Fic: Turtle Dove: Gen

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Title: Turtle Dove
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Summary: During the Hiatus, Watson gets an unexpected companion for Christmas.


I did myself a mischief as I left my surgery that cold December day. My thoughts were occupied with the sign which advised the few patients on remaining on my roster and any passers-by in need of attention that I would be unavailable for consultation until the new year.

I was paying little heed to my surroundings when I was hit by a feathery something as confused and distressed as I was about the collision.

The bird, a scraggly specimen with a broken wing, dropped into a discarded box at my feet.
Such was my mood that I was tempted to leave it to its fate. Mary was dead. Holmes was dead. All soft feelings lay buried under layers of grief.

But no, I unlocked the surgery, carried the bird in the box inside, and attempted to provide what care and treatment I could. Then, packing supplies, I resumed my egress.

I took the bird back to my rooms, then realised I had very little food fit for a human, much less an animal. The bird was surely freeze to death in so cold a place. I’d cared very little for my own comforts and had no appetite whatsoever, but seeing my lodgings through the injured bird’s eyes, it was decidedly wanting.

I got up a modest fire, set the poor thing by it, then went out for provisions.

I expected to find it had expired during my absence, but it was evidently made of sterner stuff and looked at me with no little curiosity as I attempted to make a proper nest out of its little box with straw.

I fed the fire and made supper for two. Later that evening, I even read aloud to it, and wonder of wonders, the poor creature responded by cooing.

That night I slept better than I had in years.

The days passed, and the bird convalesced.

I was inspired to take pains to keep my lodgings clean and my personal appearance neat. I had an order to my day rather than the seemingly endless drag of purposeless hours.

There was seedcake for Christmas.

Soon it was New Year.

The day before I was to return to the surgery, my landlady informed me that I had a pair of visitors, young ladies, in fact.

They were very young ladies, about eight years old.

“Doctor, do you have my Turtle?” The one held up a cage.

“She left it on your doorstep, knowing you were a doctor and all,” added her companion, “and seeing as her mum told her to get rid of it and all when it broke its wing.”

It was a bittersweet goodbye.

I looked down from my window, watching them leave, but then a curious thing happened. A man on bicycle swerved to avoid and accident, the girl dropped the cage, and the cage door sprang open.

I laughed. And smiled. And, as Turtle flapped its mended wings heading for the horizon, wished my friend a prosperous new year.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

That is a lovely Christmas story!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you!

[debriswoman]

Very nice :-)

[gardnerhill]

It's amazing how much having a pet to care for can encourage people to practice self-care when they don't want to do it for themselves. (There's a reason so many animal shelters emptied out during Covid lockdown.)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes, Watson got the jolt he needed from an unlikely.

I believe it!

[scfrankles]

It's so touching that despite his own suffering, Watson still automatically had sympathy for another living creature. And that by saving the bird, he saved himself.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes, that is it, in a nutshell :)