Sorry for the long delay, my muse is demanding more money AND a dental plan!! While we're working out those details, she's only helping me part time. I hope to have the labor negotiations worked out soon. In the mean time, this is what we've been working on.  I'll get more out soon I promise. Thanks for your patience.

 

As Gwen, Adam and Amanda entered the dojo they all felt the buzz indicating that another immortal was in the building. The light in the office was not on and no one appeared to be in the main room. All three were silent for a moment… then they heard the creak of a step above them.

Amanda winked at her two companions and crept to the bottom of the stairs and called out, "What are you doing, MacLeod?'

At the top of the stairs, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and continued his descent with his sword now by his side. "Amanda! What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you couldn't be here until next week."

"I finished up what I was doing and decided to surprise you," she replied. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

Reaching the bottom of the staircase, Duncan saw the other two immortals standing behind Amanda. Both wore expressions of amusement. "I am surprised and happy to see you as always," he told her as she grabbed him into a hug and planted a big kiss on his cheek. The highlander blushed furiously and tried to extricate himself from her arms.

Looking up at Adam and Gwen he remarked, "I didn't expect to see either one of you here today."

"Well, I hadn't planned to be out of the library yet," she said, elbowing Adam in the ribs, "but I got kidnapped and forced to eat Pad Thai and spring rolls."

"Hey, I wanted Chinese!" he exclaimed. "You're the one who insisted on going to the Siamese Plate. And you got your laundry done during your lunch."

Rolling her eyes at him, she turned back to Duncan, "Well, he said he'd pay! Who am I to turn down free food?"

Trying to keep his tone light, he asked, "So, the two of you have been together all afternoon?"

Gwen glanced up at Adam before she replied, "Pretty much. Adam was giving me some anecdotal information about the city of Ur. Not that I can really use any of it as real research."

"Then I showed up and interrupted everything," Amanda added. "I left my luggage in the office since you weren't here and I thought Adam might know where you were. Of course, he almost took my head off as I came in the door…"

Again, the oldest immortal had to jump to his own defense, "I only did that because you were pounding on the door and yelling loud enough to wake the dead!"

"Well, I know how hard it is to get your attention sometimes," she pouted. "And I wasn't all that loud, was I?"

"You were pretty loud, Amanda," Gwen told her. "But you made quite an entrance."

"I always have been good at making an entrance," she said with a smile. Winking at Duncan, she added, "It's one of my many talents."

Gwen had removed her coat and taken out her sword. She set it down on the bench and took off her sweatshirt as well. Both men watched appreciatively as she stretched to prepare for her workout. Amanda rolled her eyes at them and stepped over to the young woman. "Since neither of these two oafs seem too interested, I'll spar with you. I'd like to see of they've taught you anything."

"I'll have you know…" Duncan began. Adam cut him off and motioned for them to sit down and watch.

Amanda removed her own outer garments and had just pulled out her weapon when Gwen went on the attack. The older woman was surprised, but managed to block the swings coming her way. For several minutes she stayed on the defensive, making note of her opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Seeing an opening, she finally made a move inside that was easily deflected. MacLeod had not been exaggerating this girl's prowess. Gwen was far ahead of most new immortals.

As the fight progressed, the two men sat tensely on the bench. Neither had expected Gwen's sudden attack, nor had they thought that the two women would be so evenly matched. Amanda's grace and acrobatic skill and Gwen's lifetime of martial arts training put them on fairly even ground. Even though Amanda had been using a sword for more than a thousand years, she tended to rely on trickery rather then real skill.

Gwen was the first to draw blood – a slice to the upper arm. Not for the first time since they began, Amanda was taken by surprise. A few minutes later she managed to retaliate with a cut to Gwen's thigh. The younger woman dropped and rolled out of the way of the next blow to allow her leg to heal a bit before getting back onto her feet.

After twenty-five minutes, neither woman had let up at all and neither had any clear advantage. Both were breathing heavily and dripping with sweat. Duncan could see that they were near exhaustion and finally stepped in to stop them. They each lowered their swords and walked around, panting heavily.

"Well, I see you've learned something after all," Amanda said, still trying to catch her breath. "Duncan always has been a good teacher."

Handing each of them a bottle of water, the Scot replied, "Actually, most of that was Gwen. She already had a lot of training in self-defense and had done a little fencing. But Richie and I have taught her a few things."

"Plus, she has good instincts," Adam added as he handed Gwen a towel. "That can be more important than training sometimes."

Gwen mopped the sweat off her face and finished the water. She looked at Duncan and asked, "So, are we going to work out or not?"

"After all that you still want to work out?" Amanda gasped. "That wasn't enough for you?"

"I'm just getting warmed up," Gwen shrugged. "Duncan thinks I need to train as much as possible… I'm here… let's go."

Amanda looked at MacLeod as if to say, 'Is she serious?' Amused, he looked back at her and shrugged. Before either of them could respond, Adam drew is sword and stepped forward.

Settling herself into a fighting stance, Gwen grinned as she waited for him to make the first move. They circled each other several times before Adam struck. Before, when they had sparred, he held back, instructing as he went, but after the performance she had just given with Amanda, he decided to use her confidence against her. Raining blow after blow on her, she stayed in the defensive and desperately watched for an opening.

The other two immortals had moved off to the side to watch this training session. "Quite the little over achiever, isn't she," Amanda whispered. "Are you sure she just became immortal a week ago?"

"Yes, I'm sure," he replied. "She has been training in various forms of martial arts pretty much all of her life. Working with a sword just built on that." He paused for a moment to watch the two battle, then added, "But yeah, she was getting a bit cocky. I think Methos is about to take care of that."

For ten minutes Adam kept Gwen on the defending herself. She blocked blow after blow while she struggled to keep her footing and her head. At last she thought she had found an opening. She had taken a step away from Adam and his sword was raised when she lunged. The next thing she knew, her own weapon was across the room and she was on her back on the floor.

Adam had not even broken a sweat. He stood over Gwen, point if his sword at her throat, his face hard and cold. "Get up and go get your sword."

Gwen glanced at Duncan and Amanda before she pushed herself up off the floor. Duncan did his best to keep his face expressionless. Amanda just looked smug. After she retrieved her weapon, Gwen turned around to Adam. She was struggling to keep from showing the fear that she felt. She squared her shoulders and faced him.

The oldest immortal moved to stand in front of her. "Confidence is good," he told her. "Over-confidence will get you killed. Now, lets work on that opening move you used on Amanda."

Adam watched as she executed the move in slow motion and corrected her position and stance at several points. They went through a few more attack scenarios in the same manner. 

As they continued, Amanda leaned back against the wall and folded her arms across her chest. Duncan leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. He watched for a few more minutes before Amanda nudged him, "Is she always like this?"

Turning to look at her, he asked, "What do you mean? Like what?"

"Such a … go getter," she shrugged. "I mean… she's good, but doesn't she ever give up?"

"Actually, no," MacLeod replied. "I don't think she does. That's one of the things I like about her."

"Hmmmm… This could be interesting," Amanda mused to herself. A bit more loudly, she said, "Well… Why don't you help me get my luggage upstairs so I can freshen up, then you can take me somewhere nice for dinner."

She didn't notice that Adam and Gwen had stopped their lesson and walked to the bench where she and Duncan were seated. "We'll help you with the luggage," Gwen offered.

MacLeod looked from one woman to the other, a bit of panic on his face. "I… uh… that is… were you planning to stay here?"

Amanda batted her eyes at him, "Why Duncan, honey, I always stay with you when I'm in town. Where else would I stay? Unless of course, you have another girlfriend that you didn't tell me about? I mean, if there's someone else…"

"Well… er… that is…" Duncan stammered, "No, there's not… um…" Finally he sighed, "Okay, let's see how much stuff you have this time."

"Wonderful!" Amanda exclaimed as she lead the way into the office. "I think Italian would be great for dinner. Is Anton's still open? They have to most delightful selection of wines."

Amanda continued to prattle on about the most expensive Italian restaurant in town as they gathered up her five bags and loaded them on to the lift. The Scot looked at Adam and Gwen and asked, "Do you guys want to meet us here? That way we can all ride together."

Before wither of them could answer, Amanda said, "Oh, Duncan! I was hoping it would just be the two of us! I haven't seen you in the longest time and we really need to catch up. Maybe we can meet the two of them for lunch tomorrow or something."

Gwen quickly piped up, "I have some work that I need to do. You guys go ahead and we'll see you tomorrow."

Duncan frowned as he closed the door to the lift and watched Gwen and Adam move off to collect their things to leave. He was still bothered by them spending so much time together, but with Amanda here, there was little he could do about it. He just hoped that Gwen had meant what she said last night about not getting into relationship.