Disclaimer and notes on prologue.

After the Dream

Chapter Six of Twelve

It was beginning to look like he was going to have to get involved with Macleod earlier than he'd wanted. He turned back to the computer screen with a frown. He wasn't officially a watcher anymore but he'd managed to acquire Joe's passwords so he could keep tabs on the immortals he wanted to avoid. It most likely wasn't a coincidence that Andreas Adler had arrived in France just after a newly awakened Macleod considering the fact that Cassandra had been with him just before she had let Macleod behead her. He and Joe had spent the first few months after Macleod's incapacitation trying to track down everything that Cassandra had done leading up to the race track.

Their research had raised a lot of questions and provided no answers. She'd gone out of her way to kill as many immortals as possible following that incident with the horsemen and yet when she'd ran into Andreas instead of taking his head she'd stayed with him for three months before heading directly to Paris where Macleod started seeing dead people and demons before he took her head at the race track. The fact that the last immortal to survive an encounter with Cassandra unharmed was now in Paris meant he had to let Macleod know.

XXXX

Joe was rather surprised that Duncan and Nick seemed to be getting along. There was still some tension present centered around Amanda but the two seemed to be bonding somewhat. Duncan had warmed considerably when he learned that Nick was a former cop. He wondered if Duncan had been expecting the worst when Amanda had called to let them know she was on her way with her current paramour.

Speaking of Amanda he hadn't seen her since she left to make a phone call. He glanced around looking for her and found her approaching the three of them with an odd look. "I need to meet someone for lunch will you be all right here Nick?"

"I'll be fine," he said and Joe watched her give him a quick kiss before leaving. "I guess he decided to talk to her after all." Joe wondered who the he Nick was referring to was.

"Who is she going to meet?" Duncan asked quickly. Joe wasn't surprised that he wasn't the only one wondering about Amanda taking off and leaving Nick there with them. Joe could tell Nick was debating rather or not to tell them.

"She went to talk to your former student earlier," he said. "She said she was going to call him later and see if he'd tell her why he killed one of your other friends." Joe looked over at Macleod who seemed shocked by th at.

"She's gone to talk to Ritchie about why he killed Andrew?" Nick nodded in response to Duncan's question. Joe was a bit surprised Amanda had seemed almost unconcerned about the event. "I wonder why he'd tell her." Duncan glanced over at Joe. "Did Ritchie and Amanda become closer while I was out of commission?"

"Not really," Joe had to admit. "They had that incident in Brazil but after that they didn't see each other again until a few days ago." He had a very good idea what was really going on but he wasn't going to say it to Macleod with Nick present.

"She's trying to help the two of you repair your friendship," Nick said surprising him. "She mentioned earlier that you weren't taking it well even though she doesn't see it as that big of a deal."

Joe decided to speak up before Nick got Duncan mad at Amanda. "She did mention earlier that she and Andrew weren't exactly friends," he said quickly. He wondered briefly what it was like to Duncan his entire world was upside down.

"I knew that," Duncan said tiredly. "Andrew, wasn't very fond of thieves so he and Amanda never exactly warmed up to each other." He frowned as he continued, "I still think she'd be worried by the fact Ritchie killed him." Joe didn't have a response to offer to that as privately he agreed.

XXXX

The tension in the room was broken by the approach of another immortal. "Connor's not due back until tonight," Duncan said worriedly. Nick had no clue who Connor was but he guessed he was a friend. The door finally opened and Methos entered so he relaxed. "Adam it's good to see you?" He guessed Macleod was using the oldest immortals alias in case he didn't know.

"We've got a problem," he said quickly. Nick saw him glance around and turn to face Joe. "Andreas Adler has shown up in the country." He glanced back and saw that Joe recognized the name.

"Are you sure?" Joe asked and when Methos nodded he turned toward Macleod. "Andreas Adler was the last immortal to see Cassandra and live before she showed up here." Nick could tell that upset Macleod a great deal.

"Do you have any idea why he is here?" He asked feeling out of place. "Could it be a coincidence?" He could tell even as he said it none of them thought it was.

"What do you know about him?" Duncan asked and he wasn't surprised when they ignored his question to focus on Duncan's. Joe looked nervous and glanced over at Methos apparently asking him to be the one to tell what they knew.

"He's around the twenty-three-hundred years old," he said. "He's been using the last name Adler since the 1920's." Nick was impressed with how old the immortal was other than Amanda and Methos he'd never met any more than one thousand before. "As far as we can tell he stayed out of history and before meeting Cassandra tended to only take heads when challenged." Nick noticed the implication immediately even though Methos still spelled it out. "Since spending three months with Cassandra he's been taking heads regularly for the last ten years."

XXXX

Amanda arrived to find Ritchie waiting for her at the place they'd agreed to meet. "So how was Nick getting along with Duncan," he asked curiously. "And when am I going to get a chance to meet him?"

"I'll introduce you soon but Nick isn't really what we are here to talk about," she said afraid if she gave him too much time he'd back out of talking to her. "And they seem to be getting along all right surprisingly." She looked at him. "Exactly what happened with you and Andrew?"

"He was looking for Macleod to kill him," he said simply. "I wouldn't tell him so he decided to kill me so Macleod would come running to avenge me." She knew she was staring at Ritchie but of all possible explanations she hadn't expected that one.

"Why would he want to kill Macleod?" It didn't make any sense at all. "I mean are you sure you didn't misunderstand him?" The look he gave her quelled any doubts. "Did he say why he wanted Duncan dead?"

"Yeah because he killed Sean Burns," he said. Amanda recalled her horror at learning what Duncan had done while under the influence of the dark quickening. "He ranted a lot about how the dark quickening only let loose what Mac really wanted." Amanda had no response to that it still didn't make any sense.

To be continued...