Fic Rec: Against the Rest of the World

[swissmarg]

Title: Against the Rest of the World
Author: SilentAuror
Pairing: John/Sherlock, John/Mary
Length: 151,701 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock has been away from London for nine hundred and twelve days and counting, and has no idea what sort of reception to expect when he finally returns. Post-Reichenbach.

Reccer's comments: The short version of my review is: this is like a cross between ivyblossom's The Quiet Man and greywash's The Good Morrow. If that doesn't have you leaping to the download link, read on:

SilentAuror is the current reigning champ on series 3 fixits in my book, but this was written pre-series 3 so you'll have to back up your mind to that heady time when Sherlock might have come back before John got married, and John might still have gone chasing down Moriarty's operatives with Sherlock. Because that's exactly what happens.

It's a long, grueling journey from Sherlock's first-person POV that takes us to the seedier side of Western Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East, with bombs, torture, and murders committed by both sides. It's not just a road trip, though; there is a massive plot underlying the whole thing, with original supporting characters who are honest, sympathetic and realistically villainous in turns. This is a page-turner that had me on the edge of my seat to find out what the next twist in the plan was going to be.

And of course there's the devastatingly delicious development of the relationship between Sherlock and John. I said above that John isn't married yet, but he's engaged (to Mary, although not the one we meet in series 3), and torn to pieces over the dilemma of how to reconcile what he realises he feels for Sherlock with his life back home in London.

( Excerpt in which Sherlock obsesses just a tiny bit over John... )