"What are you talking about?" Methos asked.

"I mean, maybe so," Louise replied, "Maybe he really does love me, and always has, but why did he have to get so hung up on me? What did I do?"

"I don't know," Methos replied, "I just know that he was always crazy about it. It about killed him when you left."

Louise looked up and across the room to him with eyes full of curiosity, "What do you mean?"

"I don't blame you for leaving, but why did you have to run off in the middle of the night like you did and leave us all to wonder?" Methos asked, "Kronos about went out of his mind looking for you."

An expression of pure shock formed on her face, as if she'd heard the most baffling news in the world. "Is that what this is all about?" she asked, "You think I ran out on him?"

"Isn't that what happened?" Methos was confused now.

"Oh Methos, I didn't run out on Kronos…I had to leave, that night a man came into the camp and he kidnapped me. I…I don't think he was Immortal because you would have known if there was another one on the grounds, wouldn't you?"

"We would have known if anybody was there who shouldn't have been," Methos told her, "Nobody heard anything last night, nobody saw anything, all we knew was we all went to sleep and the next morning there wasn't a trace of you to be found."

"And Kronos thinks that I left him?" Louise asked, "He may have had his rough edges to him and he may have grabbed me by the neck and shaken me when I didn't answer him…but I didn't walk out on him."

"I don't understand," Methos said, "What happened?"

"Well," she thought for a moment before she said, "Do you remember the time that I went missing and Kronos searched all day for me and I was down by the river all beaten and bruised and sunburned?"

"I remember," Methos said, "Kronos was so sure that Caspian had done it because you two never got along and you were always beating him up. And he spent the rest of the day beating Caspian for it and even all these years later, he's never admitted to doing it."

Louise laughed sadly as she replied, "That's because he didn't do it."

"What?"

"The day I went missing, the four of you were off on some raid and I was wandering around the camp by myself. There was…a man…I didn't know at the time…but I kind of did know that he was like you, Immortal. He beat me up, he hit me, and choked me, and tore my clothes and tried to drown me."

"Why?" Methos asked.

"I don't know. I'd never seen him before. He said that I was his property, and that he would come after me, any time that he wanted to. I never told Kronos because I really didn't think that he would come back."

"Weren't you scared?"

"Out of my mind…and I had a couple of nightmares afterwards…but for the longest time I didn't give it any thought, until that night. I saw him again, but I guess he was too far away for any of you guys to feel his quickening. He had another man with him, and he picked me up and hit me over the head and as I went into unconsciousness, I remember him stuffing something in my mouth so I couldn't scream. And that's why when you all woke up the next day, I was gone."

Even for Methos, who had been Death on a horse and killed 10,000 and been the monster that mothers warned their children about; her account of what had happened was nothing short of stomach churning and he felt like he was going to be sick.

"Does Kronos know?"

"Oh no," she shook her head, "No, I never told him. You know how much he worries about me as it is, no, I couldn't tell him that."

"So what happened?"

"Well, I was his slave for about five years, and then I died, and became Immortal, and not long after that, I escaped. But you know, every single day that I served him, he told me that I was his property, and he owned me, and if I ever tried to escape he would hunt me down and kill me."

Methos tried desperately to push from his mind the memories of how many masters had said the exact same thing to him when he was young.

"I'm sorry," Louise said, "I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's not that," Methos said, "I just can't believe how much you two have not told each other in all the time you've been married. Even if it is Kronos, I can't imagine that's easy hiding so much from him."

"Well you know, your brother, he's very…he's a real…" she tried to find the right word, "He's a survivor, Methos."

Methos shook his head, "No…that would be me. Kronos is the fighter."

"Well he's that too…but you know, he does not do very well when something happens to somebody close to him."

"I remember," Methos said, "I remember how…"

"Berserk?" Louise offered.

"Yes, he would get after a battle when we were overpowered. Sometimes I thought he would flat out lose his mind," Methos told her, "I'm sure for part of his life, he did."

"The part where you two didn't see each other for 2000 years?"

"Well," Methos replied, "It wasn't quite that long…but it was a long time before I was sure I could trust him not to come for my head…so over the years I'd try and stay away from him as much as possible."

"But didn't your brothers tell you how he was doing?" Louise asked.

"We didn't keep too close in contact for a few hundred years," Methos confessed, "Anytime they did have a run-in with Kronos, I was always over on the other side of the world."

"Running?"

"Just trying to survive," Methos said, "Incase your husband hasn't told you, it's what I do best."

"Um…" Louise's gaze dropped to the floor again, as though she was ashamed of what she was about to say, "Methos?"

"What is it?"

"The man who…I served after he kidnapped me…" she said as she dared herself to look up at him again, "He found me again, about a hundred years ago…Kronos was at work, and I was alone for the day, and he found me, and he pinned me down in the front yard and he…did just about everything imaginable to me, again. I don't remember if I finally died from the ordeal, or if I just passed out from the pain and the blood loss…but when I woke up, it was the next morning and Kronos had found me and…he'd taken me inside and undressed me and cleaned me up…and I didn't tell him then either what happened. But I was…I was so scared….thousands of years pass, and he found me. On the other side of the world, with a different appearance, a new name, a new identity…he found me…and he said that he would come back again and find me."

"And you didn't tell Kronos any of that either," Methos commented, forcing himself not to give in to the urge to vomit from what he'd just heard.

She shook her head sadly, "I never told him, I can't ever tell him. I never could tell anybody about it…until now…until you…because I know I can trust you."

Louise had mentally exhausted herself that night and had turned in early, about three hours before the sun was supposed to come up. Except that the sun wouldn't come up that morning and she knew it, because the storm had never stopped. The thunder ceased for a few hours but the rain continued to pour down; and that was fine with Louise because it seemed to fit how she felt. She returned to her bedroom and slipped into bed alongside her husband. The dear bastard, he was still asleep and without a care in the world at the moment. Louise pressed up against him for a moment and wrapped her arms around him, hoping that it would do something about the horrible feeling that she'd been railing against for the last few weeks; an undying feeling that the world as she knew it was getting ready to close in around her.

She didn't remember falling asleep, all she remembered was Kronos shaking her shoulder and calling her name to wake her up at 5 in the morning. He had the lights on in the room and was standing over her for something, but she was too tired to give much thought to it.

Forcing herself awake for a moment, she asked Kronos what it was that he wanted. He asked for her arm and she offered her left one.

"I'm really not in the mood for any of your games, you know that don't you?" she asked tiredly.

She felt something slip around her wrist. Opening her eyes she saw a solid gold chain bracelet contrasting with her blackened flesh. She looked up at her husband and she wanted to call him every name in the book. So this was what he went out of town for the other day and couldn't take her along with him. And on the inside she saw a small engraftment, and when she read it, it was too much.

Kronos had anticipated her reacting to it to be better than this. Instead she covered her eyes with her other hand and started crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he knelt down beside her, "You don't like it. I'm sorry, Louise, you know I'm not very good with these things."

"It's not that," she replied as she looked at it, and then to him, "I just realized how lucky I am to have someone like you around after all these years."

She pushed herself up onto her knees and threw her arms around him and didn't want to let go.

"Where else would I be?" he asked her.

She didn't answer him. Instead she just held close to him for a minute and then said, "Kronos, do you remember when we got married? And you said that you'd always love me, do you remember that?"

"Of course I do."

"Well, did you mean it?" she asked.

"You know I did. Louise, you know my entire life history and for some reason I can't figure out, you stayed regardless. I'd like to think that after that there is nothing that you could ever do that I wouldn't love you."

"But do you know as much, Kronos?" she asked, "Do you just think, or do you know? I've got to know, you have to be sure about it."

"Of course I am, Louise."

"That's good," she replied, "It's been so long since I'd heard it…I just…needed to hear it again and be sure."

"Louise, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just that I know that over the years I've been absolutely horrible to know…and a lot of times, I meant it. But I still appreciate everything you've done for me, you don't know how much it all meant to know there was somebody I could trust with my life. As long as I've been alive, that was never a possibility," she told him, "I only had myself to rely on, and that way there was less risk of somebody turning on me, but it did tend to get pretty tired after a while, everywhere I went, everything I did, it was just me. That's not how people are supposed to live, not even Immortals, and if I hadn't found you…or rather you hadn't come to my room, I'd still be alone, and I know it."

"You're what?" Methos asked when Kronos broke the news to him that evening when it was just the two of them alone in the bedroom.

"I'm thinking of taking Louise back home," Kronos repeated as he dug the suitcase out from under the bed, "I don't know what it is but something's happening to her out here. I knew she was having problems before but she's just getting worse out here, and I don't know why. But I don't think it's a good idea to keep her out here."

"You can't do that, Kronos, she's only going to get worse when you get back," Methos told him.

"And how would you know?" Kronos asked.

"Kronos, Louise is not like you, she can't be by herself, she can't go thousands of years not telling anybody what's going on. She can't do it, Kronos, she's not you."

"I know that," Kronos responded as he turned away from Methos and headed over to the other side of the room.

"I don't think you do," Methos replied, "Kronos, I know what happened to Louise."

Kronos stopped in his tracks and even with his back to his brother, Methos could see the tension growing in his back. Kronos turned back around and faced Methos with a look of shock and disbelief on his face. "What are you saying?"

"I know about the accident that she had, when the boiler exploded on the boat," Methos said, "Ever since you came here, she's been coming to me in the night and telling me about what's happened. For some reason, she trusts me not to tell you, and up till now I've kept her secret, but now I don't know what the point is. I think you have a right to know what's going on, especially where her wellbeing is concerned."

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

"She needed somebody to tell about what happened, and she said she could trust me," Methos explained, "But she can't figure out why among your own family you've tried so hard to hide what happened to her. And I have to agree with her, Kronos, I don't understand it. Now, I'm going to assume that it's not because you're ashamed of her for what happened, am I right?"

"It's not that at all!" Kronos replied bitterly, full of disgust as it hit him what had happened.

"Then what is it?" Methos asked, "Kronos, I can understand not telling other people but why didn't you tell us? We would've understood."

Now Kronos looked sick, and Methos couldn't understand why this was so difficult for his brother to face, or for that matter why it was so hard for him to explain.

"Louise has every reason in the world to hate me for what's happened, and I know she does but every damn day she manages to restrain herself from it. Well I'm sick of it, after everything that's gone on, I don't want her to be pleasant about it, I want her screaming, damning me for what I did."

"What're you talking about?" Methos asked, "You're the only reason she's still alive after all this time."

"I'm also the reason she is what she is," Kronos replied, "Everything that she's become is my fault."

"I don't know what you mean," Methos said, "I understand that you became quite possessive over her wellbeing, considering how long you had to do everything for her it's not completely unreasonable."

"Methos," Kronos seemed to be losing a fight for his own sanity as he struggled to explain, "You don't understand, it's not that."

"The fact that you two are still on as good of terms as you are without either trying for the other's head, that tells me that something must have gone right," Methos said.

"And so much could have been avoided," Kronos added.

"What are you talking about?"

Kronos looked at his brother with a pained look in his eyes like a dog that had been beaten.

"Methos, I made Louise go on that steamboat. The whole time we were heading down to the docks, she said that she didn't want to go but I didn't listen. It's my fault what happened to her!"

"Kronos, you couldn't have known she'd go to the boiler room."

"I should've known as much. She didn't want to go in the first place, she wasn't going to stay with me, she wasn't going to stay on the front deck with the rest of the passengers. It makes sense she'd go somewhere she could be as close to alone as possible and on a ship, that is the boiler room because the only people down there are workers, and they're paid to shovel coal, not to talk."

"Still, you couldn't have known that the boiler would've exploded," Methos replied.

"But if I hadn't made her go in the first place, there wouldn't have been an explosion for her to be caught in, her arm wouldn't have been crippled and she wouldn't have had to go through 12 years of her life completely helpless."

"Kronos…"

Methos looked past his brother and to the doorway. Louise hadn't been far enough away for her quickening to go unnoticed, and now she stood in the doorway to the bedroom listening to her husband's whole tirade.

"That's the reason she is the way she is, because of me, I know it, I've always known it!" Kronos told him.

"So that's it!"

He turned around and saw his wife standing at the entrance to the room, looking at him. She took another step forward, "So that's what this whole thing's been about."

"Louise," he said gravely as he walked over to her, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean for anything to happen."

Louise put her arms around him and held him tight against her body, "I know, dear, I know."

Now it was out. The secret that Kronos had been keeping from his wife for over a hundred years was finally known, and now that the truth was out, the damage was done. Louise tightened her grip on Kronos as the emotional dam in him burst, and he tried to break away from her hold.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't want any of this to happen."

"It's alright, I know," Louise told him. She looked across the room to her brother-in-law and said calmly, "Methos, I'd like to speak to my husband alone for a while, so if you wouldn't mind…"

Methos nodded in agreement and headed for the door, closing it behind him. When he'd gotten out into the hallway, he felt like he'd just come from witnessing a natural disaster. He didn't know what to think or how to react. He'd seen Kronos upset plenty of times before, but never like that, and his brother rarely had an emotional reaction like that towards anything. But, Methos wondered, how must it have felt for Kronos for over 100 years, thinking he was responsible for his wife's misfortune, and telling no one?

Methos' heart rested appropriately in his throat as he counted the hours while waiting to see if Louise would be coming down tonight to speak with him. She had been upstairs with her husband doing God knew what to calm Kronos down for several hours. He hadn't said a word of anything to Caspian or Silas except for explaining about the boiler explosion and all the trouble the two had gone through over the years as a direct result of it.

He watched the clock on the wall, almost midnight. All had been quiet for hours, and his brothers had retired for the night. All he could do now was wait, and it was the waiting that about drove him out of his mind. Finally when he heard the clock strike 12 times, he heard somebody coming down the stairs. Louise appeared, dressed again in her nightgown, and this time she made no attempt to hide her deformity, nor was she making any attempt to sneak around this time.

"Well this has certainly been an unusual day," Louise said.

"How is Kronos?" Methos asked.

"Sleeping if you'll excuse the phrase, like an angel…I made him swallow some of those pills, he should be conked out until morning."

"And then what?" Methos asked, "Are you going to go back?"

"I'm not," Louise answered, "And I have a good idea where I don't go, Kronos isn't going either."

"I don't think I've ever seen my brother that upset before," Methos commented.

"I had no idea he blamed himself for what happened to me. How does a supposedly intelligent person come around to that kind of thinking?"

"I have a hard time understanding it myself. Steamboats blew up all the time in those days and it was never anybody's fault. He blames himself," Methos said, "Because he knew you didn't want you to go and he made you get on the boat anyway."

"He had no way of knowing," Louise told him.

"I guess we just chalk it up to another tragedy in the history of mankind," Methos said.

"Maybe not," Louise said, "Kronos isn't to blame for what happened to me that day…but it wasn't by pure bad luck that that boiler blew up."

"What do you mean?"

Now Louise was starting to resemble how Kronos looked during his own confession. "Well, I haven't really been too honest with anybody lately," she told Methos, "I told Kronos that I wanted to come out here and finally meet all of you…but that was a lie." She laughed nervously before continuing, "I'm glad that I did get to finally meet you guys, but I had another reason for coming out here."

The gears were starting to turn in Methos' head. "The reason you kept disappearing early in the morning when Kronos was asleep? Something you made sure of by drugging him every night?"

She nodded. "I've been looking for somebody, and I've found him."

"Who?"

"That day that I was on the boiler deck," Louise explained, "I was talking to the men who worked down there for a while, and then I went back on the boat's deck and looked around for a bit. Then I decided to go back down and visit with the workers again…but when I went back down, there was another Immortal down there. He must have been hiding out for the day where we wouldn't have found him. He had a bomb in his hands, and he dropped it before anybody could spot it and got out of there. And almost immediately after he dropped it, it went off and that's what caused the boiler to explode."

Methos couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Somebody blew it up on purpose?"

"Yes…I don't really know if his intention was just to blow the boiler, but that's what happened and just about everybody died…and he got away. And…I found out a couple of months ago that he was still alive, and that he was in the town right near here."

"Who is it?" Methos asked.

"When I first knew him, his name was Amahté, it means 'to have power over'…he was my master after he stole me from Kronos. I don't know for certain, but I think he might have known Kronos and I were on that boat that day. But I don't know, that bomb that he set could have been meant for anybody, all I know is I'm the only one who's had to live with the suffering. I suppose in his own way he was marking me, declaring once again that I was his property. It made it easier for him to find me a few years later when he came to our home and raped me and beat me. And when he did that, he reminded me again that I could never escape him. I know it was childish but that's part of why we were always on the move from one place to another, I thought it would make it harder for him to find me again."

"And he's still alive."

"Yes, only now he goes by a new name…Harlan Kruger, he's a…to my understanding, a big businessman, a…" she tried to think of the word, "Entrepreneur I suppose you call them. He knows what he wants and he makes sure he gets it at any cost. That's what he's always done."

"And that's why you've been staying up nights the last few weeks," Methos realized.

"Yes, as I said, it all goes toward planning the perfect murder…and I finally figured it out. I know how I'm going to put an end to this once and for all."

Methos was almost afraid to ask. "How?"

"20 sticks of dynamite's worth…one alone is considered enough to blow a person apart. But I'm not gambling on this."

"You set a bomb?" Methos couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Bright boy…yes, that's why I've been going into town while we've been staying here. It's much closer to where he is than where we live, and I've had to settle the last few details to make sure everything works out perfectly when the bomb goes off."

"When?" Methos asked.

"I had planned for the day after tomorrow," Louise said, "It's the night he works late, alone, nobody else will be there, nobody will know anything, and nobody else should get hurt. And no, I never told Kronos any of it, and I still haven't."

"Louise, don't you think this is carrying things a bit too far?"

She shook her head, "There's no point in telling him now."

"But how…" Methos wasn't even sure what to say, "How did you…"

"I've spent many years watching my husband work, and during that time I've seen him make more than a couple of high power explosive devices. You might say I learn from the master."

This all seemed surreal to Methos, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You really plan to go through with this?" Methos asked.

She nodded, "I have to, he's haunted me since almost the beginning of my life, he's followed me from one corner of the earth to the other. It's not going to stop…I'll never have my life back…until he's dead…and as long as he's alive, and I can't be honest with Kronos, he'll never have any peace other as long as he's with me…and he's not going to leave me. I wish he would, I hoped he would, but this morning, he gave me this!" she held up her wrist and showed him the bracelet, "He gave me this, and he had it engraved, 'To my wife, who I'll love forever', he's not going to leave me, and as long as that man's alive, neither one of us are ever going to have any peace in our lives. Don't you see, Methos? I have no choice; I have to do it, for both our sakes."

It was with great unease that Methos went to sleep early that morning. His stomach was tied up in big knots, and he felt sick after listening to everything that Louise had to say. He knew that she had confided in him to keep what she said a secret from Kronos, but he just couldn't take it anymore. First thing the next morning, he had decided, he was going to tell Kronos what Louise was going to do, and with any luck, he would stop her before she headed out to confront that man, whatever he called himself.

Methos didn't know when he finally got to sleep, but he guessed it must have been near 3 in the morning. When he finally awoke, it was still dark out, but it was quiet outside and the rain had stopped. As dark as everything was, it looked as though Methos had never been to sleep. He reached for his clock but it was too dark to see it so he turned on the lamp by his bed. Only the light didn't come on. The storm must've taken the power out, he thought as he fumbled around for the clock. Finally he found it, and pressing the button on top set off a light to shine on the numbers to see what time it was.

He couldn't believe what he saw, 9 in the morning, how had he slept for so long? Throwing back the covers, he got out of bed, got dressed in the dark and went across the hall to Kronos' bedroom. The whole house was dark and he was certain then that it was because of the storm. Opening the door, he stepped in, went over to the bed and shook Kronos to wake him up.

"What is it?" Kronos asked.

"I need to talk to you, where's Louise?"

"What're you talking about?" Kronos asked, "She's…" then he sat up and saw that the other side of the bed was empty, and Louise's nightgown was slung over the bedpost. "What's going on here?"

"That's what I want to know," Methos said.

"Why is it so bloody dark in here?" Kronos asked.

"I don't know, the power lines must be down," Methos replied.

"Well it's not just here," they both heard.

Turning to the doorway they saw Caspian step into the room.

"What's going on?" Methos asked.

"I don't know but it's not just us…the whole power's out for ten square miles."

"That's one hell of a blackout," Methos commented.

"That or it was that bad of a storm," Kronos replied as Caspian left the room, "Now what's going on here? What was it you needed to talk to me about?"

"It's about Louise."

"Well where is she?" Kronos asked.

"I don't know, but that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Kronos grumbled something as he got out of bed and quickly dressed, "What in the hell is going on, Methos?"

"Last night, Louise told me about something that she had planned to do tonight, and I thought you deserved to know."

"Deserved to know what?" Kronos asked, "What time is it?"

"It's after 9 in the morning."

"Again? I've never slept this late before in my life."

"I know what you mean, I…" Methos stopped as he started to reply. A thought registered in his mind.

Kronos noticed the silence and he turned back to his brother, "You what?"

Methos stepped over to the nightstand and started rummaging through the things on top of it. "Where the hell is that pill bottle she brought back the other day?"

Now Kronos was certain Methos had lost his mind. He was rambling on about something, completely incoherently, something of which made no sense any way he listened to it.

Methos couldn't find the white pill bottle that Louise had brought back, and another idea building up in his mind, he went over to the wastebasket at the corner of the room and found the empty pill bottle amongst all the other garbage.

"Dammit!"

"Methos, what's wrong?" Kronos demanded to know.

"She did it! She drugged us all so that we'd all be asleep and we couldn't stop her. Kronos, Louise told me last night that there was an Immortal on the steamboat with you, who had a bomb, who blew up the boiler deck and that's why she is the way she is. She said that the man who set the bomb, was the same man who kidnapped her from our camp 4000 years ago. She didn't leave you, she was kidnapped, and kept, and tortured, and raped and beaten. That's when she became Immortal, and when she escaped, the man who owned her told her that he was going to track her down and kill her. He's the one who choked her and dumped her body near the river, he's the one who nearly killed her after the explosion when you found her in the yard, and he is here now. She said that he's in the next town and she knew where he was, and she told me that she was going to kill him once and for all. And now she's gone and she's probably already on her way there as we speak."

"On her way where?" Kronos demanded to know.

"Kronos!" Caspian came rushing back into the room.

"What is it now?"

"You've got to see this, come on!" Caspian jerked Kronos out of the room and the three men went down the hall, up the stairs leading to the attic and went over to the attic window from which they could see the town.

"Caspian, have you finally lost your mind?" Kronos demanded to know, "What the hell is going on?"

"Look out there!"

Kronos looked to where Caspian was pointing, and he saw off in the distance a high rise that the top 10 floors or so were on fire.

"Oh my God," Methos said as he took in the sight, "That must be where she went to kill him."

Kronos pushed past the other two and was down the stairs in a heartbeat, with Methos and Caspian following behind him. Kronos returned to their bedroom to collect his sword and when he did, he made another horrifying discovery and he screamed and swore like Methos had never heard in his life.

"Kronos, now what's wrong?"

And when he stepped into the room, he saw the answer. Kronos had kept both his and Louise's swords side by side against the wall, and both swords were still there.