Work Text:
INT: THE TUBE TRAIN, WAITING FOR THE BOMB TO GO OFF.
JOHN: Why didn’t you tell me?
SHERLOCK: You had your own life to get on with.
JOHN: No. No. There is no way that even you could think…
SHERLOCK: You were busy with - with what’s-her-name, the one that…
JOHN: You let me grieve you, Sherlock. For two years.
PAUSE
SHERLOCK: I had to.
C/U ON JOHN’S FACE, STILL.
SHERLOCK: Everyone was watching. They knew there’d be a trick. They were watching for a trick.
JOHN: You told your parents. You told half the homeless network.
SHERLOCK: They were watching you. Because you were the only person who would care.
JOHN: Two years.
SHERLOCK: The most brilliant mind in Britain jumps from a rooftop in broad daylight, in front of a dozen witnesses? Of course it’s a trick. And they’ll poke around and hurt all of the right people until they work it out. But if John Watson believes it? If John Watson goes back to his therapist, picks up his absurdly tedious day job, can’t even set foot in Baker Street?
PAUSE
Slight of hand is about where you focus the attention. I had to use your grief to sell it.
PAUSE. JOHN LOOKS DEFEATED.
I’m sorry, John. I needed you to save my life.