"I'll be right there," Duncan promised. He then hung up the phone, retrieved his
sword and put on a coat. As he headed out the door and down the street at a brisk
clip, he thought back to Amanda's plea. He's pulled Amanda out of some fixes
before, some she even asked him to. But in all the time she has ever asked for help,
or said anything else to him, he can't remember a tone of voice ever like that from
her. He wasn't even sure what to make of it. He detected some fear, yes. But a
strange detachment, too. Like...ah, he didn't know. In all his past with Amanda, and
everyone else he had known, he couldn't remember anything quite like it.
As Duncan drew closer to the building with Amanda's suite, he felt the sharp jolt of
the Quickening. Nothing like Amanda's presence, it was POWERFUl, raw, primal, but
lacking personality. It was like nothing he had felt before in his experience as an
Immortal. He couldn't feel Amanda's presence, either. He walked around the building
and looked up at one of her windows. There she was, watching for him. But the
strange sensation was blotting out everything else.
Amanda gestured furiously for him to come up, though the look on her face was
strangely blank. Ok, she wasn't being threatened, wasn't in danger by another
Immortal out for her head, he was pretty certain. So he had no idea what this could
be. Duncan quickly made his way up to her door and knocked, the sensation
hammering at him, almost painful in it's intensity...
"Duncan?", Amanda's voice seemed to whisper to him across a chasm, and he
snapped back to the present.
Amanda let him in, saying over her shoulder, "It's disorienting as hell, and it keeps
you from feeling the presence of one of us. You get used to it after a bit. I guess it's
kinda like being deaf."
"What is?", Duncan said, moving forward, reaching out to her.
Amanda held out a hand, "No, just have a seat. Please, Duncan..."
Duncan, his concerned gaze fixed on Amanda, slowly sat down on her daintily ornate
love seat. Amanda sat on the other cushion and looked at him with that strange look.
Duncan waited for her to speak.
Amanda said, with a broken chuckle, "Stop me if you've heard this one, Duncan, but
a funny thing happened to me on the way home from your place." She seemed
about to break down for a second, but quickly recovered, a bit of a wan grin on her
face as she returned her gaze to Duncan. Her dark eyes seemed to be brimming with
not yet fallen tears.
"Ah hell, Duncan, I'm going to just say it. I'm knocked up, in the family way. Get the
picture? I'm...pregnant. Ah, dammit...", she swore, wiping at the single tear that
finally began making it's way down her left cheek.
Duncan started. "What...how is that possible? I mean...that can't...", his dark eyes lit
with concern, turned inward for a second as he considered. "Was it me?"
"No, Duncan, it wasn't you.", Amanda said, shaking her head, "Although the way it
happened, I wish it was."
"What happened, Amanda?", asked Duncan.
"You know, all those questions we have about our kind, the whys and wherefores?
Why it is we exist, and do what we do? I don't understand it, really, but the powers
that be behind all this believe this doesn't have too much longer to go. And they
want to tie up some loose ends. They gave me one of the knots", she added with a
chuckle, gesturing to her abdomen.
"What loose end?", Duncan asked.
"Something about unclaimed Quickening," Amanda answered, a slight tremor in her
voice. "They want to bring it back into the game. Through me. So they've made me
a mother."
This hit Duncan like a wave. He had no idea what to make of it. If Amanda had been
about to bear his child, there would have been one clear course. Marry her. Be the
child's father. But this...
The only thing he could think of was to be there in a time of crisis. He opened her
arms to her taking her shoulders, and pulled her into a warm embrace, kissing the
top of her head. Amanda cried silently into his chest.
Eventually, she fell asleep. Duncan carried her to her bed and undressed her. Right
before he pulled the covers over her, he noticed her abdomen. It already had a slight
bulge in it. Perplexed, he reached over to touch it. An arc of pure Quickening reached
out and threw him across the room. Duncan lay stunned a second, and when he
recovered, he shook his head and looked at Amanda. She slept on. He stood up, very
carefully reached over her, pulled the covers over her prone form, kissed her
forehead, and left, locking the door behind him.
He needed to talk to someone who knew Immortal esoterica. And the two best
people he knew for this, Methos and Joe, would be at Le Blues Bar about this time.
Besides, he needed something to drink, to help digest what had happened. Yep, a
good stiff one with friends who understood weirdness...