Title: Pray
TV 'Verse
Disclaimer: Dresden Files belongs to Jim Butcher and Scifi Channel who threw it away anyway so :p
Summary: A blast from the past brings trouble into Harry's life
Spoilers: None that I am aware of
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I tuned her out. I gave her the occasional "yes ma'am" or "no ma'am" but other than that I simply watched her talk.
Mrs. Mary Lee Grady -- wife of the Reverend Marvin Grady, preacher at the First Baptist Church of Stump Line, Georgia – could preach up a storm herself. Magic is from Satan, was always her message, even pretend magic is sinful.
She wanted to save my eternal soul. I assured her that I did indeed believe in the existence of my eternal soul. I thought I heard Bob snort somewhere. Mrs. Grady meant well, and I just let her pray on and try to save my soul. She had done so every time my father and I passed through Georgia. I hadn't seen her since before Dad died.
I finished making tea and poured two cups.
"Do you want some sugar or cream, Mrs. Grady?" I asked her when she paused.
"Oh no, dear, unless you have a drop of honey?" she asked hopefully.
I looked in the fridge. Yep. I put a few drops in her tea and in mine.
"Thank you, hon." she said and took a few sips.
"What are you doing in Chicago, Mrs. Grady?"
Tears filled her eyes then.
"Our daughter Wendy has run away, Mr. Dresden. We think she came here to Chicago."
She started praying again.
"Daughter?" I asked, astonished. She blushed.
"She is sixteen years old." Mrs. Grady wouldn't look me in the eye. "My husband doesn't know I've come here, Mr. Dresden. I saw your name in the yellow pages and the Lord told me to come to you. In spite of..." her voice trailed off.
"In spite of my being in league with Satan?" I asked lightly.
She blushed again.
"Your father was a good man, Mr. Dresden. I know you are too." She rummaged through her purse and brought out an envelope.
"It isn't much." She said.
I gestured her to put the envelope away.
"Do you have pictures of Wendy? And something that belonged to her?" I asked.
She took out a few photos and, then, hesitantly, she produced a small silver cross pendant.
I took them from her. Cute kid.
There was pounding at my door. We heard it open. Murphy came into the office, calling for me. She stopped as she came through the hallway from the office into my apartment kitchen and saw Mrs. Grady.
"Harry, I need to talk to you. I need your help on a case."
It never rains but it pours.
"Hi Murph." I said.
"Mrs. Grady, this is Lieutenant Murphy of the Chicago Police Department. Murph, this is Mary Lee Grady from Georgia. She and her husband are in town. My Dad and I knew them when I was a kid."
Murphy shook hands with Mrs. Grady, frowning.
"Ma'am, is your husband Marvin Grady?"
Mrs. Grady nodded, her eyes widening.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you." Murphy began.
"Oh no, no, no."
I hurried to Mrs. Grady's side. She leaned heavily against me.
"Mr. Grady has been killed, murdered."
I caught her as she fainted. I stared at Murphy.
"They came to Chicago to find their daughter. She's missing. She's only sixteen." I told her.
Murphy sighed. "I need your help on this case, Harry."
"I can't leave her alone, here or in her hotel room either. I need to get in touch with a friend of mine, see if she can help."
-,--,-,-,----
I had time. Murphy took Mrs. Grady 'downtown' to the station to get information regarding her husband.
I paid a call to Bianca. This kind of favor you don't ask over the phone. She owed me one and I intended to collect. Fortunately, Bianca was in a good mood and, laughing, agreed to help me out. I called Murphy and told her to be on the lookout for Bianca's limo.
Then I returned home and turned my attention to the pendant. I whipped up a locater potion while Bob quizzed me.
"Do I have this right, Dresden, you turned her money down?"
"Yep"
"The lady is too old for you, her daughter is too young, she won't stop trying to convert you, and you are working for free?"
"Yep"
"And why, pray tell – so to speak – are we working for free?"
"I'm working for free, Bob, because I like her, she was always nice to me and my Dad."
"While praying nonstop?"
"Pretty much, yep."
Bob sighed. "I'll be in my skull."
The phone rang. It was Murphy.
"Harry, I really need you here. This is bad." she sounded almost desperate.
"I'll be right over." I said.
I had to turn off the flame under the locater potion and throw it out. I sighed. Money down the drain.
-,--,-,-,----
Murphy wasn't usually given to understatements, but this one was a doozy. Marvin Grady's murder had been videotaped by a tourist. A shaky video showed his daughter dropping the knife she had used to kill him and then being escorted away by a shadowy figure of a man Almost a dozen young people flowed away with the pair. I had a bad feeling about the shadowy figure. Why was he the only blurry part of the image?
Phone records showed Marvin had received a phone call in his hotel room. He left immediately. The call had come from an untraceable prepaid cell phone.
Mary Lee Grady was in shock. She sat forlornly in a chair in one of the interrogation rooms, staring unblinking into a cup of cold coffee. She did not look up when I entered. She wasn't even praying.
It hurt to look at her.
Murphy popped her head in the door. Bianca's limo was downstairs. I managed to get Mrs. Grady upright and walking. I led her outside to the limo. The uniformed driver opened the door, and helped Mrs. Grady inside. Bianca was inside. I motioned to her. She leaned out while her driver held a sunshade over her and I quietly filled her in on the situation.
"Don't take her to her hotel room yet." I told her. "She might be in danger as well. Take her to my apartment." I handed her the keys to my apartment. "She doesn't have a cell phone. Don't let her talk on the phone."
Bianca rolled her eyes. "Harry, why don't you let me worry about Mary Lee, and you worry about finding her daughter and associates?"
She disappeared back into the limo and the driver closed the door. The large black stretch Humvee took off and didn't really blend into traffic.
-,--,-,-,----
Murphy took me to the crime scene. Kirmani was already there. He droned on from his notes while I tried to keep my lunch down.
Black magic. Vile and nauseating. It permeated this place. If the remnant was this strong, the practitioner must be powerful beyond reason. No wonder he was blurred on the video.
Did Wendy Grady have the gift? Neither of her parents did. Even if I could feel the power of faith from Mary Lee Grady from fifty yards away (though strangely enough, I'd never felt anything from her husband the preacher) that was faith, not magic.
What about the other kids on the video? Were they practitioners? Was this a coven or a cult of personality?
At least I knew how to find Wendy. I had to get back to my lab.
I told Murphy I would call her when I found something, and took a cab back to my jeep.
When I got back home, I found Bianca with her arms around a sobbing Mrs. Grady, and Bob standing behind her, bending over her and murmuring reassuringly in her ear.
I blinked.
"Bob?" I said, "what are you doing?"
"Its not my fault." he said, pointing to Mary Lee.
Mrs. Grady hiccuped a bit.
"Really, Mr. Dresden, just because I'm from rural Georgia you think I don't know a ghost or a vampire when I see one? I don't think Bob here trusts Bianca very much, he came out to keep an eye on her."
Bianca smirked.
I have known Bob since I was eleven years old. I have never seen him blush. In fact, I would have sworn he couldn't blush. And yet there he was, blushing.
I think my jaw was somewhere around my knees.
"Close your mouth, Mr. Dresden, you look ridiculous standing there like that."
I closed my mouth. Bianca was still smirking. I could swear Bob was about to stick his tongue out at me for a second there.
"I need to work in the lab." I told them, and ran away down the hallway to hide in the lab.
This time I didn't have to throw away the potion. I took the crystal and headed out of the lab. I got to the door, saying goodbye to Mrs. Grady, Bianca and Bob.
"You aren't going anywhere without me." Mary Lee declared, bustling along behind me followed by Bianca, who pointedly walked through Bob, leaving him behind.
"This isn't a very good idea Mrs Grady... " I started but she wasn't going to be stopped.
"Wendy is my daughter." she said. "I'm going with you."
I sighed and held the door for her, she exited followed by Bianca. I headed out after them, beginning to shut the door.
"Dresden!" It was Bob. He looked highly miffed.
I sighed. I didn't think I would hear the end of it if I left him here. I picked up his skull and put it in the bag I keep for transporting him. In the jeep I put the bag in its spot on the floor behind my seat.
I followed the crystal, having to make various turns and u-turns in a very indirect route before we wound up at a small apartment complex. We all piled out of the car onto the moonlit sidewalk. I could feel the dark magic now. It emanated from the building in front of us. Bianca was the only one with a cell phone. She called Murphy and gave her the address. I tried to stay as far away from Bianca as I could but the phone died fairly quickly anyway. It was the black magic I was sure.
I pulled my hockey stick out of the jeep and headed into the building. Mary Lee and Bianca followed. Mrs. Grady would not hear no, and Bianca would not leave her. Bob was brought up short by his leash He fumed. Bianca laughed. Mary Lee looked grim.
I walked slowly up the stairs, pausing at each landing. I didn't need the crystal anymore. I could feel the dark forces plain enough. When we reached the top floor landing a door burst open. I got my hockey stick up just in time to protect the three of us as deadly energy was hurled at us. I could see the sorcerer. He was my height, bald, and wearing black robes.
"Can you get more clichéd?" I asked him. He growled in reply and hurled more energy.
The wall behind me burst into flames. Bianca pulled the fire alarm.
"Get her out, Bianca!" I yelled, trying to hold a shield against the battering the sorcerer was giving it. "I can't keep this shield up much longer."
Mary Lee protested all the way down the stairs, but Bianca's vampire strength was too much for her.
People were pouring out of the apartments downstairs. Frightened kids began to leave from the open door in front of me. I tried to shield them from the energy projectiles slamming into us but two were incinerated, screaming. I growled and launched my own attack. Energy from my hockey stick flowed through the door at the black robed figure and – he disappeared. Crap.
I ran with the last of the kids down the stairs as the walls began to crack I hoped desperately that everyone had heeded the fire alarm, because I didn't think this building was going to last much longer.
"WENDY, WENDY" Mary Lee was desperately trying to get back into the building, but was being held back by Bianca, who looked like even her strength would not be a match for a desperate mother. The other kids from the sorcerer's apartment were melting away into the neighborhood. None of them was Wendy. She was still inside.
Damn.
I sighed and, holding tightly to my hockey stick, plunged back into the building. "Harry, no!" I heard Bob cry as the door swung shut behind me.
Flames were already engulfing the top floor. The heat was horrible. I shielded myself and entered the burning apartment. I heard high scream and found Wendy on the floor of one of the bedrooms. I had just shielded the both of us when an earthquake... no.. not an earthquake... the building shook. I made the shield a bit less rigid, held Wendy close and hoped Mrs. Grady was praying.
Everything became a confusion of fire and concrete as the building collapsed beneath us. Wendy and I were completely buried. I was running out of energy. The protective bubble was going to burst, and Wendy and I would be crushed. She was whimpering softly. I closed my eyes and tried to keep the shield up as long as possible.
Seeing Bianca above us tossing rubble over her shoulder with little effort was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Soon Murphy and Kirmani joined her and hands pulled Wendy out, then me.
Murphy hugged me tightly. I hugged her back. Then she hit me.
"Harry, you went into a burning building. You went into a collapsing burning building." She hit me again.
I grinned. "Thanks for digging me out. -- ow"
Wendy was being squished by her mother. The police didn't seem to want to approach the pair, but the EMTs had no problem pushing Mrs. Grady aside to get her daughter on a stretcher. An officer accompanied Wendy into the ambulance. Mary Lee was not allowed inside. She got into my jeep and glared at me.
Right.
"I have to go, Murph." I said, and got in my jeep. Bianca joined me. Bob had apparently made his way back into his skull to avoid the police. I drove Mrs. Grady to the hospital.
-,--,-,-,----
The sorcerer disappeared and left Chicago. The Wardens are still looking for him. Wendy was found unfit to stand trial, and after leaving the burn unit was committed to a mental hospital. The doctors didn't hold out much hope.
A month after the building collapsed, Murphy had almost forgiven me. Bob was still cranky. He was berating me about something or other when someone knocked on the door. Bob faded into the wall while I answered the door and found Mrs. Grady.
"Hi, come on in." I opened the door and she came in. "I thought you had gone home." I said.
"I did. I sold most of my belongings. I am moving to Chicago to be near Wendy."
She sat down on my sofa. Bob returned. She smiled at him. He blushed. I stared at him. He blushed again. I shook my head in wonder.
"Bianca found me a place to work and live." Mrs. Grady went on as I made tea. "I'm going to run a teen runaway shelter, I have a room there."
I stared at Mary Lee. "Ok, I can see you running a teen shelter, no problem, but... Bianca?"
"We came to an understanding." She said. "I don't pray in front of her establishment – she sends me the runaways." There was a suspicious twinkle in her eyes.
I laughed.
"Welcome to Chicago, Mary Lee Grady!" I said, as I handed her a cup of tea.
Bob sighed happily.