Genre: Friendship

Warning: None

Title: We All Fall

The rain was pouring down in sheets when I returned from my practice that day. It had been very busy due to the out break of colds that kept most of my patients in bed since the weather had turned foul last week as it was oft known to do. My leg was throbbing, I desperately wanted to get off it and relax in front of a warm fire.

I had just made it to the landing stairs and was removing my coat when a door above me slammed and a large man came rushing down the stairs in a great hurry.

Then the door was torn open and Holmes came bolting out yelling for someone to stop the man. Fortunately my years playing rugby kicked in and I tackled the man, wet coat in hand, to the ground where he lay moaning.

"An excellent tackle Watson," Holmes came down the stairs rubbing his head where I could clearly see a bump forming, "that man is highly wanted by the Yard for a most heinous crime."

The door behind me opened suddenly and Lestraude entered along a few constables to apprehend the prostrate man on the floor. With no more than a tip of his hat to both of us and a hurried thanks Lestraude and his boys left half walking, half carrying the man between them.

"Well that was exciting," I muttered as I hung up my coat. When I turned around Holmes was leaning against the wall by the stair clutching his head where the bump was clearly visible.

He saw me examining the wound from across the hall and said, "Watson, dear fellow, would you be so kind as to examine this little present Mr. Highacre left me?"

"Of course Holmes, why don't we go upstairs?" I offered him my arm to help him back up the stairs despite my throbbing leg since he was now wobbling dangerously, possibly on the verge of losing consciousness.

He gratefully accepted my arm as we ascended the seventeen steps to our sitting room where I then cared for his swollen bump. Once I was satisfied that nothing too terrible would come of it besides a splitting headache I told Holmes to try to relax on the sofa.

After he was comfortably settled, pipe in one hand, the other draped over his eyes, I sat down for bit to relax before deciding to retrieve something to read, so I moved over to the bookshelf to select a medical journal.

Just as I was about to go sit in my arm chair my leg seized up painfully, and it buckled under me causing me to fall ungracefully while spilling my medical journal out of my hands. The sheer intensity of the crippling attack caused me to whimper slightly as the muscle in my leg refused to move.

"Easy old boy," Holmes was by me in an instant helping me carefully move to my chair and settled me in it. He arranged a pillow on a settee to prop my stiff leg up with, "the weather really got you today didn't it Watson?"

I grimaced, "It appears so my friend, it is most embarrassing to have fallen like that."

"It's all right," a small chuckle escaped his thin lips, "everyone falls at some point or another but the important thing is to always get back up." After retrieving my journal he reseated himself on the sofa and proceeded to fall into a light nap.

Just as I thought he was truly asleep he told me, "It helps when there's someone to get back up for…"

With a smile I replied, "It does indeed."

A/N: All right, I'm just going to say that this is yet another drable series of usually one-shots that I'd like to have all in one place.

The genre will vary and I'll tell you at the top what genre it falls in, some will be angst, some will be humorous, and I'm sure some will gravitate towards friendship.

^_^ KB