Author's Note: Special thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, but especially to Cha Cha1 who helped me modify this chapter. Your suggestions were really helpful, so thank you!

Richie Ryan felt frustrated beyond words as he watched Dawn Summers leave Joe's bar with her sister to go home and pack for Italy. He had listened to her reasons for going with understanding and as much patience as he could muster with Buffy watching them out of the corner of her eye from another table, but inside he was very angry that she was leaving. He wasn't even entirely sure why. They had known each other, only a few short months. And they closest they had gotten to a 'date' in any sense of the word was now cancelled due to their hasty moving plans. It wasn't as if he had pledged his undying love to her or anything like that.

But he had worked up the courage to ask her out and it angered him that he wouldn't get to find out what that might have been like. He knew it wasn't Buffy's fault. Regardless of her reservations concerning him and Dawn (and he had to admit that they weren't entirely without reason), he knew she wouldn't have done this on purpose to keep him from seeing her. The threat was real, he was certain enough of that. And Dawn cared for her sister far too much to just allow her to face that threat alone. They were a team. Richie could tell from the moment he met them that they didn't let each other face danger alone. Even Xander, who had done his level best to stay aloof from everyone else, was part of that team. All for one and one for all and all that.

Richie knew what that was like. He, Joe, Mac, even Methos and Amanda would band together if they had to, if something was threatening their existence or way of life. Immortals weren't supposed to make close ties, or close friendships, but somehow they had managed to do just that. If it ever came down to him and Mac as the 'last' immortals, Richie knew for a fact that Duncan would not challenge him for the prize. And he would not do so to Duncan. The prize was not something that mattered for any of them…not even the old man. It was the ties that bind that were important to Richie and he was beginning to feel that closeness with Dawn, hoping to further it. And now she was leaving.

"Rough break kid," Joe sat down beside him, rubbing a dirty bar glass with a soapy cloth and looking towards the door that Buffy and Dawn had left through. Obviously he had heard the whole conversation.

"Yea, well…" Richie trailed off, not really knowing what to say to the older man. Joe had his bartender face on, the one that said 'tell me your troubles', but Richie was never really that good at pouring his heart out to people…not even his closest friends. The only person he could ever really talk to was Mac.

"You should go after her," Joe continued, ignoring Richie's reticence to talk about his feelings. "You can't just let her get away."

"Yea, right!" Richie scoffed. "I'll just knock on the old man's door with my sleeping bag and pillow and ask if he's willing to put me up for a while."

It was then the feeling of an approaching immortal came over Richie and he tensed until the door opened revealing Duncan MacLeod, recently returned from his trip to the States.

"I'm serious," Joe chided with a poke to Richie's shoulder. "You'll never get anywhere sitting around here. I bet Mac would agree with me. Hell, he'd probably do the same thing."

"Do what?" Mac asked as he approached Joe and Richie, giving them both nods of 'hello'. "What are we talking about?"

"Buffy, Dawn and Xander are leaving Paris." Richie told Duncan before Joe could interject his own personal opinion on the situation. "I guess there's some rising evil in Italy that they have to go and fight."

"Oh really?" Duncan sounded genuinely disappointed. "I'll miss them." Richie wondered if he would miss Buffy and the others as much as he would miss the challenge of trying to help the aloof Xander Harris come out of his funk. He had been trying to get through to the guy ever since Buffy had confided her worries about him. Duncan would never admit it, but he always thought himself good with people and situations and not being able to help someone would be a blow to him.

"Yea, well the old man's going with them as well." Richie told Duncan. He would never tell the Highlander this, but secretly he valued the other man's experience in life and desire to dispense advice. He didn't always listen, but it helped to have another more mature person's take on what he should do. If he played it right, Duncan would think the advice-giving was his idea.

"Methos is going to help the slayer fight evil?" MacLeod's eyebrows couldn't have climbed any higher if they'd tried. "I go away for a few days and the world goes crazy!"

"It's not so crazy. In fact, it's pretty obvious." Joe replied as he set a glass of frothy beer in front of the man. Duncan automatically slapped some money down on the bar and took a swig. "He's had it for her ever since she first showed up. Oddly enough for all his other 'talents' wooing women has never really been up there on the list."

"I knew he was interested, but I didn't think he'd go this far." Duncan was surprised he wasn't the only one who had seen Methos' interest in the slayer. "As for 'wooing' he's no Don Juan, but he has had sixty eight wives."

"Wonder how many of 'em were given to him in trade." Joe cracked. Richie snickered.

"Well I guess this answers the question of 'just what exactly can make Methos put himself in harm's way'. Too bad he doesn't have a crush on any of us." Richie mused more to himself than anyone else.

"Let's NOT go there!" Duncan exclaimed, taking another heartier swig of his beer.

"Speaking of crushes," Joe prompted. Richie pretended to ignore him until Joe in exasperation told Duncan of his problem. "I think he should just go with them." Joe concluded.

"Finally admitted that you like her, have you?" Duncan shot Joe a knowing look.

"Oh yea, right like you guys have known all along." Richie scoffed. Duncan shrugged and Joe attempted to whistle innocently. "You have?"

"It's pretty obvious," Duncan said with a smirk.

"So what, everybody knows?" Richie felt a little silly realizing that everyone seemed to know what had taken him a good long while to realize himself.

"Everyone with eyes, yea." Joe added. "Not your usual type of girl though, I'll give you that."

"What do you mean?" Richie couldn't help but be defensive after all of this.

"Well you usually go for older women," Duncan replied, his tone holding a trace of amusement as he remembered Richie's infatuation with Amanda at first, not to mention Kristen and many others. "And they tend to be more…experienced."

"Yea, but those have never meant anything." Richie replied realizing however belatedly that they hadn't. "This is much different."

"Is that what took you so long to ask her out?" Joe asked. Richie looked at him in surprise.

"How did you know about that?"

"I'm a Watcher and a bar tender." Joe said benignly. "I know everything."

"She's special OK? I was nervous." He looked to both of them and felt his shoulders slump. Seems he couldn't get anything past these guys. "I didn't want to screw it up."

"Which is why you should go to Italy." Joe persisted. "If you really are serious, you can't let her leave…especially for Italy of all places."

"Why, what's special about Italy?" Richie looked to the two of them in confusion. Duncan simply shot Joe a knowing look.

"If you don't, all those Italian guys will have a chance with her." Duncan reasoned. "And you know how they are."

Richie didn't, but he guessed from Duncan's tone what he was implying. He didn't like it.

"I still think you guys are nuts," Richie shot back. "I can't just take off and go to Italy." Even as he said it though, his mind was running through the various reasons why he could or couldn't go.

"Sure you can." Duncan said with a shrug. "You said Methos is going, didn't you? Stay at his place. That's probably where the others are staying."

"For what reason?" Richie wondered. "I mean, I can't just say 'hey guys, fighting the first evil sounds like fun, can I come too?'"

"Why not?" Duncan replied. "You want to be around Buffy's sister, and you don't want to see her come to harm. Just tell them that. I'm sure they'll be OK with it."

"I dunno…" Richie spoke cautiously, but inside his mind was running away with him. If he could simply convince Methos to give him a room at his place in Italy, he and Dawn could fight whatever it was together, side by side. He could prove to Buffy that he wasn't a danger to her little sister and just how much he cared for her. They could explore whatever it was they felt for one another and he wouldn't have to worry about her meeting somebody else and forgetting about him. He had no particular ties that bound him to Paris, other than that was where his friends were. And men like Duncan MacLeod never stayed in one place for too long anyway. They were constantly moving back and forth from place to place. He would see Duncan and Joe again, that much was certain. So why not?

"Let me ask you something Rich," Duncan said turning his chair to face the younger immortal. "Do you really like Dawn? Is this something you feel serious about? Or is it frivolous?"

"I care about her Mac," Richie said through clenched teeth. "I know you think I'm a flake when it comes to girls, but Dawn is different." He felt silly telling this to another guy, but in some ways Duncan felt very much like a father figure and Richie had never had that before.

"I understand what you mean." Duncan assured him. Richie relaxed slightly as he realized that Duncan hadn't meant to offend him with the question. "I just meant that if she was just a casual interest, then you won't be any worse off when she leaves. If you really care about her, then I don't see why you shouldn't go with them."

"I don't wanna come on too strong Mac," Richie said, biting his lip as he turned the idea over in his head. "I mean how's it gonna look if I show up and say 'hey I want to date you so I'm gonna follow you to Italy?'"

"Like you care for her?" Joe put in.

"Seriously Joe!" Richie insisted. "I mean, think about it. I'm gonna come off as a crazy stalker or something."

"I doubt she'll think of you that way." Duncan said with a slight laugh. "She's known you long enough now I think to know the interest is genuine. With the life she leads Richie, moving things faster than you intended might be a good idea. She could go to Italy and come back a year or so later, or she could go there and find someone else…"

"Or be killed." Richie said with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Dawn Summers was the sister of the slayer. She was going there to fight and she might not make it back. Richie knew that lifestyle better than anyone. He lived constantly with the knowledge that any day now he, or one of his friends might be challenged and lose and that person would be gone from his life very violently and very permanently. It was the cruelest irony that immortals tended to have the most precarious life spans of any creature out there.

He knew unequivocally that if he was to have a chance at all with Dawn Summers then it would have to be with her, fighting side by side. Looking at Duncan he could tell the Highlander knew and understood his decision. He stood up.

"Listen Mac…"

"Go pack Richie." MacLeod said with a nod. "But don't leave here without bringing them back to this bar to say good bye."

"No prob," Richie said as he left Joe's and headed to Methos' to tell Dawn his decision.