Chapter Twelve
Seacouver, WA, one week later:
Amber had settled into the life they were living here. While being under one roof with four other immortals besides Derrick bothered her a great deal… especially in a room that had no lock… she was managing.
Each night she shoved a heavy bureau against the door.
Derrick would laugh. "Do you really think that's necessary?"
"Humor me," she snapped.
The upstairs of the mission was well laid out. On the second floor was a small ward for women. The rest of the floor had six private rooms for families. Two bathrooms were on the floor. Men on one end… women on the other.
On the third floor… the men's ward was on the other end of the hall… but the rest was the same. Wingate and Burke were in the ward on the third floor. Michelle and David were in the room next to the stairs. Amber and Derrick were next to the women's ward.
"We are as safe here as anywhere," Derrick laughed, stretching out on the bed.
Amber crawled in beside him. Strange, she thought, that in so short a time, I can't imagine life without him. She snuggled up next to him and slept… deeply… soundly… contentedly.
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In the dining room the following morning as she was setting up her serving station she happened to glance up and see Derrick and Michelle talking. Michelle suddenly rose and cast her arms about Derrick's neck and kissed him on the lips. Amber felt like someone had just knifed her.
Derrick looked in Amber's direction and smiled as Michelle happily scooted off to the kitchen to tell David something.
Amber shook her head. She closed her eyes and sensed Derrick approach.
"You're upset?" he said gently. "Why?"
Amber raised her hands and backed away. "Just leave me be for a while."
Derrick nodded and walked away to talk to some men who'd arrived early for meals. One of them carried a chess set under his arm and was setting it up on one of the tables. Amber heard easy laughter.
Michelle came up beside her. "That guy of yours is a real marvel."
"Do tell."
"I've been here four years. I have problems because I still look like a teenager even though I'm not one… not really."
Amber nodded. "Ya have to move on so often. Aye… been there, done that more often than I like to admit."
"I've cut my hair, I've bought glasses, I've changed the style of clothes I wear… nothing lasts for long."
"We last."
"Well… yeah." Michelle waved a hand in the air. "Anyway. David's been wanting to move on. You see… I was always the gadfly… wanting to keep moving. Then a few years ago… I wanted something stable in my life. I came back here after my parents had died… and wanted to make them proud of me. I wanted to make a difference here. David and I had been friends for years… but after Switzerland… after what happened there…" Michelle shuddered slightly. "Anyway we hooked up soon after that. We've been trying to decide what to do next."
"And ya asked Derrick."
"Yeah. He listened to me rattle on for a while and then I suddenly knew what I wanted to do. David's been wanting to open a store someplace where we could sell the furniture he makes. He really misses that… But what should I do about this place?"
"So what did ya decide?" Amber said leaning back against the table, her arms folded and a smile now playing across her lips.
"This place has potential! And it would have even more if some of the others did more of the actual day-to-day work. With money from the store… we could set up a trust fund for this place to keep it operating. And … we could expand. We could help more people. I realized that I don't need to be here all the time. I can oversee things from elsewhere. Besides, David's skills are wasted in the kitchen."
"Aye… but he makes a great mulligan stew."
Michelle laughed and then headed to her desk as the first of their patrons began arriving for the noon meal.
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After clean-up Amber sought out Derrick. He'd gone outside and was staring at the horizon. "I'm sorry," she said softly as she slipped her hand into one of his.
He smiled at her. "For what?"
"For bein' jealous when Michelle kissed ya."
"Oh… that." He leaned against an old car and wrapped one long arm about her as he sighed contentedly. "I want to go somewhere. Will you go with me?"
Amber nodded. For some strange reason she was willing to follow him wherever he went.
He'd driven the jet cycle to a cemetery and pushed it quietly along the paths until he found the spot he was looking for. Amber stood by the spot while he crossed to a large stone marker and crouched. Idly he wiped his hand across the carvings, brushing away the detritus of nature. He'd stopped earlier and picked up some flowers. Some he lay on the grave. After a moment he crossed to another area and crouched by a marker topped by a cherub. This time he seemed to talk to whoever was buried there. He laid another flower on the grave and rose to continue on.
At his sixth stop... he motioned to Amber to join him. The marker had a chess pieces mounted on a concrete board. Derrick clasped her fingers. "My friend George Layton. He and I played chess together."
"Wha' happened to all these people?"
"Someone wanted me dead when I was a boy. All these people died one day instead of me. All around me… mortals died… that I would live."
"Is that when ya met Ellie?"
"No… she'd left me here to be safe. But I wasn't safe. She and the others came to protect me… but they couldn't protect everyone. My foster parents, my teacher, my schoolmates, my friend…" he gestured at George's marker… "all died because of me."
"Surely not."
Derrick shrugged. "Well… Duncan said it was because someone wanted him dead… but I think I knew even then… I was the real target… even if no one knew it. Death kept seeking me." He chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"Ellie's husband once used the name Death. Strange to think he saved my life. It was if he… too… had stood as I stood… and watched Death approach. Someone had once saved him… and that day he saved me. He threw himself in the path of the bullets. I think it was his doing that, that made Ellie love him again."
"But he was immortal!"
Derrick nodded. "But I didn't know it at the time. I just thought he was Superman." He grinned. "You know… that the bullets bounced off?"
Amber nodded. She understood the reference, likely better than he did.
The shafts of light were turning golden as the sun dropped to the horizon. Shadows had begun to lengthen their violet reach across the grounds.
"We better get back," Derrick said as he led the way back to the cycle.
That night as they made love, Amber was struck again by how firm Derrick felt all over… as if made of iron… or steel. Superman, she thought. Able to withstand bullets. Somehow, it was a comforting thought.
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San Diego, CA:
The journey west had taken longer than Methos had planned. His detour to Chicago… the finding of the hacking of his GPS on the Centaur… and his ingrained sense of paranoia… had all contributed to make him even more suspicious and careful than he already was.
He'd refrained from using the jet engine except when necessary… and he'd meandered their journey west… his eye ever on California.
Jayne said little… accepting his precautions as normal. He was the most ancient of the living immortals… and his longevity was due in part to his precautions and paranoia. As he'd once told Duncan MacLeod, "Live, grow stronger, fight another day," so, too, he was taking his own advice. Jayne knew he was thinking of Eleanor and the children… as much as his own safety. Whoever this immortal was that he was searching for… had to be important indeed.
When they'd reached the roadside where a tanker truck had gone off the road and exploded a few weeks before, while Methos studied the road… and peered vacantly into the distance… Jayne checked the news stories about the incident. Staring at the license photo of the man who'd apparently died and then whose body had vanished… Jayne tried to cross-reference with Watcher files. It was at that point that she noted something truly suspicious. The files were locked down. Remote access to them was to be allowed only with permission from area coordinators. A phone call to the regional director led Jayne nowhere.
"So sorry. Work is evidently being done on the system. Upgrades or something. If you need information on someone… give me a name and I will see what I can do," Kim Dol Sung had explained.
But Jayne had no name. Methos had said little to nothing about this search. She shut down her PPC and wandered over to him.
"His bike was here." Methos was crouched by the side of the road, letting his fingers trail through the gravel. "The police file indicates it was gone after he vanished." The ancient rose and looked up and down the road, thinking aloud. "He woke up… made his getaway into the darkness… climbed up here to retrieve the bike… and then went… where?"
Glancing in both directions he nodded with a smile. "He'd know enough to realize what had happened… and make an escape." Facing west, Methos smiled. "That way… back the way he'd come… to the nearest motel."
Jayne's brows knotted in confusion. "You talk like he was new. Surely he can't be."
Methos grunted non-committedly and strode toward the Centaur. "Let's go," he said and started the ignition. Jayne climbed in quickly fastening her belt. She had a feeling that now that they were here… the slow pace of their journey was over.
Twenty minutes later, Methos pulled into the crumbling parking lot of a dilapidated motel. "Perfect," he said under his breath.
Jayne stared around and wondered why?
"Wait here," he said as he climbed out.
Jayne opened a door and waited… feeling the heat of the day rise about her.
Inside the office Methos offered asked the desk clerk about recent guests. He slid a $100 bill onto the counter.
The desk clerk glanced around and then swatted the bill with his fly swatter… pulling the bill off into his hand and pocketing it. "Can't complain. We get a few bikers and transients."
"How about this gentleman?" Methos slid an enlarged copy of Derrick's license photo onto the counter.
The clerk looked at it and shrugged. "Can't help you."
"Look again." This time Methos lay an altered photo minus the long hair and beard beside the first one. Another $100 bill peeked out from beneath it.
The clerk leaned over it thoughtfully and then raised one eyebrow as he met Methos' gaze. "You know… this looks like a guy who stayed one night. I didn't check him in… but he stepped in to leave the key when he left. The night guy told me he looked all beat up when he checked in… but he looked fine to me."
Methos nodded. "Which way did he go?"
The clerk scratched at the stubble of his chin and then slapped his flyswatter onto the picture with a loud snap. Once more he pulled it back and pocketed the money. "East. He headed east."
Methos collected the two photos and nodded his thanks. As he exited the office into the heat… he wiped the sweat from his brow and tried to figure what was east of here that would interest Derrick. Why that direction?
Scotland, 2004The boy looked up from the book he was studying, his blue eyes wide with wonder. "How big is it, Adam?" he asked Methos.
In the background Methos could hear Eleanor humming as she kneaded bread dough. Like as not, it would be dry, tough, and too salty… but he'd eat it… they both would… at least a little of it.
"It's a big hole in the ground. I've been there several times over the centuries." He thought momentarily of the last time… with Alexa… and smiled. That had been one of his better visits to the Grand Canyon.
"I wish we'd seen it when we were traveling," Derrick had said as he stared at the photographs. "I bet it's like the ocean… you have to see it to truly get the scale of it."
Eleanor had wiped her hands of dough and settled on the arm of Methos' chair. She gave him a warm smile and kissed his hair as she placed an arm about his shoulders. In their time together… their thoughts were more and more shared unless they managed to build the wall. She'd picked up on his thoughts of Alexa and had offered comfort.
"Our paths never took us that far south," she'd murmured as she leaned over to slightly turn the book and gaze at the photograph.
"Have you seen it, Ellie?" the boy had asked.
"Once… long ago," one hand rubbed up and down Methos' back.
Methos grinned. Even now he could sense her agreement. Derrick would take the opportunity to see the Grand Canyon. His mind made up, he climbed into the car and pulled out.
"Now where?" asked Jayne.
"The Grand Canyon."
Jayne re-buckled her belt as the Centaur sped along the highway. "Great… I've never seen it." She laughed. "My father said if I stuck to you like glue I'd see amazing sights."
Methos grinned. "It's just a hole in the ground. But it is… an amazing hole." At the back of his mind… he thought he heard Eleanor laugh.
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Although she'd lost her quarry several times in the past few days, Sarah Manning had not panicked. She'd simply utilized her government passwords and linked into systems so that she found him again. Shaking her head she'd noted Ben's or Adam's new direction and his wandering. "He knows," she chuckled. "He just doesn't know for certain it's me… or why."
Idly at such times… she pulled up the airport surveillance photos of Ellen Pierson and her children. Staring at them intently… noting that none of the shots clearly showed the young woman's face… nor the faces of the children… she began to wonder what it was that Ben saw in her… that had made him refrain from sleeping with Sarah again. After all… it wasn't that Sarah wanted his head… or even him as a permanent part of her life… but still… they were immortals… they were not bound by mortal morals.
The latest satellite data indicated he'd turned east again. Sarah shook her head. "What are you looking for?"
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Chateau de Valicourt:
Gina rubbed the glass perfume stopper against her neck. The sent of lilies surrounded her and she smiled… her mind momentarily on their wedding anniversary in 1896. They'd filled the chateau with them. Every room had been filled with their scent.
Unlike the anniversary of 1796, which had nearly been interrupted by the revolution… their two hundredth had been a relatively quiet affair. For a moment Gina could hear the music and sense all their guests around them. She could hear the spoon on the glass as Fitzcairn had risen from the banquet table to propose a toast. Gina sighed. She still missed Fitz. Dear Fitz! He'd been a good friend… to all of them.
"Yes… he was."
From behind her Robert's voice agreed with her thoughts. He'd been especially attentive since their new watcher had arrived… as if to prove to her that she was truly the love of his life. Gina's gaze met Robert's in the mirror. She smiled. Pierson was wrong… the de Valicourt's love and commitment to one another was enough. She smiled… her mind already filled with thoughts of the long night ahead.
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