"Louise wouldn't sleep after that, she hardly said anything, I had to get her out of there before she lost her mind," Kronos said.

"But you never found out who that man was or why he was there?" Methos asked.

"No, she never said," he replied.

"So what happened from there? You went back to Texas and…"

"Well we stayed there for about another 20 years," Kronos answered, "After that…"

He was cut off when they heard the car pull up outside. By this time the sky was almost as dark as night and they both knew that the storm was going to strike at any moment, so they ran out to meet her.

Louise got out of the car, closed the door, took a step towards the house and started to fall, except they caught her at the last second. Helping her up, they saw that her face was flushed and she was shaking.

"What's wrong?" Kronos asked.

Her head swayed from one side to the other for a minute as if she was simply in a daze and couldn't answer. Then she let out a horrific noise neither were familiar with and pulled away from them both.

"This sardine can of yours gave out on the highway on the way back here when there was a semi heading my way and I just narrowly escaped being hit by the damn thing."

A twitch had developed in her shoulders and was very noticeable as she explained. She backed away from them both and started for the front door

"I need a drink and I need to lay down," she said as she walked up the stairs, "Already I've had a day that's shot to hell, my nerves included."

The two men followed close behind her and when she reached the top of the stairs, she turned around to yell at them and that was when she lost her balance and fell off the top step. Methos caught her and they saw that she had passed out.

"What's the matter with her?" Kronos asked.

"I'm not sure," Methos said, "But I think we better take her into the bedroom and lay her down."

Louise woke up and she was on top of the bed in their room. The window next to the bed was open and a strong wind was blowing in; she could smell the rain and she knew it would start at any moment. The door opened and Methos came in carrying a glass of bourbon.

"I thought you might be in need of a drink," he said.

"I need more than that, but it'll do," she replied as she took the glass, "Thank you."

"Louise, have you ever been to a psychiatrist?" Methos asked.

She laughed as she swallowed the booze. "I don't need a psychiatrist, only crazy people see psychiatrists and I'm not crazy. Do you think I'm crazy?"

"This isn't about what I think, Louise."

"Isn't it? What is it you're trying to get at?" she asked.

"Well I just…I wondered if you'd mind my asking you a few questions."

Louise smiled and lay back against the pillows and crossed one foot over the other, "Okay, Doc, where shall we began? I don't remember my mother and I had no father so you can rule out my wanting to sleep with either of them. That brings us up to now, what do the modern head shrinkers do with their patients besides prescribing them cocaine and sleeping with them?"

Methos seated himself on the dresser and started to talk when Louise sat up and said, "Oh wait, where's Kronos?"

"Downstairs."

"Okay then," she laid back down, "We should be able to talk freely then."

"Just to make sure," Methos went over to the door and closed it.

Half an hour later, the door finally opened and Methos walked out into the hall. Kronos had been pacing outside of the room and he was most anxious to find out what had been going on.

"What's wrong with her?" he demanded to know.

"Kronos, calm down, I've examined Louise and aside from one small problem she appears to be as alright as is possible given the condition she has."

"What problem?"

"Simply put, exhaustion…she's going to be alright but she needs to rest. As far as I can gather, Kronos, she hasn't slept for at least two weeks."

"That's not possible," he shook his head, "Every night she sleeps like the dead."

"No, Kronos, she just acts like she does because she didn't want you to know," Methos replied, "She needs to sleep, that's all that's wrong with her."

It seemed that only the last part of that registered in his brain because the next thing he said was, "Then I can see her."

"Yes but I wouldn't advise staying with her too long," Methos said, "She asked me to get something from the car, and when I get back I think it would be wise if you let her rest."

Methos headed down the stairs and Kronos went into their bedroom to see his wife. She laid in bed, her eyes already closed but he knew she wasn't asleep just yet. He hovered over her and she opened her eyes, halfway, and looked up at him.

"What's wrong, Kronos?" she asked.

"How are you feeling?" he wanted to know.

"I'm tired," she replied.

"So I was told, what's been going on with you?"

She rubbed one eye and explained, "I went to town and got some sleeping pills. I didn't tell you that I was having trouble sleeping because I didn't want you to worry. You've done quite enough of that over the years already."

He sat down beside her and stroked through the hair on the top of her head. "You still should've told me."

"I know…" she responded, "But I just couldn't sleep, I didn't see it as being worth keeping you awake all night for."

Methos appeared in the doorway with a box in his hand. He gave it to Louise who opened it and took out a white bottle of sleeping pills. After swallowing two of them she laid down and closed her eyes and it was then that Methos quietly suggested to his brother that they leave her alone.

"What's going on?" Kronos demanded to know as they left the room, "What do you mean leave her alone?"

Methos closed the door behind him and answered, "Kronos, I spent some time talking to your wife. And no matter what I asked her, you kept coming into the conversation. I think that the cause of her problem is subconscious stress from having you hovering around her all the time."

"I don't believe that," Kronos said.

"No, of course not, but Kronos you have to realize it's important that she does rest, and it's important that we do what we can to let her sleep. So I'm asking you, for today, stay away from her, don't wake her up, don't talk to her, don't even go into the bedroom."

Methos had a good idea that there was more to Louise's problem than met the eyes, but he wasn't about to tell his brother that, no matter how much an announcement like this upset him.

The rain beat down all afternoon and was accompanied by loud thunder; all that seemed to be missing was the lightning and then they'd have a perfect storm. Methos stood at the front door watching the rain pour down in heavy sheets and watching it pool up on the ground. Silas was off in another corner of the house tending to a raccoon he'd found earlier in the day; Caspian was seated at the table in the dining room reading law books, and Kronos hadn't moved from where he'd sat in the living room since they'd come downstairs. Methos peered into the living room and saw him, and it seemed Kronos was doing everything he could not to jump for the ceiling. He had a good idea that every nerve within his brother was shot to hell, just like his wife.

Methos knew how hard it had to be for Kronos to not go up and see his wife; especially after talking with him earlier in the day and getting a better idea of just how close he was to Louise. He'd talked with Louise, idly playing with her mind, looking for some answers, and she hadn't given him the ones he was looking for, but he'd found some nonetheless. And he hoped that after she'd gotten a few hours of sleep in during the day, she'd be up for explaining more that night after Kronos had gone to sleep. He still couldn't help but wonder exactly why everything that she had said to him had to be kept from her husband. But then he caught himself and remembered that he knew his brother, and he knew how his brother reacted to certain things. It was certainly possible she had a logical reason for keeping all this from Kronos, but Methos couldn't figure out yet just what it was.

He considered the possibility that perhaps he should talk to Kronos and try to explain some of it; but he wasn't sure what all he'd say to his little brother; and what would he say and what couldn't he afford to say?

Deciding he ought not stand around for too long and draw attention to himself, Methos waltzed over to the table and read over Caspian's shoulder for about a minute before his brother turned around and looked up at him.

"Yes?"

"Something I can do for you?" Caspian asked.

"No," Methos replied, "How's it going?"

Caspian had spent the last few months preparing for a new identity and new occupation, and soon he was going to take the bar exam to become a prosecuting lawyer in criminal court. Who better, Methos had thought, to discredit cold blooded murderers and the such, than somebody who knew the ins and outs of homicide so well himself?

"I don't know why it's necessary to know all these cases, do they really think a lawyer's going to be stupid enough to argue something on the foregrounds of a past case that doesn't exist?"

"You've caught lizards before," Methos said, "You tell me how slippery they can get. Though one thing I'm not sure of."

"What's that?" Caspian asked.

"How to seriously represent yourself as a prosecution lawyer when you look like the defendant, if you're not careful they might load you up on the prison bus by mistake," Methos replied as he patted the tattoo on the side of Caspian's head.

"Very funny."

"Why a lawyer?" Methos asked, "Why not a guard in the prison? Then you can beat the hell out of them all you want."

"First thing's first," Caspian replied, "First thing is to get them there to begin with."

"So what?" Methos asked, "Spend 20 years putting them in prison, then apply as a guard and beat them to death?"

"That's about it," Caspian answered.

"Well, it's a plan," Methos replied, "I suppose."

The whole house seemed to shake with the next explosion of thunder. The old chandeliers in the ceiling rattled violently and Methos stepped back from the table incase the bolts should wear loose and it come crashing down.

"If this keeps up," he said, "It'll be a wonder if the house is still standing come tomorrow morning."

A thought came to Methos and he turned back to Kronos to ask him if it was by pure dumb luck that tornadoes always seemed to follow him around or if he was cursed with it. Kronos looked to be half asleep by now except that he appeared to be talking to himself. He said nothing but his mouth was going through the motions of very anxiously saying something. Methos didn't know what to make of it, and he told Caspian to keep an eye on Kronos while he went upstairs to make sure Louise was still asleep.

As he went up the stairs he recalled briefly reading on the pill box that two pills would be strong enough within an hour's time to make a person sleep for six hours. He had a good idea before the day was through, Louise would be swallowing most of those pills to make up for lost time. As he reached the top step he crept along the hallway to the bedroom and opened the door. The storm hadn't disturbed her in the least; there she still remained curled up in the middle of the bed laying on her side.

There was something about how she was now that rang a note of familiarity in Methos. Taking a step forward, he stepped into the room and got a closer look at the woman, and that was when it seemed to hit him.

He remembered several thousand years ago when the four of them were together, going early one morning to see Kronos to discuss their plans for a raid. He entered the tent and saw his brother was still asleep with a woman, one of the slaves, pressed up against him. She was not dark skinned by nature but rather from toiling in the sun all the days, and her hair was curled and dark red. And now…her skin was a different color, her hair was lighter, and shorter, and there was something to her overall appearance that was different, but he knew it was the same woman.

Not sure what to do, Methos backed out of the room, went back downstairs, got Caspian and had him come upstairs to see it for himself.

"What in the hell is this about?" Caspian asked.

"You know how we've been saying we've seen Louise somewhere before?" Methos asked.

"So?"

They reached the hallway right outside the bedroom and Methos told him, "Look in there!"

Caspian did, and at first he didn't get what his brother was babbling on about, and then he saw it, and his hands clenched into fists immediately, remembering all the times that she had humiliated him in front of the others by beating him to near death.

Methos grabbed Caspian by his collar and jerked him back before he could go into the room and forced him back down the stairs.

"I knew I'd seen her before."

"Well remember, Caspian, you couldn't beat her up then, and you sure as hell can't now that Kronos is married to her," Methos told him.

"Why would he marry a thing like that?"

"Who knows?"

They reached the bottom of the stairs and returned to the dining room.

"I don't get it at all," Caspian told Methos.

"Neither do I," Methos responded, "Read your books."

Methos went into the living room and saw that Kronos had fallen asleep sitting in the middle of the couch. He went over to his brother, pushed him down and laid him out, and when he did, Kronos opened his eyes and started to sit up, and he appeared to be in a daze. "Louise?"

Methos put his hand on Kronos' shoulder and told him, "She's fine, Kronos, she's still sleeping."

"Good."

Methos could see Kronos was well on his way to unconsciousness as well.

"I know it's difficult not being able to see her, but she needs to rest and the only way that's going to happen is if she doesn't have people barging in on her when she's in bed," Methos told him, "Now lie down and go to sleep. You're looking about half dead with it yourself."

Kronos laid back against the arm of the couch and Methos got up and returned to the dining room and sat down beside his brother.

"So now what're we going to do?" Caspian asked.

"I don't know. I'm sure that there's more going on here than either of us knows about, but I'm not sure what it is," Methos told him.

"Do you think she'll have anything to say about it all?" Caspian asked.

"She might, but not if you start hovering over her like a vulture. At night when all of you are asleep, she talks to me and tells me what's going on. But if that's going to happen again tonight, she needs to be awake, Kronos needs to be asleep…"

"And I have to be anywhere else," Caspian commented.

"Yes," Methos replied.

"I can do that. But are you sure you can trust her?"

"The things she's told me these last few nights, Caspian," he said, "I don't have a choice, I have to."

The storm continued all through the afternoon and did not lighten up in the slightest by the time night fell.

Kronos awoke when he felt somebody poking him in the shoulder. He opened his eyes and saw Methos standing over him.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Well, it's night," Methos answered, "You were asleep for quite a while."

He sat up and tried to see straight, "And Louise?"

"She's awake now, Silas took her up her dinner and he said she seems to be doing alright," Methos told him.

Kronos nodded as he got up. He went upstairs and found Louise in the bedroom, the bed was made and she was dressed for the evening in one of his black T-shirts, a pair of his jeans and she was looking herself over in the mirror as she fixed her hair.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied, never seeing him, only his reflection in the mirror, "And you?"

"Same," he answered as he went over to her, "Louise, why didn't you tell me you couldn't sleep?"

"Because it wasn't anything to worry about and I knew you would," Louise told him, "I knew how you would react. It's an instinct in you now from all the years that you had to protect me from everything. Keep it up and one of these days you're going to find yourself in the loony bin."

He walked over to her and saw both their reflections in the mirror. It seemed with every passing day that they each bore more resemblance to the other. He put his arms around her and said, "I suppose I am a little crazy with it all."

"That would be the understatement of the century," Louise bluntly responded.

"It's just that I don't want to see anything else happen to you," he told her.

"And I appreciate it," she said as she broke away from him, "Really I do, but you have to remember, Kronos, before I met up with you again, I had my own life and I was the only person looking after my best interest. And I managed to survive 4000 years on my own so I like to think I know what I'm doing."

"I know," Kronos replied, "I just don't want you getting hurt again."

Louise smiled amusedly, "Not quite what you'd expect to hear from one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

As the night wore on, the storm seemed to grow stronger and beat down harder than it had all day. As the witching hour drew near, Silas, Caspian and Kronos had all gone up for the night, and when the clock struck the hour, it was just Methos and Louise seated in the living room again.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did today, Methos," she said, "I appreciate it…it's been a long time since I'd had any time or peace and quiet to myself."

"What is it though that you haven't been able to sleep the last few weeks?" Methos asked.

Her gaze dropped to the floor for a minute. She reached into one of the pockets on her nightgown and she took out two small white bottles of pills that were identical. She held them up for him to get a good look at both of them and she met his gaze.

"This one," she held up one, "Is barbiturates, this one," she held up the other, "Is speed. I've been slipping one to my husband and taking the other myself for the last two weeks. You can guess which he's been getting and which I've been taking."

So that was it, Methos realized. That was why Kronos had been sleeping late in the mornings, and clear through the nights and Louise had been up till all hours.

"But why?" Methos asked, "Why have you been taking them?"

"I needed to stay awake," she answered, "I needed to be able to think, and work…"

Before Methos could ask, work on what?, Louise looked at him and said, "Methos…you know, don't you?"

"Know what?"

"You, Silas, Caspian, you've all figured it out, haven't you? Who I am, or rather who I was," she said with a sinister glare in her eyes as she continued, "The mysterious little slave, who she is, nobody knows, where she's from, nobody knows, herself included. But damn if she'll go quietly, 'Get up you damned babe!'" she laughed, "I knew it was only a matter of time before you figured it out."

"You knew we were up there today?" Methos asked.

"No, but I've been noticing some things over the past few days. People standing in the doorway when I'm in bed, who disappear when I get up. Every so often when I'd say something to you, it would strike a chord in your memory and you would look at me as though you were trying to remember. I knew that you were going to figure it out, I just didn't know when."

"Why did you try and keep it a secret?" Methos asked.

"Why?" she asked, "Centuries pass, nations come and go…everybody dies and those who don't go on to become new people, different things. I was just as entitled to a better life as any of you were, more so because I didn't have anybody to watch my back when I did anything. Every other woman I encountered, the Immortals especially, were either married, or whores, they'd do anything to get a man's attention, and string him long enough that when it became known she needed somebody to protect her, the men would do it. I would never do anything like that, everything I did I went into alone, and that's how I lived for 4000 years. I made a name for myself and if I was going to be remembered for anything, it was not going to be for living as some poor slave. You can understand that, Methos, given how your early life was."

He could understand it, and it made sense. He no longer wanted to be remembered as Death on a horse but he also didn't want to be remembered as the slave boy of some rich pharaoh he served at the time of his first death either.

"And what about Kronos?" Methos asked.

"After we married, not too much changed at first. Before my little…predicament, we went along pretty much as we had before we married. After though…" she laughed, "He would hardly leave my side for anything, even after I was able to do everything for myself again. He was really shaken up when I had my accident, like nothing I had ever seen before, and like nothing I've seen since. It strikes me as being very unusual that for a man of 4000 years, he could react such as he has."

"And I'm sure his behavior over the years has been nothing short of annoying," Methos commented.

She laughed, "You can say that again. But no matter what was ever going on, I knew that I'd always have him around, whether I wanted him to or not. I guess, from the beginning when we all first met, there was something between us. I mean…well look at me, Methos, I'm not the easiest thing in the world to look at. I've seen the sorts of women that guys fall over, and I've never been anything like them. I've never been nice, I've never been pleasant, I've sure as hell never been pretty, I've never been soft spoken or laid back or any crap like that. And yet your brother saw something in me, he wanted me, why? That's the question I've been asking for hundreds of years, and I don't think I'm any closer to finding the answer." She laughed again, "Though a few times it worked to my advantage. I remember one time when Kronos had to leave town for some kind of work he was doing. The night he was supposed to come back, he'd sent me a telegram saying that he'd meet me at some bar. So I went there and ordered a few drinks and waited around for him to come in…"

She remembered the night very well. It was the middle of summer somewhere in the 1930s in Europe. The place was full of smoke and slow sultry music as the band played. Couples danced, others sat at their tables and smoked cigarettes, the rest sat at the bar and got drunk. Louise had been waiting around for an hour for Kronos to return and she was starting to get bored. As she waited, she glanced over at the couples dancing, and she pondered whether she ought to go over to one of the men, pinch him and ask if she might cut in. Oh, she laughed to herself, that would be quite a sight when her husband finally stepped in, especially given how jealous he could be.

The presence of another Immortal registered in her mind and she thought that finally she could get out of this booze hall. Before she could turn around, she felt somebody grab her arm and heard a feminine voice say, "Well hello there, handsome."

She turned around and came face to face with another woman. She was tall, thin, her hair was dark and cut short and she was dressed in a black sparkling dress that could probably be considered one step flimsier than a flapper dress. She wore black elbow length gloves on her hands that seemed to sparkle as well. Her black garters were showing, as were her pantyhose and everything else. Nobody had to take a second look at her to figure out what this woman did for a living.

Louise knew she was asking for trouble continuing to wear Kronos' suits, especially in this particular time period when she'd got her hair cut short, and she had stuffed it up under one of his hats and covered her hands with a set of his black gloves. But still she didn't think she could actually give anybody the impression she was a man.

The look on the woman's face was nothing short of hysterical as she realized the mistake she'd made.

"I…" she said as she took a step back, "I'm terribly sorry, I thought you were somebody else."

With a not so amused look on her face, Louise replied, "Fancy that, so did I."

The other woman pointed to the bar stool next to Louise and asked, "Somebody sitting here?"

Louise's eyes widened as she turned and saw the empty seat, turned back to the woman and said, "How many drinks have you had tonight?"

"I could see there's nobody sitting here," the woman said, "I was just being polite."

"You want to be polite," Louise said as she turned back to her gin, "Next time do the world a favor, wear twice as much underwear and half as much lipstick."

"Well I never," the woman replied as she sat down.

"Honey," Louise said as she looked her over again, "I don't think there's a person alive who'll believe that 'you never' anything."

A bartender came up and asked the lady what she wanted. In a sultry voice she asked for a martini, and when the bartender had gone she turned back to Louise and said, "You seem to be in an exceptionally rotten mood tonight."

"That's right," Louise told her, "And I don't care too bloody much who I take it out on. So watch yourself."

The woman looked at Louise again and seemed to be looking her over. Through one slanted eye, Louise glared at the woman and demanded to know what the hell she was looking at.

"I'm going to assume that you're not going to try for my head," the woman said quietly.

"That wasn't on my agenda but don't press your luck," Louise warned her.

"Oh this is ridiculous, can't we just talk to each other like women?"

"That depends," Louise replied as the bartender came back with the drink, "What woman is going to talk to you?"

"Look," the other woman said, "Since we don't know each other, can't we at least try and act civilized?"

"Civilized? This is Berlin, there ain't no such animal," Louise said, "In any case, I don't even know your name."

The woman took a drink of her martini and extended her hand to Louise, "I'm Amanda."

Louise downed her drink before returning the gesture, "Louise Baron."

"Charmed, I'm sure," the woman replied less than enthusiastically, "So you said you were waiting on someone?"

"Yes…a gentleman friend," Louise replied.

Amanda laughed once and caught herself, "Oh you'll excuse me for laughing…it's just that…" she looked at Louise and her face started to crack up as she started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Louise asked.

"Oh nothing, it's just…" Amanda calmed herself, "I can't quite picture what kind of a man would…" she started laughing again.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Louise wanted to know.

"Oh it's nothing personal," Amanda told her, "It's just that, uh…well…how do you plan to go about attracting a man looking like that?"

"That's not my concern," Louise replied, "He's seen what I have to offer, and he likes it."

"I see," Amanda said, "I'm guessing he hasn't been with too many women. How's he supposed to know a good one when he sees it in your case?"

With a smug look on her face, Louise told her, "Honey, when you're as good at what you do as I am, you don't have to advertise it to men, they just know."

"Well you'll pardon me for laughing, but I find that a little hard to believe," Amanda said.

They both felt the quickening of another Immortal approaching and they both turned to the door.

"Watch and learn," Louise said.

A few seconds later, the door opened and Kronos stepped in, looking once again like a lawyer in a dark three-piece suit and carrying a suitcase in one hand. He looked around and almost immediately spotted his wife at the bar and came over to her with open arms.

"Darling," she said as she threw her arms around him and held tightly to him, "When did you get into town?"

"About 15 minutes ago," Kronos replied.

"I didn't know the train was stopping that early," she said.

"It didn't," Kronos answered, "I jumped off the back car and worked my way here."

"Well now that you're here, can we go to the train station and get on one leaving?" Louise asked.

"Not tonight I'm afraid," he told her, "We'll have to leave in the morning. In the meantime however, I arranged for a room for us at a hotel not too far off from here."

"A hotel room for the night?!" Louise said for the woman at the bar to hear, "If you insist, dear."

"Oooh that woman was steaming when we left," Louise told Methos, "That's the thing I suppose. That woman had to go through her whole life trapping men with her good looks and her," she gestured her hands to suggest an hourglass figure, "Body, and once that worked, she kept her hooks in them by sleeping with them. That was her guarantee in anything, the only thing she knew how to do I suppose. I never had to worry about that, everything I got out of life I had to get for myself, by any means necessary and some means were more so than others."

"But you haven't had to do as much of that being married to Kronos, have you?" Methos asked.

"No, being with him makes things a little easier," Louise replied, "But not by much…not for quite some time."

She laughed once, humorlessly and told Methos, "Your brother's a saint, you know that? Oh, I don't mean like Joan of Arc or any of the angels she saw, but to put up with me for as long as he has, you'd have to be a saint, you really would. And, I remember you four guys from all those years ago. I knew what you all were, a bunch of murderous bastards, like most men were in those days."

"Well we're none of us perfect," Methos said.

"But I remember Kronos most of all, he was the most brutal, the most dangerous, the one who was not to be crossed…and yet I don't have one single memory of him ever being mean to me, of him ever striking me. Why? Why do you suppose that was, Methos?"

"I don't know," he replied, "I guess there's truth in what they say."

"That true love happens to the strangest people?" Louise asked, "I've heard that expression before, I've also heard there's a sucker born every minute. But you know, all the years that we were together, oh we got angry at each other quite often, and I was always angry at him when I was hurt…and still I don't have one bad memory of being with him. He never beat me, he never raped me, he never threatened to leave me, and as absurd as it sounds, he never slept with another woman…never even looked as far as I know. I never took your brother for being much of a moral one."

"It's not morality," Methos told her, "It's love."

"Maybe so," Louise said, "But, in a couple days, ain't none of it going to matter anymore."