A/N First chapter in the Rooftops sequel. This will make little sense if you start with this one.

This is AU – I make no apologies for that – Richie should never have died so in my universe he hasn't. Simple Lifelong membership to clan denial here.

Usual disclaimer – recognize them = not mine and certainly not profitable to me. Don't recognize them = mine. But still not profitable

Chapter one

Richie dangled mid air, giving his aching muscles a rest. The wall he was climbing now was by far the tallest one in the outdoors and fitness centre he was running with Mac. The place had been a surprise to Richie, who figured afterwards he should have guessed Mac would have some sort of business plan for them. Mac had pointed out it was an outdoors sort of place they were living in now and that the physical activities would be good for Richie's training. Richie had since then grown quite good at climbing. He was trying to master the yellow route now on the tallest wall they had. The yellow hand holds being the fewest and furthest apart. It was hard going, but he was getting there.

After he had been dangling there for a few minutes he heard and impatient clearing of throat from below.

"You know you won't get very far by just hanging there?" Isla Cameron, who was belaying him shouted up to him.

"And trying to climb when exhausted won't get me far either," Richie called back.

"You need to work on your stamina," Isla declared. "Maybe you should come to some of my aerobics classes."

Isla was the daughter of the couple that had run the centre before Mac had bought it. He had kept them all on to manage it for him, saying he would be too busy to tend to the day to day needs of the business. He neglected to mention the busy was teaching Richie how to win swordfights to the death… Isla, like her younger brother Lee, had grown up in the highlands and had embraced outdoor activities from a young age. As a result she was an excellent climber and could probably have been up and down the wall twice in the time it took Richie to get up there once. She also taught aerobics a few times a week. She was like a female Mac when it came to physical activity – she thrived on it.

"There's nothing wrong with my stamina. You just aren't human," Richie responded, grabbing a handhold and pulling himself back to the wall.

He made steady progress for a few minutes, the top of the wall in sight. Just a little further to go… He grabbed the handhold and braced his foot against the wall, unable to reach another foothold he decided to use the walls surface to push himself to within reach of the handhold just from the top, praying he wouldn't miss and have Isla laugh at him for falling off, which she did on a regular basis. Just as he pushed up the wall he felt the buzz hit him. It distracted him enough to miss the handhold he was going for. He swore as he dropped a meter before the rope went taught. Isla had obviously not been expecting him to fall and so had given him some slack on the rope on the rope to maneuver with.

"Jesus, are you trying to dislocate my shoulder? How did you miss that?" Isla shouted, getting a better grip on the rope.

Richie ignored her until he saw Mac enter the climbing room. Isla, who had been looking at Richie followed his eyeline and shook her head when her green eyes saw Mac.

"It's weird how you two do that," Isla stated. "Are you going to finish the wall or come down?"

It hadn't escaped Isla's attention that Mac and Richie seemed to sense when each other was nearby, which of course they did. But Richie could hardly explain that to her.

Richie looked to Mac instead of answering, trying to gauge his expression from this far away wasn't easy. Thankfully Isla helped him out.

"Why so serious Mac?" she asked.

Even from near the top of the wall Richie could make out the forced smile. "I'm coming down," Richie said getting into abseiling position. He would have to conquer this wall another day.

Once he reached the bottom of the wall he unclipped his harness and looked at Mac, assessing him. Yep this was serious he decided. Mac caught his eye and smiled what was supposed to be a reassuring smile.

"Thought I'd come and take you out for dinner," Mac said in a tone that Richie decided was supposed to be cheerful. It passed muster with Isla because she smiled as she unhooked her own harness.

"Wish someone would come and take me out to random dinners," she said shaking her head.

"Hey, I keep offering, you keep rejecting," Richie said, trying to keep it light in front of her.

"Yeah, well cradle snatching isn't high on my to do list," She said, taking his harness from him. She was twenty three and had been quite clear on the fact that eighteen was too young for her. Especially when her 'baby' brother was nineteen. Apparently younger than him was definitely too young for her. The first time she'd said this Richie had given Mac a hard time all evening.

"I'll put the stuff away, you guys carry on." She said

"You sure?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, gotta make a good impression on the boss right?"

"Thank you Isla," Mac said and that would have decided Richie if nothing else had. Normally there was no way Mac would get someone else to put away his equipment.

"So what's up?" Richie asked as they made their way to the car. He tried to sound as nonchalant as possible but was pretty sure he didn't carry it off when Mac shot a sharp look.

"Nothing's wrong," he said. Then added when Richie looked at him disbelievingly, "Really. Nothing's wrong. I just need to talk to you."

Richie frowned. "That's not your 'we need to talk face'. I know that face, you use it all the time. This is the 'there's something wrong but I don't want to tell you yet because we're in public' face." He had stopped walking.

"Richie," Mac sighed. "I do not have 'faces'."

Richie nodded vigorously. "Uh huh, yeah you do. And you're avoiding the question."

Mac started walking again, assuming Richie would follow, which of course he did. He always followed.

"You didn't ask a question then Rich." Mac stated.

Richie scowled, speeding up to fall into step next to Mac. "You're spending too much time with me." He said resigning himself to waiting to find out what was wrong. "I'm obviously a bad influence on you."

"I need to talk you but you're right, I don't want to talk to you in a public place. So can we please go somewhere else," Mac said not slowing the pace at all.

Richie jogged a couple of steps to catch up with him. "Is Connor ok?"

"Yes," Mac answered quickly. "Both he and Rachel are fine."

"So you've spoken to them recently?" Richie wheedled.

"This afternoon actually," Mac confirmed.

"And does that have anything to do with this?"

"Yes."

"And you'd tell me now if it was serious?"

"Yes."

"But you won't tell me here?"

"I'd prefer not to."

"So it is serious? At least a little bit? Or you'd just say it." Richie stated.

Mac sighed and Richie though he might have caught a few rude words being muttered… Mac glanced around then pulled Richie into one of the offices they were passing. Perk of being the owner, you could just shanghai an office anytime you wanted….

"We're going to start working on patience in your training," Mac said closing the door behind them and doing a cursory scan of the room to ensure they were alone.

"How will you fit that in around the climbing, running, swimming, sword fighting, canyoning –" Richie started reeling off.

"I'm sure I'll find a away," Mac interrupted.

There was silence for a full three seconds – see Richie could be patient.

"So what's happened?"

"Take a seat," Mac indicated on of the office chairs, perching himself on the corner of the desk.

"Why do I feel like I'm in trouble?"

"Guilty conscience?" Mac asked.

"Funny Mac."

"You aren't in trouble. And Connor and Rachel are well. And no one is after my head. Or yours. At least not anymore than usual."

"Comforting. So why so serious?" Richie asked.

Mac took a breath before beginning to speak. "The investigation into your death, you know that's still ongoing?"

Richie nodded. "It's been four months since I died though. I'm not expecting them to find much…"

"They found the man that shot you."

"Oh." Richie wasn't quite sure what to say to that. He supposed he should be happy that the person responsible for his murder had been caught, but that life seemed so far away now that it was almost as if it had happened to someone else. He was more concerned the person responsible for Tessa's murder be bought to justice to be honest.

"I guess that's good," he said when Mac seemed to be waiting for him to say something else.

"He was a drug dealer." Mac offered.

"Ok." That wasn't too much of a surprise. And really Richie hadn't exactly been expecting him to be some sort of upstanding citizen. "I don't understand why you're worried about telling me this though. I guess it would be safer to tell me away from here with the whole I'm dead in America and we don't want people looking too closely into my back story here, but this isn't that major. Surprising maybe that Powell actually caught a real bad guy for once…"

"There's more," Mac said when Richie trailed off.

"So spit it out," Richie suggested. "The suspense is gonna kill me."

"He was killed when they tried to bring him in –"

"No great loss there," Richie interrupted.

"Kate was with him."

Richie didn't know how he felt about that. He shouldn't have been surprised but maybe subconsciously he had expected Kate to have some sort of moral compass and had expected her to stay away from the man that had killed him. Even if she hadn't come forward at any point to help the investigation.

"Ok," Richie said finally.

"She was killed as well Richie." Mac said the last softly. "

Oh. Now he really didn't know how he felt. He had loved her once. A long time ago and maybe he'd never actually known the real her, but still, he had loved her. And she was dead now. Another in a long list of people that were gone while he was still here. He doubted he'd get used to that ever.

"How?"

"They were resisting arrest. He pulled a gun on an officer. Tried to shoot him. They responded. She was caught in the crossfire."

"I don't know what to say Mac," Richie said. "I can't seem to find it in me to care that much about her. I mean she chose her own path and she had every opportunity to get help, I mean her family were amazing… Oh god. Her family Mac."

Images of Frankie assaulted his mind. He still wore the miraculous medal she had given him, but apart from that it still hurt too much to think about her, so he tried not to. Anytime he found his mind wandering he'd run some laps around the house, or come here and climb a wall, anything to not think about her properly. But now… There she was, and he couldn't stop thinking about how much he had hurt her, just four months ago by leaving her thinking he was dead, and now her cousin was dead too. Even if Frankie had little connection to her wayward cousin it would still be a shock to the family. Death meant no more time to make things right, to forgive and be forgiven.

"I've spoken to them," Mac said gently. Richie knew what he was saying was he'd spoken with Frankie. Richie knew she checked in with Mac occasionally, they just didn't talk about it. Mac and Tessa had promised her before she'd gone home they'd keep in touch. And Mac had promised Richie he'd keep an eye on her in case she ever needed anything herself.

"Is she ok?" Richie asked. He couldn't pretend she wasn't the one he was thinking of.

Mac nodded. "She's fine."

"And the rest of them?"

"They're a strong family Rich. They'll be ok."

Richie nodded, getting to his feet. He needed to get out of here. Needed to do something physical to work of the tension he now felt.

Mac stopped him with a hand on his chest. "We're going back to the house." He informed him.

"Mac I need to do something. I can't just go sit in the house –"

"I know. We are going back to the house, and then we can spar. Or go for a run. Ok?"

Richie nodded, thinking company would probably be a good thing tonight. "A run then. You dump me on my ass enough without me being distracted," Richie vetoed the sparring.

"And that's why you should practice more," mac said moving his arm to Richie's shoulder and leading him out the office.

"I practice all the time," Richie argued, grateful that Mac was letting him change the subject. "It's not my fault you're like a million years old."

Richie had learnt after a few close calls over the years that if he grossly exaggerated Mac's age then anyone overhearing thought Richie was just being a normal kid, thinking mid thirties was old.

"And it's not my fault you're still a child," Mac shot back sweetly.

"Hey, I am not a child." Richie said indignantly.

"You're eighteen," – Richie made a face at that– "compared to a million that's a child."

Richie continued to glare at Mac for a moment before he smirked. "You know there are child labour laws right? I think I may be working too many hours."

"Oh you do do you?" They had reached the car, so Mac released him, nudging him towards the passenger door. "If I remember rightly you wanted the hours so you could 'meet the locals'," Mac quoted.

"And now I've met them," Richie said, knowing full well that Mac knew he'd meant to meet the local girls.

"And just what would you do with all the extra time on your hands of you reduced your hours?"

"Mingle with the locals," Richie said grinning and sliding into the passenger seat. He didn't actually mind how many hours he worked, but add to it the amount of training he did on top of it he decided he could live with a few more free hours in his week…

Mac followed suit and climbed into the car. "I think you manage to mingle quite well already." He nodded towards Isla who had just exited the side of the outdoors centre and was heading to her car.

"That's just some harmless flirting, you made me too young remember?" Richie said dismissively.

"And you don't think you could win her round?" Mac started the car, and pulled out of the car park.

"Blondes aren't my type," Richie said.

Mac laughed. "Richie, your type are girls. The only thing your girlfriends seem to have in common are they're breathing."

"Ok," Richie agreed laughing too. "Then lets say I think it's safer for my climbing partner to not have anything to hold against me. And I prefer her as my climbing partner to you. She has more patience."

Mac shot him a look, "I have an overwhelming abundance of patience."

"Yeah, just not after an entire day spent training me you don't."

Score, Richie thought as Mac didn't argue that point. Richie was under no illusions as to how annoying he could get after running five miles, then doing a few hours of hand to hand, followed by dying or getting maimed a few times when the sword practice got intense. He almost missed when they'd started training and he was just learning the moves and Mac didn't actually kill him every other day…

So having someone else teach him how to scale walls was a welcome relief – probably for both of them.

"Tell you what then. You beat me to the Loch and back and we'll discuss you're hours."

Maybe, just maybe, that was doable…