The flood of light caught Sam and Elyssa off-guard, blanketing the world around them and washing out all the details until all that was left was a field of light.
Sam, sitting there calmly with his hands on Elyssa's leg, holding down her bandage, watched John as he set up the new contraption. He wasn't afraid, recognizing the magnifier for what it was and approving the idea inwardly. The light came before he could look away, blinding him and sending him reeling.
Elyssa's reaction was much quicker.
When Sam's hands jerked away from her leg, trying to cover his eyes in defense, she scrambled to her knees and attempted to hobble. There was no real destination in mind with her just as blinded as the other borrower, so long as it was away from that light.
Sam lost balance when Elyssa brushed past him, landing on his back with his eyes covered.
"Sorry!" John blurted, hurriedly shutting the light off when he saw how the borrowers on the table reacted to it. His hand shot out instinctively to block Elyssa's path as she tried to bolt, glancing at her leg to make sure the bleeding hadn't started again. He felt bad about putting her so close to his hand when she wasn't expecting it, but he couldn't let her try to run with her leg in the state it was in.
Curling his hand so he'd be able to tell if Elyssa tried to go around it, John turned to Sam. He leaned forward, reaching a finger to gently nudge his shoulder.
"Are you okay? I didn't mean for that to happen, I'm sorry," he apologized again, his voice lowered with worry and out of respect for the space he'd closed between himself and the smaller folk. He'd already overwhelmed them with light, he was hardly in a position to do the same with sound.
Sam used John's finger to push himself up, leaning heavily against the digit. "I… I think so?" he said, blearily confused and flash blinded. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear them up.
It did nothing, leaving him staring at nothing as he tried to focus on the world around him. It was all washed out. He couldn't see the finger he was leaning on or the person it was attached to.
It made Sam gladder than ever that they were safely in Baker Street and not outside, where anything could happen. If he was blind, even for a short time, he was more helpless than normal and completely dependent on John.
"Elyssa?" Sam called out, waving a hand in front of him as he heavily stood up, keeping his other hand braced on John's finger for support.
For her part, Elyssa wasn't thinking clearly or straight. She reached outward, unable to see John's hand blocking her path. Running into a wall and realizing it was skin she was touching, she immediately recoiled, afraid of setting off this human that had taken her from the streets she knew.
John winced, shifting his finger to wrap around Sam's upper back to guide him closer to Elyssa. She looked so frightened, and there wasn't much John could do about that. Now more than ever, John relied on Sam to be able to calm her.
And if neither of them could see, they relied on John for pretty much everything else.
Sam followed John's cues without question, allowing himself to be led as though John was his seeing-eye dog.
John's finger gave Sam's shoulder a light tap when he was close to the girl. "It's okay, Elyssa. Sam's right here, and nothing's gonna harm you."
Taking John's meaning, Sam reached out, his hand brushing a shoulder when he knelt down. "Hey," he said softly, wrapping his hand firmly around her arm and drawing her reluctantly into an embrace. "It's okay, he didn't mean to flash that at us."
Elyssa's arms were cold to the touch, her skin beaded up in goosebumps. "B-but," her voice quavered, "I can't see…"
Sam laughed dryly. "Me either. I think it has something to do with being adjusted to the dark… Did you know humans can't see anything when they turn off the lights?"
She stiffened in his hold. "They… what?" she asked, her confusion derailing her fear.
John's brow lifted to hear Sam state that fact as though it was so unusual, but he went along with it as it seemed to be distracting Elyssa from her fear.
"It's true," John nodded before remembering neither of them could see it. "We're used to lighting things up ourselves, so we don't adjust well to sudden dark. Just like you don't seem to adjust to sudden light."
Taking a deep breath, John let his nerves and tensions go. He'd delayed long enough, and he switched to a seat closer to Sam and Elyssa, moving the magnifier and the first aid kit with him.
"Alright, I know this is all disorienting, but your eyes should readjust after a while. In the meantime, I'm going to keep working on your leg, Elyssa, but don't worry. I'll let you know what's happening every step of the way. I just need you to trust me a little, and try to calm down so your muscles aren't tense and your heart rate isn't too fast." John kept still while he explained, watching the pair carefully to make sure they were both alright and the girl was fine with John treating her while she was blind.
"O-okay," Elyssa agreed, her voice trembling.
"I'm right here with you," Sam said, slowly untangling her from his arms. He let her relax and lean back, keeping one hand on her shoulder and using the other to hold down her leg and keep it from twitching at the wrong point. Looking up at where it sounded like John was, Sam nodded that he was ready.
John smiled at Sam's signal, glad for the attempt even though it was clear Sam had no idea where he actually was. That reminder made John more determined than ever to do right by the both of them with this.
"You're going to hear something. What I'm doing is putting on gloves," he informed them as he reached into the med kit and did just that. As he did, he explained to Elyssa, "This is to make sure that I don't put you at risk for infection when I touch the area around your wound."
Adjusting the magnifier in preparation, John reached toward the thin leg held out for his access. Since they couldn't see, he didn't have to worry about slowing his movements down for fear of startling the borrowers, but he did pause before touching Elyssa to warn her, "You're going to feel something kinda rubbery under your leg."
As carefully as he'd done anything since he met Sam and Dean, John worked his finger under Elyssa's calf, watching her face for signs of pain. A little was to be expected, given the size of her cut, but if he was hurting her any worse, he needed to know.
Elyssa whimpered at the strange feeling under her leg, a texture unlike anything she'd felt before on her skin and moving her leg effortlessly. She tensed up, but then Sam leaned forward, his soft voice murmuring to her to keep her calm and steady.
His words were too faint for John to make out, but less than ten seconds later Sam was waving up at him then reorienting his grip on the girl to keep her steady without putting any pressure on her injuries.
"Alright, here we go," John sighed, moving the magnifier into place. Its lens was surprisingly powerful, giving him a much clearer view of the wound than he would be able to get under normal circumstances. He did his best to not let his focus slip, even though he could also see Sam and Elyssa in far greater detail than he had so far, like seeing distant pedestrians through binoculars.
"It's not as deep as I thought," he thought aloud, letting his patient know what was going on. "It should heal up just fine as long as you keep it clean and keep it closed. I can probably send you off with a few supplies to tide you over."
John took his finger back after a quick warning, gently setting the girl's leg down without jarring it. He dug through the med kit for the supplies he needed, more grateful than ever for the small pair of scissors kept in there. They had small but fine edges that made cutting the medical tape easy.
Once he managed to cut a long, thin strip, John cut off a tiny snippet of the end for a makeshift closure. Even the smallest in his kit could wrap around the girl's entire leg, probably twice around her ankle. This would be much more practical, if difficult to apply on his end. But he made do, taking one end of the little closure in a pair of tweezers.
John muttered to Sam and Elyssa exactly what he was doing while he did it. With the magnifier for aid, the doctor carefully applied part of the tape to one side of the wound, gave it the gentlest tug with the tweezers and let the rest of the tape stick to the other side of her leg. He repeated this several times down the wound to make sure it was closed all the way through. Then he dabbed a tiny drop of antiseptic cream on the end of another cotton swab, applying it over the cut. There was enough space between the closures for the medicine to work its way in.
Lastly, John made a narrow strip of gauze and, using a larger piece of medical tape, attached it just under Elyssa's knee. With Sam just as blind as her, John didn't want to ask anything of him that he might not be prepared to do. So, using the tweezers, he meticulously wrapped the thin leg. The action felt a lot like sewing by the end: pushing the gauze under her lifted leg, snagging it again to bring it over and around more of the wound.
He finished off the wrapping with one last piece of medical tape attaching the end to the outside of the gauze. Letting out a breath, John looked at Elyssa. "How's that feel?" he asked, prepared to adjust the bandages if needed.
Sam let go of Elyssa's shoulder, then had to hurriedly put his hand close to her again when he realized he'd have no idea if she bolted again. The world was slowly gaining shadows once more, but nothing more distinct than that could be seen.
Working her leg carefully up and down, and then bending the knee, a smile blossomed across Elyssa's face. "It doesn't hurt as much!" she exclaimed, looking surprised at the idea.
Sherlock blinked at Dean's sudden outburst, lowering the angle of the flashlight to be less intense on Dean, but the damage had already been done. He hummed thoughtfully as he belatedly realized that having advanced adaptability to the darkness made Dean susceptible to exposure to bright lights.
Now that he thought about it (and saw it for himself), it was fairly obvious.
He clicked the flashlight off as Dean managed the remainder of the distance without the aid of his vision, frowning at the envelope as it started to appear through the vent.
Just as Dean began to crawl out to gripe at Sherlock some more, the door swung open. Sherlock's eyes widened and he turned, Dean's scolds all but forgotten as Lestrade barreled in before he could be stopped.
Lestrade was more than a little frustrated, having drilled every single guard who'd had shifts since the day before, and all of them swore up and down that nothing had happened. None had let anyone into the crime scene for any reason since last Lestrade had been there. Storming back up the stairs, Lestrade swore that if Sherlock didn't have a good reason for this…
Well, he didn't know what he was gonna do, but he was sure it would come to him.
All feelings of exasperation were out the window as soon as Lestrade stormed in to find Sherlock flat on the floor near an air vent in the wall, giving him an almost feral look. He quirked an eyebrow at the detective until his gaze wandered to the small figure in front of him.
The small, shouting figure.
It was a man, and that man was less than four inches tall.
For a second, Sherlock and Lestrade were frozen, locked in a staring contest. Lestrade didn't even know how to react to this, and was in no way prepared to. He took a few numb steps forward, and Sherlock sat up almost in defense of the tiny person still ripping him a new one.
"What the hell is…" Lestrade trailed off, head starting to spin as it sank in that whatever he was looking at, it was real!
The new voice in the air was enough to break off Dean's tirade, every instinct in his body shouting Danger! as he felt the ground on him shake from a footstep.
One that didn't belong to Sherlock.
Unable to see, no longer certain he was anywhere close to Sherlock, Dean tensed, falling silent as his mind raced to assess the situation. With no way of knowing what was going on with the detective and how Lestrade had come back in without warning, he landed on the only option that would get him safely out of reach until he could see again.
The vent.
Dean's foot edged backwards, prepared to dart off the second he felt the floor shake under his feet again, the universal signal a human was approaching.
A/N:
John's joining Sherlock today in the corner of shame
Next: October 5th, 2022 at 9PM
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