Chapter 35

Normandy, France

Methos had noticed the messages left by MacLeod... but he didn't dare return them... Not yet! He feared that Derrick... hearing him mention the Highlander's name might insist on talking with him. And for the moment... Methos would rather that MacLeod not know that Eleanor and Derrick were here in France. The fewer who knew... the better!

They hadn't checked out of the hotel so much as just left. With hats and dark glasses they'd gone down the service elevator and out into the parking area where he'd left his own non-descript car. Some of the luggage they'd left in the room... Phillip's stuff was there... as well as a few of the large bags. They carried only the essentials.

"We can buy anything we need... just don't leave anything behind that could identify any of us," he'd said.

Eleanor had winked at him as if to say, "Of course not!"

Derrick had groused a bit about sitting in the back seat alone... but had finally complied. Evidently he still was concerned about Eleanor being too far away from him., and he still stared at "Adam" sometimes suspiciously. Methos had driven swiftly and carefully through and out of Paris toward Normandy.

Phillip's call came in while they were still on the road. Methos pulled over and listened to what the Greek had found in the safety deposit box... then told him what to do with the contents. Next he sent him to the Federal Express Office to pick up a package that should be there... a package he'd been waiting on. "When you have it all... go see the Highlander," he said quietly... hoping Derrick would not pick up on the fact that he was speaking of MacLeod. "Tell him I'll be in touch soon. Help him, Phillip! Find this maniac before all of us are exposed to the world." He shut the phone off and stared at the road ahead. He felt Eleanor clasp his right hand softly... a reminder that whatever he was thinking... he wasn't alone.

Gratefully he raised her hand to his lips to give it a brief kiss as he winked at her with a smile. He gave her hand a squeeze glancing in the rearview mirror to meet Derrick's flat gaze. The boy was still suspicious... or was he jealous? Methos smiled at him over his shoulder, "Ready to go?" He shifted into drive as the boy nodded solemnly. Methos pulled out once more onto the road.

Less than an hour later, Methos pulled up beside an old stone church where once he had awaited the awakening of a decidedly dangerous Duncan MacLeod... suffering the effects of a dark quickening. He had wanted to be near holy ground in case there were any problems... but so far... they seemed to be alone. Methos parked near the church as the three of them got out.

Derrick grinned at the sight of the ocean, racing about with cries of glee and chasing the seagulls. After calling once for him to be careful, Eleanor had leaned back into Methos' encircling embrace.

"What made you think of this place?" she asked.

"MacLeod and I were here a few years ago. He'll understand the message I gave Phillip. Besides... I thought Derrick might enjoy the view of the ocean." He nodded at the boy laughing and running along the edge of the cliff.

Eleanor shivered slightly in the ocean breeze, despite Methos' warm arms about her. She reached up behind her and stroked his neck... feeling at once the tingle that went through her at the very core of who she was. She felt him lean down to brush the top of her hair with a kiss.

"Tell me something," he finally said. "If Darius had lived... would you have made the same choice... or did I win by default."

"Does it matter."

"It does to me."

Eleanor turned in his arms so that she faced him. "I have always loved you both. With you it was so easy... You'd smile and kiss me and I would follow where you led. But whenever we were together... there was always your final lesson between us... that if we stayed together... we might have to one day kill one another. I never wanted that... so I'd stay for only a little while. Or you'd see some new toy and you'd look elsewhere... as if afraid to trust how I felt."

"So you've said," he murmured thinking of the fight that had led him to finally tell her who he was.

"You were the one who first sent me to Paris... why?"

"To entice Darius out of the life he led there. Like this madman in Paris now... I feared Darius' remaining in one place too long would expose us."

"I did try. Without knowing that was what you wanted... I somehow knew it. But something always held him there... and I never knew why."

"Yet you always went back. You kept trying."

Eleanor laughed. "We had a connection. We both knew it... we just never acted on it. Not really. There was always a sadness in him that we..." she paused, biting her lip, then continued. "that he had made other choices for his life... and that I was not a part of them. I think there were times he considered leaving with me. But he never did. And then, of course, there was Kae Dhun and that quickening I took. For a long time it wasn't safe for him to be off holy ground when I was nearby. His self-imposed exile became much more of a reality for a while. And once I was better..." Eleanor laid her cheek against Methos' chest, "the chance seemed to have passed us by. It never really came again."

"And if something of him is in Derrick?"

Eleanor lay one hand to one side of his face. "Derrick is not Darius. Darius is dead. Derrick is a little boy who may somehow have some of his memories... but he not Darius. Besides... I have chosen you... just as I did twelve hundred years ago when King Kenneth gave me the choice to marry whom I wished. That was the first time anyone ever gave me a choice about anything." Eleanor smiled at him, "This time, however, I know who I'm marrying... and I won't turn my back on you... nor close my heart to you... not as long as you want me with you."

He kissed her then... long and slow and deep... just the way he knew she had always liked. From the corner of his eye he glanced at the shrinking form of the boy. Methos looked up and whistled, gesturing for his return. He grinned. "Guess this is what it's like to have kids."

"Well... I always did want children," Eleanor laughed. "Why do you suppose it is we never have them?"

"Don't you think our lives are complicated enough?" he chuckled.

"Oh... they are... Still... children would be nice."

"We can always adopt."

Eleanor leaned back from him as a wide grin covered her face. "Didn't you tell me that once... a very long time ago?"

Methos arched his eyebrows. At that moment his cell phone rang once more. Sobering, he glanced at the number of the incoming call and then turned away. "I'm here," he said curtly.

Eleanor wandered toward the cliff edge closer to Derrick who had gathered a pile of small rocks and was trying to decide how best to throw them toward the pounding surf.

"Have you ever skipped stones?" Eleanor asked thoughtfully.

Derrick shook his head.

Eleanor glanced back at Methos still talking on his cell. She took Derrick by the hand. "Let's go down to the beach itself... I'll show you." She waved to catch Methos' attention, "Adam... we're going below!" Eleanor pointed to the path down the cliff. He raised his hand and nodded. Confident that he knew what she meant, Eleanor headed down the rocky path toward the ocean's edge with Derrick.