Missing
is a Sherlock Holmes fanfic by KCS, told in a series of drabbles.
Watson goes missing for a week following an argument with Holmes, sending the detective and Scotland Yard alike into a frenzy as they comb London for answers. The situation does not appear promising and the stakes have seldom been so high. Can Lestrade and Holmes save Watson before it's too late?
This fanfic includes examples of the following tropes:
- Anger Born of Worry: Watson tries to downplay the severity of his condition after being found and ends up suffering a very dangerous fever. When he wakes up, Holmes tells him that he might kill him personally if he frightens him like that again. Since Watson is still a little loopy from the fever, he spends a few moments puzzling to himself about the logic of that.
- Asleep for Days: Even after being retrieved from a gang of kidnappers, Watson still has to deal with the injuries and fever he suffered while captive. He tries to downplay how poorly he feels to avoid further upsetting Holmes, and only realizes exactly how serious his condition became after his fever spikes, causing a two-day unconsciousness and scaring Holmes half to death.
- Defiant Captive: Watson uses every opportunity he has to attempt an escape from the gang holding him, and ultimately gets his hands on one of their guns during the last struggle.
- Don't Ask: After an absence to manage the official part of a bust, Constable Randall Cummings walks in on Lestrade trying to open the handcuffs on Watson and Holmes roughly interrogating one of the doctor's captors. Cummings stares bug-eyed and Lestrade can only warn him not to ask.
- Faint in Shock: Holmes, having spent some time without properly eating or sleeping while worrying about Watson, passes out when a constable races into Lestrade's office, yelling that the police have found a corpse.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: While many of the early segments are devoted to the mystery, the drabbles after the storming of the gang's headquarters edge increasingly into Holmes attempting to help Watson after the physical and emotional hurt endured during his captivity, and receiving some comfort in return.
- Living Emotional Crutch: When Lestrade sees Holmes, he muses that they'd better find the doctor quickly, because Watson's life isn't the only one in danger if something's gone wrong.
- Ludicrous Precision: In the beginning drabble, Lestrade reflects that it's been a week since Watson went missing and he hypothesizes that Holmes knows the exact number of hours and minutes.
- Neck Lift: Holmes collars one of the gang and shoves him up against the wall as he interrogates him about what they've been doing to Watson. At one point, he lifts the guy a few inches off the ground.
- Overworked Sleep: Holmes falls asleep in a chair in Lestrade's office after spending a week worrying about Watson and trying to find out what happened to him when he disappeared.
- Parting-Words Regret: Watson went out on the night of his disappearance thanks to having a fight with Holmes, and both deeply regret the last words they said before Watson's abduction.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The kidnappers intend to leave Watson critically injured rather than killing him, not because of any scruples but simply because if he's hurt but alive, Holmes won't immediately start after them.
- Stepping Out for a Quick Cup of Coffee: Holmes uses his informant network to figure out the identity of a dead man presumably related to Watson's disappearance and runs off before the police can obtain a search warrant. When one of the young Yarders protests, Lestrade tells him that looking the other way with Holmes occasionally is part of the job and purposely avoids either of them finding out what Holmes disappeared to do. In the spirit of the trope, he suggests going to a pub if Holmes doesn't finish before they arrive.
- Unbroken Vigil: Holmes beside the feverish Watson the entire time he's sick, to the point of falling asleep sprawled half-across the doctor's bed when he can no longer keep his eyes open.
- What Have I Done: Watson tears up when Holmes mentions the corpse found with his wallet in the pocket. He had treated the young man while he was still alive and coaxed him to take the wallet to Holmes or the police. The detective immediately asserts that the gang probably intended to kill the youth anyway and his death had nothing to do with Watson, as the others wouldn't have left the wallet if he were killed because of the scheme.
