Unless Derek was working on a twenty year-old operating system, then the autosave function retained most or all of his work. Try it yourself.
Flashlight is one word.
A person skunked at close range will stink sickeningly for weeks, even with tomato baths. It's not like the tolerable smell of skunk from a distance. Derek will not be allowed into the house.
My heaven but the swearing is entertaining!
Author's response
Actually this did happen to me and it didn’t save it, that’s what inspired me to put it in the story because I was working on another one of my stories when it happened and I couldn’t recover anything of all five pages. My computer isn’t that old so I don’t know why it happened but I figured if it could happen to me it can happen to Derek. As for the skunk, this also happened to me. I pointed out that the smell was so terrible that Derek was gagging the whole time, and although he was taking a tomato bath I never said it worked and the house was empty which was why no one came to check when he slammed his head on the tub. Though I guess I should go back and clarify that part. Thanks for the insight.