title: errand of mercy
by: m
rating: pg
category: crossover
oc: Laurel McKennon (featured in some of my older Highlander work)
notes: this occured to me whilst listening to my mp3 player yesterday. timeline wise, it's probably in the midst of the Supernatural season 1. for HL, it's divergent AU. Particularly Endgame - Connor's still alive (he doesn't appear either but may in any sequels I write) and the events of the movie went down different. G And none of that really matters but it may in the future so I'm saying so now G
Wrote this for the song challenge over at occhallenge
"errand of mercy"
The mug of coffee was waiting for him when he reached the bar and Joe took it with a wry grin of thanks.
"I'd say you didn't expect to find me here but I know better," the Immortal woman behind it said smoothly, pouring a mug for herself. "You know, the whole Watcher thing ruins all my jokes."
He chuckled and hitched a leg up on the stool, "But makes all mine, besides you get all the good ones anyway and, speaking of, mind telling me why you're minding Amanda's club and not your own?"
Laurel shrugged and smiled, "I'm club-sitting while she robs some poor bastard blind and as for my club, you know full well Joseph Dawson why I'm not there. People tend to notice when the owner hasn't aged a day in sixty years." She smiled but he could already see her eyes searching his, trying to discern the reason for his visit. In the years he'd actually had contact with the Celtic Immortal, another mixed blessing of his friendship with Duncan MacLeod, he'd learned the priestess she'd been was never far from the academic she'd become. It wouldn't take her long to figure out it wasn't good news that made him cross the Atlantic in search of her, that was self-evident really.
As wonderful as good news was, he wouldn't risk the ire of the Council to deliver it. He might have been five centuries too young for them to blame Laurel's knowledge of the Watchers on him, but he was on thin ice. Visiting her here was a risk, they were in Paris, in a club run by Duncan's lover, technically in the Council's backyard...it wasn't a good situation for a casual visit.
If she hadn't figured out something very bad was afoot, then she was seriously slipping.
He watched the resignation settle in before she leaned on the bar's lacquered surface, and tilted her head to watch him. "I suppose, this is where I finally admit you're not here for pleasure." The relaxed posture faded and Laurel straightened, placing her hands palms down on the bar. "You don't bring good news so out with it."
Joe sighed and put down the coffee. "I'm sorry, Red...I wish it was good but..." He fished in his pocket and produced the newspaper clipping. "One of my guys caught this and recognized the name." Sadly, he slid it across the bar to her and watched her face pale as she took in the content of the article. "I'm guessing they didn't notify you."
"They might not have known where to send it." Laurel admitted ruefully. "With everything, I've been a bit out of touch." Her voice softened and she gently smoothed the wrinkles out of the paper. "There's more to this than you're saying."
"There is," he nodded. "I've been doing some digging and hell if I can figure it out but, I can tell you this...whatever went on that night, it damn well wasn't any ordinary fire. We've been trying to get our hands on the police report but we don't have anyone in that department so it's been a challenge. I can tell you this, her boyfriend was away when it happened. He was the one who apparently found her, right before the fire..."
"Have you talked to him?"
"Would if we could, but he disappeared. He's not a suspect, I can tell you that much, though maybe he should be." Joe watched her eyes fix sharply on him and he produced another newspaper article, one dated two decades prior. "Something the police probably missed is the fact the same thing happened to his mother when he was an infant."
She looked at the second article with something akin to alarm but said nothing. He took it to be unspoken encouragement to continue his tale and continue he did. As she silently listened, Joe spilled the entire story that he'd been able to piece together including the fact the family had turned up on the Watchers' radar on a regular basis.
"Beats the hell out of me what this guy thinks he's doing," he shrugged, sliding off the bar stool and following her as she made her way toward the back. "All we know is he's had more than his fair share of run ins with Immortals and it's a damn miracle he's lived this long." Grudgingly, he admitted, "Skill had a bit to do with it, John Winchester's racked up quite the history that we've been able to put together."
"And you believe his sons are now mixed up in it and that the youngest boy inadvertently pulled Jessica into it." Laurel sighed and muttered an oath that had been out of fashion for more than a few years. She stepped back to let him pass before her which had Joe smiling wryly. She was the eternal mother figure when she wanted to be. Like most Immortals, Laurel was a chameleon. She blended into the world around her as easily as most people breathed which was a far more impressive feat than most would imagine. A tall, redheaded Celt should have stuck out like one would have imagined but she managed to run under society's radar most of the time. Sometimes, she did it too well. "Of all the things for Jess to get herself mixed up in, it had to be this."
Joe looked around the inner sanctum of Amanda's club with interest, he hadn't been here since she'd bought the place. The few times she'd met up with Duncan hadn't been anywhere near Paris and, well, he'd done more soaking up sun than Watching. Not that he was complaining. Duncan's usual fare led him to dodging Quickenings than applying sunscreen. "She must've inherited her godmother's inclination toward the mystical." He couldn't resist pointing out, trying in a roundabout way to get a peek into that part of her life that remained a mystery still to the Watchers. Laurel's pre-Immortal life as a priestess remained unknown to them and he wasn't the only one who would have given his eyeteeth to find out a bit more. He suspected one of the few reasons he hadn't heard more about his friendship with Laurel, separate from his history with MacLeod, from the higher ups.
She shot a knowing look over her shoulder but didn't acknowledge the subtle questioning further. "She didn't." A weary sigh escaped her as she sank onto the nearest chair, and he watched the centuries settle down onto her like a mantle. It gave him the rare glimpse of the ancient that lived hidden behind the face of the attractive redhead. This was the thing that the distance Watcher Oath stole from them. Few Watchers got to see the Immortals without the mask they presented to the world, even with the access that their surveillance gave them. The Immortals were just too careful about covering their tracks.
The trust that Laurel gave him, the trust that Duncan had given him, Joe had learned more about the Immortals from being around these two in particular than a hundred Watchers before him.
"Have you found her yet?" Finally asking the question that had been hanging unspoken in the air since he'd shown her the clipping, Laurel lifted concerned eyes to his. "Is she all right?"
"We don't know." Joe said honestly. "We've been looking but, we don't know. If her parents are helping her, they're doing a damn good job of hiding it and we finally got a guy on her boyfriend, in case she approaches him. Other than that, we have absolutely no idea where she is...Jessica is completely off the radar." He sat across from her. "I came here hoping you'd know where she was but..."
"It's likely she doesn't have a clue where I am," she shook her head, worry beginning to etch itself into her features. "She can't get out of the country to even try looking in France, Scotland, or any of my other haunts, Joe, she has no access to the kind of assistance she'd need to get past customs. She's trapped."
She didn't need to tell him that. Joe knew only too well the kind of danger young Jessica was in.
It was what had brought him here.
If anyone stood a chance of finding the fledgling Immortal before it was too late it was the woman sitting across from him.
finis