Monday, October 14, 2013

work

I was called out to a domestic violence incident last night. It was painful. All you can do is patch up wounds and hope justice will be done at some point, and know that even if it is, it won't undo the damage.

And the next one involved a pipe stem jammed somewhere you wouldn't want a pipe stem to go. I'm certainly getting a broader set of experiences in this job than I expected.

I got home very late/early. Lestrade had made tea for us and then fallen asleep balancing his on his chest. I had to wake him very carefully. It's just so nice... Well, beyond nice really. Amazing to have someone to come home to after a night like that. 

61 comments:

Greg Lestrade said...

...I'm intrigued as to who was responsible for the pipe stem being jammed...

Just having someone there who cares to patch up the damage...it's better, you know? Than it all being behind closed doors.

I can't speak for everyone, but sometimes the worst thing is letting someone - anyone - know. Once one person does...sometimes it helps. But yeah, all you can do is hope for justice.

John H. D. Watson said...

Not the person into whom it was jammed. He was really definite about that.

I hope it gets better for her - and her kids. It's just... I only see this tiny piece of their lives, but even from that it's clear things won't be right for a long time, if ever. Not just with cases like this, but a lot of crimes. I wish there was more I could do to help.

Greg Lestrade said...

Ha.

I know. I think we all wish that. But we can't turn back time, so all we can do is our jobs, and gather all the evidence, and be ready to act if it's needed. And you do all that.

John H. D. Watson said...

Thanks, love. I know you must feel like that too. It's... Well, it's difficult.

Greg Lestrade said...

Yeah, it is. And I've had years to get used to it.

You must be used to...you know, doctoring someone completely, until they're better or able to get somewhere that can help them...and, you know, being more in control. This job never really lets you be in control. You're forever waiting to be given the go-ahead to do what you really want to.

Hopefully, given the police were there, then the guilty party at least didn't get away with it.

John H. D. Watson said...

Yeah, I think that's it. Especially the difference between sending someone to hospital at Bastion and just...leaving, hoping she'll get what she needs.

They did arrest him. I hope he goes to prison for a damned long time.

pandabob said...

You being there to help her John and the police being there to arrest him make it far more likely he'll get punished for whatever he did even if he'll never quite get what he deserves!!

London is lucky to have you two doing your best to look after it even if all it really needs is a pipe removing from somewhere interesting ;-)

Greg Lestrade said...

See, that's the difference between th medical profession and policing. We all trust you lot to absolutely do what's best for us, in any circumstances. No one trusts us to do a damn thing.

Sadly, he probably won't go to prison at all, let alone for a long time. But she should at least be able to cut him out of the rest of her life, if she wants. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

John H. D. Watson said...

even if all it really needs is a pipe removing from somewhere interesting

That's what I'm here for... ;)

L - it's definitely better than nothing.

And the medical profession falls on its arse sometimes too. Have you heard that thing - one of my teachers used to say it a lot in medical school - 'Cooks cover their mistakes with sauces and architects cover their mistakes with ivy. We cover our mistakes with dirt.'

Greg Lestrade said...

Ha, never heard that, no.

One of my instructors used to rant on about how as soon as we were through Hendon then we'd never be right again - criminals say we're wrong, public say we're wrong, CPS say we're wrong, superiors say we're wrong, subordinates say we're wrong, judges and lawyers definitely think we're wrong, husbands and wives would say we're wrong. Then he'd tell us if we were still bloody stupid enough to sign up he'd think we were wrong too. ;)

Anyway, bed? Don't say I'm wrong...

John H. D. Watson said...

Ha! You're right about bed. :)

Joolz said...

Well however much they all tell you you are wrong, Greg, at least you know you made the right decision with John so you can console yourself with that. ;)

It's good to know that you both care so much and always try to do what you can. However small you may sometimes feel it is, just to have a friendly face there in a time of trouble can be the best thing a person can ask for. You guys make all the difference. :)

Anonymous said...

I must be thinking about all this because I'm waiting for my dad to re-re-resurface, so my past is rather on my mind more than usual. I feel like I've been talking about it a lot (too much?).

When the police finally caught up with my dad after he took me, I spent some time with a cop (the one who pulled me out of the hotel room) and a paramedic. I was a bit younger than Sherlock and not nearly as smart, so I spent a few hours assuming that because they had rescued me, they would keep me forever (my dad had told me my mom was dead, so I didn't think going back to her was a possibility). I remember being completely confused when I got taken away from the cop and the medic (by a social worker I guess? Kid memory is unclear). But I remember them so strongly because like....I was coming out of a situation that was really chaotic, and ended up going back to a situation that wasn't nearly as chaotic, but still pretty unstable, so these two guys who were solid and competent and reassuring were early examples to me that there were other ways of being. I mean, I also had librarians and teachers and friends and friends' parents who showed me that, but those two guys definitely loomed large in my kid imagination for quite awhile.

So yeah. Even only meeting people for such a short period of time, you can have a big effect. Probably not very often, and I know another adult is less likely to be affected that way. And the people that you do effect that way probably won't ever be able to tell you. But you do.

Ella

Greg Lestrade said...

Ella - I'm glad you had nice people there for you, even if it was a bit confusing to work out who was who, and what their role in your life was.

I need all the coffee today. All of it. And is it wrong to sort of hope for a case where I might see my husband?

Small Hobbit said...

So long as it isn't a case where he's having to remove pipe stems from you.

Greg Lestrade said...

Just attach me to a caffeine IV.

Sherlock woke me at 2am to ask if we could look for false widow spiders... And told me to be quiet and not wake John, because he was tired....

We did not look for spiders.

John H. D. Watson said...

Ella - I'm glad they were there for you, and that they helped - and that everyone else did too, your teachers and friends and everyone you mentioned.

L - And told me to be quiet and not wake John, because he was tired....

Laughing so hard at this, sorry...

pandabob said...

Aren't kids wonderful :-D Did he know he'd been up looking for spiders when he got up this morning or was it one of those dream things?

Good luck finding enough caffeine to get through to home time :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

He didn't mention it. BUt he might have guessed by the frosty reception the idea got last night, that he was safer letting it drop...

Kestrel337 said...

My middle daughter has gotten up at ungodly hours to do some truly bizarre things or ask some incredibly weird questions. Once she was convinced that her budgie had gone inside her french horn and needed to be gotten out right now. When questioned, she never remembers these things.

L, you can have the caffeine on YOUR side of the ocean; I get what's here.

Greg Lestrade said...

A budgie in a French horn is a brilliant emergency! Even an imagined one...

Danger, did you fetch short stuff or were you on call?

John H. D. Watson said...

On call and still here. Sherlock is texting me updates of the biscuits he and Mrs H are making.

Greg Lestrade said...

Hope it's going okay?

Mrs H, you're a star.

REReader said...

Yay, biscuits! What kind are you and Mrs H baking, Sherlock?

(My captcha read "aftersch")

John H. D. Watson said...

On the way home! Busy today, haven't been home since this morning.

Greg Lestrade said...

Yeah? Hope it all went well then.

Glad you weren't on my case. Depressing enough for me.

John H. D. Watson said...

Bad one?

Greg Lestrade said...

Yeah. I know they shouldn't really be better or worse, but they are.

John H. D. Watson said...

Yeah, sometimes they are. Sorry, love.

Greg Lestrade said...

On the way home in a sec anyway.

Any more objects in orifices they have no business being in?

John H. D. Watson said...

Not unless you're bringing one home with you ;)

Greg Lestrade said...

Thank fully not.

John H. D. Watson said...

Very pleased to hear it!

Greg Lestrade said...

...can't believe you just let me fall asleep. Can't believe Sherlock did either!

John H. D. Watson said...

You were tired! All that 2am searching for spiders...

REReader said...

Does Sherlock remember the spiders request?

Greg Lestrade said...

No spiders were searched for. Sherlock was put back into bed. Which I then sat in for a brief moment, to ensure he was asleep... Then woke myself up falling out of.

Greg Lestrade said...

He did remember the spider request. He said it was important. And that I woke him up after so I can't be angry with him.

REReader said...

...It's a theory! :D

Greg Lestrade said...

Just found a chocolate spider Danger had stashed in the cupboard. Anyone think he'll mind if I eat it? (provided I do before he sees this..) Might make him a brew, to pacify him...

pandabob said...

he won't mind at all I'm sure ;-)

John H. D. Watson said...

Did you, and does this mean I get tea without having to get up?

Greg Lestrade said...

I haven't yet, thought you might have got it for Sherlock.

And yes, you can have tea. I'm having decaff coffee.

John H. D. Watson said...

No, I just got it. In case someone needed a chocolate spider.

Thank you :)

Greg Lestrade said...

You're brilliant, Doc.

Case today...you know ,and this will sound terrible...but some people are sort of...trouble? Or, say, they've been in a fight, as a willing participant, and they get killed. And obviously it's terrible. But the guy today, he was just...just a normal guy, never been in any trouble, wife and kids...and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it's just...harder to set it right in your head.

John H. D. Watson said...

That is worse, yeah. No one should get killed, obviously, but...yeah. That is very sad.

Greg Lestrade said...

Also harder to investigate, because most people know their killers, so it's not usually that difficult to track them down.

John H. D. Watson said...

Did they mean to kill someone else? Or was it just...random?

Greg Lestrade said...

Random in as much as they didn't plan to kill anyone, at first. But... intentional in the actual act, when it came to it. Or, well, intentional enough, we think. Courts might see it differently. It's very hard to tell.

John H. D. Watson said...

That does sound difficult.

Greg Lestrade said...

if they went guilty for manslaughter... they might get away with it. But you never know, one side might gamble on a murder trial.

Another thing I hate.

Bed? I'm trying to get Friday off, so I get to see you as well as Sherlock.

John H. D. Watson said...

Bed. I hope you do manage Friday, that'd be nice.

Joolz said...

I hope you manage to get sorted for Friday, it would be lovely to have a day to yourselves. :)

Hope both your days are a bit easier today.

pandabob said...

I hope today is better than yesterday Greg and that there were no overnight spider hunts :-)

Have a good day John and good luck with catching up with all the things you'd normally have planned to do over the last few days :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

All quiet overnight
. Today is...no worse.

pandabob said...

no worse is sort of better I guess Greg.

Does all quiet last night mean less caffeine needed today or are you sill on the edge of jittery? ;-)

Unknown said...

wow... seems like this is my morning for feeling like I don't quite know how you do it, putting yourselves in the way of confronting so much death and tragedy... I've been enjoying so far a year of birthdays, weddings, babies and graduations, but 2012 was my year for losing count of memorial services. At the Ale, I was extra-conscious of Absent Friends, both recent and not-so-recent, even broke down singing Last Trip Home, because of its association for me with one in particular. Anyway, it makes me glad we're all in this together, and there are such good folks as you looking out for us.
S

Greg Lestrade said...

A normal amount if caffeine in me.

And some progress being made, all helps us feel better.

REReader said...

Heh--I was thinking that you don't do "less caffeine," L--you do "coffee" or "more coffee"! ;)

I'm glad you're making some progress--it sounds like a tricky one as well as a hard one.

Anonymous said...

Sorry you're having such a hard year, S.

I am down to one small mug of coffee a day. I haven't had this little coffee in my system since...I don't know. But it's easier to wake up in the morning so I'll keep going down I spose. Drink one for me, L? :) and glad to hear you're making progress.

Ella

REReader said...

You've all been very quiet tonight--I hope that's for all good reasons!

Post a Comment