Weird and Wonderful

Most people generally get Sherlock. Really, they do. He's a genius and completely socially inept and the way he thinks is downright scary but people can understand that. They get it.

It's John that's the weird one.

John with his jumpers and his tea and his general normalness. Dependable John. Reliable John.

John who runs off with Sherlock every chance he gets.

Sherlock has an excuse. He's a sociopath and a genius and someone with that kind of intellect just has to be on the strange side.

John's got none of that.

John is just a regular bloke. Well, he's a doctor, a former army surgeon in fact, but that is hardly unique. There are plenty like him around the world.

And yet...

And yet he is friends with Sherlock Holmes. Is best friends with a man who beats corpses in the name of science.

And that is just confounding.

John is not alone in claiming to be Sherlock's friend. Not precisely anyway. There is Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson and Molly and all those people who owe Sherlock their lives or their freedom or both.

But Lestrade is closer to being something between a colleague and a brother-at-arms. Mrs. Hudson is some sort of particularly beloved Aunt. And Molly...

Well, no one is quite sure what Molly is but it certainly isn't a friend.

John Watson alone can not only claim that he is Sherlock's friend but that Sherlock is his friend too.

And that makes John very, very strange indeed.

Worse, John somehow seems to thrive on the insanity that is Sherlock Holmes. Body parts, violin, bombs, guns, mad criminals and all.

John chases murders through the backstreets of London, nearly gets killed and then blogs about it.

This brand of psychosis may well be why John can't keep a girlfriend.

John is utterly deceiving; a harmless man with a pleasant smile and strong morals.

But John also laughs at crime scenes and debates stealing ash trays from Buckingham Palace. And is thrilled when Sherlock actually does it.

John will kill for Sherlock.

People forget this part. Forget in the face of John's easy going nature that he can be just as dangerous and deadly as the people he chases.

Sherlock knows.

Sherlock saw it early on and has never, ever forgotten.

He also remembers, with remarkable clarity, that John was the first to not tell him to piss off.

And that makes John – weird and wonderful John – completely indespensible.