Dresden Drabbles

Mostly Maggie centric.

All characters, places and so forth belonging to the DresdenVerse is the property of Jim Butcher. I am just playing with his toys.

Thomas vs Charity Round 1.

"Your spoiling her."

"I'm her uncle, it's my job to spoil her."

"She's a child. She doesn't NEED Gucci shoes!"

"They are not Gucci! Their Prada."

Maggie's First Magic.

"Leave me alone Hank, I have to finish my homework." Maggie Dresden frowned at her foster-brother.

The Carpenter kids, and now Maggie and Mouse, always did homework together at the large table in the kitchen, every afternoon after school. Usually this worked out well, with the older kids helping the younger ones. Tonight however Young Harry, aka Hank had finished his homework before the others and was doing what all young boys do when bored. He was annoying his siblings.

Maggie thought she was doing really well ignoring him. For half an hour too. Half an hour of her things being moved or disappearing just as she needed them, the table wobbling and an incessant stream of noise from her very annoying foster-brother. However when he started flicking things at her she finally had enough.

Several things happened at once. Her chair hit the floor, she stood up so quickly. Her hands hit the table, hard and everyone jumped. She shouted, quite impressively, "KNOCK IT OFF HANK!" and there was a sharp "FZZZTT" in the air. All the lights blew out at once. Thin streams of smoke started oozing from every electrical appliance in the room and all the LED lights vanished. For a second or two there was only silence, darkness and faint smoke. Then Hope said, in her understated way "Uh oh."

Charity and Michael ran into the room seconds later and Harry immediately sing-songed "Maggie did it!"

"Only because you provoked her!" Hope fired back from the darkness.

Charity sighed as she flicked on a nearby camping lantern. "Well we expected it Maggie dear. You are your father's daughter." Maggie heard the exasperated but affectionate tone she always used when talking about Maggie's dad. She looked shyly up at the people who cared for her day-to-day, especially when her Dad was busy. He was busy a lot, his Boss was Mean and he had a Really Hard Job. She saw nothing but love and amusement in their faces. "Does this mean I'm like my dad? And Molly?" Maggie asked, worried and excited. Michael smiled at her, a little sadly, "Yes little one. It does. You're a magical." Maggie looked at Mouse and he wuffed and rubbed his huge head against her. She looked back at the Carpenters and her face lit up. "Can I call my Dad.. I want to tell him!"

Maggie vs School Yard Bully.

Maggie's POV

I know I am not supposed to talk about my Dad. Or about what he does. I know it's a Big Secret. But Timmy Roarke said I was an orphan that no one wanted and the Carpenters were just being 'Good Catholics' looking after me one too many times. He said that my Mummy was probably a teenager who got in trouble and didn't want me. I told him that he was wrong, that my Mummy loved me very much." Timmy didn't listen, he's as dumb as he is mean. He's always teasing the younger kids about something. He's real nasty about it too.. and good at finding our weak spots.

"If your Mum loved you so much where is she then?"

"She's dead." I don't like talking about that. I remember only a little about my real Mum.. she used to visit me and bring me things. She was really pretty and she always smelled nice and spent every minute she could with me when she came. I miss her. I still miss my first foster family. I stopped thinking them, before the white-hot memories could scald through my brain. I kept the images of blood and pain and real, scary monsters tightly locked up. My face must have looked funny.

"Whatever. She was probably a junkie." Timmy Rourke is really not very nice or very smart. He thinks he is better than everyone because his daddy is rich. He sneered at me "Your Mum was probably a junkie whore and your Dad was probably a drunk bum.. you look Latino enough." he taunted. The red haze slid over my gaze then.. this jerk had gone too far

"You have NO idea who you are messing with. My Daddy is the thing that scares monsters! He destroyed an entire race of evil vampires to save me, and took a job with the meanest and nastiest of the bad fairies.. He is WAY more scary then you'll ever be. If you don't take back what you said about my Mum.. I'll ask him to turn you into an ice-cube and blow you to bits!"

"Your such a liar" Timmy laughed at me. I HATE it when people laugh at me!

I thrust my chin out, getting into his space growling. "Take. It. Back."

he kept laughing at me. Then he shoved me hard over on my butt and kept laughing. Tears filled my eyes, my palms and bottom stung and I was so angry I wanted to scream.

Then Mouse suddenly appeared, fangs on show, to my left. On my right appeared 'Little' Harry Carpenter, my youngest, but older than me, foster-brother. My foster sisters, Hope, with arms folded and Alicia, holding her softball bat confidently, stood behind them.

"Apologise NOW." growled 'Little Harry'. We call him 'Little Harry' or Hank, after my Dad. Mrs Carpenter always insists she was on drugs at the time "Little" doesn't really describe Hank. He's huge. Mr Carpenter is a big guy and Mrs C isn't a delicate dolly either so he's tall and wide anyway. Plus he loves his sports and he's good at them so he's all strong limbs, muscles and loads of energy. He's well-known around the school and neighbourhood and has Jock Status. (According to Leech). Plus a history of smacking down bullies.

Timmy Rourke swallowed and looked for allies. None came. Apparently no one wanted to mess with Hank or Mouse. And Timmy had just shoved 'Little' Harry's YOUNGER sister on her butt. Not to mention Alicia's reputation as a hitter on the softball team. He was on his own. Three pairs of angry blue eyes fixed on the kid picking on their 'baby' sister. Oh and one HUGE mountain of really pissed of dog. Who was showing a LOT of teeth and making a sound like a rabid animal low in his throat.. there was even foam. (Mouse was such a show off.) One huge paw eagerly scratched the ground. I had to try hard not to laugh as Timmy realised just how much trouble he was in.

"I'msorryboutwhatIsaidaboutyourmumandforpushingyou." he blurted. Then he turned and ran away.. a suspicious trail of fluid following him.

Bully Routed.

Maggie meets Mab

Maggie's P.O.V

I love days out with my Dad. So does Mouse. (Mouse is a Super-Dog but that's a Big Secret.) My Dad is really cool, and big and strong and.. mine. We don't get to see each other as much as we want. He has a Very Hard Job. (He fights real monsters but that's a Big Secret.)

Today we are going Beach-combing. There was a real big storm last night and my Dad had called Mrs Carpenter to see if he could take me to the lake shore to see what the storm churned up. It was really just one of his excuses to spend time with me. I loved that he wanted to.

It was fun hunting for 'treasure' on the rough beach. We found lots of trash but no real treasures unless you count a cool old VW hood ornament that Dad got WAY too excited about and some cool pieces of sand smoothed glass in shades of red, green, blue and purple. Dad said we could make jewellery with them. Mouse ran about chasing seagulls. It was like being normal.

Dad noticed some old discarded fishing nets and growled. "Bloody idiots, don't they know not to dump those in the water." he said.

"Why is that Dad?" I asked. He smiled at me, he always smiled when I called him Dad, like it was his favourite sound ever.

"Nets like this tangle in things Angel, cause nasty snares and traps for fish, turtles and other things that live in the water. They get caught and they are eaten, if they are lucky, if they aren't, they drown or starve. It's cruel. Responsible fishermen try to retrieve broken nets and get rid of them responsibly. It's better for the food supply. I'm going to get rid of this lot." and he carefully picked his way over and started pulling the ropes and nets into a pile. I walked a little way down the beach to a large log where I sat down to watch him and Mouse. The wind blew up and I shivered.

I don't know where She came from. She just appeared and she looked like she stepped out of my favourite movie! My mouth fell open. The woman was beautiful.. tall and lovely, with white blonde hair hanging in a heavy braid over one shoulder glittering with diamond snowflakes and very blue eyes. She wore a sequined blue dress that glittered and clung to her then flowed down into a skirt as blue and flowing as icy water. It pooled out dramatically behind her and I could see her snow-white legs though the split in one side. Gauzy sleeves clung to her long arms, and dramatic panels of blue-white, sparkling gauze flowed dramatically from her shoulders, diamond white snowflakes glittered from the silken folds of the fabric. I stared at her then I stammered

"Who are you?"

My dad spun around and Mouse appeared from nowhere.. I have no idea how he did it, and planted himself between me and Queen Els.. no that's not right. Mouse began glowing blue and growling and Dad was striding forth. He looked mad.

The Lady smiled. And held a finger up to me for a moment, "Let me reassure your father first child. I would not like him to dirty my pretty dress." I nodded and looked at my dad. Yeah.. he was definitely mad.

He reached me pretty quick though I didn't see him run. Then he simply fixed his eyes on the woman and said, simply and with a polite.. almost.. bow of his head "My Queen. Dost thou have need of your Knight this day?"

Uh oh. Now I KNEW who this was.. and I was scared for a second. You know the Wicked Enchantress and Evil Queens in the stories by the Brother's Grimm? Well this was the Queen of ALL of them, some of the worst stories were about her! Then I remembered I had Mouse. And my Dad. She couldn't touch me. I studied her as she smiled, coolly, at him. "No task to speak of today, can a Queen not check on her Vassal?" Dad snorted and studied her outfit. Then he proved why he was my Hero.

"Bit obvious don't you think, My Queen. Who told you of her love for that movie?" he asked dryly. Queen Maab laughed.. actually laughed and it sounded so beautiful and clear it hurt. I winced and wrinkled up my nose. "Your own Vassal, the fairy known as Lacuna has not stopped singing that incessant song. After the 463rd rendition I asked her the meaning of it. She let slip it was your daughter's favourite movie. I wanted the child to feel at ease when I met her, the gown was very fetching and I must say.." she drew herself up, looking at me just so over her shoulder, and said, deadpan.. "The cold never bothered me anyway..." I couldn't help it.. I giggled and clapped my hands. Sue me, I'm ten! I still allowed to like fairy tales! She smiled at me and I blinked. Her smile wasn't scary.. or tricky.. she looked like Mrs C or Aunty Karrin when they smiled at me. Like she cared for me and loved me..

Dad had more to say. "You could have just ASKED me."

"La.. you would have said no." Mab dismissed him. "Now my Knight, I need to answer this young lady's question. It would be rude to make her wait any longer." Dad sighed and nodded. He looked a bit confused.

Queen Mab lowered herself to one knee smooth like melting ice. She studied my face carefully, then she spoke. "I am Queen Mab, but you may call me Grand-mama." I just gulped and nodded.

"It is nice to meet you, Grand-mama." I said. She smiled, a scary happy grin and leant down and kissed my cheek. Her lips were very cold. Something thrummed in the air, Magic, stronger than I'd felt from Dad or Molly and I felt a coolness on my skin. Then I looked at Dad.

He looked really funny. Like Wile E Coyote just after he runs of the cliff and realises he's falling.

Thomas vs Charity Round 2

"You took her to get her ears pierced?" Charity stared hard at Thomas, who was squirming. "Are you insane!?"

"I was careful! I took her to a top of the line pharmacy, not a cheep joint or tattoo parlour!"

"Did you get the needle they used? Or any gauze or cotton wool with her blood on it? Did you asked her Father before you took her out and let someone put holes through his little girl's ears?"

Thomas stared at her, his mouth falling open.

"Oh. Oh crap."

Michael and Harry discuss Maggie and Mab

Harry's P.O.V

"So let me get this right.. Mab has claimed kinship to Maggie." Michael looked worried. He took another pull from his bottle of Mac's dark. I did the same.

"Yeah.. and she's marked her as protected. No Fae can harm her until she is 18 without getting a Mab sized dose of punishment. The deal seems to be that I get to do whatever I want or need to do to keep her safe, and if anyone touches her Mab will take it personally. Like Mama Bear personally. Sarissa told me a couple of very gruesome stories about how she dealt with 'poachers' molesting her family. And I saw Lloyd Slate." I drank.

"Is this a good thing?" Michael asked.

I frowned. "It protects her from the Fae, and all their minions, Mab closed every loop-hole by kissing her. Not so much from mortals, but Mab assures me that if Nicodemus comes for her again... I can have my pick of warriors to throw at him. I think that Kringle and The Earl King would enjoy that hunt." Michael chuckled. "It would be entertaining to have good seats for it." he agreed. His face tightened as he remembered what they'd almost done to his family. Charity still had nightmares.

"Grandma-ma?" he asked.

"Yeah.".

"Heaven help you Harry.. you have the weirdest family ever."

I just drank more beer.

Lessons

The leering Fae Lord bore down on the obviously terrified human child, her face partly covered by tangled dark hair. She was lovely, and all alone. She must have escaped some less competent Fae. He would not make such a mistake.

"This must be my lucky day." he chortled, long white fingers reaching, brushing the hair from the girl's terrified face. And his eyes fixed on a shimmering silver kiss on her left cheek.

He froze. Literally. He could not move even an inch.

A sudden chill filled the air and he saw the child's eyes dart beyond him. Her face flooded with relief and she cried out "Grandma-ma!"

Oh Shit.

No Boys Allowed

"So what are you going to do about this 'boyfriend' thing." Molly asked.

Harry growled. And hit the nail he was pounding into the new cottage on Demonreach in harder. It sunk in with one blow.

"You knew it would happen one day." she said, smiling. And handed him another nail.

Harry growled. And glared. The next nail took one just one hit too.

Thomas walked over and began fitting a window frame a few feet from them. "What is he growling at?" he asked.

Molly grinned, a wicked little smile of pleasure. "Maggie's boyfriend." Thomas dropped the window frame on his foot and snarled. Molly smirked.

"She's only eleven!" he protested. "She's too young for a boyfriend!"

Harry growled again, and slammed home another nail.

"Oh you know how kids are.. She's all twitter-patted over this Sam kid." Molly teased.

They BOTH growled.

Molly giggled. Just too easy.

She'd have to get her Mum to calm them down so they didn't go hunting the poor kid tho.