AN - Don't own, Immediately follows Mac Surprise

Ramirez felt a familiar tingle as he entered the little shop; he could see that Gin did as well, she was unused to the buzz. No one was visible, yet.

She homed in on a rack of fencing sabres. "Cool."

"Yes, but it won't do for what you need, love." Just as he was about to lead her to a katana, the buzz became more pronounced, alone warning him of

"You SON OF A- "

"Connor- ladies are present!"

Ramirez's head rocked back as his former student's fist connected with his jaw and Gin screamed.

He rose shakily. "Nice to see you Macleod." Then all shakiness vanished as he returned the favor.

A middle aged woman was on her way to the door, frantic to put up the closed sign while instructing, "Don't you dare take his head- in here. The insurance would never cover it."

"I'm not going to, " Connor coughed. "But I will kill him- once or twice. Painfully."

"What the hell did you do to him, Mac?" Gin asked as she skittered out of the way.

"I didn't do anything to him," Connor replied as she snapped,

"Not you. Him."

And Ramirez, lately Mac answered,

"He was always a hot head. Maybe the time I drowned him?"

"I'd forgotten that. " Whap.

"Then what?" Ramirez asked, ducking and using the Highlander's momentum against him so that he fell and when Connor rolled to his back, a sword was at his throat.

"I'm not as much of a teacher as I thought," Ramirez opined. "Were I, you'd never have allowed your rage to put you in the position to die. Permanently. Remember, when the head comes away from the neck, it's all over."

"If you two maniacs break anything- I'll be the one doing the killing," the infuriated woman said.

"Stand down, Rachel love," Connor coughed. "I wouldna waste my time on a traitorous coward."

"Your vocabulary has improved in four hundred and fifty years," Ramirez noted, backing off slightly

"So's your hair."

"Go away," Rachel said suddenly.

"Rachel, didn't I teach you better manners," Connor scolded his "daughter" reflexively. "Besides, I can throw them out more satisfactorily, him anyway."

"Hands off," Gin snarled.

"Not you, them." Rachel pointed to two men standing outside the door looking like they were deciding whether or not to break in.

"Let them in, they're mostly harmless, though I do have a bone to pick with one of them," Ramirez said testily.

Intrigued enough to not argue, Connor opened the door to let in Joe Dawson and Adam Pierson, aka Methos.

"Why didn't you tell me that he was going by the name Nash?" Ramirez lit into Joe.

"You wouldn't have gone if I'd told you," Joe replied. He looked over the shop and to the bruises blooming on the Immortal jaws. "Looks like watching you two 'd be a damn sight more interesting than watching him," he added with a jerk towards Methos.

"I Watch myself, mostly," Methos grumbled, totally ignored by all.

"Yeah yeah. What'd I miss?"

"I'd be happy to give you an instant replay, " Connor began, and that was warning enough for Ramirez to block him and put a head lock on him.

"Going well I see," Adam drawled. "Told you that this was an asinine idea, Joseph. "

"You set him up?" Gin gaped.

"No, I just thought that four hundred odd years was long enough for them to avoid each other."

"I'm not the one who ran away," Connor gasped in a strangled, for good reason, voice. "or abandoned a woman to be raped."

Gin gasped.

"I didn't abandon her, it'd already happened when I got back from looking for you. My squire- apprentice, was the one who failed to defend Heather. I felt badly about it, so I left."

"She was shattered."

"I could not help her, only you could do that."

"I mourned for you- you overdressed foppish haggis." Connor choked out, let free at last. "I even had a dream where you came back from the dead to help me win the game- in the middle of Hamlet."

"Not MacBeth? Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle pointed toward my hand, come let me clutch thee- it's more Scottish," Ramirez suggested.

"It was Hamlet- guy with the skull in his hand. But you died - again and I left the planet to conquer other worlds."

"What were you drinking beforehand? Sounds like a vintage to avoid," Methos noted.

"The point is- friends don't let friends go through that," Connor growled. "You missed my wedding."

"I'll send you a toaster, happy? Now, I had planned on giving you money, Highlander, do you want it?"

"What for?" he asked, slightly mollified.

"Gineva needs a sword," Ramirez said. "You're married? Again? Well, at least then, my woman is safe around you for a while."

"Your woman?" his woman asked.

"It means I'm your man," he smiled half way.

"Oh."

"I feel some sappy song coming on- Celine Dion," Methos grumbled. "If anyone starts singing, they're buying me a beer, by the case."