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Deja Vu (2/2)
Kay Kelly (wilusa@earthlink.net)Mon, 17 Nov 2003 15:29:40 -0500
SEACOUVER. Joe stood at his window, gazing out into a seemingly tranquil autumn night. It was high time he got undressed, shed the prosthetic legs that were starting to chafe, and went to bed. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. //Hell, OF COURSE something's wrong! I went against everything I was taught, told Duncan MacLeod about the Watchers. Maybe I had to, maybe not. Either way, it changes everything. I've been trying to work with MacLeod these last few weeks, even gave him my frigging phone number. While all the while I've been lying to him about Horton... And now I wonder why I can't sleep? I'd better get used to feeling this way, or I'll NEVER sleep.// He turned away from the window with a grunt and headed for his bedroom. That was when the phone rang. He surprised himself with the speed with which he got to it. "Dawson!" he snapped. "Mr. Dawson--Joe Dawson?" The voice was young and scared. Not, as he'd expected, one of the local Watchers. "Yes, that's right." The caller took a shaky breath. "Listen to me, Mr. Dawson. We've never met, but you probably know my name. Richie Ryan? I work for Duncan MacLeod." "Yes, yes." Joe found himself nodding, as if the caller could see him. "I know who you are. What is it?" Richie Ryan was the last person from whom he would have expected a late-night call. "Mac is in trouble," the youth said abruptly. "Bad trouble. And your damned Watchers are mostly to blame, so you gotta help him!" "Calm down," Joe replied, thinking even as he said it that he'd be hard pressed to heed his own advice. "What's wrong?" "Tessa is d-dead." Richie steadied his voice with an effort. "She was kidnapped by a guy who had some connection with the Watchers. He knew what Mac was, just wanted to use Tessa to get to him." "Oh, shit," Joe murmured. Probably not one of Horton's men, but inspired by him. "Mac killed the guy and rescued Tessa." The voice was tight, strained. But the youth was forcing himself to speak quickly, not pausing to dwell on painful details. "Then he sent Tessa and me out to the car--I'd come along meaning to help--while he checked out the dead guy's computer. But while we were standing near the car, a mugger came up to us and shot Tessa! He freaked out and killed her because she didn't have a purse or money with her." Joe, who'd been standing, collapsed into a chair. But he made himself say, "Go on." "Mac is...kinda out of it. In shock. I found your phone number on a slip of paper in his pocket. He's started carrying a cell phone, too--good thing. He just bought it so he could always keep in touch with *Tessa.*" Richie himself seemed more and more in control as he continued. "We're outside the dead guy's house." He gave the address--which elicited a moan from Joe, who recognized it. "Classy residential neighborhood, late at night, no one stirring. If anyone heard shots they took them for backfires. Tessa's lying dead in the road. Mac's car is here, ditto my motorcycle. And there's this dead guy in the nearest house--*beheaded*, even though he was mortal." "I get the picture," Joe whispered. "All right. What we'll have to do is *leave the car and Tessa's body here.* I'll take Mac with me on my bike." "He won't agree--" "He will. I said, I'll *take* him! It can be made to look like Tessa was driving through the neighborhood. Someone, somehow, forced her to pull over. They took her purse and killed her. "But the cops are sure to check that nearby house. So you Watchers have to get the body out of there and clean it up. *Now!*" Joe sat up straight. "Right. I'll take care of it. And, Richie--" //Damn it, this kid's being forced to grow up the hard way.// "Richie...I'm sorry." "Yeah." Joe wasn't surprised by the undertone of hostility in the voice. He *was* surprised by what Richie said next. "Hey, Dawson. You're sure to find this out, so I may as well tell you myself. "I just became Immortal." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PARIS. The man who aided the Immortals that night in 1993 wouldn't have believed that in the first minutes of 2001 he'd be standing behind his own bar in Paris, listening as a supposedly long-dead Richie Ryan recounted the tale. The caller rushed through it, but he had all the facts. "And you know I couldn't have learned that from Duncan MacLeod's Quickening," he concluded, "because--" "Because *he never knew,*" Joe said softly. MacLeod had been so deep in shock that he'd blanked out the first few hours after Tessa's death, never remembered what happened. They'd let him believe *he'd* had the presence of mind to call Joe. "This really is...you." Joe was fighting back tears. But with Methos listening, he couldn't just blurt out the name. "Yes." Richie heaved a sigh of relief. "Joe--*do* you know where Methos is?" "Yeah, that's the easy part. Right here! But where have you been? And what's wrong, uh, where you are now? What happened?" "Joe, there's no time to go into that." The young man's voice cracked. "*Please* get over here! You and Methos!" //How serious is this? Is Mac DYING? Can we dare to hope for a happy beginning to this millennium? Or is Ahriman still out there somewhere, laughing at us?// "Hold the fort," Joe said grimly. "We're on our way." (The End)