Small Favor

"Who’s acting?" I said. "Where is she?"

"We’ve been keeping her asleep," Luccio said, "until you or Kincaid got here."

"I get it," I said. "You don’t think I should get close to her. Unless you’re worried about what’s going to happen when you wake her up and she’s really scared and confused."

Luccio’s cheeks flushed and she looked away. "I don’t have all the answers, Dresden. I just have concerns."

I sighed.

"Whatever," I said. "Let me see her."

Luccio led me into Murph’s guest bedroom. Ivy looked very tiny in the double bed. I sat down beside her, and Luccio leaned over to gently rest her hand on Ivy’s head. She murmured something and drew her hand away.

Ivy let out a small whimper and then blinked her eyes open, suddenly hyperventilating. She looked around wildly, her eyes wide, and let out a small cry.

"Easy, easy," I said gently. "Ivy, it’s all right. You’re safe."

She sobbed and flung herself tight against me.

I hugged her. I just rocked her gently and hugged her while she cried and cried.

Luccio watched me, her eyes compassionate and sad.

After a long while Ivy whispered, "I got your letter. Thank you."

I squeezed a little.

"They did things to me," she said.

"I know," I said quietly. "Been there. But I was all right after a while. You’re going to be all right. It’s over."

She hugged me some more, and cried herself back to sleep.

I looked up at Luccio and said, "You still want me to push her away? You want her baseline to be what she shared with those animals?"

Luccio frowned. "The Senior Council-"

"Couldn’t find its heart if it had a copy of Grey’s Anatomy, X-ray vision, and a stethoscope," I said. "No. They can lay down the law about magic. But they aren’t telling me who I’m allowed to befriend."

She looked at me for a long moment, and then a slow smile curled up one side of her mouth. "Morgan told them you’d say that. So did McCoy and Listens-to-Wind. The Merlin wouldn’t hear it."

"The Merlin doesn’t like to hear anything that doesn’t fit into his view of the world," I said. "Japanese."

"Excuse me?"

"Japanese. There’s a Japanese steakhouse I go to sometimes to celebrate. Surviving this mess qualifies. Come with me, dinner tomorrow. The teriyaki is to die for."

She smiled more broadly and inclined her head once.

The door opened, and Murphy and Kincaid arrived. Kincaid was moving under his own power, though very gingerly, and with the aid of a walking stick. I got out of the way, and he came over to settle down next to Ivy. She woke up enough to murmur something about cookies and a Happy Meal. He settled down on the bed beside her, and she pressed up against his arm before settling down to rest again. Kincaid, evidently exhausted himself, drew a gun, took the safety off, placed it on his chest, and went to sleep too.

"It’s cute," I whispered to Murphy. "He has a teddy Glock."

She was looking at Kincaid and Ivy with a decidedly odd expression. She shook her head a little, blinked up at me, and said, "Hmm. Oh, hah, very funny. I had your car dug out of the snow, by the way."

I blinked at her. "Thank you."

"Got your keys?"

"Yeah."

"Give you a ride to it," she said.

"Groovy."

We took off.

Once we were in the car and moving, Murphy said, "I like Luccio."

"Yeah?"

"But she’s all wrong for you."

"Uh-huh," I said.

"You come from different worlds. And she’s your boss. There are secrets you have to keep from her. That’s going to make things difficult. And there are other issues that could come up."

"Wait," I said. I mimed cleaning out my ears. "Okay, go ahead. Because for a second there, it sounded like you were giving me relationship advice."

Murphy gave me a narrow, oblique look. "No offense, Dresden. But if you want to compare total hours of good relationships and bad, I leave you in the dust in both categories."

"Touchй," I said. Sourly. "Kincaid was looking awfully paternal in there, wasn’t he?"

"Oh, bite me," Murphy said, scowling. "How’s Michael?"

"Gonna make it," I said. "Hurt bad, though. Don’t know how mobile he’s going to be after this."

Murphy fretted her lower lip. "What happens if he can’t…keep on with the Knight business?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea."

"I just…I didn’t think that taking up one of the swords was the sort of job offer you could turn down."

I blinked at Murphy. "No, Murph. There’s no mandatory martyrdom involved. You’ve got a choice. You’ve always got a choice. That’s…sort of the whole point of faith, the way I understand it."

She digested that in silence for a time. Then she said, "It isn’t because I don’t believe."

"I know that," I said.

She nodded. "It isn’t for me, though, Harry. I’ve already chosen my ground. I’ve taken an oath. It meant more to me than accepting a job."

"I know," I said. "If you weren’t the way you are, Murph, the Sword of Faith wouldn’t have reacted to you as strongly as it did. If someone as thick as me understands it, I figure the Almighty probably gets it too."

She snorted and gave me a faint smile, and drove the rest of the way to my car in silence.

When we got there she parked next to the Blue Beetle. "Harry," she said, "do you ever feel like we’re going to wind up old and alone? That we’re…I don’t know…doomed never to have anyone? Anything that lasts?"

I flexed the fingers of my still-scarred left hand and my mildly tingling right hand. "I’m more worried about all the things I’ll never be rid of." I eyed her. "What brings on this cheerful topic?"

She gave me a faint smile. "It’s just…the center cannot hold, Harry. I think things are starting to fall apart. I can’t see it, and I can’t prove it, but I know it." She shook her head. "Maybe I’m just losing my mind."

I looked intently at her, frowning. "No, Murph. You aren’t."

"There are bad things happening," she said.

"Yeah. And I haven’t been able to put many pieces together. Yet. But we shut down some of the bad guys last night. They were using the Denarians to get to the Archive."

"What do they want?"

"Don’t know," I said. "But it’s going to be big and bad."

"I want in on this fight, Harry," she said.