I can’t help but wonder how lonely John must be for Sherlock to fill that void in his life.

It’s not that…  I mean certainly Sherlock’s amazing.  And he’s not inhuman, not with John at least.  He makes sure John eats, gives him things to keep him interested and engaged.  But they are both so closed off from the world.  And they unbend for each other, but only a little.  There isn’t touch.  There isn’t room for the heart-to-heart.  Does John even have a sense that if he hit a really bad patch of turmoil in his life, that Sherlock would be willing/able to offer support?  If Sherlock even wanted to, would he be able to think of anything to do other than keep John distracted with interesting cases?

Certainly he’s willing to offer that to Sherlock, should the man ever want it.  He gets fiercely protective of Sherlock, in fact, whenever he thinks Sherlock needs it, regardless of whether he has any sign that it’s true.  But as we saw in Scandal (probably, as far as we can be sure of anything we see in Scandal), Sherlock’s not interested in opening up emotionally even when he does need a friend.

I get that the male framework of friendship tends to involve a lot more physical presence, less explicit emotional connection and ~talking about feelings~.  But still.  If someone died, if he lost his job, if he fell into depression, does John have anyone he could turn to?  Anyone to help him keep from falling into the pit in his head?

And yet he calls Sherlock his best friend.  I just find that so interesting.  Because I have this feeling like maybe a lot of what John gets from Sherlock is less of what is healthy for him as a person, and more of what he wants:  more of the distraction from all the things in his own inner life that he doesn’t want to deal with.  More of the craziness and adrenaline and danger and all the things that keep him from thinking about the things he tries not to talk about with his therapist.  More of feeling so very needed and important to someone else’s life.

And it’s not that I think Sherlock is out to be selfish and self-absorbed with this friendship.  But he does seem to like to see John happy, and what makes John happy is mostly this stuff.  Which is convenient, because I don’t know if Sherlock would be very good or comfortable with the other kind of friendship if that’s what John seemed to need from him. Maybe that’s why he considers John his friend; because John doesn’t ask him for the things Sherlock doesn’t want/know how to give.  Largely what John seems to want from Sherlock is for Sherlock to be amazing in his vicinity, which is one thing Sherlock knows all about.

It makes me really, REALLY want to see John truly hurt in S3 about the whole hiatus thing.  It makes me want to see John forced to confront his aloneness and the question of whether his best friend really is his best friend when it counts, and it makes me want to see Sherlock pushed, in terms of friendship, forced onto the spot to BE more of a friend.