PAYPHONE III (pt.1/3)
HERE IT IS!!! ☎️ Story III will be in three parts ... Let's try this again. 'All of my change I spent on you ...' 💋.
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Sherlock had a few coins in his pocket. He halted, passing a payphone … could he?
Who would know?
Mycroft?
… he looked around. Again, feeling the weight in the palm of his hand. Feeling the weight in his heart …
.
John.
.
If he could just hear his voice, once?
Sherlock went for it, slipping into the phone booth and calling before he could talk himself out of it …
One …
Two rings …
Three and … !!
.
"Hello?" John answered.
.
Sherlock held his breath. Listening. Just listening to him speak.
"Hello? Anyone there?"
.
Then exhaled, a small burst - half laugh, half tears - at the beauty of John's voice touching his too long, lonely ears. Joy spilling from his eyes in the form of Saline and H2O.
John hung up a second later and Sherlock was left standing there … holding the silent device. A clink reminded him of his refunded change and he pocketed it …
Desperately hoping he could use it again, soon ...
.
>>><<<
.
"Hello, John Watson speaking?"
.
The phone had rung at John's desk. A private line inside the medical offices. One only a few people knew.
There was silence on the other end, again.
"Hello?" John went to hang up - but realized there was a small sound … ?
Like …
Someone … crying?
.
Reaching with desire to hear, he strained to make out the sounds.
"Are you … okay?” He asked, after a moment, “Is … someone there?"
The intake of a breath and shudder of someone fighting to hold back tears, was unmistakable this time. The sound of pain …
"Please? Where are you? Can I help?"
The phone clicked.
Silence.
.
John was shaken.
He jumped up, calling for Sarah and the new nurse, Mary to help him check around the office? To make sure someone wasn't in one of the other rooms? Hurt? Had they left a patient unattended??!
John couldn’t shake the feeling all day.
Even when no one was found.
Even when no one could have been the caller …
He picked up the phone several times that afternoon pressing redial, with no response …
.
>>><<<
.
Sherlock regretted hanging up again.
The fifth time he had gotten away with it …
But … he knew that if he hadn't … he would have said something he shouldn't have …
.
Today had been hard.
The hardest day of his life, he felt - up until the moment he heard John's voice through the receiver.
The care and gentleness audible … across the thousands of miles between them … like no time at all had passed, and …
It had almost been harder after hanging up.
He did cry. He couldn't stop it once it started.
.
He
Just
Wanted
To
Go
Home.
.
But the days were getting shorter.
The nights were getting longer.
And Moriarty’s net,
Was still closing in …
.
He had to survive this week.
Had to track down this thread …
And the whole web could at last begin to unravel!
.
He looked at the change left in his hand. And tucked it away in his innermost pocket for safekeeping.
He would need it again. He knew.
.
(Story III continued HERE ... pt.2/3)