"I don't think your brothers have made the connection yet," Louise said as Kronos unpacked their things, "I don't think they remember me."

"You'll have to give them some credit, the last time they saw you, you were half a foot shorter and you looked Celtic," Kronos replied.

"Well…I don't think I'm going to tell them," she said.

"How come?"

"There's no sense in bringing up the past."

Kronos started laughing, "Are you forgetting who you're with? Our whole life is the past."

"Well," she replied, "I don't want to bring it up."

"Alright then, we won't."

Kronos looked in the mirror on the dresser and saw her on the other side of the room.

"You look tired."

"It was a long trip," she answered, "Now, is everything unpacked?"

"Yes."

"Then let's go get reacquainted with the three nitwits downstairs."

Kronos followed behind her as they headed back down the stairwell and into the living room.

"Is everything alright?" Methos asked.

"Everything's fine," Kronos answered.

"Well, Louise," Methos said, "How are you enjoying your vacation so far?"

"What vacation?" she asked as she grabbed her fur coat off the rack and wrapped herself up in it, "This isn't a vacation. In my time I've learned that there is no such thing as a vacation unless I don't have to do anything."

"And you won't," Kronos told her.

"Then I'm enjoying myself," Louise answered as she sat down on the couch, "And what about you, Methos? You're looking about as comfortable as a turkey the day before Thanksgiving."

Methos seemed to bite down on the insides of his cheeks to keep from saying what he was thinking. "I'm fine," was all he said in response, "How was your trip up here?"

"One long car ride with old lead foot at the wheel," Louise answered as she pointed to Kronos, "And wouldn't you know…for his foot never leaving the accelerator in the 250 miles it took us to get here careening through the roads at about 80 miles an hour, he STILL couldn't get that old junk heap he calls a car to go any faster than it did."

Caspian had been doing his best to look bored to death but one loud snort of a laugh escaped him when she said that. Methos tried to sound his usual neutral self when he replied, but his voice cracked up an octave in a strained laugh as he said, "Is that a fact?"

"Of course that's all very easy to say coming from somebody who never drives," Kronos said as he glared at her.

"You drive, yes, but I'm the one who actually has a license," Louise said.

"Not like anybody would know," Kronos said, "Anytime you drive we wind up crashing into something after going through half the town at 120 miles an hour."

"At least when I drive we don't go crashing into the river," Louise insisted.

"And what was wrong with that? You were complaining about the heat anyway."

Louise grunted and kicked Kronos in the thigh with the heel of her boot, which proved effective in shutting him up about the matter.

"Well this is certainly an interesting visit," Methos commented.

"Don't pay him any mind," Louise said, "He's just mad because it wasn't his idea to come up here today."

"Really?" Methos was surprised.

"Yes, I figured it was about time that the rest of his family got to meet the old bat he married," Louise told him, "While things were still going good."

"How's that?" Methos asked.

"Well over the years, your brother and I have had our rough spots and believe me you wouldn't have wanted us dropping in during one of those times," Louise laughed.

Caspian leaned towards Methos and asked, "How would you know the difference?"

Methos reached behind him and kicked Caspian less than subtly which also proved effective in shutting him up, for the moment anyway.

"Oh you'd be able to tell," Louise said, "One of the last ones was a while back and it was a real nightmare…"

Her mind went back almost 80 years as she recalled she and Kronos having to make a very unexpected trip from one state to the next before they could be caught and executed. Kronos had killed a detective who had been tailing him, and the two decided to leave California and head south, but on their way there they came across the harsh winter weather and found themselves traveling through what must have been four feet of snow that seemed to spread as long as Nevada was wide. The two nearly froze to death and ran all night and rested in the morning when at least the sun was out.

"If anybody would've told me," Louise said as she got up and knocked the snow out of her coonskin cap, "That I would be hopping through snow as far as the eye could see, to try and get down to Mississippi, because my genius husband slit the throat of some private dick, I would've said they were crazy."

"Oh shut up and go to sleep," Kronos said as he pushed her down into the snow.

"Kronos."

"What?" he asked as he sat up.

Louise pulled herself up and sat in the snow and took her cap off again, revealing a small hunting knife tucked away in the hair on the top of her head, and it was bloody, "Kronos, since we're already going through all this trouble, I guess I might as well confess something."

"Already I don't like where this is going," he said, "What is it?"

"Uh…that detective that you killed, he had a brother, and he came to the house while you were gone…and I killed him."

"I already knew that," Kronos replied as he got to his feet and stood next to her, "I got a good view of the body you stuffed into the oven…now," he pointed at her, "I can understand killing him, but why for the love of God, did you stab that bastard 22 times?"

"Because he refused to die quickly and get it over with," she replied.

Kronos looked sickened by knowing what she had done.

"What's wrong?" Louise asked.

He didn't answer and instead turned away, as if this little revelation was too much for him to believe. As if the very idea of what she had done had truly sickened him.

"What is it?" she demanded to know, "You don't mean to tell me that what I did upsets you. It's a little late in your life to be going self righteous all of a sudden, Kronos. You've done your fair share, and so did that dearest brother of yours."

Kronos' eyes widened at the mention of Methos, and in the blink of an eye he turned around and hit her so hard she fell back and landed head down, face first into the snow again.

And as quickly as he had hit her, he was down alongside her turning her over.

"Louise, I'm sorry."

The snow beneath her was red. Blood trickled down her nose and spilt out of her mouth when she opened it to speak.

"That's more like the way things used to be between us," she said.

That was a flat out lie of course, Kronos had never struck her when she was one of the slaves in the camp. But she knew it would work to her advantage all the same.

"I'm sorry, Louise," he said again, "I didn't mean to hit you."

"Well," she grumbled, "I'm sorry too. I just hate it that anytime we seem to get settled down somewhere, something always happens to blow our plans to hell and we have to pick up and leave again because we can kill one bastard, we can kill a whole pack, but we can't kill everybody who can hang us for the first murders."

"I know," Kronos replied, "I hate it too."

"Well," Louise said after a minute, "We better keep moving if we want to get out of here."

She started to get up but staggered two steps and fell down again. Kronos tried to help her up but she pushed him away.

"I think you've helped me enough for one day," she said, "Let's just get the hell out of here before we freeze to death."

They traveled day and night for over two weeks before they finally reached a state where they weren't surrounded by snow as far as the eye could see. A better part of the time they spent making that trip they had spent at each other's throats, fighting to what seemed like no end. No sooner had one argument between the two died down than it seemed another started up all over again and they were each ready to carry on until the death. Once there they tried to be pleasant with one another again, and tried to rebuild their lives and hope that that time they would stay out of trouble long enough they could get through one lifetime without a pack of lawmen chasing them ready to lynch them. Over the years they had broken out in many more fights, it always seemed the next one was far worse than the last, sometimes it came to blows, and other times fists and shiners, and on some occasions even gunplay, but their fights, as massive and horrible as they got, never came to swords, for which each was grateful for, but it was never easy making sure that line wasn't crossed.

"Considering we've gone 12 hours without anybody dying yet," Kronos said that night as they got ready for bed, "I'd say this day has been nothing short of a miracle."

"Yeah, this has gone much better than I planned," Louise replied as she came out of the bathroom in her nightgown and still wearing the long black gloves, "Silas I don't think there'll be any problems with, and Caspian…I handled snakes in church for 12 years, I'll know my way around him…but why does Methos keeping staring at me with that look on his face?"

"What look?"

"Oh you know the one," she said, "It's the kind you get when you hear your mother-in-law's staying until Christmas and it's only March."

"I'm supposed to know what it means?" Kronos asked, "Do you know how long it's been since I had a mother-in-law?"

"Well you don't think he knows, do you?" she asked, "He couldn't be figuring out who I am, could he?"

"Hmmm, might be, Methos always was the smartest one of the bunch, that was his mistake."

"Oh boy."

"I don't know what you're so worried about, so what if they recognize you?"

"It doesn't matter," she replied, "It's not that important."

She raised her arms and Kronos pulled her gloves off, being particularly cautious with the left one, and set them on the table by the bed. He got on one side of the bed and she slipped in the other side, but he grabbed her and pulled her on top of him.

"Well this is familiar," she commented.

Kronos tried to kiss her but she scooted down and rested her head on his chest.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded, "It's been a long day."

So it had been. Kronos grabbed the covers and brought them up on her and turned out the light. He tried to sleep but his mind was filled with memories of fire, explosions, rolling clouds of black smoke, blood, ear shattering screams of terror and pain, and none of it caused by his own hand.

He remembered well over 100 years ago, coming home one evening and finding his wife sprawled out in the yard, barely alive, her clothes torn, laying in a puddle of her own blood. Kronos rushed to her side and covered her with his coat, her eyes were barely open and she hadn't the strength to even speak. He carried her into the house and laid her out on the bed where she finally passed out. Carefully removing his coat, he also removed what was left of her clothes to see the extent of what was done to her. As horrible as it all was, what sickened him even further was that by now she had to have already begun healing, and he couldn't even begin to imagine what she must've looked like when the damage was fresh. He cleaned the blood off of her and let her rest and waited, and watched as the marks and the bruises started disappearing.

It was morning before she woke up, and when she did and she saw her husband looking at her, she remembered what happened. She looked down and saw that she was naked, and a panicked look came over her as she sprang up in the bed.

"I didn't let him in, Kronos, honest I didn't, you have to believe me."

If Kronos wasn't sickened by this whole catastrophe before, he certainly was now, to think that his wife felt a need to explain that this wasn't something she went along with.

"Who was it, Louise? Who did this to you?"

She slowly shook her head and replied, "He's gone now, that's all that matters."

It wasn't good enough for Kronos, he wanted to track down the bastard who had done this to her and he wanted to make him suffer day and night, long before he ever killed the son of a bitch. He never did find the man responsible, and it never mattered how much time had passed or where they went or what happened, every so often he would look at Louise and he would remember, or he would wake up in the middle of the night remembering, finding her near lifeless body, her skin a mess of bruises and cuts, and all the blood running down her…

Kronos sprang up in bed as he woke up, his eyes were wide for a moment as he remembered where he was. Louise hadn't moved and hadn't woken up either, she still lay on top of him, sleeping peacefully. Kronos laid back down and looked up at the ceiling as he waited for sleep to come to him again, but he had an idea that it wouldn't. There were some nightmares even he of all people couldn't stand to face twice in one night, those that had actually happened being the worst of them all.

When he woke up early the next morning, Louise's side of the bed was empty and her nightgown was slung over the bedpost. Kronos got dressed and made the bed and collapsed on top of it when she came out of the bathroom with a tall glass of water in one hand, dressed for the day complete with her long black gloves on again.

"Did you sleep well last night?" he asked.

"I had an eventful night," she commented as she entered the bedroom, "I dreamt you and I were on a little farm in Kansas when a big storm brewed up, and this big lightning bolt chased your ass all the way to the city of Oz, and there in the town square, the wicked Witch looked into her crystal ball and your brother Caspian was one of the flying monkeys."

"That's eventful alright," Kronos replied.

"He and I never did get along, did we?" Louise asked as she set the glass down on the nightstand.

Kronos shook his head, "Not a day in either of your lives. I never could understand what was the matter with you two."

"Whatever it was, I'm sure he started it," she said.

"And if he remembered those days, I'm sure he'd say the same about you," Kronos told her as he picked up the glass and took a drink.

"And Methos," Louise added, "I'm still not sure he's not making a connection in that thick skull of his. I think he might be figuring out where he's seen me before."

"So what if he does?" Kronos asked, "What would it matter?"

"Maybe nothing, but I worked damn hard to leave behind what I was, and I don't want it being brought up again," she told him, "Can you understand that?"

Kronos thought about it for a minute. "I suppose so."

"You can note," she said, "You never bring up your past before the Horsemen, so you have to know what I'm talking about. And I don't want your brothers bringing it up either, so I'm going to have to make sure they don't start making any connections."

Later that morning, while it was still early and the sun hadn't come up yet, Louise crept along the hall, though why she didn't exactly know since nobody would have to hear her coming to wake up, and over to Silas' room. She heard nothing, so she pushed the door open and looked in and found he wasn't there. It didn't even look like his bed had been slept in. The only living creature in the room besides her was a rat in a cage on the table with a weird lock on it. Most likely, she figured, so Caspian couldn't get to it. Kronos had told her all about that a long time ago.

On the walls were old and by this time many of them rusted souvenirs collected from times long since gone by now. Without turning on the light, Louise looked around at the items that hung on long pikes on the walls: old armor, bronze shields, spiked shackles, faded and torn flags from nations that had risen and fallen when the earth was still flat, and from more recent times, flintlock pistols, single-shot rifles, and…her eyes widened a bit at the old and partially flattened bugle that rested near the corner of one wall. She sauntered over to the wall and took the bugle down. It was a bit rusted and bent but still in rather acceptable condition, and she bet it still played too. An idea came to her and one could almost see the little red horns sprouting out of the top of her head as with the horn in hand, she left the room and crept along the corridor to where Caspian was still in bed.

Her quickening never having been far enough away that he couldn't feel it, it didn't wake him up now as Louise quietly and slowly pushed his bedroom door open and slinked into the room and over to the bed. When she stood just six inches away from him, she decided it was close enough. Raising the bugle, she took in one large breathe, put it to her lips, and blew with all her might. The noise that erupted from the old horn was enough to jerk Caspian awake and he about jumped for the ceiling. He fell back against the mattress and pillows and looked up at her through one open eye.

"Good morning," she said innocently.

"What," he started to say, "Did you do that for?"

She smiled like the cat who had already swallowed the canary and no evidence would be found. "I wanted to see if the horn worked."

In two seconds Caspian had thrown back the covers and lunged at her. Louise, having been in this position many times in a past life during her days as a lady of the night, jumped out of the way a split second before he would have grabbed her and he hit the wall, at which point Louise brained him with the horn and he fell to the floor unconscious.

"Now look what you did, you mutt," she said as she put the horn down and picked him up and hauled him back over to the bed, "You fall down and go boom!" she added as she dropped him back on the bed.

For good measure she beat him upside the head with the horn once more, and this time it was strong enough to leave blood on the bugle. He wouldn't be waking up and giving her trouble anytime soon, so she made her exit and closed the door behind her on the way out.

"Kronos," Methos hadn't paid much attention when he first awoke that morning and hadn't seen his younger brother up and around yet, but two hours had come and gone and there had still been no sign of Kronos, so Methos went to see if he was still in bed. Pushing open the bedroom door, Methos saw Kronos sprawled out on the bed in a dead sleep. This wasn't like Kronos at all, he had never been the bursting ball of energy that Richie was but he never slept this late in the day either. Methos went over to the bed and shook Kronos to try and wake him up but it didn't work, so he slapped Kronos' cheek.

Almost before his eyes were even open, Kronos returned the slap, hard enough to leave an impression in Methos' flesh.

"What did you do that for?" Kronos asked.

"What are you still doing in bed?" Methos asked as he placed his own hand over the stinging nerves in his cheek, "It's after nine in the morning."

"What?" Kronos picked up the clock on the nightstand and looked at it, he couldn't believe that he had slept for that long. "Where's Louise?"

"I haven't seen her all day," Methos replied, "I thought she was with you."

"She was up before it was even six in the morning…and when in the hell did I fall asleep again?" Kronos asked.

He swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stood up only to fall flat on his face with the first step he took. Methos knelt down beside him and helped him back up.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Who hit me?" Kronos asked, his eyes starting to roll in two different directions.

Methos helped him back onto the bed so he could get his bearings straight.

"How much did you have to drink last night?" Methos asked.

"Not enough for this," Kronos replied as he closed his eyes and raised a hand to his forehead, "What's going on?"

"How're you feeling?" Methos asked.

Kronos only moaned in response, "I think I'm going to be sick."

Poor kid, Methos thought, though he didn't dare say it for Kronos to hear, his brother resented very much any comments that referred to the fact that he was the younger brother of the two.

"Kronos, why don't you lie down and I'll see where Louise is."

"No, no," Kronos grumbled as he got to his feet again, "I'm fine. I need to find out where my wife is."

At that exact moment, Caspian came into the room and took in the sight before him.

"What happened to him?" Caspian asked, "Did she get to him too?"

"Did who get to him?" Methos asked.

"His wife, that wolf in wool you call a woman came into my room earlier and beat me to death."

"Too bad the effect wasn't long-lasting," Methos murmured to Kronos.

"Caspian, you're imagining things again," Kronos said, unconvinced.

"I am not, I'm telling you she hit me!"

"Oh I don't believe you," Methos replied, "Where is she?"

"She's not here," Caspian answered, "I searched up here, downstairs, in the basement and on the grounds, she isn't anywhere."