charleygirl | Fic | Sherlock Holmes

Title: I'm Not...
Author: charleygirl
Rating: G
Words: 228
Characters involved: Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson
Genre: Humour
Disclaimer: These characters, while out of copyright, were created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and do not belong to me.
Summary: Written for a meme started at FF.net, to write a ficlet including the words "I'm a doctor, not a..." Watson is many things, principally a doctor of medicine. Trouble is, he sometimes has to remind Holmes of that fact... #8 A missing scene/teaser/I'm not sure what exactly from my forthcoming fic Jack In The Green.

I stared at the circle of small children seated on the floor, all looking up at me expectantly.

Holmes put on his hat and took up his stick. “I shall see you later, then, Watson. Do have a good afternoon.”

“Holmes!” I caught hold of his arm as he reached the door. I had not been in a school room for nearly forty years, and then only as a pupil. Did children still learn the same things as I had all that time ago? I had absolutely no idea what Mr Edwards might have been teaching them. “Holmes, you can’t just leave me! I’m a doctor, not a schoolmaster – what should I do?”

He paused on the threshold. “Teach them how to check the cat’s temperature? Attempt a lecture upon the setting of a field vole’s broken leg?” he suggested.

“Don’t be flippant, Holmes. I am not a teacher!”

“Then give them a lesson on story-writing for The Strand. Who knows, you may just inspire a budding author to follow in your romantic footsteps.” He gave me a wicked smile, tipped his panama to a rakish angle, and departed, leaving me with ten trusting little souls who were watching my every move with quite obvious fascination.

I stood there for some moments, my brain trying desperately to find a way out of this impossible situation in which I now found myself. Time seemed to pass uncomfortably slowly, until finally inspiration struck at exactly the same moment as the school room clock, and I knew how to occupy my charges and get my revenge upon my friend.

“Well,” I said, clapping my hands together, “who would like to hear a story?”