Fic: No Escape
Title: No Escape
Author: Maestress83
Rating: G
Universe: ACD Canon
Character(s): Doctor Watson, Mary Watson
Relationships/Pairing: Doctor Watson/Mary Watson
Summary: No rest for the rude.
Content Warnings: None
Word Count: 245
Author's Notes: Written in response to JWP 2015 #19 (While You Were Sleeping) on Watson's Woes. Based on a true story: Doyle was called in to assist his friend J.M. Barrie (pre-Peter Pan) with writing a comic libretto. The italicized text is straight from the play. Jane Annie, or The Good Conduct Prize debuted on May 13, 1893. It, uh, was not well-received.
The libretto was awful.
I was grateful to Mary for procuring the tickets for opening night; an evening at the theatre, we believed, would be a welcome respite from my black thoughts during the second anniversary of Holmes' death. We thought a collaboration between Dr. Doyle and J.M. Barrie would be nothing but pleasant entertainment. How wrong we were.
We wanted to walk out like some other audience members had done, but that would have been the height of public rudeness; not only to the cast trying their level best with the subpar script they were given, but to my editor and friend.
While Mary watched the play, determined to see it through come hell or high water, I tried to escape, I am ashamed to say, by falling asleep. I had slept through infernal heat and gunfire, I told myself; surely I could sleep through a dull musical?
But no matter how hard I tried to reach the company of Morpheus, the company of Jane Annie kept me trapped in the waking world with atrocious verse like this:
Their conduct's praised, we are amazed,
Miss Sims doth sympathize.
Now let us sing, of this wonderful thing,
With a hyp-hyp-hypnotize!
I felt Mary's hand delicately rest on my right shoulder. "Are you asleep, love?"
It was useless. I opened my eyes and told her the truth I would never, in good conscience, tell my old colleague. "No, but I wish to God I was."
Author: Maestress83
Rating: G
Universe: ACD Canon
Character(s): Doctor Watson, Mary Watson
Relationships/Pairing: Doctor Watson/Mary Watson
Summary: No rest for the rude.
Content Warnings: None
Word Count: 245
Author's Notes: Written in response to JWP 2015 #19 (While You Were Sleeping) on Watson's Woes. Based on a true story: Doyle was called in to assist his friend J.M. Barrie (pre-Peter Pan) with writing a comic libretto. The italicized text is straight from the play. Jane Annie, or The Good Conduct Prize debuted on May 13, 1893. It, uh, was not well-received.
The libretto was awful.
I was grateful to Mary for procuring the tickets for opening night; an evening at the theatre, we believed, would be a welcome respite from my black thoughts during the second anniversary of Holmes' death. We thought a collaboration between Dr. Doyle and J.M. Barrie would be nothing but pleasant entertainment. How wrong we were.
We wanted to walk out like some other audience members had done, but that would have been the height of public rudeness; not only to the cast trying their level best with the subpar script they were given, but to my editor and friend.
While Mary watched the play, determined to see it through come hell or high water, I tried to escape, I am ashamed to say, by falling asleep. I had slept through infernal heat and gunfire, I told myself; surely I could sleep through a dull musical?
But no matter how hard I tried to reach the company of Morpheus, the company of Jane Annie kept me trapped in the waking world with atrocious verse like this:
Their conduct's praised, we are amazed,
Miss Sims doth sympathize.
Now let us sing, of this wonderful thing,
With a hyp-hyp-hypnotize!
I felt Mary's hand delicately rest on my right shoulder. "Are you asleep, love?"
It was useless. I opened my eyes and told her the truth I would never, in good conscience, tell my old colleague. "No, but I wish to God I was."