Richie slept through Sunday and Tessa refused to wake him for school. He had just woken up when Duncan got back from the orphanage Monday morning. The boy was sitting at the table eating some cereal looking very confused.

"How you feeling?" Duncan asked.

Richie looked up, startled. "Fine."

"What's wrong?"

"Do you know where this came from?" Richie asked indicating the cut Duncan had given him.

"Oh, that? I did that."

"When?"

"At Mitch's. Does it hurt?"

"It's kinda itchy," Richie shrugged. "You did this?"

"I got frustrated with the. buckles, so I just cut if off. I'm sorry, Rich."

"Hey, if this is all that happened to me while I was out, I'm fine with it. Don't worry about it." Richie ran his finger down the cut. "Do you think it's gonna scar?"

Duncan crouched beside Richie's chair looked at it for a second. "Probably not. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Mac, I'm fine. Nothing happened."

"He was telling the truth when he said that you hadn't."

"Yeah. It was mostly watching movies and." Richie shifted in his seat. "Makin' out and stuff. Are you mad?"

"Richie, right now I'm so glad you're okay and he's gone; I don't think I can be mad for another month or so."

"Good, 'cause when I go back to school, I've got detention."

Duncan sighed. "What did you do?"

"I was trying to get grounded," Richie reminded him. "So I, might'a. pulled the fire alarm. to get out of a test."

"You pulled the fire alarm?"

"They didn't call you?"

"I'm sure that's what the conference is about."

"Conference?"

"This afternoon. Think you could handle some time alone?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe do some chores? You know for the whole fire alarm thing."

. . . . . .

Richie ended up with detention for a week. Tuesday morning at nine the orphanage called with Richie's file ready. Tessa wanted to call Richie and have him come home as soon as Duncan got back, but they waited for him to get home after detention. Duncan left the file on the table where Richie wouldn't miss it and he and Tessa pretended to be busy with dinner.

"Can you set the table?" Duncan asked when Richie didn't give the file a second look. Richie got the plates out of the cabinet and stopped to examine the file.

"What's this?" he asked picking it up. "And why is my name on it?"

"That's your file," Duncan told him.

"I have a file?"

"From the orphanage."

"How'd you get this? They won't let me look at it!" Richie was staring curiously at the file in his hand.

"Then go for it," Duncan avoided the question. "It's your life you have a right to know."

Richie abandoned the dishes and sat down to read the file. He started with a wide grin that quickly faded as he read. Soon his face showed nothing but sheer anger.

"Richie, what's wrong?" Tessa asked.

"Excuse me," Richie mumbled running into his room.

Tessa picked up the file. "What is he so upset about? What is in here that he doesn't already know?" She scanned the page Richie had left it open on. "Oh, no."

"What?"

"He's got to be crushed."

"What?"

"His mother."

"What?"

"She's not his mother."

After familiarizing themselves with what Richie thought and what was true, they went to comfort him. He was lying face down on his bed motionless.

"Richie?" Tessa ventured sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Leave me alone," his muffled voice demanded.

"Rich," Duncan started.

"I don't want to talk!"

"Okay," Tessa relented. "Are you going to want dinner?"

"Not now."

"Alright." Tessa and Duncan left.

Nearly two hours later Duncan went into check on Richie who was seated on his bed with papers and books all around him.

"What are you doing?" Duncan asked announcing his presence.

"Joel's homework," Richie answered.

"Don't you mean your homework?"

"No. Joel's. Richie doesn't go to school."

Duncan raised his eyebrows. "You seem to have drawn a pretty firm line between the two."

"I guess," Richie shrugged.

"Are you okay?"

"No. I'm pissed. I've never been so angry in my life." Duncan sat and waited for Richie to continue. "How could they lie to me like that? How could they let me grow up and not know?"

"Did it hurt anything not to know?"

"It hurts now," Richie told him. "How could my parents do that? Just leave a baby at some truck stop to die?"

"To die?" Duncan repeated.

"It said Emily found me at some ungodly time of the morning. What if she hadn't been there? I could have died."

"But you didn't."

"I could have."

"You didn't. Richie, that had to have been a horrible way to find out. If I had known I wouldn't have showed you. I just figured that if your life was in some filing cabinet, you had a right to see it. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Dad. You didn't know." They sat in silence for a few minutes. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Of course, Rich, anything."

"I don't want to be Richie anymore."

"What?" Duncan couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Can I just be Joel forever?"

"Richie, do you realize what you're asking?"

"Yeah. I do. I just want to forget Richie Ryan ever existed."

"Why? Richie, you can't just forget your life ever happened."

"Why not?" Richie asked.

"Because it's your life."

"I don't want it. I hate Richie; I don't want anything to do with him."

"Richie."

"Stop calling me that."

"What's so wrong with Richie? Why do you hate him?" Duncan asked.

"He's an idiot and nobody ever wanted him. I just want him to go away."

"And what makes you think Joel is any better?"

"Because he's had the same perfect parents his whole perfect life. He wasn't left at a truck stop, he wasn't tossed from family to family, he wasn't abused or raped; his life was perfect. I want that."

"But Joel would have never existed if all that stuff hadn't happened to Richie," Duncan told him putting and arm around his shoulder. "Richie's life might not have been perfect, but Richie is." Richie looked up at him with watery eyes and sniffed. "Joel wouldn't be anybody without Richie. Joel would just be a name in a computer."

"I don't care. I want to be Joel; I don't want to have the dreams; I don't want the memories; I don't want the pain. I want you guys."

Duncan had never heard Richie be so bluntly honest about himself before. "It doesn't matter what people call you, or what name is on your license. You'll always have the memories and the pain. and us. We love Richie and we love Joel. we don't love either one best, but loved Richie first."

Richie looked at his hands and took it all in. "I still don't want to be Richie Ryan," he decided his eyes still watery but no tears falling.

"There was something I wanted to show you." Duncan held up the file.

"I don't want to see if it's in there."

"You'll want to see this." Duncan pulled out one paper and handed it to Richie.

"This is an adoption certificate," Richie said. "Mine. Who adopted me?"

"Read it."

"Official custody of Richard Ryan has been legally granted to Mr. and Mrs. Duncan MacLeod on this day August 28, 1992."

"You guys?"

"Keep going."

"And through consent of both child and guardians has been given the name. Richard Ryan Noel-MacLeod." Richie smiled slightly and looked up at Duncan.

"So if you won't be Richie Ryan, how about Richie MacLeod?"

"This is real?"

"It's as legal as we can make it."

"You mean it?" Richie's smile grew.

"So, are you okay with this?"

"Yeah," he told him. "I can't believe this is mine." He looked down at the paper. He sniffed, shook his head, and laughed a little. "I don't believe it. I'm holding it and I can't convince myself its real."

"It's real. That's how we got your file," Tessa said from the doorway tears glistening in her eyes. "The night Duncan brought you home, after you fell back asleep, we got married. And then Duncan changed the dates in your file back and added in our information and we adopted you."

Richie sniffed and wiped he's eyes with the back of his hand. "I never understood why people cried when they were happy. now I get it." He looked from Duncan to Tessa. "I know it doesn't begin to cover it, but thank you. Thank you so much. You have no idea." he wiped at his eyes again and laughed. "I feel like an idiot."

"Richie, before you decide. There are a few stipulations to becoming Richie MacLeod," Duncan told him.

"What's a stipulation?"

"Condition. If you want to go through with this, and it's entirely up to you, we have to move. You can't have three identities in one city. If we do this then we have to leave and you can't come back, do you understand?"

"Ever?"

"Not for a really long time. You can't contact your friends, either. It would be too dangerous."

"Why?"

"Because where we move Joel doesn't exist and he never can for the same reasons that Richie couldn't exist at St. Matthew's. There is nothing to blackmail us with anymore. Everything is as legal as it can be from here on out. Your background checks will show the adoption and your real birthday. Your school records are the correct schools the only problem could be St. Matthew's. But that's the only one. But you would have to leave all this behind."

Richie thought for a minute. Tessa went over and sat on Duncan's lap.

"I'll do it," Richie decided.

"Richie, you don't have to decide now. It's a big decision. Take your time," Tessa told him.

"There's nothing to think about. I'll do it."

"I'll tell you what," Duncan decided. "We'll start making arrangements. But if at any time you change your mind just say so and we stay and Joel stays. Okay?"

"Okay."

. . . . . .

Richie lay in his bed unable to sleep. This was his last night in the loft, his last night in Seacouver, his last night in Washington, his last night on the west coast, his last night as Richie Ryan. In the morning Joel MacLeod would be gone forever and Richie MacLeod and his parents were moving to Rhode Island. Duncan had called in a favor from a fellow immortal, the dean of Rhode Island State University, and gotten a job as a history professor. Tessa had decided to open an art store so she could work on her sculptures and still have something to run. Richie had been enrolled at Rhode Island Prep for the spring semester.

They had decided it best to leave as soon as possible so Richie finished his midterms at St. Matthew's Academy and that was the last he was to see of his friends. He couldn't tell anyone where they were going so he, Aaron, and Natalie parted ways with a simple "See ya later." He regretted not being able to tell them he was leaving, but felt this would be the simplest way to leave. He couldn't handle not answering their questions so avoided the subject altogether.

Richie sighed and got out of bed. He went into the kitchen and looked for something to eat. There was nothing. They had already eaten, thrown out, or donated all the food that was in the kitchen. There were no drinks, either. Not that it mattered. All the dishes had been packed up. The entire building was empty except for their beds and the things they needed for the plane trip tomorrow. Other than those few objects, it had all been shipped, furniture, clothes, and possessions to their house in Rhode Island.

Richie wondered down stairs and looked around the store. It looked huge with all the display cases gone. By this time next week, it was going to be a music school. The people who had bought the store had plans to rip out the entire up stairs and divide it into private classrooms. Even if Richie ever did come back, nothing was going to be the same.

Richie went back upstairs and got back into bed. Tomorrow he was going to start the life he had always dreamed of. He was going to have parents who loved him for all the right reasons, even if they were a little strict, a life where nobody knows what happened to him or what he did. Everything was going to be perfect.

AN: The End. Coming soon "Finding Time". The sequel. What happens in Rhode Island.