This Time No (Forgiveness) by AtlinMerrick
“But first, oh first, first, first…Sherlock danced.”
Thank you Zincesaucier, thank you so much!
Fic: This Time No (Final Chapter)
Every wound heals in its own way.
For John, words are often the best salve for his pains. Words ease, restore, they fill him up in places he didn’t know were empty. He needs words more than he needs just about anything. Except the man making them.
“More,” he said softly.
Fic: This Time No (Forgiveness)
I’m talking too much, I know I am, but there’s so much to tell and too many words bunched up in my skull.
I know that when the boys are gone things will be said, myths made, facts forgotten and the thing is…I need you to know: This is their truth. This is their why and how and when. This is what really happened…
Here are Chapters 3 and 4. Enjoy!
When I’m done with the whole thing, I’ll put it together into one audiobook and get it uploaded to the Archive; I think that’s probably preferable to having a half-dozen separate entries. So until then, my Tumblr is the place to find the new chapters, so reblog…
This Time No here: LiveJournal | FanFiction | AO3
I’ve started podficcing individual chapters of this WIP because it’s so goddamn beautiful and I don’t want anyone else beating me to it. :) It’s up to Chapter 9 with a couple more to go, so probably by the time I get to the end, the story will be finished.
Here are Chapters 1 & 2 … and in Chapter…
Fic: This Time No
Sherlock didn’t know he’d forever mark the 16th and 17th of October as special days…
Trigger warning
Fic: This Time No (Forgiveness)
John’s always known that when he’s driven to his knees he must reach out in order to stand again.
So John reached for the one person he knew would judge him, guide him, forgive him…and help him figure out the most important thing of all.
What happens next?
Fic: This Time No
John knew what he was doing last night as he did it, and he knew he’d regret what he’d done as he was doing it.
Because John Watson’s not like other men. He doesn’t need hindsight to identify his mistakes, he god damn prognosticates a blunder…and then goes full steam toward his destruction anyway.
Fic: This Time No
“Tell me in ten words, Sherlock.”
It was an old trick that one. Explain in ten words what’s happening here. No dissembling, excuses, justifications. For a man bent on facts Sherlock can veer wildly from them when he’s in a panic.
“I…I got depressed.”
Fic: This Time No
Sherlock’s learned a lot of things from John over the years and possibly the least useful is how to froth up a fine, fine fury—and then how to let that fucker out.
So after John walked out their door, after Sherlock stood straight-backed and still at a dusty sitting room window, and after a cab pulled away from the kerb, after all of that, Sherlock flicked through a short list of exactly what he could lay hands on.
Yet anyone who’s been in that flat five seconds knows exactly what Sherlock reached for…
(Warning for self-harm.)
Read more: LiveJournal | FanFiction | AO3
Fic: This Time No (Forgiveness)
“I made a donation once.”
So help him John knew exactly what Sherlock did not mean. He did not mean blood. Money. Time.
There are so few things about Sherlock that are normal that John absolutely knew without words that Sherlock meant he’d made a donation of the thing that was, quite literally, most him.
His genes. DNA. Himself.
Fic: This Time No (Forgiveness)
It was Sherlock’s fault. It usually is.
And though he’ll ask forgiveness for what he’s done, for the very first time John will say, “This time no, Sherlock. This time, never.”
And maybe, just maybe, John Watson is going to mean it.
