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stonepicnicking_okapi ([personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2019-05-28 09:47 pm

My Double Drabble: Work: Adam Dalgliesh [P.D. James]: Gen

Title: Work
Fandom: Adam Dalgliesh [books, P.D. James]
Length: 200
Rating: Gen
Prompt: DW 100 Fandoms .046: Work.
Summary: Dalgliesh had long since given up trying to decide if he was a police officer who wrote poetry or a poet who solved crimes.
Author's Note: I'm at 50 fandoms for the DW 100 Fandoms challenge! Half-way! I'm going to take a break for a while now.


“I, uh, read your book.”

“Thank you. I hope you enjoyed it,” said Dalgliesh before swiftly steering the conversation back to the case at hand.

Dalgliesh had long since given up trying to decide if he was a police officer who wrote poetry or a poet who solved crimes, but he preferred to keep discussion of his verse out of the squad room.

Though light jests at the poet’s expense had, on rare occasion, served to cut tension and improve the atmosphere among colleagues, Dalgliesh didn’t encourage them.

He especially disliked his own lines being recited back to him, say, at a crime scene or after the interrogation of a suspect. Those with whom he worked closely knew that, and though he was never rude in his mode of enlightenment, those who did not, learned very quickly.

There were such simpler ways of to make a positive personal impression in the professional setting. Offering Dalgliesh a cup of decent coffee, for example, went a lot farther than any amount of awkward commentary on his latest publication.

Work was work. Poetry was not.

The twain met, but Dalgliesh didn’t want to talk about it, especially when they were hunting a murderer.