Chapter XXIV

Methos, Amanda, Joe and Duncan spent the next few days talking about their connected pasts and relating stories of memorable times. Kelly listened intently to each one. On occasion something familiar would flicker in her mind but she was never quite able to pin those flickers down long enough to see if they were viable memories. She had, however, begun to realize that she did know these people and she also began to realize that her life as Kelly McKinney was not her life.

"I really am Caitlin,' she said, finally. They were all sitting on the front porch. It was a beautiful afternoon in the meadow and they had finished lunch only thirty minutes before and had come outside.

"Yes," Amanda said excitedly. "Yes...finally."

Methos looked first at the excited Amanda then over to Duncan who was smiling but obviously restraining his own joy. "Seems like, as always, I'll have to the Logic Police," he thought to himself. Out loud he said, "But You don't actually remember being Caitlin, do You?" He spoke calmly and smiled warmly at her as he spoke.

She shook her head and said, "not other than those few memory flashes I told You about."

Duncan, who was sitting across from her in one of the porch chairs leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He looked lovingly into her eyes and said, "You told us that You saw visions before. Can You tell us what You saw?"

"They were like shattered pictures, mostly," she answered. "I realize some of them were memories but others...they were like the nightmares and made no sense."

"Can You tell us?" Methos repeated Duncan's question.

"Some were of battles...most were of either You," she said looking at Duncan, "trying to take my head. But there were a couple where I took yours."

Duncan sat back and shuddered remembering the nightmare he had had about her taking his head.

Methos glanced at Duncan, watching his reaction as he, too, remembered the nightmare Duncan had related to him. "Do You know why You were taking Duncan's head?" He asked.

"Not really," she shook her head. "I just figured it had something to do with my job."

Joe spoke up and said, "You keep mentioning this job. What exactly did You do?"

She looked at each of the faces looking at her. She knew she could trust each of them now...that they were not a threat to her...but to tell them about the Organization...but something inside her told her she needed to tell them, especially since there was probably already an extraction team assigned to find her and bring her back. "I worked...or at least I remember working for the Organization. Their main goal is to eliminate those Immortals that pose a threat to mankind," she began and all four members of her "audience" exchanged curious looks...almost as if they were familiar with the Organization or at least its goal.

"Eliminate?" Amanda said.

"How did they determine who was a threat and who wasn't?" Duncan asked.

"That i don't know. They had a database with profiles on those they were looking for. I was a member of an extraction team that would be assigned to either terminate an Immortal from the list or bring him or her in."

"Bring them in for what?" Methos asked.

"To be honest, I have no idea what happened to them once they were brought in. I was what they called a cleaner. I was responsible for the termination if they couldn't be brought in. They used Immortals for cleaners because of our ability to sense each other and our fighting skills."

"What about the rules of the Game? What about...there can be only one?" Joe asked.

She thought for a minute and realized that she honestly had no answer for him. "I never questioned it before," she said as she realized another discrepancy in he memories. "I never thought about it. Like it didn't exist." She looked at Duncan. "I just did my job without question."

"And how long did You say You worked for them?" Methos asked.

"I remember working for them for ten years. But that wouldn't be possible if I only went missing three and a half years ago. So I don't know."

"But You did have assignments during the last three and a half years?" Joe asked.

"I'm not sure. Not now anyway."

Duncan could see that she was becoming unnerved by all this and took her hands to calm her. "What about the man You were supposed to be married to?" He asked.

She told them about the supposed plane crash and waking up in a Greek hospital. She told them that when she returned home from Greece she had felt like a stranger in her own home and she admitted that now she understood why. She said that that was when her memories had started playing tricks on her and she had started having the dreams, nightmares and visions and that she also realized that they had her under survey lance and that's when she figured she needed to get answers on her own...she no longer trusted them. She also told them about overhearing them say that Brian McKinney was an Immortal which made her question the whole plane crash incident.

"God," she said. "What did they do to me?" She didn't realize that she had a death grip on Duncan's hands.

Duncan moved over to the swing and sat next to her. "I think we've interrogated her enough for awhile, don't You, guys?" He said giving Methos a look of warning. They all agreed. Then he looked down at Caitlin and said, "Why don't we take a little walk? You could use the exercise and maybe some of the forest's beauty will spark a memory or two." To which she nodded and got to her feet.

Methos, Joe and Amanda went inside while Duncan took her by the hand and led her toward the tree line at the north end of the meadow. They walked in silence until they got to the waterfall and Duncan took a seat on the big flat rock that overhung the pool. Caitlin sat down next to him.

"Do You remember this place?" He asked.

"I had a flash of a memory when I found this place when i first got here. Before You discovered me," she answered.

Duncan lowered his eyes and smiled. "Was...," he hesitated.

She smiled and a blush crept up her cheeks. "It was of You and...me," she said admitting out loud for the second time that day that she was Caitlin MacLeod, not Kelly McKinney. "Making love."

Duncan looked up at her. She looked so beautiful in the sunlight that played through the trees. He missed her long red hair but she still was the most beautiful woman he had ever met...both inside and out.

She could see the love in his eyes and more than ever, wished she could feel the same...or remember feeling what she must have felt three and a half years before. "Duncan? She asked in a small, timid voice and she looked at the waterfall to avoid his eyes.

"Yes?" He answered softly.

"Tell me about our wedding?" She asked.

Duncan was rather surprised at her question but also pleased. So he laid on his side on the warm rock and propped himself up on one elbow. He closed his eyes as he began speaking, picturing the event in his mind.

"We got married in the meadow. Our friends parked in that wide spot of the dirt road and road in carriages across the stream to the canopy. Amanda was your maid of honor, of course, and she wore a dress made of the O'Dell...your family's... tartan. Connor was my best man and we were dressed in traditional Scottish wedding coats and kilts of the MacLeod tartan. Adam gave You away and Darius officiated." He paused realizing he had mentioned two names that she may not remember. He opened his eyes to look at her and was surprised to see that she, too, had her eyes closed. He continued, only this time he was watching her. "You wore a 16th century wedding gown of lace and satin, trimmed in your tartan. Your flowers were...," he paused trying, himself to remember.

"Lilacs, Heather, and white roses," she said in almost a whisper She had used the flash she had had when she looked at the photographs of the wedding with what he had been describing and suddenly...she knew.

"Yes," Duncan said. "That's right. We wrote our own vows."

She opened her eyes and looked at Duncan and asked, "We did? Do You remember them? Yours?"

"As if I just said them today," Duncan said softly.

"Say them," she said. "Please?"

Duncan looked up at her. He sat up, crossing his legs "Indian style". He looked into her eyes and took her hands and said, "If in the morning when You awake, if the sun does not appear, I will be there. If in the dark we lose sight of love, hold my hand and have no fear, I will be here. I will be here when You feel like being quiet. When You need to speak your mind, I will listen. Through the winning, losing and trying we'll be together, and I will be here. If in the morning when You awake, if the future is unclear, I will hold You, to watch You grow in beauty and tell You all the things You are to me. We'll be together and I will be here. I will be true to the promises I've made, to You and to the one who gave You to me and I will be here."

As he spoke, Caitlin could see him standing proudly in his wedding coat and kilt, holding her hands and making his vow to her. She could smell the lilac and heather. She could feel the gentle breeze. She could hear the faint and muffled sniffles behind her. The words came to her from out of the blue and she spoke them softly as she looked into Duncan's eyes. "I promise to give You the best of myself and to ask You no more than You can give. I promise to respect You as your own person and to realize that your interests, desires and needs are no less important than my own. I promise to share with You my time and my attention and to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship. I promise to keep myself open to You, to let You see through the window of my world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with You, to be willing to face changes in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting," and then something happened. Her heart began to pound and a warmth filled her from her toes to her head, Her eyes filled with tears and as she spoke the last words of her vow to him, she felt something that at first was foreign to her. " I promise to love You in good times and bad with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how...completely and forever," she said and simultaneously recognized the emotion that was now overwhelming her...it was love...their love.

Duncan saw the tears trickle down her cheeks and the smile on her face and when he looked into her eyes, he saw the love and tears sprung to his own eyes. "Caitlin?" He said.

She reached up and laid the palm of her hand on his cheek and nodded. "Yes. I remember. I remember."

Duncan reached out and pulled her into his arms and held her tight. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and wept tears of joy...as did she.

Duncan finally gained control of his emotions and pushed away from Caitlin enough to look at her. He reached up and placed his hand on her cheek and looked in her eyes. It was as if he was looking at her for the very first time and falling in love with her all over again. For so long he had dreamt of being able to look into her green eyes again and then he had almost given up hope. Now here she was and the love he had always seen when he looked in her eyes was there, too.

He wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb and smiled. "I missed you," he said softly and his voice cracked. "I thought...,"

Caitlin reached up and placed two fingers gently on his lips, smiled and shook her head. The she leaned closer and gently kissed him.

Duncan placed one hand behind her head and the other around her lower back and slowly lowered her backward so she was laying on the large flat boulder and they made love.

TO BE CONTINUED