AN: I currently have too many half-finished and barely started fics that it isn't even funny.

So of course I write another Dresden Files ficlet.

Disclaimer: Still not, or would ever be, Jim Butcher

Title: Light Bouncing From a Mirror

Word Count: 802

Summary: Lieutenant Harry Dresden needs help from his consultant, a wizard named Karrin Murphy. Role Reversal AU.

"What do we got here?" I handed my 'psychic' consultant a cup of coffee.

Murphy frowned. Her blue eyes flickered behind her shoulder, one hand sliding into her coat pocket were her enchanted escrima was. The other was clutching her cup tightly enough to make the hot liquid slosh over the rim.

My stomach knotted and my super amazing detective skills had a bad feeling about this. "That bad, huh?" I said weakly.

"Yup." She popped at the 'P' and took a hasty sip of her coffee. She quickly pulled the cup away and stuck her tongue out. "Gweat."

I had woken up that morning with a call about a body in a hotel room. What they had neglected to say was that the room was covered in bloodied sigils, and that the head of the victim was missing. One quick look inside (and after emptying my breakfast) and I was calling the only wizard in the phonebook.

And when Murphy had her one quick look, she had turned green and said that she needed some air.

Honestly, I couldn't blame her. I needed it, too.

She dumped her cup in a nearby trashcan and fixed her scarf that was around her neck. "Ritual," she said. "Dark Magic being powered by a fresh death, and being used for God knows what, but it's obviously going to end destructively and in chaos. It always does."

I looked down into my cup and suddenly lost interest in drinking it. "And the missing head?"

Murphy turned to me, her blue eyes appearing more like ice. "Some cultures have this thing about the soul. The head is where it's stored."

We stopped walking when nearing a crosswalk. The temperature had dropped and a sudden wind picked up. Something seriously bad was going down in my city yet again, and once again I felt powerless against those supernatural forces.

All I had with me were some holy knights that worked some serious Deus ex Machina, a pack of young werewolves, and a very short wizard that could easily kick my ass without magic.

I remembered years ago when Murphy had told me the truth after being attacked by some sort of plant monster. Back then I wasn't fully in the know, Murphy had only keyed me in when things had gotten dire. But now I knew about the White Council and the truth about the world—and man, it was not pretty by any means. After finding that out, I'd done some research on some cold cases and things started painfully making more sense.

Shame that it was too late.

I forced myself back into the present as Murphy started speaking.

"I'm may have to alert the Council. This sort of magic can get out of hand quickly." Her lips thinned as she was reminded of her Warden duties that were forced upon here while I was off on a vacation. I'd left Chicago and returned to see several dinosaur skeletons littering the city, more dead bodies, and Murphy with a new addition to her job.

There wasn't a lot of love between her and the Council. She still felt sore on how they'd handled her father's death; he was also a Warden back in the day. According to Murphy, he had left to go on a standard mission and never came back. His head honchos never felt bothered to investigate.

But Murphy did.

She had a sword, a list of contacts, and the drive that was probably going to help her get through just about anything. As long as I've known her, her two goals were away to protect the city that she loved, and to figure out what had happened to her dad.

"Are you okay with that?" I asked.

Murphy sighed. "What can I do? They sign my paychecks now."

"Sucks."

"Tell me about it."

We stood in silence for a moment.

"What's your plan?" I said eventually.

"Our plan is simple and straightforward." Her blue eyes regained some of that spark, her chin tilted up so that our gazes could almost, but not quite, meet Determination was plainly set in her pale face, making her look more like her previous self, the one that could look down the most nightmarish monsters and to come back as a hero.

That, ladies and gentlemen, was the woman that I would gladly face down IA and more horrors for. Karrin Murphy and Harry Dresden, wizard P.I. and mortal lieutenant, two fools thinking that they can make a difference in the world while ignoring their inner demons.

"We're going to kick some warlock ass." Murphy took a swift turn that directed her to her apartment, and went off to go find a way to bring justice to the city.

Because that was us—people with specialized skills and misplaced hope.