Ficlet: Spooky-Dos And Paperwork
Mar. 14th, 2025 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Spooky-Dos And Paperwork
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: PC Andy Davidson
Rating: PG
Word Count: 561
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Andy’s tired, but his day isn’t over yet, not until he’s filled in all his paperwork.
Written For:
schoolsasaint’s prompt: any, any background character, the inevitable paperwork, at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
PC Andy Davidson gave a heavy sigh as he slumped into a vacant chair at the station, tired from another crazy day at work, but knowing he couldn’t head home anytime soon. Not when he had a whole pile of paperwork he needed to complete, while events were still clear in his mind, or as clear as they could be considering he’d crossed paths with Torchwood again.
At least this time he hadn’t mysteriously forgotten everything he’d seen, but he couldn’t help thinking it might have been better for everyone concerned if he had, because if he wrote a completely honest report on the incident, no one, especially his superiors, would believe a word of it and he’d probably be accused of drinking on the job. Then he’d have to take a breathalyser and submit to a blood test, and wouldn’t that be humiliating?
He hadn’t been drinking, of course, he’d never do that, not when he was on duty. For that matter, he’d never take drugs either, either on or off duty, at least not deliberately, although… He suspected that drugging people was something Torchwood did on a regular basis, and without people’s consent, because an awful lot of people turned up with suspicious gaps in their memory after an encounter with the Captain and his minions, and it had no doubt happened to a fair few coppers, himself included.
Still, there was nothing he could do about it; Torchwood were supposed to be Special Ops or some such, they outranked the police, which meant they could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and no one could object, least of all a mere police constable. They just waltzed in and took over crime scenes without a by your leave, like they had tonight, with the dead body that… Well, Andy couldn’t swear to it, he hadn’t got all that good a look at it, but from what he’d seen, the blue skin and what appeared to be four arms, he was pretty sure it wasn’t human, which meant it was either an alien from outer space or an experiment that had gone wrong, and as far as Andy was concerned, both possibilities were equally disturbing.
So no, he couldn’t put THAT in his report, only the facts; that was the rule when it came to writing reports. No supposition or guesswork, no ‘Might have been’, or ‘I thought I saw’, because what he thought or imagined was irrelevant, not admissible if the case should come to court. Besides, in this case what he might have seen wasn’t even verifiable, because the Torchwood Team wouldn’t tell anyone anything, not the police, not the press, not the mayor… They just swooped in, did whatever it was they did, then left, taking the dead… whatever it was with them, which sort of made Andy’s paperwork easier to do. Just write down everything that happened up to Torchwood’s arrival, and the rest was just another one of their spooky-dos, none of his business, none of the Heddlu’s concern, end of story.
Sighing again, Andy pulled out his notebook, logged himself into one of the precinct’s computers, and started to type up his reports. The sooner he got it done, the sooner he could go home, go to bed, and try to forget about he might have seen long enough to get some sleep.
The End
At least this time he hadn’t mysteriously forgotten everything he’d seen, but he couldn’t help thinking it might have been better for everyone concerned if he had, because if he wrote a completely honest report on the incident, no one, especially his superiors, would believe a word of it and he’d probably be accused of drinking on the job. Then he’d have to take a breathalyser and submit to a blood test, and wouldn’t that be humiliating?
He hadn’t been drinking, of course, he’d never do that, not when he was on duty. For that matter, he’d never take drugs either, either on or off duty, at least not deliberately, although… He suspected that drugging people was something Torchwood did on a regular basis, and without people’s consent, because an awful lot of people turned up with suspicious gaps in their memory after an encounter with the Captain and his minions, and it had no doubt happened to a fair few coppers, himself included.
Still, there was nothing he could do about it; Torchwood were supposed to be Special Ops or some such, they outranked the police, which meant they could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and no one could object, least of all a mere police constable. They just waltzed in and took over crime scenes without a by your leave, like they had tonight, with the dead body that… Well, Andy couldn’t swear to it, he hadn’t got all that good a look at it, but from what he’d seen, the blue skin and what appeared to be four arms, he was pretty sure it wasn’t human, which meant it was either an alien from outer space or an experiment that had gone wrong, and as far as Andy was concerned, both possibilities were equally disturbing.
So no, he couldn’t put THAT in his report, only the facts; that was the rule when it came to writing reports. No supposition or guesswork, no ‘Might have been’, or ‘I thought I saw’, because what he thought or imagined was irrelevant, not admissible if the case should come to court. Besides, in this case what he might have seen wasn’t even verifiable, because the Torchwood Team wouldn’t tell anyone anything, not the police, not the press, not the mayor… They just swooped in, did whatever it was they did, then left, taking the dead… whatever it was with them, which sort of made Andy’s paperwork easier to do. Just write down everything that happened up to Torchwood’s arrival, and the rest was just another one of their spooky-dos, none of his business, none of the Heddlu’s concern, end of story.
Sighing again, Andy pulled out his notebook, logged himself into one of the precinct’s computers, and started to type up his reports. The sooner he got it done, the sooner he could go home, go to bed, and try to forget about he might have seen long enough to get some sleep.
The End
(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-19 12:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-03-19 10:48 am (UTC)Thank you!