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Day Off is a short story in the The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. It is set between Small Favor and Turn Coat. It was included in the anthology Side Jobs,

Plot Edit

It begins with Harry and the Alphas in the middle of a role-playing game. Harry is playing as a buff barbarian with a huge sword, Billy as a wizard, Georgia as a druid priestess, and Andi as an agile thief. The game stops after Harry complains to Billy about his fire spell, saying that it couldn't be directed like that in real life. After a brief argument, the Alphas call in the rule "He who kills the cheer springs for beer." Harry smiles and tosses some twenties onto the table.

Once the game is over, Harry tells the Alphas that he finally has a day off from work, with nothing to do whatsoever for the next day, and that he planned to spend that whole day with Luccio. Before he leaves, Andi tells Dresden that she has a problem and needs his help. After a short argument, he agrees that they would talk the next day and leaves.

Harry goes home and rests. He awakens to the sound of his door opening. Getting up, he discovers Molly, who has come to practice making potions in his basement lab. After a little persuasion, Harry caves in and lets her go downstairs. Harry then goes to sleep only to find that his alarm clock failed him for the first time and that he has only fifteen minutes until Luccio arrives, so he gets up and tries to get ready quickly. Harry is in the shower when he hears an explosion and hurries out, wearing only a towel around his waist and still dripping wet, but finds out that Molly had made a "little" mistake in the lab and insists that she doesn't need any help.

Just then, Andi and Kirby arrive, and he soon discovers that they had caught mites from the Nevernever when they had sex in wolf form. The mites feed on strong emotions like lust and anger, and pushes them to satisfy their base needs to produce these emotions. The mites also make wolf form much more appealing. As Harry is explaining this, Andi starts sucking his finger, influenced by the mites. This causes Kirby to get angry, change into a wolf, and attack him. Meanwhile, another explosion goes off in the basement, caused once again by Molly. After Dresden puts a circle around Andy and Kirby to cut off the mites' connection to the Nevernever, he hurries downstairs and finds Molly unconscious on the lab floor. While trying to clean up her mess, Molly had taken off her shirt and bra, which had been splashed with acid. Harry then performs CPR on Molly to revive her, and gets up to find Luccio standing in the basement entrance. She had seen Harry (still only in his towel) apparently kissing a topless woman. To Harry's surprise, she isn't mad, and instead helps him through the rest of the day. Harry then apologizes to Luccio, saying that he had wanted to give her the best day ever but that instead, she has to help him clean up. Luccio then responds, "Would you do it differently if you had to do it again? The day is not yet over. You seem to mourn its death somewhat prematurely." Harry tries to state his point, but then Luccio kisses him and says, "Enough talk."

Characters Edit

Main article: List of The Dresden Files characters

• Harry Dresden
• Molly Carpenter
• Anastasia Luccio
• William “Billy” Borden
• Georgia
• Andi
• Kirby

External links Edit

• The Dresden Files short stories on jim-butcher.com