AN: Thanks so much for the reviews and the pointers. I'm getting so sick of my grammar mistakes so I asked SouthernChickie to Beta and she so graciously has agreed. Thank you SoutherChickie you ROCK! Okay enough with the tangents and on with the story.
"I'm so sorry, Richie," Tessa said taking his hand. "That must have been awful, but that wasn't your fault."
Richie gave her an unbelieving glance. How could it not be his fault? The man shot Emily because Richie dropped the coke bottle.
"Tessa's right, Richie, you had no control over the situation," Mac said staring at him intensely. He knew that what he was saying was probably going in one ear and out the other. Richie could be stubborn at the worst times. "You were just a child. You had no concept of what could have happened."
"So, anyways now you know why Emily couldn't possibly have written that letter," Richie said, changing the subject back.
Mac raised an eyebrow and stared at Richie. It wasn't due to the change of subject. It was because Richie was being very naïve at the moment.
"What?" Richie finally asked after several moments of staring back at Duncan with a blank look.
"You really think it's not possible for Emily to be alive," The Highlander asked.
"She died in front of me," Richie said.
Mac nodded. "And I've died more times than I can count."
Richie's jaw dropped. It wasn't possible, was it? "You think Emily's an immortal?"
"It would make sense," Tessa said nodding in acquiescence to Mac's statement.
"But then why didn't she contact me before now?" Richie asked curiously.
Mac leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. "Richie, before you saw what happened with me and Connor what would you have thought if Emily came waltzing back into your life?"
He shrugged. "I don't know." Richie stood up and began pacing. "But that doesn't mean she shouldn't have. She was the only mother who was decent to me, or at least I thought she was decent to me, but it turns out she abandoned me."
"She didn't abandon you, Richie," Mac said, watching the youth pace around angrily. "America knows Emily Ryan to be dead. She couldn't just show up and take you away."
"Why not?" Richie asked furiously. "She could have taken me to another country. We could have gotten new names and new identities. I could have grown up with her!"
"You would have been on the run your whole life," Mac said. "Missing children are always top priority, even in other countries."
"I don't care," Richie said. "We would have been together."
"Richie, it seems Emily only wanted the best for you," Tessa said. "Being on the run is no life for a child."
"It's better than the life I had without her," Richie snapped. He shook his head. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Are you going to meet her?" Tessa asked.
Richie planted his hands on his hips and shrugged. "I don't know." It was a lot to think about. Emily was alive. She was immortal for Christ's sake. It was too much for him to take right now. He shook his head as if he could throw the thoughts from his mind. "I'm going for a walk."
"Be careful," Tessa called as Richie walked out the door. "That went well," She drawled turning to Duncan.
"He's upset," Mac shrugged. "That's to be expected."
"Do you think he'll be all right?" Tessa asked worriedly.
Mac put an arm around her shoulders. "He'll be fine, Tessa. Let him take the time he needs to himself. He needs to work this out."
"Do you think he'll meet Emily?" Tessa asked leaning into his embrace.
Mac sighed and laid his head on top of hers. "I don't know, Tess, but like I said, he needs to decide this for himself."
"How was your walk?" Mac asked when Richie walked in the door. He was polishing one of the many swords he had on display.
"You didn't have to wait up for me Mac," The teen said as he flung his jacket over the back of a chair. He leaned a hand on the back of the chair and plopped the other hand on his hip.
"I wasn't waiting up," Mac replied neutrally, not even glancing at Richie. "I got fidgety and decided to clean some of my swords."
Richie wasn't buying it, but he was too tired to argue. He shook his head and walked into the living room. He fell onto the couch and threw his arm over his face. This was not turning out to be a good birthday at all. Sure it was at first, with the dinner (though he had protested) he truly liked the thought that Mac and Tessa had given him gifts and subjected him to the humility of having happy birthday sung to him.
It was those little things that Richie had missed growing up with a real family. It was those things he missed because Emily had ran out on him. Life always started out good, but Richie knew that sooner or later something bad would come along and muck everything up.
"Want to talk about it?" Mac asked sitting in the chair across from the coffee table.
"What's there to talk about?" Richie's mumbled voice asked through his arm.
Mac shrugged. "Whatever it is that's on your mind."
Richie removed his arm from his face and looked over at the Highlander. "I don't want to talk about Emily."
"Who said you had to?" Mac asked sitting back in the chair. He crossed his legs and stared with a blank gaze at the young man. It wasn't pressuring, or expecting, it was just compassionate. Richie hated that.
"I don't think I can forgive her, Mac," Richie said out of the blue. "I mean I could forgive her for dying, because that wasn't her fault…"
"But you still think it's yours," Mac said bluntly.
"But her abandoning me like that," Richie said ignoring Mac's statement. "I don't know if I can forgive her for that."
Mac sighed and leaned forward on his knees. "I can't make this decision for you, Richie. This is something you have to do on your own. If you want to see her, go see her. If you don't want to, than don't."
"It's not that simple," Richie said tensely. "I mean I have questions for her, but I'm so mad at her. I just know my life would have been different had she stayed."
"But different for better or for worse?" Mac asked.
Richie rolled his eyes and looked up at him. "My past isn't exactly all ice cream and cakes you know."
Mac nodded. "I know, but how do you know you're life would have been any better if Emily had been there?"
"It just would have all right," Richie snapped, getting annoyed.
"Really, let me ask you something," Mac said seriously. "In Emily's letter she said she wanted to contact you before, but circumstances prevented her from doing so. Now tell me tough guy, what exactly do you think those circumstances were?"
"It could have been anything," Richie argued sitting up.
"Or it could have been that an immortal was after her," Mac said confidently. He was almost positive that was why she hadn't contacted Richie before this. "If you had been with Emily and another immortal wanted her that badly what do you think they would have done with you?"
"And what about all the times Tessa's been in danger?" Richie asked. "Huh, I mean you're not leaving her just because her life's at risk!"
"If you recall I did try to leave Tessa, but she chose to stay," Mac reminded him.
"Yeah, and I would have stayed with Emily," Richie stated.
"Richie, there's a difference," Mac drawled. "Tessa is a grown woman. She makes the choices for her own life. You were only a child; you couldn't make that same decision for yourself."
"I was never given the chance," Richie angrily stood up. He paced back and forth in front of the coffee table, his mind and heart racing so fast he felt as if he were going to explode.
"Richie, calm down," Mac said getting up. He grabbed the boy by the shoulders so that they were face to face. "This isn't helping anything."
"I can't help it," Richie sighed. "I feel like if I sit still I'm going to lose it."
Mac nodded in understanding. "All right, go change into something you can work out in."
"What?" Richie asked confused.
"Go change," Mac repeated. "I'll do the same and meet you back down in here in ten minutes."
"For what?" Richie asked.
"You said you can't sit still right?" Mac asked.
Richie nodded, still not sure where the Highlander was going with this.
"Than we won't," Mac replied simply. "We'll go for a run." With that he walked up the stairs and out of sight.
Richie followed him up the stairs and went to his own room. He changed into a pair of navy sweats, a white shirt, and a gray long sleeve shirt. It was, after all, cold outside.
"Ready?" Mac asked when Richie came down the stairs.
"As I'll ever be," Richie replied sullenly. It's not that he didn't want to go running, with Mac. On the contrary, he thought it was a great idea. He just had so much on his mind that he didn't have the motivation to be his usual annoying self.
"Let's go," Mac said opening the door.
Richie went out in front of him and the two began stretching.
"You know I don't really want to talk about this," Richie said pulling his arm sideways across his head. He looked at Mac intently wondering if the Highlander had some secret philosophical wisdom he was about to spew out.
Stretching his hamstring Mac asked, "Who's talking? I thought we were running." He looked over at Richie with a humorous glint in his eye.
Richie couldn't help but smirk. "Smart ass," He mumbled under his breath.
Mac chuckled and the two began to run. The wind was crisp on their faces turning both of their noses a bright pinkish red color. There breath came out of their mouths in small little puff clouds and Richie was grateful that was all that was coming out.
Running was keeping him occupied and that's what he needed. He didn't want to think about Mr. Stubbs, or Emily, or his past. Richie wanted a clear mind before he truly started thinking about it.
When he had gone for a walk earlier it had been to get away from the interrogation that had been courtesy of Mac and Tessa. In all honesty he pushed Emily as far away from his mind as possible. He wasn't ready to take on that task just yet. He didn't know why, but he just wasn't ready to face it.
"Slow up Mac," Richie said breathlessly. His stamina was just not up to Highlanders. "I need a breather." He slowed his pace to a fast walk.
Mac nodded and slowed so that he was walking next to Richie. "You okay?"
The teen nodded. "Yeah, I just can't keep up with someone who's been doing this for over four hundred years." He grinned.
"So you're saying you can't keep up with an old man?" Mac asked with a mischievous grin.
"Hey," Richie said pointing a finger at him. "You may be old by number, but your body doesn't age, so you've had a lot more practice."
Mac laughed and playfully grabbed the back of Richie's neck. "Come on tough guy, let's head back to the house."
The two did an about face and began walking back towards the shop. Suddenly the sky lit up and thunder crashed around them.
"You've got to be kidding me," Richie drawled. He stopped, putting his hands on his hips and staring up at the cloud filled sky. "This night could not possibly get any worse." A moment later the sky opened up and thick raindrops began splattering on his upturned face. "Apparently I spoke to soon." Mac laughed and Richie looked at him. "You think this is funny," He asked indignantly as rage began to boil inside of him.
Mac sobered at the look of irritation on Richie's face. The Highlander realized that maybe the stress was taking its toll on the younger man. "Richie…"
"No," Richie said angrily, throwing his hands up in frustration. "It's nice to know you get a kick out of my misfortune." Richie walked past Mac over to the alley.
"Richie," Mac drawled after him.
Richie wasn't listening. The rain poured down around him in thick droplets and he wished it would wash away the rage that was inside of him. His life had been so screwed up and it had all been Emily's fault. Damn it! He cursed to himself.
The next thing Richie knew he was kicking a garbage can repeatedly. He was screaming something but he couldn't make out his own voice. He grabbed the garbage can and flung it as far and as hard as he could.
Then there were arms around him and his heart stopped for just a moment before he began struggling fiercely. "Let go of me!"
Mac was horrified by Richie's outburst. He'd never seen the kid lose it before, not like that. "Richie calm down." The boy struggled fiercely in his arms.
"Damn you Keating, let go of me." He said struggling as best he could. He was not going to go through it again.
'Who the hell was Keating?' Mac wondered as he tried to restrain Richie. Growing weary of it all he spun Richie around and grabbed him by the arms. "Richie, it's Duncan," He said fiercely. He didn't want to scare the boy, but he needed to get through to him.
Mac watched as the glaze over Richie's eyes began to fade. They were both soaked from the rain and Richie was shivering. Whether it was from the cold, or whatever Richie had just experienced Mac couldn't be sure.
"Mac?" Richie asked meekly.
The Highlander eased his grip on the young man. "Yeah it's me, tough guy," He said gently rubbing the back of Richie's neck.
The teen suddenly felt very drained. All his energy was beyond diminished. The world was rimmed with black edges. Richie's knees buckled and he was headed straight for the ground. Only Mac's strong arms kept him from slamming his knees into the asphalt.
"Richie, look at me," Mac said worriedly. The teen looked up at him with tired, weary eyes. "Are you all right?"
Richie nodded and smiled weakly. "I guess the run took more out of me than I thought." He was still shivering slightly.
"Come on tough guy," Mac said helping him up. "Let's get you back to the shop before you get sick." He tried to keep an arm around Richie, but the young man would have none of it.
"I can walk, Mac."
The Highlander nodded in succession, knowing that arguing would only take more energy out of the teen. On the walk home Mac stayed close enough to him to catch him if he collapsed again, but far enough away so that Richie wouldn't feel his personal space was being invaded.
Richie made it back to the loft without completely collapsing, although he did stumble a time or two. Mac's steady arm was probably the only thing that kept the teen from eating concrete.
"What happened?" Tessa asked worriedly, taking in Richie's haggard appearance. She had been sitting on the couch reading a book when the two men walked in. He wasn't just soaked to the bone, his eyes seemed to be sunken in and there were extremely dark circles looming underneath them. It was not the same boy who had gone for a walk earlier.
"I thought you were sleeping," Richie said ignoring her question.
"The storm woke me," Tessa said putting her book aside and walking over to them. "Are you all right Richie?"
"I'm fine, Tessa," Richie sighed. "The run took a lot more out of me than I thought it would."
"Run?" Tessa asked incredulously. "You took him out running in this weather?"
"It wasn't raining when we left," Mac drawled.
Tessa shook her head and muttered something Richie couldn't understand because she said it in French. "You get up stairs and take a shower," She walked behind Richie and pushed him towards the stairs. "Hurry up before you get sick."
Mac stifled a laugh as he watches Tessa ordering Richie around. The boy looked so young and vulnerable right now. It was as if he had just gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. There was no way Mac couldn't be amused.
"I'm going, I'm going," Richie said in resignation.
Tessa watched Richie from the bottom of the stairs. "And straight to bed afterwards," She yelled when he was out of sight.
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