Methos entered Joe's bar two weeks later with a scowl on his face reserved for the elderly man. He was supposed to be sparring with Buffy at Mac's dojo. Instead, the watcher had called him and told him it was urgent that he stop by. Leaving the slayer MacLeod's hands without his supervision was against his better judgment to begin with. Nevertheless, Joe had been adamant that he come.

"Joe?" He flipped on a nearby light switch, and side stepped some chairs that had gotten in his way somehow. "Joe are you here?"

The lack of answer caused a tiny niggle of worry within as he went behind the bar, looking for signs that the watcher was there.

"This better be good Dawson," he found himself muttering as he opened the door to the back room.

"I'm afraid it's very bad," Joe said quietly. Methos looked in the direction of the voice and spotted Joe's outline in the darkness.

"What's bad?" Methos wondered as he searched the wall for another light to turn on. "Joe what on earth are you doing here in the dark?"

"The dark?" Joe said absently, then as if realizing what Methos meant said, "oh yea…right."

He heard him shuffle around and finally the click of the light switch caused the room to become illuminated. When Methos' eyes finally adjusted to the light, he noticed what it was that had the watcher so flustered. A body lay on the floor of Joe Dawson's store room. A dead body.

"Who is he Joe?" Methos asked quietly. He looked to the man's face and noticed the tired look in his eyes, seemingly aging him at least ten years. It was a slap in the face to Methos as he witnessed Joe Dawson's mortality become so pronounced right in front of him. He took Joe for granted. He took them all for granted, and they wouldn't be around forever. Immortal, or mortal, somehow Methos knew these people would leave him eventually. The thought hurt immensely, but he pushed it aside in favour of the here and now.

"Craig Miller." Joe replied with a sigh. "He was a watcher. And a friend."

"Let me guess…he was Klossen's watcher?" Methos didn't really need to say it out loud. It was only too obvious and the look of pain that flitted across Joe's face merely confirmed it.

"I never should have contacted him about this." Joe said, anger simmering in his eyes. "It's my fault. Watch, don't interfere. Damn it, I did this!"

"Klossen did this." Methos corrected quietly. "And you don't know that it was you're attempts to get a hold of him that got him killed. There's every chance that Klossen knew about us, that he would have gone after him anyway."

"Don't patronize me man," Joe said with a weary sigh. "We tipped him off and you know it. He left a note attached to the body."

"What does it say?"

"It says 'a valiant effort, but a fruitless one. All you've accomplished is this man's death. I warned you there would be others. Next time it will be someone closer to you. Give me the slayer and no more will be hurt.'"

"He really is a few fruit loops short of a bowl isn't he?" Methos murmured in amazement.

"Crazy or not, I don't think we should doubt his sincerity." Joe said grimly. "How about Buffy? How is her training coming?"

"She's nowhere near ready to fight if that's what you are asking." Methos said firmly. "She's still too reluctant with the sword. I don't know how to get through to her."

"Maybe you can't." Joe offered weakly. "She might have to come to that on her own."

"Not to appear callous Joe, but your friend here proves that time is running out." Methos sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what to do. I mean, even if she were ready to fight, we still don't know what would happen to her if she won. Would the she take it? Or would it overload her? Would she become as powerful as this Klossen guy?"

"What if she couldn't handle it?" Joe wondered softly. His eyes met that of the immortal's as if questioning him in a way that defied verbal response. "What if the quickening would kill her? Would you still ask her to fight?"

"I'm not her watcher," Methos said stubbornly. "It's not up to me if she fights or not."

"Not officially," Joe acknowledged, "but she looks up to you. She listens to you. She's doing this for you. You know that as well as I do. I'm not blind man, I see what's going on."

"You think I'm too close." It wasn't a question. Methos looked away, trying to formulate a response that wouldn't prove Joe right. He quickly realized he had no such response. The plain truth of it was that he was too close. Everybody could see it. He wanted to say it didn't matter, that the quickening would not be an issue, but nobody could be sure. And there was no guarantee they would know the answers by the time she fought him. They were stuck and he knew it. He nodded towards Joe and threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "You're right, I'm too close. I don't know what's going to happen Joe."

"That's not good enough." Joe said quietly, but with an anger to it that simmered under the surface. "Craig is dead. He was a friend, a colleague and a damn good watcher. I need to know that this son of a bitch is going to pay."

"An eye for an eye then Joe?" Methos countered angrily. "Is that how it works now? You'd send that girl to her death for your revenge? I can see I was wrong to tell her that you were different from the other watchers. What is it, ingrained in you people to think of the slayer as nothing but a tool? She's a human being damn you!"

"And we all know you are the champion of the common good," Joe said sarcastically.

"This isn't about me." Methos shot back. "It's about her. And it's about you asking her to take a huge risk. A risk she doesn't even know about. You don't seem to think there's anything wrong with that, but I do. You watchers think that slayers are disposable. You make me sick."

Disgusted, Methos turned, and headed for the door, wanting nothing more to do with Joe, or the watcher's council. The hypocrisy and cruelty had gotten too pronounced to be ignored any longer. Even Dawson was not immune.

"Methos wait!" Joe called after him. Methos paused in mid-stride and turned, his patience running very thin. "I'm sorry man, I don't know what I was…I'm sorry. It's just that when I came here and saw Craig I…I over reacted."

"Yea, you did." Methos nodded, though his expression softened considerably. "I think we should tell her what could happen Joe. She deserves to know it's riskier than we thought."

"I agree, but we don't know for sure what could happen yet." Joe nodded. "But Craig might have been onto something before he died. I found an ancient text in his coat that Klossen must have missed. I don't know for sure what it says, but if I can translate it, it might have the answers we're looking for. Give me a few days to try OK? I don't want to get her worried over nothing."

"A few days." Methos agreed. "No more. You want help moving him?" He gestured to the watcher's body.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather handle this myself." Joe replied sadly. "But thanks."

Methos nodded, not knowing how else to respond and left.