Sherlock: fanfic recs Post 6 (take 2)

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I've tried to mark these s1 & s2; some of the s1 stories have now been jossed, but I had them in my list to rec and didn't get around to them until too late! They're still worth reading!
I'm not differentiating the different s2 episodes.

UPDATE: This entry didn't post right, so I'm trying again. I will add that I have several more stories marked here and there to rec, but some of these have waited since December, and I have been losing track of things.

And I really hope this post posts correctly.


HUMOR
Gen
"Cabin Fever" by awanderingbard gives us Sherlock impairing his eyesight (temporarily) for science and playing Cluedo with John.
6200 words, PG, s2
“I always stab in a controlled environment,” Sherlock assured her.
“I'm not sure the kitchen counts as a controlled environment, Sherlock,” John said.
'Thwack!' went Sherlock's knife. “It is an environment and I am in control of it,” he said. “Therefore it is a controlled environment.” Thwack! Thwack!

Slash
I'm afraid I can't provide a good excerpt from shaindyl's "And a Ring to Bind Them" because the story is very short but builds beautifully; the opening wouldn't necessarily entice, but the good bits would give away too much. I really enjoyed this story, even though it's a pairing I don't often read.
Rating: G
Pairing: John/Lestrade
Length: 1917 words
Not season-specific.



HUMOR AND CROSSOVER
Sherlock/Cabin Pressure
Author doesn't classify as gen or het; het leanings, but please don't let that stop you.
PG-13, 4000 words, s1
"A Fitton Carol" by sc010f strands a miserable Sally Donovan in Fitton, where an unlikely rescuer appears. Sally meets the crew of MJN, and an epilogue brings in Sherlock, John, and Lestrade. I laughed out loud once or twice, and this story gave me a warm fuzzy feeling without ever being sappy (Sally wouldn't allow it).
Excerpt:
. . . now she was stuck in the snow. Somewhere in the west country with no signal and no battery and a twisted ankle.
On the plus side, she did have her warrant card. And a warm coat.
On the minus side, it was the afternoon of Christmas Eve and the light was falling fast. It would probably start snowing, given her luck.
When the dilapidated van with the uninspiring sign "Icarus Removals" painted on the side hauled into view, Sally was sure that it was not her lucky day. Or week, for that matter.


DRAMA AND CHARACTER STUDY
Gen
"Reaction No. 42" by eanor is too brief to excerpt. Sherlock wonders how John will handle his return, but there's one possibility he didn't anticipate.
Rating: PG
Length: 1076 words
s2

In "A Sort of Fairytale" by arcsupport for holmestice, we get a peek into Molly and her interactions with Sherlock. She's not dumb, and she's not that cutesy; she has depths here that I can't summarize well.
2200 words, s1, PG-13
Author's warnings: Non-graphic autopsy procedure and minor death. A little dark.
Author's Summary: Some people have sharp edges. Some people have to be carefully kept.
Excerpt:
She talks to her people. That's how she thinks of them: her people. Not cadavers, or patients, or cases, although she has no problem maintaining a clinical mindset, is quite good at it actually, very meticulous with her checklists and reports, not at all impaired by keeping a running commentary interspersed with encouraging little cries, such as "Oh, lovely liver you had there, must have really watched your alcohol intake! Pity it was a bus after all, eh?"
This is actually not uncommon in her field.
“I talk to my skull,” said a male voice one morning. . . .

"Very Good Indeed" by stillwaters01 picks up John's judgment of himself as a doctor from the first episode and puts it into action: we see John's medical skills under very trying circumstances.
4100 words; I'd rate PG. If you really don't like medical details, you might have a problem with this story. Not season-specific.
Good weapon. Clever. Easily accessible for a man like him and just as potentially lethal as a knife or gun. John could appreciate the ingenuity as much as he knew Sherlock would, but Jesus Christ, he was in trouble.

"Certainty" by tartanfics shows us Sally after the fall from her perspective—and does a great job of making her real as both the woman who started the investigation of Sherlock and a detective whom Lestrade trusted for at least a couple of years.
1131 words, PG. s2
They did not lose Sherlock Holmes. He was not a good man. He did not slip through the cracks.
He was pushed. Sally helped to push him.

(Those with particularly slash-colored glasses may wish to see this one as pre-slash, and I think you can do that.)
"In the Forests of the Night" by kcscribbler at holmestice starts with an update of Conan Doyle's "Reichenbach Falls": John receives a short series of text messages that Sherlock sent with a delay and arrives too late. Numb more than grieving, John accepts Mycroft's help and re-enlists; he finds himself in Afghanistan again, this time as a sniper.
8942 words, rated PG. s1—not canon-compliant for s2
Warnings: character death, violence; a bit dark
This story hooked me from the opening, so I'll give you that opening as an excerpt:
It was ironic, really. John had, since he returned from Afghanistan, possessed one of the most modern mobile phones to hit the market, as well as a laptop and the other basic gadgets which the march of civilisation demanded. However, that did not mean he knew how to use them beyond what he could figure out by a few seconds’ fiddling with the object in question, and who in their right minds actually read technical manuals these days unless they came free on the electronic device? Sherlock had always teased him about his search-and-peck typing skills (did you even touch a keyboard before the Army, John?) and the fact that Sherlock got more usage out of the iPhone than John did (You could barely find the camera, John; and you still haven’t found out how to switch your ringtone from that dreadful pop song) and that they might as well trade the mobiles and be done with it. Sherlock always had called it behind the times, and he had always retorted with technologically-challenged and I have better things to do when I get bored, unlike some people I could mention, Sherlock.
Regardless, John hadn’t known that a person could delay a message being sent for hours if they chose to do so.
It was therefore ironic, that the most important message he had and would ever receive came to him in this exact way.


SLASH
"One of Maple, One of Palm" by * is listed as slash, but your reccer here (who generally thinks of Sherlock as asexual and probably aromantic as well), thinks the story can easily be read with gen glasses as well.
7500 words, PG-13; very minor, early s2 spoilers (so minor I can't find them, but author warns)
Sherlock's father leaves him a puzzle that carries him through two decades of life. I love the portrayal of Sherlock's father (who is not the tyrant or absent father of a lot of fic) and of our canon characters.
He rips the wrapping paper free of the box and inspects it carefully. As expected, it’s solid and sturdy, made of redwood and finished with a gloss that almost seems to glow in the light. The decoration on the outside is sparse, consisting of tasteful vines arranged in gentle spirals and a small willow tree, along with a few words carved onto the lid:
To my son, on the occasion of his thirteenth birthday. May he solve the greatest puzzle of them all.
Sherlock looks questioningly at his father. “What is it?”
His father smiles at him. “That’s part of the puzzle, Sherlock.”



MYSTERY
Gen
innie_darling's "His Last Bow" gives Sherlock a case that takes him to Harrod's at Christmas, a nightmare for Sherlock but solid entertainment for John and others (including me!). I think it must be hard to write Sherlock's point of view properly because so much goes on in his head all the time, but Innie does a convincing job—and makes it fun, too. Yet the story goes beyond humor to give us some character insight—without becoming sappy.
4500 words, PG, s1
Excerpt:
The word clearance put a very unpleasant thought into Sherlock's head. "Where exactly did this word come down from, Lestrade?" He could virtually see Mycroft's pudgy hand pulling strings; a man his age should be ashamed of having dimpled flesh.
"Above my pay grade, I'm afraid. I was asked to consult with the world's only consulting detective, that's all I know," Lestrade answered while eyeing the biscuits John had put on the coffee table. "Though you must admit it's not a bad plan, as these things go – the Harrods name alone will bring them all the publicity they could want, and if they really are planning to kip there indefinitely, they'll have all the supplies they need."
"Yes, it takes a real genius to come up with such a subtly cunning plan," Sherlock said witheringly. Not that John and Lestrade were listening, both too busy rooting around in the biscuit tin to pay him proper attention.

Het?*
21,627 words, PG-13
Warnings: (alleged) character death, bombing, mutilated bodies, and het*
* Calling arianedevere's "Courting is Over" het; I think she didn't originally classify it that way, but there were complaints (however in jest they may have been). At any rate, you have been warned: the story contains the BBC-canonical relationship between John and Sarah. It is, however, very much not about romance nor sex, and I wouldn't have called it "het."
With that disclaimer out of the way: "Courting is Over" tells the story of Sarah's relationship with Mycroft, who kidnaps her/takes her out to lunch when he realizes that she will be part of John's life, and thus Sherlock's life, for the foreseeable future.
The story is just a wee bit confusing because it's almost all flashback and relative tenses and times threw me occasionally, but these are very minor problems (and may only exist in my own head).
Excerpt:
Mycroft didn’t turn towards her, continuing to look out of the window, but his body language indicated that he had relaxed a little. His chin dropped an inch or two, a conciliatory nod giving her permission to speak. Sarah drew in a slow breath, forcing herself not to tense up, and then fired the question at him.
“Where are John and Sherlock?”
Mycroft flinched.
It was fifteen weeks since Greg Lestrade had arrived at her flat to break the news that Sherlock and John were dead.