There can be Only One, Chapter 21 by patricia51
(People talk about you)
(New York City 1926)
Katniss leaned back against the wall and let the music and the atmosphere envelope her. This WAS delicious. A smile lit up her face as she spotted Clove. Drink in hand the English girl was nearly unrecognizable with her hair bobbed and the expected little round hat perched on the back of her head. Her knee length dress shimmied as she danced and the string of well, not really pearls but they caught the light just as well and made her partner shine brightly as she and the whole crowd around her danced "The Charleston".
She herself was out-of-breath and she was positive her face was probably red from the exertion of her own dancing over the last hours. She sipped her drink and then chugged most of the glass of water she had ordered on the side. She shook her head, nearly loosing her own precariously balanced hat herself and the tightly wound braid under it.
Okay so the bob was all the rage now. And Clove looked marvelous in it. It probably would be cooler too. But she had worn her hair pretty much like this for several hundred years and she was too stuck in her ways to change it now. Maybe. After all she had changed other things over the years.
She laughed. And ended up changing pretty much everything back eventually. Sure she was dressed almost exactly like Clove but given the chance she would be back to a loose top and breeches tucked into calf high soft boots. It was what she wore.
The music ended and Clove all but staggered as she made her way over to her girlfriend. She snatched up Katniss's glass and downed the rest of the water before taking a healthy slug of the whiskey. She nearly choked and coughed wildly for a minute.
"Sweetie you SIP the whiskey first and THEN the water, not the other way around."
An unrepentant Clove grinned and kissed Katniss. "I've never been good at following rules."
"Tell me about it."
Forsaking any more attempts to drink Katniss's Irish whiskey Clove ordered beer "as cold as you can make it" and drank most of it while the two girls waited out the band taking a short break. Katniss swiped the last of Clove's mug and admitted that under the circumstances cold beer was a better thirst quencher.
"I must admit," Clove said thoughtfully as the band members returned and prepared for the next set, "that for a place with no legal alcohol we don't seem to have much trouble finding something to drink."
Katniss shrugged. "When one considers the number of Irish here in the States much less in New York City it's not TOO surprising. We have always enjoyed a little sip of 'the creature' and no government is going to keep us from that. After our name for whiskey 'usquebaugh' or in proper Irish 'uisce beatha' means 'waters of life'."
"I'm sure if this place gets raided by the Prohibition agents that you'll be able to explain us right out of jail with that."
"Hope so."
The band started up again and both girls moved to the dance floor, letting the music moved me. They danced together, parting occasionally but always coming back together. They weren't blatant but anyone approaching either of them was able to read the signs that they were a couple.
Clove smiled. It was so good to see Katniss throwing herself into enjoying life. It had taken some time to get the lovely Irish Immortal back after her experiences in a prison camp in the Great War. Not that she herself hadn't been scared emotionally and mentally by what she had lived through but with her beloved there were also physical effects that took some time to recover. Katniss couldn't actually die of starvation but the lack of food took its toll, especially as the other girl had tended to give away her meager rations to the sick she was tending as best she could in the prison hospital.
They had gone to Paris originally upon being reunited but that was a mistake. The vibrant open city they had loved over the centuries was locked in a somber mood. The loss of life among young men had been incredible. An entire generation of German, British and above all French youth had been swept away. For the first time the girls had seen the number of women openly joining together as couples skyrocket. Amid all the loss and the exhaustion of the war there simply was no time or energy to rekindle all the lights. So they went on elsewhere.
All of Europe seemed to be in turmoil. Finally the girls ended up in Portugal, finding a small coastal town that seemed far removed from the agitation and revolts sweeping even this small country. Sea air, the beach and plenty of food from the fishing and farming community brought Katniss back to health. Along with that the pair returned to building their bodies up to the speed and stamina they had before the war. And of course they explored each other all over again, held each other as nightmares came and slowly faded and rejoiced in loving each other again.
After their trip through England and Ireland they went on to the States. New York City was buzzing and alive, exactly what they needed. For the first time in what seemed ages they were able to simply cut loose and enjoy themselves.
In a city teeming with people there had to be a few Immortals of course. One young male caught Katniss alone and unarmed one night and she had to take to her heels. She returned the next night and the well-known park they met in saw what was most likely not even close to its first Quickening when Katniss took the attacker's head. Clove had her own fight when she encountered a slum-lord while investigating a family she thought might be related to her living in one of his tenements. The man had two bodyguards who seized Clove on his orders and took her to an abandoned building where he prepared to cut off her head while they restrained her. Fortunately Katniss arrived on time.
(Abandoned building basement)
"Hold her steady unless you want one or both of you to lose a hand or two when I swing."
"Seems like such a waste of time boss. Why don't we just drop her in the East River and see how well she can swim with her feet and hands tied?"
"None of your business why. But the moment I slice off her head you two drop her and run up the stairs and out of the building. I catch either of you peeking and YOU will try to swim the river with broken arms and legs."
"Okay boss," said one of the visibly shaken burly unshaven thugs.
Taking his time and enjoying the moment the man slowly drew his sword. He licked his lips. "It's been a while. I hope it's as good as I remember."
"You won't find out that easily," rang out a familiar voice.
Katniss was not near Clove's equal as a knife thrower but after a couple of hundred years of practice she was much better than average. She would later comment that was a good thing as lugging her bow through the streets of New York would have been a little too obvious. Right then the important thing was the pair of knives that spun through the air, nailing each goon with a serious but not immediately life-threatening wound. They yelled and grabbed where they had been struck, releasing Clove.
"How many times am I going to have to do this?" Katniss pretended to complain. Her eyes narrowed. "You heard your boss. GET!"
The thugs got. Something much larger sailed through the air. Clove did a double forward roll and snatched her sword out of the air. She drew it and tossed the sheath to one side.
"I'll be waiting outside for you sweetheart," Katniss tossed over her shoulder as she started back up the stairs.
The landlord had little stomach for a fair fight but taking in Clove's slight, girlish form he summoned his courage and tried. He didn't try very long as his swordsmanship was as rusty as his blade. Leaning on a handy streetlight Katniss caught the edges of the Quickening and waited patiently until Clove joined her.
"How was it?"
"Pretty much a let down."
(Speakeasy and dance hall)
After another rousing series of songs Clove and Katniss retired gratefully to a table. Several acquaintances joined them and the group began to discuss the recent novel "The Great Gatsby" as well as other works mostly produced by the expatriate American community in Paris. It was all interesting but Katniss and Clove were still glad they hadn't stayed there.
Not everyone they had met had been determined to take one or the other's head. Clove had mentored a woman in her mid-twenties who had been astounded to find herself once more alive after being fatally stabbed in a hold-up and even more so to discover that the apparent teenager who came to her aid was actually a few hundred years old. Assisted by Katniss Clove had explained the rules of The Game, started her on the rudiments of sword fighting and generally led her into the world she would live in now. Letters had been exchanged with Deirdre who was now living, amusingly enough, in Charleston South Carolina, one of her very favorite cities in the States. After their student Jackie had been recognized by a gang member on the streets the girls bundled her off to Deirdre for further training and a new start.
A strong feeling one day alerted them to the nearby of another Immortal as they wandered the lower East Side. They paused in front of a sprawling building filled with mostly children. There they met Katherine. An attractive blonde woman who appeared to be in her thirties she turned out to be nearly as old as Deirdre and friends with the Immortal Irish Bard as well. The building turned out to be an orphanage she ran, if fact one of several here and in other cities. Katniss and Clove were happy to make friends with her and contribute to her efforts.
But it was during this evening and discussion that yet another Immortal appeared; one that they knew quite well. They both looked up from the group and scanned the doorway the moment the feeling touched them. Smiles broke over their faces as a woman entered, looked around the room and came towards them. They rose to their feet together.
"Hello Amanda."
"Katniss, Clove, how nice to see you." The arrival sat down and made herself comfortable. Sensing that old friends wanted to catch up the others made their excuses and drifted away. The trio started catching up.
"It's been, what, since about 1850 something?" Katniss asked.
"About that yes," Amanda replied thoughtfully
"So what's happened? We lost track of you after we moved to Nevada. Do you still have the 'Queen of Spades'?"
Amanda shook her head. "I went bust during the bank failures of 1873. Not so much because I lost that much money but when the economy fails places like gambling halls are first to go. Oh there was a lot of desperate betting at first but most of those doing so had already lost everything. So I closed it and wandered off. What's been happening with you two love birds and have you seen Duncan lately?"
The pair smiled at each other. Amanda, always quick on the uptake spotted those smiles and correctly interpreted them.
"No, really? Both of you? And he survived?"
"For the whole weekend," Clove confirmed. "We did have him staggering by the last morning."
Amanda laughed. "Good for you. He needs to relax occasionally."
The talk continued until the speakeasy closed. Katniss and Clove insisted Amanda come home with them as she had just arrived in town and hadn't taken lodgings yet.
"So what ARE you doing here?" Clove inquired as the trio undressed with many a laugh and suggestive remark to don night clothes, or at least the skimpy outfits Katniss and Clove preferred.
"I'm liquidating. I came here to close my stock market and bank accounts."
"Why is that?"
"Because I think that the 'permanent level of prosperity' I hear about is bunk. Instead I hear shoe-shine men and newspaper boys talking about the killings they've been making in the market and I don't think it even hits them what 'buying on the margin' means even though that's where they get the money to purchase stocks. I think it's all a house of cards and it's about to come down." She shook her head. "I'm moving and making my wealth portable. I suggest you consider doing the same. Or turn it into land, real properties and ones you don't owe money on."
The trio sat in silence for a few minutes. An occasional thief and crook Amanda might be but she was much wiser in the ways of economy than the two girls were and she wouldn't offer advice like that to friends unless she believed it. Amanda finally broke the silence.
"We can talk about that tomorrow. I(n the meantime, why don't you tell me exactly what you did to Duncan. I may need a few pointers for the next time I see him."
Clove and Katniss exchanged grins and closed on her. "Better than that," purred Clove, "since you have been flashing those long lovely legs at us all night long why don't we show you?"
Financial discussions had to be postponed for a few days as it turned out.
(To be continued)
(Katherine, played by the very lovely and talented Claudia Christian, appears in episode 6X10 "Two of Hearts and is one of only two episodes in which Duncan does not appear and is the only episode none of the rest of the regular cast appear in either.)