After the dishes were cleared and the leftover pizza stored, Adam and Gwen settled back on the sofa each with another beer. Their conversation had been mostly about the goings on at the university. Eventually, the topic turned back to the early life of Methos.

"So, you stayed in Ur for a while. Then what? Back to build more pyramids?"

"Actually, yes, I did go back to Egypt for a while," he replied. "But I had to keep moving around every few years. People would start to notice that I wasn't aging, or I'd accidentally get killed." 

"I guess it's hard to stay around after you've cracked your head open or broken your neck," Gwen said. "On the other hand, with all the nomadic tribes around at the time, it must have been easier to disappear from one and reappear in another without getting caught."

"It was much simpler to change identities then," he replied. "No photos or fingerprinting. You just walked a few miles and changed your name."

"Did you meet many other immortals?" she wanted to know. "Were there many around back then?"

"There were… some," Methos replied, hesitating a bit.

Taking a swallow of her beer, Gwen regarded him for a moment then asked, "Did you fight them all or did you have a group of friends like you do here? I mean… you guys don't seem all that interested in this 'battle to the death game'. You all get along." 

He opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, "There were… um… I…" He closed his eyes for several minutes.

Concerned, Gwen leaned forward and took his hand. "Adam? You don't have to tell me…"

"Yes, I do," he said softly. There was another long pause. Finally he spoke, "I met Kronos first. I was not in a good place. The tribe I had been living with was all but wiped out by disease. My wife and her family had died. I was left alone again. I was wandering through the desert towards yet another village when he rode up to me."

He looked at the bottle in his hand for a moment, and then took a drink. "We fought," he continued, "for what must have been hours. I don't think that he had come across anyone who gave him much of a challenge. I think we saw in each other something more than another head to take."

"So, you became friends?" Gwen asked.

"Kronos wasn't… Friend isn't really the word for …" Methos searched for a way to explain. "Kronos needed a playmate. He used his immortality to take what he wanted at whatever cost. He wanted a partner in crime and I became just that. We found Silas and Caspian soon after and the four of us were the scourge of the known world."

Gwen raised an eyebrow, "The scourge of the world? You sound like the four horsemen of the apocalypse."

Swallowing hard, Methos closed his eyes again and nodded. He expected her to recoil from him, to gasp in shock, to react in horror. Instead, when he opened his eyes he found her staring at him, her own bright eyes wide in wonder.

"Wow," she finally managed to say. She searched her memory to recall what she knew from the Bible and the legends. "War, famine, pestilence and death. All on different colored horses, carrying different weapons. Destroying whatever was in their path."    

Again, he nodded and waited for her to pull away from him, but she continued to hold his hand and look at him, waiting for him to resume.

"Which one were you?" she asked.

"I…" he hesitated, "I was… Death."

Softly she quoted, "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed him. And the power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Noting the look of surprise on his face, she added, "I went to church."

"We were the most feared, most deadly force in earth," he continued after a pause. "At first I joined Kronos because I knew that if I didn't, he'd find a way to kill me. I wanted to survive. But as we went on… I grew to… enjoy it. I planned most of the raids. The others were the brute force, but I was the… brain behind it. "

And so he told her everything about his time with the horsemen and about Cassandra - how he loved her and let her go to Kronos, and her escape. He related his discontent with the horsemen and their eventual break up, coming finally to Kronos finding him again, and how he and Duncan and Cassandra had defeated them. Gwen never spoke, but let him tell his story in his own way, in his own time. Throughout his narrative, her eyes never left his face.

"I wanted you to know who you were… who I…" again he paused searching for words. "I've been a terrible person, done awful things."

Gwen reached up and placed her hand on his face. He leaned into her caress as she said softly, "I believe that we are the people that we are now because of the events of our lives. Every choice you made, every action, every moment in your life has made you the man you are today. Whatever has happened to you, whatever you've done in the past, you've learned from it and become this man. This wonderful, funny, intelligent, caring man."

Their eyes still locked on each other, Adam leaned forward, his lips barely brushing hers. He tilted his head back a bit to look at her. Her hand was still on his face and she was looking into his eyes. As they moved towards each other again he kissed her softly. Gwen moved her hand from his face and wrapped her arm around his neck. The kiss deepened and suddenly they could not get close enough to each other. Adam reached his arm around Gwen's waist and pulled her on to his lap.

When the need for air finally overcame them, they pulled apart slightly lips still touching. "I knew that once I started kissing you that I would never want to stop," Adam murmured before his mouth claimed hers again.

Gwen ran her hands through Adam's hair as they explored each other's mouths. His hands caressed her back and he felt her arch into him as one hand made contact with the skin at the small of her back. They were so completely lost in each other that it was several minutes before either of them noticed that the phone was ringing.

Amanda had not been able to get Duncan out of his mood. When they returned to the loft no amount of joking, caressing or seduction could bring him around. Amanda tried to snuggle up to him in bed, but Duncan rolled over toward the wall. Eventually, they both drifted off to sleep although his was fitful. He woke after about an hour and tossed and turned for a while before he finally got up, fixed himself a Scotch and moved to the sofa.

He sat for some time staring at the night sky through the window, wondering why it bothered him so much that Gwen wanted to spend time with Adam. He remembered the night that she had told him about her friend from college. He knew that there had been a connection between them. Was it just wishful thinking that the connection was a romantic one? He sighed heavily. Suddenly he felt arms wrapping around his neck.

"What are you doing?" Amanda asked. "Come back to bed. I'll give you a massage."

"I couldn't sleep," he replied. "I thought a drink might help."

"Well, then I'll keep you company," she said as she settled down on the sofa beside him.

They sat in silence for several minutes. Duncan glanced sideways at Amanda. She sat patiently waiting for him to decide what to do.

Finally, he spoke, "When Gwen first got here, she spent a lot of time with Richie. The two of them got along great, but neither one of them had any romantic interest in the other. And the more time I spent with her, the more time I wanted to spend with her. She seemed to be everything I… I mean she's warm, witty, intelligent, and beautiful. And she wouldn't be another Tessa or Anne."

Duncan paused and took a sip of his drink before continuing, "She confided in me. I thought that there was something happening between us. Maybe I was just lonely and wanted to believe… I don't know." He sighed again. "Then Methos showed up. Almost from the moment they met… the way they looked at each other… I guess I wasn't ready to give up. I didn't want it to be true."

Amanda made no comment. She simply placed her hand over his while he spoke. She knew that he needed to talk this out on his own. 

"Last night was when I finally realized that it really wasn't going to happen," he said sadly. "I kissed her when I took her home. She pulled away from me and told me that she wasn't ready for that kind of relationship. But I knew that she meant that she didn't want that kind of relationship with me. Then knowing that they were together all day today…"

"Duncan, do you honestly think that if Methos wasn't in the picture that you and Gwen would be together?" Amanda asked.

MacLeod turned to look at her. "No," he said, "As much as I wanted it… No, we wouldn't be together."

She reached around his neck and gave him a hug. "Come on," she said standing up. "You need some sleep."

The Scot allowed himself to be pulled up and over to the bed and crawled in. Amanda slid in beside him, but gave him his space. The two fell asleep, each lost in their own thoughts.