Title: Discovery
Author: Endaewen
Series: In The Open
Fandom: Highlander
Rating: PG
Summary: The discovery of immortals by the general public. The second in a series of connected vignettes.
Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Davis/Panzer.

"This had better be an emergency." The voice on the other side of the locked door was both sleep-filled and irritated. Not that Duncan blamed him. He glanced at his watch, hearing the locks on the door click open. Being woken at a quarter to four in the morning by someone knocking at your door was bad enough. Being woken at a quarter to four by someone knocking at your door with an Immortal buzz was worse, thanks to the automatic adrenaline rush, as the one doing the knocking well knew.

So, being greeted by the oldest Immortal holding a drawn sword at the ready was certainly no surprise. It was definitely 'Methos', deadly and dangerous, standing in the open door, and not the harmless Adam Pierson grad student persona everyone usually saw. The sword wasn't hidden away when he recognized who was at the door either, nor did the sword's holder move aside to let him in. Not a good sign. "MacLeod." Nor was the tone of voice, cold and harsh. The last time Duncan had heard that voice directed at him was during the Cassandra affair, mere months before, when Methos had been forced to reveal some of the nastier secrets of his past, and he didn't think things were going to improve much this morning.

"What are you doing here at-" Methos glanced at his watch, "almost four in the morning?" The piercing gaze of the other man raked over him, seeing the bloodied and torn clothes, as well as the exhausted slump and worried expression, and with thousands of years of experience assessed the causes. "You'd better come in, before a neighbor sees you and calls the police," he finally said, stepping aside and lowering the sword.

"You were in a fight," he said, as the coffee maker gurgled in the background. Duncan nodded, but didn't say anything. "One of us?"

"No."

"So, what are you doing here?" The question was impatient.

Duncan plucked at the bloody T-shirt he was wearing, showing several bullet holes. Obviously, the wounds themselves had long since healed, but the evidence remained in the clothes.

"I repeat: What happened?" The threatening undertone was back in Methos's voice. "Am I going to find the police knocking down my door next?"

"You shouldn't," Duncan replied, "but I make no guarantees about my place."

"So, you'll be changing identities?" Methos guessed, grumpily. "That still doesn't explain what you're doing here."

The Scot shook his head, the worry clear. "I'm not sure if that will be enough this time," he said, starting to pace in the small kitchen. The coffee maker gurgled in the background, forgotten.

"Should I be turning on the news then?" The tension, which hadn't lessened any since Methos had let Duncan into the apartment, ratcheted up another notch.

Still pacing, Duncan didn't answer the question directly, but instead started to explain what had happened. "It was an extremely bad case of 'wrong time, wrong place'. I stopped to get gas on the way back from the island. I was in the process of paying when a couple of young punks, about Richie's age came in brandishing guns."

Methos could interpret the rest of that story from the evidence in Duncan's shirt. "You died," he said, groaning.

"Across the counter," he said, confirming the guess. "They killed the attendant too. They were gone by the time I came back, and they'd taken my wallet, I think, along with the cigarettes behind the counter. I didn't see it when I revived."

"Did anyone see you?" was the next question asked.

"I don't think so," Duncan replied. "When I left, though I could hear the police sirens in the distance, so I didn't really have time to look around. I'm more worried about closed-circuit T.V. cameras. Most convenience stores and gas stations have them these days for security."

Without saying another word, Methos turned and stalked to the T.V. in the living room, dragging the younger Immortal with him, and turned it on quietly to the local news channel.

...if you have any idea who these two young men are, the screen changed to a security camera image showing two young men with guns in their hands, please contact the police or call the tips line on the screen. Which was now showing a description of the two shown in the picture, along with the tips line number.

Duncan answered the unasked question as he started to pace again. "That was the two of them," he confirmed as the news announcer began to speak again.

To repeat, there has been a murder at the gas station at, and he gave the address. The police are looking for these two men in connection with the case. They are thought to be armed and dangerous. Do not approach them, instead if you see them, please call the police at once. After repeating the contact information and the suspects descriptions, the news changed to another story.

Methos was muttering something relatively quietly, and although he couldn't understand the language, Duncan was fairly certain he understood the intent of the words.

"Your car?" he asked eventually in English.

"It's about a half hour's walk from here, just in case," Duncan replied. This was almost the worst case scenario. About the only one worse that he could think of, would be if a challenge and quickening had been shown on the six 'o' clock news. There had been a CCTV camera there as he had feared. Although it hadn't been shown on the news yet, Duncan knew it would be only a matter of time. Leaks on a story like this were inevitable. Someone or any number of someones not in the Watchers had seen him die and revive. Not to mention the forensic evidence at the scene would show that there had been another victim at the gas station. Sooner or later, the information would leak and the media would find out. In the mean time, he was sure that there would be people looking for him, and not people he would want to find him.

"Get yourself cleaned up," his reluctant host said. "You can't do anything about it now." He gave him a shove towards the bathroom.

When he came out, Methos was on the phone. From the sounds of it, he was talking to Joe. "Yes, as I already told you, I do know what time it is. Very well. Would you please put someone on the dojo for the next few days?" It sounded like the other Immortal had already asked that question at least once and was getting impatient.

He stopped speaking, obviously listening to what Joe was saying for a minute. "No, I can't tell you why, at least not yet." A pause for another question. "He's here. Woke me up about a half hour ago, too."

"Remember that conversation we all had a couple of weeks back?" Clearly there was an affirmative answer. "It may have come to that just now."

The conversation wound down a minute or two later, and, hanging up the phone, Methos turned to Duncan. "Joe will have someone watching the loft within the hour. That way you'll know if the police managed to identify you and find your address."

"Thank you," Duncan replied. "I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I came here this morning, but-"

"Probably, for me to cut all ties to you once this came out," the older Immortal guessed, interrupting him, and receiving a confirming nod. "This wasn't something you got yourself into by jumping in, or being stupid. It was something that was going to end up happening sooner or later. You just happened to be the one with the bad luck." He took a breath then continued. "Some of your other friends won't agree though."

"I know."

"You can't figure out what to do next, without knowing what's going to happen." With that, the conversation died, and the two stayed quietly watching the news channels and drinking coffee for the rest of the night.

Neither of the two Immortals got any more sleep before the sun rose that morning. Instead they spent it checking the news for any new developments.

Unfortunately, there were some on the morning news. Nothing confirmed, but there were some rumors being reported. And they were the headline news of the morning. Concerning the gas station murder that occurred earlier this morning, there are some possible new developments, the camera cut to an outside shot of the station, while the announcer kept speaking. There has been a suggestion that there was not the one murder reported earlier, but a second one as well. There is some mystery about this possible second victim, about which the police are not speaking. The identity of the confirmed victim has not yet been released. However, the police have identified the suspects in the case. A press conference has been arranged for eleven this morning where more information will be revealed.

Within minutes of the news story showing, Methos's phone was ringing. "Yes, Adam here?"

"Yes, it was MacLeod the rumors on the news were referring to," he said. He listened again for a minute before handing the phone to Duncan, saying "he's right here". "It's Joe. Would you mind telling him what happened, while I get the morning's paper. At least this won't be in there yet. It still takes more than a few hours for the news to make it to the presses, even with all the technological advances of the last couple of decades." With that, he left the apartment, leaving the younger Immortal holding the phone.

By the time Methos returned, bearing the day's paper, Duncan was winding up his explanation of the night's events to Joe, before handing the phone back to him.

Less than an hour later though, Joe arrived, knocking at the door. With him, he had a satchel of papers. "The report from the Watcher I placed on the dojo at your suggestion Adam," he said as soon as the door was closed behind him. "MacLeod, it was a good thing you didn't go home after it happened. "Less than an hour after the surveillance team got there, the police arrived. They broke in the doors, with their guns drawn and spent the next hour or so in the building. From what the Watcher I assigned could see, they were searching for something. He couldn't tell if they took anything with them when they left." As he spoke, the Watcher was spreading out the report on Adam's kitchen table. Also included with the report was a casette tape of the report Joe had been given.

Methos was silent as they listened to the tape and read the report, occasionally taking down some notes on some point or another. Once or twice, while listening to the tape, he rewound it briefly, without warning.

Finally, once they'd gone through everything he spoke. "Interesting. Here, here and here," he pointed out three separate places in the report, "they didn't follow proper police procedure. From the report, it seems as though they were acting more in the manner of a military team. Certainly, they had no legal cause for their actions. I think they were looking for you, or at least for something to explain why you revived like that. It's definitely a good thing that you didn't go back to the loft afterwards last night." They discussed the report for a while after that, before Joe finally said he had to leave, although he stated that he would be watching the press conference.

Now all Duncan could do was wait until the press conference still nearly an hour away to find out more about what the world was going to find out about him. Then, at about a quarter to the hour, the T.V. which he hadn't really been paying attention to for a while caught his eye and he turned up the volume on the set in order to hear it better.

We are interrupting this program to bring you the latest breaking news. There have been some new developments in last night's murder case. The rumors of the second victim were correct. The contents of the closed circuit T.V. cameras at the gas station were leaked to reporters mere minutes ago. There was another man in at the counter. He was in the process of paying when the two murderers entered. They shot him first, then the gas station attendent. According to the reporter's source, there is no question that he was killed.

This is truly unbelievable. If the cameras are correct, and I have been assured that the footage was unedited, although I have not yet seen it, then apparently, about five minutes later, the body started moving, and got up and walked out of the station.

The mystery person is described as tall, around six feet, with shoulder length dark hair. When last seen, he was wearing a light coloured t-shirt, marked with bullet holes, and here the announcer gave a nervous little laugh, and a dark trench-coat. Please call the police if you have any information about this person.

"Well, that puts a new wrinkle into the picture," Methos said. He had come into the room almost as soon as the update to the news had begun. "The press conference should be interesting to watch."

As Methos had predicted, the conference was interesting to watch. In fact, the older Immortal had put a tape in to record it on. Duncan hadn't realized his surprised look had been as visible as it obviously was. "Sometimes how they answer a question says as much as what they say or don't say. Being able to double check an answer could be especially important with something like this." Methos explained. "You shouldn't need me to tell you that by now. How have you survived this long?" With the last statement he almost seemed to be speaking to himself, rather than the other person in the room.

It was a good thing that he had put the tape in to record, as not even five minutes into the conference, the phone rang. "Adam here." He listened for a couple of seconds. "He's right here, Richie."

Duncan took the offered phone and listened to the question. "Yes it was." Another pause, and he began to explain the sequence of events which had occurred the night before, finishing with "it could have happened to anyone."

There was a moment or two of silence before Richie could be heard speaking again through the phone. "I don't know what I'm going to do now, nor do I know what this will mean for Immortals in general," he answered his former student's question. "There have been a couple of worrying developments though." He explained about the break-in at the loft earlier that morning. Fairly soon afterwards, the conversation ended.

Then, both Immortals attention was riveted to the screen. On a television that had been brought into the conference room, they were now playing the security camera footage from the gas station the night before. It clearly showed both his death and the death of the station attendant. The speaker re-played both the part where Duncan had been shot, and when he revived and walked out of the building and the view of the camera. They he showed a clear shot of the Immortal's face.

At about the same time, the phone rang again. This time, it was Amanda, asking what had happened, and why MacLeod was now the lead news story on both the radio and the T.V.

Once the conference was over, about forty-five minutes after it started, the broadcaster re-broadcasted the highlights, including a clearer view of both sections of the security footage and Duncan's face. They also reiterated the plea for information.

Given the events earlier that morning, it was clear to both Immortals that the police knew the Highlander's current identity and home address. What wasn't so clear was why they weren't admitting it, and were asking for public help identifying him. They hadn't gone so far as to ask people to call them if they saw him, but it was close.

Now the mass reaction from the public was still to come. What that would be, the two Immortals agreed, was impossible to predict. What Immortals should do about this event was also something that they couldn't decide on.

What ever action Duncan could choose to make would be opposed by at least some of the other Immortals, and there was no way to find out ahead of time. The only thing he could do would be to contact those Immortals he was friendly with and find out what course of action they thought was best. And then make his own decision about what to do.

For the moment though, it was simply a question of hiding and waiting.