Once again, this was a bumper year for fan fiction in the Sherlock BBC fandom*, with a few very long-anticipated fics coming to completion alongside some recent smash hits from established authors and even a couple of newer and lesser-known writers hitting it out of the ballpark. My picks are all, unsurprisingly, long, plotty, angsty Johnlock fics, featuring in particular post-series 4 fixits and Parentlock along with AU’s, especially other professions and fusions/crossovers. What they all have in common though, is being of absolutely stellar quality not just in the technical aspects of the writing, but also the handling of themes, the character work, and the emotional impact. Any one of these could be a published book, and perhaps in the near future, some actually will be!
* (I also snuck in one ACD series because it’s my list and I can.)
My caveat as always: this list is obviously skewed toward my own personal preferences and reading habits. There are plenty of other fics that I loved, and even more that I simply didn’t get around to reading (yet), so it’s not a judgment if your favorite (or one you wrote) isn’t on here. Think of this as a sampling rather than a definitive list. I hope this will help you to re-acquaint yourself with fics you loved, give a chance to others you may have skipped the first time round, and possibly discover something entirely new and astonishing.
So here they are, in descending order of length:
The Men Who Talked Between the Words (439746 words) by Odamaki
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Summary: John expected to be a father some day; he expected to have the house, and the wife and the nice suburban job. Sherlock never expected to have children, in part because he never expected to make it past 30. As it turns out, you don’t get a choice. Crammed into Baker Street with a baby, John struggles with single-parenthood and his own fears, while Sherlock treads the fine line between doing too little and saying too much.
Gravity (English Version) (282983 words) by kirin_calls
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Greg Lestrade/John Watson, Sherlock Holmes/Victor Trevor, John Watson/Victor Trevor
Summary: Part 1: When John takes up mixed martial arts training, he doesn’t expect it to lead to a new relationship. But there are darker things afoot at the gym, and John is soon drawn in deeper than he wants. When an old flame from Sherlock’s past turns up, it’s time for everyone to declare their loyalties… and for John to finally discover where his heart truly belongs. / Part 2: John is struggling with his loss. Plagued by nightmares, his life gone topsy-turvy, he is no longer able to lead a normal existence. As he seeks out some stability, some way to slowly pull himself up out of the morass of his grief, old rivals become friends and details about Sherlock’s past come to light, leading John to discover something strange that won’t let him go.
Radioactive Trees In A Red Forest (280332 words) by Maribor_Petrichor
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: John Watson is what happens when a man can no longer see a reason to go on. John Watson is what happens when a man starts to let go. “It is what it is.” John Watson is what happens when what “it is” becomes too much to bear. This is a story of the life, death, and resurrection of John Hamish Watson.
The Bluest of Blue (196473 words) by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Molly Hooper/Greg Lestrade
Summary: John Watson’s 10th season as a Denali National Park Ranger was shaping up to look like all the years before. Until a special team from Europe was flown into the Park for a summer-long wolf-tracking research project, and the head of that research team was wearing a perfectly tailored suit.
Scar Tissue (192179 words) by J_Baillier, 7PercentSolution
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: John has scarcely recovered from his Afghanistan tour when Sherlock is injured at work, putting their already strained relationship to the test.
A Game of Hearts (162553 words) by zmethos
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/OMC
Summary: Seven stories written circa 2010, after the first series/season of Sherlock but before Season 2. Therefore, none of these stories reflect anything from Season 2 onward! Think of it as an alternate timeline or something. Slow build of a relationship between Sherlock and John. Gets quite dark in places. [Note: This is an AO3 repost of a fic from fanfiction.net.]
Drift Compatible (130546 words) by J_Baillier
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: A washed out war hero struggling with his past. A prodigy who wants nothing to do with his family legacy. Both are looking for something—and someone—worth fighting for in a world where human civilisation is constantly under threat.
The Burning Heart (119461 words) by May_Shepard
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/Original Male Character(s)
Summary: When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.
Maintenance and Repair (106650 words) by patternofdefiance
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/OFC
Summary: John wants to explain the rush of sensation and data, which is just another form of sensation (or is it the other way around?). John wants to say: Augmentation circuits report temperature, pressure, various forms of quantitative input. Sudden changes are reported as pain, since sudden changes are dangerous, and pain is the quickest way to encourage reflexive extraction. But all John can manage is, “Nng.” Because this sudden touch is not reporting as pain.
The Wedding Garments (105390 words) by cwb
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: This is the story of a young consulting detective who wants nothing to do with marriage and an army doctor who wants to find true love. It’s 2020 post-Brexit England and the British government is encouraging arranged marriages. Candidates meet through state-run agencies and date in hopes of finding love (and tax benefits). Sherlock doesn’t need or want a spouse, at least not until John Watson shows up. Hesitant to give in to his more carnal urges because of the way they derail his mind, how will Sherlock progress toward the more intimate aspects of a relationship? The answer lies in a very special wedding gift.
Kintsukuroi (91822 words) by sussexbound
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: “I love you.” Sherlock sees the words hit John with almost physical force. He reels back a little, jaw twitching and eyes filling. “I love you,” he repeats, a little softer, a little more gentle, as earnest as he possibly can. Because they’ve been teetering on the brink of this thing for years, and it had become painfully obvious over the last few months that they were at a tipping point. This had to happen. Now it has. Now they can see where they end up. The tears in John’s eyes spill over, and he wipes at them angrily. “Do you even know what that means?”
Missing Pages (78852 words) by PlaidAdder
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mary Morstan/Violet Hunter
Summary: This is a group of interlinked short stories (most between 2000 and 7000 words) which tell the story of how Holmes and Watson really came to be separated at the Reichenbach Falls, and how they found each other again. Each story is in the form of a document–a letter, a journal, a surveillance report, an affidavit, etc.–which is linked to one or more ACD canon tales, and which tells us something about that story that was changed or suppressed in Watson’s published account of it. Holmes/Watson, with glimpses of other relationships.
Summit Fever (78782 words) by J_Baillier
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, James Sholto/John Watson, James Sholto/OFC
Summary: After graduating from medical school, John Watson followed his heart to the Himalayas. Ten years later, he’s a haunted cynic working for his ex-lover’s trekking and mountaineering company. Will leading an expedition to Annapurna I—the most lethal of all the world’s highest mountains—shake John out of his reverie, and who is the mystery client added to the group at the last minute?
The Vapor Variant (72684 words) by 88thParallel
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Summary: Little did Sherlock know that the vapor to which he exposed John was a bioweapon— containing a bioengineered hybrid virus. Now, John is fighting for his life in the early stages of encephalitis, and it’s down to Sherlock and a team of scientists to save him, if they can only find him first. Sherlock needs to keep fear and guilt from getting the better of him if he’s to salvage his relationship with John—and that’s assuming the love of his life even survives….
Roommates are for little people (69055 words) by alexxphoenix42
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: John was looking forward to seeing his friends back at uni, but a new year brings new complications, not the least of which is a dorm room with only one bed, and a stroppy roommate with an utterly spectacular arse. God, John doesn’t need the headache.
Masters of Ink (67482 words) by Indybaggins
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: John has a triple-coiled tattoo machine in his hand and a row of inks at the ready. He has gloves on, a willing client in front of him, and a detailed stencil. He is ready to win this bloody competition. Except he’s competing against Sherlock Holmes… First-meeting-on-a-reality-show AU, Ink Master edition! There is expert tattooing, slightly less expert flirting, and two men falling hard. But John is married, and they can’t all win.
floating through a dark blue sky (58872 words) by Lediona
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: Of course, I’d seen his films and always thought he was, well, brilliant – but, you know, a million miles from the world I live in. *** Or, when John is the owner of a travel book shop and the famous Sherlock Holmes stops in one day. [Notting Hill fusion]
The Wolf (55817 words) by Laur
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: Sherlock gets it wrong. Days, months, even years in the future, Sherlock’s oversight during the Baskerville case will continue to torment him, but nothing about that night will ever be as painfully vivid as the memory of John’s screams. This is how it begins.
Christmas Time After Time (41473 words) by PlaidAdder
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mary Morstan/John Watson, Clara/Harry Watson
Summary: John’s not really big on Christmas; and this year, the first after Mary’s death, he’s not feeling it. Everyone’s away, Sherlock’s on a case–alone–and Rosie’s asleep. But that’s all right. He’s fine. He’ll just have a quiet Christmas Eve by himself, drinking in front of the telly. Only out there in time and space, there’s another Doctor who thinks that sounds like the saddest thing ever. And she’s going to do something about it. Thirteen takes John on a whirlwind tour of Christmases past and future. The more he learns about this time travel thing, the more John starts to wonder: how did his current timeline become…what it is? And might these alternatives hold the key to a less miserable present, and maybe a brighter future?
Whiteout (37041 words) by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: A documentary crew follows the Matterhorn aerial rescue team from Air Zermatt, profiling the mechanics, pilots, and paramedics as they save patients on the infamous mountain. Their camera may catch more than they’re looking for, however, when it comes to a certain paramedic named John Watson…
The Winter Garden (31211 words) by Callie4180
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: As Sherlock nears the end of his career, he’s given the gift of a cottage in Sussex. The honey from the beehives out back is amazing. Almost…magical.
A Home for Us (30583 words) by sussexbound
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: He has been on the road for two years, and he is exhausted. He’s almost accepted that he will never see London (John) again—almost. But then there are nights like tonight, where he is weak, and all he can think of is the warmth of the flat they once shared, the crackle of the fire in the hearth, the teasing smile playing at the corner of John’s lips, the boxes of half-eaten Chinese takeaway balanced precariously in their laps. He aches at the memory of it, at the realisation that it is something he may never experience again.
Another Auld Lang Syne (30234 words) by DiscordantWords
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: There had been years of missed chances.
A Singular Friendship (28679 words) by agirlsname
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: Sherlock is closer to John than anyone has ever been. It’s almost like a relationship - but John isn’t gay, so it’s clearly not. Not even when they hold hands and hug every day, not even when they sleep in the same bed, not even when they cuddle every morning…
Stradivarius (20298 words) by Berty
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: Life goes back to what passes for normal at 221B Baker Street.
Sherlock’s back and his scars have faded. John’s still a confirmed bachelor and his nightmares have mostly ceased. So why are there awkward pauses and uncertain glances? Why are they both on their best behaviour? It’s been a long, cold winter in London and there’s more to come before spring arrives.
One Good Scare (17381 words) by blueink3
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: Mummy invites Sherlock, John, and Rosie to the country for her birthday, which just so happens to coincide with the annual Harvest Festival, an event Sherlock loathes. With John seemingly making the wrong move at every turn and with ghosts hiding in each of their closets, what will it take for their (Halloween) masks to finally come off?
Oh, my friends, it’s been a long hard year (11914 words) by splix
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade, Mr. Chatterjee/Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes’ Father/Mummy (Sherlock)
Summary: Christmas is rubbish this year.
titsay
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
jbbartram-illu
germansingergirl
kaledo-art
