The Pieces That Fall to Earth

by Itsallfine

Chapter 84: The End, Part II: John’s letter to Sherlock, dated January 29th, 2018

Notes:

The end.

 [Written on heavy off-white paper and sealed in an envelope embossed with a stylized WH]

 

29 Jan 2018

Dear husband,

You’re probably panicking right now because I’m writing you a letter instead of talking to you face-to-face.

Stop. It’s fine. It’s not that kind of letter. Because since my last letter, the one where I promised you forever and gave you a ring, we’ve been almost adequate at communicating with real words like grown ups, spoken out loud and everything. Wonders never cease, yeah?

There’s nothing desperately unspoken that needs release here, because now when I have something to say I can just talk to you. Because you’re always there. We share a home. We’re family. We have a daughter together. We have a marriage we tend to, work we love, and instead of those desperate letters, we share other kinds of writing now: grocery lists and reminder notes, receipts and bills, Rosie’s health records, our bank statements, your endless library receipts, sticky notes on the bathroom mirror and a hundred other bits of evidence from which even the most hopeless of the met’s officers could deduce our love and our life together.

Those early letters got us to this point, but we don’t need them anymore.  

This is, quite simply, a love letter.

Eight years ago today I met a man who charmed me almost despite himself, a man who swept me into a whirlwind of adventure and danger and breathed life back into a broken soldier ready to let go of it all. I loved you then, but I was afraid. I loved you even as my mouth denied it. I loved you as I betrayed you. I loved you and I let you go. I loved you, and loved you, and loved you for years, and it is the greatest happiness of my life to get to share it with you openly now. Our anniversary may be June 16th, but January 29th will always be the day my life changed for good.

Thank you for this life, the best life I could ever dream of.

I love you.

So much, Sherlock. 

Now please clean out the microwave. What’s wrong with the one in 221C?

Yours forever and more,

John

 

 

Notes:

I can't believe it's over.

I need to give a huge shoutout to the real hero behind the scenes—Ladymacphisto, my intrepid beta reader and sanity consultant. Not only has she caught a bunch of my dumbass mistakes over the past few weeks (and all remaining ones are totally on me), but she’s also listened to my half-manic ramblings, talked me down off the ledge of they’re-gonna-hate-it-this-sucks-I-suck-everything-sucks, helped me decide which chapters to post when, and generally just been very responsive to my neediness. L, I lovelovelove you, and thank you SO MUCH for your kindness, chill, and endless patience. Three cheers for Ladymacphisto, the lady of the hour!

I also need to give another enormous thank you to Khorazir who provided gorgeous artwork to be embedded in chapters 67 and 83, and also drew fanart for chapter 58. What talent and creativity! You are so appreciated. <3

To everyone who has commented along the way, please know that you have my eternal gratitude. You’ve made every single day bright with your thoughtful, kind, and hilarious words, and I’ve never felt so supported or appreciated as a writer. It’s been beautiful to watch you all slowly start to talk to each other and interact—how cool to have a little community forming in the comments of the fic! For me the real joy of writing is sharing it, so thank you for allowing me to share this work with you. It healed a lot of my pain over series 4, and I’m so glad it could do the same for some of you, too. I’m actually quite crushed this whole experience is over! Well, except for the occasional missing scene to be written in the future—subscribe to me and follow me on tumblr to catch those when they get posted. I'll have some new ficlets for you next week, too. Stay in touch! Don’t be strangers!

I’ll end by quoting John from Chapter 83 of the fic: “If there’s anything you’re hurting over, anything that makes you be cruel to yourself, please take care. Be honest with the people in your life. Sherlock and I, we’re not perfect. We still slip. But we’ve come a long way. Get help. Beautiful things can come of it. Healing is possible.”

Much love to you all. Thank you for reading. <3

Some posts you might be interested in:
-- Request a Missing Scene to be written from TPTF
-- On Researching for TPTF
-- Fic recs: If you liked TPTF, you should read...

Notes:

You can find me on tumblr at librarylock for updates and general shenanigans.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of The Pieces that Fall to Earth