fic rec: Alternate Endings

[verdant_fire]

Title: Alternate Endings
Author: cathedral_carver
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 5145
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Major Character Death
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: When you're the writer, you're in bloody charge for once. Aren't you?

Reccer's comments: This has haunted me ever since I read it over a year ago.  It's such a nakedly realistic depiction of grief that reading it hurt, and I mean that as a compliment.  The structure is brilliant: the way what happened is revealed a bit more in each iteration, the way that John uses words to reshape his reality, his edge of hysteria as he does it, the ambiguity about which things really happened, and the interspersed quotes about writing--they all combine to make this something indelible and deeply moving. This is basically the Atonement of Sherlock fics.

Comments

[cathedralcarver.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much :) This fic was really hard to write and it holds a special place in my fanfic heart.

[verdant_fire]

You're very welcome. :) This is one of those fics that I rec to anyone who stands still long enough, because it's just that good. <3

[verdant_fire]

As a belated addendum, I just finished Tim O'Brien's stunning The Things They Carried, and I kept thinking throughout of how much it reminded me of this fic. :)