Alphabet Soup

by Crinklybrownleaves

This is an A to Z of tiny stories and drabbles, all too short to stand alone. Involving lots of Dr Blake characters, but most will have Lucien and / or Jean in (well, what else would you expect from me!). All different times and moods, the only thing that holds them together is that there is one for each letter of the alphabet.

15. Odd Duck

"Well, Sergeant Davis, he's a bit of an odd duck, but he's alright too." S4E3

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Odd? Charlie looked at her with annoyance, but then softened. It was just her way, a bit of harmless banter. A step forward towards friendship, perhaps.

Actually she was growing on him, just a little. When he first met her, before he knew she was Lawson's niece, she just seemed irritating and demanding, always trying to get him to say something she could write about.

But he'd seen behind it an eagerness to get on, to escape from the horoscopes and anniversary parties that were all she had been trusted with so far. And she was curious and persistent, and she had shared her photos and findings, even if rather reluctantly.

He understood that. Ambition was what had brought him to Ballarat too. And he had been friendless in a small town too.

That ice cream...that was kindness, something he loved to see, and that she hadn't needed to do. Rose might prove...interesting.

So this time the banter was all a bit more personal. The doc and Frank might be "nice" but he was an "odd duck", apparently.

She may have been talking to the child, but it was for his ears too; she saw him a bit differently to those older men. Maybe as a new friend, maybe she was teasing him, but she was definitely singling him out.