Worst Case Scenario

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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When Mary decided to get her diploma [to become a Social Worker], she believed it would be her role to stand on bridges and stop people jumping off. Very soon after qualifying she realised she would never stand on bridges. She and everyone else were too busy catching casualties downstream. Except for sex offenders. If you saw a drowning sex offender being swept with the current you threw a large rock at him. Mary had done her best work in her first five years in the job. Those early cases were the ones she could recall, where she'd made the time and had an impact. She should have been forced to resign at the five-year mark. Every worker should.

Please let me get through today without killing a child, they'd all be thinking, as Mary had thought for the last thirty years. Please help me not ruin a child's life. She'd prayed each day that she'd get through it without fucking up, without turning out to be the bad guy after all. No-one in the office was expecting fame, riches, or even thanks, even though each worker would have made an excellent protagonist in It's a Wonderful Life. They all saved lives, all the time, but no-one ever noticed. Boy did people notice when it went wrong, though.

Sex and the City

...she didn't want to kill [Macdowall's MRA publisher], as this would mean losing the moral high ground.