#in general i hate head related spots but headbutts can be so effective and i popped!!!

[caranoirs]

[thatgoddamnwizard]

Mae/Harry: Cold Comfort

((@wintermae I just decided to transfer this over from Discord so we could reblog from it and have it in the thread archive, since we’re almost up to this point in the “Effects and Consequences” thread!))

Mae:

They had gotten out. Mae was honestly a bit fuzzy on the details of how, exactly, she and Harry had done it...Her theory was that her mind was trying to protect her for a little longer and she wasn't about to mess with that at the moment. Not when they weren't truly out of the woods yet. 

 "You can stop lookin' at me like that any moment now, Harry. " She had a hand on her stomach and center of her chest, the bloodstains on her shirt  turning darker than they had been before.  Man, stitchin' would've been neater than staplin'. "'M not goin' to go into hysterics. 'M fine...Relatively so."

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Harry:

They were nearing his apartment. Once he got her inside, she'd be relatively safe from Nikolai, at least for the time being.

He kept looking over at her as he drove, his eyes taking in the bloodstains, the silvery glimmer of the staples she had used to put herself back together. The memory of seeing her lying on the table, screaming as these monsters cut her up, flashed white-hot in his mind, and he closed his eyes briefly before turning back to the road.

He felt sick. And angry. He wanted to visit that same pain on them.

“Relative to what, exactly?” he growled. “To being freaking vivisected? 'Cause that's not exactly a high bar.”

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Mae:

"Well 's my bar to put where I want it, 'sn't it? I was the one who got filleted so I should get to figure it out." She stops short, swallowing back a wince of unease thanks to one of Chicago's many potholes. Her hands press a little harder to her chest and stomach.

Don't get defensive, Mae. He's not the bad guy here. He's the guy who helped get you out.

"Sorry. That was rude of me. You're just as whumped an' 'm actin' like a bitch. Everythin' 's back on the inside so...'s a definite improvement to how it had been."

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Harry:

He grimaced at the look of pain on her face when he hit the pothole and tried to pay more attention to the road, mumbling an apology under his breath. Not that he could avoid all of the potholes, but he could at least try to drive over them a bit more slowly and avoid jarring Mae's still-healing body any more than he had to.

Guilt gnawed at his mind, Nikolai's voice echoing in an endless, mocking loop. Were it not for you we never would have found her again.

The Beetle turned down the street his apartment building was on. “No need to apologize. I'd probably be grumpy too if I had my insides on my outside an hour ago.” He pulled the car into his parking space. “Come on. We'd better get behind my wards before Moriarty and Doctor Moreau recover enough to come after us.”

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Mae:

For some reason the statement made her laugh. Which...hurt like hell since it pulled on her rush stapling job. But over the scary sort of pain, she didn't mind the good sort of pain. Laughing was decidedly in the good column. The road seemingly evened out and she relaxed ever so slightly. She figured that they were getting close to his place. It would be interesting to see where a big shot wizard lived.

Or maybe she was trying not to think about any of the less savory things. Either way it would be nice to be inside.

His mention of Moriarty draw a long groan from her. That was a name she hadn't thought about in YEARS. "I met him once," she told Harry. "Moriarty, I mean. God he was a self-important  jerk. Makes sense that you'd associate Nikolai with him."

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Harry:

Harry pocketed the keys to the Beetle, climbed out of the car, and limped hurriedly to the passenger side to help Mae. This time it wasn't so much a display of chivalry as it was concern for his friend, who was still apparently in quite a lot of pain.

He hated seeing any of his friends in pain. He'd rather get the tar beaten out of him any day of the week than see his friends suffer. God knew he was used to it.

He offered her a hand, his eyebrows rising. “Wait, what? Moriarty was real? As in Doyle's character?”

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Mae:

It was a testament to how tired and beat up she was that she simply put her hand in his as she got out of the Beetle in one swift movement. This time she bit her tongue to keep from making any noise when it tugged and pulled at her. She knew she should move slower but there really wasn't time to take it easy. At least not until they got behind the wards he apparently had guarding his home. "Oh hey. This 's a nice buildin'. Very solid lookin'. Like the brick."

At his surprise, Mae nodded. She took in a slow breath then exhaled in the same way. "The whole multiverse theory that gets talked about? Yeah, 's...way more than a theory. 'S a reality." She offered up a wry smile while hoping Harry wouldn't notice just how pale she probably was. "I...also kind of dated Holmes for a bit. That...was a thing for a bit."

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Harry:

“It's quality brick,” he agreed, leading the way around the building and down the steps to the door of his basement apartment.

“Multiverse,” he mused, shaking his head. “Hell's bells, that's a sobering thought.” Being an aficionado of science fiction, and an eclectic reader in general, he was familiar with the concept. Maybe there was another him somewhere out there in the quantum foam, hopefully having better luck than he was. He hated the guy already, the asshole.

He nearly choked when Mae admitted to dating Sherlock Holmes. “That must've been a trip. Dating someone fictional. Then again, maybe we're fiction in somebody else's universe. Jesus. That's a mindfuck and a half.”

He reached out to begin taking down his wards, and clenched his jaw against a wave of acidic pain that suddenly flared against the skin of his chest, followed by the unmistakable sensation of his power being slapped down inside him. He nearly hit the pavement, but caught himself on the wall, swaying. Nikolai had carved some sort of magic-binding sigil into his flesh while he had been unconscious, and it was still doing its job, which meant he couldn't get into the apartment without having his wards blow up in his face.

“Dammit,” he snarled. “Dammit! I can't get past my wards.” He breathed slowly for a minute, letting the pain subside. “I need a shovel.”

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Mae:

Mae didn't disagree about about either comment relating to the multiverse considering how true they both were. She laughed without making a sound and nodded. "He was interestin'."

Whatever he'd meant to do was quickly abandoned in favor of crumpling into himself some. Her eyes widened in concern. At first she couldn't figure out just what was going on. He was too young to have a heart attack, wasn't he? God that would be the  icing to their really crappy set of days.

The moment his wards were mentioned, Mae understood. He'd been marked with something that was keeping him from doing anything remotely magical.  She leans against the wall Harry had caught himself on and looks around. She sure as hell didn't see any shovels near by. "Are you planning on burying me alive?" Mae joked before making a face. “Not the best time for gallows humor, Singer."

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Harry:

He gave her a level look. “Nah. Thought I'd go look for buried treasure. Buy a Caribbean island somewhere, retire while I'm still in one piece.”

Pushing himself away from the wall, he hobbled the rest of the way around the old boarding house, until he could see the little brick-lined garden that bore some sad semblance of plant life. He paced around, nudging at the bricks with a foot until he found a loose one, and then dropped into a crouch, wiggling it loose.

His eyes traveled over the yard as he tried to remember where he had planted the talisman he had hidden for emergencies. He had expected to give the information to trusted friends who needed shelter in his absence, not to have need of it himself.

He found the spot and started digging with the brick.

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Mae:

"Just call you Will Turner," Mae told him wryly while watching him move from the spot where he was holding up the wall to get to the other side of the building. Her brows furrowed slightly as she followed him, her curiosity getting the better of her.  Once she realized what he was doing, she understood his need for a shovel.

Since she didn't want to just stand there while he did all the work, Mae knelt down and started to help dig. Dirt collected under her fingernails as she assisted him. In some ways it was nice to be that close to the earth. To momentarily connect again.

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Harry:

Harry almost protested at Mae's assistance, considering the state of her, but he kept his mouth shut because he knew she'd just yell at him and then keep doing it anyway. What do you know, miracles do happen, and Harry Dresden can shut up.

The brick hit metal, and he pulled out the little copper tin that he'd put the talisman in before burying it. “Here we go.”

Standing, talisman in hand, he returned to the door and led the way inside. Thirty pounds of cat came barreling into his legs in greeting, nearly bowling him over, and he hissed through his teeth as pain spiked through the bullet wound in his calf. Headbutt-greeting accomplished, Mister ambled away to continue whatever it was he had been doing. Harry lifted one hand habitually with the intention of igniting his collection of candles and storm lamps that was scattered around the room, but he caught himself just in time, before that damned sigil could put him on his ass again.

“Home, sweet home,” he said instead, and went to the mantel to look for some matches.

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Mae:

She was surprised at the fact that he didn't try to tell her off for helping since he definitely was the type of man to be on the upside of chivalrous. Maybe it was because he was tired. Or because he knew she would ignore him anyway.

Either way the talisman was found in quick order and they were both making their way back to his front door. Which looked like it had seen better days and more than a few attempts to break in. "Sturdy door," she commented. "Reminds me of Bobby's bunker."

The cat that lived there ran into him at full force, ostensibly letting Harry know that he had, in fact, been missed. She winced a little at the visual since it had looked like the big cat had thunked into him pretty hard. They walked inside and Mae was surrounded by a distinct lack of light. It's a basement type area.

"'S very...mysterious." Mae breathes a laugh before shrugging out of the tatty hospital type robe she'd drawn around herself before their daring escape. She instinctively shut the door behind her. It resisted with a metallic screech before there was darkness once again.

"Shoot. Okay. One minute." It took energy. Which she was surprised to find she still had some reserves of. Closing her eyes, she focused on bringing light forth, working to keep her breathing steady as she slowly opened her eyes and saw that she'd succeeded. A soft sort of light emanating from left hand.

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Harry:

“Mysterious?” Harry looked up from where he was lighting a candle, and his eyes traveled around his living room. It was the same as it had always been: small, cozy, candlelit. “Uh, okay. If you say so.” He nodded to the door as Mae wrestled it closed. “Yeah, still need to get that fixed. Had a zombie incident a few years back.”

He watched as she conjured light in her hand, smiling a little despite himself. It was beautiful. Ethereal.

Sometimes he forgot that Mae wasn't fully human.

Limping to her side, he looked down at her, at the bloodstained hospital gown she had been wearing under the robe. “How you holding up?”

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Mae:

"Ugh. Zombies. Hate those."

Seeing his smile put her at ease and helped ease that fight or flight feeling still running through her system. It also seemed to make the light coming from her shine a bit brighter. When he hobbled over Mae gave him a slow, lazy shrug. That was easier than any quick, jerking movement she could do. And it definitely hurt less.

"'M okay." She looked down at her front and sighed heavily. "A bit messy. Um...Go on an' finish lightin' the candles. I'll just sit here an' concentrate on healin'....Do you happen to have a sewin' kit?"