"Yes, thank you Dresden."

I jumped and spun around gracelessly.

It was a kid. About 20, he clearly could not grow facial hair, but he was trying. He'd decked himself out in stereotypical wizarding gear; a black cloak with a pointy hood, a staff, and a gaudy blackened sliver pentacle pendant the size of a jam jar lid.

"No worries kid. My office isn't that hard to find, but I appreciate the effort. How can I help?"

"Fight me."

"Cool. Why?" I oozed sarcasm.

"So that I can kill you." I don't think he got it.

Before I could fire off another witty remark that would sail right over his greasy little head, he said some badly pronounced (worse than mine) Latin, and a freaking badger made of green light starting charging at me. It had teeth. Teeth to snarl with, and probably to bite with.

"Yes!" The kid hissed and punched the air in victory. That was when my mighty powers of observation picked up on the book he was holding.

"Who taught you that one?" I asked, as I climbed backwards onto a table.

"I did." He said proudly. He waved the book at me.

"It has everything in it. Including mind- control. You met my Mom, right?"

Oh, crap. He'd broken a law. This was getting serious

"Look, kid. That book might have some pretty cool stuff in it, but you've got no idea what you're getting into."

"I do. I'm a wizard! And I'm going to prove that I'm more powerful than you!"

I had a feeling either this book he'd found didn't mention death curses, or he'd overlooked that bit.

"You don't want to do that. You heard of a death curse?"

"No. Will it help me kill you?"

"Well. Here's the thing. Forzare!"

The kid went flying backwards. I made a run for it. The death badger made a run for me. Well, it shuffled quickly. Very quickly. Unnaturally so. Racing though a doorway, I slammed the door shut, locked it, or tried to. The lock was busted. I swore, and heard the badger getting closer. I hurriedly threw up a veil, which I hoped would buy me some time. I huddled in a corner filled with junk and tried to keep as still as possible. The was a loud clunk as I knocked a small grey tablet off a pile. I swore again. As my hand brushed the grey tablet, something weird happened; it came to life with the flicker of a soft blue light. Odd. I would have to examine it later, once I came up with brilliant plan and got out of here. I picked it up and slipped it in my pocket just as the badger of death crashed through the door. Bad, bad, bad.

"You can't hide forever, wizard."

Then I stopped hearing his voice and stopped seeing the warehouse. I fainted.

When I came to I was lying on my back, on a reasonably soft surface. I felt nauseous. "Hell's bells" I groaned as I pushed myself up on my forearms, ignoring the pounding in my head. I cautiously opened my eyes and looked straight into a pair of concerned green ones. I quickly looked away to avoid Soulgaze and an even bigger headache.

"McKay, you alright?"

"Uhn."

I've always had a gift for expressing myself in one syllable or less.

"Who's that?" I groaned.

My voice sounded weird.

"Do you remember your name?" Green-eyes asked.

"Har… No. Where am I?" I had managed to have a look around at this point and figured it would be safer let this guy think McKay had lost his memory.

A woman entered what I assumed was a hospital, although the whole place looked completely alien except for the beds and monitors.

"How is he?" Her face was stern, but she sounded concerned.

Another man, standing behind me and out of my field of vision, answered in a charming Scottish accent.

"Doctor Weir. He's alright, physically. But whatever that thing was, it seems to have caused amnesia. I'll have to do further tests to determine the extent of the memory loss."

She looked at me, half-risen from the bed, concerned but smiling.

"I expect you'll be impatient to get back to work, but let Beckett do his job."

"Yes Ma'am." I croaked out. She seemed like a ma'am.

She nodded at the doctor and left.

Green-Eyes stayed for a little while longer, before he was called away.

"If you need any extra motivation to get back on your feet, Zelenka has taken over until you do." He grinned, then turned and left. I watched as he waved a hand over a panel on the door frame, and the double doors wooshed open. Good to know.

Three other soldiers stayed behind, hands resting on their guns. The patches on their uniforms were unusual. This whole place was unusual. So was having armed guards watching a person you knew and trusted. Green-Eyes had mentioned that something had done this. I suddenly remembered the strange grey tablet I found in the warehouse. I quick search of my pockets revealed that I didn't have any, dressed as I was in a paper hospital gown, but something about the look of it reminded me of this place. Maybe they were connected. My musings were interrupted by the Scottish doctor, who held a clip board and a pen.

"Alright Rodney. I'm just going to ask ye some questions, to work out how much you remember, alright?"

I nodded. "Shoot."

He raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"Alright. Do you know where you are?"

"A military base of some sort? Airforce?"

"Aye. Did you remember that, or work it out?"

"I figured it out from the uniforms. They're odd though."

"Familiar?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure." Look at me, master of deception.

"Do you know the location of this base?"

"Somewhere foreign?"

"Aye. That's one way of putting it."

"Do you know what you do here?"

Green-Eyes had called me doctor. McKay had been touching something or working on something when he had passed out.

"Uh… Researcher or scientist?"

"Aye. Something along those lines."

"Can I go now?"

He sighed.

"I've no reason to keep you. I'll have someone keep an eye on you. The memory loss aught to be temporary, but we really don't know the nature of the device you activated. Hopefully being back in the lab will help restore your memories, but I'm afraid you'll have to take a back seat on the research until we're certain you're back to normal."

I nodded. Thank goodness for that.

"Ok. Thanks."

The doctor frowned, before nodding to my guards and leaving me to change back into Rodney's clothes and get out of there. The guards were waiting outside the doors. They escorted me to what I assumed was the lab, but halfway there, Doctor Beckett, Doctor Weir, Green-Eyes and five other soldiers marched out of a hallway on the left and blocked the path. Green-Eyes and all of the soldiers had their guns trained on me.

"Who are you and what have you done with McKay?" Green-Eyes demanded.

Doctor Weir gave me a stern, sharp look, one eyebrow raised, and I imagined many a fearsome alien or insubordinate soldier had quailed beneath that glare.

"Alright." I raised my hands in surrender. Bugger. So much for master of deception.

"My name's Harry Dresden. I'm from Chicago. And I would presume that your Doctor McKay is currently walking around my city looking like me."