Title: Hostages and Servants
Fandom: Grantchester
Rating: PG
Length: 1150 words
Content notes: Descriptions of wounds and blood, nothing too graphic.

Summary: By the time he finally recovers Sidney from a hostage situation, Geordie is rather put out with the vicar’s self-sacrificing tendencies.



The door cracked open.

Geordie’s gun was up in an instant, Phil at his side and a dozen coppers at his back. “Police!” he shouted, more from habit than need, since the hostage-taker was well aware of their presence.

“He’s coming out, unarmed!”

Relief shot through Geordie faster than any bullet could. It was Sidney’s voice. A man couldn’t go around shouting if he were unconscious or dead. Until that moment, Geordie hadn’t been sure.

Robert Dawson appeared, hands in the air and face downcast.

Geordie had no pity for the man. “On your knees,” he ordered, weapon trained on Dawson’s head.

As Dawson complied, Sidney’s tall form filled the doorway. “He’s unarmed,” he repeated. “He gave me his gun.”

Dawson was surrounded in seconds. And if the officers were a bit rougher than needed in subduing him, well, Geordie quite literally looked the other way. He focused on Sidney, instead.

Well-honed police instincts made him see the gun first, held carefully out from Sidney’s body with his fingers far from the trigger. But Geordie forgot the weapon in the next instant, when he spotted the blood on his friend’s face.

“Sidney,” he said in dismay.

Phil stepped up and slipped the gun from the vicar’s grasp. “Ambulance is already in route,” he said, a reminder that they’d called for one when they heard the gunshot a quarter hour ago, just in case.

“Good. She’ll need one,” Sidney said, and then he disappeared back inside.

Geordie blinked at the spot where he’d stood. “Sidney!” he exclaimed, now more exasperated than shocked, though still plenty concerned. He stomped inside after his wayward friend.

In the darkened hotel lobby, he found several traumatized bystanders alongside Dawson’s wife. The woman was laid out on the floor with a gunshot wound in her shoulder.

“Phil,” Geordie said simply, nodding, and soon his young sergeant and several others moved past them to clear the room and deal with Mrs. Dawson and the others. Geordie’s attention was for Sidney. “Come outside with me.”

“I can help…”

“You’re covered in blood!” It wasn’t much of an exaggeration. It was all over his hands, though that might have been from trying to help the woman. It was his head that concerned Geordie. The wound was near his temple. Blood was matted in his hair and streaked down his face, coating the side of his neck.

“It’s not that bad,” Sidney dared to say, even as he swayed a little.

Geordie huffed and gripped Sidney’s elbow. It was difficult to manhandle a taller person, but Geordie had training and determination on his side. “You have the self-preservation skills of a ladybug,” he groused.

“A ladybug?” Sidney repeated, sounding more confused than insulted.

Geordie managed to get Sidney outside and out of the way, pushing him to a seat on a low stone wall. He got a better look at the wound in the light and grimaced. At least the bleeding seemed to have slowed to a sluggish ooze. Pulling out a clean handkerchief, Geordie carefully pressed it to the cut.

“Ouch!” Sidney cringed, squinting in the sunlight.

“Thought you said it wasn’t that bad.”

“Well no one was poking at it, then.”

Sidney reached for the cloth, but Geordie batted his hand away. “I should arrest you, you know.”

“For lying about how much it hurts?”

Geordie glared.

Sidney sighed. “I got here first and I knew he’d be more likely to listen to me.”

“Oh, and did he listen before or after he tried to take out a chunk of your skull?”

“After,” Sidney grudgingly admitted.

“Didn’t I specifically say to wait for me? To not go in alone?” Geordie clenched his jaw. “I ought to charge you with interfering in a police investigation.”

Sidney managed a bemused look. “Isn’t that what I do most days?”

“Damn it, Sidney!” Geordie exploded. “Four hours! Four hours of not knowing who was alive in there!”

Sidney winced. “I had to help if I could. That’s my job too, you know.”

“I know, I know. God’s work.” Geordie huffed, but he knew it was true. Sidney’s convictions and his drive to help people were an essential part of what made him Sidney. “I’d tell you not to do it again, but we both know you would anyway.”

Sidney shrugged a little, grimacing with the movement. “I serve as best I know how.”

Geordie deflated. He suddenly felt very tired. He moved the handkerchief, shook it out and balled it up again, pressing a clean spot against the cut. “And it’s a good thing He’s looking out for you. But I am too, you know. When you let me.”

They were quiet for a long moment as the activity behind them increased, a stretcher being pushed out. Watching his officers manage the scene, Geordie nearly missed Sidney’s quiet, “I’m sorry, Geordie.”

Before he could respond, Phil approached. “Ambulance is taking the woman. Everyone else is getting squared away.” Phil hesitated, then asked, “Is he all right?”

Geordie pulled the cloth away again, pleased to see very little fresh blood. “I’m sure he’ll be fine, what with his head being so hard and all.”

Sidney cut his gaze up at him, not unlike Dickens being chastised for rolling in the mud. Puppy dog eyes, indeed.

“Think this is bad? Should’ve seen him for the last four hours,” Phil confided to Sidney. “I think he was about to literally climb the walls and try going through the upstairs window.”

“Oi!” Geordie shooed Phil away, then looked back to find Sidney trying to hide a smile. “It’s not funny! Feels like I haven’t breathed in all that time.”

“I’m not laughing. I’m touched that you care so much,” Sidney said. “And I am sorry. I scared you, and I apologize for that.”

Geordie made a point of taking a deep breath. Then he nodded. “I’m just glad you’re in one piece. Mostly. And I suppose you did get yourself out of it, in the end.”

“And I suppose you might have a point about self-preservation. I’d certainly like to avoid such splitting headaches in the future.”

Geordie winced in sympathy. “All right, then. Let’s get you up; I’ll drive you to the hospital.”

“Give me a moment?”

He was swaying a little again, and Geordie reached to steady him with a hand on his shoulder. Sidney leaned into the touch and kept right on leaning, so Geordie stepped closer to support him. He felt Sydney take a deep breath of his own as he pressed his forehead against Geordie’s ribs.

Later, Cathy was going to fuss at them both about how difficult it was to get blood stains out of fabric.

But right now, Geordie didn’t mind. He stood steady, and scratched his blunt fingernails very gently through the fine blonde hairs on the back of Sidney’s neck.

He’d wait on his friend, however long Sidney needed.