Blown Wide
Lestrade raises his glass and shouts over the din.
“To getting a nasty piece of work off the streets.”
“Here, here.” John agrees. Smiling over his brimming pint he adds, “To that which doesn’t kill us.”
Odd toast. A soldier thing, Lestrade reckons.
With a clink and a cheers John drains his glass, licks the foam from his lip, gives a leonine stretch of his shoulders, and smiles. A man, content.
A large bruise, purple and swollen, hangs over John’s left cheek. Two fingers of his right hand are splinted. And although his outfit shows no trace of smoke or fire, Lestrade saw the one they cut off him at hospital. Only minor burns, thank god.
That which doesn’t kill him…
To most it would have been a nightmare, being locked inside an exploding chemical factory. How that metal desk they found him under survived… Don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Sherlock had gotten there first, minutes before Lestrade.
Two men alone in a sea of rubble. Sherlock’s hands, ungloved, tracing the lines of John’s broken fingers, cold grey eyes blown soft and wide with worry.
John’s voice: It’s OK. In my coat…blueprints. I got them. It’s OK.
That which doesn’t kill him…
The pub door opens. Sherlock steps through, stealing John’s gaze, reclaiming it.
The door closes with a bang.