Wonderful update! On the one hand I'm angry with Watson because he doesn't do anything to improve his relationship with Josh, on the other hand I find it understandable that he is in far too desperate a state of mind to fix anything...

I'm so looking forward to your next chapter! I can't wait to see how this trip to Cornwall will end! I hope for a turn to the better... By the way, I love it how well you build your story around the canon stories - great!

One little question: Josh was born in October 1891, wasn't he? Then if it's now March 1897, he can't have turned 6 already, can he? Or did I get something wrong with the timeline?

This is the greatest Sherlock Holmes fic I've ever read, if not the best of everything. /Everything/. *nods* The characters are so believably in character, they're almost exactly canon. I'm getting /really/ annoyed with Watson right now. He's being an aweful father! But, he's so human, its wonderful. He just needs someone to give him a swift boot to the rear. All his fear and brittle patience; I couldn't fault a real person for acting that way under those circumstances. You're genius, completely. Please, please, please update soon!

I'm so glad you updated this. This is a great story, and it just seems that the further you go, the better you get at it. The characters become more comfortable and defined, and you definitely get a better grasp of Holmes' personality (he seems a bit off in the beginning, but it's improved so very much) I'm happy to see you address realistic concerns in this, too. Authors usually forget the differences between modern American culture and tolerance and those that existed in England at the time these stories take place. You usually pay it close attention. This is a great fanfic; I'm always thrilled to see an update. Great work!

This is fantastic!

Your story the most complex fanfiction I've ever read - and I've read many. You're drawing an incredible picture of the characters and their time, which I find absolutely fascinating, as well as your use of the old language.

I'm so looking forward to the next update. Thank you for making me return to my old Sherlock Holmes addiction.

YAY! An update!And a brilliant one at that! Please don't keep us in suspense much longer. I am, as the rest of your readers and fans I'm sure, quite anxious to see what will become of our Baker Street trio! Brilliant writing and a brilliant chapter and I am looking forward to the next installment!

It's hard watching things go so wrong for them. I suppose real life really is a lot messier than Watson canonically tended to portray, but... this seems like complete catastrophe. Were Josh not in the picture, it wouldn't be so dismal; Holmes and Watson both seem quite capable (to my mind) of drifting apart, drifting back together, fighting, or making up, and they'd probably do alright whichever happened... theirs seems to be a friendship that can take a lot of fluctuations in closeness over the course of years. But you keep bringing up the ominous presence of a child whose life is being ruined by all this!

Why is Watson such a terrible father? He always seemed like a very decent man to me, and a pretty warm person. I can see the logic of how his paranoia about discovery would make him pull away, but he seems to do it more constantly and consistently than I would have thought possible; he *never* seems to reach out to his son at all, over the course of many years, when I had always imagined him as a fundamentally affectionate person. It seems to me that even bad parents would make assays into the actions of decent human beings; I don't know what to make of the fact that Watson does not even seem to fight against this descent into isolation and cruelty.

What you have done with Watson that is really fascinating, that I haven't really seen before, is the degree to which his idea that homosexuality is wrong makes him act so as to confirm its wrongness. He does not have the modern viewpoint that love between two men can be healthy rather than perverted, and that it can be constructive to a family, rather than destructive, and so his panic causes his family to disintegrate accordingly... that's a wonderful bit of character tragedy. But damnit, I have to believe that Watson is ultimately both smarter and better than the sort of idiot who will sacrifice his life, his lover's life, and his child's life in order to follow his hormones into misery and terror, and then accept that that's how they all have to live out the rest of their lives.

There are some grammar issues in these past few chapters that you might want to look at- several times, you use a word when you want another word that sounds like it, instead. This past chapter had "admit" instead of "adamant"- there are a few others too. I feel like there's also a tendency to use unusual prepositions or strange sentence structures in order to sound old-fashioned, which tends to end up sounding more jarring than authentic- not always, of course, but occasionally.

I await the changes this trip to Cornwall may bring! At this point it hardly seems to matter to me what the status of Holmes and Watson is- I just want Watson to someday figure things out so he can be the character I admire and respect again... poor Watson. Poor Holmes. ...And is there any hope for Josh?

This is a fab story; excellently written! I look forward to your next update very much indeed.

Damn, now I won't be abel to sleep tonight. Am very much looking forward to the rest!

Well, I have been captivated by this story for the past five days, reading as much as I can in between tasks at work. Well done! I like that I can't tell where you're going with it. Keep it up.

OMG I just reread your story and let me tell you it is amazing! This is the only chapter I can review because apparently I didn't review this one. I just wanted to say I admire your writing style and your brilliant characterizations. Please update soon because I am dying to know what will become of Holmes, Watson and Josh. The way you left the final chapter, that Watson had lost everything is heart breaking. Please, update so we can learn what will become of all of them! And allow me to commend and congratulate you on such a brilliant bit of writing. Brava brava bravissimi. And if I didn't say it before...UPDATE SON!

I love this novel. I've recommended it to fellow Sherlockians on Scarlet Street Forums. It is absolutely captivating and unforgetable. Please continue?

I have found your story about a month ago because it was recommended to me as the best H/W-Story. And I was courious because I hadn't read any FF about Sherlock Holmes.

I have to say that I really, really love your story and would immediatly force my family and my friends to read it if their english weren't too bad...

(I'm from Austria.)

To be honest my knowledge of Holmes is just founded on a short-story book I read two years ago, but I swear the charakters are just the same.

I agree with the other reviewers who said this story should be puplished and I promise I would buy it immediatly.

I just love your style of writing and hope the story will go on soon.

Your development of the charakters and their relationships is so good.

Just know that I adore your writing and wait impatiently of an upload.

With John Sherlock having witnessed the account, I do wonder if Holmes intended it to be thus...

Excellent as always.

o...I'm so sorry that it took me so long to review...but here I am! That was such a sad story! Do continue please!

You managed to write the love scene so realistically. Good job...a bit too hard and animalistic...just so wonderfully to read.

The references to my beloved Oscar Wilde gave this chapter a special original touch.