The Engineer's Thumb: Oo, Missus

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Engineer's Thumb
Title: Oo, Missus
Author: scfrankles
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some innuendo may have crept in. Possibly.
Author's Notes: I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my new acquaintance to Baker Street.


Watson rushed in.

“Dearest, the guard picked a young man up at the station! Apparently the boy had a very busy night. This ended with him having to sort himself out but then he needed further attention from me. Now he feels like a new man—so I’m taking him to Holmes!”

Watson dashed away again.

“Um..?” said Mrs. Watson.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

All that you omitted was that Watson was knocked up ;)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Oh, drat - yes! Well done :P (I do so hate missing a joke ^_^)

[vaysh]

During the last two stories, I was wholly intrigued by the British (and old-fashioned) usage of knock up. Here is what etymology.online has to say:

knock up (v.)
1660s in sense of "arouse by knocking at the door," from knock (v.). However it is little used in this sense in American English, where the phrase means "get a woman pregnant" (1813), possibly ultimately from knock "to copulate with" (1590s; compare slang knocking-shop "brothel," 1860).

Knocked up in the United States, amongst females, the phrase is equivalent to being enciente, so that Englishmen often unconsciously commit themselves when amongst our Yankee cousins. [John Camden Hotten, "The Slang Dictionary," London, 1860]

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Not long ago, I got involved with a discussion (http://linguaphiles.livejournal.com/6003270.html) on this very subject for linguaphiles ^^

Another old-fashioned meaning of "knocked-up" - when my younger brother was doing his A levels and also had a part-time job, my late father used to say he looked knocked-up ^_^ What he meant was my brother looked exhausted.

[debriswoman]

Simply delightful:-p
*hands over flamboyant bouquet and hangs the consequences*

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^^ A lesson for us all there about being careful how you phrase things when in a rush ^__^

*accepts bouquet graciously and clasps it to her bosom* *angry bee flies out of flower and stings recipient on nose*

[debriswoman]

Your compensation for angry bee attack is a scene from the beginning of "The Speckled Band" No cash. No obligation.

Early, on a fine spring morning,

I was jolted from my slumber

By my fully dressed companion.

(April, eighteen eighty three.)

I was told that Mrs Hudson

Had been knocked up by a stranger

She in turn had knocked up Holmes

And he, in turn, had knocked up me.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

The compensation is acceptable - thank you ^----^ (It's going to be a very full house at Baker Street in 9 months time... ^_^)

[debriswoman]

Certainly is:-p

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Well summed up, Mrs Watson. Thank you for another delightful 60, frankles.

Amazing how well you convey his hurried speech and movements.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much ^^ And poor Mrs. Watson - what that woman had to put up with... ^^"

[vaysh]

*lol* A wonderful imagining of what that five minute dialogue must have looked at. Mary is a very patient woman, indeed.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thanks ^_^

And poor Mary - it's unlikely Watson could have explained clearly what was going on in such a brief amount of time ^^"