Chapter Seventeen
Seacouver:

Methos lifted the chess piece sitting on George Layton's marker. "A white bishop… of course." If there were any proof that Derrick had been here… it had to be that. That and the wilted flowers the Ancient immortal had found on a number of graves, including that of Derrick's foster parents.

"You really think he was here?" Jayne asked. She'd tried to stay out of the way for most of this trip, but the headlong drive up the West Coast had been wearying for her. She was tired, and she wanted to know just who this immortal was. Her research had turned up nothing in the on-line archives… not even an alert about the man.

Standing suddenly, Methos replaced the chess piece on the marker and eyed his Watcher. He trusted her as much as he trusted any of them… except maybe Joe… and still he held his tongue. Derrick's existence needed to be kept quiet until they found him. The problem now was… where to start looking. He pulled the photo out and stared at the face of the man gazing out at him… "Someone had to see you. I just have to figure out where you'd go."

A cursory examination of hotels had been fruitless. There were too many hotels… and Methos had no idea where to begin looking. He'd tried the one they'd stayed at years ago… to no avail. He'd been so certain that Derrick would have stayed there… he'd not really thought this through clearly. He'd driven down by MacLeod's old apartment building… nothing there. He'd stopped by Joe's old bar… He'd even gone so far as to sit on a park bench outside the school and had seen nothing. The cemetery was the only clue that the young man had even been in Seacouver.

"You came to pay your respects," thought Methos. "You knelt at these graves and you talked to them about how you'd lived and what you still hoped for in your life… for the life they'd died for. You felt guilt that these mortals died in your place… and that you still lived." He knew Derrick. He understood how the young man had thought all those years ago. But did he still think the same way. "You'd want to make a difference, somehow… prove that they had not died in vain."

A small smile crossed his face. Methos gestured to Jayne. "Let's go." A thought had occurred to him.

"Where?"

"There's an area of this town called the Zone. The dispossessed live there. He might have gone there."

"And do what?"

Methos smiled. "Try to make life better… give others what they need." Inside his head, he felt Eleanor's laughter as he'd puzzled it out.

"We lived on the street. We tried to help others. It was rough… but he was happy… content."

Once in the car, Methos started the ignition and headed out of the cemetery… to the Zone.

-----

At the mission on Curritack Street, on the edge of the Zone, Methos finally found someone who recognized Derrick's picture.

A rheumy-eyed old wino, his gray-beard tangled and matted, sat at one table in the mess hall of a street mission playing chess with himself. When Methos showed him the picture, the wino's eyes had glittered and then seemed to gloss over. "Nope. Don't know him."

Methos laid a twenty-dollar bill on the table. The wino, getting ready to move pawn stared at it. Methos laid another one down. "He's a friend. I need to find him."

The wino met his gaze. He reached for and picked up the two twenties, rubbing his thumb over them lingeringly, then laughed and handed them back to Methos. "Don't need them. I'm fine, really."

"Then a donation to the mission itself." Methos said. He rose and without fanfare headed to a locked box near the kitchen-serving window. He peeled off several more bills, folded them and stuffed them into the slot. Then he returned to the table. "He may need help. My wife is his sister."

The wino seemed to consider his words. "Gone. They left early this morning."

"They?"

"All of them. They came together. Became right close with the couple that useta run this place. They left this morning."

Methos shook his head. So close. "Do you know where they were headed?"

The old man smiled. "West."

Methos leaned back on the bench. "West? But the only thing west is the… ocean." Suddenly it made sense. Derrick had always been fascinated by the ocean. He'd returned to the sea once again… as if someone or something was calling him home.

An hour later, Methos and Jayne stood on the Seacouver docks and stared out at the crashing surf. Seagulls glided above the water and congregated on the piles of refuse on a garbage barge being towed out to sea.

"So what now?" asked the young Watcher.

Methos shook his head. He could try hacking into port records to see if they'd filed a report… if he knew what the name of the boat was… or even under what name Derrick had filed papers. Or had he even filed paperwork? And if he had… would he go where he'd indicated? There were too many variables.

For a moment he could sense Eleanor beside him. On the far side of the world, she'd awakened and he could sense her resignation. "He's a grown man, Aella," he thought using the name only he called her anymore, her first name. "We have to let him make his own choices."

He sensed her resignation and withdrawal. There was likely nothing more he could do. Turning to Jayne, he shrugged. "That's it… I guess. End of the road. Let's get a room… rooms… and rest overnight. I'll see about plane tickets home later."

Jayne nodded quietly and followed him back to the car. "What about your car?"

"It'll be fine in storage. I'll make arrangements to have it shipped back to Virginia. I want it off the grid for a while."

"You really think someone was tracking us using it?"

Methos shrugged. "They were. I don't like taking chances."

Jayne adjusted the seatbelt as the immortal started the ignition. "It would help if I knew why this man's important to you," she said softly.

Methos shook his head, still unwilling to say too much. Whatever Derrick was doing… he needed the time to accomplish it. If he needed help… he knew how to contact them. He and Eleanor would just have to wait this out. Evidently he was gathering immortals to him… but which ones? And why?

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Later that day, he checked them both into adjoining rooms at the Hilton. He'd have to stop by the bank in the morning where he had a safe deposit box. He hated to surface long enough to do that, but it was in an alias that he'd used only for this box, so surely Sarah would not pick up on it. His cash reserves were getting slim, and he needed to decide where to go next.

As darkness settled over the city, and the lights began to glow in the street outside, Jayne seemed preoccupied with some research she was attempting on her PPC. She kept murmuring obscenities at whatever the system was showing her.

"Problems?" he asked from the open doors between their adjoining rooms.

She glared at him. "Oh… part of the system is down and keeps asking for passwords and clearances which I've entered… but it's not acknowledging them."

"Have you called the local supervisor?"

Jayne nodded. "But she's in a meeting. Evidently something is wrong with…" she gestured with a smile… "the computer system."

Methos snorted. "I could help?"

"No thanks. Amy told me to keep you hands off except in an emergency. You tend to copy and download information you have no right knowing," she laughed.

"All in the name of protecting my family," Methos said with just the right bit of pout in his voice.

Jayne stuck her tongue out at him.

Laughing, he told he was going to take a bath. "Call me if you need anything," he said as he closed the doors. He ripped off his sweat-dampened shirt and light trousers, kicking off the loafers as he ran the bath water. Normally he'd shower… but he felt the need to relax in a hot tub and do some thinking about what he needed to do now.

The tub full, he slipped into the steaming water and laid back… his eyes closed. He could sense Eleanor with him. She was still abed and barely awake. Yet she felt him and seemed to stretch out with him. They'd never been separated for this long and he was longing for her with every breath he took… as he could tell she longed for him as well.

"When I get back," he told her, "nothing will tear me away again for a long time."

"Promise?" she replied as she seemed to flow over him. He wondered idly how he felt to her. "Like warm water, buoying me on gentle waves."

He shifted. "Gentle waves?" he laughed, and was rewarded with the feel of her on his lips. He could almost taste her and smell the honeyed scent of her. Eventually she became more real to him than the cooling water.

It was therefore a start when he heard Jayne cry out and pound on the bathroom door yelling his name.

Methos sat up swiftly; his dream already vanished into memory, and rose to grasp his sword, lying on the floor. Water dripped from him as he flung open the bathroom door, his sword raised in an attacking stance.

Jayne was pacing his room. When she saw him… her mouth dropped open and she stared at him… really stared. "Oh… my!" she mouthed and then blushed.

"What's wrong?" He asked looking swiftly about his room and through the open door into his.

"I… I… I… didn't mean to startle you," she fumbled for words. Her color was deepening. "I found something… but you didn't answer when I knocked. I was worried." Suddenly she covered her mouth and ran from his room.

Methos lowered the broadsword and glanced down at the water soaking into the carpet around his bare feet. He snorted and returned to the bathroom to grab a towel and dry off. Once he was dressed, he knocked gently on her door.

"Go away!" she cried out.

"Jayne… it's all right," he insisted and opened the door.

She was curled on her bed sobbing.

Methos lounged against the opening with a rueful smile. "I generally bathe in the nude. You might want to add that to my chronicle."

"Oh go away!" Jayne sputtered and rolled to face the window.

"It's all right. I'm not embarrassed."

"But I am," she said softly.

"Why?"

"Because when I saw you like that… I had thoughts."

"Erotic thoughts," he grinned.

She covered her face, but he could see how scarlet it had become. "I can't do this anymore. I'd never thought of you that way… and then there you were and now it's all I can think of."

Methos laughed gently. "Well… you were startled… in fact we both were. Now what did you find out?"

"Eleanor will kill me."

"I doubt that. She thinks it's funny."

Jayne groaned. "Tell her I am so sorry."

"She knows. Now what did you learn?"

Jayne peeked out from between her hands and carefully regarded him. Once satisfied he was clothed once more she uncurled from the bed and sat up. "I just don't want you to think I had ulterior motives or anything."

"Never crossed my mind," he smirked.

Jayne rose and motioned toward her PPC on the table. "I remote linked through London using my dad's codes. He's got higher priority codes than I do."

"Did it work?"

"Like a charm. He told me that it was something he learned from you." Her blush was apparent again as he stepped closer to her to see what was on the plasma screen.

"So what did you find out?"

"Well… I came at this from a different angle. I figured if this guy you're tailing was managing to stay off the radar, there wouldn't be anything in the current bulletins about him… but!" She held up a finger with a smile. "He's been collecting other immortals to travel with him… right?"

Methos nodded.

"So… I began to wonder what immortals had managed to lose their Watchers in the past few months. I found seven. But these three are the most interesting."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"The first one is along the road he likely traveled between California and Arizona. The next was in Arizona… the third… was near Colorado on the way he might have traveled back toward the Grand Canyon. And then the real kicker." She grinned… her face once more its normal color as she'd given him her information.

"Which is?"

"The couple at the mission is off the database too. It seems their Watcher put in for a transfer right before they vanished."

Methos took her PPC in his hand and scrolled through the bulletins and the profiles. It made sense. Something had always seemed to linger around Derrick… as if some guiding hand had protected him. It was the same with Eleanor. Even now she could manage to just know where security cameras were and could avoid having her picture taken… or at least seemed to be able to obscure her face well enough that it remained a blur.

Slowly he tried to think through the disappearances of these immortals. The various Watchers had had a series of unrelated minor events that had somehow added up to Derrick passing through the area and collecting their immortals somehow to vanish with them. He'd arrived in Seacouver with the three… collected the two at the mission… and then had managed to set sail with the five of them? Methos shook his head. It was one thing for he and MacLeod to travel together occasionally… or he and Phillip… there was always an element of danger, and a fear of traveling in groups, that always bothered him. Too many knew he existed now… too many knew his name… too many knew of him. Methos feared his chances for survival were dwindling. Again he tried to fathom what Derrick was doing.

Whatever they need.

Methos' head snapped up from regarding the screen as he heard Eleanor's words. She understood the boy in a way no one else ever had. Derrick had always felt the need to help others. Why wouldn't he try to help immortals somehow? But if he were helping them… where would they go?

Leaning on the table Methos shook his head. "It still doesn't make sense."

"Why not?" Jayne asked, evidently no longer embarrassed about earlier. She sank into the hard chair at the table and leaned on the table's surface to regard the immortal and her PPC.

"There's nothing in the Pacific. At least nothing we know of."

"Maybe its not his destination… just the way he has to get where he's going?" she replied thoughtfully. Then she looked puzzled. "Should I report my findings?"

"No," he said in a clipped manner. 'Let me talk to Dawson and Amy, first. Let's get their imput before putting this out on the network." He suddenly grinned. "Any clue yet why the database was so locked up earlier?"

Jayne shook her head.

Methos began tapping commands onto her PPC.

"What are you doing?" she asked sharply.

He grinned devilishly. "Copying and downloading," he teased as she attempted to get it from him. When he finished he tossed it to her. "We'll leave tomorrow."

"For where?"

Methos sighed. "Ever been to Greece?"

Jayne looked at him thoughtfully. "If you mean Niebos to collect Eleanor and the kids… you know I can't go. It breaks the agreement the Watchers have with the immortals there."

"Not if it's your new assignment," the immortal said smoothly.

Jayne stared.

"I put you in for it when I realized your time with me was nearly up. The current Watcher on Niebos is due to retire. Interested?" He smiled as he saw the interest and excitement in her face. Then she blushed once more.

"But Eleanor's there… I can't face her right now… not after earlier."

Methos laughed. "Relax… she agrees it's the perfect assignment for you. Now… shall we order room service or do you want to celebrate in the dining hall… although…" He pulled out his wallet. "We might have to limit the celebration until I can get more funds tomorrow."

"Room service is fine," Jayne laughed. "Just as long as neither of us takes anymore baths while the doors are unlocked.

"Agreed," Methos smirked, and winked teasingly at the young woman.

-----

Northern Pacific:

Lady Ambergirs II, was not a luxury yacht, but it was seaworthy. An older boat… it boasted sails as well as a reliable diesel system and upgraded navigational electronics. The galley was adequate, and the cabins were cramped… barely room for bunks. The two larger cabins were commandeered by Derrick and Amber in one… and David and Michelle in the other. Wingate and Burke took the two smaller ones in the bow. None of them had brought much in the way of belongings… although David had his carpentry tools… and Derrick had loaded the jet cycle into the hold.

Michelle had taken over the galley duties and her expertise in the kitchen for small meals was a delightful surprise. "I studied at Le Cordon Bleu back about twenty years ago. It was a lark… for fun… but I did enjoy it. Unfortunately… I could never really use that at the mission."

David spent part of each day working with wood on the deck. His craft and skill in the pieces he made… even in the rise and dip of the yacht through the waves… were a wonder. Amber was truly impressed. "Maybe we'll sell some when we land," David suggested.

Burke usually spent his day standing in the bow on deck as the ship plowed through the waves and waving his arms… as he screamed at the ocean. Derrick sat in the captain's chair… handling their speed and direction with a big grin on his face. "I think he's happy," he chuckled and indicated Burke. Amber nodded. Everyone seemed happy… except her. She'd taken to wearing her cutlass openly just in case anyone had any ideas. After all… she had no idea how long they'd be at sea… and what anyone's ulterior motives were for coming.

Michelle had murmured something about wanting to get away for a bit before she and David opened their furniture store… now that the mission was in good hands. She would continue to keep an eye on its operation via computer. Between watching over the mission and the cooking… Michelle would have plenty to do.

Wingate, however, was still a complete mystery to her. Other than wanting his sword back… he had no reason that Amber could think of, for continuing to travel with them… unless he was waiting for Derrick to turn his back. Amber was determined to watch over the young immortal. She'd told him so when he'd made a comment about the cutlass.

He'd laughed at her but had said nothing. When she'd pushed for at him for "Why this trip?"… he'd shrugged. "I told you. I saw the ocean many times while working aboard the big ships. I wanted to experience it once on a small one… one that I could control." Amber felt it was all the answer she'd ever have.

Slowly they made their way up the coast… and the air grew slightly cooler the further north they sailed. In the distance… Amber occasionally saw ice flows… broken off and melting in the unseasonable heat of this early summer. If it were this warm now… what would it be like later on… especially further south?

"You need to relax more," Derrick laughed as he watched her. He seemed to find her vigilance amusing somehow.

"I'll relax when I'm dead," she replied. And all the while… her gaze flitted over their companions… and watched… and waited.

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