221B: Practice makes Perfect

[marysutherland]

BBC Sherlock

Rating: 12 (implied het)

Minor spoilers for Series 3

Sarah is surprised to get a phone call about John after all this time, but the woman who contacts her is insistent.

"I believe you previously employed him as a locum," she says. "We're thinking of taking him on, so I need to ask how you'd rate his performance."

"Um..."

"Would you say it was excellent, good, adequate or unsatisfactory?"

Their form almost certainly doesn't have a tick-box for Falls asleep at work, but brilliant if you're attacked by Chinese gangsters.

"Adequate," Sarah says firmly.

"And his bedside manner?"

We never got quite as far as my bed, but I suspect his performance there would have been excellent.

"Adequate," Sarah says. "No, good. He gets on well with people."

"So he's able to cope with difficult colleagues?"

"Yes, excellent at that."

"I did wonder about problems in his last job. Dr Watson said the man he worked for had gone away unexpectedly..."

"I heard about it," Sarah says. "John was working privately with a consultant. I think he was very much appreciated."

"So overall, you'd recommend Dr Watson?"

"Definitely." Though Sarah supposes she should give them some warning. "John's been a soldier as well, so he's quite glamorous in his own quiet way. You should possibly keep him away from any staff at your practice who are feeling a bit bored."

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I can well see Sarah thinking there was no way she could adequately describe John to a potential employer.

[marysutherland.livejournal.com]

A fully accurate statement about John is going to get him turned down by almost any employer. And I imagine Sarah as still feeling fond of John and also probably suspecting how much he needs this locum job. So she's trying to give him a decent reference without flat-out lying, which is something of an art. Maybe she should have gone with the old line: "If you can get him to work for you, you will be very lucky".