Every time I watch Till Death, I wonder how Methos convinced Angelina de Valicourt not to take his head; this is what I came up with.

Methos was going through Duncan's CD collection on what was now his barge.

"Opera. Opera. Opera. Opera. Lot of opera here," he murmured. "All this music here, but there's no Springsteen, no Queen -"

He felt the prickle of another Immortal's approach; expecting to see Duncan, he turned and was shocked to find Angelina in doorway, her sword already drawn.

"You!" she cried.

"I can explain. It was a joke!" he offered feebly.

"I'm not laughing. Where is MacLeod? Dead?!"

"No. No, no, he's fine!" He inched towards his sword on the sofa, hoping his charm might buy him a minute. "This has all just been a big mistake."

"Huge," she agreed. "And you made it when you tried to kill my husband."

"I knew this would happen," he muttered as he lunged for his trusty blade, flipped his body, and blocked her slash. "Please, just give me a minute to explain," he begged through gritted teeth. "Then, if you still want to take my head . . . You do want to know why I went after him, don't you?"

She hesitated, then nodded. "One minute."

"All right." He took a deep breath (or tried to while maintaining his grip on his own sword and keeping hers from reaching his neck) and spoke quickly. "Robert was so distraught over losing you that Duncan thought if someone attacked him, it would make you realise how much you still love him. But they needed someone you didn't know, someone who wouldn't actually try to take his head. Which is why MacLeod asked me."

Her anger faltered for the briefest of moments. "That's it? Just Duncan trying to keep me and Robert together? And you call that a joke?!"

"I admit, joke isn't the right word for it . . . Could you maybe ease up there?" He gave her the helpless and apologetic look that had gotten him out of scrapes with quite a few angry women in the past.

"Oh. Right." She lifted her blade away from him and took a step back. "Didn't it occur to you that I would try to take revenge?"

He eased himself upright. "Of course it did. That's why I didn't want to get involved in the first place. Getting between a married couple never turns out well for the third person. Two thousand bloody years, I didn't break my own rule about that, and Duncan talked me into it - he even gave me the barge for the trouble I went to."

"He gave you the boat? He loves this boat!"

"Yeah." He chuckled. "You should've seen the look on his face when I reminded him of that part of our deal."

She finally cracked a smile. "I wonder how he would look if he thought I'd found you and taken your head."

"Would serve him right. Can I offer you a drink? There's some bread and cheese I was about to have before you arrived."

"That would be nice. Thank you. By the way, what is your name?"

"Adam. Adam Pierson. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mme de Valicourt."

some minutes later, as they are nibbling on snacks and refilling their glasses from a rather expensive bottle of wine from the galley

"I wonder how long it will take Duncan to realise that I came here and found you, a man I swore to kill."

"Did you tell Robert where you were going?"

"Yes."

"Shouldn't be long now."

The sound of screeching tires told him he was right.

"Don't worry," she promised as she headed towards the gangplank. "I'll give them a good show."