Title: Consolation
Author: mildred_bobbin
Pairing: Sherlock/Lestrade, unrequited Sherlock/John
Length: 18,000 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Faced with spending Christmas Day alone watching Christmas repeats on telly, Greg Lestrade decides to check on Sherlock, because he’s alone too, isn’t he?

Reccer's comments: I come back to this one a lot because I love the progression of Sherlock's relationship with Lestrade and the gradual evolution of his feelings for him. Lestrade does start out as the titular "consolation" - what Sherlock can have instead of John, what Sherlock can use to spite John - but he doesn't remain that way, though the road there is not smooth. Both Lestrade and Sherlock feel very true here, and tender, and in character. The climactic conversation, many long years in the making, always leaves me clutching my hands together under my chin. This story is, in my opinion, the definitive non-pre-canon Sherlock/Lestrade, and I always come away wishing I could stay in the story just a little longer.