A/N: Hades December Challenge.

1st Dec Prompt from Aleine Skyfire: Christmas tree in 221B.

Best wishes to all:-)

Christmas Tree

The first of December and Watson was fuming,

He glared through the window at fast falling snow;

An assortment of papers piled up round his ankles

And fluttered as Holmes blithely paced to and fro.

No surface was clear of his friend's apparatus

An assortment of samples and test tubes and stuff;

Rolled charts filled all chairs, which was why he was standing;

He turned to his comrade, sighed deeply, "Enough!"

Holmes paused in his steady, preoccupied pacing

And noticed the doctor's expression at last;

Absorbed in a tangled and twisted conundrum

He had not an inkling how time had sped past.

Poor Watson looked weary; a long day with patients,

And still had his hat and his coat in his hand.

The coat hooks were hidden 'neath more of Holmes' "research"

And goodness knew what was draped on the hat stand.

"Dear Holmes", he spoke slowly and firmly and clearly,

"The state of our lodgings; it just isn't on.

I am heading to bed, can you please kindly fix it."

A slam of the door and the doctor was gone.

~0~

Holmes studied the room through the eyes of his comrade

And winced; he could see why the doctor spoke out

His flatmate put up with a great deal of chaos,

But this was too much, beyond reasonable doubt.

He decided he really should heed the good doctor;

He rolled up his sleeves, put his case to one side

The spark of a plan tweaked his brain, quite a notion;

The first of December...'twas now Christmastide...

~0~

Next morning, the doctor still weary and wary;

Not hopeful, not happy, just gently resigned;

Stepped into the parlour, and stared, eyes wide open,

And marvelled at Holmes' most inventive great mind.

The papers and bottles and charts were still present,

But stacked in one corner quite out of the way

And structured and sculpted and tied with red ribbon;

A truly exceptional festive display.

~0~

Green highlights were added to rolled paper branches

And coloured glass bottles spun round crazily.

A triumph of Holmes quite bizarre engineering;

A dazzling, and aptly unique crafted tree

For Christmas; two hundred and twenty one B.

~0~