Methos, oldest of the Immortals, stood staring at the now buzzing phone in his hand. He stood there long enough to draw the attention of the phone's owner who took it from his hand and replaced it in its cradle. "Adam?" Joe asked.

"What's going on?" Mac demanded joining his two friends at the bar having abandoned his seat at one of the tables and his lunch with it.

"He said the Council has put Daniel Jackson on trial," Adam said.

"That's impossible!" Joe argued. "Daniel's dead."

"Are you sure, Joe?" Adam asked.

"There was a death certificate signed by the U.S. Air Force," Joe told the world's oldest living man.

"Who are you talking about?" Duncan asked.

"Dr. Daniel Jackson," Joe answered. "He was a researcher with the Watchers."

"And Horton's foster son," Adam added.

"A Hunter?" Duncan demanded angrily.

"No!" Joe denied. "Not Daniel. There wasn't a mean bone in that boy's body."

"I would agree," Methos said. There was a thoughtful look on his face as he continued, "At the time, I suspected Horton had him killed when he wouldn't cooperate."

"What?!" Joe gasped. "Why didn't you say anything?" he demanded.

"What would that have accomplished, Joe?" Methos asked. "Except adding to your grief...and your guilt."

Joe lowered himself onto one of the barstools. "Daniel was determined to study in England when he graduated from high school," Joe remembered. "I would almost say desperate."

"That doesn't surprise me," Adam said. "Daniel was always very...tense...whenever Horton came to visit.

"What are you saying, Adam? That James abused him?" Joe asked with an expression of sick shock on his face. "I would have..." Joe couldn't finish that objection. He hadn't noticed his brother-in-law was killing Immortals. How could he claim he would have noticed him abusing the child placed in his care?

"I don't think it was physical," Methos told the other two men. "Mentally? Emotionally? When I met him he spoke how many languages? Sixteen? Seventeen? And he was only eighteen. He studied like his life depended on it."

"And maybe to Daniel it did," Joe concluded. Joe had been the one to arrange to have Daniel placed in the care of his sister and her husband. A few months after their deaths, Joe had gone to check on the only son of two Watcher field researchers who had died in a freak accident. What he had found had deeply shocked him. The injuries he'd sustained in that first foster home had put him in the hospital, and Joe had moved Heaven and Earth to see the boy was placed in a safe home upon release with his sister...and her husband. A young boy torn from his parents and placed in that Hell. How desperate must he have been to stay in the home where he was fed and clothed and where no hand was raised to him. "Oh God," Joe breathed. "What did I do to him?"

"You couldn't have known, Joe" Methos said trying to absolve his friend of guilt. "Daniel guards himself well. I was his roommate at college, and I'm not even sure..."

"I am," Joe said. "It fits. You didn't see where I found him, Adam. All James would have had to do was threaten to send him back there."

"Daniel was extremely intelligent. He saw and understood things few others could," Adam told the other two not wanting to admit he suspected Daniel knew exactly who he was.

"You think he arranged his own disappearance to get away from James?" Joe asked.

"It's possible," Methos replied. "If he did, how did the Council find him now? And why do they have him on trial?"

"Could they think he's a Hunter?" Duncan asked.

"Maybe," Joe admitted, "but when he disappeared it was with the U.S. Air Force. They may think he told the government about Immortals."

"No," Methos denied. "Daniel's as likely to have done that as turned Hunter. It's just not in him. Besides if he had, the Watchers would know about Immortals being captured by the government by now. It's been...what? Six or seven years."

"Maybe," Duncan agreed dubiously.

"Whoever that was on the phone said he thinks they're going to kill Daniel," Methos said.

"I'm going to Headquarters," Joe announced as he picked up the phone.

"Make that two tickets, Joseph" Methos said. Duncan raised an eyebrow at this. "What can I say? I like the boy," Methos admitted though that was hardly the only reason for this little adventure.

"I'm coming too," Duncan announced. "If only to keep the Old Man out of trouble."