Time To Spare, Part 4
"Nick, do you like your eggs over hard or over easy?"
"Mmcmmcmmnphmm." Nick's voice could barely be heard over the crackle of the skillet, even though his bed on the couch was only a couple yards away. He'd fallen asleep around one in the morning, after several hours' more talking. It was only when Natalie could make him laugh again that she finally felt sure that he would be all right, and could let him sleep.
But even so, he'd been unconscious for ten hours. The two of them didn't do the night shift anymore, and she didn't want to start now. It was time to get up.
"Nick?" The blanket was pulled over his head in a most decisive manner.
Natalie sat down gingerly on the edge of a cushion and carefully peeled back a corner of the blanket till his face was peeking out. "Nick." One of his eyes propped open. "Your eggs. Squished or unsquished?"
He sighed, but it turned into a yawn halfway through. "Squished. Coffee?" Natalie wished she could bottle that little-boy pout.
"Oh no. You buy one of those weird little espresso things, *you* get to make the coffee. And make me a cup too, while you're at it." Nick mock- grimaced and tried to hide under the covers again. "*No*," Natalie cried, laughing as she ripped the covers completely off him. "Come on and get up. The sun is shining. We're going out."
His sigh came out a half-groan as Nick dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. "Okay, okay, I'm up." He staggered into the kitchen and started the coffee going, more by touch than anything else.
He turned and paused for a moment to inspect first the eggs, and then Natalie, in turn. "I have been known to cook my own food, you know."
She wore a wry smile as she flipped the eggs expertly. "Recall that I've *seen* you cook. I prefer not to test the bounds of immortality, thanks."
Nick snorted and fiddled again with the coffeemaker, causing even more horrid noises to come out of it. "Oh, come on. That was only the one time, and you *said* you wanted something new..."
Natalie paused as she went fishing for plates to favor him with her patented 'I cannot *believe* you' look. "Pouring twenty different spices on a fish and then setting it on fire is not 'new', Nick."
Nick was the picture of innocence as he reached for two cups, only to have Natalie hand them to him instead. "Thanks... my point is, I don't experiment anymore. I use recipes."
"*Valid* recipes?"
He handed her the forks and knives, produced from who-knew-where in his maze of a kitchen, gifting her with a reassuring smile as he did. "Off of boxes and everything."
Natalie took her fork and knife and contemplated. "Well... all right, I'll watch you cook dinner tonight." She speared her first bite of egg and waggled it at him, threatening. "But if I catch you sneaking any red pepper flakes, we're eating out."
****
*All right, lesson number one: you can't pack a gap of twenty years into a day.* Natalie cast one longing look at the street behind her. "Nick, do you remember when you ran that red light, in the middle of the afternoon in broad daylight? That was right over there. That intersection *right* there."
Nick walked ahead of her toward the park, anxious to be able to sit down, even if it was on the ground. He limped slightly as he walked, unused to being on his feet for six hours straight anymore. "Yes, Natalie," he replied with exaggerated patience, "and you got a flat tire two blocks down, bought some cat food for Sidney at the pet store around the corner, and..." he caught her hurt look, and sighed, laughing softly as he rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I know the total recall's a little disconcerting at first. It happened to me, too."
Natalie trotted to catch up to him, shaking her head thoughtfully. "And here I thought I'd figured everything out about this immortality thing... I fooled myself into believing there'd be no more surprises."
Nick raised his eyebrows, and smiled. "There will always be surprises, Nat. Be it twenty years or a thousand, life always manages to remain interesting."
They reached the green grass of the park, and Nick got hardly six feet away from the pavement when he collapsed onto the grass, barely pausing to take off his shoes before laying out on the comfortable carpet of green. Natalie continued, "How did you stand it? Remembering everything? I'd been told about the recall, but even still, I suppose I never expected it to be this... intense, when I came back to a place I knew. This city seems to be literally crawling with memories at every turn. Maybe I was just unconsciously avoiding places I'd been before. Still, it's eerie, like having your whole life flashing before your eyes."
"To be honest? You just have to get used to it." Nick sighed in contentment as he slid into a more comfortable position on the grass. Given the opportunity, he could fall asleep right now...
"But you never did." It was neither a question nor an accusation; her tone was soft and unassuming. "Did you?" She knew his answer before he even turned his head to look at her.
He smiled faintly. "No. I never did." He looked down at his hands, fingering the new creases here and there. He raised one up to her. "This," and she knew it was his mortality he was speaking of, "is obviously one of the better reasons why I could put the past behind me. But the best by far was that I was allowed to finally, *finally* forget, even for just a moment..."
Natalie tried to imagine living so long, when every movement, every speech, every event had been done before, and could be linked to his failures, all seven hundred years' worth of them... she shuddered and blamed it on the wind sweeping through the trees nearby. "How much do you remember now?"
"Oh, I *can* remember most things. A few of the less memorable decades may have passed by the wayside," his wry smile was infectious, "but the difference is that now I don't *have* to remember; I'm not compelled to anymore. Which helps more than you might think."
"That, and not having talked... not even having been in the *presence* of a vampire... in nearly twenty years, made it downright easy." Nick's eyes were still closed, and he was smiling, just a tiny bit. Without being able to see his eyes, Natalie couldn't tell if it was a true smile or not.
"Were there really so many bad memories, that you had to reject them all?" She didn't think about what she was saying until the words had already left her mouth, and she couldn't take them back. "Oh god, Nick, I'm sorry..."
He looked up at her, startled by her reaction, not the question, and quickly shook his head. "No, it's okay." He sighed. "The truth is, I *couldn't* go back. There were two... additional... consequences to the bargain for my life. The first I already told you about, that I could never tell anyone how I came back. They *still* watch, waiting for the chance to finish what they'd started, to kill me and be done with it. But I won't give them the satisfaction... remaining alive and mortal is the only vengeance I'm allowed." His expression was still lighted with that peaceful calm he'd found somewhere along his way, but this time his eyes sparked with a defiance that she remembered very well indeed. But there was a difference. In his powerlessness, he'd learned patience. And that patience was a power in and of itself...
"The second consequence was that I had to separate myself from the Community forever. No contact of any kind. That was why I hadn't heard from Vachon... I don't know what happened to him. I couldn't even ask Tracy. And she, of course, never talked about him unless I brought it up, even before."
"Nick, you don't have to talk about it..."
He cut her off. "Yes, I *do* need to talk about it!" He raised himself up into a sitting position so she could see full-on his earnest expression. "Nat, do you realize how hard it's been to have something like this happen, and not to be able to tell anyone? Not to be able to talk to anyone at all? When Janette died, I had to pretend I caught a bad flu. I took a week's worth of sick leave, but after that I had to just walk back in to work and pretend that everything was all right." He took her hands and gave them a light squeeze as his face relaxed into a relieved smile. "To be able to talk about it, just to have someone there to listen, lightens the load so much, I can't tell you."
"Well then, don't." Natalie replied decisively. At Nick's confused look, she smiled ironically. "Nick, it's okay. I'm not going anywhere for a while, and I can stay as long as you need me to. You don't have to try to get it all out in a day. Trying to force yourself to heal is like trying to force the grass to grow... it might make you feel like you're doing something, but that doesn't mean it's a good way to expend energy. Besides," she added with a mock-irritated frown, "I've been trying to keep your mind off your troubles all day, and I'm certainly not going to let you off the hook when we're in the home stretch, so... come on." She abruptly stood and held out a hand to help him up.
He looked up at her so sorrowfully, she almost let him lie. "I have to stand?"
"Yes."
"On my feet?"
"That *is* usually the way."
Nick raised himself painfully to his feet (Natalie was positive he was exaggerating, he couldn't be hurting *that* bad) and picked up his shoes, declaring, "I'm going barefoot," as if he thought she might challenge the notion.
She merely smiled innocently. "That's fine. We'll stick to the grass," and they started off.
"So where are we going?"
"I thought I heard running water coming from somewhere around here, like from a creek of some kind. I thought we might go check it out." One corner of her mouth lifted slightly. "You think you can find out where it's coming from, Mr. Investigator?"
He snorted in laughter, mimicking her expression. "I think I can handle that."
***
Natalie dressed as quietly as she could the next morning. Once again, she'd woken at the crack of dawn and couldn't go back to sleep. At least this morning she didn't have to worry about waking Nick... she'd managed to convince him to sleep in his own bed last night. He protested, of course, but she could tell he'd practically be ready for traction if he tried to sleep on that couch another night. She blamed the couch, but she knew it was the body that was really too old to sleep there.
So she took a couple bagels out of the fridge, snatched her coat off the rack, and slipped quietly out the door to watch the sun rise. It was dangerous, she could be spotted and recognized at any time. She knew that. Many of her friends had apparently moved away since she'd left, as people tend to do over time, but there were enough still here to make going out of doors unwise. She'd pushed her luck as far as it would go yesterday, running around all over town, she should know better than to push it any further. But Nick had needed something to distract him from his memories, and sitting at home twiddling his thumbs was anything but distracting.
This morning? It was really too early to see many people, the odds weren't that bad. So, as long as she was up, she might as well go out and watch the sun rise.
Mmm-hmm. Never mind the fact that she was walking back to the park, back to the green grass and trees and birds singing. Never mind it took her an hour and a half to get there. She found the tree she'd spotted last night, a monster of a thing, gnarled and tangled. She climbed high enough to see the horizon, where the sky was slowly brightening. Lazily she stretched out along the wide limb, rested her head on her hands and watched the hazy mountains in the distance. She sighed softly as the calm penetrated her soul. *Oh Natalie, you really are spoiled for life...*
The truth was, she wasn't sure why she came here. No, that's not true. Nick had been through so much... she sighed. And as usual, she'd taken his pain and made it her own, like she had so many times before. She needed some time to herself, to get back a little equilibrium. Or a lot of equilibrium, she decided, as she watched the mist start to fade with the first rays of the morning sun. She couldn't remember a time when she hadn't found the sunrise the most peaceful thing in all the world.
Actually, yes she could, because the reason for that sense of peace rose to the forefront of her mind like the dew rising from the grass below...
****
"Come on, love, time to get up." Usually the sound of Adam Pierson's voice alone was enough to bring a smile to her face, but at five o'clock in the morning? It didn't even come close.
"Unnnhhhh... uh-uh."
"You have to get up now, or we're going to be late." This only prompted her to wrap her pillow around her head. He stared at her limp form for a moment, frowning. Then he shrugged lightly, picked her up, and hefted her onto his shoulder. Steadying himself, he started resolutely for the bathroom, talking all the while. "Not to worry, a nice cold shower will be just the thing to *aieech*!"
Because poor Natalie, unused to waking up upside down, had grabbed hard onto the nearest solid object available, that being Adam's rear end. This startled him, predictably, and he stumbled a step. This panicked a still- half-asleep Natalie even further, and she proceeded to throw her arms completely around Adam's waist and hold on for dear life.
Unfortunately, this only served to upset Adam's balance in the other direction, and the two went tumbling in a heap of arms and legs, Natalie taking the brunt of Adam's fall.
In an instant he was off the floor and bending over her, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "Natalie? Are you all right?"
She cracked one eye open to look up at Adam, and was disappointed to only find one of him. If there'd been two, she could have considered killing one. Well, you don't get everything. She slowly sat up. "Ow. Ow. Owwwww... okay, I think I'm up. Or dead. Ow. Did you say something about being late?" She was gently moving everything to make sure it was all in working order.
"We told Karen we'd go to her poetry reading at eight, remember? And it's across town, so..." Adam was unabashedly wearing his little smile that ran the gamut from sarcastic to amused, depending on his mood. She knew which one this was; his sense of humor seemed to get more twisted the longer she knew him.
"Don't laugh, that hurt!" She attempted a frown... badly... and smacked the side of his head as she made her own way to the bathroom, thinking up proper tortures for one twenty-five hundred year old smart-aleck Immortal.
"So where is this place again?" she called out as she waited for the water to get hot.
"Mmm... El Kharim, or some such. At any rate, it's clear on the other side of Cairo, and with the morning traffic what it is, it should take us at least an hour to get there." Adam silently tested the doorknob. Unlocked.
Natalie ducked into the shower and started to get her hair wet. "Why is she having it all the way over there?"
"I don't know," Adam's voice appeared right next to her, and her eyes snapped open to see him undressing on the other side of the curtain, "she said she liked the architecture." With a perfectly *wicked* smile.
She raised one eyebrow as she took in the view. "I thought we were going to be late."
He stepped in next to her and let her take the brunt of the spray, the water making rivers and pools across the curves and planes of her body while only barely misting on him, beading up all along his skin. He tried to catch her eyes, but she was busy tracing slow patterns of water on his chest with her fingers. "So we're late."
Natalie glanced up from her work to look at his face. He was still smiling, as always, but this smile was... well, it was a smile she knew very well indeed, and returned. "You're impossible... and lucky I heal fast," she sighed luxuriously as she slid her arms around his neck and up to let her fingers run through his spiky hair.
"Oh, I think I'm lucky for more reasons than *that*..." His lips brushed hers briefly as his hands found her waist and her fingers began to run up her spine.
"Mmm... that's a nice beginning," Natalie smiled as she found his mouth again by pure touch. Adam chuckled, wrapping his arms more tightly about her as he stepped forward into the spray.
"Then you should love the end." Oddly enough, kissing and laughing at the same time is actually much easier than it sounds.
****
"You were late. Was everything all right?"
"Oh yes. Cairo traffic's just horrid in the mornings, isn't it, Natalie?" Any attempt to look repentant was just completely futile, which didn't help their story, but one had to give them points for effort.
"Terrible."
"Awful."
"I was screaming in pain." Adam was abruptly consumed with a coughing fit, and Natalie changed the subject, smiling brightly at Karen. "But your poetry was beautiful. As always. I'm sorry we missed the beginning."
Karen didn't look the least bit fooled, but wasn't really upset about it. Trying to get those two out of bed anytime before noon required a major concerted effort, and she knew it. "That's all right, I'll read them to you again sometime." She smiled.
Karen Hunter was the first immortal Natalie met when she came to Egypt. Which was fortunate, as neither she nor Karen could speak a word of Arabic at the time, and a misunderstanding could have been disastrous. But as it turned out, the petite brunette was calm and funny, and it was no time before the two became fast friends.
Someone came to collect Adam, apparently he had a phone call. Natalie smiled at his retreating back, then returned her gaze to Karen. "Let me take you out to dinner. My penance for being late."
"Oh, you know how much I'd love to eat off you credit card," she laughed, "but Tom is taking me out on a congratulatory night on the town after this. He gets ridiculously proud of me at these things ever since I told him how nervous I get in front of an audience..." Rolled her eyes in annoyance, which vanished when said Tom appeared, a tall, lanky man with black hair and laughing eyes.
They had been married eighty-four years, Karen said... a rare commitment, according to Adam, even for immortals. *Because in the end, there can be only one.* As simple as it was final. She was really starting to hate the phrase.
***
"Adam Pierson."
"Methos?" The voice roared into his ear, and he yanked the phone away a couple inches. "Hey, it's Joe, how you doin'?"
Methos looked up at the ceiling for a little help. If anybody looked back down at him, he or she had obviously already decided it would be *far* more amusing to just let him run around and make his own messes. Correction, have other people drag him into *their* messes. As usual. He sighed. "Joe, you've managed to capture me away from home, which I'm not even going to ask how you did, because I'm certain I won't like the answer. But this means that we actually have a real phone, with a real connection and everything. You don't have to shout."
"Oh. Heh. Sorry." Seeing how Joe's volume had lowered considerably, Methos switched the receiver to his other, unflattened eardrum, and fiddled with the cord as he talked.
"So, who's in trouble now?"
"Actually, you are." Joe's tone was slightly hurt and slightly smug. Methos wondered if telephones always conveyed that much tone. If so, his little cordless was more dead than he thought. He wondered if he should buy a new one here or in the States. For the life of him, he couldn't remember what the conversion rates were anymore... wait a minute. "What?"
"Somebody broke into the European Watcher Headquarters a few months back. Since then, they've been going through their files, checking to see what was missing." Methos grimaced, and nodded to himself. That was the thing about Watchers, they were as meticulous and thorough as anyone could wish for, if one wishes for such things. But given an emergency, they were slow, slow, *slow*. It didn't surprise him a bit that it took them a couple months just to figure out what was taken.
If they'd just bothered to join the twentieth century and put it on computer... no, actually, let's not go there. Tried that before, remember? Nearly got the entire Immortal community exposed as a newsflash on the bloody BBC. Between that little joyride and the latest episode, which managed to decimate most of the world's highest-ranking Watchers, not to mention nearly killed Joe and spun Duncan off into one of his self- destructive phases, taking Methos along with him...yes, he'd twisted the Watchers' collective skirt enough to last a couple lifetimes. Certainly longer than Adam Pierson would be around. The fact that they'd got a nice twist in his skirts as well made the decision to leave that much easier. But it was how angry he was at himself that set off the big neon signs saying it was time to get the hell out of there and calm down for a while. Despising yourself got very unhealthy if you did it too long, and if his natural equilibrium was *that* far off kilter... well, he'd left for smaller things, that's for sure.
Meeting up with Natalie had originally just been a timely bonus. She had needed someone to teach her, and he'd been available... he owed it to Nicholas anyway, for not telling him she was Immortal when they met for the first time. And if Natalie's watcher decided to tell Headquarters that a decidedly ex-mild-mannered ex-grad-student and ex-Watcher Adam Pierson was living with an Immortal and teaching her to fight... he really wished he could be there to see the looks on their faces. Impotent rage did such interesting things to the blood vessels at the temples. He couldn't help smiling at his own little teeny tiny vicious streak. I mean really, happiness wasn't *always* a warm puppy...
But Joe was still talking, and Methos felt like he just missed an important part of the conversation. "Hold on, what was that last bit?"
"They found some research on the Methos Chronicles missing, especially the last couple sections. The part with Adam Pierson's signature."
Methos hissed a curse. "Will someone please tell me when the Watchers decided to drop the 'secret' part from their 'secret organization'? 'Cause I'd really like to know."
He could practically feel Joe's double-take. "You didn't keep the name Adam Pierson, did you?"
"Natalie liked it, and I didn't think there could possibly be anything the Watchers would try to track me down for." It was a lame excuse, and he knew it. He hadn't been thinking. Damn damn *damn*.
Joe didn't help. "What the hell were you thinking?! Didn't Kalas teach you anything?!?" Methos could just see Joe waving his free arm around as he thundered into the phone. This time he let his ear get flattened; he deserved it.
Besides, he had to think. He chewed absently on a thumbnail, then spoke. "Joe, I'm getting on a plane to Paris. I need to know exactly what we're dealing with here."
"You want me to meet you there?"
Methos' voice was firm and decisive. "No. I want you to stay right where you are, and keep an eye on Natalie for me. Call me the minute anyone new comes into Cairo.."
The pause on the phone was a little too long, before Joe's voice came in again, his soft tone contrasting the force of his words. "Tell me this means you had an attack of conscience and decided to tell her who and what you really are."
One of his eyebrows slowly raised, and for once Methos wasn't smiling. First Alexa, now this. One would really think you'd learn to stay out of my personal life, Joe. "No."
"And you're not taking her with you? Adam, if she still thinks you're Adam Pierson, two thousand five hundred year-old God-only-knows-what, she's not going to stand a chance if someone comes looking for you."
Dammitall, do we really need to have this conversation *right now*? "Precisely! Joe, she's only forty years old," he growled, "which is why I'm getting as far away from her as possible. If I can lead this guy away, she'll be all right."
"But..."
"Joe, I have to leave. Now. If he's been on my trail for a couple months, he can't be too far behind. We've moved a couple times in the past few years, but not enough to make that much of a difference. I'll talk to you... when I talk to you." He hung up before Joe could finish his tirade, and stood with his hand on the phone for a moment longer than he had to. A moment longer before he had to go back and face Natalie.
Other than his name and age, he'd never lied to Natalie. About anything. In a moment, that was going to change. He wasn't sure she would forgive him for this, when she found out the truth. He was fairly certain he wouldn't if he were her. But it had to be done. Come on, old man, do we have to go over the logic again for the thousand and first time?
Yes. Because it will keep me in here a moment longer.
Just one more moment.
****
Adam returned, making the tiniest glance toward the door as he walked. Natalie was wrapping up her conversation by the time he got within hearing distance, and by the time he reached her side, they were ready to go.
She waited till they were back in their own apartment, just to be safe, before turning worried eyes on Adam. "Why are we leaving so early? What did you hear?"
He tossed the car keys onto the endtable and tilted his head to look at her, wincing apologetically. "I have to go to Paris. As soon as possible."
Natalie's brows instantly furrowed, trying to figure out what could be wrong in Paris. "What is it, what's happened?"
He sighed and frowned just a little, rubbing his eyes with one hand in weariness. "Joe... I told you about Joe, right? Well, he's gotten himself in a bit of a jam. I need to go straighten it out."
Natalie sat for a little while in silence. She was a little taken aback, but decided not to let it bother her. She also decided not to let the idea of Adam leaving bother her either. She could just hear Adam's reaction, with just the right kind of smile, the kind that would make her feel about a thousand percent better about all this. *Become quite the selfish little thing, haven't we?* Well, yes, frankly. "How long will you be gone?"
She felt a hand on her cheek, and looked up to see Adam smiling gently, having just dragged an overnight bag out of the closet. "It'll only be for a few days. You won't even notice I'm gone."
The side of her mouth quirked up against her will. "Buy me an electric blanket, and *then* I won't notice you're gone." She stood to help him pack his things.
He smirked back and threw some clothes at her to stuff into the bag. "Just as long as it's an electric blanket with long toenails."
"Oh, heaven. Remind me to get shin guards before you get back." That's the problem with having two people at once who need to have their hands busy... the work gets done twice as fast. Adam glanced at his watch, and looked back at her with a crestfallen expression.
She sighed. "Yeah, yeah." She walked him to the door, then fidgeted, straightening the creases in his jacket. "Better miss me."
A corner of his mouth turned up as his arms wrapped around her waist. "You'd kill me if I didn't."
"You better believe it!" She tried strangling him with his coat, but he won the tussle with a kiss. Then another, deeper, as he wound his hand tightly in her hair.
He pulled away, and his thumb gently caressed her temple. "Bye."
"Bye." Then he was gone, and she shut the door with a sigh.
Methos always told himself later that he couldn't have guessed his efforts would be futile. That he'd already been found. He couldn't have known what would happen.
It never made him feel any better.
"Nick, do you like your eggs over hard or over easy?"
"Mmcmmcmmnphmm." Nick's voice could barely be heard over the crackle of the skillet, even though his bed on the couch was only a couple yards away. He'd fallen asleep around one in the morning, after several hours' more talking. It was only when Natalie could make him laugh again that she finally felt sure that he would be all right, and could let him sleep.
But even so, he'd been unconscious for ten hours. The two of them didn't do the night shift anymore, and she didn't want to start now. It was time to get up.
"Nick?" The blanket was pulled over his head in a most decisive manner.
Natalie sat down gingerly on the edge of a cushion and carefully peeled back a corner of the blanket till his face was peeking out. "Nick." One of his eyes propped open. "Your eggs. Squished or unsquished?"
He sighed, but it turned into a yawn halfway through. "Squished. Coffee?" Natalie wished she could bottle that little-boy pout.
"Oh no. You buy one of those weird little espresso things, *you* get to make the coffee. And make me a cup too, while you're at it." Nick mock- grimaced and tried to hide under the covers again. "*No*," Natalie cried, laughing as she ripped the covers completely off him. "Come on and get up. The sun is shining. We're going out."
His sigh came out a half-groan as Nick dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. "Okay, okay, I'm up." He staggered into the kitchen and started the coffee going, more by touch than anything else.
He turned and paused for a moment to inspect first the eggs, and then Natalie, in turn. "I have been known to cook my own food, you know."
She wore a wry smile as she flipped the eggs expertly. "Recall that I've *seen* you cook. I prefer not to test the bounds of immortality, thanks."
Nick snorted and fiddled again with the coffeemaker, causing even more horrid noises to come out of it. "Oh, come on. That was only the one time, and you *said* you wanted something new..."
Natalie paused as she went fishing for plates to favor him with her patented 'I cannot *believe* you' look. "Pouring twenty different spices on a fish and then setting it on fire is not 'new', Nick."
Nick was the picture of innocence as he reached for two cups, only to have Natalie hand them to him instead. "Thanks... my point is, I don't experiment anymore. I use recipes."
"*Valid* recipes?"
He handed her the forks and knives, produced from who-knew-where in his maze of a kitchen, gifting her with a reassuring smile as he did. "Off of boxes and everything."
Natalie took her fork and knife and contemplated. "Well... all right, I'll watch you cook dinner tonight." She speared her first bite of egg and waggled it at him, threatening. "But if I catch you sneaking any red pepper flakes, we're eating out."
****
*All right, lesson number one: you can't pack a gap of twenty years into a day.* Natalie cast one longing look at the street behind her. "Nick, do you remember when you ran that red light, in the middle of the afternoon in broad daylight? That was right over there. That intersection *right* there."
Nick walked ahead of her toward the park, anxious to be able to sit down, even if it was on the ground. He limped slightly as he walked, unused to being on his feet for six hours straight anymore. "Yes, Natalie," he replied with exaggerated patience, "and you got a flat tire two blocks down, bought some cat food for Sidney at the pet store around the corner, and..." he caught her hurt look, and sighed, laughing softly as he rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I know the total recall's a little disconcerting at first. It happened to me, too."
Natalie trotted to catch up to him, shaking her head thoughtfully. "And here I thought I'd figured everything out about this immortality thing... I fooled myself into believing there'd be no more surprises."
Nick raised his eyebrows, and smiled. "There will always be surprises, Nat. Be it twenty years or a thousand, life always manages to remain interesting."
They reached the green grass of the park, and Nick got hardly six feet away from the pavement when he collapsed onto the grass, barely pausing to take off his shoes before laying out on the comfortable carpet of green. Natalie continued, "How did you stand it? Remembering everything? I'd been told about the recall, but even still, I suppose I never expected it to be this... intense, when I came back to a place I knew. This city seems to be literally crawling with memories at every turn. Maybe I was just unconsciously avoiding places I'd been before. Still, it's eerie, like having your whole life flashing before your eyes."
"To be honest? You just have to get used to it." Nick sighed in contentment as he slid into a more comfortable position on the grass. Given the opportunity, he could fall asleep right now...
"But you never did." It was neither a question nor an accusation; her tone was soft and unassuming. "Did you?" She knew his answer before he even turned his head to look at her.
He smiled faintly. "No. I never did." He looked down at his hands, fingering the new creases here and there. He raised one up to her. "This," and she knew it was his mortality he was speaking of, "is obviously one of the better reasons why I could put the past behind me. But the best by far was that I was allowed to finally, *finally* forget, even for just a moment..."
Natalie tried to imagine living so long, when every movement, every speech, every event had been done before, and could be linked to his failures, all seven hundred years' worth of them... she shuddered and blamed it on the wind sweeping through the trees nearby. "How much do you remember now?"
"Oh, I *can* remember most things. A few of the less memorable decades may have passed by the wayside," his wry smile was infectious, "but the difference is that now I don't *have* to remember; I'm not compelled to anymore. Which helps more than you might think."
"That, and not having talked... not even having been in the *presence* of a vampire... in nearly twenty years, made it downright easy." Nick's eyes were still closed, and he was smiling, just a tiny bit. Without being able to see his eyes, Natalie couldn't tell if it was a true smile or not.
"Were there really so many bad memories, that you had to reject them all?" She didn't think about what she was saying until the words had already left her mouth, and she couldn't take them back. "Oh god, Nick, I'm sorry..."
He looked up at her, startled by her reaction, not the question, and quickly shook his head. "No, it's okay." He sighed. "The truth is, I *couldn't* go back. There were two... additional... consequences to the bargain for my life. The first I already told you about, that I could never tell anyone how I came back. They *still* watch, waiting for the chance to finish what they'd started, to kill me and be done with it. But I won't give them the satisfaction... remaining alive and mortal is the only vengeance I'm allowed." His expression was still lighted with that peaceful calm he'd found somewhere along his way, but this time his eyes sparked with a defiance that she remembered very well indeed. But there was a difference. In his powerlessness, he'd learned patience. And that patience was a power in and of itself...
"The second consequence was that I had to separate myself from the Community forever. No contact of any kind. That was why I hadn't heard from Vachon... I don't know what happened to him. I couldn't even ask Tracy. And she, of course, never talked about him unless I brought it up, even before."
"Nick, you don't have to talk about it..."
He cut her off. "Yes, I *do* need to talk about it!" He raised himself up into a sitting position so she could see full-on his earnest expression. "Nat, do you realize how hard it's been to have something like this happen, and not to be able to tell anyone? Not to be able to talk to anyone at all? When Janette died, I had to pretend I caught a bad flu. I took a week's worth of sick leave, but after that I had to just walk back in to work and pretend that everything was all right." He took her hands and gave them a light squeeze as his face relaxed into a relieved smile. "To be able to talk about it, just to have someone there to listen, lightens the load so much, I can't tell you."
"Well then, don't." Natalie replied decisively. At Nick's confused look, she smiled ironically. "Nick, it's okay. I'm not going anywhere for a while, and I can stay as long as you need me to. You don't have to try to get it all out in a day. Trying to force yourself to heal is like trying to force the grass to grow... it might make you feel like you're doing something, but that doesn't mean it's a good way to expend energy. Besides," she added with a mock-irritated frown, "I've been trying to keep your mind off your troubles all day, and I'm certainly not going to let you off the hook when we're in the home stretch, so... come on." She abruptly stood and held out a hand to help him up.
He looked up at her so sorrowfully, she almost let him lie. "I have to stand?"
"Yes."
"On my feet?"
"That *is* usually the way."
Nick raised himself painfully to his feet (Natalie was positive he was exaggerating, he couldn't be hurting *that* bad) and picked up his shoes, declaring, "I'm going barefoot," as if he thought she might challenge the notion.
She merely smiled innocently. "That's fine. We'll stick to the grass," and they started off.
"So where are we going?"
"I thought I heard running water coming from somewhere around here, like from a creek of some kind. I thought we might go check it out." One corner of her mouth lifted slightly. "You think you can find out where it's coming from, Mr. Investigator?"
He snorted in laughter, mimicking her expression. "I think I can handle that."
***
Natalie dressed as quietly as she could the next morning. Once again, she'd woken at the crack of dawn and couldn't go back to sleep. At least this morning she didn't have to worry about waking Nick... she'd managed to convince him to sleep in his own bed last night. He protested, of course, but she could tell he'd practically be ready for traction if he tried to sleep on that couch another night. She blamed the couch, but she knew it was the body that was really too old to sleep there.
So she took a couple bagels out of the fridge, snatched her coat off the rack, and slipped quietly out the door to watch the sun rise. It was dangerous, she could be spotted and recognized at any time. She knew that. Many of her friends had apparently moved away since she'd left, as people tend to do over time, but there were enough still here to make going out of doors unwise. She'd pushed her luck as far as it would go yesterday, running around all over town, she should know better than to push it any further. But Nick had needed something to distract him from his memories, and sitting at home twiddling his thumbs was anything but distracting.
This morning? It was really too early to see many people, the odds weren't that bad. So, as long as she was up, she might as well go out and watch the sun rise.
Mmm-hmm. Never mind the fact that she was walking back to the park, back to the green grass and trees and birds singing. Never mind it took her an hour and a half to get there. She found the tree she'd spotted last night, a monster of a thing, gnarled and tangled. She climbed high enough to see the horizon, where the sky was slowly brightening. Lazily she stretched out along the wide limb, rested her head on her hands and watched the hazy mountains in the distance. She sighed softly as the calm penetrated her soul. *Oh Natalie, you really are spoiled for life...*
The truth was, she wasn't sure why she came here. No, that's not true. Nick had been through so much... she sighed. And as usual, she'd taken his pain and made it her own, like she had so many times before. She needed some time to herself, to get back a little equilibrium. Or a lot of equilibrium, she decided, as she watched the mist start to fade with the first rays of the morning sun. She couldn't remember a time when she hadn't found the sunrise the most peaceful thing in all the world.
Actually, yes she could, because the reason for that sense of peace rose to the forefront of her mind like the dew rising from the grass below...
****
"Come on, love, time to get up." Usually the sound of Adam Pierson's voice alone was enough to bring a smile to her face, but at five o'clock in the morning? It didn't even come close.
"Unnnhhhh... uh-uh."
"You have to get up now, or we're going to be late." This only prompted her to wrap her pillow around her head. He stared at her limp form for a moment, frowning. Then he shrugged lightly, picked her up, and hefted her onto his shoulder. Steadying himself, he started resolutely for the bathroom, talking all the while. "Not to worry, a nice cold shower will be just the thing to *aieech*!"
Because poor Natalie, unused to waking up upside down, had grabbed hard onto the nearest solid object available, that being Adam's rear end. This startled him, predictably, and he stumbled a step. This panicked a still- half-asleep Natalie even further, and she proceeded to throw her arms completely around Adam's waist and hold on for dear life.
Unfortunately, this only served to upset Adam's balance in the other direction, and the two went tumbling in a heap of arms and legs, Natalie taking the brunt of Adam's fall.
In an instant he was off the floor and bending over her, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "Natalie? Are you all right?"
She cracked one eye open to look up at Adam, and was disappointed to only find one of him. If there'd been two, she could have considered killing one. Well, you don't get everything. She slowly sat up. "Ow. Ow. Owwwww... okay, I think I'm up. Or dead. Ow. Did you say something about being late?" She was gently moving everything to make sure it was all in working order.
"We told Karen we'd go to her poetry reading at eight, remember? And it's across town, so..." Adam was unabashedly wearing his little smile that ran the gamut from sarcastic to amused, depending on his mood. She knew which one this was; his sense of humor seemed to get more twisted the longer she knew him.
"Don't laugh, that hurt!" She attempted a frown... badly... and smacked the side of his head as she made her own way to the bathroom, thinking up proper tortures for one twenty-five hundred year old smart-aleck Immortal.
"So where is this place again?" she called out as she waited for the water to get hot.
"Mmm... El Kharim, or some such. At any rate, it's clear on the other side of Cairo, and with the morning traffic what it is, it should take us at least an hour to get there." Adam silently tested the doorknob. Unlocked.
Natalie ducked into the shower and started to get her hair wet. "Why is she having it all the way over there?"
"I don't know," Adam's voice appeared right next to her, and her eyes snapped open to see him undressing on the other side of the curtain, "she said she liked the architecture." With a perfectly *wicked* smile.
She raised one eyebrow as she took in the view. "I thought we were going to be late."
He stepped in next to her and let her take the brunt of the spray, the water making rivers and pools across the curves and planes of her body while only barely misting on him, beading up all along his skin. He tried to catch her eyes, but she was busy tracing slow patterns of water on his chest with her fingers. "So we're late."
Natalie glanced up from her work to look at his face. He was still smiling, as always, but this smile was... well, it was a smile she knew very well indeed, and returned. "You're impossible... and lucky I heal fast," she sighed luxuriously as she slid her arms around his neck and up to let her fingers run through his spiky hair.
"Oh, I think I'm lucky for more reasons than *that*..." His lips brushed hers briefly as his hands found her waist and her fingers began to run up her spine.
"Mmm... that's a nice beginning," Natalie smiled as she found his mouth again by pure touch. Adam chuckled, wrapping his arms more tightly about her as he stepped forward into the spray.
"Then you should love the end." Oddly enough, kissing and laughing at the same time is actually much easier than it sounds.
****
"You were late. Was everything all right?"
"Oh yes. Cairo traffic's just horrid in the mornings, isn't it, Natalie?" Any attempt to look repentant was just completely futile, which didn't help their story, but one had to give them points for effort.
"Terrible."
"Awful."
"I was screaming in pain." Adam was abruptly consumed with a coughing fit, and Natalie changed the subject, smiling brightly at Karen. "But your poetry was beautiful. As always. I'm sorry we missed the beginning."
Karen didn't look the least bit fooled, but wasn't really upset about it. Trying to get those two out of bed anytime before noon required a major concerted effort, and she knew it. "That's all right, I'll read them to you again sometime." She smiled.
Karen Hunter was the first immortal Natalie met when she came to Egypt. Which was fortunate, as neither she nor Karen could speak a word of Arabic at the time, and a misunderstanding could have been disastrous. But as it turned out, the petite brunette was calm and funny, and it was no time before the two became fast friends.
Someone came to collect Adam, apparently he had a phone call. Natalie smiled at his retreating back, then returned her gaze to Karen. "Let me take you out to dinner. My penance for being late."
"Oh, you know how much I'd love to eat off you credit card," she laughed, "but Tom is taking me out on a congratulatory night on the town after this. He gets ridiculously proud of me at these things ever since I told him how nervous I get in front of an audience..." Rolled her eyes in annoyance, which vanished when said Tom appeared, a tall, lanky man with black hair and laughing eyes.
They had been married eighty-four years, Karen said... a rare commitment, according to Adam, even for immortals. *Because in the end, there can be only one.* As simple as it was final. She was really starting to hate the phrase.
***
"Adam Pierson."
"Methos?" The voice roared into his ear, and he yanked the phone away a couple inches. "Hey, it's Joe, how you doin'?"
Methos looked up at the ceiling for a little help. If anybody looked back down at him, he or she had obviously already decided it would be *far* more amusing to just let him run around and make his own messes. Correction, have other people drag him into *their* messes. As usual. He sighed. "Joe, you've managed to capture me away from home, which I'm not even going to ask how you did, because I'm certain I won't like the answer. But this means that we actually have a real phone, with a real connection and everything. You don't have to shout."
"Oh. Heh. Sorry." Seeing how Joe's volume had lowered considerably, Methos switched the receiver to his other, unflattened eardrum, and fiddled with the cord as he talked.
"So, who's in trouble now?"
"Actually, you are." Joe's tone was slightly hurt and slightly smug. Methos wondered if telephones always conveyed that much tone. If so, his little cordless was more dead than he thought. He wondered if he should buy a new one here or in the States. For the life of him, he couldn't remember what the conversion rates were anymore... wait a minute. "What?"
"Somebody broke into the European Watcher Headquarters a few months back. Since then, they've been going through their files, checking to see what was missing." Methos grimaced, and nodded to himself. That was the thing about Watchers, they were as meticulous and thorough as anyone could wish for, if one wishes for such things. But given an emergency, they were slow, slow, *slow*. It didn't surprise him a bit that it took them a couple months just to figure out what was taken.
If they'd just bothered to join the twentieth century and put it on computer... no, actually, let's not go there. Tried that before, remember? Nearly got the entire Immortal community exposed as a newsflash on the bloody BBC. Between that little joyride and the latest episode, which managed to decimate most of the world's highest-ranking Watchers, not to mention nearly killed Joe and spun Duncan off into one of his self- destructive phases, taking Methos along with him...yes, he'd twisted the Watchers' collective skirt enough to last a couple lifetimes. Certainly longer than Adam Pierson would be around. The fact that they'd got a nice twist in his skirts as well made the decision to leave that much easier. But it was how angry he was at himself that set off the big neon signs saying it was time to get the hell out of there and calm down for a while. Despising yourself got very unhealthy if you did it too long, and if his natural equilibrium was *that* far off kilter... well, he'd left for smaller things, that's for sure.
Meeting up with Natalie had originally just been a timely bonus. She had needed someone to teach her, and he'd been available... he owed it to Nicholas anyway, for not telling him she was Immortal when they met for the first time. And if Natalie's watcher decided to tell Headquarters that a decidedly ex-mild-mannered ex-grad-student and ex-Watcher Adam Pierson was living with an Immortal and teaching her to fight... he really wished he could be there to see the looks on their faces. Impotent rage did such interesting things to the blood vessels at the temples. He couldn't help smiling at his own little teeny tiny vicious streak. I mean really, happiness wasn't *always* a warm puppy...
But Joe was still talking, and Methos felt like he just missed an important part of the conversation. "Hold on, what was that last bit?"
"They found some research on the Methos Chronicles missing, especially the last couple sections. The part with Adam Pierson's signature."
Methos hissed a curse. "Will someone please tell me when the Watchers decided to drop the 'secret' part from their 'secret organization'? 'Cause I'd really like to know."
He could practically feel Joe's double-take. "You didn't keep the name Adam Pierson, did you?"
"Natalie liked it, and I didn't think there could possibly be anything the Watchers would try to track me down for." It was a lame excuse, and he knew it. He hadn't been thinking. Damn damn *damn*.
Joe didn't help. "What the hell were you thinking?! Didn't Kalas teach you anything?!?" Methos could just see Joe waving his free arm around as he thundered into the phone. This time he let his ear get flattened; he deserved it.
Besides, he had to think. He chewed absently on a thumbnail, then spoke. "Joe, I'm getting on a plane to Paris. I need to know exactly what we're dealing with here."
"You want me to meet you there?"
Methos' voice was firm and decisive. "No. I want you to stay right where you are, and keep an eye on Natalie for me. Call me the minute anyone new comes into Cairo.."
The pause on the phone was a little too long, before Joe's voice came in again, his soft tone contrasting the force of his words. "Tell me this means you had an attack of conscience and decided to tell her who and what you really are."
One of his eyebrows slowly raised, and for once Methos wasn't smiling. First Alexa, now this. One would really think you'd learn to stay out of my personal life, Joe. "No."
"And you're not taking her with you? Adam, if she still thinks you're Adam Pierson, two thousand five hundred year-old God-only-knows-what, she's not going to stand a chance if someone comes looking for you."
Dammitall, do we really need to have this conversation *right now*? "Precisely! Joe, she's only forty years old," he growled, "which is why I'm getting as far away from her as possible. If I can lead this guy away, she'll be all right."
"But..."
"Joe, I have to leave. Now. If he's been on my trail for a couple months, he can't be too far behind. We've moved a couple times in the past few years, but not enough to make that much of a difference. I'll talk to you... when I talk to you." He hung up before Joe could finish his tirade, and stood with his hand on the phone for a moment longer than he had to. A moment longer before he had to go back and face Natalie.
Other than his name and age, he'd never lied to Natalie. About anything. In a moment, that was going to change. He wasn't sure she would forgive him for this, when she found out the truth. He was fairly certain he wouldn't if he were her. But it had to be done. Come on, old man, do we have to go over the logic again for the thousand and first time?
Yes. Because it will keep me in here a moment longer.
Just one more moment.
****
Adam returned, making the tiniest glance toward the door as he walked. Natalie was wrapping up her conversation by the time he got within hearing distance, and by the time he reached her side, they were ready to go.
She waited till they were back in their own apartment, just to be safe, before turning worried eyes on Adam. "Why are we leaving so early? What did you hear?"
He tossed the car keys onto the endtable and tilted his head to look at her, wincing apologetically. "I have to go to Paris. As soon as possible."
Natalie's brows instantly furrowed, trying to figure out what could be wrong in Paris. "What is it, what's happened?"
He sighed and frowned just a little, rubbing his eyes with one hand in weariness. "Joe... I told you about Joe, right? Well, he's gotten himself in a bit of a jam. I need to go straighten it out."
Natalie sat for a little while in silence. She was a little taken aback, but decided not to let it bother her. She also decided not to let the idea of Adam leaving bother her either. She could just hear Adam's reaction, with just the right kind of smile, the kind that would make her feel about a thousand percent better about all this. *Become quite the selfish little thing, haven't we?* Well, yes, frankly. "How long will you be gone?"
She felt a hand on her cheek, and looked up to see Adam smiling gently, having just dragged an overnight bag out of the closet. "It'll only be for a few days. You won't even notice I'm gone."
The side of her mouth quirked up against her will. "Buy me an electric blanket, and *then* I won't notice you're gone." She stood to help him pack his things.
He smirked back and threw some clothes at her to stuff into the bag. "Just as long as it's an electric blanket with long toenails."
"Oh, heaven. Remind me to get shin guards before you get back." That's the problem with having two people at once who need to have their hands busy... the work gets done twice as fast. Adam glanced at his watch, and looked back at her with a crestfallen expression.
She sighed. "Yeah, yeah." She walked him to the door, then fidgeted, straightening the creases in his jacket. "Better miss me."
A corner of his mouth turned up as his arms wrapped around her waist. "You'd kill me if I didn't."
"You better believe it!" She tried strangling him with his coat, but he won the tussle with a kiss. Then another, deeper, as he wound his hand tightly in her hair.
He pulled away, and his thumb gently caressed her temple. "Bye."
"Bye." Then he was gone, and she shut the door with a sigh.
Methos always told himself later that he couldn't have guessed his efforts would be futile. That he'd already been found. He couldn't have known what would happen.
It never made him feel any better.