Chapter Text
The morning of the day after the party broke sunny, warm and beautiful, the sort that promised a hot, breezy summer noon, a perfect day to head down to the beach. Boston stirred under the clattering of the T and the scent of hundreds of little coffee shops, and the tidal wave was no longer the biggest bit of news.
Nate and Hardison met Stone on the steps of the Back Bay Station. Hardison handed the golem the spider's phone. Stone, once again dressed impeccably in a custom-tailored turtleneck and dress slacks, took it with care and tapped his thumb lightly on it. His surprise when the screen actually lit up was very obvious. "I was unaware such a thing was possible," he admitted. "You're giving me a very rare treasure, mister Hardison."
"You're gonna need it. At least until you can get a different setup. You can do tech and magic, you just gotta be willing to, you know. Compromise."
"You do understand this is temporary?" Nate told the golem. "We're not going to handhold you. You don't answer to us. We'll help you set up, but the job's yours, you and your people."
Stone seemed to think very carefully on his answer. "I have worked for someone or another for nearly all of my existence," he explained. "My security firm is the first attempt I have ever made at others working for me, and yet... it was still me, working for someone else. I think this opportunity you offer me, mister Ford - I think it is everything the wizard promised." He smiled thinly. "And I do have the shark to keep me honest."
Nate couldn't help but be a little amused at that. "In that case, here's something to remember today by." He handed over the plain plastic chess tower.
Stone stared at it, then pocketed it. "It will be kept safe as long as I can do such a thing."
Across the Concourse, Harry Dresden, professional wizard, was staring at the growing rivers of people coming and going, a trickle quickly turning into a flood. Boston was beautiful, alive, a city as worthy of attention and devotion as any other.
He couldn't wait to go home.
"Wizard," Classy's rough voice called out, and Harry turned. The Dredger, flanked by two of his people, came up to the wizard sedately, blinking a bit in the bright morning light. The wizard offered him the wrapped-up bundle of the Witchwell, sans duct-tape; Classy dug the small cylinder out and shook it. "Not a fuckin' drop. You do good work, wizard."
"Well, you know. When someone's not trying to kill me."
Classy chuckled. "All said, I'm glad this ain't your turf. Don't fancy the fight if we had to go up against you."
"Nicest thing anyone's said about me in a while," Harry assured the Dredger, and they shook hands. "Stay alive, mister Act."
"Same, mister Dresden. Safe travels and all that crap." The Dredgers turned and walked away, pausing briefly to nod politely at Sophie as they crossed paths.
The grifter was leading Parker and Eliot, and she hugged Harry without hesitation. "Oh, I feel like we ought to keep you here for a month, just to give all those bruises a chance to heal," she protested mildly.
"Believe me, I'm going home in one piece. That's more than I usually get," Harry assured her sheepishly.
"I really did mean it, you know. You were only supposed to be a consultant."
"I did consult," he replied with a lopsided grin. "This is the easiest consulting I've ever done. You told me everything I needed to know, you let me sleep, you fed me. Watered me. Watered me a lot." She had to grin at that. "Hot showers every day, dang. Doesn't get much better than that."
She pulled away, and Eliot offered his hand. "It's all the hot showers, huh?"
"I have no idea what your water heater's made of, but you should invest in the company."
Eliot, who wasn't about to tell Harry the water heaters at both the loft and the safehouse had been replaced three times, merely beamed at the wizard as they shook hands. "Sir."
"Sir."
"You're a good man, Harry. Violence doesn't make you a bad man." He shrugged a little. "It's just a thing we have to do sometimes. You're not responsible for other people's choices, no one is but them."
The wizard's grin stuttered. "You make it sound like it's easy."
"Hardest thing in the world, my man," the hitter admitted. "Because you gotta convince yourself of it every day, every time you get up and look in the mirror. Just remember: forehead to nose, not nose to nose."
"Elbow, not wrist," Harry repeated dutifully, his grin returning. "Or I just hit them with magic really, really hard."
Eliot laughed. "Or that." He bent down to ruffle Mouse's ears and ruff roughly, much to the young dog's delight, while Parker came to stand before Harry.
"Are you really going to be alright?"
"I mean, I'm probably gonna get some version of yelled at for not reporting the Blackbird thing," he admitted, punctiliously honest with her as he'd tried to be all along. "Are you? With Jess, I mean?"
"Oh, yeah, we're good. We're gonna be - we've got plans. We're good. Harry? Thank for you asking."
"Thank you for accepting me. Me, and what I am."
"But it's magic," she protested. "Who wouldn't?"
The wizard didn't say anything, he merely cut his gaze to one side. She turned and looked. "Oh. Right."
Nate and Hardison joined the little group, and the hacker offered his hand with a grin. "Mister Hacker," he said solemnly.
A snort of laughter burst out of Harry, and he offered his hand. "Mister Wizard," he replied.
"I am," Hardison agreed. "And you are. You know, I had the theory in my head, the thought that we were just two sides of the same coin. I'm glad I was right."
"I am super envious of everything you can accomplish," Dresden admitted readily. "Let's start there. But mostly I'm also so mad that we can't do more. If you ever figure out how we can work together without me frying all your equipment, I'll be the first one there."
"Holding you to that, Dresden."
"You bet."
Nate stared very levelly at the wizard. Harry stared just as levelly back.
"Walk with me, Dresden."
"My train -"
"- doesn't leave until Hardison lets it."
The two men walked across one edge of the Concourse, with the mastermind lost in thought. After a few moments, he reached into his jacket and offered Harry a plain white envelope. "Your pay. Plus incidentals, and so on."
"Jeez," Harry stared at the envelope, then pocketed it inside his duster. "Thank you."
Nate stopped and turned to face the wizard. "You did magic."
"I did."
The mastermind shook his head. "You know, after the MFA, Sophie was explaining it to me. She described it as being sheep in a pen facing a man with a shotgun."
"It's not... entirely wrong. But also not completely right."
"No?"
Dresden smiled thinly. "Sometimes the sheep have shotguns, too."
Nate made a faintly amused sound. "Sometimes the sheep hire a wizard."
"And now you know where ninety percent of my work comes from. Congratulations, another puzzle solved," Dresden teased.
"Yes, but -"
"But you don't like the shape of it?" The wizard shrugged. "Neither does most of the world. Give it time, Ford. In a few months you'll be looking for explanations, twisting your memories into things that fit your reality better. In a year you won't think twice about it."
"You make it sound so easy."
"That's because I've seen it happen most of my adult life, and all of my professional life."
Nate thought very carefully on that. "I don't like that. I don't like thinking that the only way this works is if I lie to myself. I'm not interested in being comfortable, or I wouldn't do what I do. I don't want, I don't need the world to be in order, Dresden. I need it to be fair."
"That's our job, not the world's," the wizard replied simply. "We make it fair."
Nate chewed on that. "So it is."
"Besides, I doubt Parker's gonna let you forget that magic's a thing that happens. And hell, there's Sophie right there with you, Ford. If you don't look at her and see what she does is magic, I'm not sure I can help you. I'm not sure anyone can."
That did make the mastermind grin, however crookedly. He turned and offered his hand. "Pleasure doing business with you, mister Dresden. Can I add your number to our Rolodex?"
Harry shook it amicably. "Absolutely. Unless it's Portland."
"Worse than Boston?" They started walking back to the team.
"You have no idea. Besides, you'd have local help there if you needed it."
"Another wizard?"
"No." Harry gestured vaguely, as if to organize his thoughts before he spoke. "Do you happen to know what a Grimm is?"