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3. From mrspencil - fire and ice (set in the retirement years)
Hours of work disappeared in a flash of flame, and I pulled my blanket tighter against the night’s chill. Ice-covered streets barely affected this year’s celebrations, though the increasing snowflakes would send me home eventually. Children tossed their own effigies into the growing bonfire, the younger adults warmed up with a reel, and I shifted slightly closer to the radiating warmth. I could wait a few minutes.
But only if Holmes let me. A familiar shape appeared out of the large flakes, and his scowl conveyed an entire lecture at finding me outside in a snowstorm. I merely shrugged and tossed another, smaller effigy into the flames.
His reaction—and the resulting bickering—lasted the rest of the night.
6. From GWBear - Thinking about Christmas makes Lestrade grumpy.
“Well, then. I didn’t realize we had two Scrooges this year. Shall I let you go hunt down your ghosts?”
The heavily sarcastic question halted him mid step, and only then did he realize the half-hearted grouching mostly intended as a joke had emerged rather more serious. A glance behind him found amusement warring with concern.
“Long month, Inspector?”
The understanding threading the doctor’s question drained some of the stress tightening his shoulders, though a single nod took the place of words. The doctor’s next question let him vent a portion of the Yard’s Christmas drama without adding to said drama.
And the following question began a story that buried the rest of that irritation beneath breath-stealing laughter. Perhaps the former Yarder’s actions would not ruin the holiday after all.
7. From YoughaltheJust - The season for giving to others (Follows Tinsel 25. Read that one first)
“Here’s another.”
A lower rib joined the gradually forming skeleton, followed immediately by a femur from the candle box. The wreaths provided most of the fingers and smaller bones, while the ornaments concealed several vertebrae. Candles on the tree, extra tinsel in the garland, and unwelcome additions in every box, nearly an hour spread the most Christmas decorations I had seen in several years around our rooms, and I thoroughly enjoyed the spots of color.
Though even the fully decorated sitting room had not completed that bleach-white skeleton. Holmes ended up spending several hours with Mrs. Hudson before he pieced together the last few bones. She found him a different—larger—box that fit the entire thing and promptly informed him that if she found it again, he never would. “Bob” disappeared to go live in a bolthole.
And I started planning for next year. I much preferred decorating with Holmes instead of despite him.
9. From JackofCats - "My name is Dr. John H. Watson. But Dr. John H. Watson is not all I am…"
“You!”
The growl carried from the alley to my left, and footsteps quickly followed. Two young men charged out the next moment, identifying themselves by completely ignoring me in favor of Holmes.
As if I would let him defend himself alone. I needed only a moment to pin the nearer one, and my seated position let my cane trip the other into Holmes’ fist. Holmes’ most recent case included several blackguards with the mistaken impression that doctors refused to fight.
Considering only a pair of cuffs would teach them the folly of such an assumption, I rather doubted the gang’s remaining few members would learn otherwise before they ended up in a cell.