’ but now saved him the extra stairs. As the forger was led before the bench, he gripped the cool handle inside his jacket and prepared, as he had promised, to repay Watson’s injury with a return bullet.

[identity profile] rabidsamfan.livejournal.com 2011-07-23 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Ouch. That's grim. Perfectly imaginable, but grim.

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-23 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you :) i'll write him something cheerful... oh, no, I'm not usually nice to Watson. Never mind. poor sod.

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2011-07-23 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
ooooh so grim yet SO well done!

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-23 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Gosh, thank you.

[identity profile] azuhra.livejournal.com 2011-07-23 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh I really like it. Of course I'm a sucker for some much loved angst and added angst to ThreeGar kind of makes my day. Considering the 221B nature of this story, great job with the details of the infection!

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-23 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! Angst is my bread and butter, especially when it comes to Watson. And necrotisinf fasciitis just jumped out at me when I saw the prompt (yes, my brain is a weird place).

[identity profile] cookiefleck.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
This is just my cup of tea.

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 09:13 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks! Although poor Watson may not be happy to hear that...

[identity profile] cookiefleck.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 09:58 am (UTC)(link)
No need for him to know.

He's a BAMF, he can take it (for my endless enjoyment, ha ha).

[identity profile] only-po.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
ohhhh, poor Watson! And yet all too possible and realistic, given the sanitation of the day. (thank you for sparing most of Watson's leg! now he and House will have matching scars)

And Holmes! ohhh, part of me agrees and part of me is yelling, "Don't do it; he's not worth going to jail over!"

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 09:15 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, I have the benefit of knowing what happens next (which did get written in the first draft). Yeah, I didn't want to take his whole leg, if for no other reasons than he wouldn't be able to manage 221B at all then and I didn't have enough words!
ancalime8301: (books-artsy)

[personal profile] ancalime8301 2011-07-24 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
Eep. But at least he kept his leg... now Holmes just has to stay out of jail. :p

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 09:16 am (UTC)(link)
Well, I know what happens next. There might be a follow-up drabble to resolve the question at some point.
ancalime8301: (books-artsy)

[personal profile] ancalime8301 2011-07-24 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh. :)

[identity profile] gardnerhill.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
As long as Holmes is ruthlessly, brutally fair in his version of justice - giving Evans a sting across the thigh and not a mortal wound - it is an eye for an eye.

'Course, a man as clever as Sherlock Holmes could achieve the exact same results with a dirty pin and administering a scratch as the defendant passes him in the hallway. (Always sad and scary to read accounts of those days, before penicillin and anti-tetanus shots: "Grandma pricked her finger while sewing and died of blood-poisoning.")

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 09:18 am (UTC)(link)
Absolutely he would, but neither "dirty pin" not "scratch" begin with B and I needed the impact. ;) Of course, putting his life at risk but not killing him outright, whatever way, might count as eye for eye, depending on your interpretation and how protective of your Watson you are feeling.
methylviolet10b: (thinking)

[personal profile] methylviolet10b 2011-07-24 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
Somehow I don't think Watson is going to be at all pleased about this...

Nicely done.

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 09:19 am (UTC)(link)
Not really. He may be getting a response drabble when I'm a bit less pressed for writing time.

Thank you!

[identity profile] scotlandyarder.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
Oh my... Dark, but completely wonderful.

[identity profile] gayalondiel.livejournal.com 2011-07-24 09:20 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!