Dresden Files Reread - Storm Front Chapter 27

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Dresden wakes up outside, in the rain, with Morgan leaning over him. There's a bit of obligatory
homophobia about getting CPR from Morgan, because the book's almost over, and we gotta get in just one more cringey problematic thing before the end. 

Harry doesn't entirely understand why Morgan saved him, since Morgan hates him and, last he checked, thinks he's the killer. Morgan doesn't entirely understand Dresden's confusion - he saw the end of the fight, and saving Harry was The Right Thing To Do. He's also, as Harry rather gleefully points out, going to have to report Harry's valorous actions to the Council, because that is also the Right Thing To Do. They might even lift the Doom of Damocles. From here, the chapter goes into a montage structure that I don't think we see in later books. We get quick snapshots on the fates of the Beckets, Monica and her kids, Susan, Murphy, and the outcome of the White Council meeting. 

There's a little vignette in there about Harry and Murphy's overlapping time in the hospital, during which he sent her flowers and the remaining half of the handcuffs, along with a note telling her not to ask how they got severed. He thinks she wouldn't "buy" that the chain was cut with a magic sword. I'm guessing this is a holdover from a previous draft in which the secrecy factor was higher, because there's absolutely no textual basis for assuming that she wouldn't believe "it got cut with a magic sword". I'm sure she'd have follow-up questions, and since Harry currently thinks telling her about the Council would endanger her life, I can see why he might have some trouble answering them, but "this raises like five more questions" isn't the same thing as "I don't believe you", and just - volunteering that there are additional things he won't tell her doesn't strike me as the best way to start repairing the damaged trust between them. Which is kind of backed up by the fact that while she resumes their professional relationship almost immediately, she no longer behaves as though they're friends. 

The chapter, and the book, ends with Harry brooding about how he might have started to convince the Council that he's not gonna turn evil, but for himself he's not so sure, because power and temptation and all that, but for now he's just gonna do his job. 

This has been a heck of a ride. I honestly never thought I'd b able to maintain this kind of writing on something resembling a schedule. I kind of want to try to figure out why this, when I can't do it with anything else where I've tried. I kind a weird kind of high off of this specific text-responsive, relatively high-speed light expository writing, and I just feel so productive. I'm gonna take a week to do a retrospective thing and then we're gonna dive straight into Fool Moon. I am also working on a longer post that's not this. I hope you've all had as much fun with this as I have. Until next week - be gay, do crimes, and read ALL THE THINGS!