Disclaimers in part 1

He named her Scully. She learned the sound of the name, and knew when to pay attention to it and when to ignore it. She named him Big Nose, and she devoted herself to taking care of him.

It was very important that she wake him on time in the morning, by sitting on his chest and nipping at his nose. She tried to sample his food for him, but he was very resistant to that. She did, however, train him to share his beer.

She also felt it was necessary that she sound the alarm whenever intruders approached his front door. He didn't hear them as well as she did, so she was diligent about climbing the curtains and announcing the impending intrusion. Frequently he answered the door after plucking her from the drapes, and he would hold her while she struggled and hissed at whomever it was who was taking his attention away from her.

Sometimes Big Nose would go away and leave her alone for years. Well, for hours, really, but it seemed like years. When he returned she would greet him and chastise him, and drink his beer. Then all would be well.

One night, he returned very late, and ignored all her attempts to love up to him. It was very frustrating. She had been bored and lonely all day, and now he would hardly pet her. She jumped in the open suitcase on his bed, trying to make him notice her.

"Get out of there, Scully." He plucked her out of the suitcase and tossed her to the floor. Well! This was a fine way to treat the world's most wonderful kitten!

She studied her human. Studying him was one of her favorite things to do. He was moving very hurriedly, back and forth to the bed, putting clothes in the suitcase. Scully finally noticed that he smelled of fear. What threat could have frightened her human? Whatever it was, she'd take it on!

She stalked out of the room to survey her territory. She pounced on a throw rug, and clawed it into submission. She ripped the toilet paper, which was dangling down in a threatening manner. She scaled the drapes, defeated the sofa cushions, and pulled all the placemats off the table before returning to the bedroom to find an entire basket of clean laundry just taunting her. She leaped and tipped, and was buried in clothes.

"Scully!" Somehow Big Nose always noticed when she did embarrassing things. He extracted her from beneath the laundry. I meant to do that. Really!

He set her on the bed and spoke to her. His tone was gentler, now, not distant and distracted as it had been.

"Scully, I'm leaving you for a while. Mme. Lebeau will take care of you. If anything happens to me, she has promised to find you a good home." He still seemed upset. She couldn't find the threat, so she tried to comfort him with purring.

He turned away, doing something at the dresser. "My friend is in trouble, Scully. I don't know how to find him or how to help him." He paused, staring at nothing. If he was so interested in the dresser, then Scully needed to be on the dresser. She'd never managed its height before, but he had left one of the drawers open, and if she could just make the jump …

Success! She crowed her victory at him. He was irritatingly unimpressed. He merely looked at her, his tone returning to distraction. "He's done something … something awful." She paraded along the narrow way, standing directly in front of him. Movement caught Scully's eye and she turned to see another cat! And not a tail's length from her, right on the dresser! She jumped and hissed, and so did the other cat. What in the world?

Before she could figure it out, Big Nose picked her up, still hissing, and carried her out of the room. "I'm sure it was an accident. It has to have been an accident." He deposited her on the couch. She was torn between staying with him and returning to challenge that other cat. But it had no smell… Something was wrong.

In fact, she knew, there was a great Wrongness approaching. Scully was suddenly very afraid.

Big Nose looked at the door as if he'd heard something. Since when did he sense someone approaching the door before she did? Scully had heard no one, but she knew a terror she'd never experienced before. She managed one howl of warning before her body took her, without her volition, under the sofa and as far to the back as she could cower.

"But how do you behead someone by accident?"

II

As Scully shook with mindless fear, she heard the knock, and, to her increased horror, she heard Big Nose draw his sword and open the door. Nooo!

Destruction and death entered the flat. Scully pressed her ears back and her body as flat to the floor as she possibly could. She kept her eyes shut, and waited for the End of Everything. When it didn't come, she carefully opened her eyes. She heard voices, and one of them was her human's. Stupid! Didn't his mother teach him not to talk to demons? Hers certainly had.

"Duncan, you don't know what you're asking."

"Yes, I do. I'm not asking, Methos; I'm begging you. Please. I can't live like this."

It was her job to take care of him. She wasn't sure how to take on a demon, and first she would have to conquer the numbing fear that coursed through her. Slowly, she slid forward, still on her belly, to where she could just see out from under the sofa.

It looked like a man; a big man. A man with long dark fur on his head, badly groomed. It wore dirty and torn clothes and held a glove in one hand. Her human behaved toward it as he did toward other humans. But it wasn't human!

"Duncan, you're exhausted. Sit down, before you fall down. Let me call Joe. He's sick about this. We … we all are."

"No!" the man-demon bellowed. "Don't you understand?! I'm a threat! To Joe, to you, to everyone! When I took a dark Quickening, you were ready to take my head to stop me. You've got to do it now!"

Well at least the End of Everything didn't seem to be hurting her human, though she could sense great distress in Big Nose. What could she do?

"No."

Destruction lowered itself to its knees, and gripped the glove before it with both hands. It looked up at Big Nose with water running down its face. It spoke softly this time.

"It's not an execution; it's not murder. Methos, it's the coup de gras. Please. I can find any immortal to take my head, but I want it to be you, my friend. I know I can count on you."

"What, right now? Right here? You're ready to die, just like that? You're quitting? You disappoint me, Duncan. I didn't think you were such a quitter."

"Not now. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, at … sunset. I'll need a day to get some things in order. Come to the barge. My quickening will destroy it. You can set it on fire as my bier. Say you'll do this for me, Methos. Don't let me kill again. It's the death of everything I've ever stood for. Say you'll come."

"Duncan, I …"

"Promise me you'll come to me tomorrow at sunset. Give me your word."

"I … will … come."

"Good." The creature stood. It clasped Big Nose's elbow, embracing his forearm. Scully couldn't stifle the low growl which formed in her throat at the sight of the demon-man touching her beloved human. No one seemed to hear her.

"Whatever I do or say tomorrow, remember I truly want this. I know you won't fail me this time."

The Thing left. Scully and Big Nose were alone. Big Nose stood still, staring at the door. Scully crept out from under the sofa and trembled, torn by conflicting urges. Her fury won out and she scampered to the door the Thing had used, and peed on it. And stay out!

Big Nose sank onto a chair, and Scully was on him in a second, crying. He made half-hearted attempts to pet her as she paced in his lap, but his attention wasn't really on her.

"He wants to die. Scully, he wants to die. He's unarmed. Someone will kill him. I've got to do something." He paused. "Did you just piss on the door? You're acting very strangely."

Scully wriggled between him and the arm of the chair, trying to hide from everything. She cried continually, wishing he would understand. He dug her out.

"He scared you, didn't he, little girl. He's gone now. It's not like you to be afraid of anything. But maybe you should be."

Scully spotted the glove It had brought into her house. It had left it behind, on the end table. Her fear turned to fury. She leaped on the glove and batted it to the floor. Now, how could she get it out of her house, too? She considered peeing on it.

Big Nose moved her aside, and took the glove. "Maybe you should be! Scully …" He stood abruptly, staring at it. " … this is the wrong glove!"

III

Bedtime came and went, but Big Nose didn't go to bed. He emptied the suitcase, and returned it to beneath the bed. He sat at the computer box for a very long time.

Usually he was very tolerant of her when she walked on his keyboard or lay down on his mouse, but tonight he moved her aside repeatedly, and not always gently.

"Sorry, little one, but I've got to find something which could help." He munched absently on a pretzel from a bag at his side. "There isn't a Zoroastrian-demons dot com. What a surprise."

Miffed, she watched him from the bed.

She dozed, and dreamed of the other cat on the dresser. But in her dream it had red, glowing eyes, in addition to no smell. She woke, wary.

Her human was still at it. She craved his attention desperately. She cried the "Mother-come-here" cry. No response. She stood and stretched, and decided to try the dresser again. He'd pay attention to her if she started knocking things off of it, she guessed. And that other cat might be up there.

Before she could try the jump, the Wrongness returned. Not again! She howled and dived beneath the bed, colliding with the suitcase. Determined to fight this Thing, this time, she peered out from under the bedspread.

A red mist drifted down from the ceiling. Her human stood, watching it. Destruction appeared out of the mist, looking the same as it had before, except now it had red, glowing eyes. All thought of challenging it shivered out of her.

"I'll be damned," her human breathed.

"Of course you will."