One Last Goodbye

Characters: Dresden, Murphy
Author's notes: We all know it. Dresden and Murphy should be together.

Opening my eyes again, I found myself suddenly in a simple, suburban kitchen. The walls had been painted the familiar pink and whites stripes that I was so used to when I came to this house. Like back in the warehouse, the effects of the time distortion made everything glow with a florescent light, especially items which lasting emotion had been poured into over the course of this house's lifetime.

Through the doorway into the living room, I could see a sword rack hanging on top of a mantle over a small fireplace. It had symbolised to the owner strength and control in which she had tried to live her life by and as such, liquid light was pouring off it and dripping onto the carpet below. Surrounding the items was large sofa and an armchair, floral patterns on both matching the general, cute style of the place.

Perched on the edge of the sofa, with an assortment of gun parts surrounding her, Murphy too was simply frozen in time. A time that for her, felt had been travelling at the pace she was used too. My eyes glanced around her face and even though all I could currently see was a portrait of her, I still smiled it her wavy blond hair that covered on a part of her blue eyes. She had worry lines across her forehead from frowning in the middle of a time stop. My best guess is that she was worried about her work today. Only recently, my actions had prevented her from working on a high profile case, which the big wigs upstairs were probably deciding whether they could justify grounds of firing her.

She was a great cop. Her open mind and willingness to dig deeper into cases allowed her to easily solve most crimes, but Murphy's job at SI wasn't to find the secrets behind the murders or the purpose's of insane rituals. SI was created to take the unexplainable cases from other departments and find a simple, scientific reason for them before filing them away to never be looked at again. When my world is concerned, science rarely factors at all.

Making me jump slightly, a hazy transparent glow begin shaking around Murphy, her spirit self trying to adapt to the shock of suddenly being unconnected to her body. When her soul jumped off the sofa after seeing that she no longer had the grip on reality as she thought she did, I understood now what Lily had said about how when people saw me, they would only see the character from a soulgaze.

Instead of an mortal Murphy standing up in a standard issue police jacket and loose fitting jeans, what I saw was the beautiful sight of something even now I would never forget the image of. Ethereal Murphy was dressed head to toe in a long, white flowing dress that glowed in the face of the darkness of the room. Across the table in front of her, which she was now actually walking through (not helping her panic levels one bit), was the glowing remains of a long sword. Replacing the parts of a gun that I was aware of, such as the trigger and the barrel, I instead saw what I suspected was a sword handle and a long blade which took up the entire table.

As this unique position gave me the ability to see the confidence in Murphy, I also saw the stains. Across parts of her dress were splotches of grey, intermixed with red, marking the times of her life where she felt she failed herself, like growth rings on a tree. While some parts of her hair were flowing around her face, like she was standing in front of a summer breeze, there were also occasional wisps that had knotted together or turned slightly brown, more so signifying memories that she would rather forgot, most of them probably involving me in some way.

During this time while I'd been dwelling on how many of those flaws were because of me, spirit Murphy was beginning to show signs of panic. Normally, she would have reached for her gun, but seeing the detached sword lying on the table stopped her and she began to back away, trying to understand what was happening to her.

As she began to back away towards the door that led to her kitchen, the door in which I was currently standing in, I decided to make no move and allow Murphy to try and understand on her own. Eventually though, in a slightly more calmer state, her back bumped into my shirt and she suddenly whirled around with her fists in the air, ready to attempt to beat the shit out of what should have been an empty doorway.

When her eyes met mine though, her entire body tensed up as she decided if I really was her good friend Harry and not some demon attempting to gain her trust once again. During a soulgaze, each person sees the other for who they truly are, there are no lies but neither is there truth. There is only the personality and fears of that person, presented on a plate. When Murphy looked me up and down, her muscles suddenly relaxed with ease and she lowered her fists.

Though she tried to hold back a smile, her spirit wouldn't let her and I saw the corners of her mouth turn up, much to the clear opposition from her will.

"Dresden," she asked in her calmest voice possible, "Why, the hell, am I glowing, what, the hell, happened to my gun and why, the hell, are you glowing?"

Taken aback by this, I stuttered for a brief second while my brain realized that Murph would be seeing my soul as well. During this brief period of silence, Murphy had already got another conversation started, something along the lines of 'this always happens when you're around'. Ignoring all of this, I looked down at her and saw the strength beginning to flow back into her, the edges of the dark splotches beginning to turn white to match her outfit.

"…and now you turn me into a ghost. Of all the…" She didn't get out the last past of her, no doubt, convincing argument as I had wrapped my arms around her back and pushed my lips over hers.

For a tense few seconds, I felt her back muscles stiffen and her neck begin to tilt away from me. I had wanted to kiss Karrin for a while now, and I never assumed that she might not feel the same way about me. A few years ago, we had talked about our feelings and how we shouldn't act upon them. I don't have much experience with relationships, but I'm pretty sure that that conversation would need both parties to at least like each other.

Just before the point where she would have broken our kiss (actually just my kiss for now), she suddenly stopped herself and began to kiss be back. No longer held back by physical constraints, I felt the energy and emotions pour from her and into me. Unclenching her fists, she pulled her arms up and wrapped them around my neck, both of us now pulling each other into the embrace. I could feel my mind beginning to go blank as all the worries and the pain began to drift from my mind, leaving me with nothing but the feeling of Karrin's soft lips against my own.

As her petite hands began running through my hair, I returned the favour by slowly drawing small circles on her back with me palms, eliciting a soft but sensual moan from her. I knew there was an important thing I should be focusing on, but I just didn't care. I've had good kisses in the past sure. Ones that seemed to last for hours, but with Karrin, time just didn't seem important. All there was, was the heat of the moment as I pulled her in closer to me, never wanting to let her go.

Eventually though, one of my memories briefly flashed through my mind. That image of Molly, kneeling down on the floor at my feet, her face wet with tears as she looked to me for help.

I still had a job to. I couldn't let Molly down, even if I wanted nothing more than to merely sit next to Karrin and hold her. She must have also felt my hesitation through me, as we both broke off the kiss at the same time, our foreheads resting on each other's and our mouths desperately tried to keep up our oxygen supply to our fast-beating hearts, which were now matching in strength and pace.

As Karrin tried to keep her breathing under control, she looked deep into my eyes, "You know Harry, you could have come over to see me rather than evicting me from my body." I grinned back at her.

"But I wouldn't be me if I went for the simplest answer. The more effort you put into it, the greater the sense of satisfaction and plus, it's only polite to put a bit of thought into wooing a lady such as yourself." Karrin smiled and gently punched me on the chest.

"You chauvinistic pig, as dead impressed as I am though," She raised an eyebrow, "I'd rather you put me back into my body so we can start on some more familiar ground"

My mouth smiled at the thought of doing some familiar things on the ground with Karrin, but this smile failed miserable in attempting to reach my eyes. Karrin saw this and her face pulled a confused look, arms no longer around my neck but instead stroking my arms. Hell's bells that felt nice. "That's the problem Karrin," I looked away from her, "This may be the last time we get to see each other."

Her hands tightened around my shoulders and she frowned in concern. "Harry? What do you mean? Why won't you be coming back?"

At some point during this conversation, I must have started crying, as she reached towards my face with her hand and stroked away a tear. "Talk to me Harry. Maybe I can help…"

Already I was shaking my head and looking down at my feet. "I'm sorry Karrin. I want to be here with you, talk to you, touch you, but someone still needs my help." I forced a smile onto my face and looked deep into her eyes, "Goodbye Karrin Murphy, and I'm so sorry." I leaned forward again and once again kissed her. She automatically leaned into me to accept it, but I had my eyes open and I saw the tears now beginning to drip from her eyes. No longer wanting to drawing off the inevitable. I pulled away and sent a tiny stream of will towards Lily, waiting for my signal. For a few short seconds, Karrin looked into my eyes before suddenly being pulled back into her body.

As I faded back towards mine, I briefly heard Karrin's phone ring and saw her physical body (now full of life) turn in my direction and ask, "Harry? Please don't go."

Next Chapter: The Onslaught