Laurel Lance (i_crylikeabird) wrote in we_coexist, @ 2011-06-28 21:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | dinah lance, harry dresden |
Exes, Friends, and everything in-between (Harry/Dinah, completed log)
Backdated to just after this log
After a day in which she didn't take the time to eat, Dinah was starving. Not trusting her own cooking skills after the disaster with that morning’s breakfast, she picked up Chinese for Harry, Murphy, and herself. She was only ready to stop by after she'd confirmed that Murphy was currently not there, though Harry’s promise to explain the situation further when she arrived did not exactly grant her confidence. That was as much a case of her not wanting to interfere as it was her discomfort with the whole situation, including Murphy's borderline frigid reaction to her.
Dinah didn't let herself in, since Harry was expecting her. Instead, she knocked and stood outside the door, shifting her grip on the carry-out bag and feeling more than a little out of sorts. Then again, it had been that sort of day. Between Oliver, Poison Ivy, Murphy and the frustratingly fruitless search for Jake, the day had not been a good one.
----
It was only a moment before Harry wrestled the door open. "Still need to get that fixed," he muttered, pulling it open for Dinah to enter. He turned to her, prepared to say something, and promptly forgot what it was when he saw the food. Instead, he blinked, then gave Dinah a puppy-dog look.
"You," he said, "are a goddess. Did you know that? An absolute food-bearing goddess."
He stepped back, giving her clear room to enter. Food seemed positively euphoric right now. Harry had a throbbing headache, and the distraction was more than welcome.
----
Despite the stress of the day, Dinah couldn’t help but grin at the goddess pronouncement.
“And I even come bearing food of the not-burned variety,” she said with a self-deprecating laugh. “Sorry again about your kitchen this morning. Murphy banging on the door kind of distracted me.”
Of course, it was just as likely that everything was on the verge of being burnt before Murphy’s arrival, but it would have still been edible. At least, that’s what Dinah was going to stick with.
“Sweet and sour, sesame chicken, or egg foo yung?” she asked Harry as she entered the room.
The mention of Murphy hung in the air slightly, and Dinah knew she wasn’t going to be able to forever postpone the questions that she wanted to ask about that, but she had a feeling Harry needed to eat as badly as she did. She was still in her leotard and fishnets and had every intention of heading back out after she’d had a short break. But for now, there was food and there was Harry and that was more than enough for her.
----
"I'll start with the sweet and sour." He leaned on the door and got it shut, raising the wards again as he did. When Dinah entered the room, Mouse got to his feet, wagging his tail and lifting his chin to Dinah for petting. Harry rolled his eyes a bit. Mouse was a sucker for the girls, wasn't he?
"You want a coke, or a beer?" he asked on his way to the small kitchen alcove. He paused, mid-step, to take a good look. "Giving the old suit an airing out, huh?" He didn't bother trying to hide the smirk on his lips.
----
“I’d better stick with the coke,” Dinah answered. “I still have to go back out and follow a few more leads tonight.” She did her best to stifle a yawn and resisted the urge to ask if he had anything with a little more caffeine.
Dinah couldn’t resist Mouse’s ploy for attention and set the take-out bags down on the coffee table so she could pet the horse-sized dog. She grinned at Mouse before settling down on the couch and turning her attention back to Harry. In response to the smirk, she held up her hands in an ‘I come in peace’ gesture.
“Just don’t get your blasting rod out. I seem to remember the first time I wore this in front of you, you had your shield up and blasting rod at the ready.” Dinah allowed herself a chuckle. “And sadly, that’s not a euphemism,” she teased.
----
"It's not?" Harry quipped, pulling two cans of Coke from the icebox and bringing them back to the sofa. He sat beside her and passed one over. "Could have fooled me. Sudden sounds, unfamiliar places, beautiful women... usually that sort of combination ends up with the woman in question trying to kill me. It's a defensive response."
Going back over his own words, Harry rubbed at his temples. "Man, does that make me pathetic or what? A beautiful woman standing over me, and my first thought is how best to run away." He sighed, and shrugged, letting his hand rest against hers. "At least it's not my first thought anymore."
----
Dinah laughed and leaned over to kiss Harry on the cheek.
“Glad I helped you to get over that particular fear,” she said with a slightly suggestive grin.
The grin faded to a look of intense focus as Dinah reached for and dug into the egg foo yung. Her stomach rumbled in appreciation as she took the first bite. After a few bites, she turned her eyes back to Harry.
“Speaking of beautiful women… did you give Murphy the orientation? How’s she doing with all of this?” her voice softened, concern slipping into her tone. Regardless of her uncertainty about Murphy, and more specifically the strange tension between Murphy and Harry, she knew how disorienting it was to end up in the City and no one deserved to just be thrown into it all.
----
Harry accepted the kiss with a smile. "Justified fear," he amended. "Now escape is the fourth thing I think about." By default, anyway. Life had been rather hectic over the last dozen years or so, and Harry had learned early in the game to recognize his exits and how best to reach them. Hopefully in one piece.
It went with the territory. When people tried to kill him in new and exciting ways, Harry had adapted, and learned new and exciting ways to survive. All his spell foci had undergone serious upgrades during the war with the Red Court. Even his wards had been strengthened and improved. Hell's bells, the power stored in his miniature city downstairs could light up Chicago for a day or two.
He raised his eyebrows when she mentioned Murphy, seeking and spotting the trace of apprehension in her eyes. "Surprisingly well," Harry offered, after a moment. "Though I guess I should have expected that. Murph... She's good people. One of the best. She's worked with me long enough to know how strange things can be. This..." He gestured vaguely in a circle, meaning the City entire, "isn't the best situation we've been in, but it's not the worst." He dug into his dinner with some eagerness. “Couldn’t find her place, though. I told her to stay here until it crops up, or she finds somewhere she’s comfortable.”
Lips broke into a faint smile. "Nice to see she has Fidelacchius."
----
Dinah raised an eyebrow. “Should I even ask what the first three are?” A playful smile touched her lips, but it disappeared quickly after Harry’s announcement that Murphy was going to be staying over. She understood, really. It wasn’t fair to throw anyone to the wolves, and certainly not Harry’s best friend. But the idea still made her uneasy, particularly given the strange jealousy vibes she was getting off Murphy. All the same, she didn’t comment for the moment. There were other things to discuss first.
“Fidelacchius?” she asked.
It was good to know that Murphy was at least used to strange situations. That sort of thing could come in handy in the City, though there was definitely something different about getting stuck somewhere with no possibility of going home and no idea of everything that might be lurking in the shadows.
----
"You can try, but I can't say. It's in the guy handbook. So you can probably figure out the context, at least."
Harry tilted his head back, nodding towards the door. Or, more specifically, the umbrella stand beside the door, where his staff was kept along with a thin silver rapier that Harry used to focus his earth magic, and a nondescript heavy broadsword with a plain sheath. "Wooden cane katana that used to be in the stand there. Part of a set of three honest-to-goodness holy swords. Fidelacchius, Amoracchius, and Esperacchius. The Sword of Faith, the Sword of Love, and the Sword of Hope. Each one has a nail from the Crucifixion - capital C - worked into the blade. Fidelacchius..." Harry's voice softened, remembering the kind old man that had wielded it last, the man who had traded his life to ensure that Harry would survive.
"It was given to me to hold when it's previous owner died. Shiro Yoshimo. I was in a bad spot, and Shiro traded places with me. Traded his life for mine. And the sword was given to me to hold in trust until the next bearer came." A hint of a smile was reflected in his eyes. "The last time any of the Holy swords was held by a wizard, his name was Merlin. The original Merlin. Someone thought it was a good idea to hoist two of them on me. And since I've had Amoracchius, the only Sword left at work was the Sword of Hope. A guy named Sanya carries it. That one is more like a sabre. Shiro had reforged Fidelacchius himself."
----
Dinah mouthed the words ‘guy handbook’ and shook her head with a slightly amused expression. That expression gave way to one of slight disbelief as Harry described the holy swords. She never had been very firm on where she stood with the whole God thing, though she couldn’t argue with the existence of powerful objects imbued with some sort of faith. And she certainly knew better than to state that something didn’t exist. She’d been proved wrong on that front often enough that she’d given up on anything less than the idea that anything was possible.
“That sounds like a good thing to have in a place like this. So Murphy’s more than just a cop, but a divinely chosen warrior?” Dinah asked. It was definitely an important-sounding title.
“I have to say, it’s good to have someone else for our side,” she added after a moment of thoughtful silence. “It seems the City’s having a field day with the new recruits for both sides lately,” she added.
It perhaps wasn’t exactly the least awkward time to explain that a version of her ex-husband from a parallel Earth had ended up here, but then again that was something that was probably awkward no matter when she might bring it up. And she definitely wanted to make sure Harry was warned about Ivy before he ran into her and met the same fate as Oliver.
----
"I guess you could say that," Harry agreed. "I see it more like extending her cop-ness to include the rest of the world. The sword gives her an extra edge." Whether the pun was intentional or not, he would never tell.
At her observation, Harry arched a brow. "Wow, that sounds loaded. Did you have a bad run-in or something?" His gaze focused, looking her over for damage or injury, concern reflected in his dark eyes.
----
Dinah didn’t miss the look of concern, or the silent checking over for injuries.
“I’m fine,” she reassured him. “I just ran into a few of the City’s newest residents.” She frowned, thinking about that. “Well, one is new. The other… I hope I would have noticed her if she’d been around very long, but,” she spread her hands out helplessly. “Things have been kind of crazy, and it’s possible she’s taken her time to cultivate a new garden or something.”
A light shudder passed through Dinah as she thought of all of the things that could lurk in a garden of Ivy’s.
“Poison Ivy is here,” she decided to lead with that. “She’s got a green thumb for violent plants, and a knack for tampering with pheromones. She drives men crazy. Kind of like the White Court vampires, except her kiss is a more fast-acting poison.”
She met Harry’s eyes.
“So, beware any redheads you come across. I suppose your ‘flight’ response to beautiful women coming onto you might just come in handy there,” Dinah nodded to Harry with a small smile. “Unfortunately, there was someone else there today who isn’t so quick to run from an attractive woman.”
There was just the slightest tinge of past betrayals in Dinah’s voice. Being hurt like that… it never really went away, even when she’d already moved past the other feelings regarding him.
“Oliver’s here,” she said with a frown. “Sort of,” she corrected herself. “I mean, he is Oliver. He’s just not the Oliver from my world. He didn’t know who Ivy was and so naturally fell prey to her charms before I could stop her.”
----
Harry remembered his comic books, as well as one awful movie with Uma Thurman playing the villainous redhead in question. Harry hadn't thought much of the movie beyond snarking at Arnold Schwarzenegger making a bunch of ice-related jokes as Mr. Freeze and wondering why Barbara Gordon had been related to Alfred instead of the police commissioner. But this wasn't some Uma-in-a-wig knockoff. This was the very real, very dangerous Poison Ivy.
He rubbed his temples again, trying to push aside the headache and focus. "Poison Ivy. Harley Quinn. The Joker. Red Court, White Court. Hannibal freaking Lecter. Hell's bells, I hate this place sometimes."
The hurt in Dinah's voice caught his attention immediately. Harry's hand shifted from behind beside hers to holding on before she was done speaking. "Is he alright?" Harry asked, though he was sure that if he wasn't, Dinah would have said so. He didn't like the sound of that poison.
Good thing he didn't kiss beautiful, evil women. Except for that one time in the Deeps. But that had only been in order to save their lives.
----
Dinah gave Harry’s hand a gentle squeeze.
“He’s okay. A little worse for the wear, but luckily the Clocktower here has the antidote. Another thing for me to carry around,” she added with a vague gesture toward her boot with her free hand. There was already a small vial stored there, just in case. Though she would be glad to go back to the costume with utility belt once she had the chance to wash it.
“He’s sleeping it off at the Clocktower.” She glanced over at Harry apprehensively. “He was in no condition to go anywhere after he got the antidote,” she said by way of explanation.
“There are… a lot of differences between our worlds, but from what I can tell he’s on the right side. It can’t hurt to have another ally, and no one should have to face this City alone.”
Even if that person brought about all sorts of memories that Dinah was better off leaving alone. She’d moved on and it was easier to just not be reminded about all of the heartache Oliver had caused her over the years.
----
So, her ex-husband from an alternate universe (because that sort of thing happened all the damned time in comic books) was sleeping off the effects of a kiss-induced toxin in Dinah’s own home. At least it was the one with all the computers, that Harry wouldn’t be visiting anyway. But with Murphy staying here, things could get.... frustrating was a word. Maybe a good one. Possibly the perfect one.
Deal with it, Harry firmly told his body. We’ve survived longer.
The thing with hormones, though. They didn’t respond to reason.
Harry let out a sigh that more strongly resembled a groan or a growl, and dug into his food again. “Don’t suppose your other place is free,” he muttered, glancing at her from the corners of his eyes. “If we wanted some time alone. At some point.”
----
Dinah raised an eyebrow at Harry’s one concern taken out of the whole mention of Oliver. Not that she minded. It was nice that he was still considering the ‘alone time’ aspect when he was going to have another woman who he might or might not have history with staying in his apartment.
“Dean’s still staying there, unfortunately. But Oliver shouldn’t be incapacitated for more than a night. After that, I’ll make sure he finds somewhere else to stay, if the City hasn’t already provided a place for him. It’s... a little strange having him around.”
Her tone didn’t exactly hide the fact that strange was not the best word. Painful, perhaps.
“Though I’m sure you’ll be busy helping Murphy figure out the City,” she said.
----
Harry winced a little, seeing her expression. He could imagine how awkward it would be if Susan--
No. Not Susan. Harry had made it clear to each of them. He and Susan were through. She’d drawn that line when she didn’t tell him about Maggie. And things with Elaine had been different, when she’d reappeared in his life. But when Elaine had shown up, Harry had moved on. Given his love to another.
Maybe that’s why he didn’t feel concerned about hearing Oliver was here - whatever version of him it was. If Dinah was finished with him, then there was nothing to worry about. But the flickering pain in her eyes did something else - it made Harry angry.
Harry Dresden knew he was no saint - he barely even rated himself among the good guys. Mostly, he was just trying to save his own ass and live with himself afterwards. But he knew that hurting women - and children - was wrong. It was one of those things that made him irrationally angry. Murphy called him a pig for it, and he tended not to argue.
Harry set his food aside and turned slightly so that his leg pressed against Dinah’s. Then he put his hands on hers, gently. “Hey,” he said, looking to meet her eyes. It was something he enjoyed being able to do without the worry of a soulgaze. “Want me to go with you when you check on him? Or I’ll go myself, if you’d rather not.”
----
Dinah met Harry’s gaze for just a minute and then shifted her eyes away.
“No, I’m a big girl. It’s just... seeing him again, even if it’s not the Oliver I know… it’s just a reminder of certain things. Of how it feels to experience betrayal at the hands of someone I loved and trusted. Again. After he worked so hard to earn my trust back, after I gave it against my better judgment.” She looked away, tears stinging at her eyes. “It’s just that long after I’ve moved on from all of the other feelings associated with him, that knowledge that love isn’t something you can rely on is still there.”
Dinah blinked the tears away before turning back to Harry. She cocked her head to one side and considered Harry for a minute.
“Murphy doesn’t like me.” It wasn’t a question, or an accusation. “Is there-I mean, what is the history with you two?”
Not the most graceful subject change, but she wasn’t exactly feeling graceful or tactful or anything else at the moment.
----
Harry frowned a bit when she looked away, but he held onto her hands. After giving them a squeeze, he nodded. “You’re a big girl. And I’m coming with you anyway.”
He didn’t like seeing those tears. His left hand was rising to brush them from her eyes when Dinah’s question made Harry pause, blinking in confusion. He furrowed his brow, then let his hand continue it’s motion.
“Me and Murph?” Harry shrugged, settling back against the sofa, not withdrawing from Dinah so much as a millimeter. “She was still a rookie cop when we first met. I was still an apprentice PI. She faced down a troll with me, unblinking. When I set up my own office, she was moving up the ranks in the CPD, and when things turned up that didn’t make sense, she’d call me in to take a look.” That was basic history, but it wasn’t what Dinah was asking. Harry was dense when it came to women, or so he’d been told,, but he wasn’t that dense. “But... timing is always off. I’m not--” He stopped, corrected himself. “We’re not what each other wants. I can’t do casual, and we wont work long-term. Our needs are too different. But she’s my best friend. Apart from Thomas, she’s the closest thing I have to family. Hell’s bells, she is family. And... she’s Murphy.”
----
Dinah took in the explanation with a short nod.
“I’m sorry. I had to ask. It’s just that...” she chewed her lip for a moment. “Well, on the day when I was everywhere I was needed, doing everything from delivering pizzas to saving people, I wasn’t... I mean, you didn’t...” She stopped herself.. “And then when you’re giving me the list of people that weren’t there but should have been, she’s at the top of your list, and I wasn’t even on it. Just kind of made me wonder, you know? And with her staying here...”
She met Harry’s eyes and shrugged.
“I trust you. I do. Where Oliver might have hurt me because he just didn’t stop to think about how certain things might feel to me, I know the type of man you are and I know that you’re more likely to put your own happiness behind the happiness of someone you care about. I just don’t want-” she stopped and took a breath to try to gather her thoughts. “I mean, if there was something that you were interested in pursuing, I hope you would tell me. Because honestly? The jealous vibe I was getting, I’m pretty sure she’s interested on her end.”
----
Harry’s brows furrowed farther. “Why... would I need to list you? You were already here. If the stupid wish had gone right, you would have been there, along with the others. I...”
Okay. Ow. He thought he’d had a headache before. At this news, he imagined this new sensation was his brain actually turning inside out. “What? No, no, no. Look. We’ve talked about this. Murphy wants someone she can grow old with. Someone to be there for her, to have kids with, to raise a family with. I... I’m not going to grow old in her lifetime. I can’t...”
He shook his head. “I care about you, Dinah. I love you. If I didn’t, or if I didn’t want to be with you, then being with you would hurt you. Maybe not immediately, but it would hurt, it would fall apart, and I couldn’t do that.” He shrugged. “I can’t do casual. Or fake.”
Stars and stones, why were women so impossible to figure out?
----
Dinah hadn’t missed the near slip earlier-that Harry believed he wasn’t what Murphy wanted, that the obstacles to them being together seemed to be things on Murphy’s end. But it didn’t matter. He loved her. She knew that. Hell, she’d been kidnapped by vampires because that empath had picked up on something real between the two of them. And she shouldn’t have needed his reminder that he wasn’t the type to do things half-way, to string one relationship along while there was someone else or something else that he wanted.
Dinah looked up at Harry, suddenly feeling very sheepish. She’d let seeing Oliver bring up all of the old insecurities, all the fears she had about putting herself out there, loving that completely and getting hurt again.
She leaned over and kissed him. .
“I love you too,” she said as she pulled away. “Harry, I’m sorry. I just... I think seeing Oliver just brought up a lot of insecurities. I don’t really have the best luck with relationships, and it’s a little scary to be in a position where I could get hurt again.”
She sighed.
“Which isn’t really fair to you, because you’re not like Oliver. I know that. I knew that from the minute I saw that glimpse of your soul.” she gave him a small smile. “It’s not really fair to project my baggage from that relationship onto this one. So, consider the subject closed. I’ve asked the questions that were nagging at me. Thank you for answering.” she gave him a small apologetic smile.
“And for what it’s worth-I don’t care how slowly you age. Especially considering I have no idea if I’ll even be growing old. The life expectancy of someone in my line of work isn’t that great,” she admitted. “Of course,” she added, “You never know what could happen. After all, I’ve already gained about a decade to my natural life while in the field, so who knows?” She paused thoughtfully before continuing.
“But all the same, having those things-someone to grow old with, a family... it doesn’t matter if it’s not with the right person.”
While she couldn’t entirely blame Murphy for wanting something closer to normalcy, she also couldn’t imagine not being with Harry over something like that. She wasn’t trying to compete with Murphy so much as reassure him that that side of himself-the ability to live for centuries because of what he was-wasn’t going to scare her off.
----
Harry squeezed Dinah’s hand lightly at first, then with some pressure. “I don’t want you to die, Dinah. I’ll never let anyone cut our time short. But I want you in my life as long as possible.”
He kissed her hand and then smiled, setting the enclosed hands on his knee. “You should try and get some sleep. Real sleep, not just our usual amazing monkey-sex-and-pass-out. Take a couch? I can do some work in the lab.”
He rubbed his face. “I feel like I’m getting close, up those eastern islands, but something there is making it hard to see. Not magical, but... like a strong mental shield. We can’t get through it. Bob can’t decide it it’s brilliant or insane.”
------
“I’m not saying I want to die,” Dinah stressed. “I’m just-I mean, I know the risks. That’s why I never tried to...” She stopped mid-sentence, leaving things unsaid in regards to deciding not to try to have children. That was too painful of a discussion to have.
Not to mention that she’d wanted kids, did want kids so badly it ached sometimes but there was no way she’d risk making orphans. And for that matter, with all that was happening to Jake because she’d said the wrong thing in front of a supervillain... well, more and more she was doubting that she had any business being any type of mother to anyone.
“Anyway, all I was saying is that no one can count on having decades and decades. But you can’t count on not having that either. Like I said, I’ve been within an inch of death and instead came back better and stronger than ever, and gained about a decade. So I suppose all a person needs to live longer than the natural human lifespan is access to a lazarus pit,” she said with a crooked smile.
Dinah gave Harry’s knee a gentle squeeze. She didn’t bother to point out that the whole ‘amazing monkey sex and then pass out’ had been the only way she could get to sleep lately. It wasn’t worth making Harry feel guilty about that option being off the table for the time being. Murphy was his best friend, and making sure she had a place to stay upon arrival to the City was very important. She knew that if Barbara ever showed up, she’d do the same for Barbara.
Not to mention that she was only now realizing how much she’d moved in on poor Harry over the last few weeks. She’d been busy and out looking, but whenever she’d been resting or eating, she’d been here. It wasn’t fair to him and she could only appreciate that he hadn’t pointed out just how much she was overstepping the relationship boundaries by just assuming she could stay there for days on end.
She leaned forward and kissed his forehead lightly.
“Thanks for the offer, but I still have one more lead to follow tonight. Then I think it’s probably better if I go back to the Clocktower to sleep. It’s going to be a little crowded here while Murphy’s staying over. Plus, I really should make sure Oliver’s okay.”
----
After several moments, Harry nodded. Dinah was right in every angle, even if he didn’t want to think about it too hard. “You’re going to have to explain what a lazarus pit is sometime,” he said. “But for now, go do your thing. I’ll see if Bob’s had any luck with that barrier.”
He pushed back the slight growl at the mention of Oliver. Now wasn’t the time. He could take on the skinny little twerp, he was sure, but it could wait for later. If the idiot could fall for Poison Ivy’s charms, Harry figured he’d have no trouble showing him up.
“Make sure you do sleep, alright? I’ll see you tomorrow.”