The tall man was stooped over a little; his curly hair was probably one more summer off pure white, his knuckles swollen with arthritis. But his eyes were as alert and all seeing as ever. He pulled his long black coat close around his thin frame and stared down unblinking at the white Headstone.

He had once told his best friend not to make people into heroes because they always disappointed you. He had learnt at the highest price imaginable that when those words had left his lips it was only because he had no understanding of what a hero was. And he only found out too late.

A hero was not someone who treated life as one big experimental adventure, where people got hurt and it didn't matter as long as you won, as long as you got the answer right. A hero was not someone brandishing a weapon taking down everything and anything in their way. A hero was not someone who always knew everything.

A hero was in fact someone who only shot when they really had too. A hero was someone who went into a war zone, not for the glory or the medals, but because they believed they could help people who needed them. A hero was someone who would stand in the way of a bullet because they cared about someone else enough to die for them. A hero was someone who would stand up unarmed in the face of their own destruction. A hero was someone who knew they were beaten before they started, but started anyway.

A hero was someone who pushed his friend out of the way of an explosion and took the full force of it himself. A hero was someone who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Sherlock looked down at the Headstone once more, caressing the cold marble with his long fingers as though he could somehow touch John with them. He laid a single blood red poppy on the grave with tears falling freely from his eyes. A hero was someone who could make Sherlock Holmes cry.

In the dying light of the cemetery he read over and over:

Captain John H Watson. G.C.

Doctor, Soldier, Brother, Friend. Hero.

For Your Tomorrow, He Gave His Today.

And even as the cemetery was swallowed in darkness he remained and remembered.