Treat for k_e_p: Metriacanthosaurus watsoni
Title: Metriacanthosaurus watsoni
Recipient: k_e_p
Author: colebaltblue
Verse: ACD Canon
Characters/Pairings: Holmes/Watson
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1046
Warnings: None
Summary: Holidaying on the Jurassic Coast goes considerably better than holidays in Jurassic Park if movies are to be believed.
Author's Note: I told my beta I was going to write a dinosaur hunting story. My beta got to the end and called me a "dirty bait and switcher". Which yes, because Watson discovered a Plesiosaur. I was a bit defensive about there "not being a lot of dinosaurs in England!" until just before I sent this for posting when I decided to Do Better Research. Mistakes due to last-minute changes are all mine. Significant liberties taken.
Holmes had taken to disappearing all day for the last nine days, crawling into our bed late at night and leaving before I awoke in the morning. So I was quite surprised to receive a telegram entreating me to meet him for the early afternoon train to Weymouth out of King's Cross and to pack my warmest and driest clothes. Never one to tarry, let alone refuse, when adventure awaited, I did as he commanded. In typical Holmes fashion, he leapt aboard the train just as it was pulling from the station and declared himself to be "perfectly on time, Watson, I arrive precisely when I mean to and not a second is wasted."
"For a man who abhors exercise, you sure do get a lot of it running for trains, Holmes."
He snorted in amusement, but otherwise ignored me in favor of his Annals and Magazine of Natural History.
"So, what do we have Holmes?" I asked, once we had departed Dorchester. "Is this something to do with the case that has you so occupied for the last week?"
"Something like that." He responded. He put down the journal. "I've been engaged to settle a dispute and a theft, of sorts. I thought it best to return to the scene of the crime."
"In Weymouth? I haven't read of crime being committed there beyond the usual small town affairs. Has this been kept from the papers?"
"Oh no," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "Nothing of the sort. But, I thought it would serve me well to understand a bit more about how the object that was stolen was first acquired."
"Fossil hunting!" I exclaimed in excitement, clapping my hands together.
"The very sort." Holmes looked pleased.
"There hasn't been a scientifically significant find for quite some time. Was the theft of some new discovery?"
"The theft occurred long ago and was arguably not a theft as I'm sure a few pennies were exchanged to some desperate child for it." Holmes waved away my concerns with his long thin hands. "No, I have been spending my days at the Library and in the collection of the Natural History Museum researching the origins of some of its collection of dinosaur bones."
"All day?" I asked, unimpressed.
"It's very engrossing work." Holmes defended.
I glared at him. I had hoped that my suffering at being separated from my constant companion was worth a bit more than some old bones in an museum.
"This had better be for a rivalry bigger than the Cope and Marsh business in America."
Holmes had the self-preservation to look properly chagrined at that. Just as I suspected, he had allowed himself to be distracted. Very well, the man would just need to be reminded as to why he should return home at an earlier hour every night instead of long after I had fallen asleep.
Weymouth was a lovely seaside town with a gorgeous Harbour. We disembarked at the train station and collected our things and directions to an inn on the edge of town.
"So we are here to conduct some research and do some fossil collecting ourselves?" I asked as we walked to our accommodations. I breathed in the fresh clean sea air.
Holmes looked slightly embarrassed. "Well, yes. I thought that the locale would be suitable to my current interests."
"But?" I prompted.
"It has a lovely cliff walks, museums, and a football club and offers some very nice sightseeing," he answered, words spilling out in a rush.
"Why Holmes! Are we on holiday?" I asked, astonished.
His cheeks flared scarlett and quickened his step. "I believe our residence for the next week is just ahead." He said.
Never before had an investigation felt more like a holiday. In the morning, I allowed Holmes to drag me from ruins to museums, down to the cliffs, and back up again on the paths for long walks. In the afternoons he indulged me a bit of walking about town and sea bathing and usually a bit more fossil hunting. We had both amassed a little collection of fine ammonite shells and vertebrate and were quite pleased with our finds.
In the evenings, he carefully examined our finds and allowed me to read Ms. Austen's Persuasion aloud to him.
"A pity we're not in Lyme Regis!" I exclaimed. "We could walk along the Cobb."
"Weymouth will have to be romantic enough, Watson," he replied with an amused smile.
At night, I reminded him that I was far more interesting than some bones men ruined themselves to find. He enthusiastically agreed.
Our day there we spent scouring the fall around the cliffs.
"Did you discover what you were looking for, Holmes?" I asked as I stopped to clear away dirt with my chisel and hammer from something that had caught my eye. I could see the edge of what appeared to be a bone instead of the more plentiful circular seashell patterns of ammonites.
"Did I what?" He asked, distractedly as he crowded against me, eager to see what I was digging at.
I smiled. "Your case? Is it solved?"
"The case? Oh, yes, I taken care of before we left London."
I stopped and turned to look at him.
"Then what in the world?" I gestured to the cliffs and the beach laid out in front of us.
He was distracted and digging furiously at where I had just been.
"Holmes! What have we been doing here, if not research for your case, the theft?"
"Watson!" he exclaimed.
I sighed in exasperation. "Holmes, I have not deduced it, the case or the solution to it, or, as I just stated, the reason for our presence here."
"No, no, not that, Watson. That is clear, you needed a holiday and I agreed, you only had been staring longingly at the postcards you had been receiving from your friend who had taken his wife on holiday and leaving the newspapers well creased on the advertisements for excursions." He was still digging furiously. "This, Watson, this!"
I peered at the area he had cleared away. The curve of a large bone was beginning to reveal itself. I furrowed my brow and carefully chiseled away more rock. "A hip bone?" I muttered to myself as we dug.
We worked in silence for awhile before I stepped back to take a good look. The bone was shattered, but still in situ and distinctive in its shape. "That is remarkably complete," I said. There was the hint of a large head of a leg bone just below. I suspected we would find at least an incomplete one below.
Holmes was practically vibrating with excitement. "What a time for words to fail you!"
"Oh, they'll come to me momentarily, Holmes."
I grinned and we playfully elbowed each other as we worked to dig. Holmes was a passable artist when he put his mind to it and borrowed one of my journals to sketch out the bone.
I looked at his work. "No, you've rotated it too much," I said. "I suspect he walked upright, like a bird, with a shape like that."
"Oh I have no doubt that you are indeed correct, Watson. However, let's return to town for assistance from Doctor William Parker. I noticed him about and he is considered an expert."
"Indeed," I replied.
Recipient: k_e_p
Author: colebaltblue
Verse: ACD Canon
Characters/Pairings: Holmes/Watson
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1046
Warnings: None
Summary: Holidaying on the Jurassic Coast goes considerably better than holidays in Jurassic Park if movies are to be believed.
Author's Note: I told my beta I was going to write a dinosaur hunting story. My beta got to the end and called me a "dirty bait and switcher". Which yes, because Watson discovered a Plesiosaur. I was a bit defensive about there "not being a lot of dinosaurs in England!" until just before I sent this for posting when I decided to Do Better Research. Mistakes due to last-minute changes are all mine. Significant liberties taken.
Holmes had taken to disappearing all day for the last nine days, crawling into our bed late at night and leaving before I awoke in the morning. So I was quite surprised to receive a telegram entreating me to meet him for the early afternoon train to Weymouth out of King's Cross and to pack my warmest and driest clothes. Never one to tarry, let alone refuse, when adventure awaited, I did as he commanded. In typical Holmes fashion, he leapt aboard the train just as it was pulling from the station and declared himself to be "perfectly on time, Watson, I arrive precisely when I mean to and not a second is wasted."
"For a man who abhors exercise, you sure do get a lot of it running for trains, Holmes."
He snorted in amusement, but otherwise ignored me in favor of his Annals and Magazine of Natural History.
"So, what do we have Holmes?" I asked, once we had departed Dorchester. "Is this something to do with the case that has you so occupied for the last week?"
"Something like that." He responded. He put down the journal. "I've been engaged to settle a dispute and a theft, of sorts. I thought it best to return to the scene of the crime."
"In Weymouth? I haven't read of crime being committed there beyond the usual small town affairs. Has this been kept from the papers?"
"Oh no," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "Nothing of the sort. But, I thought it would serve me well to understand a bit more about how the object that was stolen was first acquired."
"Fossil hunting!" I exclaimed in excitement, clapping my hands together.
"The very sort." Holmes looked pleased.
"There hasn't been a scientifically significant find for quite some time. Was the theft of some new discovery?"
"The theft occurred long ago and was arguably not a theft as I'm sure a few pennies were exchanged to some desperate child for it." Holmes waved away my concerns with his long thin hands. "No, I have been spending my days at the Library and in the collection of the Natural History Museum researching the origins of some of its collection of dinosaur bones."
"All day?" I asked, unimpressed.
"It's very engrossing work." Holmes defended.
I glared at him. I had hoped that my suffering at being separated from my constant companion was worth a bit more than some old bones in an museum.
"This had better be for a rivalry bigger than the Cope and Marsh business in America."
Holmes had the self-preservation to look properly chagrined at that. Just as I suspected, he had allowed himself to be distracted. Very well, the man would just need to be reminded as to why he should return home at an earlier hour every night instead of long after I had fallen asleep.
Weymouth was a lovely seaside town with a gorgeous Harbour. We disembarked at the train station and collected our things and directions to an inn on the edge of town.
"So we are here to conduct some research and do some fossil collecting ourselves?" I asked as we walked to our accommodations. I breathed in the fresh clean sea air.
Holmes looked slightly embarrassed. "Well, yes. I thought that the locale would be suitable to my current interests."
"But?" I prompted.
"It has a lovely cliff walks, museums, and a football club and offers some very nice sightseeing," he answered, words spilling out in a rush.
"Why Holmes! Are we on holiday?" I asked, astonished.
His cheeks flared scarlett and quickened his step. "I believe our residence for the next week is just ahead." He said.
Never before had an investigation felt more like a holiday. In the morning, I allowed Holmes to drag me from ruins to museums, down to the cliffs, and back up again on the paths for long walks. In the afternoons he indulged me a bit of walking about town and sea bathing and usually a bit more fossil hunting. We had both amassed a little collection of fine ammonite shells and vertebrate and were quite pleased with our finds.
In the evenings, he carefully examined our finds and allowed me to read Ms. Austen's Persuasion aloud to him.
"A pity we're not in Lyme Regis!" I exclaimed. "We could walk along the Cobb."
"Weymouth will have to be romantic enough, Watson," he replied with an amused smile.
At night, I reminded him that I was far more interesting than some bones men ruined themselves to find. He enthusiastically agreed.
Our day there we spent scouring the fall around the cliffs.
"Did you discover what you were looking for, Holmes?" I asked as I stopped to clear away dirt with my chisel and hammer from something that had caught my eye. I could see the edge of what appeared to be a bone instead of the more plentiful circular seashell patterns of ammonites.
"Did I what?" He asked, distractedly as he crowded against me, eager to see what I was digging at.
I smiled. "Your case? Is it solved?"
"The case? Oh, yes, I taken care of before we left London."
I stopped and turned to look at him.
"Then what in the world?" I gestured to the cliffs and the beach laid out in front of us.
He was distracted and digging furiously at where I had just been.
"Holmes! What have we been doing here, if not research for your case, the theft?"
"Watson!" he exclaimed.
I sighed in exasperation. "Holmes, I have not deduced it, the case or the solution to it, or, as I just stated, the reason for our presence here."
"No, no, not that, Watson. That is clear, you needed a holiday and I agreed, you only had been staring longingly at the postcards you had been receiving from your friend who had taken his wife on holiday and leaving the newspapers well creased on the advertisements for excursions." He was still digging furiously. "This, Watson, this!"
I peered at the area he had cleared away. The curve of a large bone was beginning to reveal itself. I furrowed my brow and carefully chiseled away more rock. "A hip bone?" I muttered to myself as we dug.
We worked in silence for awhile before I stepped back to take a good look. The bone was shattered, but still in situ and distinctive in its shape. "That is remarkably complete," I said. There was the hint of a large head of a leg bone just below. I suspected we would find at least an incomplete one below.
Holmes was practically vibrating with excitement. "What a time for words to fail you!"
"Oh, they'll come to me momentarily, Holmes."
I grinned and we playfully elbowed each other as we worked to dig. Holmes was a passable artist when he put his mind to it and borrowed one of my journals to sketch out the bone.
I looked at his work. "No, you've rotated it too much," I said. "I suspect he walked upright, like a bird, with a shape like that."
"Oh I have no doubt that you are indeed correct, Watson. However, let's return to town for assistance from Doctor William Parker. I noticed him about and he is considered an expert."
"Indeed," I replied.