InsaneJournal

You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who’s looking to hire a fresh face, would you?
Who: Harry Dresden and Jennifer Walters
Where: His office, her place
What: A telephone call that arranges for new fun!
When: a month and a half ago, or so.
Warnings/Rating: PG
Status complete


Jennifer knew she was kind of going out on a limb, calling Mr. Dresden, but she didn’t know anybody else in California to call, and he had told her not to be a stranger. They’d kept in touch, off and on, since she’d graduated, and he’d always seemed genuinely interested in how she was doing. So she figured it was worth a shot.

Harry lifted the phone and hmmed. “Dresden Law and Private Investigations, How can I help you?” He had an old fashioned phone in the office, in order to minimize the things he had to shield against.

“Mr. Dresden?” She tried to sound mature, and professional, and not nearly as jittery as she suddenly felt. Clearly, even a few months between communications had been too long. “It’s Jennifer Walters. How is California?”

“Jennifer? Stars and stones! How are you?” Harry was genuinely delighted to hear from her again and he smiled, eyes warm as he sat back from the cases he had been working on. Jennifer was smart, nice, and a good person and he had enjoyed hearing from her every time he had done so. “And California is treating me very well!”

“I’m well, thanks. Glad to hear things have gone well.” Jennifer had liked Harry from the moment they’d met. He was honest, kind, and didn’t look down on her for being young (and looking even younger). He was handsome, too, but that was beside the point. The point was, he’d made her feel like she really could succeed in the profession, without having to compromise who she was, and what she believed in.

“I know this is somewhat out of the blue, but I’ve been thinking of making a trip out your way, to try and track down a cousin of mine, and I was thinking, it might be a good idea to have work lined up. You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who’s looking to hire a fresh face, would you?”

Harry’s attention snapped in when she said those last lines, and he looked around his office, then grinned. “You know, I just might. By any chance would you be interested in the position of legal assistant, slash assistant to a private investigator? It’s both boring and interesting at times, but it comes with a good wage and sterling company, and often, home cooked meals.”

He grinned as he delivered his pitch. Please say yes, please say yes.

Jen’s hopes soared, and she may have done a little dance in her desk chair. “Home cooked meals at a law firm slash investigator’s office?” It sounded so like Harry, there wasn’t any doubt in her mind that it was his office that was hiring. “I’m definitely interested.”

Harry grinned, and did his own little dance, then sobered. "Good. When are you looking to start?" He could definitely use the help. Work was actually picking up these days.

“Well, I’ll have to give notice at my current job, but once my two weeks are up...as soon as possible. Maybe give me a month to settle things here.”

“Sounds good to me. I lost my assistant to drama and to moving to Germany just yesterday, so this is rather good timing. And no offense to her, but I realized when working with her that I needed someone who knew the law more. You are a godsend.”

Harry was bouncing.

"If I don't know it off the top of my head," Jen said, "I know where to look." She still had all her books from lawschool, which she'd probably have to decide whether or not to tote across the country with her. "Maybe if you can spare a moment, you can help me look for Bruce. It's not anything urgent, it's just that I'd like to see him again, now that his name's been cleared and I'm all done with lawschool."

It had been a little upsetting that he'd never even written in eight years. "I would just like to confirm that he hasn't crawled into a cave and died, or blown himself up in some laboratory."

“That’s how we all start.” Harry grinned. “Of course. What was his last name again?” He remembered her talking about her cousin and he now wanted to get a headstart on that. This was good!

“I’m sure we can manage that. If he is still out here, he might have been a little busy of late, but we can find him, hopefully.”

“It’s Banner; B-A-N-N-E-R.” Jennifer spelled the name out of habit, after years of handling clients, paperwork, and appointments over the phone. “I have reason to believe he may be connected with Stark Industries, but I want to make sure it’s the same Bruce Banner before I show up on his doorstep and go, ‘Surprise!’”

“Makes sense.” Dresden jotted the name down, the look of it sounding and looking familiar. And when she said Stark, he snapped his fingers. Valarnet! Holy shit! He smirked. “You know, he does sound familiar. I have some leads I can look into, right away.”

"I knew we'd find something if we put our heads together!" Jennifer was excited. "I suppose I should let you get back to work, and start making travel arrangements for myself. We'll talk soon, though."

“See you soon, Jennifer. And it’s good to hear from you again!”

Harry hung up and smiled as he made more notes, then sighed and got to work. He grinned to himself. This was going to be fun!

~fin~