flash fic. Sherlock. PG. not Britpicked. Moriarty/Moran. Kind of an oozing of headcanon for “The Reichenbach Fall.” Character death.
Jim is dying. He feels it with every ounce of his being. Sebastian brought him some of that stop smoking gum to help the cravings. He doesn’t see how quitting smoking will change anything now, but he chews the gum.
Sebastian isn’t ordinary. He was a young soldier in the Gulf War in 1991, obtaining the rank of colonel before retiring. Sometimes when Jim looks at him, all he gets is static. He knows Sebastian so well, but at the same time there are pockets of Sebastian Jim knows he might never see, especially now that his time is running out.
Jim goes through the stages of grief. He becomes more unpredictable and he knows Sebastian keeps as close as he dares. They have an understanding. Jim is still the boss even if he will capitulate to Sebastian’s requests at times for the sake of health. The gum is one thing. Getting outside more often is another, but Jim knows as he sits on the rooftop of St. Bart’s that this is not what Sebastian meant.
Sebastian calls him. Sebastian is on his fifth phone call, last phone call, when Sherlock appears. Jim left him a voice mail hours ago so Sebastian could find the body. Jim is not going to die in a hospital bed. The longer he languishes, the longer he approaches chemotherapy, the less it becomes “Staying Alive” and more a song Moriarty does not quite know. It would probably be deemed too dark for radio. He wants to be remembered.That is the real final problem. Staying alive in the history records than actually physically being alive. He has no children. This dance is his child.
When the phone stops playing the disco tune, he knows Sebastian is coming. The longer he speaks with Sherlock, the less time he has. He has to do it, and yet he lingers. He wants there to be something interesting. He wants there to be something to prove to him that the chemo and everything will be worth it. But, Sherlock is disappointingly Sherlock and Jim needs to fire his gun before Sebastian arrives.
When Sebastian arrives, he sees Sherlock about to jump. Jim is nowhere. He knows. He tries not to know,but he rushes into the hospital all the same. “Someone’s about to jump!” he tells the receptionist. “On the roof!” In the flurry of activity to get up to the roof, nobody questions Sebastian accompanying those who rush to help.
On the roof, there is only one body and a mobile tossed aside a few meters from the body. Sebastian can hear John’s cries for his friend from below. He checks and while people are registering the body and the commotion on the walk, Sebastian places Sherlock’s mobile into his right pocket. Then he kneels down beside Jim. He checks for a pulse, but he knows he won’t find one. As the staff urge him to step away from the body, Sebastian slips Jim’s mobile into his left sleeve before depositing the mobile into his left coat pocket when he puts his hands into his pockets.
