You catch your breath and winter starts again, and everyone else is springbound...

[w_for_wizard]

In the alley behind the Empress Theatre, there's the loud crack of a pistol, easily mistaken for a car backfiring or something else entirely unnotable. There's no reason to be alarmed about it, either - if anyone happens to poke their head into the alley, they'll just see Harry, tucking his pistol away and moving forward to inspect a small leather

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[whateverthemess]

"It's a good thing I can't arrest you here." Murphy leans against the back door of the theater, a tiny smile on her face. "Well, I suppose I could perform a citizen's arrest, but it doesn't have the same ring of authority."

She joins him at the trashcan, eying the coat. "How goes it?"

[w_for_wizard]

"You'd arrest me while I'm doing something nice for you?" He pauses, and then adds, pointedly innocent, "Also, I have no idea what you're talking about."

He picks up the coat and turns it around in his hands, searching for a hole. There's not a mark that he can see, and after a moment, he holds it up for her inspection. "I think we might have something here."

[whateverthemess]

"I've arrested people for less, smartass." She grins, enjoying the sight of him for a moment before she comes over to examine the coat. "I don't know how you can tell, considering the fact that there are no illegal firearms in the vicinity."

She fingers the leather, her smile taking a slightly grim edge. "I can't believe I didn't ask you for one of these sooner."

[w_for_wizard]

"I think you've arrested me for less," he mutters under his breath. Okay, she never got to the point of actually arresting him, but she certainly did try.

He smirks at her a little, like it's not slightly ominous that she needs one of these anyway. It's the nature of his life - and hers, since she met him. "Neither can I, actually. But if it keeps you in one place, I'm glad to do it."

[whateverthemess]

"Whiner." She reaches under Harry's coat and plucks the pistol out of its holster. "Lay it out again. I want to take a shot."

Murphy goes back to where he was standing, checking the gun as she talks. "It's not that I don't trust your aim or anything--"

[w_for_wizard]

"Yeah, I bet," he answers with a snort. "So much for that 'no illegal firearms' thing..."

You're a shining example of law enforcement, Murphy. Really.

He tosses the coat back over the trashcan, takes a moment to tug it straight, and then quickly backpedals so he's standing just behind Murphy. It's not that he doesn't trust her aim, either, but just in case the bullet bounces off the coat at the wrong angle... he doesn't want to be standing that close.

[whateverthemess]

"Pretty sure the holy sword nixed any claim to legality I had a while ago." She fires twice for good measure, waiting a moment before she goes to inspect the coat again. She nods, pleased. "Well, it stands up to ordinary force, looks like."

She hands him back the pistol and pulls her glock, coppery runes glinting in the winter light. She frowns at it. "It doesn't stop blunt force, you said?"

[w_for_wizard]

He shakes his head as he puts the gun away again. "You're still going to feel anything that hits you. You'll feel it a lot, and probably come out black and blue, but you should be- Where did that come from?"

Explanation neatly derailed by the shiny and very unfamiliar gun. Well done, Murphy.

[whateverthemess]

"Hm." She taps the muzzle of her gun against her palm. "What about shield charms? I know neither of us have the resources we're used to, here, but--huh?" She blinks, then looks down at her weapon. "Oh, right. McCoy and Injun Joe designed it for me."

She hesitates before handing it over. "The barrel's carved so that when you fire, the grooves complete the runes on the bullets. They're custom made, too. It's like your rings. Preserves and multiplies the kinetic force of the round being fired."

[w_for_wizard]

Harry takes the gun gently, turning it slowly in his hands. After a moment, he lets out a low whistle. "Very nice. I think I'm jealous."

He turns it around and hands it back to her. "Go ahead and try it on the coat. Let's see if I did my job as well as I thought." With all the layers of protection he put on that thing, he's going to be very disappointed if it doesn't hold up.

[whateverthemess]

She nods, lining up the shot--and hesitating.

"...You might want to have a shield ready to go, just in case."

And then she pulls the trigger. The runes on the gun flare to life and there's a crack-boom that drives her back a step. The bullet catches the coat, sweeps it right off the trashcan and drives it down the alley and into the wall.

[w_for_wizard]

Harry flinches a little and throws up a shield as the shot rings out, angled to deflect any possible ricochet away from both of them rather than outright stop it. He lets the shield drop after a second, glances briefly to Murphy and the gun, and then jogs forward to retrieve the coat.

"You know," he comments, "even if the coat holds, I think that thing could probably break a rib when it hit you..."

So luckily, Murphy's got the gun on her side.

[whateverthemess]

"Probably," she grins, following him to look at the coat. "You do good work, Dresden. I'd almost forgotten."

She fingers the leather, frowning. "He hasn't replied, if you were wondering. Michael. I don't like it. He wouldn't pass up the opportunity to get me alone."

[w_for_wizard]

"I'm either flattered or insulted," he comments dryly. "Can I be both?" He's pretty sure he could manage both. He's talented like that.

Harry pauses a moment, considering that news, studying Murphy's expression as he does. "Maybe he messed with someone even scarier than you. Got taken down a few pegs. If this Chicago's anything like home... it can't be that unlikely."

[whateverthemess]

"Probably." She flashes another smile, this one preoccupied. She shakes her head, straightening with a groan. "Maybe. But I would have heard. He played in the junior orchestra that opened the Nutcracker. If he'd gotten hurt in a monster attack or gotten killed, disappeared-- The news probably would have run a piece, made a big deal about it."

She pauses, then sighs. "Or maybe I'm just... I don't know. I'm just so sure that I have to be the one to end this somehow."

[w_for_wizard]

He snorts a little and dumps the coat into her hands. "Maybe you're right - in which case, you'll be there when you need to be."

Michael always was, and Murphy, he's sure, won't be any different. Harry's going to do his absolute best not to think about where always being there at the right moment got Michael, after long enough doing the job...

"Or maybe this whole Knight of the Cross thing is just getting to your head," he adds, smiling down at her.