Author's Note - I was trying to get ideas about Methos' interaction with the Watchers for one of my other fics, and when I watched 'Methuselah's Gift' I wondered why he let them see he had been pretending from the beginning. Also, the Doctor's "It's my turn!" from 'The Husbands of River Song' made me think Methos might have a bit of fun with a scene like this...
A Gift of a Part
The Watchers have guns but Amanda has the crystal. Amanda has the crystal and she will get it to Alexa and that is all that matters. "Go! Get out of here!" Methos shouts and then the gun bangs and pain explodes through him. "Go!" he shouts again, "Go!" and finally Amanda is out and away. He folds up on the expensive carpet and dies.
Methos is used to coming back with a minimum of fuss - why draw attention to something that will probably cause everyone to turn on you? This time though, his behaviour must be different, and he remembers as he reanimates. He had planned for something like this, long ago, when he first created Adam Pierson. Here is a different route to self-preservation. Besides, his first death was alone and he hadn't realised at the time that he'd died in the sandstorm; he never got to play this scene properly.
He sucks in an enormous breath, and balls a fist into his belly where the wound had been. "You shot me!" he cries accusingly, "I need... I need an ambulance! A doctor!" He begins to beg, "Please..." His boss is staring at him in disgust and Methos tries again, "I'm dying... God, help me! I.." he pauses. He deserves an Oscar for this performance. Confusion flits across his face as he 'notices' the absence of pain. He looks at the hand that has been on his belly - no blood. He pulls up his ruined shirt - he liked that shirt! - to examine his own, unmarked torso.
Methos wishes he could look at Stern, judge his reaction. A lot rides on how he is taking this, but Adam would be too wrapped up in the moment to check in. He stares at his belly and then begins to laugh. He lies back on the carpet and howls with laughter. He laughs until the tears run - take that, Shirley Temple!
"Adam!" says the other man, still waving the gun, and Adam Pierson stills, slowly gaining control of the nervous reaction. He shakes his head a little in shock and disbelief. He gets up slowly, as if he suddenly feels all 5,000 of the years the Watchers don't know he has. He lets his body shake a little - what new Immortal could avoid a case of shock? "Adam," begins Stern again, but with less certainty.
"I've searched the grounds," interupts Daniel, the younger Watcher, who has returned with excellent timing, "But she's gone... Bloody Hell! He's Immortal!" Methos sits back down on the floor as if hearing the word has finally brought it home. "I... I didn't..." he begins, and puts his head in his hands. Thankfully, Stern seems to be buying it. Methos finally allows himself to look at the local head of the Watcher Organisation and asks plaintively, "What do I do now?"
Stern isn't in any mood to be gentle, "All these years as one of us. This is our worst nightmere - an Immortal as one of us, knowing everything about us! I trusted you and..."
"I have been with you for 10 years! I'm not a different person! I didn't choose to be Immortal..." Daniel isn't paying attention to Stern's bigger picture, and isn't that interesting? Is that envy on the young man's face? "That's why you stole the crystal, to not become Immortal?" Now that is interesting, even if he's doomed to find out it doesn't work that way. "I stole the crystal because someone I love is dying!" he pauses, "Oh God, that's going to be the rest of my life, isn't it?" Most young ones don't figure that out early, but Alexa has reminded him.
"Be quiet, Adam," snaps Stern, "There's only one way to be sure of you."
Fortunately, Daniel interjects, "Sir, what about the crystal? It could be a much greater threat than he is."
"Amanda has the crystal," Stern muses, "If it works - if she becomes invulnerable - we will have changed the Game forever through out interference. We have to get it back."
"She'll never give it to us," coaxes Daniel.
"What if we have something she wants?"
Methos is still sitting on the floor, shivering, and he doesn't like the way Stern is glaring at him. "I met with her to set this up," he complains pathetically, "She might have warned me..."