Whale of a time.

A/N: None of the characters belong to me. I wish they did, I need to pay off student loans.

General Info: Takes place in Bookverse. Also, no Lash. I tried, but I'm not very good with her.

TIMELINE: Set sometime around White Night: Murphy's been demoted and Harry's hand is O.K.


My name is Harry Dresden. I'm just an average Joe, a working man. I have my own office, car and rent an apartment. I'm not the richest guy on the planet, but I get by. I'm a consultant for the Chicago Police department; I have a rather special skill set that they find useful from time to time. I'm a wizard. I cast spells, make potions, fight monsters and generally kick ass. I don't do love potions, endless purses, birthday parties and I don't wear tall pointy hats. I'm also the only person listed in the phone book under "Wizard." Today I was working with the CPD out at Navy Pier. There had been several reports of boats disappearing with people on the near the Pier. That's why I'm out here on a boat putting around the pier.

"Harry…….you……ere?" A pleasant voice, garbled partly by static, came over the radio on my boat. I sighed, technology hates me.

"Yeah, Murph. I'm here." I spoke slowly into the microphone. Sergeant Karrin Murphy, one of my best friends, used to be the officer in charge of the Special Investigations Unit for the CPD, until police politics got her demoted. She was one hell of a woman. Standing at just over five feet tall (almost two feet shorter than myself) she had the attitude of a giant. And she deserved it too; she'd been studying Aikido for most of her life and had begun teaching it to me as well. Even with magic I wouldn't want to fight her. It was just the two of us on this one; one benefit of her demotion was that it didn't look odd for her to investigate things by herself.

" I've…..the thing…..position. ….sure th….work?" This time the voice was more skeptical.

"Don't worry Murph. Just keep it pointed in my general direction and I'll do the rest." I put the microphone back onto its holder and set the boat on a course that sent it between the most recent attack sites. It was smooth sailing for a while; I ended up circling the area several times whistling the Gilligan's Island theme song.

"Harry, how much longer is this going to take?" The radio decided to work for more than two second intervals. "I don't like the idea of you using yourself as bait." Twice it worked, today might just be one of those days where everything fits together. And maybe I'll win the lottery three times in a row.

"Don't worry Murph. It's just a three hour tour." I'd been waiting to make that joke for almost week, but this was the first time I had a chance to be in an appropriate situation. Maybe it says something about my personal life that I sit around and think up witty things I can reference. I need a girlfriend. "Don't worry, I can handle this."

Just after I said that the radio began to screech with feedback before sparking a bit and then, with an almost comical puff of smoke it died. I got an odd feeling at the back of my neck and peered over the side of the boat just in time to see a great big dark mass surging up to me.

"Hells bells." I turned around, grabbed my staff and jumped off the boat. It was just in time too, right after I jumped a huge head came out of the lake and swallowed my boat--whole-- and sank back down. A Leviathan had just tried to eat me.

Don't look so surprised, most major lakes around the world have a Leviathan living in them. Ever heard of the Loch Ness Monster? Most Leviathans are actually fairly gentle and quiet creatures, but just like with any animal—magical or not—something can set them off. Fortunately, I had planned on it being one of the two giant sea creatures in Lake Michigan being behind this. The other being a lesser Kraken, but don't worry it mostly just eats Gindylows.

Treading water, I reached into one of my pockets and pulled out a sports bottle half filled with liquid. It was a levitation potion that I made for myself just in case. See, us wizards are smart. I took one big mouthful, grimacing slightly at the Red Bull I had put in it, and put it back into my duster pocket. Within several seconds I got a slight head rush feeling and began to rise out of the water and continued to rise until I was about two feet above the water. Oh yeah, I was flying…kinda.

I only had a few moments to enjoy the feeling of being weightless before I got that feeling at the back of my neck again. I looked to my right to see the Leviathan coming at me along the surface of the water like shark. Its head breached the surface and I locked eyes with it for a second before I gathered my will, thrust my staff to my side and said, "Vento." A force of wind pushed me out of the way of the oncoming Leviathan, but that doesn't stop it from jumping at me and thrashing its long tongue at me, and slapping me with it. The impact actually spun me around and left a thick coating of slime on me. Something in my mind started to nag me about Leviathan mucus, but I pushed that to the back of my head and focused on taking this thing out.

In preparation for fighting a large sea creature, Bob and I had come up with a rather different plan. Magical creatures generally have a natural resistance to magic and Leviathans and Krakens were no exception. Given that they are water dwellers, my fire magic was at a serious disadvantage. To take this thing out, I would have to use lightning magic. I had very little experience with lightning magic, so the best plan we could come up with was to replicate the time that I had harnessed a bolt of lightning in order to banish a demon. I had placed five special energy gathering talismans on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel and was using the wheel itself as my circle. Murph had set up two more foci on the roof of the convention center in order to focus the energy into a blast.

Looking over to the rooftop I see Murphy standing next to the focus and holding a big thumbs-up over her heard. Everything was ready. Gathering some will I pointed my staff at the wheel, muttered "servitas" and released invisible energy to activate the talismans to begin to draw in the natural magic of the area. They would need a couple minutes to gather enough energy. Taking another drink of my levitation potion and muttering a quick "Think happy thoughts," I began to tempt and avoid the Leviathan.

The next three minutes went by fast. It would attack, I would dodge. It hit me with its tongue a couple more times, but nothing serious. I had to admit, despite my situation, I was having a blast. And why wouldn't I? .Flying. Ok, I was levitating and pushing myself around with wind magic but who cares: I was moving without touching the ground. Then I felt it: a little burst of magic, like someone poking you on the back of the neck. The talismans were ready.

Turning towards the pier, I gave Murph the signal that it was ready.

"Hey Murph! It's ready!" I need to learn some hand signals, they look cooler.

Murphy gave another thumbs-up, checked the position of the focus and then backed away. She really didn't have to back that far away, in theory the first focus should send all the energy to the second in a finely concentrated beam. But then again my plans and spells never work perfectly.

"It's bottom of the ninth here in Chicago," I say to nobody in particular as I lower myself closer to the water, tempting the Leviathan, "Harry Dresden steps up to the plate."

I begin to look around for the Leviathan, my timing needs to be pretty good if this is going to work.

"It's all tied up and he's got 3 balls and 2 strikes. He needs to hit it out of the park if he wants the win." The Leviathan was charging at me from about 100 yards out.

"Here's the pitch," 60 yards, I need him closer.

A second passes and he's at 40 yards, at his speed this should work.

"Here's the swing," I open my left hand and face it to the foci. With a release of my will I activate the talismans. 30 yards. Golden pulses of energy release from around the Ferris wheel and rush to the first focus. Very Death Star, I thought to myself.25 yards. From there it exits as a beam of golden light straight to the second focus. 20 yards. The energy collects there for a moment before firing right to my outstretched hand. I feel the energy flood into my body, not as painful as the lightning but every bit as powerful. I give the channeled energy an outlet at the end of my staff as I focus on lightning magic. 15 yards.

Grinding my teeth slightly I shout "Navitas!" The energy pours from the tip of my staff as a great bolt of lightning just as the Leviathan leaps from the water to devour me. It strikes it slightly left of the center of its head and stops the Leviathan mid air. The electricity courses through its head with such intensity that it's dead before it has a chance to feel any pain. When it hits the water its face is charred and a crater full of ash is all that remains where the blast hit it.

I'm drained from the spell. It took most of what I had just to focus that power and keep it from killing me. Muttering a quick spell I push myself over to the pier and allow myself to float into a dignified and manly heap on the ground. I realized that although I was exhausted, I didn't actually hurt. In fact, I was slightly numb all over. I shrugged it off, it was most likely from that spell.

Eventually Murph sat down next to me. "The talismans all got fried. I put what was left of them back in your bag in the Beatle. Very 'Death Star' spell by the way."

I laughed and said in my best Obi Wan voice, "That's no Ferris wheel. It's a space station."

Murphy laughed a little at that. Then she cleared her through and asked, "So, what are we going to do about the body?"

Shrugging, I continued to lay there as I replied, "Nothing, It'll sink and feed a lot of happy little creatures."

"What about the people and the boats that it ate? What the hell am I supposed to put down for a report?" She sounded more annoyed than angry, and that was good for me. She wasn't going to like what I had to say.

I took a deep breath before saying, "Sorry Murph. This isn't 'Pinocchio' or 'Jonah and the Whale,' when something gets eaten by a Leviathan in the real word, it doesn't come back. If you were to look in its stomach right now you wouldn't even find that police boat I was in." I flinched after saying that. I shouldn't have reminded her about that.

"The boat! What about that Harry?! How am I supposed to explain in my report that a police boat was eaten?" Now she sounded a little angry. Crap.

"Well…..you could always blame it on terrorists. They're popular?" I know. Lame excuse, but people will believe "terrorists with unknown motive" much easier than "a Leviathan ate my boat." Murphy started laughing, a good sign. I decided to open my eyes. When I looked over at her, I noticed that she had rested her head on my shoulder. That' s odd, I didn't even feel it. That spell must have taken a lot out of me.

She looked up at, still laughing lightly and said, "You know that sad thing is that they'll believe it." I just nodded.

She stood up, ran her hands through her hair, turned around and offered me her hand. "Come on Dresden, you're covered in crap. You need a shower. Let's get you home."

I smacked her hand away. Now, I hadn't intended to, but that's what ended up happening.

"What the hell Dresden?!" Murphy was mad.

I looked at my hands with a certain amount of shock and began to put things together. I had thought that I was getting over the lightning spell and the levitation potion, but then I realized that my entire body felt like it was asleep.

"Stars and stones," I muttered to myself. Collecting some of the goo from the outside of my coat on my index finger I held it up to Murphy and pointed to it with my other hand, "Leviathan saliva."

She looked at my finger then back to me, she was still mad and a little confused. "Yeah, so? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

Flicking the good off my finger I said, "It's a poison."


A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this! It's going to be a while before chpt2 because my MCAT is in a week and a half, so I'm a little preoccupied with that. Haha. Next chapter is has the Harry/Murphy fluff.

Right now I do not have a Beta. If anyone reading this would like to take it upon themselves then please send me an E-mail. You will get 25 Theoretical Points, a gold star next to your name and my thanks.