221B Recs

Title: Law Like Love
Author: PlaidAdder / idairsauthor
Pairing: John/Sherlock, John/Mary, Harry/Janine
Length: 50K
Rating: Teen
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Six months after Sherlock didn't go off on that mission to eastern Europe after all, all is well at 221B Baker Street. Little Rachel is just beginning to sleep through the night. John and Sherlock are sleeping with each other. Charles Augustus Magnussen is alive and unwell and just about bankrupt. And Mary is nowhere in sight. Obviously the events of "His Last Vow" were not what they seemed. What really happened? How did we get here from there? Well, we're going to find out. Backwards.

Reccer's comments: "Dear Moftiss: I used your underutilized female characters for you. They were awesome. It wasn't that hard. Love, me." This is one of the author's end notes, and it's so true. Janine and Harry in particular are fantastic, but Lady Smallwood and Mrs Holmes have important parts to play as well. It's very much an ensemble piece as everyone works together like cogs in a clockwork machine to bring the plan to fruition that is at the heart of this fic: getting Baby Watson to Baker Street with John and Sherlock, and taking care of Magnussen - who just won't stay dead - once and for all.

As we know how it 'ends' - we're shown in the first chapter and it tells us in the summary anyway - and we know most of what came before from HLV, you'd think there wasn't going to be much in the way of suspense, but you'd be dead wrong. The fun - and it is a great deal of fun - is in the systematic reveal of how the plan came about, who contributed what, who was faking it and who was being genuine, and, finally, why it had to be done this way. (Spoiler: love. It was for love.)

At the same time as the machinations are gearing up, we follow back the thread of the main characters' relationships. (There is vaguely referenced infidelity but nothing is made explicit.) Janine/Harry was a delightful surprise to me, and I really liked the fact that John struggled with his feelings throughout. It is never easy for him to make a break, even when he finds out … what he finds out about Mary.

One of the most powerful aspects of this story for me, though, was the exploration of Magnussen's and Mary's characters, just what a psychopath is, what they feel (or don't feel), how they see others, and what, in the end, they actually want. Fair warning: Mary doesn't come off well in this story.

( Excerpt... )