Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

[weefreethings]

Title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Summary: When Lestrade breaks off his relationship with Sherlock, Mycroft seizes the opportunity to collect Lestrade for himself.  As the most dangerous man in Britain, he can take care of Lestrade and protect him.  He just can't understand why Lestrade seems so subdued and unhappy.
Rating: PG-13

Comments

[morganstuart]

Oh geez. Oh geez.

That was dark and aching and all the right things. It about broke my heart, John's confusion as Lestrade went back and forth between being the confident DI and the hesitant man. I absolutely love John for pressing the issue... and for being gobsmacked by the realization of how far outside the lines Sherlock works and Mycroft goes to protect him. Lestrade's explanation of all that could happen to him literally gave me chills.

And this: "Turns out that he can't stay away from crime scenes even if I won't sleep with him. Wish I'd known years ago." AUGH, my heart!

Dear Mycroft. How amazing is that briefcase and what it represents? Wow.

Hats off to you. This is marvelous.

[weefreethings]

Thanks for the kind words! As aggravating as I find this version of Mycroft, he's terribly useful for filling in plot holes! :) Of course, in the Crossroads 'verse, I could just have him do the same, illegally. >:) I was mad at John for not getting involved as he usually does in my stories.

[weefreethings]

Very glad that you enjoyed it! I was kind of worried about Lestrade being out of character, but your story convinced me that he'll get himself into hideous situations to get something done, even when he can often see the consequences waiting ahead of him, much as he did when he brought Sherlock onto the crime scene in SiP. And while he's got his self-respect, it doesn't rate too high on his list of priorities.

[snarkyducky]

thank you for sharing this story -- i found it interesting that reading it made me more uncomfortable than reading some fic in another fandom that included torture (which is one of my squicks) even though M in this story is doing all he can to treat L well.. it just goes to show how well written this is, because i could feel the oppressive waves of that trapped feeling coming across the screen.. do you know if a sequel is planned?
♥

[weefreethings]

Thanks for the encouragement! One reason I tried this prompt was a mad hope that I could do something with the atmosphere.

I'm probably not going to do more with this because omnipotent!Mycroft doesn't make much sense to me. I'm planning on getting back to my original series of stories, which gives me a completely different set of problems to deal with (my version of Mycroft is determined to be wily and uncooperative).

[rusty_armour]

I feel like I'm repeating what other people have said, but this story is wonderfully dark and complicated. At the end, I was left wondering whether this was actually a happy ending. While Mycroft now understands how Lestrade feels, he only seems capable of offering Lestrade escape options rather than resolve the obvious issues. However, that package seems like such a Mycroft solution, especially as it not only offers Lestrade escape from the relationship but any dangers that might befall either one of them. And while I love Mycroft, there's definitely something creepy about his omniscience. Of course, with his access to every CCTV camera in London, he's the ultimate voyeur. I thought it was great when Mycroft caught Lestrade smoking and completely freaked him out. *g*

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you write next. :-)

[weefreethings]

Thanks! I'd been thinking about that smoking scene for some time. Originally, it was supposed to be funny. >.<

Mycroft is in a heck of a position with respect to actually fixing the issues. All he can do is make promises, which is not so helpful until they've rebuilt a decent level of trust between them. And I'm not even sure that he would stop spying on Lestrade because I don't think he knows that it's wrong. Over time, this may be something they work out between them. Mycroft recognized that the challenge in the short term is to buy that time.

[sookail]

Wonderfully sad and beautiful.

Really appreciate that you *did* write omnipotent!Mycroft/think his character through b/c usually ppl just don`t which leads to srsbsns lack of good!fic about him. Thank you!

[weefreethings]

Much thanks! Wish we knew more of BBC!Mycroft's character! Just trying to stay internally consistent!