Ficlet: The Needle

[daylyn]

Title: The Needle
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Pairing: Holmes/Watson (preslash or implied)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Drug use
Disclaimer: Not mine, although actually in the public domain. No profit is intended.

Author’s Note: This is written for the Holmesslash Yahoo group Friday Fives prompt: Five times Holmes tried to kick his cocaine habit, with rather scary results. This doesn’t have five times and the results aren’t really scary, but it is about angsty drug addiction.

Summary: With Watson gone, Holmes’ drug use consumes him.


The Needle

The needle calls me. Watson would say I was being foolish. He would tell me that I should fight my dependency and reject that sinister narcotic. But Watson is not here; he’s off to his new and happily married life. I remain behind, alone with my bleak thoughts. And the needle calls me.

I tried, I truly did, to put it all behind me. I could see his grief each time I succumbed, his silent agony at my craving. He could no longer watch, he said, as I destroyed my life. And I would stop – for a day, a week, a case. But in the end, I suppose, the lure of the needle was stronger than the regard for my friend.

And now Watson is gone and I am alone. There is no sense, no purpose, no distraction from the terrible and all-consuming call of the needle. There is no friend to share my rooms, my life. I am amazed at how much I depended on him, how much I needed him, how much I valued him, now that he is well and truly gone.

Without conscious thought the needle is in my arm, the plunger depressed, the narcotic dancing through my vein. I lay back, welcoming it, allowing it to ravage my body and calm my mind. It is all I have left in the world.

Comments

[spikejem.livejournal.com]

Ouch. That last paragraph killed me. Also the "terrible and all-consuming call of the needle." Well done.

Very angsty indeed. Hope your creative juices keep flowing; you're really on a roll!

[sherlock2040.livejournal.com]

poor Holmes... I hope Watson comes back quickly and rescues him. Great drabble :D

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you. There's nothing like a little bit of late-night angst inspiration -- I just had to get this drabble down.

Hope your creative juices keep flowing

Me too!

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *pets Holmes* It will all be OK... Watson will come back... er... someday.

Glad you liked my late night ramblings. :-)

[cs-whitewolf.livejournal.com]

Ah, such beautifully handled angst. I take it this is all very canon then? The drug use and Watson's leaving/marrying? (You'll have to excuse my newbie status here :))

I enjoyed reading this, thanks for sharing!
Peace,
Campapse

Holmes/Watson canon angst reply - part 1

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

Following is a rather long answer to your simple question (encompassing two reply comments). The bottom line is that there is a lot of wonderful angst potential in Sherlock Holmes canon.

I take it this is all very canon then? The drug use and Watson's leaving/marrying?

Yes (although Watson leaving because of Holmes’ drug use is certainly an interpretation). Holmes definitely had a cocaine (and morphine) habit, and Watson gets married and moves out, although it’s assumed that his wife died during The Hiatus (more on that later).

The Sign of Four (the second Holmes story published) begins with Watson complaining to Holmes about his drug use:

… I suddenly felt I could hold out no longer.

“What is it to-day,” I asked, “morphine or cocaine?”

…

“It is cocaine,” he said, “a seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?”

“No, indeed,” I answered brusquely…

…

“But consider!” I said earnestly. “Consider the cost! Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is a pathological and morbid process which involves increased tissue-change and may at least leave a permanent weakness. You know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you….”

It’s interesting to note that cocaine and morphine were both perfectly legal at the time the stories were written, yet Watson is quite vehemently opposed to the drugs and the damage they were doing to Holmes.

At the end of this story, Watson is engaged to their client, Mary Morstan, and Holmes states:

”I feared as much,” said he. “I really cannot congratulate you.”

The story ends with Holmes succumbing to cocaine again:

”The division seems rather unfair,” I remarked. “You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?”

“For me,” said Sherlock Holmes, “there still remains the cocaine bottle.” And he stretched his long white hand up for it.

So, yes, Holmes’ drug use is definitely an issue. In canon. Oh, the angst!

There’s a bit of a debate as to how many wives Watson had. It ranges from one (Mary) to three (two other unnamed ones) mainly because Watson (well, Arthur Conan Doyle really) couldn’t keep his dates straight if his life depended on it. The accepted date for the occurrences in The Sign of Four is 1888, although Watson will date stories in 1887 that discuss his wife and also reference events from The Sign of Four.

(continued in next reply)

Holmes/Watson canon angst reply - part 2

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

Skip ahead a few years to 1891 when we get to The Final Problem. In this story, Holmes is pitted against arch-rival, the brilliant criminal Moriarty. Watson believes that both fall to their death at Reichenbach Falls. Supposedly Doyle killed off Holmes because he was tired of writing the stories.

There was a great public outcry and a demand for more stories, and a few years later Doyle published The Hound of the Baskervilles, still insisting that Holmes was dead but that this story took place before he died.

More public outcry, more demands for stories. Finally, Doyle gave in and resurrected Holmes in The Empty House. This story takes place in 1894, three years after Holmes’ supposed death. Holmes has basically been on the run the whole time since Moriarty’s associates are trying to kill him. Watson believed him dead, and faints when Holmes reappears. This three year period of Holmes’ travels is known as The Hiatus, and the moment Holmes comes back is The Return.

Sometime during The Hiatus, it is assumed that Mrs. Watson died since (a) Watson no longer has a wife, and (b) Watson states: In some manner he [Holmes] had learned of my own sad bereavement, and his sympathy was shown in his manner rather than his words.

After The Return, Watson moves back in with Holmes (who used his own money to have a distant relative buy Watson’s medical practice, unknown to Watson – yes, really), and they continue to solve crimes. This goes on for quite some time (a decade or so).

There’s a possibility that Watson married again later in life. In The Blanched Soldier, which takes place in 1903 and is one of only two (out of approximately 60) stories told from Holmes’ point of view, we learn that Holmes has retired to the country and that The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone. Of course slashers can conveniently disregard this as a clever ploy to hide the fact that they were living together in the country. Or they can write a very angsty story regarding their break-up.

The final story chronologically is His Last Bow which takes place in 1914 on the eve of World War I. Holmes has been acting as an undercover agent and traveling for the prior two years in an attempt to capture a German spy. The story ends with Holmes and Watson standing together, two old friends reunited briefly before the current world events would force them apart again, not knowing if they would survive or ever see each once more.

Whew! That was certainly a long-winded synopsis of the potential for angst in the Holmes/Watson relationship.

If you’re interested in reading the canon, it’s all available online:

http://camdenhouse.ignisart.com/main.htm

And for an additional interesting read, nekosmuse has written a series of essays that examine the subtext in the canon for indications of a Holmes/Watson relationship. These can be found at:

http://nekosmuse.dannyandmartin.com/sherlockholmes/subtext.htm

And now I have told you more than you probably ever wanted to know about Holmes and Watson. Hope I haven’t bored you terribly.

[the-callum.livejournal.com]

Wonderful little angsty piece of work. Cuts right thru' me. *sighs*

(I presently tend to a patient at the ward who had an overdose of cocaine. Big unbelievably sad dark eyes staring into nothingness... I wonder whether he had the same thoughts about this...)

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much. There's nothing quite like late-night inspired angst. This came to me and I just had to tell the story.

Your poor patient. I do hope he gets better. I think one of the tragedies of addiction is the pain and emotional anguish that it causes to both the addict and his/her family and friends. Everyone is impacted, everyone is hurt, but the hold of the addictive substance is so powerful.

Re: Holmes/Watson canon angst reply - part 2

[cs-whitewolf.livejournal.com]

And now I have told you more than you probably ever wanted to know about Holmes and Watson. Hope I haven’t bored you terribly.

Oh not at all! Quite the opposite in fact. I'm finding the relationship between both men very fascinating! And have to thank you so very much for taking the time to reply with such detail :D

I can see, from what you've told me, that there is a rather wide scope for slashing these men (as if simply living/spending most of their time together wasn't incentive enough!). I know from the tv series that the characters have a great relationship together, and I can't wait to properly start exploring the fandom. Thanks for the link to the online canon, that'll be getting printed/read at some point soon, and those essays too, because everyone loves subtext! heh.