Author's note: Spoilers for His Last Vow.

Since this tumblr challenge is about the things we didn't see, I decided to write about the time John and Mary were separated after she shot Sherlock.

I don't own anything, please review.

It takes five months.

Just like Sherlock thought. John Watson is not a difficult man to understand, and he loves Mary. The consulting detective made the plan lying in the hospital bed, because he knew it was inevitable that John would find out. He would find out because Sherlock had to know, had to investigate, had to see her face to be sure that he was doing the right thing, and John was part of that plan.

He had to consider what would happen afterwards. John wouldn't be able to look at Mary without being reminded what she had done. And, when he moves back into their flat, he can't. He doesn't mention her, simply goes into the kitchen and makes tea. Sherlock pushes away any satisfaction at seeing him back at 221B and concentrates on the task at hand. John won't stay. John will return to Mary.

Because if she deserves his doctor – and Sherlock is convinced she does – he has to get them back together.

Because, no matter how hard he tries, he can never give John what he craves – a normal and yet extraordinary life. Sherlock Holmes isn't good at normal; he never has been. John Watson is a simple man at heart, and he wants a wife, children, and doesn't admit to himself that it won't be enough. He needs excitement. Mary is perfect for him – she can be his wife, they can have his family, but she will provide enough action to keep the nightmares and the limp away.

And Sherlock knows his life will end bloody. He's never really believed that he will retire to keep bees at Sussex, even though it is his dream, an impossible dream he sometimes entertains himself with; he has always taken dangerous paths, and one day he won't be quick enough. He will die, and John will be left alone if he doesn't return to his wife, and he can't allow that.

His plan is easy.

John might be angry at Mary for having shot Sherlock – killed him, even though it was only temporary – but if he only heard often enough that she saved him, that she didn't shoot him fatally, that she knew what she was doing – over time, it will make an impression. He will come to accept that she did the right thing and that Sherlock dying on the table was simply an unlucky coincidence.

This is going to need time, so for the first few weeks, Sherlock rarely mentions Mary. John doesn't talk about her, or about the child they are expecting, although the consulting detective knows he must think about it a lot. He looked so pleased at the wedding when he revealed what he'd seen without wanting to. John desires to know his child, and so he will have to speak to Mary eventually. But if they are going to be happy together or if the doctor will only visit every two weeks depends on Sherlock, and he is confident that he can set things right.

He begins slowly, careful not to appear too eager. John knows she saved him; it will take a while to sink in. If he starts talking about it once more, the doctor will guess what he's trying to do.

He has to be careful; he starts on a Thursday afternoon, when they've just got back from a case. A man was murdered – a happily married man – and his wife couldn't hold back her tears as she told them about him, how he hadn't had an enemy in the world, and how she couldn't understand why anyone would do this.

The case was simple enough, but it gives him a chance. John was distracted in the cab, barely listened to him as he explained how he solved the case, doesn't immediately go to his laptop to write about it. Instead he makes tea, and Sherlock is sure he pauses now and then to look at his ring.

When he accepts the cup John offers him, he asks casually if he's heard anything from Mary, making sure he sounds like it's a passing thought, like he doesn't care, like he is a normal friend who wonders about the well-being of his best friend's estranged wife.

John is too occupied with wondering about the case and his marriage to notice that Sherlock normally wouldn't be asking about her, just like the consulting detective thought, and only answers absent-mindedly that they haven't talked in a while.

He doesn't update the blog and goes to bed early.

Normally, Sherlock would play his violin to help him get some rest, but if he wants John to have something that's good for him, he has to make his blogger uncomfortable, to cause him to remember why he was drawn to Mary. He has to see that she is his best option.

The flat is no longer John's home. Sherlock knew as soon as he saw his girlfriend that the life they'd led was over, and he's okay with that, because it was never going to be forever. People want certain things, John wants certain things, and it was only ever a matter of time until he found it. Everyone leaves. It isn't good to get attached. Mycroft told him, and the consulting detective wonders if part of the reason for his friendship with John was an attempt to prove his brother wrong. Naturally, he wasn't because the British Government has the annoying habit of being right.

Mycroft, thankfully, hasn't voiced his opinion on Sherlock's plan yet, although he must be aware of what it entails. He always is.

That's not the point though; their rivalry doesn't matter just like the fact that she killed him doesn't matter.

John can't ever know that I lied to him.

She loves John, and she would kill for him. Sherlock has killed for him – has done things during the two years he was dead he prefers not to be reminded of – and can't blame her for it. John Watson is important.

The doctor thinks more and more often about his wife in the weeks that follow; now and then his gaze grows unfocused, he doesn't listen to Sherlock's deductions, he locks himself in his room. It's progress, but it isn't enough.

Sherlock needs another opening. He would enlist the help of Greg and Molly, but sadly, the pathologist has never talked to John about his relationships, which would make it suspicious if she were to start now, and shortly after he got out of the hospital the doctor drank a little too much at one of his and Greg's frequent meetings at the pub and told him what Mary had done, and now the DI won't mention her name and seems convinced that John will never see her again. It's the reaction he expected from his friend; Greg has always been protective of him, in a way that put his career in jeopardy more than once. But he can worry about seeing the DI see reason later; now he has to foucs on getting them back together.

Thankfully, a client arrives, a mother who didn't find a babysitter so she took it with her in a basket, and Sherlock can see the glances John throws the little boy while she's sitting in the client chair, talking about her cheating husband.

She notices too, turns to the doctor and smiles.

"Do you have children?"

John stares at her, unable to answer; he swallows and eventually answers "No". She realizes he doesn't want to talk about it and continues to complain.

After Sherlock tells her that her husband is cheating on her, apparently with a colleague of his, and she leaves, to his relief not crying, John makes tea once again. It has always been a coping mechanism for him.

He clears his throat.

"You are aware that you will eventually become a father".

"You don't have to remind me" John snaps back.

But he does. John has to remember. John was happy with Mary and is going to be happy with Mary.

The doctor is putting the kettle on and Sherlock wonders what he is thinking; he could walk in and deduce, but it would look suspicious. He rarely waits in the kitchen for his tea. John usually brings it in the living room.

He takes up his violin and starts to play. John thinks about his child a lot, like any man would. Sherlock can guess what he has come up with.

First of all, there is Mycroft. It would be easy for John to receive full custody of his child. But the doctor is a good man, and he won't want to raise his child without its mother. That's not an option, therefore; and either will he like the thought of only seeing him or her when he comes to visit every other weekend.

There is a strong argument for reconciliation with Mary, then. All that's left to do is to convince him that she really did save Sherlock's life. He never has been stubborn when it comes to accepting the truth, so they will be together at Christmas, just like the consulting detective's plan.

There is every chance that he won't be around for much longer after he sees them back together.

Magnussen is a threat; not only to Mary, but to many other people as well. He is, however, first and foremost a threat to John, and so Sherlock has to defeat him. First of all, he has to get everything he has on John's wife; and then –

Then he will kill him. People like Magnussen have to be killed; it would be much too dangerous to leave him alive.

Sherlock is aware that he will either be in prison or being sent on a suicide mission afterwards; not even Mycroft could get him out of a murder charge this time. Magnussen holds the secrets of many politicians, and while they should be relieved when they find out about his death, they won't be. People are idiots, and despite evidence to the contrary they will be angry that he upset the status quo and risked that the information came into the wrong hands.

He can't kill Magnussen until John is with his family again. John can't be alone. He doesn't do well on his own.

Now that he has him thinking about Mary and the baby, he only has to make him see reason.

It's surprisingly easy. Sherlock doesn't talk to him about his marriage, but he often, when criticising his blog or telling him about the interesting parts of a case, throws in sentences like "don't be annoying, at least we lived to tell the tale" or "If I hadn't been around – "

He knows that it will make John realize that he wouldn't be without Mary.

A few experiments he performs in the kitchen, much to the doctor's chagrin, that show where a bullet is most likely to cause the least harm to the human body make things easier as well. Mary knew what she was doing, and John learns that over the next few weeks. He should know, having been in the army, but sentiment tends to cloud his judgement.

Everything is going according to plan.

There is the usb stick, but he doesn't worry about that. From the moment his wife gave the doctor the information about her past life, he was certain that it wouldn't be a problem. John won't want to know. The only problem was to get him to forgive her, and by making him think about the baby and remind him that she saved Sherlock's life, that killing him was an accident, he achieves it in the five months he figured it would take.

When he tells him his parent invited Mary for Christmas dinner as well and his eyes light up, he knows he has been successful.

He doesn't look around one more time before he leaves Baker Street, even though this will be the last time he ever sets eyes on his flat. Once John and Mary are reconciled, he – they – are going after Magnussen. Afterwards, he will be under arrest or dead.

It doesn't matter. John Watson's future is secure.