Fic: Another blink in time - (2/9)
May. 9th, 2011 03:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anarionAnd here comes the second chapter of 'Another blink in time'. It has a brief glimpse of Sherlock in it. :)
Title: Another blink in time
Author: anarion
Words: 1108
Warnings: angst, dark thoughts,
Pairings : Sherlock/John eventually
Beta: the wonderful
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verityburnsDisclaimer: Sadly the characters are not mine and no money is made (that would be sooo cool!).
Chapter 1 here
Chapter 2
John always thought as a child that if something extraordinary happened to a person, it would be palpable from the moment of awakening, maybe like a slight tingling on your skin.
The day John's life was about to change, however, started like all the other days before – strung like beads on a piece of string – endless days filled with serenity and boredom. He had a memory/dream that night, not usual anymore but not unusual either. It woke him, shaking, before the day had even started, darkness still seething outside his window. He sat on his bed, motionless, and full of grim thoughts until the light came up.
He had to find new quarters soon, because the flat was only temporary and he was going crazy in it. John missed the comradeship of the army, he had always felt comfortable there. Now there were whole days where he did not talk to anybody. But he couldn't afford a flat in London on his pension and he couldn't work because of his hand. He was damaged goods in so many ways.
He had settled into a routine, which he was used to from his time in the army, and which helped to keep the depression at bay. He woke early and left the flat after a sparse breakfast. But since he hated eating alone, always had, he more often than not skipped eating in the morning. He stared at his empty blog while finishing his tea, then he went out, going for walks until his leg ached, sometimes visiting a museum (he loved the British Museum especially), sometimes just sitting in a park thinking, or on the South Bank watching the Thames and the people drift by.
He still had no idea how to find the other one. How do you find something when you don't know what to look for? And while the idea of getting found himself was lovely, what if it didn't work? What if they met and he missed it? Maybe they already had and he did. Or would in the future and he'd not realise until it was too late, opportunity gone. These were the new kind of nightmares John had.
On the day in question he was walking through the park when someone called his name. A face from the past, from before, appeared - Mike Stamford. He asked what happened and John replied that he got shot. Well, he did get shot, but that was clearly the least of what happened to him. Still, not something he could share with Mike.
Mike invited him for coffee and wanted to know how he was doing. John was happy to accept, grateful to see a familiar face and have someone to talk to. It was a bit strange because he was not the same man anymore, but that could easily be said for most of the soldiers who came back. So he told Mike about his problems with finding a flat and/or a flatmate. Apparently Mike already had the same conversation earlier this day and he suddenly looked at John as if seeing inside him, then smiled a knowing smile and told him to come along.
Some time later they entered one of the chemistry labs at Bart's. There was state of the art equipment and in the opposite end of the room stood a man hunched over an experiment. He didn’t seem to belong here, wearing an expensive looking suit and no lab coat.
John wondered why Mike brought him here while he listened to the man asking for a phone. John remembered the fancy one Harry gave him, the one he never used. Whom was he supposed to call?
He offered it to the man, who looked up and seemed to notice John for the first time. His eyes were piercing and John felt suddenly naked. When the man came closer, John noticed that he seemed somewhat ageless, he could be anything between 25 and 35.
He snapped out of his thoughts when the man asked, “Afghanistan or Iraq?” While John was still trying to figure out how he could have known that, the man turned his attention to a woman bringing him coffee. Who the hell was this guy? He apparently had a lot of privileges, ranging from working without proper protective clothing to someone bringing him coffee. Or she might be his girlfriend, going by the very strange lipstick conversation they were having at the moment. And now she left while he was still talking to her. Or wasn’t he? Oh, the question was meant for him? John snapped back to attention and tried to follow the rambling about violins and not talking for days and flatmates... Wait, what?
What was going on here? When did Mike tell him this? Before John got all his senses together, the tall man was explaining how this was all obvious and then stated that he left his riding crop in the mortuary. He what?
John had absolutely no idea what to say to that, at all. So he went with the next best thing that came to his mind and pointed out that he couldn’t just go looking at a flat with a nameless man he knew nothing about, at an unknown adress.
The man then spit out a series of facts about John which he shouldn’t have known, an address and his name – Sherlock Holmes – and left.
Well, that was a fun chat...
Afterwards he tried to get some information out of Mike, who just said that though he might seem a bit strange (not a word John would go with... He’d rather try arrogant, disturbing and mad), he was a decent guy. And then he suggested, again with that somewhat unsettling knowing smile, that John should just go and look at the flat.
John went home and, after checking the text that had been sent from his mobile, he decided to google the man – Sherlock Holmes. The unusual name was strangely fitting.
John looked at his website called The Science of Deduction. Yep, ‘strange’ was definitely not covering it.
Then he pro forma debated with himself if this was a good idea, though he already knew deep inside that he would go. Because, as crazy as the whole meeting had been, Sherlock Holmes had managed to make him think about nothing else than Sherlock Holmes and since that meant not thinking about any of the other things normally inhabiting John’s head, that was a big improvement!
And he was intrigued by the man, no use denying it.
With that thought, John went to bed and slept peacefully and dreamlessly the whole night.
Next chapter here
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 02:15 pm (UTC)I'm intrigued...so he didn't notice any internal longing or weird feeling of familiarity?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 02:32 pm (UTC)Wait and see. *waggles eyebrows*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 03:47 pm (UTC)I can't wait to see how John will know and if Sherlock already knows. This story is like nothing I've read before and I'm really enjoying reading it.
It was fun to be in John's head for the famous meeting. Haha, of course he would be troubled by the riding crop. In a mortuary.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 12:50 am (UTC)more soon so I don't need to use this
no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 10:49 am (UTC)Such an interesting premise, I'm so happy you're writing this story :D
no subject
Date: 2011-05-11 02:04 am (UTC)Re: Another blink in time (2/9)
Date: 2012-01-12 09:45 am (UTC)Well said.
And I appreciate that you highlighted the fact that Sherlock was in a *lab* without protective clothing as something John would notice - dangerous for the clothing, and probably dangerous in avoiding contaminating whatever he was working on.