Chapter XX
"There it is," Joe said pointing out the windshield, "on the right just ahead...right there."
"All right, Joe," Methos groaned. "I see it." He hated it when Dawson back seat drove.
The sun had finally disappeared behind them and in the dusk it was getting hard to see the obscure dirt road. So both Joe and Methos had been straining their eyes hoping not to miss it.
Methos turned where Joe had pointed. At first he thought Joe was hallucinating because even as he was turning he didn't see anything that looked like a road. But then he saw the flattened vegetation where a vehicle had just recently traveled.
The dusky light of just before nightfall was gone and Methos had to rely on the headlights of his Landrover to see the winding tire tracks in front of him. At one point he had to jam on his breaks for a deer that darted out in front of them causing the SUV to slide on the damp ground. The whole time Methos was working his brain, preparing himself for his task ahead. "It seems no matter how hard I try," he thought to himself, "to forget my past, I always get called to play doctor to an Immortal."
Finally the forest opened up to the moonlit meadow and Methos brought the Landrover to a stop. He could barely see the tire tracks that flattened the tall grass and wildflowers as they led across the meadow to the wooden bridge and then to where Mac's T-Bird and other car were parked. As he eased along the tracks he glanced at Duncan and Caitlin's cabin, now lit up from the lights inside and he remembered coming up here with Amanda to clean out the perishables and cover the furniture and the somberness they felt as they performed the task at hand.
As he pulled up next to the T-Bird and turned off his headlights and engine he felt the buzz of more than one Immortal.
"Joe," he said in almost a whisper. "Take the coil thingy out of that car." He pointed to the car parked in front of Mac's.
Joe nodded and opened the driver's door of the rental car and pulled the hood release. He opened the hood and reached in grabbing the coil and yanking it out. Then he closed the hood quietly and joined Methos at the front door.
Duncan was sitting on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands when he felt a strong and intense Immortal buzz. Only one Immortal he knew of generated that much energy and that was Methos.
Before he got up from the bed he turned and looked at the sleeping girl. When he was sure she was still sleeping he got up and headed down the stairs. By the time he was halfway down he could see the headlights of an approaching vehicle and heard the clackety clack as it drove across the wooden bridge.
He made his way to the front door and opened the one side to stare at a sullen Joe and Methos.
"Hope you don't mind that I came along, Mac," Joe said from his position behind Methos.
Duncan shook his head as he stepped aside so the two men could enter the house. "Come on in," he said quietly. Then he spoke directly to Methos who had stepped to the center of the living room and was looking around. "She's upstairs sleeping. She seems to be in pain. Her head, I think. And she fainted earlier."
"What does she remember?" Methos got right to the point.
Duncan looked sadly at Joe then back at Methos and shook his head. "Nothing, it seems. She thinks...she believes her name is Kelly McKinney."
"That's the name they called her in the paper," Joe observed.
"And she believes she's married to a Brian McKinney," Duncan added.
"I'll check it out," Joe said and looked around for a place to set up his laptop.
Duncan led him into the study and pulled a sheet off of the large desk on the back wall.
"Is this...?" Joe asked indicating the desk.
Duncan nodded absentmindedly, "yeah. It was Connor's when he commanded the Rosemary in 1853."
"And you recovered it from the bottom of the ocean," Joe mused. "It's gorgeous."
He set up his laptop and powered it up, then took a seat in the big leather desk chair.
"Has she said anything else?" Methos asked as he looked up at the loft bedroom above.
"Just that she doesn't know what drew her here," Duncan said. "But something did. And that she doesn't understand what's happening to her."
"Why?" Methos turned back to look at Mac. "What's happening to her?"
Duncan shrugged. "I don't know. That's when she got dizzy and fainted When she woke up she appeared to be having a severe headache and she's been unable to get up or move around since without making it worse."
"How long has she been asleep?" Methos quizzed.
"About an hour this time. She woke up once an hour ago and tried to leave but couldn't get up," Duncan answered.
"Well, we took care of that," Methos smirked.
"We?" Joe asked. "Coil thingy?" He teased. "Yeah. WE took care of it," and he extracted the "coil thingy" from his jacket pocket and set it on the desk.
Methos shrugged. "Well it was my idea."
"OK, guys?" Joe said staring at the screen of his laptop. "Come look at this."
Both Duncan and Methos turned and stood behind Joe bending down to see the display on the screen.
"Brian McKinney has quite a history," Joe was saying. "I'm surprised you never ran into him, Mac. It seems he was the same places you were on several occasions"
"I never had the pleasure," Duncan mumbled.
"Then it appears he dropped out of sight about fifteen years ago," Joe continued.
"In other words," Duncan said. "His Watcher lost him."
"Not in other words," Methos said straightening up. "Those are the words.'
Kelly had managed to slip over to the railing that overlooked the study. She over heard Joe's announcement about Brian McKenny and sat back, stunned.
"No," she whispered. "How is that possible? Brian wasn't an Immortal. He was just a simple researcher." Then another thought occurred to her. If he was an Immortal, how could he have died in when the plane crashed in Greece? And if he was an Immortal, how could he have had two children by his previous marriage? Her head began to throb harder. So many questions and the harder she thought about them and tried to make sense of them the worse her head hurt. And to make matters worse, she could not seem to remember anything beyond waking up in a Greek hospital. Nothing. It was as if it were a complete blank. The only thing left was a knowledge of facts from her past...facts but no mental images. It was as if she had read them in a book that provided no pictures.
Methos laid a hand on Joe's shoulder as he asked, "Is there anything on a Kelly McKinney?"
Joe typed the name into the Watcher Database and waited. "Not a thing," he finally answered.
"Of course there isn't," Mac said. "There is no such person."
"Mac," Methos said raising up to look at his friend, "for whatever reason, she thinks she's that person. To argue that fact with her will only succeed in confusing her and scaring her which will cause her to put up a wall that we will never be able to penetrate. We won't get anywhere. We have to gain her trust...make her believe she is safe here and that we are here to help her...not hurt her. Then we have to get her to tell us about herself...the self she believes she is. If she has been "programed" with a past we need to know. Then, hopefully, we will be able to find the holes and that's how we get in and hopefully, find what's left of Caitlin. " Methos put his hands on Mac's shoulders. "Mac, I want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that there may not be anything left of the Caitlin we knew. I have no idea what was done to her to create the amnesia or how they "programed" her."
"Brain washed her you mean," Duncan mumbled.
"It could be your basic brain washing, yes," Methos nodded. "But there are other ways to accomplish what whoever these bastards are have done. And some of those methods result in permanent amnesia that can't be reversed."
Joe turned the desk chair around and looked up at Methos and Duncan. "Like what?"
He asked.
"Drugs, surgery," Methos answered. "Trauma." He hated bringing up the last one for fear it would freak Mac out. But he needed to know what they were up against. He was actually surprised that MacLeod remained calm.
"So...what...?" Duncan said almost whispering. "We just play along?"
Methos nodded. "Until we know that she trusts us enough to talk to us...to tell us about herself."
"Methos," Joe said "Have you ever done anything like this before?"
Methos looked first at Joe then at Duncan then back to Joe again. "Honestly?"
Both Duncan and Joe nodded and Joe said, "honestly."
Methos shook his head. "No. I haven't." He quickly looked at Mac and added, "remember...you called me."
Duncan nodded. "I know."
"But you do know something about it, obviously,' Joe said.
"I've read about it," Methos said. "And I have witnessed an attempt to reverse the effects of brain washing once during World War II. It was a tactic the Japanese used sometimes in their POW camps."
Kelly literally crawled back to the bed. As she eased back on the pillows and held her head with both hands she let a moan escape her lips and she closed her eyes.
Duncan heard Kelly's moan and glanced at Methos before heading upstairs to check on her.
Methos took a deep breath and followed McLeod up the rot iron spiral staircase. When he arrived at the top he stood and looked at the pale girl on the bed. Except for the hair, there was no mistake that the small, pale girl was Caitlin MacLeod.
Duncan sat on the edge of the bed and placed the cool damp towel on Caitlin's head. Kelly opened her eyes and looked up at Duncan.
"Why does my head hurt so bad?" She asked.
"I don't know," Duncan said. He could not hide the concern in his eyes.
Kelly noticed the figure standing near the stairs. Because of the lights from downstairs she could only see his silhouette Instinctively she shrunk back against the pillows. Duncan placed his hand on her shoulder to reassure her.
"It's OK," he said and motioned Methos to come closer. "He's a friend."
When Methos stepped out of the shadows, Kelly recognized him from the practice run. "You?" She said and Methos nodded with a smile.
"Hello again," Methos said. He stepped up to the bed. Duncan got up and Methos took his place. Because of the situation and not knowing if they were going to be able to help her, Methos decided to introduce himself before Duncan could make the introduction. "I'm Adam. Adam Pierson. I'm a doctor friend of Duncan's."
Kelly looked from Methos to Duncan questioningly. "Doctor?" She asked.
"I thought maybe he could help," Duncan smiled as he walked around to the other side of the bed and sat on it's edge.
Methos smiled down at his patient and asked, "is that OK?"
"I guess," Kelly said weakly. Anything to stop the throbbing pain in her head.
"This pain you're having," Methos said as he took her pulse. "Can you describe it?"
"It's like someone has driven a metal spike in the side of my head," Kelly answered and pointed to the side of her head where the pain seemed to originate from.
"Have you ever had it before?" Methos asked as he dug his blood pressure cuff out of his black doctor's bag.
"No," Kelly said. "I didn't think Immortals got headaches."
"When did it start?" Methos asked as he wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm.
"This afternoon," Kelly said.
"What were you doing when it started?"
Kelly glanced sheepishly at Duncan. To answer honestly would mean admitting she had been snooping through his closet so she decided to be vague. "I was...," she started, "trying to remember something."
Methos stopped and looked at her and he raised an eyebrow. "Trying to remember something?" He repeated.
"Yes," Kelly said.
"So...," Methos chose his words carefully. "Were you thinking hard about it?"
Kelly thought about the question then answered, "yes."
"And did you remember what ever it was?"
"No," Kelly answered sadly.
Methos glanced at Duncan as he proceeded to take her blood pressure. He had to take it twice to make sure he had gotten the correct reading.
"Have you been having problems remembering things lately?" Methos asked innocently.
Kelly glanced at Duncan suspiciously, then looked back at the doctor. "Why do you ask?" she asked.
Methos didn't hesitate as he answered her while putting the blood pressure cuff back in his black bag. But he answered her question with a question. "Have you ever been told that you have high blood pressure?"
Kelly blinked a little surprised at his question. She thought back trying to remember if she had, but drew a blank. "I don't know," she answered. "I...I can't remember."
"You can't remember if any one's ever told you that?" Methos asked for clarification.
"I can't remember anything," Kelly answered and her voice was edged with panic.
Methos looked at her concerned. "What's the furthest back you can remember?" He asked and he flashed a pen light into both of her eyes. He didn't like the sluggish reaction of her left pupil to the light.
"Ummm...seven months ago," Kelly answered.
Methos looked into her eyes. "You can't remember anything before seven months ago?" He asked.
"Just flashes," she answered. "But...," she started to tell him about the confusing visions but decided not to.
Methos heard her "but" and decided to ignore it. Instead he asked, "did the pain in your head start about the same time you started forgetting things?"
Kelly thought back and realized that it had and nodded.
"OK," Methos said. He held his index finger up in front of her face. "Follow my finger without moving your head," he instructed. He moved his finger from side to side, then up and down. As he did he asked, "have you noticed any numbness or tingling in your arms, hands or feet?"
Kelly followed his finger (although she was actually seeing two of them). As she did she thought about his question. When he finished having her follow his finger she answered that she hadn't.
"Do you know what day this is?" Methos asked.
Kelly had to think hard to answer. Then she said tentatively, "Monday?"
Methos smiled reassuringly and nodded. "Do you know what year it is?" He asked.
"2005," Kelly answered.
"Do you know who the president of the United States is?"
Kelly had to think a couple of minutes then she said weakly, "Bush."
Methos smiled his best encouraging smile and nodded. He thought about asking her which one but decided against it. Instead he asked, "do you know where you are?"
Kelly looked up into the doctor's eyes. She saw no hint of malice, only concern and encouragement. Then she switched her gaze to the man sitting on the other side of the bed. In his eyes she saw a myriad of emotions and they all seemed to tug at her heart for some reason she could not explain. But foremost, Kelly saw love, hope, fear and sadness when she looked at Duncan.
Kelly returned her gaze to Methos and answered humbly, "I'm in his house." She glanced at Duncan and then back to Methos indicating that it was Duncan's house.
Methos nodded and glanced at Duncan to see if he had caught the lack of possessive inference in her answer and he could see the instant pain in his friend's eyes which told him he had. The he returned his attention to his patient and prepared himself to ask the last question required to determine a patient's orientation, and, int this case, the most important question of all.
Duncan's stomach was tied up in knots. He could feel his muscles quivering and he realized he had tensed up. He forced himself to relax.
"Do you know who you are?" Methos asked and watched his patient's face carefully.
Kelly looked at Methos and tried to think of something clever to say but her head was throbbing so badly she gave up the attempt.
"I guess it depends who you ask," she said and glanced at Duncan.
Methos smiled and said, "I'm asking you."
Kelly looked up at him and said, "Kelly. Kelly McKenny."
Methos forced himself to hide his disappointment. He glanced at Mac who wasn't hiding his own disappointment.
"You don't sound as if you're too sure," Methos observed.
"I was this morning," Kelly said.
"And you're not now?" Methos asked.
"My host seems to think I'm someone else," Kelly said and she glanced at Duncan.
"And who does he thing you are?" Methos asked. He wanted her to say the name out loud Sometimes when a person heard themselves say something that they had forgotten it made it more real to them.
"He says I'm his wife," Kelly said in almost a whisper.
"Does his wife have a name?" Methos asked. He felt like he was trying to pry open a locked and rusted door. Finally she answered.
"Caitlin," Kelly said simply and her voice was small and unsure.
TO BE CONTINUED