Chapter XVIII

"Caitlin?" Duncan said, his voice sounding foreign to him.

"Kelly. My name is Kelly McKinney," Kelly said, her eyes never leaving his. "Look. I know I'm trespassing. I wish I could explain why I'm here but I can't. I haven't stolen anything. If you just let me leave...," she said. "I'm really in no mood to fight anyone right now."

"This is Holy Ground," Duncan said. He was completely sure now that the girl in front of him was Caitlin MacLeod, his wife. He had no idea why she didn't know who he was or why she didn't seem to recognize him, but after hearing Methos' story he wasn't completely surprised.

"Holy...," Kelly said surprised. "Oh. Then may I leave? I swear I haven't stolen anything." She was slowly edging her way to the other doorway and, ultimately, the front door.

"Are you sure you want to?" Duncan asked. It was all he could do to keep rushing over to her and taking her in his arms and never letting her go. But his common sense told him that in her current frame of mind she would most likely freak out. But he'd be damned he was going to just let her walk out of his life again. Whatever had happened to her to cause her to forget who she was, who he was...they'd fix it together.

"You don't look like you feel all that well," Duncan said. He wanted so badly to ease closer to her but he decided to stay where he was because it would be easier to cut her off if she made a break for the front door. He hated the idea of having to capture and hold her against her will but he wasn't going to lose her again. "Maybe you should stay and I'll see what I have here for a headache and you can rest."

"Why would you care if I had a headache or not?" Kelly asked but not as though she were interested but because she was getting suspicious "Besides...it's not like it's going to kill me," she attempted to cover her suspicion with humor.

"I just do," Duncan said and lowered his head. He was disparately trying to think of something to say that would make her stay but his desperation clouded his thinking and he was coming up blank. He had a sick feeling that he would fail in getting her to stay and he'd never see her again. "Can't we just leave it at that?" He said more to the floor than to her.

Kelly saw the look in his eyes. She could not remember ever seeing so many emotions in the eyes of another human being before...mortal or Immortal. She also saw that with his eyes on the floor she would have a good extra 5 seconds to make her dash for the front door. Would it help? She quickly scanned the distance between her and the door, took into consideration the fact that her own reflexes were slow and after a couple of seconds decided to go for it. Her muscles tensed as she got ready and she began a mental count down from three, but as she started to make her move, a wave of dizziness and a severe pain over her right temple came crashing down around and through her and she reached for the nearby staircase to keep from dropping to the floor. She grabbed the side of her head and inadvertently let out a small moan.

Duncan saw her getting ready to run. He was in the process of straightening up and make his own dash for the front door when he saw her come to a sudden stop, grabbed the staircase and the side of her head and bend over moaning in pain. Without any thought to the fact that to Kelly he was a stranger he went to her side. By the time he reached her, her legs had given out on her and she was falling to the floor. He caught her just before she hit the floor and scooped her into his arms. He looked into her face as he straightened up and he was alarmed when he saw that she was unconscious...breathing...but definitely unconscious. He carried her upstairs and gently lay her on the bed and covered her with the afghan draped over the trunk at the foot of the bed., He moved away from the bed and took his cell phone out of his pocket and quickly dialed a number and waited while it rang.

"Methos...it's MacLeod. I...No listen...I need you. I'm up at the cabin," Duncan said. He was talking in almost a whisper. "It's Caitlin...she's here...yes...hurry." He hung up and moved back over to the side of the bed. The pale girl laying on the bed had broken out in a sweat and Duncan reached down and gently touched her cheek which seemed to be on fire so he went downstairs and got a hand towel out of the kitchen and ran cold tap water on it, wrung it out and took it back upstairs. He sat down on the edge of the bed and began to gently wipe her face with the damp towel. He was totally unaware that he was whispering, "It's OK, baby. You're safe now. No one will ever hurt you again. Shhhhh...it's OK "

Robert Woods and Mr. Conroy landed in Seattle, got their rental car and drove directly to the fair grounds. Woods new they were early and that not many of the rodeoers would be there but he wanted to familiarize himself with the area and layout. After wandering around and pretending to be interested in watching the workers set up tents and exhibits areas, it was lunch time so Woods and Conroy drove back into the city and found a restaurant on the waterfront and had lunch. From there they checked into their hotel. Conroy went to his room to take a nap and Woods decided to do some sight seeing starting with the famous Space Needle.

Duncan's call had taken Methos completely by surprise. He packed up his medical bag and went to Joe's Bar to get Joe. Joe took the news like a kid getting his first bike at Christmas.

"You're sure that's what he said?" Joe questioned Methos. "You couldn't have misunderstood him?"

Methos snorted and answered, "Joe...I'm old...yes. But I'm not deaf."

"I can't believe it," Joe said not even attempting to hide his excitement "Our girl is back. She's really back."

"Now hold on a minute, Joe," Methos said holding up his hands. "We both know she has some memory problems. If this is Caitlin she may not be "back" yet. She may never get her memory back. We don't know what whoever it was did to her. It could be irreversible."

"I know. But at least we know she's still alive," Joe said. "You really are a glass is half empty kind of guy, aren't you?" Joe said half teasing. To which Methos just snorted.

Methos stood up from his chair at the table they were sitting at and took his coat that had been draped across the back of the chair next to him and put it on. As he did he looked at Joe and said, "well? You just going to sit there? Or are you coming?" Then he headed for the door of the bar.

Joe got to his feet and told Mike, his bartender to mind the store and he followed Methos to his Landrover.

Before Kelly opened her eyes she became aware of the cool damp cloth on her forehead. She lay perfectly still while she reviewed in her mind the reason she was laying on the bed. Unfortunately that didn't help her. It only frustrated her more. She tried to remember the last time she felt really comfortable in her own skin and she couldn't come up with one memory. In fact the harder she thought about it the worse she made it. Then she finally realized that she had no clear memory past he experience in Greece. More specifically, past the time she woke up in the hospital in Greece after a plane crash that she couldn't really remember. The worst part was that it seemed as though she was losing more and more of herself everyday. Things she could remember yesterday were impossible to recall today. And then there were the strange visions, dreams and nightmares about someone other than herself.

Kelly's head began to throb again. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest and it felt like it was going to beat right out of her. Then she felt the cool cloth move off of her forehead. Someone was wiping her face with it. Their touch was so very gentle and the cool cloth felt good on her hot skin. She instinctively raised her hand to her throbbing head. Each throb sent sharp rods through her skull from front to back. She moaned softly.

"Shhhhh," she heard through the throbbing pain in her head. "It'll be alright. You're safe now. No one will ever hurt you again. I promise," the soft and soothing voice said and then she felt a hand on her cheek. It was a arm hand, a gentle hand. And again the voice was saying, "You're going to be alright, Caitlin. You're safe. It's OK." And then the voice was muffled as though it was further away, but what the voice said was perfectly clear to Kelly. "They're going to pay for what they've done to you, my love. Everyone of them will pay," and this time there was nothing soothing in the voice. It was filled with pure hatred and contempt.

What who had done? Done what? She wanted to scream, "Stop it, please. Someone stop this." But she not only did not have the strength her head hurt too much to even move and she was afraid that if she started screaming she just might not stop.

Duncan had gotten up to go dampen the towel again. He was at the top of the stairs when he heard a soft whimper come from behind him. He turned and went back up to the side of the bed Caitlin...Kelly...his wife was on and sat on the edge of the bed next to her. Her skin as moist with perspiration and she was so pale she nearly blended in with the bed sheets. He wasn't sure that she had actually fainted downstairs because she seemed as if she were more in a deep sleep than unconscious. He wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not, he couldn't tell by her soft moans, but the furrow in her brow, the way she squinted her eyelids shut and the tiny whimpers told him she was definitely in pain. He had become sure of it when, just before he had gotten up to re moisten the towel, she had raised her hand to her head without opening her eyes. Now tears emerged from the outside corners of her eyelids and ran down her temples to he hair over her ears. He reached up to the side of her face with the top of his index finger and ever so gently caught a tear before it dripped into her ear. He wanted more than ever to take her into his arms and hold her until whatever pain she was feeling disappeared. But he knew that wouldn't be the right thing to do just yet. She was obviously confused and scared and that would only make it worse.

"Shhhhh," he said softly instead. He did place his hand over the one of hers that lay on her stomach. "I'm here, sweetheart. It's OK." He knew that Kelly may not understand what he was saying but Caitlin would and he was positive that his Caitlin was in there somewhere buried under all that confusion and fear. As he comforted her he told himself, "I will get every last one of them and I will make them pay. And pay dearly."

TO BE CONTINUED