Disclaimer: Highlander belongs to Davis/Panzer. They are being borrowed and returned hopefully in about the same shape they were taken in. Jeff, Emmy, and just about everyone else, belong to me. You can use them if you like, just return them please.

Chapter 10

As soon as Emmy got in the house, she reached for her phone and then stopped to check the time on her watch. It was about 10 pm, so it would be somewhere around 4 am in Paris. That would not be too early, would it? She did not really care. She hit the speed dial and called the number anyway. Duncan could kill her later.

After three rings, his very tired and grumpy voice came through. "Hello?"

"Duncan, darling, how are you?" Emmy said, with as much cheer as she could muster.

"Emmy?" he asked, the grumpiness giving way to surprise. She heard other noises, the sounds of shifting cloth, and a woman's voice came on the line.

"Sweetheart, how are you?" Amanda sounded much more awake than Duncan did.

"Good. Amanda, have you ever heard of the Watchers?" Emmy asked, pacing her living room as she spoke.

"Where did you hear about them?" Amanda asked. There was tightness in her voice; much like Rick's when he had been warning Jeff, earlier in the evening.

"A Watcher told me. Well, and an Immortal. Amanda, how could you have known about this and not told me?" Emmy exploded, frustration filling her enter body.

"Because Duncan asked me not to tell anyone. They aren't hurting anyone, and telling all the Immortals about Watchers would be like telling all the mortals about us. It would create as much hysteria. People fear what they don't understand." Amanda replied, in her mother-tone, trying to calm Emmy down.

"Oh, but it was okay for Duncan to tell you?"

"Look, for a while in the mid-nineties there was a group of Watchers that went AWOL, and started hunting Immortals and killing them. Duncan was afraid one was after me, so he told me about them. That's why I know about them. Otherwise, he never would have said anything. Now, why were you told about them?" The interest in Amanda's voice was apparent, and Emmy could imagine her leaning forward as if listening to some juicy gossip.

Emmy sighed, and sat down on the couch, not sure where to begin. "Before I explain that—have either of you ever heard of an Immortal who calls himself Rick Cloud?"

"Doesn't ring a bell." The sound of Amanda's voice got farther away as she asked Duncan. "He says no, and wants to know how old he is."

"I don't know. He's never really said. He's not that open about anything. All I know is that he's known about Watchers practically since he became Immortal."

Amanda hmphed into the phone. "That's got to be rare. I've got a friend on my end that might know more about him, want me to ask around?"

"Nah, Rick's a good guy. I don't think I need to learn about him that way. I'll just charm the information out of him, sooner or later." Emmy smiled to herself. It was going to be an interesting game of cat and mouse.

"Now, you were going to tell me how you learned about Watchers," Amanda said into the phone; bringing the conversation back to its original subject.

"It's kind of a long story. Do you want me to call you back tomorrow?"

"Oh, no, you're not getting out of this now. I never hear from you, then you wake me up at 4 am just to tease me with a tiny dab of information, and then hang up on me? I don't think so, I want the whole story, and I want it now."

"Okay... but it's not a short story. It started back about two weeks ago..."

"Do you want to tell me what's on your mind this morning, or do I have to guess?" Duncan asked, while pouring some coffee. It was around eight am now, and he was half-tempted to call Emmy back and wake her up in the middle of the night.

"It's just weird. This whole story of Emmy's. I mean, she meets this Immortal, who runs a bike shop and knows about Watchers, and her description of him makes him sound a lot like..." She stopped dead. They had not spoken of Richie in almost ten years, and she did not want to bring him up this morning. Not after such a lovely night.

"Sound a lot like who?" Duncan asked—there was tension in his voice—the kind he got when he was upset about something.

"Richie."

"Richie's dead, remember. I killed him. He's got a plot in the cemetery. There's no way that this guy Rick is Richie. He was not the only blond-haired young Immortal in the world who liked motorcycles. It's just a weird coincidence," Duncan said, his voice hollow.

"I know it's impossible, but all the same I want to know who this Cloud guy is. I want to make sure that he's, you know, safe for her to be with," Amanda said, while putting on her coat.

"Amanda, I think you're overreacting. Emmy is six hundred years old. I think she's old enough to know who is safe for her to be with and who isn't." Duncan gave her a rather pained but stern look. "Besides, I was kind of hoping that since our sleep got interrupted, we could go back to bed." He moved forward, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her on the lips.

"Maybe you're right, I'm probably overreacting." Amanda replied, and she allowed Duncan to take off her coat. "It can wait."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Duncan grinned.