Adding a Bonus chapter in today as this is the conclusion of Part 2. Look for a flashback sequence after this and then the beginning of Part 3. Let me know what you think. elle

Chapter 60

Paris, that afternoon

Amanda exited the elevator on the observation deck of the tower and glanced around. She'd added a blonde wig, dark glasses, a scarf… and a large long coat trying not to appear too much as herself. Cory, thankfully was waiting below. She could sense that someone was here.

Casually she moved about the platform… spending time on all four views when an arm slipped into hers. Immediately she turned ready to attack… then smiled.

"MacLeod!" she whispered.

"Shhh! Not so loud." He pulled her into his arms for a long kiss… and Amanda truly wished they were not in so public a place. Her hands fingered the turban he was wearing and then hung about his neck as she pulled back to gaze into the reflective lenses of his glasses. "Miss me?" he teased.

"More than you can ever imagine," she leaned into his encircling embrace and felt all the tension that had been building in her during the past week or so drain away… leaving only this moment.

"Sorry I didn't make it when you called," he added… pulling her into the elevator for the downward journey. "But it couldn't be helped."

"What happened?"

"Alisaunne died. I think that's what set Nestor off that night. Phillip emailed me later that Nick seemed to be holding his own."

"Sometimes… but at other times… I don't know." She slipped her arms about him inside his coat… aware of his sword… but more aware of him… and of his arms holding her. "Where are we going?"

Duncan chuckled, "Tell ya when we get there."

As the doors opened and they exited… she saw Cory to one side… gesturing. "Uh… oh…" Amanda nodded toward him. "Something must be up." She clasped Duncan's hand and pulled him along with her… unwilling to let go of him for even an instant… worried that he'd vanish again.

"Cory…" Duncan smirked. "What a surprise!" He glared at the young thief.

"Hi Mackie-boy! Always a pleasure! Listen dollface… I'm gonna take a powder. I don't like the look of that couple over there." He nodded toward a concession stand and two men in casual attire facing them. One was sipping a drink… the other munching on nuts. "See ya!" Cory turned and raced off through the crowd, slipping between tourists like the pro he was. The two men didn't move.

"Great… now it's our turn." Duncan glanced about… picked a direction and grinned at Amanda, "Ready?"

"Always… where you go… I'll follow!"

"That'll be a first!" They headed through the crowd in another direction. Amanda clasped tightly to his hand… still afraid that she'd lose him… and she didn't want to… not now… not yet.

Behind them, the two men tossed their food props to the ground and took off running after them. Duncan turned into a narrow side street and raced through a cafe… Amanda hanging on for dear life and not even bothering to apologize to the mortals they surprised as they worked their way through the crowds.

Ignoring the bellowed comments and the rude gestures… the two immortals jumped a low fence and hedge and turned into a small patisserie. They paused to eye the street through the window, then raced through the kitchen where bakers were pulling baked items from the hot ovens… knocked several to the ground… and exited through the rear.

"This way!" Duncan said and they turned right and entered a green area with some overgrown bushes. As they hid amongst the bushes, he grinned at Amanda, "Having fun, yet?"

"Dates with you MacLeod are a real rush!" Amanda smirked then laughed.

"Come on," Duncan rose and pulled her along to another sidestreet where he motioned for her to enter a small sports car. They piled in and he swiftly pulled out… back the way they'd come. He ripped off the turban and glasses and she did the same with her wig. Slowly he passed right by the two men as they were stopped in the street looking around. He turned left at the intersection and joined the traffic flow.

"I was afraid someone might be watching major attractions… but I wasn't certain where else to tell you to meet me without explaining more to Joe."

"You don't trust him?" Amanda asked, pulling down the visor to check her hair and makeup in the mirror.

"Let's just say I don't trust what he might say if forced to," Duncan replied. "He's under surveillance."

"I know… Cory pulled some off yesterday."

"So you and he…"

Amanda was silent. Finally she said evenly, "No… we flew into Paris together and surprised a pair at the airport. They must have Watchers patrolling in airports."

"Then it's amazing we got in and out without any trouble."

"We?" Amanda felt her heart in her throat.

"Alisaunne and Ian were with me."

"Oh…" her tone became a bit brittle. "So are we meeting them somewhere?"

Duncan grinned. "Actually… I made reservations at that little inn east of here… You remember the one where we fought Jean-Phillipe DuMond and his friend that time?"

"I remember… But I remember the night after better."

"Do you?" He reached over and lifted her hand to his lips… kissing it. "I thought we might revisit that time if you were interested."

"Oh I'm interested. I'm definitely interested." Grinning she glanced over her shoulder. "I do hope Cory will be all right."

"Oh…. him." Duncan sobered.

"Now don't give me a hard time about him."

"He's not good for you!"

Amanda crossed her arms over her chest and slumped back in the seat. "I see we're picking up as always. Honestly MacLeod… I don't see what your problem is about Cory. He's just a friend. I didn't plan on running into him… but he came in handy."

"So you used him?"

Amanda looked at Duncan's profile as he drove and sighed. "To get to you."

He glanced at her with a smile and continued to drive chuckling under his breath.

-----

Duncan parked the car in the guests' lot, displayed the parking permit and got out… racing around to open the door for Amanda. He bowed and offered her his hand. She gave it smirking a bit, but her eyes glowed.

Once they'd hurried through the downstairs lobby and sedately raced up the stair to their room… Duncan finally removed the reflective glasses and pulled her into his arms. She gazed deeply into those big brown eyes of his.

"Hello love," she murmured even as he crushed his mouth against hers and pulled her toward the four-poster bed.

-----

Afternoon shadows had lengthened to early evening before they paused to just lie in one another's arms.

As she teased her fingers through his dark chest hair and breathed deeply of the male scent of him… Amanda sighed. "I have missed you Duncan… You have no idea how much."

He chuckled. "I think I have a fair idea. I missed you, too." He lay back with one hand behind his head and felt all the tension of the past few months drain from him. He rubbed his other hand along Amanda's bare back and smiled contentedly.

The symbols from the books and the game teased lightly across his mind and without being aware of it… he lightly began to trace them on Amanda's shoulder.

"Whoa!" she said sitting up… "Did you feel that?"

He had felt something… like a small tingle of static electricity on his fingertips.

She shuddered. "Oooh that was strange."

Duncan sat up beside her thoughtfully. He tried to recall Ellie and Methos and how their hands had sought to find one another's skin when they'd been together years ago… how their hands had move over one another. Duncan turned his hand over and stared at his hand. "Maybe that's it… a way to bond." When he'd met with them briefly in Paris to fight Nestor… he hadn't seen them much… but he had seen that… the way they were… as if one knew the other's thoughts. But those two symbols weren't enough… Duncan scrambled from the bed, throwing back the bedclothes and rummaged for the laptop. He pulled up the game and resettled on the bed next to Amanda.

"Are you still fooling with that thing?" she asked. "I'd have thought you'd have finished it long ago." She'd seen him work on it occasionally when he'd visited the convent.

"I had a thought yesterday… and then just now… I had an epiphany."

She smirked, "An epiphany? As in how you feel about me?"

He kissed her biting and pulling slightly at her lip. "That too… but about what Darius wanted us to find in this. The clue that escaped him." He ran through the first tier of pages… pulling them into close-up and going through them slowly. He shook his head. "I know they're here… I just don't know what I'm looking for."

Amanda draped herself on his shoulder. "He stared at this stuff for how long?"

"Ellie said for several hundred years. That she'd find these artifacts and items and bring them to him without knowing why."

"What is her story? You would never say… and after Nestor, Methos wouldn't let go of her as if he feared she'd vanish… that he'd lose her. I asked Phillip after he joined us at Ste. Genevieve, but he'd never tell me anything."

Duncan met her gaze and smiled. "I think that's her story to tell Amanda. You'll have to ask her someday." He wondered at his decision to say nothing… but some part of him understood that Ellie was an enigma… one whose very existence had to remain a secret… much like Alisaunne herself. And Phillip? Duncan leaped out of the bed again to retrieve his PPC. Quickly he punched in a message and sent it off.

"I love wireless technology," he murmured tossing the PPC down next to the laptop and pulling Amanda close.

"Who did you contact."

"Phillip. He might know how to reach Ellie electronically so we can communicate more easily. As for you?" Duncan grinned and began to nuzzle Amanda's neck. "I have plans for you."

She giggled and slid down into his embrace once more.

-----

Within the dream

Fires raged throughout the village… and the cries of the dying filled the air. Methos ran his sword quickly through an old man and let out a barbaric yelp even as he tossed the dead man to the ground and rounded to see what else he could kill. Nearby his brothers were likewise engaged in destruction. Caspian had picked up a girl and was even now ripping her clothes from her and preparing to rape her in the midst of the carnage. Silas was swinging his great axe as he roared in the thrill of the battle… lopping off mortal heads as if practicing. Kronos killed two men then glared at him grinning.

"This is what it means to be as we are, my brother! This is what we are and always were! This is who we will always be!"

Methos nodded in agreement and turned to see what other damage he could do. Even as he grabbed another villager to kill… he saw in the distance a small dark-haired female… who regarded him sadly and without fear. She raised her arms in welcome. Methos pushed the villager away to cross to her. But no matter how he tried to reach her… she was always just beyond his reach… and behind him… Kronos and the others beckoned… and the carnage continued.

-----

Paris, early evening

Eleanor raised her head. She was curled in the wooden chair in "her" room… the one by the window. She had dozed off. For a moment she had sensed Methos… but even as she'd reached for him she'd felt him turn away.

"I'm here, my love…" she said as tears began to track down her cheeks. "I will not leave you… nor close my heart. Never again! Where you go… I will follow… for all the days to come… no matter what." She lay her cheek on her upraised knees and let the tears fall.

-----

In the outer room, Derrick pulled the crystal from its bag and settled back against the wall staring at it. It lay dormant in his hand as it had for years… and yet… something had made him think of it. He shrugged and set it nearby on the sleeping bag and rose to get something to drink. He was bored by all this inactivity… and anxious to be on the go again with something to do… now that he felt better. As he rose, his sword, propped against the wall fell over onto the sleeping bag. As he walked away, his footsteps shifted the bag and the crystal rolled against the sword. Had he been watching, he would have seen a small flash of light as they touched. But as it was, by the time he returned to move the sword out of his way so he could stretch out and play with his laptop… the light had vanished and both were dark once more.

Derrick booted up the game and flipped through the pages once more, seeing nothing, seeing only the same images he'd always seen… and finding nothing that helped. Yet he noted… for the first time in weeks… he was truly interested in this once again. But within him… there were no voices… and no flashes of old memory.