Fic Rec: Contamination

[oreganotea.livejournal.com]

Title: Contamination
Author: jacquez
Pairing: Gen or Sherlock/John pre-slash
Length: 16,291
Rating: Mature
Warnings: mention of extreme violence and rape/non-con (case-related)
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: In which an artistic murder draws Irene Adler and her brother Nathan into the lives of Lestrade and Holmes, and Dr John Watson balances his morals against the happiness that is a warm gun.

Reccer's comments: If I was asked to pick one representative example of all the things I tend to love most in Sherlock fanfiction, this would probably be it. The case: creepy. The dialogue: brilliant. John and Sherlock's relationship: moving and disturbing in more or less equal measure. Lovely balance of action, drama and humour, and some great outside POV parts. (Note: This fic was written before Season 2 came out, so Irene here is not BBC Irene.)

Excerpt:

John studied his hands, listening to the quiet voice of his conscience. He knew who he was, and what he believed about himself; Sherlock knew him very well, but Sherlock did not know everything. "My blood pressure would go up," he said, eyes on Sherlock's pale face. "Killing you. Killing anyone who wasn't an immediate danger." Sherlock was silent, oceans of stillness deep. "That's who I am, Sherlock. I'm not a machine; you can't point me at a thing and say 'kill' and expect me to do it. There needs to be a reason." He paused, willing steel into his voice. "A good reason."

"I shall endeavour to make sure I always provide one," Sherlock said, his eyes shrouded behind their lids, lashes just brushing his cheekbones, the lazy smile still in place.

Comments

[opaljade.livejournal.com]

That was excellent! Thanks for the rec.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Nice rec. :)

I really like the insights into John in this fic, and the Lestrade pov is especially rewarding. :)

[swissmarg]

I really enjoyed this. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise, as it was posted a while ago, so thanks.