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“Ah, shit.” Anderson muttered as he looked up at the sunlight streaming through the grate. Sally’s mind went blank. “Shit, what do we do?” She asked, wide eyed and panicked. Anderson’s face was totally blank as he stared at the teasing light above. For once, the smartass had no idea what to say. “I...I don’t know.” He says quietly, wondering how he got into this mess.
It had all been Sally’s idea. They were walking back to work after investigating a crime scene and Sally had noticed a strange little chirping sound. She looked down to see a grate filled with little ducklings frantically splashing around and screeching.
“Anderson, look!” She gasped, pointing at the grate. Anderson glanced down without a care, frowning slightly when he saw the little yellow balls of fluff splashing about in alarm. “Nothing we can do.” He huffs, continuing to walk.
Sally watched him walk for a few seconds and then glanced back down at the grate, a helpless feeling. She really liked ducks, especially ducklings. It broke her heart to see them stuck in there, exposed to pollution and hunger. With a large intake of breath, she called after Anderson.
“Anderson, we can’t just leave them there!” Sally yells, tilting her head to the side and giving a little pout.
Anderson turns to look at her, a look of exasperation on his face. “Sally, what could we possibly do? Just rip the nails out of the grate with our teeth?” Anderson replies mordantly, muscles shifting to turn back around.
A spark strikes in Sally’s mind and she quickly kindles it. Her hands lunge for her messenger bag, ripping open the buckled and searching through the evidence bags they just collected at the crime scene. She grabs the bulkiest bag and rips it out, holding it up triumphantly.
Anderson’s face goes slack. “Are you insane?! We can’t use evidence, we need to process it in the lab!” He cries, a look of disbelief on his face that reads, ‘Has she finally lost her marbles?’
Sally’s eyes are wide and glimmering with hope. “C’mon, Anderson,” She begs. “Just this once. Those ducks are going to die in there!” Sally paused for a second, a mischievous thought floating next to her ear. A whisper. A mischievous spirit communicating to her.
“Besides, isn’t this your one chance to prove to Sherlock that you’re not as dull and uptight as he thinks you are?” Sally quips, a teasing air to her voice. She smirks and raises her eyebrows.
Anderson suddenly looks caught in between, his mouth parted slightly and eyebrows scrunched. After a little while, he finally relaxes his muscles into a defeated slump. “Make it fast.” Is all he says. Sally grinned and ripped open the bag to remove the electric screwdriver.
They both kneeled down on the cold wet ground, Anderson unscrewing the bolts and muttering as Sally sang quietly to herself, nursery rhymes that may have been for the ducklings. (There’s no telling though.)
Once all the screws were off, it took both of their might to heave off the metal bars. Panting, Anderson ordered Sally to lie flat on her stomach so that he could lift her down. Sally did so and Anderson grabbed her legs. Slowly, gently, Anderson lowered Sally into the malodorous sewer.
Sally could barely see into the darkness, but could still hear the urgent cries of the ducklings. With quiet fingers, she plucked one of the ducklings tenderly, feeling the softness of it’s young feathers. Shaking slightly, she lifted the bird up to the road, unfurling her fingers slowly to let it free. She released a breath she didn’t even know she was holding.
“Three more.” Anderson said, a struggle in his voice as he clenched her legs tighter. Sally slowly unbent her torso, a small stitch in her side. Alright… She thought soothingly. Doing good…
Duckling by duckling, Sally managed to get each one to the surface. She smiled as she released the last little ball of fluff, the duckling chirping happily and waddling away.
“Alright, lift me up.” Sally said with strain in her voice, already feeling a headache from being upside down for so long. Anderson replied with a grunt, pulling as hard as he could on Sally’s legs.
All at once, the situation changed from risky to alarming.
Anderson’s arm muscles couldn’t stand the tension any longer and went weak, releasing Sally’s calfs.
Sally shrieked and for one millisecond she knew what it was to fly. But, her training quickly caught up to her and she curled her head into her arms and tucked her knees into her chest. She dropped quickly, hair flying behind her.
She splashed into the some-what shallow water, knees knocking against the bottom. She surfaced as quickly as possible, gasping and spewing foul tasting water from her mouth. After spitting several times, she looked up.
“Sally!” Anderson calls, a look of sheer panic on his face. “Sally, are you alright?!”
After coughing once or twice she calls up, “I’m fine!” Anderson let’s out a sigh of relief.
Sally squints at the light coming through the hole. “You’ve gotta get my out of here!” She shouts, shivering as she realizes how cold it was in the sewer.
Anderson looks lost. “Uh… I’ll… I’ll call Lestrade.” He mumbles, digging for his mobile in his pocket.
Sally’s eyes widen. “No! Don’t call Lestrade! He’ll kill us! I’ll lose my job!” She says hastily, cupping her elbows and feeling goosebumps rise on her skin. She looks up at Anderson with pleading wide eyes. “Please, help me up.” She begs.
Anderson lets out an exasperated sigh and then leans down, outstretching his arm. “You’re going to have to jump and grab it.” He says reluctantly, biting his lip. Sally let’s out a breath of relief and bends her knees, preparing to jump.
One…
This better work.
Two…
Maybe we should wait for Lestrade….
Three!
Sally unbends her legs and shoots up, hand reaching out, searching for the comfort of Anderson’s steady ones. When she finds them, she grips hard and fast, feeling all of her muscles tense.
But Anderson wasn’t quite prepared.
A small gasp escapes his lips as Sally’s weight pulls him down. And they both fall together to the bottom.
And that’s exactly how all of this happened. Now Anderson’s head is bleeding and Sally is on the verge of a panic attack.
“Ah, shit, shit, shit!” She mutters, spying the crimson rolling down Anderson’s cheek. “That’s going to get infected if we stay down here.” Her eyes are the size of Amy Pond’s, her heart beats frantically in her ears.
Anderson slowly reaches up to touch his forehead. He looks at Sally with a defeated expression. “I guess we’re going to have to call Lestrade.”
Luckily, Anderson’s phone was water proof, so he called the detective and told them of their situation. After several sarcastic remarks of, “There can’t be that many drains near Vallance road!” Anderson hung up.
“Is he coming to get us?” Sally asked quietly, suddenly feeling vulnerable and small- like a child. Anderson huffs, puffing out his cheeks and running his fingers through his hair. “There going to search every drain near Vallance to find us.” He grumbles.
Sally bites her lips, seeing that he’s angry. “I’m sorry, Anderson.” She says quietly, shamelessly sitting down in the shallow water- not even caring how much more wet and dirty she got. Anderson looks down at her, a look of anger on his face for a second, but it quickly melts to care and concern. He sits down next to her in the sloshing water and wraps an arm around her shoulder.
“It’s fine.” He whispers, staring into the blackness around them. “I’m glad that you’re the person I’m stuck in the sewage with.” A grin breaks across Sally’s face, accompanying a laugh. “Then I guess that makes two of us.” She says cheerily, laying her head on Anderson’s shoulder. And for once, Anderson smiles.
Dirty, tired, wet, and smelly, the two of them sit in the sewer and wait. “Better not leave us in for too long or we’ll start going into hypothermia.” Anderson shivers. But, Sally isn’t listening because something else is distracting her. Being alone with Anderson and completely bored, she’s let her mind mull over some things she’s been wondering.
“Anderson…?” She asks.
“Hm?”
“Is… Is our relationship really pretend…?” She asks, hesitating slightly. There is a tense pause.
“Sally, you know that I’m only saying we’re together beac-”
“Yeah, I know it’s because of you mother, but are we… I don’t know, don’t you think we have a good relationship?” Sally fumbles on words, trying to get her point across.
Anderson is silent, obviously hesitating to say something. “Sally, just the fact that you would pretend to be in a relationship with me so that my mother doesn’t worry makes my the most grateful person in the world… I could never ask for anymore.” He answers, swallowing hard.
Sally’s heart beats faster. “But, Anderson, I really like y-” Sally’s words are cut off by the sound of police sirens nearing.
They both jump up, eyes pawing desperately at the sunlight coming through the ground. “Help!” Sally screams. “Help!”
Lestrade’s face peeks into the drain and he gives a sigh of disbelief. “I’ll be having a talk with you too.” He says, a tired and stressed look on his face. He turns his head to someone behind him. “They’re both down here, get the rope.”
Not too long later, two harnesses and a rope are thrown down. Anderson and Sally put on the harnesses quietly, listening to the noise of police and scratchy radios. Sally glances sideways at Anderson, quickly going back to tightening his harness. Sally smiles to herself, shaking her head slightly.
“You go first.” Sally says, nodding at the rope. Anderson looks at her innocently for a few seconds before tying a figure eight knot in the rope and rethreading it through his harness.
Before they start hauling him up, Sally gets up on her tip toes and presses a light kiss to his cheek. And for once, it was a real kiss. It wasn’t staged to look like they were dating or to prove anything, it came truly from Sally’s heart.
Anderson blushes slightly, trying to hide it by looking down.”See you on the other side, Sally.” He said sheepishly, throwing her a wink. Sally grinned, feeling for once that she had completed something.
After hauling both of them out of the grate, officials worked on bolting the grate lid back on while paramedics gave them fluffy blankets and warm thermoses of tea.
And as they were being lead away, Sally looked back at the joyous little ducklings waddling about the grass, quaking to their hearts content.
Sally smiled at them before walking away.