Fic: The Dresden Files: Prenatal Exam
For fanfic50.
Title: Prenatal Exam
Fandom: The Dresden Files (tv-verse)
Characters: Justin Morningway, Hrothbert
Prompt: 35. Doctor
Word Count: 2,490
Rating: PG
Summary: Justin shows an interest in family.
Disclaimer: The Dresden Files do not belong to me. Just passing through.
Table: Here There be Ghosts
Eduardo Rojas knew luxury when he saw it, even if he himself had never experienced it firsthand. One of his Elsa's favorite shows was Lives of the Rich and Famous. She watched it religiously, as if it were the bible of their lives.
"That is how American's live!," she often said, usually turning the rickety card table that held their 13 inch black and white television toward him so that he could see for himself the Olympic-sized swimming pools and immaculate 40-bedroom mansions with gold faucets and hot and cold running champagne. This would inevitably lead to the familiar argument of how he was not working nearly hard enough to obtain the same luxuries for his beleaguered family.
In the twelve years since they had left El Salvador to stake their claim on the American dream, Eduardo still had nothing he could truly call his own except Elsa, their five children, and a squalid little two bedroom apartment in the Chicago slums. They were a long way from owning their own home much less an estate with stone lions guarding a tree-lined driveway and a five car garage.
"You ain't ever gonna get nowhere doing the 9 to 5, dude," his friend Jose had told him. "You gotta go where the money is."
Jose knew that first hand. He enjoyed showing Eduardo the thick roll of green bills he carried around in his pocket, or the latest gold chain that winked brightly around his thick neck. There was a thriving black market in the alleys and back rooms of Chicago; one that could always use a new player with the right merchandise. Drugs, medical supplies, and even human remains could be sold for cash in hand, no questions asked. The American Dream, built on the misfortunes of others.
Such trafficking was morally wrong and Eduardo knew it. He resisted the temptation for years, holding onto his ideals and working even harder to achieve the life of luxury that his Elsa deserved - until the day she told him that she was pregnant again. He was barely making ends meet now! How could they afford another mouth to feed?
Abortion was out of the question, of course. Even if they could have afforded the procedure, they were Catholics, leaving Eduardo with only one choice left to him. He contacted Jose and told him he wanted in on the next 'special order.'
Two days later it had brought him here. The estate was just as imposing from the back as it must have been had he been invited to walk through the main gates. He followed the stone path through neatly manicured lawns and flowerbeds filled with colorful Spring blossoms. He was met at the back door by a maid dressed in a crisp uniform. After closely examining his driver's license, she allowed him to enter and escorted him through a gleaming, spotless kitchen three times the size of his apartment. Eduardo craned his head around as he walked, like a tourist trying to glimpse every detail of an exotic locale.
The maid led him from the kitchen down a long hallway and through a wide doorway into a large study.
"Please wait here," she said, her tone more of a command than a request. "Mr. Morningway will be with you momentarily. Please touch nothing."
Eduardo thrust a hand into a pocket of his threadbare jacket, fingers questing for his precious cargo. "I'll be here," he promised, but the maid had already departed.
The room in which he found himself could have sprung directly from Elsa's Lives of the Rich and Famous, only now it was being viewed in full, glorious color. The walls were paneled in rich, dark wood hung at intervals with oil paintings and objects de art. One entire wall was filled with floor to ceiling shelves behind beveled glass and crammed full of books and trinkets. An oriental rug covered the gleaming hardwood floor, muffling the sound of his rough work boots as he crossed from one end of the room to the other, examining everything while keeping his hands carefully by his side. Eduardo had never seen a genuine antique in his life but he instinctively knew that the furnishings were as expensive as they were beautiful. The most impressive of these was the massive, ornately carved walnut desk that dominated the room and the shiny objects tastefully arrayed on its surface. A sterling silver scale sat on a corner beside a-
"Madre de Dios!" he gasped aloud. Was that a human skull?! Eduardo blinked at the grim relic. Surely it couldn't be real!
With morbid fascination, he reached out a tentative hand.
"Touch nothing," a cold voice curtly reminded him.
Startled, Eduardo jumped and let out an expletive that would have made his sainted mother turn over in her grave.
"Hardly something one would say in polite company." The tall, pale author of the voice regarded Eduardo with evident distaste. "Clearly you are neither."
"What?"
"Polite. Nor company."
Eduardo wasn't exactly certain, but he had the impression that he'd just been insulted. "Are you Morningway?"
"His name is Hrothbert. He's a servant." Justin Morningway strode into the room, hand extended. "You must be Mr. Rojas."
"Si. I mean, yes." Eduardo instinctively stepped forward to accept the offered hand. Even so, he could not bring himself to turn his back on the grim-faced servant who had somehow managed to enter the room and walk up behind him without making a single sound.
"You had no trouble finding the estate? No? Good. And you followed my instructions?"
"Yes, sir! I came alone and right to the back door."
"I appreciate discretion. Thank you. Can I interest you in some brandy?"
Eduardo's eyes widened at the offer. Brandy was something only the rich enjoyed in the middle of an ordinary day. "Yes, please. I would like that very much!"
Morningway nodded and walked to an ornate table bearing an artful array of crystal decanters and glasses. "Did you tell anyone where you were going?" he asked conversationally as he selected the Mendis. He removed the silver stopper and poured a generous portion into two glasses.
"No, sir. I told no one, just as you asked."
"Not even your wife. Elsa, isn't it?"
"No. No, not even Elsa." Eduardo frowned. "But how did you know her name?"
"It's my business to know everything about anyone who enters my home, Mr. Rojas." He offered an apologetic smile. "Security. You understand," he said as he offered Eduardo a glass.
"Oh, si. I understand." He accepted the drink. "You can never be too careful."
"Exactly." Morningway lifted his own glass. "To your health, Mr. Rojas."
Eduardo mimicked the gesture, feeling like an entitled gentleman enjoying the company of a peer. He tilted the glass to sip, the amazingly sweet yet familiar aroma widening his eyes with pleasure. Over the crystal rim, however, he caught sight of the disapproving scowl of the other man and nearly choked as the liquid fire spilled across his tongue and down his throat.
"What about-?"
"Hrothbert? As I said, he's a servant. His is not here to exchange social pleasantries."
"A curious turn of phrase," said Hrothbert. "Pleasantries can be interpreted in so many ways."
The observation earned him a warning glower from his master. Hrothbert knew the expression well enough and the threat that went with it. With a deferential nod, he resumed his silence and waited.
The exchange was lost on Eduardo, who was far too excited to find himself being so readily accepted by a man of Justin Morningway's reputation. Wait until he told Elsa! Better still, he could hardly wait until he showed her the money.
"Now to the business at hand," Morningway continued. "The package, if you please."
"Yes, of course!" Eduardo sat his glass down on the nearest surface, nearly sloshing what remained of the brandy on the 19th century Queen Anne lowboy. He pulled the envelope from his pocket and completed the delivery.
Morningway turned it over in his hands. It was an ordinary, number 10 business envelope, unmarked and unremarkable. A gentle squeeze, however, confirmed the contents to be more than merely paper.
"It wasn't easy to get," Eduardo explained as he watched the examination. "Dr. Tenant keeps his file drawers locked when the office is closed."
"I have no doubt. Doctor patient confidentiality is extremely important." Morningway picked up a silver letter opener and slit the envelope open with a flick of his wrist. "I'm curious, Mr. Rojas. How were you able to retrieve this particular sample?"
"I'm the night janitor." He smiled his pride. "Someone has to clean up after the doctors and nurses. I have a key to every door on the floor."
"The office doors I might understand, but it seems unusual that they would also give a janitor a key to their confidential files."
"The lock was easily broken." There had been no other way to get into the drawer in the short window of time at his disposal.
"I see. Well, they don't make locks like they used to." Morningway removed a microscope slide from the envelope and held it up to the light. The tiny drop of fluid sandwiched between the thin layers of glass looked like a trapped garnet. "Does anyone else have a master key?"
"Not at night. I'm the cleaning crew foreman." Eduardo had worked hard to earn that distinction. Twelve long, grueling years of cleaning out toilets and dumping garbage for the honor of ten cents over minimum wage and a skeleton key but it helped put food on the table. "It is my responsibility and mine alone."
Unseen by Morningway, Hrothbert briefly closed his eyes and very nearly shook his head. The fool was either naïve or ignorant to admit such a thing. Perhaps both.
"I only took the one slide, just as instructed," Eduardo continued. "Patient number DRE1031. I checked the numbers three times just to be sure. If I'd had a name to compare it to-"
"The name is not something you need to know," snapped Morningway, the veneer of the affable businessman faltering. "I would appreciate a moment of silence while I verify my purchase. Come here, ghost."
Ghost? Puzzled, Eduardo watched as the servant stepped forward in response to the curt summons, his polished shoes eerily silent on the hardwood floor. How does he move so quietly? Perhaps that is what had earned him the nickname 'ghost'…
"Your humble servant, sir," said Hrothbert tonelessly. "What is your command?"
Morningway placed the slide on the desk. "Tell me truly. Is it Margaret's?"
Hrothbert opened his right hand, palm downward and fingers splayed. Magical energy shimmered as his essence touched the specimen, the pale golden glow enveloping his hand and a portion of the table.
Oh, how he wished he could fabricate some falsehood that would satisfy his master! Alas, he was cursed and bound to obey and so to tell the truth.
"Yes," he confirmed. "It is Margaret's."
"And the father? Is it Raith?"
"No." Hrothbert canted his head a bit to the left, as if listening. "I sense nothing of blood magic or death."
"But she said-"
"It is not Raith's."
"Dresden?!"
"I have not met the man and so I cannot say, but her blood is mixed with that of mortal man." Hrothbert dropped his hand, flexing his fingers as the golden glow dissipated. "And why should it not? He is her husband, after all."
"How could she do this? How could she pollute the Morningway blood with a child born of a mundane?!"
"For love? Stranger things have happened," Hrothbert dared. "Your sister is young and impetuous. I doubt she believes she needs your blessing to beget a child."
The conversation between the men was completely lost on Eduardo, who stood in stunned silence as his mind tried to explain the strange golden glow that had spilled from the servant's hand. Worse, from where he stood it had looked as if that hand had done more than touch the slide -- it had passed through it to the desk below!
Eduardo reached for and tightly clasped the tarnished crucifix on its chain around his neck. There was something very, very wrong about this place! He no longer cared about payment for his delivery. He began to back toward the open doorway, praying under his breath that he would be able to leave.
"Stay a moment, Mr. Rojas." Morningway lifted his hand in a sharp gesture and suddenly, inexplicably, Eduardo found himself unable to take another step.
"I must go home to my Elsa," he pleaded. "She is expecting me."
"Without your fee? I wouldn't dream of it. We had a business agreement, Mr. Rojas, and I am a man of my word."
"Si, but … you can send me the money. I have to go-"
"As per our arrangement," Morningway continued as if he had not heard the man's protest, "A payment in the sum of $750,000 has been made to the savings account you share with your wife. She will have full access to the funds first thing in the morning. That should be more than enough for your family to live on until they can return to El Salvador or find another breadwinner."
"A… what?" Cold fear gripped Eduardo's spine, squeezing it tight in icy fingers. "I don't understand!"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Rojas. I'm afraid that I cannot tolerate loose ends." As he spoke, Morningway used his index finger to inscribe a rune in the space between them as if writing upon an invisible chalk board. For a split second the death symbol shimmered like black oil on the air before suddenly exploding outward.
Eduardo Rojas screamed when he saw the ebony horror speeding toward him. He turned to run, reflexively snapping the chain of the crucifix in his haste. It clattered to the floor, a powerless talisman as the wraith devoured it's owner.
Hrothbert glanced down at the crucifix, briefly disguising his expression of regret. "Was that entirely necessary?" he asked quietly. "It is highly unlikely that the laboratory would have attributed the missing slide to a barely literate sanitation worker."
"Unlikely, but still possible. I did not get where I am today by taking chances. I only deal in certainties." Morningway picked up the medical slide bearing the drop of Margaret Dresden's blood and slipped it back into the envelope. "Will it be a boy or a girl?" he asked, dismissing all thought of Eduardo Rojas as if he had never existed.
"It is not yet a certainty but I believe it will be male."
"A nephew! Excellent." He tucked the envelope into his pocket. "I've always wanted a protégé."
"Margaret and her husband may desire another path for the child."
Justin Morningway regarded the ghost with dark eyes. "He carries the Morningway bloodline. There is no other path."
Title: Prenatal Exam
Fandom: The Dresden Files (tv-verse)
Characters: Justin Morningway, Hrothbert
Prompt: 35. Doctor
Word Count: 2,490
Rating: PG
Summary: Justin shows an interest in family.
Disclaimer: The Dresden Files do not belong to me. Just passing through.
Table: Here There be Ghosts
Eduardo Rojas knew luxury when he saw it, even if he himself had never experienced it firsthand. One of his Elsa's favorite shows was Lives of the Rich and Famous. She watched it religiously, as if it were the bible of their lives.
"That is how American's live!," she often said, usually turning the rickety card table that held their 13 inch black and white television toward him so that he could see for himself the Olympic-sized swimming pools and immaculate 40-bedroom mansions with gold faucets and hot and cold running champagne. This would inevitably lead to the familiar argument of how he was not working nearly hard enough to obtain the same luxuries for his beleaguered family.
In the twelve years since they had left El Salvador to stake their claim on the American dream, Eduardo still had nothing he could truly call his own except Elsa, their five children, and a squalid little two bedroom apartment in the Chicago slums. They were a long way from owning their own home much less an estate with stone lions guarding a tree-lined driveway and a five car garage.
"You ain't ever gonna get nowhere doing the 9 to 5, dude," his friend Jose had told him. "You gotta go where the money is."
Jose knew that first hand. He enjoyed showing Eduardo the thick roll of green bills he carried around in his pocket, or the latest gold chain that winked brightly around his thick neck. There was a thriving black market in the alleys and back rooms of Chicago; one that could always use a new player with the right merchandise. Drugs, medical supplies, and even human remains could be sold for cash in hand, no questions asked. The American Dream, built on the misfortunes of others.
Such trafficking was morally wrong and Eduardo knew it. He resisted the temptation for years, holding onto his ideals and working even harder to achieve the life of luxury that his Elsa deserved - until the day she told him that she was pregnant again. He was barely making ends meet now! How could they afford another mouth to feed?
Abortion was out of the question, of course. Even if they could have afforded the procedure, they were Catholics, leaving Eduardo with only one choice left to him. He contacted Jose and told him he wanted in on the next 'special order.'
Two days later it had brought him here. The estate was just as imposing from the back as it must have been had he been invited to walk through the main gates. He followed the stone path through neatly manicured lawns and flowerbeds filled with colorful Spring blossoms. He was met at the back door by a maid dressed in a crisp uniform. After closely examining his driver's license, she allowed him to enter and escorted him through a gleaming, spotless kitchen three times the size of his apartment. Eduardo craned his head around as he walked, like a tourist trying to glimpse every detail of an exotic locale.
The maid led him from the kitchen down a long hallway and through a wide doorway into a large study.
"Please wait here," she said, her tone more of a command than a request. "Mr. Morningway will be with you momentarily. Please touch nothing."
Eduardo thrust a hand into a pocket of his threadbare jacket, fingers questing for his precious cargo. "I'll be here," he promised, but the maid had already departed.
The room in which he found himself could have sprung directly from Elsa's Lives of the Rich and Famous, only now it was being viewed in full, glorious color. The walls were paneled in rich, dark wood hung at intervals with oil paintings and objects de art. One entire wall was filled with floor to ceiling shelves behind beveled glass and crammed full of books and trinkets. An oriental rug covered the gleaming hardwood floor, muffling the sound of his rough work boots as he crossed from one end of the room to the other, examining everything while keeping his hands carefully by his side. Eduardo had never seen a genuine antique in his life but he instinctively knew that the furnishings were as expensive as they were beautiful. The most impressive of these was the massive, ornately carved walnut desk that dominated the room and the shiny objects tastefully arrayed on its surface. A sterling silver scale sat on a corner beside a-
"Madre de Dios!" he gasped aloud. Was that a human skull?! Eduardo blinked at the grim relic. Surely it couldn't be real!
With morbid fascination, he reached out a tentative hand.
"Touch nothing," a cold voice curtly reminded him.
Startled, Eduardo jumped and let out an expletive that would have made his sainted mother turn over in her grave.
"Hardly something one would say in polite company." The tall, pale author of the voice regarded Eduardo with evident distaste. "Clearly you are neither."
"What?"
"Polite. Nor company."
Eduardo wasn't exactly certain, but he had the impression that he'd just been insulted. "Are you Morningway?"
"His name is Hrothbert. He's a servant." Justin Morningway strode into the room, hand extended. "You must be Mr. Rojas."
"Si. I mean, yes." Eduardo instinctively stepped forward to accept the offered hand. Even so, he could not bring himself to turn his back on the grim-faced servant who had somehow managed to enter the room and walk up behind him without making a single sound.
"You had no trouble finding the estate? No? Good. And you followed my instructions?"
"Yes, sir! I came alone and right to the back door."
"I appreciate discretion. Thank you. Can I interest you in some brandy?"
Eduardo's eyes widened at the offer. Brandy was something only the rich enjoyed in the middle of an ordinary day. "Yes, please. I would like that very much!"
Morningway nodded and walked to an ornate table bearing an artful array of crystal decanters and glasses. "Did you tell anyone where you were going?" he asked conversationally as he selected the Mendis. He removed the silver stopper and poured a generous portion into two glasses.
"No, sir. I told no one, just as you asked."
"Not even your wife. Elsa, isn't it?"
"No. No, not even Elsa." Eduardo frowned. "But how did you know her name?"
"It's my business to know everything about anyone who enters my home, Mr. Rojas." He offered an apologetic smile. "Security. You understand," he said as he offered Eduardo a glass.
"Oh, si. I understand." He accepted the drink. "You can never be too careful."
"Exactly." Morningway lifted his own glass. "To your health, Mr. Rojas."
Eduardo mimicked the gesture, feeling like an entitled gentleman enjoying the company of a peer. He tilted the glass to sip, the amazingly sweet yet familiar aroma widening his eyes with pleasure. Over the crystal rim, however, he caught sight of the disapproving scowl of the other man and nearly choked as the liquid fire spilled across his tongue and down his throat.
"What about-?"
"Hrothbert? As I said, he's a servant. His is not here to exchange social pleasantries."
"A curious turn of phrase," said Hrothbert. "Pleasantries can be interpreted in so many ways."
The observation earned him a warning glower from his master. Hrothbert knew the expression well enough and the threat that went with it. With a deferential nod, he resumed his silence and waited.
The exchange was lost on Eduardo, who was far too excited to find himself being so readily accepted by a man of Justin Morningway's reputation. Wait until he told Elsa! Better still, he could hardly wait until he showed her the money.
"Now to the business at hand," Morningway continued. "The package, if you please."
"Yes, of course!" Eduardo sat his glass down on the nearest surface, nearly sloshing what remained of the brandy on the 19th century Queen Anne lowboy. He pulled the envelope from his pocket and completed the delivery.
Morningway turned it over in his hands. It was an ordinary, number 10 business envelope, unmarked and unremarkable. A gentle squeeze, however, confirmed the contents to be more than merely paper.
"It wasn't easy to get," Eduardo explained as he watched the examination. "Dr. Tenant keeps his file drawers locked when the office is closed."
"I have no doubt. Doctor patient confidentiality is extremely important." Morningway picked up a silver letter opener and slit the envelope open with a flick of his wrist. "I'm curious, Mr. Rojas. How were you able to retrieve this particular sample?"
"I'm the night janitor." He smiled his pride. "Someone has to clean up after the doctors and nurses. I have a key to every door on the floor."
"The office doors I might understand, but it seems unusual that they would also give a janitor a key to their confidential files."
"The lock was easily broken." There had been no other way to get into the drawer in the short window of time at his disposal.
"I see. Well, they don't make locks like they used to." Morningway removed a microscope slide from the envelope and held it up to the light. The tiny drop of fluid sandwiched between the thin layers of glass looked like a trapped garnet. "Does anyone else have a master key?"
"Not at night. I'm the cleaning crew foreman." Eduardo had worked hard to earn that distinction. Twelve long, grueling years of cleaning out toilets and dumping garbage for the honor of ten cents over minimum wage and a skeleton key but it helped put food on the table. "It is my responsibility and mine alone."
Unseen by Morningway, Hrothbert briefly closed his eyes and very nearly shook his head. The fool was either naïve or ignorant to admit such a thing. Perhaps both.
"I only took the one slide, just as instructed," Eduardo continued. "Patient number DRE1031. I checked the numbers three times just to be sure. If I'd had a name to compare it to-"
"The name is not something you need to know," snapped Morningway, the veneer of the affable businessman faltering. "I would appreciate a moment of silence while I verify my purchase. Come here, ghost."
Ghost? Puzzled, Eduardo watched as the servant stepped forward in response to the curt summons, his polished shoes eerily silent on the hardwood floor. How does he move so quietly? Perhaps that is what had earned him the nickname 'ghost'…
"Your humble servant, sir," said Hrothbert tonelessly. "What is your command?"
Morningway placed the slide on the desk. "Tell me truly. Is it Margaret's?"
Hrothbert opened his right hand, palm downward and fingers splayed. Magical energy shimmered as his essence touched the specimen, the pale golden glow enveloping his hand and a portion of the table.
Oh, how he wished he could fabricate some falsehood that would satisfy his master! Alas, he was cursed and bound to obey and so to tell the truth.
"Yes," he confirmed. "It is Margaret's."
"And the father? Is it Raith?"
"No." Hrothbert canted his head a bit to the left, as if listening. "I sense nothing of blood magic or death."
"But she said-"
"It is not Raith's."
"Dresden?!"
"I have not met the man and so I cannot say, but her blood is mixed with that of mortal man." Hrothbert dropped his hand, flexing his fingers as the golden glow dissipated. "And why should it not? He is her husband, after all."
"How could she do this? How could she pollute the Morningway blood with a child born of a mundane?!"
"For love? Stranger things have happened," Hrothbert dared. "Your sister is young and impetuous. I doubt she believes she needs your blessing to beget a child."
The conversation between the men was completely lost on Eduardo, who stood in stunned silence as his mind tried to explain the strange golden glow that had spilled from the servant's hand. Worse, from where he stood it had looked as if that hand had done more than touch the slide -- it had passed through it to the desk below!
Eduardo reached for and tightly clasped the tarnished crucifix on its chain around his neck. There was something very, very wrong about this place! He no longer cared about payment for his delivery. He began to back toward the open doorway, praying under his breath that he would be able to leave.
"Stay a moment, Mr. Rojas." Morningway lifted his hand in a sharp gesture and suddenly, inexplicably, Eduardo found himself unable to take another step.
"I must go home to my Elsa," he pleaded. "She is expecting me."
"Without your fee? I wouldn't dream of it. We had a business agreement, Mr. Rojas, and I am a man of my word."
"Si, but … you can send me the money. I have to go-"
"As per our arrangement," Morningway continued as if he had not heard the man's protest, "A payment in the sum of $750,000 has been made to the savings account you share with your wife. She will have full access to the funds first thing in the morning. That should be more than enough for your family to live on until they can return to El Salvador or find another breadwinner."
"A… what?" Cold fear gripped Eduardo's spine, squeezing it tight in icy fingers. "I don't understand!"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Rojas. I'm afraid that I cannot tolerate loose ends." As he spoke, Morningway used his index finger to inscribe a rune in the space between them as if writing upon an invisible chalk board. For a split second the death symbol shimmered like black oil on the air before suddenly exploding outward.
Eduardo Rojas screamed when he saw the ebony horror speeding toward him. He turned to run, reflexively snapping the chain of the crucifix in his haste. It clattered to the floor, a powerless talisman as the wraith devoured it's owner.
Hrothbert glanced down at the crucifix, briefly disguising his expression of regret. "Was that entirely necessary?" he asked quietly. "It is highly unlikely that the laboratory would have attributed the missing slide to a barely literate sanitation worker."
"Unlikely, but still possible. I did not get where I am today by taking chances. I only deal in certainties." Morningway picked up the medical slide bearing the drop of Margaret Dresden's blood and slipped it back into the envelope. "Will it be a boy or a girl?" he asked, dismissing all thought of Eduardo Rojas as if he had never existed.
"It is not yet a certainty but I believe it will be male."
"A nephew! Excellent." He tucked the envelope into his pocket. "I've always wanted a protégé."
"Margaret and her husband may desire another path for the child."
Justin Morningway regarded the ghost with dark eyes. "He carries the Morningway bloodline. There is no other path."