Sherlock Holmes has just kissed John Watson for the first time. Theyāre in Baker Street after everything, after Mary and Mycroft and Moriarty and missing each otherĀ and also missing each other for far too long. They are standing in the middle of the room, centered between their chairs, but barely any space separates the two men. It was a quick kiss, blink and youād miss it, almost chaste, a tentative and fleeting press of Sherlockās lips to Johnās before he pulled back to look at him with a question in his eyes, with fear and also hope. John is staring back at him, and as we watch time slows down for John. Time is rewinding and replaying and we see it again but slower, Sherlock dipping his head and coming closer and pressing his lips to Johnās with those perfect eyes shuttered, and all of this is playing out in half speed and stops on the moment of contact.Ā
Then, time starts to move again, butĀ fast now. The scenes are picking up speed like a deduction flashing across the screen, going back through this story to show us Sherlock confronting Jim for the last time and then Sherlock collapsing on the ground next to Mycroft who is bleeding and then Sherlock holding a collapsing John in his arms and screaming on his phone to emergency services reporting that a bullet has brought the brave Doctor Watson down, again and then Sherlock promising āto the very best of timesā on a quiet tarmac before a plane turns slowly in the air and then Sherlock whispering ābecause you chose herā while the sound of Maryās deceit still rings through Johnās skull and then Sherlock raising his hand, far above John, balanced on the edge of St. Bartās with a phone to his ear and then Sherlock in his purple shirt with his microscope on the table behind him walking towards a soaking wet John after a woman exits their lives for a second time and then Sherlock raising his gun towards a figure by a pool and then Sherlock stretched out on the couch in Baker Street lit by the perfect glow of the battlefield Johnās just now discovered and then -
Time slows down again. The scene drags across the screen, circling around the pair, as John extends his hand with his sisterās old phone clutched in it, as Sherlock moves slowly closer to him along the side of a lab bench, and the shot spins and narrows and then breaks to a standstill, freezes, as the two menās eyes connect over their shared grip on the phone.
And then we see Baker Street again, John standing in front of Sherlock and in front of their chairs after that first, small kiss. And John sees that moment, sees all those moments, so with all the force of a punch to the face behind it he reaches up towards Sherlockās lovely neck and ridiculous curls and, with eyes speaking an answer to a question he had always been, partly, afraid ofā¦he reaches up and grabs Sherlock Holmes around the neck to bring their mouths crushing together in a kiss that leaves all the others behind.Ā