Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 22

Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash

Harry's severely banged up, and Charity's in labor, so they're in the emergency room. Both of them are pretty high up on the triage list, so while Charity's being wheeled into labor and delivery, Harry sits down with Dr. Simmons. She asks if he's in pain, dizzy, or nauseated, to which he answers yes, no, and a little. The conversation starts out cordial enough, but quickly degrades when Simmons recognizes his name (although we never find out what exactly her context on him is), and can't actually find the cut on his head for which he came in. She checks his eyes and asserts confidently that he doesn't have a concussion. To be absolutely clear, that's not how that works. While the pupillary light reflex is a decent way to assess whether neurological symptoms are from a concussion or something else, the differences we're talking about here are small - in 2001, it required specialized tools to assess, and these days you still need an app. A quick examination with a pen light like she did can only determine that the pupils are equal and responsive to light. If they're not, that can pretty well confirm a suspected concussion, but it can't rule one out. Given that Harry's still nauseated, I suspect Lea healed some of the damage, but not all of it. That makes the ongoing concussion count sort of complicated, but it's not zero. Simons scolds Harry for being in the emergency room when he doesn't need to, and gives him some moist towelettes with which to clean himself up in the bathroom. 

While he's doing just that, he sees the tender, pink line across his forehead that was, earlier that evening, a bleeding gash. This confirms that Lea healed him - and that's spooky as hell. Healing magic, any magic that directly affects the human body, is very difficult, requiring remarkable precision and more energy than would be intuitively obvious. Fae magic is a bit different, but that only changes the nature of the spookiness. For Lea to do such a thing here, in the physical world, indicates a greater degree of power over Harry than is at all comfortable to think about or, more to the point, than she had like, yesterday. Their new bargains has cost Harry the "home field" advantage - she can come after him any time, any place she chooses, and she healed him primarily to make that point. 

Harry's trying to dry his clothes with the hand dryer when Stallings comes in. Apparently the police "got word" that Harry was in the hospital, and assertion about which I have Questions. It's established later in this chapter that Michael's truck is here. While it is conceivable that Michael called an ambulance for Charity and then either drove to the hospital with Harry or rode with her and had Harry drive the truck, I feel like given that neither of them has a cell phone, it;s unlikely that they would have taken the time to go back to the grocery store, call an ambulance, and wait. Even if they did, Michael would have been the one to make the call, and no need to bring Harry's name into it. There's a zero percent chance of Harry opting to ride in the ambulance, given that his magic could make their tech, or engine, give out when Charity is in this bad a situation, not when he's well enough to ride in a car. So even if we assume that emergency services all share information with each other in real time, there's no reason for the EMTs or the 911 people to know Harry was there. And, y'know, the hospital can't usually just call up the cops and tell them "Hey, this person is here", medical confidentiality and all that. Harry doesn't have a gunshot wound and for once there's no warrant out for his arrest. This is extra frustrating because as a contrivance by which to justify Stallings knowing where Harry was, it's completely unnecessary. They just brought Murphy in, since she's basically in a coma, and Harry said it would be safe to move her at sunrise. He also said to take her to Mallone's house, but whatever. Michael is also here, and not a patient, so I feel like it would have made at least as much sense to have Stallings say that he was here because of Murphy, saw Michael in the waiting room, and asked if he knew where Harry was. 

Photo by Laurie Gouley on Unsplash

Anyway, he brought Kravos's journal, but he won't hand it over until Harry promises to make it disappear. Internal affairs is looking into Special Investigations again, because of something to do with the Kravos case, because something happened to him, but Stallings won't say just what, because apparently that's a departmental secret of the sort that cops simply don't share with outsiders. Look, I'm not unsympathetic to the need to control information in a mystery, but the justifications are getting fuckin' thin here. 

Now that Harry has the journal, he needs to get back to the lab so he can start looking through it, but he left his car at Michael's house and he doesn't have any money, so he has to go bother Michael, who's lurking around the maternity ward doing his best impression of a sad, wet cat of a man. Harry has the sense not to open with "Hey, can I have a ride?" and asks instead which baby is the newest little Carpenter. Unfortunately, the birth was complicated. If Baby Boy Carpenter makes it through the next 36 hours, he'll have a chance, but he's weakening. Charity had to have a C-section, and the doctors aren't sure she'll be able to have more kids. I want to emphasize that I do, y'know, care. Everyone deserves a body that can do the things they want. But also, little Harry is her seventh. 

The doctors think Michael beat Charity, which is a solid guess, absent other information. Charity was physically attacked, and statistically speaking the husband is the most likely culprit. Her regular OB is at this hospital, and would presumably know better, but I guess they're not in yet at 7:15 in the morning. Harry dismisses this as ridiculous, but Michael says he might as well have, since it's his fault she got hurt. That's also ridiculous, but Harry knows better than to say so. It also gets him thinking. In his initial panic. he figured the Nightmare, with access to his memories, would know to go after Michael's family, but demons don't work like that. Even with that knowledge, a demon wouldn't know what to do with it, because they don't understand things like love. Michael puts forward that the Nightmare is a catspaw. Finally, some good fucking red herring! Neither of them can figure out who it might be working for though. It's not Lea - the Fae aren't this methodical, nor do they have much sense of urgency. This prompts Michael to ask what the deal is with Harry and Lea, and Harry lays out most of it, although at this point there seems to be some uncertainty about who, exactly, made her Harry's godmother. He thinks it was his mom, but he's not sure. 

Michael wonders aloud whether Lea getting the sword means his time as a Knight might be over. That God might no longer consider him worthy, or might have decided he deserves to stop doing this and look after his family. He seems to feel about equal parts guilt and relief at the idea, which is fair. I note here, and I want to say up top that I'm not sure what to make of this, that while Michael spends something like another seven years after this as a Knight, Charity is done bearing children, although in a rather Jordanian extension of privacy we're never told whether she can't. I think there's a valid reading here that while Michael hasn't yet done enough to be allowed to rest, Charity has. No idea what that would mean though. 

Harry finally gets around to asking for a ride home. Michael doesn't want to leave the hospital, but as Harry points out, there's nothing he can actually do here, for Charity or the baby. It comes up in this conversation that her sister is watching the kids while Forthill gets some sleep, and her mother is on the way to the hospital. Given what we learn about Charity's backstory in Proven Guilty, I'd be very interested to know when and how Charity reconciled with her parents to a sufficient extent that a hospital visit from her mother would be welcome. Michael's also concerned that they might have to kill someone, and Harry points out that whoever's behind this tried to murder Michael's infant son, and may yet succeed. He feels bad and manipulative about it, but honestly, he's right, and getting him into a position to learn more about what's happening will do more to help Charity and the baby than staying here and fretting. Harry's hoping to get the demons name from the journal, and given that he wants to do it from the lab, I think he's planning to try summoning it, although he may just want Bob's input. 

There's a lot of characterization of Michael, and his relationship with Harry, in this chapter that's hard to convey in summary and doesn't have enough complexity to warrant analysis, so if you haven't looked at their conversation here in a while, I suggest you go reread it. I'm more than a full blog post behind already this year, so I'll get you the next chapter, or something, just as soon as ever I can. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things!