Okay so this is my first attempt at writing a Dresden fic. I'm not sure whether it's any good but I hope you like it anyway :)

"I am a wizard. A master of the arcane." I growled as I slammed the door behind me and stalked into the living room of my small ground floor apartment. "I am the freaking Knight of the darkest side of an entire Unseelie court. I am a Warden of the White Council. I have power over the elemental forces of nature itself."

"So why the hell do I always end up covered in SLIME?"

Mouse looked up at me, taking in my entire soaking appearance. Bits of greenish gloop hung from various parts of my anatomy, dripping from my clothes onto the hardwood floor. A small puddle began to form around my feet. The slime in my hair was quickly drying and stiffening, my eyebrows nearly impossible to move.

But I managed to scowl.

Mouse opened his jaws in a big doggy grin, his tongue lolling out of one side.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up furball." I muttered. "I am gonna kill Bob. 'Go for the belly Harry, that makes Tarklot Demons drop like flies. You'll kill it in no time.' Well no shit Sherlock. It's gonna die pretty quick if its entire freaking stomach explodes. But of course he forgot to mention that bit."

Mouse sniffed, sneezed once and promptly turned his hairy back on me and padded into the kitchen. The door shut after him.

"Humph." I wrinkled my nose at the smell permeating off me and grimaced in distaste. With a weary sigh I started walking to the little bathroom and the cleansing prospects of a shower.

A loud knock at the door stopped me.

I brought up the 'peephole' I had installed as a part of my fancy new wards around the apartment. It had taken me ages to rebuild them to the level of my old basement apartment, but I'd lived here for a few years now and they were stronger than ever.

An image composed entirely of light appeared in front of the heavy steel door of my apartment. I frowned, then released the protective wards and opened the door.

"Good to see you, Hoss." Ebenezer McCoy, my one-time mentor and new-found Grandfather smiled up at me. His raised his eyebrows in surprise when he noticed all the gloop. "Nice slime. Making potions?"

"Exploding demon." I said.

"Ah." He said, as if that explained everything.

I stepped back to let him in and he shut the door behind him. He was wearing his usual outfit of a flannel shirt, worn jeans and workman's boots. He had a staff in one hand.

"It's good to see you too." I said. "Bit surprising though. What warrants this impromptu visit?"

"Can't a man just drop by to speak to his only grandson?"

"All the way from Edinburgh? Phone would be easier. Is something happening?"

His cheery disposition faded slightly and he suddenly looked wearier and a bit put-out by my questioning. He grunted. "With those powers of deduction you could be an investigator or something."

I sighed, ignoring his comment. "What's up?"

"This may take a while. Go get yourself cleaned up and we can talk."

I frowned at him, but said "There's coffee in the kitchen. Help yourself."

I showered quickly, but thoroughly. The slime stunk and I had to almost scalp myself to get it out of my hair. I pulled on some jeans and a t shirt and sat opposite Ebenezer, him on the sofa, me on the armchair. I drank some lukewarm coffee and said "Hit me. What's happening up at HQ?"

Ebenezer leant back and paused to think over his words. "There's been an overload of new kids coming into their powers. More than we've had in years, and they just keep coming. We have no idea why."

"If you're here to ask me to take on another apprentice-"

"No. Nothing like that." He smiled.

"Oh. Okay, carry on."

"Many of those willing to mentor a child already have an apprentice. Some have two. Many wardens can't take on an apprentice because their duties restrict them. Some wizards are in the same boat. Others are just so old and crusty" (I smiled at his choice of words) "that to ask them to teach and relate to someone two centuries their junior is just idiotic."

I said nothing, wondering why he felt the need to come and tell this to me in person.

"But of course, the Merlin is doing it anyway. For example, one child is being assigned to Wizard Magorian."

"The one who lives in the middle of nowhere in Alaska? He's like some sort of recluse isn't he?"

"Hmm. But he's a talented Wizard. Nearly a hundred and ninety years old, and spent the last half of those in a stone house on the side of a snowbank, but talented."

I scratched my chin and drank some more coffee. I asked, "Why are you so interested in this?"

"I'm not really." He spoke slowly, seeming to be pondering every word. It was disconcerting to see him so unsure of himself, and I felt myself tense up slightly with worry. "Just this one child."

He looked me directly in the eye, and said quietly. "A girl. 12 years old."

My stomach twisted and I froze. I stared at him, hard. I tried to form a word but it got stopped on its way up by my constricting heart.

Ebenezer nodded. "Maggie."

"But, that's not possible." I stammered. "Magic is passed through the mother's blood, not the fathers. Susan wasn't a wizard."

"Usually that's true, but not always. Your mother inherited her magic from me. Now your daughter has inherited your magic from you."

I was stood up, pacing. I ran a hand through my slime-free hair and tried to ignore the pain in my chest long enough to think.

Maggie. My daughter. I never knew her. Just being near me could kill her, if my enemies knew the truth. That had been clear. I could never have given her the life she deserved, only one filled with violence, fear and death.

I hadn't seen her in years.

But I thought about her. Every day.

I wondered where she was. What she looked like. If she was happy. If she smiled like her mom used to. What she liked doing, what her passions were. I wondered if she was scared, if she was safe. If she ever thought about the parents she never knew.

I wondered if she remembered me. And whether or not I wanted her to.

I closed my eyes and pressed the heel of my hands to them. It was only when I pulled them back, and saw they were wet that I realised I was crying. Not much, but enough that my eyesight was blurry and my eyes stung slightly. I wiped at my cheek with the back of my hand and sat down on the armchair, leaning forwards on my elbows.

I kept my head down, eyes focused on my feet. "Tell me about her."

Ebenezer was silent for a while. I couldn't see his face. "Her talent is strong." He spoke quietly, like remembering something that happened years ago. "She has a lot of raw power, just like you. She came to the Wardens attention when she blew out the candles on her birthday cake at her 12th birthday party."

"I don't understand."

I could hear the whisper of a smile in his voice. "She blew a gale of wind so strong that the entire table flew ten feet through the air and smashed through the back door of their kitchen."

I looked up in shock.

"Aye, that's what I thought. That's some serious power for a first time. She must have been wishing for something really hard when she blew out those candles."

My breath caught in my chest and closed my eyes as a wave of emotion battered me like a tsunami. A million questions and thoughts swirled through my mind but I stayed silent.

"She's stubborn, just like you."

"You've seen her? Spoken to her?"

"No. But I heard some of the Wardens talking. She doesn't get pushed around by anyone, apparently. There's a whole bunch of the young 'uns at Edinburgh at the moment, most a few years older than her. They get fractious; they fight like kids do when they get bored. And scared. They don't know what's happening to them and some of the older ones try to take it out on the younger ones." He smiled so the corners of his eyes wrinkled in amusement. "Maggie took exception to that, so I heard."

I found myself smiling slightly. My little girl was a fighter, she stood up for herself. Ebenezer's words echoed through my head like a small torture; 'just like you.' I shuddered at the longing that was growing in me, stronger than ever.

"Do they know? The Wardens? About-"

"Who she is?" Ebenezer shook his head. "No. They don't know or suspect a thing."

Somewhere inside me a knot loosened. "Good. That's good."

"I'm sorry to be bringing up these wounds Hoss." He said quietly. "I just... I thought you should know."

"I..." I swallowed. "Thank you."

We sat in silence for a while, our thoughts racing. My emotions were raging. There were so many things to say, so many things I wanted to ask, to do.

Eventually Ebenezer spoke up again. "I'm going to head back to Edinburgh. If I'm missing for too long when I should be working up there, folks will get suspicious. And I don't want anyone poking their nose into this business."

"No. I understand."

He stood up, and picked up his staff. I was suddenly overcome with the urge, the desperate desire to go with him. Knowing she was that close, only 30 minutes through the Way, and I could see her, touch her, speak to her. I could hold my daughter.

The urge was so overwhelming that for a moment I nearly got up and ran all the way to her that instant. I took an unsteady breath and curled my hands into fists. My nails dug so hard into my palms that I drew blood but I managed to start thinking rationally for a second. I remembered why rushing to her and throwing my arms round her would be a bad idea. I thought of those who would hurt her because of who she was, who would try to use her to get back at me, or just out of spite. I thought of those on the Council who would persecute her for being my daughter.

But what stopped me cold was the thought of Maggie herself. How would she react to seeing me? Did she even remember that night when I rescued her from the Red King? If she did, did she know who I was? Or was I just another scary man in a nightmare of horrors?

Maybe she wouldn't even recognise me. Perhaps, I would see her and she would look at me, and there would be no recognition there. I would be just another Wizard in Edinburgh. Her eyes would glance over me, see nothing that interested her, and she would turn her gaze away, totally unaware of who I was.

I shuddered.

Ebenezer looked down at me, and asked "What are you going to do?"

I bit my lip. "I don't know. I don't know what I can do. I feel... I need... Ugh." I shook my head as words failed me. "I think I'm just going to... think, for a little while."

He grunted and said "Fair enough. Don't do anything rash. You know where I am if you need me, but I think that for a while it might be better if you contacted me through the Speaking Stones. More private, less conspicuous that anything else."

"Right."

He frowned down with concern, then laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He left without another word.

After a moment, I picked up the phone and dialled a number I knew by heart. It answered on the second ring. "Hey Harry."

"Murph? Can you come over for a bit? I need to talk to you."

Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know if I should carry on or not. :)