Title: Mrs Hudson's Day
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: G
Length: 464
Summary: Mrs Hudson is telling her friend, Mrs Turner about her trying day

Mrs Hudson accepted the cup of tea her friend, Mrs Turner, passed to her and acknowledged with a nod the large slug of gin which went in it. “It all began,” she said, “when I opened the front door this morning.” She paused and then said, “Although, I suppose you could say really it was when I opened my curtains and saw the greengrocer’s assistant fall off his bicycle. Though even before that, when I first opened my eyes this morning, I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days.”

Mrs Turner nodded. “I’ve had that feeling before now. It never goes well.”

“So, as I was saying, I opened the front door and a rough man pushed past me, strode to the bottom of the stairs, and started yelling for Mr Holmes. I could have told him it was a waste of time, but after the way he’d treated me, I wasn’t inclined to do so.”

“Does Mr Holmes just ignore people?”

“Sometimes, but I knew he’d gone out and the Doctor had left shortly afterwards.”

Mrs Turner nodded. “So what did this man do?”

“He looked as if he was going to head upstairs, but then he spotted a policeman further down the street, and said, ‘Tell Holmes, Mr Barker wants a word,’ and left.”

Mrs Hudson took a long drink of her tea.

“A little more?” Mrs Turner asked.

“Yes, please, with the addition.”

“Of course. Did you give Mr Holmes the message?”

“Well, the doctor came back first, and I was about to ask him to pass the message on, when Mr Holmes himself came in. And I’d no sooner opened my mouth to tell him, but a delivery boy hammered on the door and asked Mr Holmes to go to the greengrocer’s at once."

"So, instead of giving him the message, I muttered it was probably something to do with his assistant, as he’d already fallen off his bicycle. Mr Holmes seemed strangely interested in this fact, and then rushed off, followed by the doctor.”

“Was it the assistant?” Mrs Turner asked.

“I’m not sure. He must have been involved in some way, because when Mr Holmes, Dr Watson, and Inspector Lestrade returned, Mr Holmes thanked me for telling him about the bicycle. And at that point I told him Mr Barker wanted a word. Well, all three gentlemen laughed at that, and I was about to deliver a look when the inspector said that Mr Barker had been arrested earlier that afternoon and was in no position to be demanding words from anyone.”

“I think that demands another cup of tea,” Mrs Turner said.

Mrs Hudson held up the gin bottle. “I’m afraid this is empty,” she said.

“Never mind, I’ll open another one.”