Work Text:
How it Began
Morse radios for backup before racing into the student housing building after the suspect. There was a tiny voice in his head telling him that the suspect was unpredictable, and he should probably wait for the backup to arrive, but he was never much good at that.
Pursuing his quarry to a flat on the top floor, Morse hammers on the door before letting himself in.
“Mr Boden! Police! Give it up!”
He exercises a fair bit more caution once he’s actually in the flat. There were plenty of doors for the boy to hide behind not to mention the piles of abandoned clothes and general student clobber.
“Mr Boden? I’m DC Morse, Oxford city police. It’ll be easier for you if you surrender.”
“I’ve hurt no one!”
The bathroom! Adjusting his stance Morse tiptoes towards the innocent-looking white door.
“You turned them into animals!”
“It’s for their own good. It’ll be for your own good too!”
“What!?”
Before Morse can react, the bathroom door bursts open and Boden throws himself at Morse, the sharp sting of a needle bringing Morse’s hand to his neck in shock before an odd feeling runs through his body, sending him crashing to the floor with tremors wracking his entire being. He barely notices Boden fleeing the apartment, or the shouts as he runs into the backup Morse should have waited for.
By the time it’s over Morse looks around from his spot on the floor and wonders if he hit his head when he fell.
‘Why is everything in black and white? Except for that rug, that’s a very brown rug. Why is it all so big? Why is there a giant shoe heading my way? Is that the new constable!? But he’s huge!...Oh….oh no.’
It doesn’t take Morse long to identify himself, the small stature and spines being a bit of a giveaway.
‘Well, that’s just wonderful. Jakes is going to have a field day. Hey! Don’t touch me! No! Whatever your name is! Hands off! I may be a hedgehog, but I still outrank you!’
“Ow! Jesus!”
“Alright, Billy?”
“Morse just bit me!”
“You sure it is Morse?”
“He changed right in front of me while you were fighting with that guy. Pretty sure.”
“Huh. Well, at least a hedgehog suits him, haha. Prickly bugger. Here, I’ve got an idea.”
Morse tries to glare at them from his new spot under the couch although he has no idea if it’s working. He’d like to see them try being turned into a wild animal. He tries to keep an eye on them while they have a whispered conversation across the room but then they split up and it’s impossible to keep them both in sight at once.
‘Where’s Thursday? He wouldn’t grab me like that. Where’d the other one go? I don’t see the other one. Ouch!’
He hears himself squeak quietly as he turns to see the other constable, the not Billy one, getting ready to poke him again with a wooden spoon. Panicking slightly, memories of Gwen threatening him with a wooden spoon springing into his mind, he turns away and breaks into a four-legged sprint for the bedroom before an oddly covered…something…lands on top of him.
‘What? What is…is this a towel? I’m under a towel. They tricked me! Hey! Get off me, traitors! I hope these spines hurt! Where are you taking me!? Why is it dark!? I don’t like this! Where’s Thursday!?’
All his growls evidently fall on deaf ears as he’s thrown around in his new cage, making him feel even stranger than he already did. Eventually, he gives in to the growing instinct taking over him and curls into a tight, surprisingly comforting ball.
“He’s gone quiet.”
“Good.”
“I didn’t know hedgehogs were that fast.”
“Who cares how fast he is, those spikes hurt!”
“What do we do with him now?”
“Take him back to the station and give him to Inspector Thursday. He’s CID’s problem, not ours.”