5+1 John Watson, Sebastian Moran
Sherlock BBC
Characters/Pairings: John/Sherlock, Sebastian Moran, Jim Moriarty
Rated: R
Warnings: Angst, Violence, Slash, Mentions of torture and rape in later chapters.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sherlock or any characters associated with the series or books.
Summary: Five times John Watson and Sebastian Moran met or crossed paths and both walked away alive, and the one time one of them didn't.
AN: I have minimal medical knowledge and absolutely no knowledge of the Royal Army Medical Corps or the procedures involved in treating their soldiers. Also my knowledge of the British military in general is very minimal. That being said please take my version of things with a grain of salt and in the spirit of it being AU fiction.
1.
The first time Sebastian Moran and John Watson met wasn't all that remarkable or memorable. As a matter of fact both men forgot about it almost as soon as it happened.
John was starting his first official tour as a RAMC Doctor after graduating from St. Bart's Medical School and was just settling in to his duty station. So far everything had been going well no major surgeries had been needed just the usual medical needs a unit of soldiers had and a few broken bones and injuries from soldiers goofing off and getting hurt.
However late one Tuesday John was in the building serving as the medical quarters and on site ER in the middle of a ten hour shift when he had his first case of a soldier with a bullet wound. As the door swung open he was greeted with the sight of a large soldier with a bloody bandage wrapped around the upper portion of his left arm being escorted by a young private who was visibly intimidated by the older, bigger, and higher ranked soldier he was escorting. As soon as he saw John the private quickly squeaked out "Captain Watson, Captain Sebastian Moran reporting for treatment, non-life threatening gunshot wound to his left arm. Sir!" He quickly saluted John and the aforementioned Captain Moran before making an abrupt turn and practically running out the door his escort duty completed.
Suppressing a snort of amusement John quickly turned his gaze upon his patient and began his assessment. The Captain was a tall man at least six foot two and broad shouldered. He definitely posed an intimidating figure with his obviously muscled build, he had a rough sort of face with hard edges instead of angles or curves giving him the look of a man who wasn't afraid of what life could bring and was willing to meet it head on. His hair was a dark brown and his eyes the color of coal and were currently shining with what John thought could either be his own amusement at the private or repressed pain. Deciding he had wasted enough time John motioned the other man to follow him back to an examination room waving off the nurse that approached as they walked into the exam room. Patting the bed john turned around "Sit on that please and we will get started helping you out. Can you tell me how you got shot please?"
Without using his left arm Moran maneuvered himself onto the exam table as John began getting gauze, bandaging material, forceps, a suture pack, several syringes, and various vials containing antibiotics, painkillers, and a tetanus vaccine. When Moran spoke his voice suited him, a low rumbling sound but pleasing to the ear.
"Was on a patrol mission north of here with my team and everything was going fine until we came across some local men with some rifles."
John began unwinding the bloody bandage and once he had that off began cutting Moran's army issue shirt away from his arm and shoulder completely exposing the bullet wound and surrounding area. Moran shook his head slightly in disgust before continuing where he left off.
"Couldn't really call them men the oldest couldn't have been more than sixteen. Any way we naturally went a little more alert once we saw the rifles but soon figured out the older ones were trying to teach some of the younger ones to shoot using some wooden targets about fifty yards down the road."
Moran grimaced a little as John began carefully cleaning the wound and surrounding area with disinfectant before using one of the syringes to inject a local anesthetic and a second one with a dose of morphine after checking the man wasn't allergic.
"That local should start working in about five minutes and then I will remove that bullet and get you stitched up. The morphine should start helping with the pain."
As the morphine made its way through his system Moran relaxed a little more from the almost rigid posture he had before.
"Thanks Doc, as I was saying we relaxed a little once we realized they were only doing target practice and switched our direction a little so we were going around them. A few moments later a shot rang out. I was at the rear of our formation and felt a burning pain in my upper arm. I'm sure I yelled out and in the next few minutes the other members of our patrol had their weapons pointed at the kids and my mate Johnson had me sitting down and a gauze pad over the bleeding hole in my arm. Apparently one of the younger kids had been handing a loaded rifle to another one and accidently discharged it in the process. It just happened to be pointing in the wrong direction."
The look on Moran's face was one of exasperation and annoyance most likely at the stupidity of those kids. If John was hearing everything correctly it had been an accident and it wasn't a case of the soldier's being deliberately fired upon which was a relief.
"Once it was established that the shot was an accident the rest of my patrol put the fear of god and a major lecture in gun safety into those boys' heads. I halfway wanted give one of them a gunshot to the arm to teach them a harder lesson. They were lucky we didn't shoot back automatically; the older ones realized that and were apologizing over and over. After that we called back to camp and had a jeep meet us where we started out originally and I was driven here while they went back to finish out our patrol."
As he talked about giving the kids a hard lesson by shooting one of them in the arm. Something ugly appeared in Moran's face and eyes for a split second before they smoothed back out into the easy going look he had before. John felt a shiver run briefly down his spine and a stray thought crossed his mind that maybe the private had been right to be a little nervous about this man. After a moment he shook it off, morphine could bring out odd things in a person sometimes and he pushed away his momentary unease before turning his attention back to the wound ready to resume his treatment.
"Well I am glad this wasn't an intentional wound and that it is a relatively mild one. The local anesthetic should have numbed you pretty good now and it will be a simple matter of using the forceps to remove the bullet. It isn't very deep in your arm and has avoided any major nerves and blood vessels. After I stitch you up you will be sore for the next two weeks and will need to be careful when moving your arm so you don't pull the stitches. After I am done I will give you after care instructions and a list of do's and don'ts. Sound good Captain Moran?"
As John looked at him expectantly Moran nodded gave him a small quirk of the lips and said "Sounds good to me Doc go ahead and have at it."
Returning Moran's quirk of the lips with his own small smile John grabbed the rolling table with his instruments and a rolling stool. "Then please lie down Captain and we can get started."
Moran laid down on his back on the exam table and John brought his table and stool to the left side of the table and got to work. The next ten minutes were filled with silence as John concentrated on removing the bullet, cleaning the wound again, and suturing it closed. Wiping off the last traces of blood from around the stitches John administered the last two injections containing the broad spectrum antibiotics and the tetanus booster.
"There all we have left now is to bandage you up and go over your after care and restrictions." Indicating to Moran he could sit up now John stripped off his bloody gloves and put on a fresh pair to bandage the wound site. Moran was sitting up and looked as if he was going to speak when an insistent knock sounded at the exam room door.
"Excuse me for a moment Captain." John flashed an apologetic smile Moran's way as he opened the door and stepped outside where the nurse from earlier had an urgent look on her face.
"Sorry to disturb you Captain but we just received word that a unit carrying out a mission encountered a bomb that exploded. We have several soldiers being airlifted by helicopter to us in critical condition their ETA is five minutes. You need to scrub and be waiting in surgery sir."
Thinking fast John opened the door to the room Moran was in "I apologize Captain Moran but I am needed immediately in surgery Nurse Rendell here will finish bandaging your wound and go over after care and restrictions with you. It was nice meeting you but I have to say I hope I don't see you here again and I wish you the best of luck out there." Turning to the nurse at his side John's voice changed to a harder note as he gave his commands. "Nurse Rendell, Captain Moran has a gunshot to his left upper arm; the bullet was successfully removed with no complications. His wound needs to be bandaged and he needs instructions on aftercare and what restrictions he will have as it heals. After that is completed please bring him to discharge and come to assist in surgery."
The nurse snapped a salute along with a "Yes Sir!" and stepped past him into the exam room to complete her orders.
As he was walking out the door on his way to scrub for surgery he heard Moran speak "Thanks Doc I hope we don't meet up again either."
The rest of that day and well into the next John was neck deep in surgery trying to save the lives of several soldiers who were caught in the bomb blast in his first of many marathon surgery sessions he would have in his career with the army. All thoughts of the single non-life threatening gunshot wound he had treated before the chaos started were completely forgotten about and not even remembered when the paths of John Watson and Sebastian Moran crossed again almost ten years later.