A Good Man ***Chapter Revised*** Please re-read. Thanks
Warning: angsty, and lots of swearing . T
Chapter 5.
"Tell me why I am standing here Lestrade" the fury in John Watson's voice was frightening. The two men were standing in Greg's living room looking at the unconscious woman on the sofa. "Tell me why I won't be leaving this house in the next two seconds and tell me why I should ever talk to you again", the bone deep rage in those indigo eyes made Lestrade swallow nervously.
John Watson was a good man, a good friend, a good doctor and a dangerous enemy.
Lestrade decided to keep it simple and hoped he still had his own teeth at the end of the explanation
"I need your help John; she needs your help John"
The look on his face made Lestrade take an involuntary step backwards.
"Wrong answer Greg" he growled and began to turn away, his limp once more obvious
"Oh for the love of God, I told him not to call an ambulance" the acerbic but weak voice of Sally Donovan interrupted, "but instead of letting me rest, he panics because he thinks he's given me brain damage and calls you as a last resort. It's only a touch of concussion." She finished with a world weary sigh.
"There would have to be an actual brain in situ for there to be any damage to it" Lestrade responded nastily.
To the surprise of both men, Donovan actually gave a weak chuckle, and then gingerly pushed herself up into a sitting position, taking deep breathes to stave off the rising nausea
"If he calls an ambulance, then it becomes official and he's in even more shit than he is now. I am not supposed to be here, but it will be worse for him than me at least I won't lose my job."
She spoke through gritted teeth without looking at either of them.
John watched her impassively; ignoring the almost pleading look sent his way by Lestrade. Saw the pale sweating skin, the struggle to hold the nausea at bay, the pain on her face.
Then suddenly the rigidity left his shoulders, he was a Doctor for gods sake and he had medically treated enough of the enemy as a soldier fighting a war that this shouldn't be a problem even though it was personal. If he wasn't going to shoot the bitch, then he had to treat 'd have preferred to shoot her. He bent to open his bag.
He ignored Lestrade's almost inaudible sigh of relief. He sat beside her, gently touching the swelling on her forehead and fingers tracing all the way round her skull, ignoring her flinching.
"What happened?" he asked her reluctantly, but it was Lestrade who answered coldly "She was pounding on my front door like a mad bastard, when I flung it open it she fell flat on her face, I thought she was an intruder" his tone of voice confirmed that she still was "so I slammed her head into the tiles and kept her there".
John looked up at him with surprise, and was actually unwillingly impressed; the soft spoken detective inspector could be a hard man when he wanted.
"Got any frozen peas?" John asked as he checked her eyes with a small flash light.
"Frozen peas? " Greg repeated confused. "Anything that can be refrozen if you don't have an ice-pack" he explained. "It will help to reduce the swelling, and bring me some water so she can take some paracetamol, no Ibuprofen it could cause a bleed, and she needs to be watched for 48 hours."
His voice was calm, professional and devoid of emotion but his eyes blazed with his anger.
"48 hours" protested Lestrade "She can't stay her for 48 hours for Christ sake"
"Thanks a bunch Guv" Donovan muttered resentfully, "you don't need to worry about it, as soon as I can stand without puking I'm out of here"
John studied the pair of them unemotionally and carried on his examination.
"There doesn't appear to be any worse damage than concussion but I would recommend she goes to A&E to be checked out properly"
He spoke to Greg but Sally answered him before Greg could respond. "No, I said no ambulance, I won't jeopardise his career" was her stubborn response
"Anymore than you have already you mean" John reacted instantly with ice cold venom.
Sally stiffened and raised her aching head, her eyes as angry as John's.
"Sherlock Holmes put the Detective Inspector's career in jeopardy when he admitted to being a fraud" she retaliated with dislike
"If you weren't a woman..." John's tone was total menace but Sally didn't back down "Oh don't let that stop you Doctor" the contempt in her voice obvious.
"That's enough the pair of you" barked Greg in his riot control voice, and Donovan sank back against the sofa breathing rapidly.
John picked up her wrist and felt her pulse. It was too fast. His voice was back to professional impersonal detachment.
"You need to avoid stressful situations until you have recovered from the concussion"
He surprised himself by almost smiling when Sally gave an unwilling snort of laughter. Donovan had guts, and as an ex soldier he had always appreciated bravery even if he couldn't stand the person showing it.
Greg watched the two of them interacting, uneasily aware that if Donovan really upset John then as a soldier and a doctor he could do her some real damage. Not that the honourable John Watson would ever do that normally, but this wasn't a normal fucking situation was it. Sherlock was dead, John was grieving and hating everyone who dared to call Sherlock a fraud, even Sherlock himself at times.
Looking at Donovan, at her strange clothes, remembering her stubborn and loud insistence on getting his attention made his policeman's instincts kick in. A bit belatedly he recognised but they did kick in. Donovan had come to him for a reason; she had even tried to be inconspicuous so that no-one else would recognise her.
What the hell did she want?
"Donovan, what the hell are you doing here in the first place?"
"Took you long enough to ask Guv, been enjoying the beer too much on your break?" she asked with affectionate amusement, whilst her eyes were still closed, then at the distinctly chilly silence, she sighed and opened her eyes again. Her gaze moved from Lestrade to Watson and back again, she seemed to make up her mind and thrust her chin out in that stubborn challenging gesture they both knew so well
"You both believed every word that came out of his mouth didn't you" she remarked bitterly
"Sally" Greg warned angrily
"Fuck it" John muttered and began to move away from her
"No, you listen to me, just listen to me for once" her voice was stern and unrelenting.
The two men faced her unwillingly; she stared at the pair of them with a strange expression that could almost be pity.
"I know he got things wrong, I know it do you understand" and before either of them could react she turned to John and said "The night we met, do you remember what he said to Anderson before he went into the house, the night he started that stupid rumour about the pair of us having an affair"
Lestrade said coldly "You were having an affair with Anderson"
To their surprise Donovan smiled sadly "Even you believed it, because Sherlock said it, after knowing me for years, you believed it."
The disappointment in her voice made Lestrade feel uncomfortable and he shifted angrily but she continued relentlessly
"Heather Anderson is my best friend, we grew up in care together, I spent the night at their house getting pissed with my best friend when she found out about her husband's affair with one of the other forensic scientists. I was on my knees in the Anderson's kitchen because she sat on that floor breaking her heart and I was holding her. I didn't have a change of clothes with me and I had to use the downstairs shower room when I left so as not to wake Heather up. And fucking hey, there was only Peter's deodorant in the downstairs shower because he's the only one that uses it.
I wouldn't touch Peter Anderson with a fucking barge-pole, I work with him because I'm a professional and because Heather begged me not to upset the apple-cart when she decided to forgive him and try again. So Sherlock Holmes got it wrong and he damaged my professional reputation, because not one of my so called friends and colleagues would believe me when I told them it wasn't true, so forgive me if I have a problem believing a word that little shit ever said because I fucking know he got things wrong."
The two men stared at her appalled; John shook his head "I don't ..."
"Of course you don't believe it, and right now the only reason I brought it up is because I need you to listen to me"
Sally said tiredly, shaking her head with grim amusement. "Do you want Heather's telephone number?" she asked with a mocking little smirk.
Lestrade was struggling to make sense of it all. "You came here to tell me that Sally?" he asked confused.
"No, that wasn't it, I wasn't going to mention it, but your smug self righteous attitudes just…" she stopped as she saw them stiffen. "For the love of God just shut up Sally" she ordered herself silently, a slanging match would not be helpful; she had to focus on her priority for coming here.
"I came to you because despite what you think of me after what happened, I am still a copper and there's something not right about this at all"
John's scornful huff was instinctive, but he was now furiously curious and he bit back the rest of his reaction.
"What made you change your mind? Lestrade was still bewildered by her attitude
She said belligerently,
"I didn't say I had changed my mind, but it's that fucking so called suicide note, please Sherlock Holmes calling himself a fraud? No way in hell would that arrogant self aggrandising freak have called himself a fraud and especially not to Dr John Watson, his best friend, unless there was something else going on."
Her gimlet stare at John Watson dared him to contradict her; he had stiffened at her offensive words but reluctantly agreed with the logic behind them.
Her breath was ragged with a combination of pain and rage and she ground out
"If someone used me to help destroy Sherlock Holmes then so help me I will find them and hang the bastards out to dry."
The two men looked at each other incredulously. Greg Lestrade began to remember why he had picked Sally Donovan for his team in the first place and John Watson was having a hard time reconciling this Sgt Donovan with the one he had known since that first crime scene at Lauriston Gardens.
She looked up at the pair of them and told them baldly, her eyes wincing at the light
"I wanted him to be a fraud, I wanted that so badly but you don't mean to tell me that the man who could come up with that so called criminal mastermind scheme would throw himself off a fucking roof because he was found out. That clever bastard could have "deduced" his way out of that charge quicker than he fell off that fucking roof."
She closed her eyes for a few seconds and drew a deep calming breath, then looked Greg Lestrade fiercely in the eyes, so that he could see the truth of her words
"So I will make you a deal Detective Inspector Gregory Lestrade, I will help you investigate this and if this is true, if your beloved Sherlock Holmes was a fraud, a cheat and dishonest to his bones then you will bloody admit it, you will grovel to the disciplinary board, say and do anything to keep your bloody job because they can't afford to lose you, and move on and forget him."
She had pointed her finger at him as if it was some kind of gun but then her hand dropped as she paused, and the tone of her voice changed, it became more deliberate as if her next words were something she had considered painfully and had come to a disquieting and uncomfortable realisation
"If this is all some wicked lie, if he was set up, if the freak wasn't a fraud, I will help you clear his name, I will help you find the people behind it, I will stand there and say I was wrong and then I will resign from the force. Because if it is a lie then God help me, I shouldn't be a copper at all."
AN:
Have revised the chapter, but it still falls in with the story line. Got rid of the contentious miscarriage thread..so hopefully it reads better and makes more sense,
So what do you think about Sally? I always thought that Sherlock must have really hurt her for her to be such a cow to him. Please let me know what you think.
Coming up: Lestrade is going to get more offers of help, from some really unexpected sources...