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[She rubbed at her face and used the curled edges of her hand to try and work the sleep out of her eyes. She felt stiff and her body was slow and sluggish to obey the commands to wake up. When she did drift through the layers of sleep she realized something was very wrong.

She shot up like a bolt and caused a small box to tumble off her into the modified canoe thing she was in. A quick look told her she was dressed and she was armed, so all she needed to know now is where in hell she was.

Karrin rifled through the box, fingers turned over the pamphlet before they took up the pendant. Oh, this was not funny. She began the low seething hiss of breath that would let those who knew her ease back like anticipating a tea kettle about to blow. She picked up the com device and turned it on.

The screen would show a skeptical looking blond with a furrowed brow.]

Right. This isn't Chicago, or any other place I recognize, so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and ask where am I? And why am I here because I have to tell you waking up in a strange place is not what I call calming.

[Times like this she really missed being able to flash her badge and have at least that amount of pull behind it. Guess she'd just have to get by on her own natural charms. Yeah, this would be fun.]

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Yeah. Yeah ok.

[Tactical disadvantage, enclosed space under someone elses control. The Dresden she knew wasn't a threat but she was pretty confident in a hand to hand fight she could put him down, and he'd told her often enough that wizards were a susceptible to bullets as...

She winced away from that thought but it had given her what she needed, a painful reminder that she couldn't simply believe this because she wanted to.]

I'll be here, but in the meantime. This isn't Chicago but it doesn't feel like Faerie either. Some place else then?

[Though the subject was light information the conversation was anything but casual. Most things slipped up when they thought your guard was down so getting him to talk was a good way of testing the waters.]

[And Harry was pretty confident that, in a hand to hand fight, Murphy would kick his ass up and down the street, Hulk strength or not, and still have time to do a little sight-seeing.

He knows she's gathering information and feeling out whether he was legit or not at the same time. He doesn't blame her. If he didn't know better by now, he'd be doing just that himself. So he focuses on answering as best as he can while he gets in the truck and starts up an engine that sounds like it would eat the Blue Beetle for breakfast.]

Some place else. [He nods.] It isn't part of the real world as we know it but it definitely isn't the Nevernever either. I'd say different planet but it looks like somebody around here didn't get the memo on that whole "conservation of mass" thing.

[And that is why Harry will never be able to do in combat what she can. He takes things for granted too much. Karrin knows her skills and she doesn't assume beyond that.

But she probably could leave him in a puddle of wizard if it came to it.

She nodded and looked around as he spoke.]

So laws of nature are more guidelines here? Is that a new truck?

[Yeah yeah yeah ok the place was weird, she was taking that in stride but a new vehicle? That was something.]

[How did the old saying go? The more things change, the more Harry Dresden still finds himself surrounded by women who can kick his ass.]

More like timid suggestions. [The question about his truck gets a blink from him and he glances around. Not... exactly the line of query he was expecting, okay.] Yeah, I figured it was time to move on. Still trying to come up with a name. I'm thinking... Bigger Beetle.

Edited 2013-12-28 20:06 (UTC)

[And probably always would be, it's his curse, might even be his kryptonite.]

Great. So are we talking local hostiles? Deadly acid mist? Alligators in the sewers? What level of not normal are we dealing with here?

[She'd started walking, she needed to get a look at this place, test her own feet on the ground. For the most part it felt normal. Gravity felt right; she could neither step too light nor too heavy with an average stride. The air smelled like the lakeshore around the docks maybe cleaner though. It felt normal anything she reached out to touch was solid and real to her.]

Bigger? Why does it always have to be about size with men?

Various monsters. Undead, trolls, orcs, vampires. Then there's the weird weather like sandstorms, typhoon and literally raining cats and dogs. A supervillain or four.

Nothing that out of the ordinary.

[To answer that next question, he gives a very convincing caveman grunt and furrows his brow.]

Ugh. Because bigger better.

Oh, so just like home then.

[She scoffed and filed that all away for later. She'd actually seen at least half of those things in the past few years so she had an idea of how to deal with them. Just the same she let her hand wander to the shoulder rig she wore and thumbed over the butt of her pistol. It wasn't the service one she'd had, that went with the badge but this had been with her long enough that it felt comfortable.]

Boy do you have a lot to learn. Not sure if I should call you a pig or a size queen.

Edited 2013-12-28 20:38 (UTC)

What would people think if I start learning now?

[Just wait until she saw the handgun he'd traded up for. It was strange how easy it was to fall back into the old banter, like no time at all had passed, and it feels like only seconds before he spots the Bay looming up in the distance, and he swallows.]

I'm about a minute away.

They'd be impressed or they'd lock you up as an alien pod person. Even odds either way.

[She shrugged, sometimes being consistent was really good that way, it let your friends know you were still you. Was he though? Jesus she wanted that, more than anything she wanted that, but she couldn't take the chance blindly, Harry would get it.]

Gee if I'd known I would have dressed for the occasion.

[Jeans and a pale blue t-shirt under a thick leather jacket, boots to match the biker leather above. She wasn't exactly going to be winning any fashion contests but it was comfortable and clean and it was suitable to her.

She waited near where the road seemed to curve by the place she'd walked out of, her hands were folded over her chest, the right lose and casual but never far from her pistol, she had to squint just a little as a breeze toyed through but she saw it coming, the truck. Well she heard it first, engine rumbling like something out of Jurassic park. She cut the feed to the phone when she spotted the truck, it now resided in the interior pocket of her jacket, along with that necklace.]

[And just like that, there she was lit up by the headlights of the big monster he called a truck. Karrin Murphy. His ally, his partner, the woman who had saved his life more than anybody else. The last person who saw him alive. One of his closest friends and maybe... maybe something more, once upon a time. When the chance had been there.]

[The truck rolls to a stop and the engine halts. Unsurprisingly, it looks like it's been driven through war. The simple brown paint job is scuffed and scarred and it's riddled with dents and even a few rents torn right out of the sides.]

[He moves to open the door and then pauses, sitting back for a second and hastily dropping his blasting rod and the heavy silver revolver into the back seat along with his staff and a sawed off shotgun he kept handy. Murphy was on edge, better he not go out there armed.]

[That done, he takes a breath and pushes open the door, stepping out into the cold air. He's dressed as he always is, a long-sleeved sweater, jeans, boots and a worn, battered old duster and a leather glove on his left hand. The hand had made some huge progress healing up after nearly being melted off by a flamethrower and then he had gone and ruined all of that by trading it off as a price to come back into the world, and continue a long, stupidly hopeless fight.

He stands there for a second, looking across at her, before managing a crooked grin.]

Hey there, good-lookin'. Going my way?

The lights were sort of blinding, high as they were and short as she was they shone right in her face and she had to raise an arm to shade her gaze. But he was at least courteous enough to angle the beast of a truck away from her and dim the lights and cut the engine. These were good signs, good nonaggressive signs.

As some one who had spent the better part of her life dealing with threat assessment and take down she tended to view life in that mode, he was doing all the right things.

She had to laugh with the rasping groan of metal that came with the door opening, new truck was new to him but clearly it had seen better days. This matched the Beetle at least for the condition of the body even if it looked about ten times bigger and tougher.

And then there he was.

All six feet too many inches of lanky long haired, over tired, under groomed wizard. She'd wondered how she would react to this, gone over it in her mind often enough. Would she embrace him, would she punch him for making her worry, would she scream at him and dress him down until he apologized or made some stupid joke. Never in all her imaginings did she simply look at him quietly and nod, but that's what happened.

Forget that inside her heart was thudding and she was having to swallow a lump the size of a Prius in her throat, she looked calm, cool and collected.

"Man, your lines just never get any better do they? Thomas could always write you some note cards you know."

But that was Harry, awkward and arrogant and anything but perfect.

"It's good to see you Harry." That at least was allowed to have emotion behind it, anything using his face would know how she felt about him anyway so there was no point in playing it off.

Edited 2013-12-28 22:02 (UTC)

Hell's bells, how many times had he run through this same meeting in his head? Whenever he'd let his thoughts drift back to the life he'd, apparently, just seen the end of. He'd pictured everything from a punch to the jaw for being a big enough jerk to go and get himself killed then of all times, to running at each other and jumping into an embrace.

But it seemed reality had different ideas for him too, and he just stood there like a bump on a log, nodding with a straight face and cracked another stupid joke. Even while he felt like his heart was trying to smash its way out of his chest.

"Damn. Well, I'm going to have to write a very strongly-worded letter to whoever wrote the big book of pick-up lines." The grin gave way a little bit to the beginnings of a genuine smile. "You too, Karrin. It's... been a long time."

"Yeah I think you might want to demand your money back for that book." She half smirked and it melted away after a moment.

"Two months, fourteen days." She nodded, not like she had a daily check mark on her calendar or anything. Any details might be important, so she logged everything trying to keep things straight and stay on top of it.

Two months and fourteen days ago she'd stepped off the raggedy boat his brother owned with every intention of a good hot shower being her next move. She'd already planned out an outfit that even involved a skirt, she had a cute leather number she hardly ever wore, which meant shaving her legs and...well everything.

She'd had first date jitters and butterflies in her stomach, both of which turned heavy and hard when she got the call about an incident at the marina. She'd shown up as fast as she could and gave herself a little credit that no one would be able to tell she'd spent five minutes after the call dry heaving in her bathroom.

There had been no body, but the spatter pattern, the volume of blood, the temperature of the water all spelled out one thing. He hadn't made it to the dock, the blood would have been there too, and a shot at that height with that sort of exit wound would have been almost immediately fatal. The forensic investigators laid out their theories, he took a shot to the chest, staggered in shock, went over the rail and blood loss and hypothermia caused his limbs to lock up. There was no chance he survived it.

But she had believed, she'd clutched her cross and she had believed there was a way because Harry Dresden was too damned stubborn to go that easy. He was too damned good and too damned hard headed to just let go. And they had danced around this too long for it to die before it had a chance.

She found her fingers itching to reach for her cross now, but she eased them down and into her pockets. He looked good, not perfect or anything, but good. Alive and vital. "So, about that drink?"

"Two-?"

Two months. Stars and stones, that seemed like such a short time. It wasn't that surprising, he'd heard of people showing up from different times and places, even going so far as to say they had just seen friends who'd been in the city for months only days before.

Two years. He had an apartment, a new job, had made friends and enemies alike. Somehow, he had carved out a life for himself in this weird, impossible city. Two months in and he'd still been hammering at the walls, so to speak, kicking up a fuss and demanding that who or whatever brought him here send him back home right the hell now.

It had been nearly as long since he'd figured out what had happened on the Water Beetle that night. He had been excited, on edge, and nervous and without much preparation he could do since whatever nice clothes he owned had gone up in smoke just a few hours before. Instead, he'd gone up on deck to get some air and then... then something hit him.

A sniper's bullet, he reasoned. It had been a good shot, clean through the heart and judging from the hole in the wall he'd caught a glimpse of, the boat as well. He doubted they'd found the slug.

Then his legs had failed him, shock from the impact and blood loss, and he'd staggered, hit the railing and gone over. The water had hit, his arms and legs numbed and froze quickly, it went dark, and then he woke up in a pod, still reeling.

It was a cold, professional calculation, pieced together from bits of scattered and dazed memories but there it was. It didn't take much imagination to work out what came after. Either somebody had witnessed him go over or, worse, Murphy had been the first one there and had come back to the boat to find nothing but his blood.

And that had only been two months ago. At least from her perspective.

"Yeah." He agreed, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Yeah. I know a place that isn't too far from here. It isn't Mac's, but it's close."

She had another lingering look and softened with a small smile, just a curl at the edges of her lips this time but her body language relaxed.

"You know the boat, going missing, ending up here; there are a lot easier ways to get out of a date. But I think you win the prize for most involved way of standing a woman up."

It was the first time she'd made any kind of joke about it since it happened. The first time she'd used levity about him being shot at all. The small smile clung to her lips as she crossed to the passenger side of the truck, heaved open the door and climbed in.

"Just don't do it again."

She punctuated that with a slam of the door and reached back to pull the seat belt around her.

Harry stood by the door while Murphy went around to the passenger's side. Seeing the tension leave her, even a bit, got him to relax as well. It was good to have her back.

When the door slammed, he stayed out there for a second and hooked a finger under his shirt collar, tugged at it and gave a loud gulp. He climbed in the truck, shutting the door with a loud slam and even reached over to turn the heat on after starting up the big engine. He rarely had it going, even in this weather. He just didn't feel the cold.

"I, uh, I guess this is a pretty bad time to mention I didn't get you anything for Christmas?"

"That's it, put me back in the pod." She threw her hands up in exasperation but laughed softly and brought her hands down to cup over the heater.

"Looks like this place already decided I needed jewelry anyway." She moved to pull the necklace out of her pocket and turn it over in her hand to look at the blue stone.

"This is supposed to be some sort of identifier and passport if I read that thing right. But it feels more like a collar from one of those nature shows. Tag the Murphy and release her into the wild."

She looked over to see if he hand one as well, and just to look because two months was a damn long time to be waiting for someone.

Harry joined her in that laugh, looking over at her although being the one driving meant he had to keep most of his focus on the road. Stupid driving.

God, but a part of him wished that they could just... pick up where they'd left off, a very loud, very stubborn part. Head off to the bar, grab some drinks, see where things went. But he knew that was one dream that wasn't going to come true today. There was just too much to go over. Too much stuff to get in the way. As always.

Stupid stuff.

"Yeah." He reached into an inner coat of his pocket and brought out of his own necklace, with a blue stone of his own. He turned a corner as he went on. "You need this thing on you to pass through those Archways and into the other regions. It's kind of hard to explain, but--"

And then a car landed on its roof right in front of them.

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