"The Dresden Leap"

By Wtchcool

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them. Didn't even hear of the two shows, let alone watch them, until long after they were off the air.

Chapter One: Take Me by the Tongue

April 15, 2007

Chicago, Illinois

Sam had leaped again. This time it was during the afternoon. He was outside, on a city street. The time traveler heard someone talking to him and looked up.

"Could you slap me?" The dark-haired man was taller than Sam and wearing a leather jacket.

"What?" Sam asked, confused. He caught sight of his reflection in the sunglasses the speaker was wearing and bit his tongue to keep from cursing. He had leaped into a woman, again.

"Could you slap me? You see, I need a peak emotional surge, 'cause I got to jolt up the ant vomit a little, you see, so could you slap me?"

Sam shook his head. Was his host's friend nuts?

"I'm not slapping you."

"Alright," Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden replied. Murphy left him no choice. The wizard/private investigator had to do something to boost the power of the tracking spell, after all. How else could they follow the murderer's trail? Without any warning, he wrapped his arms around Connie, leaned down and kissed her.

Sam's body went lax and his eyes drifted closed. He was being kissed! As the man's tongue began exploring his mouth, one thought formed in his brain.

Oh, boy.

INSERT THEME MUSIC

Sam was being kissed by a man. During his years of quantum leaping, he'd been a woman several times. He'd been a secretary, a beauty pageant contestant, a rape victim, even roughly nine-months pregnant, but he'd never had a man kissing him before. He wasn't ready for this.

Surprisingly, though, the experience wasn't entirely unpleasant… Whoa. Where did that thought come from?

Neither knew that they were being watched and photographed by a journalist by the name of D.W. Herrick.

Dresden pulled back, breaking the kiss.

Sam blinked. Then he reared back and slapped him.

Harry reeled from the blow, recovered himself, and looked back at the trail, which was no longer cold. He could now make out the tire tracks from the killer's vehicle.

"Perfect," he proclaimed, as if he hadn't been slapped in the face. "Let's go." He started walking, expecting Murphy to follow him.

Sam stood there for a minute and then jogged to catch up.

"Wait, what was that about?"

"I told you. I needed a jolt to strengthen the tracking spell. It worked."

"Did you say spell? As in magic?"

~SB~

May 31, 2011

Project Quantum Leap HQ

Stallions Gate, New Mexico

Admiral Al Calavicci drained the last of his chocolate milk from his mug and set it down on his desk before leaving his office. Ziggy said the beverage was supposed to help him with the headaches he'd been experiencing.

"Admiral—"

"I know, Ziggy," Al cut off the artificially intelligent computer his friend had invented. "Sam's leaped again," he said as he headed towards the Imaging Chamber.

Years ago Dr. Sam Beckett, Al's best friend, had discovered how to time travel within one's lifetime. Sam was able to "leap" into another person's life. People would see Sam as if he was the person he'd temporarily switched places with. The only catch was that Sam had gone back in time before figuring out how to return. (Yeah, Sam probably should've known better. But Project Quantum Leap relied on government funding, and their funding would have been cut off if he'd waited any longer.) Ever since he'd left, God, Fate, Time, or Whatever had taken control of Sam's journey, giving Sam the opportunity to put right what had once gone wrong. And Sam, being Mr. Morals, always did, with help from Al and Ziggy.

Sam, the genius (with seven doctorates to his name) had not only made breakthroughs in time travel and artificial intelligence. He'd also worked out a way for Al to stay in touch with the time traveler. It involved somehow linking their neurons and mesons, well, Al wasn't exactly sure what the specifics were, but he knew he was keyed into Sam's brainwaves. As long as Al was inside the Imaging Chamber, he could appear as a hologram that (for the most part) only Sam would be able to communicate with, and in turn, Sam and his surroundings would appear as a hologram to Al.

Pretty neat stuff; unfortunately, though, time travel had given Sam a case of amnesia. Together they'd dubbed it the "Swiss-cheese effect," after the holes left in Sam's otherwise photographic memory. A lot of the holes had filled in over time, but not all of them, and more appeared in between leaps.

"Where is he this time?" Al asked Ziggy as he entered the chamber.

~SB~

April 15, 2007

Chicago

"There's no such thing as magic!" Sam insisted as the Imaging Chamber door opened and shut behind his friend.

"Are you sure about that, Sam?" Al asked. He tried to hide his appraisal of Sam's latest appearance—that of a cute brunette, around five feet tall. No reason for both of them to be creeped out just because Al found the illusion of the young woman appealing. He'd make an appointment with Verbena Beeks, the project's psychiatrist, soon. 'Bena always knew what to say to make Al feel less uncomfortable with these situations.

"Murphy," Harry groaned. The wizard nearly stopped in his tracks, before continuing. "I thought we've been through this already."

It had only been weeks since he'd explained to Murph that he'd killed his uncle, Justin Morningway, with black magic (in self-defense, of course). He might not have exactly given her a full crash course in magic, but she'd still accepted, however grudgingly, that magic was real. Her sudden denial was fishy, though he didn't have time to stop and explore it now.

"You know magic is real—why else did you allow me to pour ant vomit on your sunglasses?"

"You poured ant vomit on," Sam wrinkled his nose.

"Ugh. Charming," Al commented.

"It'll wash off," Harry said, defensively. "But if it bothers you that much, I'll buy you a new pair: After the Chicago PD pays my consultant's fee." Harry made a mental note to check later to see if the kiss had somehow inadvertently damaged Murphy's brain. He doubted that was possible, but Bob would know if it was.

Sam continued to follow the P.I., but lagged behind a bit to talk with Al.

"Al, thank god. What am I doing here?" Sam whispered. Al plucked a hand-link out of a pocket.

"Well, let's see. It's April 15, 2007. You're in Chicago and you're Lieutenant Connie Murphy, of the Chicago Police Department. You're in charge of the Special Investigations Division."

"What does Special Investigations handle?"

"From what I can gather, cases the other departments don't want. They get calls about sewer monsters and the boogeyman, that sort of thing."

"Terrific. Any idea who the moron that thinks he can do magic with a pair of sunglasses and ant vomit is?"

Al pressed a couple of buttons on the hand-link before replying.

"Oh, that's probably Harry Dresden. He's been consulting for Special Investigations and he advertises in the phone book as a wizard."

"A wizard?" Sam asked, skeptically.

"Stranger things have happened," Al replied. "Remember that time you were a vampire?" Sam shook his head.

"Oh come on, Al: A real vampire? That's ridiculous."

"Well, how about the time you were nearly abducted by aliens?"

"Okay, that I remember," Sam sighed, wistfully. "But that's completely different." Aliens were real; wizards weren't. "Anyway, why am I here?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well, Dresden goes missing sometime in the next few days. He's presumed dead. Ziggy thinks there's a 78.3% chance that you're supposed to save him."

"If that's it, then why did you say you didn't know?"

"Because there's also a 96% chance that saving Dresden is ancillary to the rest of your mission, and Ziggy's not sure what that is. She says she needs more information."

"But you've been keeping Ziggy's databanks up to date."

"Yes."

"So how could Ziggy possibly not have enough information?"

"It's happened before, Sam. We got that stupid 'access denied' message on that spy leap…" Al trailed off.

"What is it?"

"There might be another computer we could consult…" After Sam had saved Stephen Bartowski, a.k.a. Orion, from death at the hands of rival spies, Orion had joined the team in New Mexico. Bartowski's I.Q. was somewhere around Sam's, and he'd been working on the Retrieval Program to get Sam home. The man was a retired spy who had invented a computer system called the Intersect that could be downloaded into the brain—and he'd tested it on himself.

Maybe the Intersect would have more information about this leap. It was worth a shot.

"I'll be back later, Sam."

"And what do I do in the meantime?"

"Just follow Dresden's lead." With that, Al departed.

~SB~

2011

Stallion's Gate

"Stephen," Al called. Bartowski had come back to work this morning. Seeing his face was always a little disorienting: Bartowski was the spitting image of Sam. Al wondered if they'd been separated at birth. "Is there anything in the Intersect about Harry Dresden?"

"No, Al." When something was in the Intersect, a name, a face, a picture, something would trigger a flash. Stephen would see a series of encoded images as the knowledge from the computer was unlocked. The name Dresden wasn't triggering anything, which meant that neither the CIA nor the NSA had had a file on him.

"What about Connie Murphy?"

They tried a few more prompts without finding out anything useful.

"Although," Orion pointed out, "at least we can be pretty sure they're not spies. Ziggy's got nothing to go on?" Al sighed.

"Not a thing, which means whatever happened, there's no record of it. We're going to have to do some old-fashioned investigating."

"So you're flying out to Chicago?"

"Are you kidding? I went on the last two trips. Isn't it your turn?"

"No can do, Al. I'm this close to perfecting the Retrieval Program."

"You're serious?"

"I am."

Then, Sam would finally be able to come home. His days of leaping were almost over. Wow.

"Ain't that a kick in the butt," Al cracked a smile. "Okay. Can you spare Sammy Jo?"

"I need her to help me with the Retrieval Program."

"What about Chuck?" Al asked, referring to Stephen's son, who'd gone into the family business.

"Charles and Sarah are on their honeymoon now. They are not to be disturbed. That leaves you, Al. You'll just have to tear yourself away from-"

"What about Frost?" Orion considered the suggestion.

"She might be willing to help. But she won't be happy about it. She's been looking forward to spending more time with her granddaughter."

"Clara's four months old. She'll still be there when Mary gets back."

~SB~

2007

Chicago

Harry had apparently arrived at their destination. They'd followed the magical trail into a building and to the door of an apartment.

"The trail ends here," Harry explained.

"So this is…." Sam trailed off.

"Where the killer went after he drowned Reyes last night," Harry finished. The wizard still wanted to know how the perp had drowned someone outside a convenience store.

Harry seemed to be waiting for Sam's reaction. That's right; Sam was supposed to be in the Chicago Police Department. That explained the pistol he was carrying on him.

"You're sure this is the right place?" Sam asked.

"I'm positive!"

"Okay." Sam shrugged. He turned towards the door and kicked it in.

"What? Murphy! I thought you had to get a warrant for that! Not to mention knock and announce!"

"Right. POLICE," Sam called into the dark apartment as they stepped inside.

Harry apparently got over his concern for the fourth amendment pretty quickly and began looking for clues. He found the brand that had been used the night before and then a scrapbook full of newspaper articles, including one of Reyes. There was a pattern here. The articles were about the killer's victims. But the last few pages had been torn out…

A figure rushed out at them from a closet and started to attack.

Harry reached a hand into his leather jacket to pull out a weapon. Sam blinked. Was that a drumstick? How the hell was he going to defend himself with a drumstick?

Author's Note: Welcome to the latest installment in the Project Quantum Leap series. You don't have to have read the previous fics to read this one (not that I'd complain if you look them up). You also shouldn't have to be familiar with all of the fandoms at play in this fic.

If you're keeping score at home, this crossover includes "Chuck" (somewhat, since this is in the same series as Chuck v. Project Quantum Leap). Other than that, it mixes "Quantum Leap" with "The Dresden Files". And when I say The Dresden Files, I'm trying to meld the TV 'verse with the book 'verse. But when in doubt, assume its TV 'verse (that or you haven't gotten to the correct book yet. Or I'm changing something for the fic.) I haven't read "Ghost Story" yet. Anything before that is fair game for inspiration, so beware of potential spoilers ahead.

I'm disregarding Quantum Leap's series finale, "Mirror Image." I've decided it didn't happen in this 'verse. So Al's currently not married. Sorry, Al.

And in case you didn't catch it in the summary, this fic may contain slash.

What did you think of chapter one? Am I boring you already? Mixing too many fandoms? You know how to let me know.