"You never told me you were married," Methos said from where he lay in the center of the bed.

"I try to forget it myself," Caspian replied.

"How long have you been married?"

"Ten…no, seventeen…that's not right either…"

At that moment, Sterling came through the room with a change of clothes under one arm.

"How long have we been married?" Caspian asked.

"27 years last Election Day," she answered as she padded over to the bathroom door.

The door slammed behind her, leaving the two brothers to talk amongst themselves.

"Where did you meet her?" Methos asked.

"I'm trying to forget that as well," Caspian said.

"Well since she's back, I guess I'll be bunking on the couch tonight," Methos said.

"She won't mind three in a bed and the four of us slept together for 300 years," Caspian reminded him.

"True."

"Of course she has a few habits you'd probably rather miss out on," he told Methos.

"Like what?" Methos asked, "Eating crackers in bed?"

"No, cake."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Three day old cake, you ever sit on one of those crumbs? Getting your ass tattooed is less painful," Caspian told him.

"I wouldn't know about that," Methos replied.

Caspian wanted to change the subject. "So what were you doing at the church last night?"

Methos looked up at him, "What church?"

"The one three miles that way," Caspian pointed east, "The one that's falling apart."

Methos looked at Caspian in a completely clueless manner, "I was there last night?"

"Where do you think I found you?" Caspian asked.

Methos looked away, his eyes wide, "I don't know."

"Oh well."

Methos got up from the bed and started over towards the balcony, "I'm going to step out for some air."

"Good luck with that, we're 15 stories up, asphyxiation victims get more air than we do," Caspian told him.

Methos opened the glass doors and closed them behind him and stood out on the balcony taking in the cold winter air.

The bathroom door opened and Sterling came out, "Alright you bastard," she said to her husband, "I've been all over this place and I want some answers. Where're the newspapers?"

"I hid them," Caspian answered.

"Where's the radio?" she asked.

"I hid it."

"Where's my manuscript I was working on?"

"Did you try looking under the chair?" Caspian asked.

"Why are you hiding everything?" she asked.

"Believe me, you're the last person I want to please right now," Caspian told her, "Right now my main priority is my brother."

"What's wrong with him anyway?" she wanted to know.

"Not that it means anything to you but he was in Hiroshima in 1945 when the bomb went off. You don't forget something like that. Now with this…"

He stopped talking when he heard the noise overhead and felt the vibration. They listened as the military jets passed overhead, and when they had gone he continued, "Now with this war starting and everybody going off about the damn nuclear missiles, he's about to lose his mind."

It didn't make sense to her, "Nuclear war isn't something new. How's he lasted this far?"

"It hasn't been easy," he answered.

"Besides," she continued, "Why should it bother him? I thought you said that the four of you were death on horseback. You killed thousands, took out soldiers, women, children, it didn't matter to you."

"Nothing we did back then can compare to what they're doing now," Caspian told her, "When we killed somebody it was quick, effective, immediate, firsthand…now, now they're firing off rockets from halfway around the world. They kill half the victims immediately and the other half succumb to fallout and radiation poisoning over the course of years."

"But you served in the war," Sterling said.

"The first one, sure, we had bombs, we had machine guns, we had poison gas but it still didn't amount to what they're doing now," he told her.

"You think I don't know that? I had to listen to the reports all night on the way back here. They think it's serious this time," she said, "Really serious, they're talking about this time there might be enough fire power in the weapons released to blow up whole continents; kill off entire populations, if that's true then only the Immortals will survive and even some of them aren't going to make it."

"Now you know why he's about to go crazy from what's happening," Caspian said.

"Well…my God," Sterling replied, "That explains it then."

Methos came in from the balcony and shut the door behind him. He was practically dragging himself along and to Caspian he looked half dead.

"Are you alright?"

"I was just thinking," Methos said as he padded over to the couch and laid down on it, "How long have people been getting radiation poisoning? 65 years?"

"About that," Caspian answered.

"I was just thinking…this far down the road and still nobody knows how to cure it, or even treat it. All they can do is perform transplants and transfusions when the blood and bone marrow becomes too infected. As though they haven't had plenty of time to work on it…"

"You better watch it," Caspian told him, "You're starting to sound delirious yourself."

"I'm fine," Methos insisted, "I just…" he closed his eyes for a second and added, "I need to lie down, I need to rest."

Overhead they both hear the roar of more passing military jets; the noise was so bad it almost sounded like a tornado was coming down.

"Oh God, do I need to rest," Methos said as he laid down on the couch.

Caspian grabbed the heavy blanket lying on top of the couch and draped it over his brother and let him alone to rest.

A short while later, Methos started thrashing around on the couch and was screaming. Caspian grabbed him and shook him to wake him up. Letting out a particularly large yelp, Methos jerked awake and all but jumped on his brother.

"Are you alright?" Caspian asked.

Methos sat on the couch trying to catch his breath for a moment. When he could finally speak he recalled what it was he had dreamt.

"It was night…I was in France, and Kronos was there…in full uniform…he…had a bayonet, and he, accused me of betraying him...he...hereached out and grabbed me and he was…pulling me towards him…he was trying to pull my neck towards the blade…" he looked at Caspian as he remembered, "And you…you shot him so I could get away."

Caspian looked to the side when Methos said that. Both knew that that had been no dream.

"You did shoot him, didn't you?" Methos asked as he realized it.

"We served in the 336th Machine Gun Battalion together; doesn't mean I had to side with him," Caspian replied.

"And he never found out?" Methos asked.

"We went to France to kill the Germans, so I told him it was a German," Caspian said, "Enough of their bodies lying around when he came back around, he believed it."

Something else occurred to Methos as he recalled those events from so long ago, "I never thanked you for that."

"Well don't start now," Caspian told him.

Sterling came out of the bathroom and padded through the main room in a towel, went over to the dresser near the wall and took out a change of clothes. Methos watched from where he lay on the bed.

"If you need some privacy, I could go out for a while," he offered.

She smirked and said in response, "I've had the misfortune of living with your brother for almost 30 years, you won't bother me."

He looked at her reflection in the mirror over the dresser and asked, "Why did you marry him?"

"Why?" she replied, "You know a reason I shouldn't have?"

"No," Methos answered, "I'm just curious."

She didn't answer Methos.

"Do you love him?" he asked as he got up and walked over to her.

She looked in the mirror and saw his reflection behind her and she turned to him. "If you mean does he make me happy, he hasn't done that since the day I married him."

"Then why do you stay with him?" Methos asked.

"I can't tell you your business, you know your brother better than I do," Sterling told him, "Lord knows he's never been able to make me happy once in all the years we've been married, and not one thing he's ever done has made up for all the heartache he caused me…but that doesn't mean we don't get along."

"Speaking of which," Methos looked around the room, "Where is Caspian?"

"He said the place was getting too crowded so he was going downstairs for a while," she said, "We're not as bad off as we appear, he owns the whole building, that's why there are no neighbors, nobody can complain about the noise. We just happen to live on this floor at the moment."

"Fifteen floors up?"

She nodded, "He's a bit paranoid…talks about he can see intruders on the ground a lot easier from up here. We haven't had any trouble yet."

That night when they were in bed, Sterling rolled over in the middle and felt behind her and noticed the mattress was cold. Opening her eyes she saw the covers had been pushed back and Methos was gone. She looked around the room and saw him sprawled out on the couch. Looking over at her husband, she was grateful that it was just the two of them because something had been eating at her all night and she had to tell him.

"Caspian," she whispered, when he didn't respond she started poking him in the head, "Hey Caspian, are you awake?"

Two bloodshot eyes glared up at her, "I'm awake now," he answered, "What do you want?"

"I just had a thought," she said.

Yawning, Caspian turned over and said to her, "I'll alert the newspapers in the morning," and pulled the top pillow over his head.

She looked over to the bedside table and saw a plate and a fork laying across the top of it. Picking up the fork, she rammed its four teeth into her husband's backside. A muffled scream came up through the pillows and she saw his shoulders jerk, but aside from that he didn't seem to respond much to it. Removing the pillow, he sat up and turned around to face her and very dryly commented, "You have my attention."

"I was just thinking," she told him, quietly so as not to wake the man on the couch, "You still have ties to your brothers, don't you? The fat one and the stupid one?"

"Yes, yes."

"Have you tried contacting them lately?" she asked.

"Can't get an answer from either side."

"But you don't think they're dead," she said.

"I know they're alive…what is all this about?"

"When was the last time Methos saw them?" she wanted to know.

He had to think, "Silas he last saw about…30 years ago, and Kronos…Methos hasn't seen him since World War I."

"Why?"

"Because the last time they met, Kronos accused Methos of being a traitor and nearly took his head. I had to shoot him so Methos could escape."

"Do you think he'd still be fuming about that now?" Sterling asked.

"I talked to Kronos a while back…he seems to be doing fine for the time being."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Methos and Kronos can't stay together long enough for anything…if they do, they start fighting amongst themselves and one tries to kill the other one. Unfortunately Methos is always the one getting the life strangled out of him."

"I thought you said the four of you were together for over a thousand years," she said.

"We were, but you don't think that was an easy feat do you?" he asked, "As long as nobody questioned Kronos' authority, he was fine…but as you said, Methos is the smart one, but not too smart because he always took it upon himself to correct Kronos when he thought his plans weren't right. Kronos didn't take well to that at all. After a thousand years Methos couldn't take it anymore, and he wanted to leave. Well, the way Kronos saw it was the only way he could leave was by dying."

"So what happened?" Sterling asked, "He got away."

"That wasn't easy either. Two thousand years down the line I never thought the two would cross paths again. But wouldn't you know, nothing can bring those two together quite like a war. It's in their blood and they're always drawn to it…unfortunately Kronos doesn't forget the past very easily. He would have killed Methos if he could, several times."

"And he never did because you were always the one to keep them apart," she realized, "That's why Methos is here now, because you're still looking after him, still protecting him from his brother."

Caspian wouldn't answer that.

"But do you think Kronos would still be holding onto that grudge by now?" she asked.

"An elephant never forgets."

"Elephants no, but this is the jackass we're talking about," she said, "It might do Methos some good to see the rest of his immediate family, don't you think?"

"I seriously doubt that," Caspian replied as he laid back against the pillows, "Besides, they've avoided crossing paths for almost 100 years, what's a few more?"

Neither said a word for a minute, and then Sterling poked him in his side and asked him, "Do you know why I went to New York?"

"To get away from me."

"That was part of it, but the fact of the matter is that my ex-husband, my first husband, died last week. No family, parents dead, no kids, only child, so it came to me to be the one to bury him. I hadn't seen him for 13 years, I never got in any last words with him. And that got me to thinking…they have been talking for so long now about the war and the missiles and how much they can destroy if they're launched. People are talking about this could be the end of the world if the Koreans plans are carried out. If that's true, and we're living on borrowed time, I think we need to find these guys; get in contact with them and set up a place to meet," Sterling told him.

"They'll never agree to that," Caspian said.

"Well then we're just going to have to go down to Bordeaux and get them ourselves," she told him, "Don't you think your brother deserves that much, to see his whole family again before they're all killed? That's my point, Caspian, we may not have a few more years. It may only be a matter of weeks, days...the whole world could be blown up at any time, and you know that as well as I do."

He did, but neither of them would admit it loudly enough for Methos to hear should he wake up and listen in on their conversation. Neither said a word when they felt the vibrations and heard their belongings in the room shake. More jets were passing by overhead, and what for, nobody could answer. When and where they would land, nobody could say that for certain either. What was going to happen next, nobody knew.