Chapter Text
It had been a long day... and it had been a long week. Fred and Morse were exhausted. There had been a nasty murder in the early hours of Monday morning and from the moment the body was found and called in to the Police, to where they were now, seven o'clock on Thursday evening, it didn't seem like they had stopped.
In addition to the murder, another member of the victim's family had gone missing, so it had been all hands on deck to find her.
Even during the busiest of cases, Fred usually managed to have at least one evening meal with his family, but not this week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday had all seen him and Morse working well into the evening and now here they were with their Thursday evening having gone the same way.
After both missing breakfast on Monday morning, Win had insisted on Fred and Morse both sitting down and eating something before they left for work each morning that followed. If she hadn't, Fred would have probably not spent more than two waking hours with his wife all week.
They had found the missing family member, about an hour ago, being held captive by the murderer in a house a 25 minute drive north of Oxford.
She was safe and on her way to hospital for a check up. The offender was in cuffs and on his way to the cells and the scene was being taken care of.
The two night shift CID officers would take care of the interview and Fred and Morse were just setting off to drive back to the station to complete their part of the paperwork.
Fred had sent Jakes and Strange straight home, no sense in them all traipsing back to the CID office at this late hour. He and Morse would work late tonight and the others could start early in the morning.
Fred had already called home and told Win he'd be late... again. She said it was fine, she understood, but she couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice.
Well, if they could get the majority of the paperwork done this evening, then tomorrow would be an easier day. He could look forward to going home at a normal time and spending the entire weekend with his family to try to make it up to them.
As they got into the Jag, Morse ran his hand over his face.
"You ok lad?" asked Fred
"Yes, I'm just glad this week is almost over. I think when I get home tomorrow night, I might just sleep through the whole weekend!" said Morse with a yawn
"Ha! You and me both.. although, I need to spend time with Win... awake this weekend. Ninety percent of the time we've been together this last four days, we've both been fast asleep." Said Fred with sadness.
"Well, we found the girl alive, so that's got to be worth it?" said Morse
"It's worth it lad, saving someone's life... but it doesn't make missing out on time with your own family any easier" said Fred
Morse looked sad at that. His Mother was the only family he'd ever had, whose time he wouldn't have wanted to miss out on. He would have loved to have had something worthwhile like this to have taken him away from his father and Gwen though.
Fred noticed Morse's look and realised while he'd been complaining about missing his family, Morse didn't even have one to miss.
"Look lad, why don't you come over for Sunday lunch? It would be lovely to have you round. I know Win would love that." said Fred hopefully
"Maybe?" said Morse
"Alright, at least that wasn't a 'no'" said Fred with a smile
As they drove back to Oxford, their thoughts invariably wandered back to the case. Thinking what that poor woman had gone through, being locked in that house for four days.
It was so dark out here, in these country lanes. No street lights here and with thick clouds blocking any chance of moonlight, the Jag's headlights were all they had to see their way home.
Rain was beginning to fall and the weather reporters had predicted freezing temperatures by the middle of next week.
Then suddenly,
"MORSE! LOOKOUT!"
Thursday shouted as a deer ran out in front of the car.
Morse's eyelids had been getting heavier and heavier and although he was not asleep, he hadn't seen the deer at the side of the road before it ran out.
Morse turned the steering wheel and slammed on the brakes. The car began to skid. Morse let the brakes off to stop the skid, but it was too late, the jag continued to slide sideways into a tree. The drivers door window had shattered on impact and Morse's head was slammed against the tree trunk.
Fred was thrown across the car and he hit his head on the dashboard.
Both men were knocked out cold. Fred had a large bruise forming on his forehead and Morse had blood running down his face and shards of glass everywhere.
The Jag, amazingly was, other than the smashed side window and a sizeable dent in the drivers door, rather undamaged.
The deer, you will be glad to hear, ran off completely unscathed across a nearby field.
The one thing that would have helped, would have been for Fred and Morse to have taken the same route back to Oxford as they had come. The same route all the other officers had taken. More importantly, the same route all the other officers drove back.
Because this would have meant, that the others would have then spotted the Jag and stopped to help.
But Fred and Morse had, in their efforts to try to get home a few minutes earlier, taken a short cut. So they were now, unconscious, down a lane that people rarely drove down.
It was half past ten that night when Fred slowly began to regain consciousness.
"Bloody hell, what happened?"
He hurt... well... just about everywhere. His head was throbbing and he could feel a bump on his forehead. He was lying across the front seats and leaning on Morse. He looked up at Morse with concern.
"Sir?" he said worriedly
"Sir! Wake up! Are you ok?"
Fred gently shook Morse's shoulder and Morse began to groan and move.
"Oh thank god! Sir, you're bleeding" said Fred, leaning over and trying to turn Morse's head towards him for a better look in the dim light.
Morse swatted Fred's hands away as he opened his eyes,
"Give me a minute and let me get my bearings lad" said Morse
It became apparent to them very quickly that they'd crashed the car.
"Oh yes, I remember the deer. I swerved to miss it." said Morse
"Yes, and you swerved straight into a tree by the looks of it Sir" said Fred
"Why was I driving anyway...?" began Morse
"...I mean, what's the point of having a bagman, if you have to do all the driving yourself." he asked
"I can't rightly remember Sir?" answered Fred with a frown.
Why was his D.I. driving and not him?
Fred looked at the Police radio, it was in a sorry state. When they'd crashed, his knee had connected with it and broken it from its holder, tearing all the wires out. They were not going to be calling for help on that.
They both got out of the car. Morse had to crawl across from the driver's side and get out of the passenger side due to the drivers door being blocked by the tree.
They surveyed the damage.
"Well, apart from the driver's door, there doesn't seem much damage to the rest of the car." said Morse
"Mmmm, it might be drive-able?" suggested Fred
Morse took charge and instructed Fred, telling him,
"Ok, Morse. I'll get back in and see if I can get it started and when I shout go, you give it a push." he said
"Right Sir" said Fred standing behind the car, while Morse climbed back in.
The trusty Jag started first time and with a bit of help from Fred pushing, Morse managed to get it away from the tree and out onto the road.
"Sir? I think I'd better drive the rest of the way? I know we've both been knocked out, but you've got quite the nasty cut to you head there." said Fred
"Mmmm, I feel fine, but alright" replied Morse
They swapped over and Fred began to drive. Morse looked at his watch,
"It's nearly half past eleven! I know I told Win I'd be late, but I expect she'll have given up and gone to bed by now."
"Do you want me to drop you straight home?" asked Fred
"Good idea, the paperwork can wait until the morning. We'll both go to mine though..." began Morse,
"... You can sleep on the sofa, I don't like the idea of you being on your own in your flat tonight after a bang on the head like that."
So they drove across town to Fred's house. Unfortunately, Neither of them realised that their respective head injuries were going cause them and those around them, more problems than they could imagine.