JWP 2019 | Day 6

[thesadchicken]

Title: Broken Glass.
Author: thesadchicken
Rating: PG.
Universe: Elementary.
Characters: Joan Watson, Sherlock Holmes.
Summary: Watson understands that she will always be there for Sherlock when he needs her.
Word Count: 221(B)

Warnings: Blood. Implied self-harm.

Prompt: In emergency break glass: Include broken glass in today's entry. It may be an accident, a clue, however you wish to interpret it.

It was in the early days of her association with Sherlock Holmes. Watson heard a crash from the kitchen. When she got there, he was leaning against the wall, holding his hand near his chest. His shirt was flecked with red.

“Should I even ask?” she said, glaring at him.

“I’m afraid you wouldn’t like the answer,” he replied as he stood there, fidgeting. It never unsettled her, his way of speaking in a calm voice while his entire body seemed frenzied.

Broken glass littered the floor. She walked up to him. “Show me.”

He opened his palm, revealing shards of glass lodged in his skin. Watson nodded. “Okay, wait here.”

Hand sanitizer and tweezers – hardly a surgeon’s tools. But she was no longer a surgeon, she reminded herself. When she walked back into the kitchen he was still standing there. She had half-expected him to have run off. He opened his hand again and waited, like a child. She cleaned his wounds in silence.

When she looked up, he was staring at her. This, however, did unsettle her.

“What?” she asked.

“How many broken bottles before you stop caring?”

Again: calm voice, frantic body. His eyes were devastatingly sad. Watson almost looked away – almost. But then, with a passion she thought she’d lost, she said, “More than you can count.”