Part One: Seasons of Love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes...

How do you measure, measure a year?

~from Rent, lyrcis by Jonathon Larson

Chapter 1

Scotland, June 2005

Twelve-year old Derrick gazed through the telescope in amazement. Although he could remember gazing at stars all his life... both this life and the other one that still only partially made sense to him... he somehow doubted he had ever truly seen stars.

"Wow, Adam! I feel like I could reach out and touch them." He glanced up at Adam and grinned at the immortal in thanks for the gift. Derrick had learned, at least officially, that both his "sister" Ellie and Adam were immortals... beings who didn't age and didn't die. Unofficially, Derrick knew far more, but he continued to hold his tongue on that, feeling he needed to be just a child for them... at least for now. At least until he was grown. He owed them that much at least. Besides... he was a child... a child who still needed to grow up.

"Star-gazing and mapping the lights of heaven has always been a passion of mine," Adam said lightly. "Here... where there is no civilization... no lights to interfere with our viewing... I thought you might enjoy the activity as well."

Derrick put his eye to the viewer once more and sighed happily at the panorama of the night sky the instrument offered him. He could see details on the moon. He could tell the difference between the planets of the solar system and the faraway stars. He could see so much that he had never seen with the naked eye that it boggled his mind. Life and immortality are that way too! There is far more to both, than you have yet learned or remembered! Derrick mentally shushed the Ancient's voice. There was a time to listen and learn... and there was a time to just enjoy being a growing boy.

Behind them in the farmhouse, they heard a crash and a voice raised in exasperation. Both the immortal and the boy looked back at the house with matching grins.

"I'd say she's burned dinner again," smirked Adam, rolling his eyes.

"Looks like sandwiches again tonight," agreed the boy with a laugh.

Both were aware that Ellie... Eleanor... was hopeless in the kitchen. Yet for some reason neither of them could fathom, she had been insisting for the past year and a half that she could learn. So far her efforts had proven less than successful.

"Could she ever cook?" Derrick asked as he peered once more into the telescope... though in fact he did know the answer.

"Not that I recall." Adam tousled Derrick's sandy hair and leaned in to whisper, "I'd better go see what damage she's done this time. Don't be too long."

Derrick nodded his agreement, having already decided that unless called to dinner, he'd stay out here for an hour at least. He liked to give the immortal couple time to be alone together. He knew they'd been separated for centuries mainly by their distrust of one another... and fear that one day one of them might have to kill the other one. Recently they had at long last decided to commit to one another. The two had finally decided, through a series of adventures, almost two years ago that they truly loved one another and that they would chance living together once more. They had been married once... and this farm in southern Scotland had been their home.

That had been while Eleanor had still been in her first life in the ninth century. After her death... murdered by a band of outlaws, Adam... Methos... had been her first teacher, before she'd left him to wander the world. Their lives had crossed occasionally in the intervening centuries since. Derrick once more reminded himself to call the old one Adam. While he could slip with Ellie's name... Adam's true name was another matter entirely.

Ever since the three of them had shared a vision of the Ancient called Aja in the seeing stone a few years ago, Derrick had been reluctant to tell the others exactly what he'd learned. That he finally knew that the memories of the immortal called Darius were a part of his memories... as were the memories of some of the immortals whose Quickening Darius had taken during his long life. Most of the time those memories did not make a whole lot of sense to the boy. They flashed through Derrick's mind in swift succession too quickly for him to seize, like a silent movie on fast forward. But sometimes... sometimes... Darius' memories of Methos and Eleanor came through clearly and in focus... in little things like knowing Eleanor's inability to cook... or in knowing Methos' true name. Again Derrick reminded himself to only use the name Adam even in his thoughts.

The closest he'd come to telling anyone the truth had been Duncan MacLeod. "I have some of the memories of Ellie's friend Darius, Duncan. I know you two were friends."

"How much do you remember?" the Highlander had asked him pointedly as they had wandered over the Battlefield of Waterloo.

Derrick had shrugged. "Not much. And what I do doesn't really make sense. It's like too much information trying to squeeze into too small a container."

Duncan had chuckled at the image, then gazed soberly out at the peaceful countryside, attempting to recall what it had been like in 1815, when Duncan MacLeod had first met the immortal priest Darius who had changed his life. Duncan was also an immortal, although a relatively young one... just over four hundred years of age. He finally had looked down at the boy soberly and said, "How can I help?"

"Don't tell them. They need time together. They need me to just be a little boy. Maybe when I'm grown... everything will make sense."

"And the research? Is it hidden here?"

Derrick had shaken his head. "I really don't know. I know it's important... but I also know it will keep... at least for now. Adam needs to take us away someplace safe… someplace where the Watchers will never find us. Don't tell anyone and don't try to find us. It's the only way. Besides... you need to watch Alisaunne."

"What do you remember about her?" Duncan's voice had an edge to it. Derrick hadn't been told exactly what had happened to the girl, only that she was safe. He had only the vaguest memory of meeting her briefly before the immortals had all left to trap and contain an insane immortal stalking the girl. Derrick, being only a little boy, had not gone, but stayed behind with a mortal friend of Adam's.

"Not much... just that Darius thought she was special. He kept an eye on her when she was small." That at least was the truth... if not quite the whole truth. Derrick did know something else about the girl... but he was not ready to share that information, not yet. At least, not with MacLeod.

The Highlander had agreed, and so the plans had been made. Adam, together with Eleanor and Derrick had vanished from the sight of the Watchers, and come to Scotland, to the home the couple had once shared so many centuries before. They'd had no further contact with MacLeod or with the Watchers, nor any other immortal, not even their friend Phillip. Here on this isolated and fairly sufficient small farm, they lived simply in much the way they might once have lived. Even Derrick found he did not mind the lack of electricity nor modern conveniences, as if the memories of those he carried were far more at home in this peaceful place than in the busy helter-skelter modern world.

Here he could grow up... grow into the potential within him. Then he would remember it all... when it was time. At least... that's what he seemed to understand.

He sat back and stretched, aware that he'd been staring at the stars for far longer than a mere hour. Quietly he rose, packing the telescope once more into it's case and returning to the farmhouse. Inside, an oil lamp was burning and there was a plate of sandwiches on the table.

If he listened... he could just hear the soft sounds of the two of them in their room. Adam was comforting Ellie and assuring her that her cooking disasters did not impact on his love for her. Derrick smiled. It was likely a conversation that they might have had twelve hundred years ago. The boy picked up a sandwich, covering the rest and placing them in the cold box for the night. He poured a glass of milk and retired to his room on the far end of the house. It might have been a servant's room once upon a time... perhaps the housekeeper's. Derrick found it easier to sleep if he were as far from the others as possible. And sleep was what he needed.

After polishing off the milk and the sandwich, he stretched out on the bed and gazed about him in the semi-darkness at the austere room. He'd been adding things of nature he'd found in the area... a wasp's nest, pressed leaves and dried flowers, oddly shaped stones, for example, but it was still rather plain. Unlike most boys' rooms it contained no posters, no pictures, no paintings or artwork, no tapestries. It mattered little. He was seldom in here except to sleep. Derrick reached one hand below the bed and withdrew a velvet bag. Opening it he dropped the Ancient's Crystal... the Stone of Seeing she'd called it... into his other hand and stared into it. When he'd first held it... it had showed him Cassandra... the immortal psychic poised to take Eleanor's head. He'd prevented that from happening. Then it had showed him the collective past of immortals... so quickly it had not fully made sense. Finally when the three of them... Adam, Eleanor and Derrick had held it... it had shown him the face of the Ancient called Aja.

Derrick did not know what the others had seen. To his knowledge they'd never spoken of it... even to one another. He had not told them what he had seen either. Nor of the choice he'd made. The same choice Darius had made... the same one the Ancient called Havron had made... the future over the past. Derrick did not need the past... nor would he seek to recapture it. It was the future that was important. Aja had smiled at that as though she had known, but had wanted him to be certain.

"One day you will remember what you need... Until then... grow and be happy!" she had seemed to say. But the nearness of the others had made him remember things he most likely shouldn't have... at least not yet. The stone had been quiet since that day a year and a half ago. No longer did it glow nor show him scenes of the past. But... with it under his bed... when he slept at night... sometimes the visions came back... and sometimes... he remembered them when he woke. And the more he remembered... the more he wanted to remember. It was as if the past wanted to claim him once more.

Derrick replaced the stone in its bag and placed it under his bed next to the box containing the sword of which he was also guardian. Until he'd agreed that it was his to watch and carry... the sword had seemed to whisper to the immortals around him, as if it were some great temptation. Now... it lay quiet in his keeping... though it still glowed red in sunlight as if stained with blood. It too would have to wait. He would need to be grown to wield it. Adam and Eleanor still kept silent on the truth of his immortality. But Derrick knew it was a part of him... but not today... nor anytime soon.

He closed his eyes and let his mind drift... Soon he seemed to wander in lands he'd never seen and heard thoughts that were not his own. With a great cry... he seemed to call forth armies of destruction to wreak havoc upon the earth.

***

France, June 2005

Gina de Valicourt, her arms laden with shopping bags and parcels, managed to get the front door of the chateau open. "Yoo hoo... Robert... I'm back... I could use some help!" She could sense Robert somewhere in the chateau. Normally her husband of over three hundred years was here to greet her at the door whenever she returned from buying out the stores.

"Wait until you see what I found today." Gina divested herself of the packages and rummaged through one of them withdrawing a black lace negligee she had purchased. Removing her coat, she held the filmy gown against her and went in search of Robert, noticing he must have given the servants the day off again as none were about. "Robert? Where are you my darling?" Laughing and loving the game of hide and seek, they often played when the servants were gone, the petite dark-haired immortal beauty tip-toed through the empty rooms calling Robert's name. He was here... she could feel him... all she had to do was keep looking.

Finally she sensed him within their bedroom. Gina arranged the gown before her and flung wide the doors to dance into the room. Laughing as only a woman in love can laugh... she twirled into their room to see Robert's body lying still and dead on the floor... a pool of blood soaking the carpet.

"Robert?" Gina looked around at a sound... and knew nothing more.