Title: The Watson Files
Parings: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Trigger Warnings: Canon typical violence and injury
Chapter 1 – Injury
It was just luck that I happened to be in the car when I got the call. According to my on and off girlfriend Shirley Sherlock and John had been chasing someone which had resulted in John falling or being pushed off the Westminster Bridge into the Thames. Sherlock, of course, had gone in after him.
Shirley directed me to the most likely place that they would come ashore and indicated that an ambulance was in route. I got there just in time to see Sherlock, looking like a half-drowned rat, stagger out of the water dragging what had to be John. As I headed down the steps Sherlock dropped to his knees beside John's body and started rescue breathing.
Thank heavens for those mandatory first aid classes I thought. Everyone who worked at the Yard, even the consultants, had to take them. Sherlock had bitched and moaned but complied. Those mandatory classes were usually deadly dull and full of information that the average bloke wouldn't retain more than 5 minutes. That would have been the case this time too but for John Watson. Despite the fact he was a practicing MD entitled him to an exemption, he had been in the session with Sherlock, I and most of my team. John had provided anecdotes, mnemonics and really bad puns which made the stuff a lot easier to remember. I found myself singing Staying Alive under my breath as I reached the two of them.
It wasn't needed. Sherlock rolled John on his side into the recovery position. John took a deep breath then coughed and threw up. Sherlock used his scarf, which somehow was still wrapped around his neck, to wipe John's face one handed. It was then I noticed that Sherlock's other hand was pressed hard into John's side.
The ambulance arrived just then and I stepped back to let the professionals take over. I marveled at the efficiency and at the fact that the paramedics hadn't even attempted to separate the two. It didn't take very long before John and Sherlock were triaged, stabilized and whisked away to Hospital.
It took me a little longer. I ended up interfacing with emergency services, the investigating officers from the local substation, and the forensics team that ended up on the bridge. I only managed to get away by being strategically delegated to go and get a statement from Mr. Holmes. It seems my well known status as the METs resident "Sherlock Whisperer" was paying off in this instance at least.
The A&E was busy but upon signing in I was very quickly shunted aside to a rather concerned looking nurse whose badge read Smithfield. She informed me that Dr. Watson was in surgery because he'd been stabbed before going into the water. They were making sure that the knife hadn't nicked anything important. John's prognosis was good last she'd heard despite getting filthy water in the open wound. He was most likely going to be stuck in Hospital for a couple days due to high dosage antibiotics but all and all he should be fine.
Nurse Smithfield, however, was more concerned about Sherlock. Apparently after a small blow up at the ambulance service personnel and a couple of scathing remarks directed at the team who had converged on Dr. Watson he'd subsided into a suspiciously quiet and cooperative state. He'd followed instructions and answered questions with nary a deduction, obviously, or idiot to be had. Smithfield, who had dealt with Sherlock previously, wanted to know if they should check for concussion or other brain injury.
I briefly wondered if everyone in the entire city thought I was an expert on Sherlock Holmes, then I realized that I probably had a decent idea what was going on. Despite his rather vocal protestations that he was a high functioning sociopath I knew that Sherlock, when he let himself care, cared deeply. I also knew he had quite a bit of knowledge about the damage a human body could sustain before expiring, the chemical composition of the Thames, and the dangers of hypothermia along with other bits of esoteric information stored in his extensive mind palace. Couple that knowledge with his deductive reasoning and ability to read people meant that he most likely had run through a number scenarios regarding John's condition, each one more dire than the last. Patient confidentiality would preclude him from getting any real facts so he'd emotionally shut down to avoid dealing with the possibility of John's permanent incapacitation or death.
I knew I was going to be in for a long night as I asked Nurse Smithfield to take me to Sherlock.
Author's Note: My muse imagined Sherlock pulling John out at RAF memorial across the river from the London Eye. That puts St. Thomas as the closest hospital.
This list was part of the 2017 July Writing Prompts at John Watson's Woe's on Dreamwidth. The original prompt was as follows: Watson injury (any severity), from a different POV than Holmes (meaning Mrs. Hudson, Scotland Yard, Baker Street Irregular, The Villain (whoever he/she may be), etc.