Dresden Files FIC - Heat Challenge: Small Comforts
Title: Small Comforts
Author: guardian_chaos
Prompt: Heat
Rating: PG
Words: 1987-ish
Pairing: none. Gen.
Characters: Bob, Harry, and the Morningway-Lite.
Spoilers: Revolves around “What About Bob?” So yes. Major spoilers. :)
Original Posting Date: August 29, 2007, here at dresdenflashfic .
Summary: Missing scene from “What About Bob?” Bob finds a somewhat kinder way to keep Harry unconscious.
* * *
Of all the reasons to become mortal again, Bob could not imagine that he would ever have chosen the potential death of his friend-and the causing of, not the preventing of-to be one of them.
And yet here he was.
Becoming increasingly unnerved by the situation he had somehow found himself in, Bob looked briefly to his side, where Harry was slumped against the side window of the Morningway doppelganger’s car, ready to be used in some horrible resurrection spell, the likes of which Bob himself would be carrying out. The lights of passing cars in the night, glaring harshly though the windows, would occasionally flicker across the lines of the wizard’s unconscious face, contrasting red and yellow across the wizard’s somewhat pained expression and creating shadows around his loosely bound wrists.
Feeling guilty, Bob turned away and tried not to think too deeply about what he knew was coming. The mental strike he had used against Harry’s mind to knock the wizard out had not been a gentle one, and Bob had no doubt that, even while unconscious, Harry was fighting a battle against a great and terrible migraine. He only wished that a headache were all that Harry had to worry about.
In the front seat of the car, the Morningway doppelganger shifted, making a left turn and then glancing briefly back at Bob through his rearview mirror. Catching the gaze, Bob looked up.
Seeing that he had Bob’s attention, the Morningway doppelganger smiled coldly, even as his gaze returned to the front. “Admiring your handiwork, Bob?” he asked smoothly, his voice far too calm for someone driving to a place he knew he would die at.
Caught off-guard, Bob reeled inwardly for a moment, but quickly recovered and smiled tersely up at the driver. “You have no idea how much,” he replied, unable to keep a bitter sneer out of his words.
The doppelganger chuckled. “You sound distressed, Hrothbert,” he said. “Is something the matter?”
Glancing over at Harry’s unconscious form, Bob felt his stomach twist uncomfortably. He swallowed. “No,” he quickly replied, forcing a smile into his words. “Just readjusting to the world. It's full of so many interesting sensations."
“Well, don’t worry,” the double said. “You’ll have plenty of time to discover them all later on, after your task is completed. But for now,” he said, turning his car into the parking lot of the morgue. “We have other, more pressing matters to attend to.”
Grimly, Bob fiddled with one of his rings. Yes, he thought to himself, they certainly did.
The car suddenly jerked as it went over a speed bump in the parking lot, and Bob automatically thrust out an arm in front of Harry to prevent the younger man from slamming his head against the seat in front of him. Groaning faintly and apparently unaware of the potential head trauma he had just avoided, Harry swayed light-headedly and then leaned into the velvet warmth of Bob’s sleeve, seeking comfort from a migraine that had followed him even into an unconscious state.
Stunned, Bob sat staring at the head that had found his forearm for a brief moment, contemplating the feel of another person leaning against him and not falling through. The experience having grown foreign, he did not know quite what to make of it.
“Hrothbert,” a quiet voice brought Bob back to reality, and Bob jerked his head up to see the Morningway double frowning at him, having already parked the car.
Curling his lip upwards in an imperious manner, Bob scowled right back, even as he smoothly pushed Harry back against his seat and then retracted his arm. “He fell,” the former ghost spat, in a voice that demanded no argument.
The light from the sign above the doorway to the morgue gleamed against the lenses of the doppelganger’s eyeglasses as his mind worked to analyze this statement. Finally, the doppelganger just smirked, apparently having decided there was no topic Bob had brought up that was worth pursuing.
“Do me one more favor, would you, Bob?” the Morningway double asked, and Bob bared his teeth in the false gesture of a warm grin.
“Name it,” the former ghost replied.
The doppelganger nodded his head in the direction of Harry’s still-unconscious form. “Pick him up for me,” he said.
Pleased to have an excuse not to let the copy go anywhere near Harry, Bob forced himself to contain his gratitude at this request and instead kept his face a mask of cold indifference as he sighed heavily. “Oh, very well,” he grumbled, flickering an annoyed gaze in Harry’s direction and hoping the wizard did not somehow become aware of it. “If you really think I must.”
“You must,” the Morningway double reaffirmed, opening the door to his side of the car and getting out with a brief brush-down of self-propriety. “And you will,” he finished, his tone smug as he slammed his car door shut.
With a steadying huff, Bob fought off the urge to snap back a harsh comment about how he was no longer attached to his skull and as such did not have to instantly respond to the demands of others, but one look at the motionless form of his friend beside him made him quickly abandon the argument.
After a brief, scrambling and potentially humiliating encounter with the handle to open the car door, Bob finally stepped out of the car, his heels making a fairly notable clicking sound against the asphalt as he walked over to Harry’s side of the vehicle. Once there, Bob found Morningway already holding Harry’s door open for the former ghost.
Irritated but still firm in his resolve not to betray any impulse that could be construed as being uncooperative, Bob simply nodded acknowledgement and lowered himself to a crouch beside his still-slumbering friend.
As Bob slid an arm behind Harry’s back and discretely summoned the help of magic to assist him with picking up the taller man, the former ghost was surprised at the fear that gripped his heart as the wizard stirred marginally, dark eyes moving languidly beneath loosely shut eyelids. For a split-second Bob thought he could see the dark brown of his friend’s irises peeking out from beneath red-rimmed eyelashes, but they were gone almost as quickly as they had appeared. In any case, Bob abruptly ceased movement, not wanting Harry to wake up just yet.
“Bob?” Harry suddenly murmured, causing Bob to jerk his arm back in surprise. Blearily, Harry gazed up at his white-haired friend, a silly half-grin growing on his face. “You’re back,” he said, his voice slightly hoarse yet undeniably happy about this all the same.
Knowing what he is about to use Harry for, Bob felt a surge of immense guilt in response to the absolute trust he saw in Harry’s half-awake eyes. Still, he grinned softly down at the wizard, trying to sooth Harry even despite the enormity of the situation they were about to face.
“Everything is going to be all right,” Bob quickly promised, laying a gentle hand against Harry’s forehead and lightly coaxing the wizard’s eyelids to shut with a light, downward motion of his palm. For a disturbing split-second in time, Bob was reminded of a similar gesture he had done for someone else many ages ago, and the overpowering sense of forewarning the memory triggers lays heavily upon his thoughts.
Worried, Bob swallowed, but he continued smiling reassuringly at Harry all the same. “Close your eyes,” he said softly, and was pleased to see Harry begin to follow the suggestion, albeit a bit sluggishly.
Murmuring a brief, nonsensical and clearly futile sound of protest, Harry let his eyes slip shut, until finally Bob could tell Harry had fallen back into slumber.
Several terse moments of silence later, the Morningway copy frowned disapprovingly at Bob. “You did not send enough energy through the wizard’s mind to keep him under,” he accused.
Bob breathed in slowly and then exhaled with equal restraint. “No,” he stated, quietly so as not to wake Harry up again, “I did not send enough energy into Harry’s brain to fry every available living cell there. Magic requires an act of will. Without the ability to sustain that will, he would be completely without worth.” ‘To you,’ Bob wanted to add, but did not.
“You need to knock him out again,” the Morningway copy demanded.
Bob clenched his jaw. "I can't do that," he said with forced patience, gesturing vaguely at the sleeping wizard. "His body is already under too much stress as it is. I very much doubt if his mind would be able to sustain another direct hit."
The doppelganger's facial expression appeared indignant. "He doesn't need to remain fully operable," he protested, "just quiet enough so that he does not cause too much of a fuss."
“Have I not mentioned how truly frail the human mind can be in response to supernatural intrusion?” Bob snapped, unable to hold his true rage back for much longer. Calming himself with a speed that surprised even him, he turned to Harry and raised a single, slightly glowing hand above the wizard’s chest. “And besides,” Bob continued, still keeping his voice quiet as he lightly pressed the fingertips of that hand against the collar of Harry’s shirt, “I have a much better idea.”
The doppelganger raised his brows in thought, but remained silent as the glow surrounding Bob’s hand grew even brighter in radiance, until the entire interior of the car seemed to light up in response. Black leather seats reflected a brilliant orange-gold sheen, and the same glow reflected even in Bob’s eyes, their pale green luminescence quickly adapting a milky-golden hue. At the crest of his fingertips, Bob allowed a gentle warmth to form, of which he further allowed to permeate the skin surrounding Harry’s collarbone. Exerting an act of will over the energy, Bob allowed the sensation to spread until every tense, previously injured muscle Harry had was made to relax under the soothing heat. Soon, the wizard had calmed down considerably, his body completely relaxed as he slipped into a slumber far too deep to be easily awoken from.
Feeling the wizard’s chest rise and fall in the tiniest sigh of bliss, Bob lifted his hand from Harry’s collar and used it to steady himself against the car jamb. The effort he had just expended had not been difficult, but considering that he was soon expected to be performing a resurrection spell that had to go just so to work out in the way he wanted it to, Bob figured that as much recovery time as he could allow himself would do nicely in the long run, for Harry’s sake if for no one else’s.
“Are you quite finished with that, yet?” the Morningway double asked, his eyes narrowed behind spectacles reflecting nothing but shadows.
Wishing he felt more confidence about what was coming than he currently did, Bob nodded. “Yes, that should be all,” he replied, carefully angling himself between the Morningway doppelganger and Harry as he reached into the car once again to pick up the comfortably warmed wizard. “You will not have to worry about Harry causing you any trouble anymore.”
“Well, good,” the Morningway double said, turning and heading towards the entryway to the morgue. “Let’s be off then. Our time is of the essence, as they say.”
Holding the body of a friend he could not let die close to his heart, Bob could only nod and move to follow. The air in front of him whitened in response to his breath for a split-second and then it was gone, faded away to wherever breath goes when it stops being noticeable.
Bob kept right on walking.
~August 29, 2007.
Author: guardian_chaos
Prompt: Heat
Rating: PG
Words: 1987-ish
Pairing: none. Gen.
Characters: Bob, Harry, and the Morningway-Lite.
Spoilers: Revolves around “What About Bob?” So yes. Major spoilers. :)
Original Posting Date: August 29, 2007, here at dresdenflashfic .
Summary: Missing scene from “What About Bob?” Bob finds a somewhat kinder way to keep Harry unconscious.
* * *
Of all the reasons to become mortal again, Bob could not imagine that he would ever have chosen the potential death of his friend-and the causing of, not the preventing of-to be one of them.
And yet here he was.
Becoming increasingly unnerved by the situation he had somehow found himself in, Bob looked briefly to his side, where Harry was slumped against the side window of the Morningway doppelganger’s car, ready to be used in some horrible resurrection spell, the likes of which Bob himself would be carrying out. The lights of passing cars in the night, glaring harshly though the windows, would occasionally flicker across the lines of the wizard’s unconscious face, contrasting red and yellow across the wizard’s somewhat pained expression and creating shadows around his loosely bound wrists.
Feeling guilty, Bob turned away and tried not to think too deeply about what he knew was coming. The mental strike he had used against Harry’s mind to knock the wizard out had not been a gentle one, and Bob had no doubt that, even while unconscious, Harry was fighting a battle against a great and terrible migraine. He only wished that a headache were all that Harry had to worry about.
In the front seat of the car, the Morningway doppelganger shifted, making a left turn and then glancing briefly back at Bob through his rearview mirror. Catching the gaze, Bob looked up.
Seeing that he had Bob’s attention, the Morningway doppelganger smiled coldly, even as his gaze returned to the front. “Admiring your handiwork, Bob?” he asked smoothly, his voice far too calm for someone driving to a place he knew he would die at.
Caught off-guard, Bob reeled inwardly for a moment, but quickly recovered and smiled tersely up at the driver. “You have no idea how much,” he replied, unable to keep a bitter sneer out of his words.
The doppelganger chuckled. “You sound distressed, Hrothbert,” he said. “Is something the matter?”
Glancing over at Harry’s unconscious form, Bob felt his stomach twist uncomfortably. He swallowed. “No,” he quickly replied, forcing a smile into his words. “Just readjusting to the world. It's full of so many interesting sensations."
“Well, don’t worry,” the double said. “You’ll have plenty of time to discover them all later on, after your task is completed. But for now,” he said, turning his car into the parking lot of the morgue. “We have other, more pressing matters to attend to.”
Grimly, Bob fiddled with one of his rings. Yes, he thought to himself, they certainly did.
The car suddenly jerked as it went over a speed bump in the parking lot, and Bob automatically thrust out an arm in front of Harry to prevent the younger man from slamming his head against the seat in front of him. Groaning faintly and apparently unaware of the potential head trauma he had just avoided, Harry swayed light-headedly and then leaned into the velvet warmth of Bob’s sleeve, seeking comfort from a migraine that had followed him even into an unconscious state.
Stunned, Bob sat staring at the head that had found his forearm for a brief moment, contemplating the feel of another person leaning against him and not falling through. The experience having grown foreign, he did not know quite what to make of it.
“Hrothbert,” a quiet voice brought Bob back to reality, and Bob jerked his head up to see the Morningway double frowning at him, having already parked the car.
Curling his lip upwards in an imperious manner, Bob scowled right back, even as he smoothly pushed Harry back against his seat and then retracted his arm. “He fell,” the former ghost spat, in a voice that demanded no argument.
The light from the sign above the doorway to the morgue gleamed against the lenses of the doppelganger’s eyeglasses as his mind worked to analyze this statement. Finally, the doppelganger just smirked, apparently having decided there was no topic Bob had brought up that was worth pursuing.
“Do me one more favor, would you, Bob?” the Morningway double asked, and Bob bared his teeth in the false gesture of a warm grin.
“Name it,” the former ghost replied.
The doppelganger nodded his head in the direction of Harry’s still-unconscious form. “Pick him up for me,” he said.
Pleased to have an excuse not to let the copy go anywhere near Harry, Bob forced himself to contain his gratitude at this request and instead kept his face a mask of cold indifference as he sighed heavily. “Oh, very well,” he grumbled, flickering an annoyed gaze in Harry’s direction and hoping the wizard did not somehow become aware of it. “If you really think I must.”
“You must,” the Morningway double reaffirmed, opening the door to his side of the car and getting out with a brief brush-down of self-propriety. “And you will,” he finished, his tone smug as he slammed his car door shut.
With a steadying huff, Bob fought off the urge to snap back a harsh comment about how he was no longer attached to his skull and as such did not have to instantly respond to the demands of others, but one look at the motionless form of his friend beside him made him quickly abandon the argument.
After a brief, scrambling and potentially humiliating encounter with the handle to open the car door, Bob finally stepped out of the car, his heels making a fairly notable clicking sound against the asphalt as he walked over to Harry’s side of the vehicle. Once there, Bob found Morningway already holding Harry’s door open for the former ghost.
Irritated but still firm in his resolve not to betray any impulse that could be construed as being uncooperative, Bob simply nodded acknowledgement and lowered himself to a crouch beside his still-slumbering friend.
As Bob slid an arm behind Harry’s back and discretely summoned the help of magic to assist him with picking up the taller man, the former ghost was surprised at the fear that gripped his heart as the wizard stirred marginally, dark eyes moving languidly beneath loosely shut eyelids. For a split-second Bob thought he could see the dark brown of his friend’s irises peeking out from beneath red-rimmed eyelashes, but they were gone almost as quickly as they had appeared. In any case, Bob abruptly ceased movement, not wanting Harry to wake up just yet.
“Bob?” Harry suddenly murmured, causing Bob to jerk his arm back in surprise. Blearily, Harry gazed up at his white-haired friend, a silly half-grin growing on his face. “You’re back,” he said, his voice slightly hoarse yet undeniably happy about this all the same.
Knowing what he is about to use Harry for, Bob felt a surge of immense guilt in response to the absolute trust he saw in Harry’s half-awake eyes. Still, he grinned softly down at the wizard, trying to sooth Harry even despite the enormity of the situation they were about to face.
“Everything is going to be all right,” Bob quickly promised, laying a gentle hand against Harry’s forehead and lightly coaxing the wizard’s eyelids to shut with a light, downward motion of his palm. For a disturbing split-second in time, Bob was reminded of a similar gesture he had done for someone else many ages ago, and the overpowering sense of forewarning the memory triggers lays heavily upon his thoughts.
Worried, Bob swallowed, but he continued smiling reassuringly at Harry all the same. “Close your eyes,” he said softly, and was pleased to see Harry begin to follow the suggestion, albeit a bit sluggishly.
Murmuring a brief, nonsensical and clearly futile sound of protest, Harry let his eyes slip shut, until finally Bob could tell Harry had fallen back into slumber.
Several terse moments of silence later, the Morningway copy frowned disapprovingly at Bob. “You did not send enough energy through the wizard’s mind to keep him under,” he accused.
Bob breathed in slowly and then exhaled with equal restraint. “No,” he stated, quietly so as not to wake Harry up again, “I did not send enough energy into Harry’s brain to fry every available living cell there. Magic requires an act of will. Without the ability to sustain that will, he would be completely without worth.” ‘To you,’ Bob wanted to add, but did not.
“You need to knock him out again,” the Morningway copy demanded.
Bob clenched his jaw. "I can't do that," he said with forced patience, gesturing vaguely at the sleeping wizard. "His body is already under too much stress as it is. I very much doubt if his mind would be able to sustain another direct hit."
The doppelganger's facial expression appeared indignant. "He doesn't need to remain fully operable," he protested, "just quiet enough so that he does not cause too much of a fuss."
“Have I not mentioned how truly frail the human mind can be in response to supernatural intrusion?” Bob snapped, unable to hold his true rage back for much longer. Calming himself with a speed that surprised even him, he turned to Harry and raised a single, slightly glowing hand above the wizard’s chest. “And besides,” Bob continued, still keeping his voice quiet as he lightly pressed the fingertips of that hand against the collar of Harry’s shirt, “I have a much better idea.”
The doppelganger raised his brows in thought, but remained silent as the glow surrounding Bob’s hand grew even brighter in radiance, until the entire interior of the car seemed to light up in response. Black leather seats reflected a brilliant orange-gold sheen, and the same glow reflected even in Bob’s eyes, their pale green luminescence quickly adapting a milky-golden hue. At the crest of his fingertips, Bob allowed a gentle warmth to form, of which he further allowed to permeate the skin surrounding Harry’s collarbone. Exerting an act of will over the energy, Bob allowed the sensation to spread until every tense, previously injured muscle Harry had was made to relax under the soothing heat. Soon, the wizard had calmed down considerably, his body completely relaxed as he slipped into a slumber far too deep to be easily awoken from.
Feeling the wizard’s chest rise and fall in the tiniest sigh of bliss, Bob lifted his hand from Harry’s collar and used it to steady himself against the car jamb. The effort he had just expended had not been difficult, but considering that he was soon expected to be performing a resurrection spell that had to go just so to work out in the way he wanted it to, Bob figured that as much recovery time as he could allow himself would do nicely in the long run, for Harry’s sake if for no one else’s.
“Are you quite finished with that, yet?” the Morningway double asked, his eyes narrowed behind spectacles reflecting nothing but shadows.
Wishing he felt more confidence about what was coming than he currently did, Bob nodded. “Yes, that should be all,” he replied, carefully angling himself between the Morningway doppelganger and Harry as he reached into the car once again to pick up the comfortably warmed wizard. “You will not have to worry about Harry causing you any trouble anymore.”
“Well, good,” the Morningway double said, turning and heading towards the entryway to the morgue. “Let’s be off then. Our time is of the essence, as they say.”
Holding the body of a friend he could not let die close to his heart, Bob could only nod and move to follow. The air in front of him whitened in response to his breath for a split-second and then it was gone, faded away to wherever breath goes when it stops being noticeable.
Bob kept right on walking.
~August 29, 2007.