Disclaimer: Highlander belongs to Davis/Panzer. They are being borrowed and returned hopefully in about the same shape they were taken in. Jeff, Emmy, and just about everyone else, belong to me. You can use them if you like, just return them please.

Chapter 35

Duncan and Amanda felt the buzz, and woke from a deep sleep. It was early morning, and after staying out late last night, they were not prepared for company. Duncan grabbed his robe and sword and went out onto the deck. There, standing on the shore, was Richie... or Rick, as he was now calling himself.

Having spent the evening before flooding his senses with Rick's presence, it was no longer a mind-shattering shock, and he could smile, even if it was wobbly. "It's a bit early for a visit," he said, leaning his sword against the barge and folding his arms loosely.

Rick shrugged, "I couldn't sleep, so I figured now was as good a time as any to come bother you." He held up a bottle. It was an old vintage, from decades before he was born. "I thought we could share a drink. Permission to come on board?"

Duncan smiled at the joke, but it also jarred him. Never before the mess with Ahriman would Richie have asked to come onto the barge. "Sure," Duncan said, blinking rapidly and feeling tears escape him, "You know you are always welcome."

Rick nodded and climbed onto the deck. He handed Duncan the bottle. Duncan's eyes went wide as he recognized it, "This is..."

"Yup," Richie said smiling.

"How did you-"

"I searched really hard," Rick interrupted with a grin.

They went and sat at the table on deck together. Neither one of them spoke for a long time. They just sat, passing the bottle back and forth and watching the sunrise.

Finally, Duncan had to ask the question that had been bothering him all night. "Why?" he almost whispered.

"So many reasons, Mac," Rick told him. He shuddered and his mental age seemed to unfold before Duncan's eyes. He looked all the years older. "At first, I was scared and angry, like I was after the Dark Quickening, even when you gave me Graham Ashe's sword. Then, I felt guilty because I wasn't the best person for a while. I wasn't the kind of person you would be proud to call your student... Then, time passed, and I created my own life. I became my own person, not just your shadow."

A wave of confused pain washed through Duncan. "You were never my shadow, Richie, you were my friend," he told him, reaching out to lay his right hand on Rick's left shoulder.

Richie... Rick sighed, not pulling away but not looking at Duncan either. "That's how you felt about the situation. It's not how I felt. So I left. After a while, telling the truth just seemed harder and harder. After all, staying away had been so easy. I might never have come back at all if it weren't for Emmy. If she hadn't been Amanda's student, and just as much of a pain in the ass..." he trailed off, and took a long drink from the bottle before handing it back to Duncan.

"I'll have to thank her then," Duncan said, forcing himself to stop touching Rick.

Rick nodded, then looked straight at him. "Sorry, Mac."

"Me too."

There was a long silence again. Duncan could feel himself letting go of all of the pain. Here was Richie, safe and whole. He was living his own life. A life he seemed to love, with friends. Good friends, from what Duncan had seen. He looked at Rick and smiled. "You've changed a lot."

Richie's return smile did not quite reach his eyes. "I had to. I think that's a lesson Immortals all have to learn, sooner or later. I just learned sooner. It should make the next move smoother, when Emmy and I are ready to make it. Hopefully, Jeff will come too, by then."

"He seems to be a good kid," Duncan told him, "Does he know?"

Richie shook his head, "No, and I'm not telling him either."

Duncan nodded again, "I made the same call."

"It was a good call."

For the third time there was silence. This time it was more comfortable. Both men were accepting what had happened. After all, when it came to immortality, what was fourteen years between friends? Duncan and Connor had gone longer without contacting each other. It would work out. These things usually did, as long as their heads stayed attached to their shoulders.