A Reccie from Way Back When
I was a tad intimidated by the length of this story the first time I ran across it. Marked it for later, and promptly forgot about it back in 2016. Well, I finally found it again and what a DELIGHT!!!
(Words: 197,579; 45.45 chapters, G) Sherlock is home, he and John are returning to cases, and all's right with the world--right? But a series of minor mishaps and injuries makes two things very clear to his friends and family: first, Sherlock's time away wasn't the grand adventure everyone has assumed it was; and second, that time has left Sherlock with a legacy that's bleeding into his life today. Sherlock is Not Okay, and it's not going away.
There is such intelligence in this story, both in the treatment of the mental cost of undercover intelligence work and in the case fic stories that are used to illustrate a brilliant character arc for both Sherlock and John. Great other characters, too, properly fleshed out and contributing a lot to the story, rather than just being plot devices. BRAVO!