FicWad

In a fair and just world, the last words of a brilliant man would not have been written on three pages torn from a notebook and left under a cigarette case. (Watson kept the pages folded into his pocketbook, long after he had read them enough times that he could recite their words.)

In a fair and just world, John Watson would not have had to share his grief with all of London. (For weeks and months after the funeral, he had a steady stream of visitors using the flimsiest excuses to gain entrance, all so they could examine him in his grief and give him their sincerest condolences.)

In a fair and just world, he would not have lost both Holmes and Mary so soon after each other - or at all, if the world had been truly kind. (Holmes, perhaps, he might have been able to bear, but Mary as well, and so soon after Holmes - surely he could not lose both of the people he cared for most.)

In a fair and just world, Sherlock Holmes would have been burnt as the devil. (Perhaps it is fortunate, then, that the world is rarely fair or just.)