You Know My Name.
Author: Pohog
Rating: R (Above 17) for …blood and violence and cursing.
Disclaimer: The characters, world, and history contained herein were borrowed from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, and are used without permission.
Spoilers: Through White Night. I'm following the books, not the show.
Author's Note: Murphy (Karrin, not Connie) has been demoted to Sergeant, but I am keeping her in charge of Special Investigations and she has retained her office (mostly because I wasn't sure where to put her … she'd be an awful Desk Sergeant, at any rate…).
If you take a life do you know what you give?
Odds are you won't like what it is
When the storm arrives, would you be seen with me
By the merciless eyes of deceit?
I've seen angels fall from blinding heights.
But you yourself are nothing so divine.
Just next in line.
Arm yourself because no one else here will save you.
Chris Cornell, "You Know My Name."
Karrin Murphy frowned at her computer as the screen flickered, and smacked the monitor once on the side.
When this did not alleviate the flickering, the police officer rolled her chair away from her desk and leaned back to look for the one person who's mere presence could wreak irreparable havoc on electronics. The one person whom she had banned from her office whenever a computer was running. The one person who could single-handedly, unintentionally, completely and utterly destroy five weeks' worth of notes, and blame her for not backing them up.
A red haze began to darken the Lieutenant's vision as she caught sight of the obnoxiously tall man across the line of desks.
"Dresden!" She knew her voice was higher pitched than usual, but this did not quiet her down. Murphy stood up and exited her office, slamming the door behind her, and marched purposefully toward the frightened-looking wizard, who flinched slightly and formed an apologetic sound without actually apologizing.
"Murph, I--" he began, but she cut him off by grabbing his elbows and propelling him backwards ten feet, opening the door with his back, and releasing him in the stairwell.
"Five weeks! Five weeks I've been working on that report, and one small emotional upheaval from you will destroy the whole thing!"
He at least had the good grace to look self-conscious. "I can't help that…"
Murphy breathed slowly for a moment, "I know, Harry." She looked his lean frame up and down for the first time, taking in the disheveled appearance of his clothing (how can he possibly make jeans, hiking boots and a t-shirt look even scruffier?), his rough-shaven face, and the dark bags under his eyes. He hadn't slept for at least a night. Something was going on. And when something was going on with Harry Dresden, people wound up hurt. He leaned against the wall and thought he was being inconspicuous by pressing his upper arm tightly against his side. He was hurt.
What's going on now? She met his dark eyes, and he looked away, as he usually did. She knew he heard her unspoken question, because she could see the cogs in his head turning, debating on how much he wanted to let her in on.
This irritated Karrin Murphy, and she was about to tell him so when he suddenly made an uncharacteristic gasp of pain and slid down the wall, his eyes squeezed shut and his knees drawn up to his chest.
Murphy followed him down, a hand already on his neck. His heartbeat was dangerously elevated. She yelled until the stairwell door reopened and the alarmed officer who had opened it called for an ambulance. He was breathing as if he had just gone running, but his skin was ice cold.
"Harry!" Murphy shook him by the upper arms, and his eyes opened, attempted to focus and failed, and closed again.
The Lieutenant let out a gasp.
His eyes were bloodshot. More than bloodshot. As she watched, a few lines of blood trailed out of them like tears.
Harry shuddered, seeming to shrink in on himself in pain, and gasped out a sentence.
"M-my name….She k-knows my…."
The paramedics were approaching swiftly, and Karrin went with Harry in the ambulance, holding his hand until he was rushed into the trauma ward.
She stood on the observation deck, wringing her hands in front of her, watching her best friend through a glass window as doctors rushed to keep his heart beating under too-bright lights. One of the lights abruptly exploded, shards of glass raining down over the heads of two surprised nurses.
Snorting lightly, Murphy didn't notice the tears streaking down her face.
R&R, Chapter 1 forthcoming.