storypaint (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
storypaint) wrote2015-02-08 08:20 pm
storypaint) wrote2015-02-08 08:20 pm
[Sherlock Holmes] progressively unnecessary (Mary/Jane)
Title: progressively unnecessary
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Length: 486 words
Prompt: Sherlock Holmes fic battle: any universe, any Mary Morstan, five things
Pairing: Mary/Jane, implied Shirley/Jane
Other: Set in a modern AU-verse where both Holmes and Watson are women who started their partnership in college.
Excerpt: Mary is quiet. She's an only child, her father gone for long stints in the Navy, and she's grown up with various childless aunts who didn't really know how to handle her. She rose to the call by being quiet, humble, and mature at a young age. The aunts called her an angel, but passed her around between them like they were playing cards.
1.
Mary wants to be a teacher. It's all she's wanted her whole life, and whenever she tells someone here at Yale they wrinkle up their nose and look surprised. Why are you here? no one asks.
No one asks, so she can't tell them about Miss Forrester and how it felt, the first time someone took a real interest in her. But she refuses to be discouraged. She's going to be the best teacher she can be, and to her, that means Yale. She's here where she belongs.
2.
Mary has kissed five boys and two girls in her life. She's not quite sure where all the boys came from. She has never been quite interested in them, but they were always so persistent.
Jane is not the best kisser of the seven, but Mary says so anyway, because she knows Jane will smile and maybe preen a little. She likes the hints of confidence that Jane lets escape. She wants to uncover more.
Perhaps this is why she isn't quite as fond of Shirley as Jane is. In Shirley's shadow, Mary's future doctor will never quite shine.
3.
Mary is quiet. She's an only child, her father gone for long stints in the Navy, and she's grown up with various childless aunts who didn't really know how to handle her. She rose to the call by being quiet, humble, and mature at a young age. The aunts called her an angel, but passed her around between them like they were playing cards. It's not malicious, and Mary doesn't see it as such.
She simply keeps her suitcase packed and waits for the best stop.
4.
When Mary gets into something, she goes deep. She writes a paper in a history class about Pompeii and wakes from dreams of fire for weeks. She can taste the grit of imaginary ash in her mouth.
It is during this week that she breaks up with Jane, choking on dust. If Jane had been at Pompeii, she would be one of the bodies they'd find curled up next to a dear lover or friend, and that person would be Shirley, not Mary. Mary would be long lost by then.
Mary would rather go down to the sea and wait.
5.
Jane sends her proofs of The Sign of the Four before she publishes them. She wants to be sure that nothing she's written will offend Mary, even though she's changed enough dates and places and names that no one would recognize her, if they didn't know the story. Mary smiles at the scribbled, awkward letter that Jane attaches to the sheaf of papers. It is one of the things she loved most about her former partner: Jane's deep kindness.
Please, she writes back, come to visit me. See my kindergartners. Bring Shirley.
She's happy when Jane does.
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Length: 486 words
Prompt: Sherlock Holmes fic battle: any universe, any Mary Morstan, five things
Pairing: Mary/Jane, implied Shirley/Jane
Other: Set in a modern AU-verse where both Holmes and Watson are women who started their partnership in college.
Excerpt: Mary is quiet. She's an only child, her father gone for long stints in the Navy, and she's grown up with various childless aunts who didn't really know how to handle her. She rose to the call by being quiet, humble, and mature at a young age. The aunts called her an angel, but passed her around between them like they were playing cards.
1.
Mary wants to be a teacher. It's all she's wanted her whole life, and whenever she tells someone here at Yale they wrinkle up their nose and look surprised. Why are you here? no one asks.
No one asks, so she can't tell them about Miss Forrester and how it felt, the first time someone took a real interest in her. But she refuses to be discouraged. She's going to be the best teacher she can be, and to her, that means Yale. She's here where she belongs.
2.
Mary has kissed five boys and two girls in her life. She's not quite sure where all the boys came from. She has never been quite interested in them, but they were always so persistent.
Jane is not the best kisser of the seven, but Mary says so anyway, because she knows Jane will smile and maybe preen a little. She likes the hints of confidence that Jane lets escape. She wants to uncover more.
Perhaps this is why she isn't quite as fond of Shirley as Jane is. In Shirley's shadow, Mary's future doctor will never quite shine.
3.
Mary is quiet. She's an only child, her father gone for long stints in the Navy, and she's grown up with various childless aunts who didn't really know how to handle her. She rose to the call by being quiet, humble, and mature at a young age. The aunts called her an angel, but passed her around between them like they were playing cards. It's not malicious, and Mary doesn't see it as such.
She simply keeps her suitcase packed and waits for the best stop.
4.
When Mary gets into something, she goes deep. She writes a paper in a history class about Pompeii and wakes from dreams of fire for weeks. She can taste the grit of imaginary ash in her mouth.
It is during this week that she breaks up with Jane, choking on dust. If Jane had been at Pompeii, she would be one of the bodies they'd find curled up next to a dear lover or friend, and that person would be Shirley, not Mary. Mary would be long lost by then.
Mary would rather go down to the sea and wait.
5.
Jane sends her proofs of The Sign of the Four before she publishes them. She wants to be sure that nothing she's written will offend Mary, even though she's changed enough dates and places and names that no one would recognize her, if they didn't know the story. Mary smiles at the scribbled, awkward letter that Jane attaches to the sheaf of papers. It is one of the things she loved most about her former partner: Jane's deep kindness.
Please, she writes back, come to visit me. See my kindergartners. Bring Shirley.
She's happy when Jane does.