Disclaimer:

I am not making any money off this and am doing this out of pure pleasure that I receive from writing my little stories. All recognizable characters from the shows Sentinel and Highlander belong to their respective powers that be. Any original characters belong to me.

Author's notes:

This is my little story that is a sequel to The Past Revisited. The story is an AU of The Sentinel and Highlander: The series. Again, Blair is less nebbish and two of my favorite immortal characters make an appearance.

Please give reviews; constructive criticism only, flames will be ignored. Thanks!

Chapter 2

(The next day)

Jim and Blair had spent an hour with the FBI going over the previous day's events. Afterwards, they had spent the morning going over paperwork, hoping to finally get caught up and get Simon off their backs. Close to noon, they decided to take a break and go out for lunch.

As Blair was straightening up his desk, for he hated to come back to work and see a messy desk, unlike Jim, who had an incomprehensible system for organization, he felt a faint buzz at the back of his skull. It was so faint that he almost dismissed it. However, Jim with his super-human hearing picked out an argument going on between a civilian and the desk sergeant at the front of the cavernous Major Crimes unit. He heard Blair's name being mentioned.

"Chief," Jim said, catching his partner's attention, nodding in the direction of the front desk.

Blair looked up from straitening a stack of papers and focused on what Jim was indicating. He saw the man that ran him over with that damned blue Honda. "Oh shit," Blair swore and bolted out of his chair, heading towards the man.

"Blair Sandberg," he said, looking relieved and quite anxious. "Um, well, I have your wallet here."

As Blair got closer to his resurrection witness, he felt a faint buzz at the base of his skull. Suppressing a mighty groan, it came out as a sigh. "Yeah, that's me. Thanks for finding it," he said taking the proffered wallet, forcing himself to smile. Inside he was mentally beating himself for being so careless.

"I just wanted to say how sorry I am about yesterday. I swear to God I never saw you coming. And I thought you were, and then you got up," he babbled onwards, causing Blair to cringe.

"Sandberg!" Simon called out as he passed by, obviously hearing the conversation. "What happened to you yesterday? Something other than what you put in the report?"

"Uh," Blair began. Luckily for him, Jim decided to step in, saving his partner from himself.

"You know Blair, Captain. He managed to get knocked off his feet. No big deal," Jim said smoothly.

"Dude," the guy said, causing Blair and Jim to cringe. 'Dude' showed the stranger's age and maturity starkly. "I ran into you with my car, sending you flying through the air."

"Seriously, Captain. It was no big deal," Blair said, shrugging his shoulders.

Jim, once again, taking control of the situation, placed a firm hand on the man's shoulder and quickly guided him out of the lobby area and back into the elevator. Blair followed reluctantly, praying that the reporter would keep quiet for the duration of the ride back down stairs.

They made it out onto the street, when the guy pulled away from Jim and turned to face Blair. "Look, I don't know why you won't admit to this? You were like dead. I know the difference between someone not having a pulse and someone alive. And you were dead, totally, absolutely dead."

"You obviously made a mistake, um, who are you again?" Blair asked.

"Joss Thomas. I'm a writer with the Star Gazette," he admitted.

Blair and Jim groaned. The one thing neither of them needed was a tabloid reporter in their lives.

"I know, what you are thinking," Joss said. "Tabloids are sleazy rags. But, this could be my big break and get me out of them and into the legitimate press. This could be a great story for the both of us."

"No. There is nothing to tell," Blair said emphatically. "We got to get back to work now. Thanks for finding my wallet for me though. Have a good day okay?"

Joss shrugged. "Maybe we'll talk later," he replied, not willing to let it go.

"Sure, later then," Blair muttered, hating himself for being stupid enough to die in front of someone, especially a reporter.

Jim and Blair had made plans to meet up with Methos and his newly acquired student, Nick Wolfe, at a local pub. They were sitting in the back, away from the few patrons that were present.

"You're getting sloppy in your old age," Methos said, rolling his eyes after Blair retold what had happened to him the previous day. "Does the concept of secrecy ever come into play with you?"

Blair responded with a crude gesture, expressing his opinion of what his old friend had said, though he did recognize the truth of it. "Its not like I meant to get hit and die in front of him. Besides he's going to find out about us one day."

Jim looked confused for a moment. "What do you mean?"

Blair sighed. "Joss is a pre-Immortal," he explained.

"You can tell who is going to be one before they do?" Jim asked, a troubled look on his face.

Methos, seeing the look on Jim's face, understood immediately what the human was thinking. "No, you are not one of us. You're a Sentinel and they are always human. Guides though are usually Immortals. Many of the Immortals that become Guides do so because they carry knowledge from the past about the ones that came before and that can help the Sentinel deal with future threats to the people."

"Yeah, what he said," Blair chimed in. "Some of us, those with experience and those that are more powerful, can sense a pre-Immortal. It feels like the buzz we get when we feel each other's presence, but it's fainter. Nick here, he probably would not be able to tell if someone was a pre-Immortal, he's too new to this," Blair said.

Nick gave Blair a half-hearted dirty look. "So what are you going to do about this Joss guy? He's a reporter and the last thing you need is to have your story in some rag."

"I haven't decided," Blair admitted, watching the beer in his glass swirl around in his glass.

"Well, the way I see it, you have two options," Nick said, being the voice of reason.

"Which is what?" Methos asked, looking at his pupil.

Nick picked up the pitcher and refilled his glass. "Blair can tell Joss the truth about Immortals, don't tell him about his own status, and trust him not to sell the story to the papers. Or, you can lie through your teeth, deny everything, and wait for him to one day die."

"You could always tell him about himself. Maybe if he sees how this will affect him, then he'll back off," Jim suggested.

Methos shook his head. "No, we never tell a pre-Immortal about what they will become."

"Why not? Isn't it kind of cruel to not let them know what they will be facing?" he asked, perplexed.

Methos took a long draw from his beer, made a face, and set it down. "This stuff tastes like shit."

"I told you to not order Southwest Boulevard," Blair said.

"Going on," Methos continued. "Tradition would have it that we do not tell someone about their eventual fate. They need to experience life and things fully before they become one of us. A potential Immortal who knows about his or her fate will probably take stupid chances with their lives, probably ending their lives prematurely, before they are old enough to actually survive. The younger you are when you become an Immortal, the less chance you have for survival."

"Oh. Well, you could always kill him. He'd come back anyway. It's not like he's a kid," said Jim, half joking. Although he did not like the idea of ruthlessly killing someone, even if they would come back to life, he saw it as a possible solution.

The three Immortals drew in a sharp breath with that solution.

"What?"

Blair and Methos just looked away, leaving Nick to explain his story.

"I was shot by someone I considered to be a trusted friend. I was dying, poisoned, and she did not want me to suffer any longer and did not want to take the chance that I might not come back. You see, we have to have a violent death in order to trigger the Immortality. Being poisoned is not exactly violent, but it's not a natural death either. So whether or not I would have come back is debatable. But since she shot me in the heart, I died a violent death, causing my Immortality to be triggered," Nick explained, a dark tone in his voice.

Jim nodded, understanding how insensitive his suggestion had been. He also gained a greater insight to Nick Wolf. Although they had met only twice before, he had been able to pick up on the fact that was something weighing the man down.

"So what are you going to do?" Methos asked.

"I don't know," Blair admitted. "I'm going to have to think about it for awhile."

"That'll take you a while," Jim and Methos said in unison, earning them a glare, then a smile from Blair.