Uncle Harry
Chapter 4A/N: I'm planning on trying to keep updating on a weekly basis. I was busy this weekend so I'm working on it tonight to catch up. As always thank you for reading and reviewing the story. I hope you're enjoying it. :)
"I said DON'T TAKE THEM to the ER! Treat them HERE!" I heard a loud, angry voice proclaim only a few feet from my head.
"Sir, we don't know what's wrong with them. We NEED to have them in the ER in case something unexpected happens." Said another voice straining to keep its composure.
"If you take these two to the ER I guarantee something unexpected WILL happen." replied the first man, then under his breath he continued. "It always does, and it's usually expensive."
"I've never had two men fighting over me before, I'm not sure how I should feel..." I said rubbing my bruised and aching face.
"See, he's fine. Now just check him out and send him HOME!" said the portly middle aged man with thick glasses and a gray hairline that had receded to the top of his head. He look at me, straightening his wrinkled suit and gave me a practiced smile. "I'm glad to see you're feeling better Mr. Dresden" he said turning to leave.
"No thanks to you..." I said loud enough for him to hear it. "I wonder if my cousin Vincent would take this as a malpractice case or would it be discrimination?" I thought out loud. The heavyset man in the wrinkled suit stopped and grimaced, but didn't turn around, then decided to simply proceed on his way pretending to not have heard me. As he marched off determinedly I moaned.. "My back.. what happened to my back!" With that he huffed and turned the corner disappearing from sight.
"Harry, it's not nice to tease the normal's." Murphy said shaking her woozy head and trying to sit up.
"Easy there miss, you have a bump on the back of your head and you may have a concussion. I'll need to get an x-ray." the handsome doctor said, his bedside manner kicking in as he gently helped Murphy lay back down. She was looking into his eyes with a faint smile on her face, which was either a byproduct of the sleeping spell or an whole other kind of charm that the doctor was oozing.
"The girl? Where is the little girl that was in here?" I asked pushing myself up remembering what had happened. My head spinning as I pushed my feet over the edge of the gurney they had me on, looking frantically for Simone.
"She's fine, sir. She's with the police right now. She couldn't be safer." the doctor said reassuringly.
"She was with three of them when we got here, not that it did any good." I said darkly. The doctor put his hand on my chest as I was getting ready to get up off the gurney.
"You need to lie down and rest. We don't know what it was that you ingested that caused you to black out. It could happen again." the doctor warned, giving me a serious look. I looked down at his hand pointedly then at him.
"You're a doctor and seem to be a nice guy so let me put this nicely. Move your hand if you want to keep it, please!" I said as nicely as I could at the moment. His hand moved away quickly as he scowled at me.
"Fine, but it's against Doctors orders." He said, picking up my chart and writing something in it. Probably, something along the lines of patient is a jackass, which I couldn't really argue with so I ignored him and moved to the doorway.
"Where's the girl?" I asked, holding on to the door frame as I hadn't quite gotten my sea legs yet and the building seemed to be going through a squall.
"Second door on the left." he said without looking up at me as he started to examine Thomas.
I looked down the hallway and noticed drops of blood stopping at a recently cleaned spot on the floor. I remembered hearing Murphy's gun going off as the lights went out and the smooth talking guy with the dust. He wasn't anyone I'd seen at the White Council meetings or working with the Wardens, so I was assuming he was either a very low level practitioner or a Warlock. Either way he knew what was going on and I needed to find out.
"The guy that was shot, where did they take him?" I asked looking over my shoulder.
"They took him to the ER then the morgue." the doctor said as he checked Thomas's pupil reactions.
So he was dead. That won't be much help to me, but maybe there's something on his person that could give me a clue as to what was going on here. For now I needed to get to Simone.
I walked down the hall and nodded to the four uniformed officers outside the doorway, flashing my consultant badge at them. They gave me curious looks and one spoke up as I was reaching for the door.
"How's Sergeant Murphy? Is it true that she was knocked out?" one of the younger uniforms asked in disbelief.
"It's true and she's doing fine. The guy that attacked her, didn't make it." I said giving him a serious look, making him fidget with a nervous smile.
I swung the door open and pushed my way inside. There was a small mob of suits and one little girl crying her eyes out looking terrified. I slid the chair of the guy in front of me to the side using my foot, garnering an angry look as I stepped past him.
"Uncle Harry!" She gasped between sobs, reaching her arms out towards me. I stepped closer to her, patting her head and putting my arm around her as I turned to the detectives.
"Now I know how many detectives it takes to terrify one little girl, how many of you does it take to change a light bulb?" I asked scowling from one to the next.
"Dresden, this is an ongoing investigation! You have no business being here!" the square jawed detective sitting to my right growled. His voice sounding gravely from too many nights living on coffee, cigarettes and rot gut bourbon. Between the flat top and the attitude I had to expect he was an ex-marine. Probably a drill sergeant by his manner and tone.
"The girl's with me. I'm not leaving this room without her." I said slowly in a soft bass voice, looking calmly, evenly from each detective to the next again. Most looked away as I turned to them, but the square jawed guy just folded his arms over his chest and stared at me, his eyes boring into my chest. I looked him square in the nose as I slid down onto the examining table next to Simone. She hugged my neck and buried her face in my shoulder, sobbing and nearly hyperventilating.
"Your investigation can wait until she feels safe and calm. It's my girlfriend in recovery with a bullet wound and my friends next door who got knocked out and on top of that this girl is my client. I have every right to be here and you'd have a devil of a time making me move right now." I said holding Simone close, gently rubbing her back and looking at the lead investigator.
He let out a low growl and glared at me, "Guys, take ten while I have a chat with this, gentleman." He said never taking his eyes off me. The other three suites nodded and quickly left the room, this guy was obviously the alpha in the group.
"You say she's your client? What sort of case are you working on? Because, what I heard from the other guys that got knocked out, the dead guy used some sort of gas to put them out. If you ask me it sounds like a terrorist attack and here you are, our own resident wacko right in the middle of it." He said pulling up a chair and lowering himself into it.
"The details of my case are confidential, I'm sure you know that." I told him feeling Simone's arms loosen around my neck as I refused to talk about her. "In case you didn't notice I was with the guys that stopped the 'terrorist' and got a face full of whatever he was throwing around myself." I finished with a bit of a snarl.
"I don't know, it could be that you kidnapped this girl and wanted to ransom her back but your partner got greedy and made a grab for her. That sounds as plausible as what you've put out." He said glaring at me. "Make no mistake, this is My case. You can't hide behind Murphy on this one Dresden."
"With such a fertile imagination I think you've missed your calling Detective..." I glanced at the name plate on his chest that said, "DET. GRISHAM" in capital blocky letters. "Detective Grisham, you should have been a writer. Trust me I do a lot of reading and your stories sound more interesting than half of the stuff on the best seller list. Tell me, do you save the fiction for your incident reports or is writing a hobby? Probably a little of both, huh?" I sneered at him.
"You'd better start giving me some answers Mr. Wizard, or you'll be spending a long couple of days with some very unfriendly cell mates while I file the obstruction of justice charges."
Simone pulled one arm from around my neck and turned to face the officer. Her cheeks were red with silver tear streaks, her eyes red from crying, her lips trembling with anger. She faced him with a reproachful glare only a child can give.
"You STOP IT! Uncle Harry SAVED me and he hasn't done anything wrong! I ran away from school and he found me and helped me!" She told him defiantly, the tears still dripping from her eyes.
"Aunt Lash and Uncle Harry are the first people who've been nice to me since my parents died! Aunt Lash got shot.." she stuttered and sniffed as a new bout of tears poured from her eyes but she didn't stop. " Sh, Sh, She was shot helping me, protecting me and Uncle Harry tried to save me from the man in the other room just now! So you just a STOP IT!" She finished, the tears running unashamedly down her face, her chin stuck out as she leaned against me glaring at Grisham.
"I get it, you need answers, we all do at this point. She's had a really bad day and could use some food and rest right now." I said sounding the voice of reason, patting Simone's head softly. "Why don't you meet us here tomorrow morning when Lash wakes up and we can piece this all together then."
The grizzled detective gave me a grudging look, still not trusting me but unable to refute the sobbing, pint sized girl clinging to me. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, shaking his head. Then he looked at Simone with a markedly softer look on his face.
"You know, you remind me a lot of my granddaughter." He said to Simone in a softer, gentler voice that I would have never expected from the hardboiled detective. "If you say he's okay, then I'll have to take your word for it. Just one thing, why did you run away from school?" he asked sounding truly concerned.
"She saw some men leading a group of girls down to the basement in the middle of the night. When they saw her, they chased her." I said seriously, telling him as much as I could and still be believable.
"Then I ran and hid until they left. I told my friends and tried to get help, but they said I was a liar and made fun of me. So I ran away... I was lost in the city for a few days until I met Uncle Harry. He gave me food and Aunt Lash made up the guest room for me. It was the first time in days I'd been warm or able to sleep..." She said remembering the bitter cold and sounds of the city at night.
"You said you went to Easton Academy?" the detective asked in more of a professional voice.
"Yes." Simone replied simply, wiping her cheek with her sleeve.
"Even with an eye-witness statement, I doubt we could get in there to investigate. But, the guy down the hall, you think he had something to do with this too?" He asked looking at me.
"That'd be my guess. He said he was going to make her forget, I think he planned on hypnotizing or drugging her, that's when he attacked us." I said filling in the gaps of his timeline.
"Detective Grisham, are you finished with my witnesses?" Murphy asked from the doorway.
"Actually, since you were attacked, it's MY case now. You're too close on this one Murphy, the chief of Detectives put me on this case for just that reason. Well, that and I'm the only guy he felt you wouldn't be able to bully into backing down." he said with a wry smile.
"I don't bully people." Murphy said in mock shock.
"And I only drink after 9pm." he said sarcastically. "I've got what I need for now. Dresden, don't talk to the press or anyone else about what you told me. The last thing I need is a media storm and the last thing you need is to have me pissed at you."
Normally I don't take threats seriously, but something in his voice and how he held himself gave me the impression he was right. I just nodded and wiped another tear from Simone's cheek. He nodded to Murphy and stepped past her into the hall, letting the door close in his wake.
Murphy looked at me holding Simone, who'd half sat, half collapsed into my lap. Her small warm arms around my waist, her wet face against my t-shirt as she looked up at Murphy.
"You two okay?" she asked, pushing a hair out of Simone's eyes and over her ear.
"Yes." Simone said in a small tired voice, sniffing against my t-shirt.
"Tired and hungry but okay for now, I think." I said looking down at Simone and my soiled shirt. Simone nodded silently.
"Then how about we get out of here and go get some food?" Murphy said with a soft smile. "I know a place that has the best grilled cheese sandwich in town."
"And hot chocolate?" Simone asked hopefully.
"With a mountain of whipped cream on top!" Murphy said smiling. I gave her a curious look, wondering if she'd been holding out on me.
Ten minutes later we were pulling into the narrow parking stalls at Mac's with Murphy pulling up beside us. Although I'd never had the grilled cheese sandwich here, I'm sure it was great. We walked down the half flight of stairs and pushed into the warmth of the small establishment. As the door closed the aroma of grilled steak and caramelized onions filled my nostrils. Now I remembered why I'd never tried the grilled cheese, club house or even the grilled pastrami sandwiches here and I wouldn't be ordering any of those again tonight.
The next twenty minutes went by with very little conversation. Murphy and I sipped our ales while Simone sipped her ridiculously large hot chocolate with the promised mountain of whipped cream and sprinkles. It seems Mac only serves hot chocolate in those fancy big espresso cups, much to the delight of Simone. Then I picked up our meals at the bar, two steak sandwiches and one grilled cheese with one large plate with 3 orders of house fries piled high. I had to juggle the tartar sauce and catsup with the plates but made it safely to our booth. After that there were no need for words as the soft gentle moans of gastric delight were enough to say volumes.
While Murphy went to go get our coffees, which were oddly enough in regular people sized cups, I noticed a warm lump on my side. Looking down I saw Simone had pulled my duster around her and was snugly curled up against me snoozing softly.
Murphy set my cup down in front of me smiling at the angelic child blissfully asleep against me.
"You know, you did really well with her today, Harry. I was impressed. I think you'll make a good dad someday." she said honestly.
"Sure, when I'm not out fighting something ugly and nasty or dodging bullets, maybe I could go to the park?" I said dismissing the notion.
"Michael seems to have made it work and you and Lash seem to be getting along just fine." Murphy said looking at me over her cup.
"Michael has 'special circumstances'." I told her meaningfully.
"True, but your house seems as safe as any military base from the looks of it."
"Maybe so, but it's what happens outside the house that worries me. Like with Lash today..." I said feeling the worry tightening my knotted neck and shoulder muscles even tighter.
"Maybe so, but I get the impression that any child you two would have would be able to handle themselves better than most." Murphy said with a knowing smile.
"Maybe so, but I never saw myself as the 'Daddy' type." I said making sure Simone was covered and warm.
"I don't know Dresden, you look pretty 'Dad-ish' to me right now." Murphy said as I added more sugar to my cup.
"She's just so young and innocent... Tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing in my place." I said honestly.
"Maybe so, but it was You this time, Harry. She seems to have grown fond of you and Lash as well."
"She was scared and in trouble, we helped. I think it's natural for he to cling to someone who protects her in times like these." I said sipping my coffee.
"I think it's more than that Harry. I also think you need to be careful how you handle this and any promises you make, you better be willing to keep. A child's heart, especially a little girls heart is fragile." Murphy said seeming to be a thousand miles away. "Broken promises are the hardest to forget."
"I don't have too many memories of my Dad, but in all the memories I have, he was smiling." I said thinking back. "I just don't know if I could give a child those types of warm memories. I'm afraid I'd give them nightmares or worse, that they'd be taken by one." I said with a shrug.
"Harry, no parent is perfect and children don't come with owner's manuals, ask Michael. Between your apprentice and her brother, I'm sure he has stories he could tell you for days." She said with a grin, thinking of Molly. "But just take a look at their eyes when they talk about their dad. You'll see they twinkle."
"Once again, Michael and Charity are special cases. How about you? You'd make a great mom. Have you thought about it?" I asked honestly.
"Humph, I've thought about it. I wouldn't count it out of the realm of possibility, but if I'm going to, I should be starting soon." she said sliding her thumb over her empty ring finger. "Somehow I don't see it happening any time soon." She said looking a little sad.
"I could hook you up with Thomas." I said with a smirk.
"Oh No... A half Dresden, that's all I need. That and Justine would scratch my eyes out. No thank you. I'd sooner date Butters." She said with a distasteful shiver.
"I'll have to tell him you said that. He'd be flattered you'd pick him over Thomas. You may get valentines chocolates..." I said teasing her.
"Don't you Dare!" She said throwing her napkin at me.
"Daddy... Is it time to go home now?" a small soft voice said from my side. Looking down Simone was still sleeping and had a gentle smile on her face, dreaming of being with her parents. I put my arm around her shoulders, over the duster to keep her warm as Murphy sighed with and gathered her purse.
"I think she's right Harry, it's time to go..."
I paid the bill, leaving a pile of bills on the table. Then I carefully scooped Simone into my arms, pulling my duster over her to keep her warm before pushing open the door to head into the cold night.