The damn plot bunny just won't leave me alone.

Chapter I: Call of Duty

The sound of the phone ringing cut through the darkness to penetrate the sleepy haze that filled the mind of the teenager curled up in bed. Deciding to ignore whoever could be calling at this ungodly hour, she grabbed a pillow and stuffed it over her head; they could afford to wait until she felt descent enough to act like the fourteen year-old she was instead of a very cranky wizard on the verge of blowing up a city block.

The reprieve was short lived when something large, cold, and wet nuzzled the underside of her chin.

"Gnuuuugh, Mouse! I'm trying to sleep here." She wined. The offending nose was removed and she started drifting back into the void when the blanket was yanked down to her feet.

"Mouse!" she shrieked, shooting up and sending the pillow she had been hugging to her head flying at the dog who now sat contentedly at the foot of the bed, blanket end carefully tucked in his jaws. The room had no windows and thus was in almost total darkness; however Margaret 'Mage' Dresden was the daughter of a half-blood vampire and thus had sharper senses than normal humans, allowing her to aim the pillow at the dog's head without even having to squint to see him. The missile found its target between Mouse's eyebrows with a light 'thwump.

Mouse chose to ignore this fit of temper and turned to look at the partially open door that let to the main room.

"Traitor!" Mage grumbled. Sitting up, she closed her eyes and reached for her powers. With careful precision she began to weave together the layers of the containment spell that acted as a barrier for her powers, allowing her to handle modern electronics without the threat of sending them to appliance heaven.

When the spell reached the stage where she would not present too much of a threat to the phone she crawled off the bed and stumbled into the main room of the underground apartment, almost tripping over Mister on the way.

"`Ello?" She murmured into the mouthpiece.

"Hey tiger how's Chicago?"

The voice of Ebenezer McCoy, her dad's old mentor, did little to sooth her temper. "Hey Eb. What does the damn council want this time?" she grumbled.

"How'd ya know the council wants to see you?" Mage rolled her eyes at the obvious.

"Because the only reason you would be waking me up at this bloody hour would be if the council had something to do with it!" she snorted into the phone.

Mage's scowl deepened when Ebenezer gave a soft chuckle. "You really need some more windows in that apartment 'worm'."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Mage used her free hand to massage the ach that was had started building in her head when she got on the phone.

Ebenezer chuckled, "Mage," he chuckled again when she growled at his patronizing tone. "It's 11:32."

"What!" She had been to out of it to take notice, but now that she did she knew from the strength of the light filtering in through the windows that Ebenezer was right.

"Whatever!" she snapped testily. "What do they want?"

"To meet with you."

Mage restrained her groan of annoyance. The last time the council had wanted to see her was to check her potential as a warden before shipping her off on a case since 'she was the only one with the necessary skills'.

"Is that good or bad?"

"Well…" Mage could just visualize the older wizard scratching his nose and shuffling his feet, a habit he had developed for when he got nervous around her. "Depends on how you would view it."

"Ha! The last time you said that I got the two questions and an answer treatment before having my ass packed off on a wendigo blood trail."

"Your not in trouble. They just want to ask you something."

Ha, fat chance. That's why they had Eb call me cause they knew I would hang up on anyone else.

"Please Maggie." Ahhh, so now he was begging was he.

Well let's just see how bad they want me.

"Who's they?" Surely they wouldn't assemble the entire council just for her.

"The Merlin, Ancient Mia, and the Gatekeeper."

OK if they'd had to drag Rashid into this it had to be important, and more than likely something she wasn't going to like.

"Alright," Mage sighed, "I know I'm gonna regret this. Where do we meet?"

"The San Diablo. You know…"

"Yeah. Yeah, I know where. What time?"

"Oh, say, two o'clock." Ebenezer knew better than to tangle with her when she was in a bad mood; and a tired Mage generally made for a very nasty Mage where most White council business was concerned.

"Gotcha. Anything else I should know about?"

"Yeah." Ebenezer paused for a bit before muttering, "You might wanna bring your gear."

Mage frowned. Was Ebenezer warning her?

"Well you'd better get back to bed. I don't want you blowing off Arthur's head when you get here." Ebenezer joked, back to a normal tone.

"Yeah, see you." Mage grumbled.

"Cheerio." Mage frowned at this rather odd farewell but shrugged and replaced the phone in its cradle.

Ruffling her already messy hair into an even bigger tangle she glowered at the clock as if it was somehow responsible for her problems. It was only 11: 37 which meant she could enjoy the bed for another hour and still have plenty of time for brunch before heading off to terrorize the council members.

Shutting the door firmly behind her, she snatched up the blanket from the floor and crawled onto the bed. She was just settling down when the mattress dipped to the side and a large head plopped itself onto her stomach.

"Remind me to unplug the phone next time before I go to bed." She said, scratching Mouse behind the ears. She laughed when his responded with a rather large yawn.

Smiling, she relinquished mental threads holding the spell and slid back into the darkness's embrace.

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