elaby: (Lestrade - Best of the professionals)
[personal profile] elaby
So apparently I never posted this in my own LJ O_o I wrote this some time ago and posted it in [livejournal.com profile] cox_and_co, the Holmes/Watson community wot is filled with wonderful people, though the slash in it is negligible at best. And I forgot to post it here! Duh. *laughs* I dunno how many of you would be particularly interested in reading a tiny Lestrade fic, but I thought I'd post it anyway because I was looking for it the other day and couldn't find it.

Title: Most Unexpected
Words: 504
Characters: Lestrade focus. The POV is a random Yarder from "The Second Stain."
Rating: G
Notes: This is a missing scene of a sort from "The Empty House." For some reason I was convinced that Holmes sent Lestrade a telegram upon his return, but I can find it nowhere in canon. The consensus on [livejournal.com profile] cox_and_co was that Lestrade says something to the effect of "I was never more surprised in my life than when I got your note" in the Granada episode. So, the idea that Lestrade was alerted by telegram that Holmes was alive sparked this. Apologies to Constable MacPherson for causing him more trouble than he probably deserves.


I remember that it was a chill rainy morning in early April, and if there was anything worse than walking your beat on such a morning, it was being cooped up in the Yard's investigative division office with an inspector whose mood might've outmatched the weather. The boys'd told me that the Ronald Adair case wasn't going well and that anyone who wanted to keep his head would steer clear of Inspector Lestrade today, and naturally that meant he wanted to see me the moment I arrived.

"Constable MacPherson," he said as I entered his office, and I knew from the extra emphasis he'd placed on the first syllable that I'd done something to displease him.

"Morning, Inspector," I said with a nod. He did not offer me the chair in front of his desk.

"Sergeant Cullins tells me you've been moving things around at crime scenes again."

"Oh, sir," I said, "that was downright unavoidable--"

"I don't care what you think it was, Constable," Lestrade thundered, rising. "You don't move anything until an inspector arrives to tell you you're-- what is it now?!"

I turned to see a small cowed-looking boy from the telegraph office standing in the doorway. "Urgent wire for Mr. Lestrade, sir," he said meekly. I took the telegram and passed it over to the inspector. The boy wisely fled. Lestrade ripped the telegram open and I wondered if I could follow suit while he was distracted.

Before I could, though, I heard a sharp intake of breath from him, and then I'll be damned if he didn't go white as a china plate. He sat down with a thump in his chair, like his legs just stopped holding him.

"Is everything all right, sir?" I asked. I'd been here long enough to know his usual response to unpleasant news was to get angry, and so this unnerved me a little.

"Yes," he said, with something of a shiver in his voice. "Yes, Constable. Everything is." I must say I didn't believe him, because – and Lord save me if it's not the truth – he started to laugh. It wasn't his usual "you've been so thick you're making me chuckle" laugh, either. It was unselfconscious and incredulous, and if I may be so bold, it sounded edging on the hysterical to me. I must've been staring, because he caught himself after a few moments and stifled the laughter with a hand over his face. By this time he'd slid halfway down in his chair. It was clearly taking some effort not to burst out laughing again, and he waved a hand weakly at me. "I'm all right, MacPherson. Be off with you."

"Yes, sir," I said, and gladly turned on my heel and left. As I went down the hall, I heard him say, not to me but more like to himself:--

"Blessed idiot better have told the doctor before he told me, or else that'll be one more homicide I'll be investigating tonight."

Date: 2009-02-17 02:55 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] kcscribbler
Eee, I love it! And I love poor Constable MacPherson too!

Date: 2009-02-18 11:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Thank you! ^_^ I'm kind of fond of writing him now *laughs* I starting something else with him in it.

Date: 2009-02-19 01:26 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] kcscribbler
Sweet, I look forward to it. :)

BTW, I watched the Russian version of HOUN last night (I'd seen bits and pieces of it but not the whole thing straight through), and I have to say though Sir Henry annoyed the fire out of me (is that really what they think Westerners are like??!) the dynamics between H&W were MUCH better than any other adaptation I've seen (yay hugs ^^).

Date: 2009-02-19 01:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
OMG, the hugs! Were they not magnificent?

I think Sir Henry is supposed to be funny. From the pages I've read that (I think) were written by Russian fans, I got the impression that he was meant to be comic relief, not insulting. The only time I found him funny was when he and Watson were drunk after the dinner with the Stapletons *snicker*

Date: 2009-02-19 01:46 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] kcscribbler
That's slightly reassuring, then. *shudders* But yes, that part was hilarious.

And to be honest, Dr. Mortimer was just as bizarre to me, in a more creepy way. I loved the bit where he's all excited about finding a skull, only that Franklin was going to prosecute, and Watson's all trying not to laugh at him. :D

Date: 2009-02-19 02:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Yeah XD Watson is SO darn cute, I can't even believe it.

Date: 2009-02-17 03:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] minyan.livejournal.com
"you've been so thick you're making me chuckle" laugh

I can just hear that. And — Aw! The last line is just right. Catches me by the throat.

Date: 2009-02-18 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Bwee, thank you :) *delighted you like it*

Date: 2009-02-17 03:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caitirin.livejournal.com
*incomprehensible gibbersqueelove*

Date: 2009-02-18 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
n_______n I'm SO happy you like this!

Date: 2009-02-20 09:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] coastal-spirit.livejournal.com
Don't know these characters at all, but I like them!

"Blessed idiot better have told the doctor before he told me, or else that'll be one more homicide I'll be investigating tonight."

Brilliant. Yes. :)

Date: 2009-02-21 03:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
D'aww, thank you ^_^ I'm happy that you can like them without knowing them :) I have a very large soft spot for Lestrade, who can be an absolute ass in the stories, but he occasionally redeems himself ^_^

Date: 2009-08-15 12:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janeturenne.livejournal.com
First time I read this, way back when on Cox and Co, it was pre-Lestrade obsession, and I loved it anyhow. Coming back to it now, it has got EVEN MORE AMAZING. The part about the extra emphasis on the first syllable made me go "OMG so Lestrade!"-- I can just hear Collin Jeavons saying it, the same way he says "MIS-ter Holmes" (love; love! love to Lestrade and Colin Jeavons and to YOU), and it's bloody marvelous. And "Be off with you"! I need hardly mention, of course, that the last line is a thing of infinite and surpassing loveliness, but mention it I shall. And the poor little telegraph boy! And the MacPherson voice! And...I could keep and-ing all night, you realize, just to express the volume of my love for these 504 words. Wonderful beyond wonderful, my dear :)

Date: 2009-08-15 01:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
n_______n There's nothing quite as delight-inducing as getting comments on long-ago-posted fic! Especially comments from you :) I can't even express how happy it makes me that you recognized the "CON-stable MacPherson" being exactly like Colin Jeavons's "MIS-ter Holmes," because that is exactly what it is, and you heard it and YAY XD *happy dance in a circle*

I'm about to post that winter thing I've been working on :) It's not the skating fic, but that one I'll start next!

Date: 2009-08-15 01:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janeturenne.livejournal.com
Bweee, new Elabyfic! *capers and gambols in between compulsive f'list-refreshing*

Date: 2009-08-15 01:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
I hope it rewards your excitement :)

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