The oldest Valentine

By Grey Wolf

Disclaimer: They are not mine

Note: I haven't seen a highlander anything for about a year and my memory isn't all that good so forgive if something is wrong. I don't know what the girl's name was that Methos loved and took on a world trip before she died but that was so sweet and I've been wanting to write this for ages. I know it didn't happen this way but I needed a valentine story, okay?

The hospital room is bright and cheerful as I enter it and it feels strange to be in such a room when you know how close Death is. I find the whole thing almost laughable, I am immortal (and one that was know as It), now fearing Death more than anything in the world. I don't fear it for myself but the one person I have come to love more than any other, the person that I have come to visit in this room that seems to mock death with false hope of life.

She gives me a weak smile and I can feel the tears pressing against my eyes, longing to flow freely over my cheeks but I fight them down. I smile back as best I can. I walk over to her bed and hand her the bush of red roses I had bought for her. I lean down and give her a kiss on the forehead. "Happy Valentine's day." I greet her. She smiles as best she can and brings the flowers to her face, taking in their perfume. "oh Adam their lovely!"

I sit down in the chair next to her bed and I take her hand in mine. It's so cold and I know that Death will not wait long to take this one for me, as he did all the others. "How are you feeling?" I ask gazing into her lovely eyes. Even there I can see the Mark of Death. She sighs softly "I'm tired." She answered me and I fear that the sleep she wants will take her away from me forever.

"I have something for you." I say and I pull a ring out of my pocket and slip it onto her ghostly white finger. She holds it up in the air. "oh Adam it's lovely." She says. I lift my own hand and shows her the ring's mate. "I want to be yours forever and I want you to be mine."  I take her hand, letting our fingers intertwine so that the rings could be together. She smiles and nods her head, not knowing what else to answer.

"I love you more than anything in the world." I tell her and I find it harder to fight the tears. "I don't want you to die." She only looks at me with great sadness and love before she speaks. "We all die, I'll wait for you on the other side."

I want to scream. I will live forever! I can not die unless I lose my head! But I don't yell. I can't bother her with the knowledge that I will live forever. How can I do that while she is so near to Death now? She'll hate me, just like the others did when I told them. Oh but the truth is like a burning flame in my heart and I wish to share my deepest darkest secret with her because I love her above all!  

But I don't tell her. I only get up from the chair and sit down on the bed. She moves to rest in my arms and I gladly take her in my arms, knowing that this will be the last. "I love you Adam" she says as she closes her eyes. I feel her soft breathing and I hope beyond hope that I was wrong, that all the doctors where wrong and that Death's angel will pass her by for now.

That is not the case. Hours later He comes for her and I let my tears lose to flow as if tears alone could wash away the pain of her loss…  

…a few days later…

She has joined the Earth forever, taking with her my heart. It will take a long time for the hurt to stop and to move on, simply because I don't want to. What gives me the right to life if she had to die? I place a single flower on the grave, a red rose to show my eternal love. She will be one of my fondest memories and one of the most painful. I wish we could have had longing, I wish she could have had…

…Immortality, the ability to be eternally young and beautiful.

I wish more than anything that I had been able to give her that. I would have giving up my immortality, my 5000 years of existence if only for her to live again. What is an eternity to living worth if you have to be alone? What does it matter to be 'the last one' if you are alone? Never to grow old and comfortably with the one that has claimed your heart?

People are so frail and delicate and too soon their hour is spent and Death claims them, leaving behind only broken hearts and shattered dream. It only leaves me to wonder why I am still alive, why there are immortals. Immortality is the biggest curse that can be bestowed on someone. They'll have to live forever and with that life comes the lost, the eternal loss of loved ones. Forever to stand next to an open grave and never find your own comfort in it's embrace.

Even though I wish for Death to claim me now I know that I will survive, even though my heart aches. I will survive, not because I am immortal or because I am 5000 years old, not even because I am Methos. I will simply survive through this because that is what she would have wanted and because I would give her anything, even my immortality…

The end.