"Richard! You're alive!"

Amanda threw himself into his arms so hard that Richie was knocked back on his feet.

"Please tell me we have been lovers for centuries." Richie grinned appreciatively as he hugged her back

"Oh. You." Amanda wiped her eyes and kissed him softly on the cheek.

 "You haven't been around for centuries." Methos pointed out, helping himself to a beer and throwing one to Richie, before setting a cocktail, with a flourish, before Amanda, who settled onto a bar stool.

"How old am I exactly?"

"I don't know exactly. But last time I checked you were twenty something or other."

"What?" Richie froze.

"A true child of the twentieth century." Amanda patted his leg.

"You are snowing me? Right?"

"You didn't know?" Amanda looked confused.

"Of course I didn't know. It just stood to reason that if I was Immortal, I had to be well old."

"Why?" Methos asked.

"Well .. you are."

"Sorry." Methos took a swig of his beer. "It doesn't work like that."

"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Amanda complained. "Where have you been all week? Duncan was afraid you were dead and you know how much that upsets him."

"Why? How many times have I been dead before?"

"Richie. Shut up." Methos filled Amanda in on what he thought might have happened to Richie.

"Oh." Amanda frowned.

"Oh?" Richie repeated. "Oh? C'mon Amanda, sweetheart, my brain gets fried, and all you can come up with is Oh? Methos said you were the Princess of Plans, the Queen of Schemes, the Empress of Improvisation, you gotta help me out here."

"I'm sorry Richard." Amanda shook her head. "I wish I could, but I've never heard of anything like this." She looked at Methos. "Can't the Watchers help?"

"Why didn't I think of that?" Methos wondered.

"You already looked didn't you?" Richie sighed.

"When you were in the shower." Methos admitted. "No Immortal of your age had ever been good enough to beat someone so much more experienced. Doesn't happen."

"I always wanted to be special." Richie picked at the label on his beer bottle.

"Stop that." Amanda pulled his hand into hers. "You are special. Remember when I first met you in Paris?"

"Actually, .. no." Richie arched a brow.

"Yes you do. You just don't know it." Amanda reassured him. "You snuck away from some Art thing to take one more look at the Circus. I was practising somersaults on the trampoline." She wrinkled her nose. "I was just being .."

"Narky?" Methos offered.

"Provocative." Amanda tossed her head. "when I asked you to try it. I didn't expect you to take me up on the challenge."

"Or be so good at it." Methos smirked.

"Don't the Watchers have anything better to do?" Amanda pouted. "Anyway, afterwards, when you were all cute and sweaty, you told me about how you met Duncan and a few of the jobs that you had pulled before that. You were bright and smart and funny and wise enough to know that Duncan Macleod was the best thing that had ever happened to you. Just like me and Rebecca. We have a lot in common Richard and that makes you very special to me."

"That and you made her  – what was it? $500 – on a bet that the skinny American could do a triple somersault." Methos tossed his bottle in the re-cycling.

"I did nothing of the sort." Amanda looked affronted. "It was $5000."

"Amanda!" Richie's jaw dropped.

"Richard, I had every faith in you." Amanda patted his cheek. "Besides we split the money. It was a sweet little hustle. Our first job together."

"Does Macleod know about this Bonne and Clyde act you two have going?" Methos inquired.

"I never lie to Duncan." Amanda protested.

"I don't even know who he is." Richie swirled his beer.

"Anyway." Amanda continued as if she had never been interrupted. "The bet was best of three. The sting being that you would fluff the first two attempts, so we could try to up the ante and make some serious money. You were only supposed to make it look bad .." she paused.

Richie had gone completely white and was blinking as if the light was too bright.

"Richie. Are you OK?" Methos asked.

"Honestly, Methos. I thought you used to be a Doctor." Amanda worried. "Didn't it occur to you that giving beer to someone with a head injury, might not be a good idea?"

"This isn't exactly a head injury, and its not like I can look up care and treatment of brain fried Immortals in any medical textbook." Methos snapped.

Richie waved his beer bottle at them impatiently. "I was only supposed to make it look bad .. except, on the second jump, I cracked my elbow on the frame, which scarred me for life by the way, and there was blood everywhere, it was so spectacularly awful, that you talked Guy the Gorrilla .. "

"Guido." Amanda corrected.

"Alright, Gudio the Gorrilla into double or nothing and I nailed the jump."

"And promptly fainted." Methos grinned.

"You remember." Amanda hugged him lightly.

"I remember that." Richie sighed.

"Nothing else?" Amanda searched his face.

"I remember you still owe me my share of the money, Amanda dear." Richie grinned.