Statement 5: Down Lane

[Mr. Handy]

Jordan knows that he did everything he could to save Grimes, but it just wasn't enough. However, he is comforted by the fact that Grimes brought it on himself and is the one to blame. If he had only listened to reason, he could have walked away. But of course his brain had been damaged even before he was fatally sprayed.

[Snapper]

Skipper had sourced a largely automated, 24/7 place in London where film was developed and printed while you waited. The uni student types staffing it cared less what he was printing, as long as he paid and it didn't stop them doing their streaks and worshipping at the mobile phone alter of Candy Crush.

Skipper delivered another album of strange photos to the Folly libraries, the weirdness prize going to images of the disappearing Grimes. And including a poster sized black + white of angry Grimes and the Speed Demons glaring down the camera lens, surrounded by high performance motors. (He rather hoped the latter might get framed and hung somewhere.)

While the Speed Demons did not provide him with an excuse to skip BJJ for a night, he did leave a standing order with Maud and Barry for seeds or seedlings of any really decent sized carnivorous plants. Especially ones that could eventually move and / or thump their trunks with tappers. Or sing...

[BoyBlunder78]

Over the next couple of days Eli's students noticed a change in him, a slightly more reserved man, a hau Ted look behind his eyes. At night he reflected on the events of the past day. What started off as an exciting fun adventure,, the autopsy, the mystery of the damaged brain, the changing rooms all reminded him of an Agatha Christe or Conan Doyle classic locked room mystery. He enjoyed meeting all these new colourful people, got involved in a bit of action with a gang of skinheads.....but then.....that poor man.....Yes he was a despicable excuse of a human being. All the worst attributes one coukd think of personified in one person, filled,fueled by hate, driven to spread that hate and fear however, wherever he could. But did he deserve his fate? The image forever etched in Eli's mind. His thoughts then turn to that poor girl Izzy and what she must be going through, to take another's life is a heavy burden no matter the circumstances. He hopes she looks some solace in that her actions saved her friends life and those of innumerable overs in the future who would have been touched by the vile creature. 'He who live by the sword, die by the sword' He muttered to himself.

[Philulhu]

Des disappeared from the Folly for a few days once they had got back, heading off to her granmother’s, trying to put some distance between herself and the events of the past few days.Grimesy had got what was coming to him, but she couldn’t help but think of his final moments when she closed her eyes to go to sleep.

Tired, she became even more sullen than normal, but she didn’t think she could really talk to her family about what she’d seen. She didn’t even know if she had the words to describe it! How do you talk to people about magic? It would be a one-way to Bethlem Royal if she did! So she kept quiet, moping around for a couple more days before heading back to the Folly where she could at least speak to people who had experienced the same things she had…

[Trivun]

It was all over much too quickly.

Despite his best efforts, Jordan couldn't do anything to save Will Grimes, and he was pronounced dead later in the day. The effects of a severe stroke. Of course, Izzy hadn't been the one to pull the trigger on the spray hose. She hadn't intended to cause his death. That had never been the intention, no matter what kind of scumbag he was.

She felt guilty all the same.

The drive to the hospital had been one of the worst of her life, and she'd been the bearer of bad news enough times before. Telling distraught parents that their child had been killed in a hit and run, or that granny had been found dead in her bed on a welfare check. She was used to that sort of thing. This was nothing of the sort. Jordan had unofficially diagnosed her with emotional shock, but she'd refused any sort of treatment. What could anyone do for something like that anyway? She'd waited in the hospital for news, any news, of what might have happened to Grimes, and even though she'd despised everything the man stood for... when the doctors told Izzy of his fate, she had barely been able to register it.

There were no tears. Not then. She'd simply been numb, a delayed reaction that deep in her mind she knew would come back to bite her sooner or later, but for that moment she had simply stared and nodded as the doctors explained. If she hadn't knocked the spray out of his hands, then he would still be alive. The others tried to reassure her that if she hadn't, any one of them could be dead instead. Or Barry. But it made no difference.

Izzy made her way home alone that day. She refused the offer of a lift in the group's transport, back to the Folly, or to her place on Seven Sisters Road. She simply got out of the car as soon as they were close enough to an Underground station, and rode the train in silence, thinking back on those final moments. Eventually the somewhat circuitous route ended with her stepping off the Tube at Finsbury Park, making her way down the street on auto-pilot. She didn't even remember taking her key out and unlocking the front door as she walked up the stairs to her apartment where Alice and Freya were waiting.

“Hey Izz, how was work...”

Alice called out in a cheery voice as she looked up from her Netflix documentary to see Izzy entering. Her lectures had finished early for the day, no coursework to worry about, and so she had been enjoying a rare evening off, but her voice trailed off as she saw the expression on Izzy's face when she walked through the door. She didn't need to say anything else. Alice got to her feet, moving the cat out of the way as she made her way straight over to the young detective, and simply scooped Izzy into her arms in a tight hug.

“Oh, baby, what's wrong... rough day?”

Izzy had no words. She accepted the hug, and put her own arms around Alice, as she buried her head in the messy chestnut hair of her love, and the emotions that had been building up all day finally spilled out in a flood of tears, deep and heavy sobs as her entire body shook in Alice's arms. They simply stood there like that, for as long as they needed to.

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(post script)

Alice is there for Izzy for as long as she needs her to be. The trust and the emotional strength that Alice provides only strengthens their relationship, and before long Izzy asks Alice to move in with her officially, considering that they've been unofficially living together for a while now anyway. It takes a long while for Izzy to stop waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares from having inadvertently killed a man, but Alice is there to comfort her every time.

The biggest worry is for her job. She considers handing in her resignation to DCI Nightingale, but DC Peter Grant talks her out of it. If any consequences are to come for her actions, then it will be down to Nightingale to decide on any course of action, not for her to offer it. As Peter says, regardless of the outcome, she had been acting to save lives. What happened to Grimes wasn't her fault.

Izzy nevertheless begins a series of counselling sessions to try and work through her delayed trauma and PTSD. It takes a long time, but the long term outlook seems positive. With her colleagues, girlfriend, and family supporting her, things do start to look somewhat better.