Incarnations of Immortality
By The Bear!
Disclaimer: See Prologue
He had slept all of four hours. He
spent another thirty minutes watching his Scully sleeping.
Of course there wasn’t much to see.
She didn’t breathe, she didn’t move.
If it wasn’t for the slight link they had, he might have thought she
was dead. He reflected on the way
their lives had changed in less than a week.
Last week he was an FBI agent obsessed with aliens, conspiracies, the
supernatural and the occult. Today
he was supernatural- an immortal that was shacking up with a vampire.
In the end, the whole immortality/vampirism thing was minor.
More importantly, last week he was desperate, alone, and hopelessly in
love with his partner- with no real hope of ever being with her.
Today they were one in more ways than he could ever have imagined.
“Life is sweet. Weird, but
sweet,” he whispered to himself.
Mulder still hadn’t decided exactly what to say to Skinner, yet.
It depended on how difficult he was going to be about this.
It also depended on why he and Scully had been sent up here in the first
place. Other things had occupied his
thoughts and kept him from wondering why they were really there.
As Kimberly answered the phone, Mulder reflected that maybe he should have
spent a little more time wondering about these things *before* calling his boss,
“Hi Kimberly. It’s Mulder, is he
in?”
“One minute, I’ll see if he is available,” she said, putting him on
hold. She came back on after a few
seconds, “Ok, Agent Mulder. I’m
transferring you now.”
“What is it, Mulder?” Skinner
sounded slightly annoyed. “What
could have possibly happened at a simple conference, for Pete’s sake?” he
asked, rhetorically.
Mulder’s mind was filled with a few dozen different scenarios where he
answered that question honestly- none of them worked out in his head so he said,
“Uh, nothing… that is nothing to be worried about with the conference.”
“What did you need to speak to me about then?” Skinner asked.
“Well, uh, that is I want to request some vacation time.
Actually we need to request a couple weeks, Scully and I.” Mulder said,
stumbling through the answer.
“Fine. Email a request in
and I will approve it. Anything
else?” Skinner replied brusquely.
Mulder could not have possibly imagined it would go that easily.
“Uh… No sir.” Something
was definitely up, but he was going to take advantage of it while he could.
“Thank you,” he said.
Skinner replied, “You’re welcome Agent,” and hung up.
“That was too easy.” Mulder muttered to himself
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Natalie woke up feeling extremely thirsty and very sore.
However, it was definitely the good kind of sore.
She had received more physical gratification in the last 5 days than she
had in the rest of her life combined. “Of
course, that isn’t saying much” she reflected.
Even without the knowledge that came from the link when Nick drank from
her, she would have had no doubt that she was beautiful in Nick’s eyes.
It was as though he had worshiped her body.
He had touched and stroked and kissed every square inch of her body this
morning. She looked like she had
been wrestling with a thorn bush, there were little scratches and bite marks
spread over her entire body. “As
if he was marking his territory,” she thought with amusement.
She unequivocally did not mind being marked as his.
He could put a big sign on her back that said ‘Property of Nicolas
Knight’ as far as she was concerned. She
belonged to him, just as he belonged to her.
Feeling wanton and decadent, she covered herself in nothing but a silk
robe and went downstairs to get something to drink.
As she left the bedroom she heard the television.
“Mulder must be up. No way
it’s Dana,” she thought. She was
no expert on vampires, but it was hard enough to get Nick up and out of bed
before sundown, she didn’t think a fledgling would be anything less than dead
to the world. She saw him sprawled
out on the couch surfing through the channels, not landing on one for more than
a few seconds before moving on. “Definitely
a guy thing,” she thought. “Nick
does the same thing, when he watches TV at all.”
Mulder heard her coming down the stairs and stopped surfing for a moment,
“Hey, Natalie. Good Morning?” he
asked.
“I think we have to go with ‘good afternoon’ Mulder.
How long have you been up?”
Mulder resumed surfing, “About an hour or so.”
“What’s the matter, Mulder? Nothing
worth watching?” she asked as she walked to refrigerator.
“Mostly soaps. I have enough
intrigue, tragedy and suffering in my life without watching that crap,” Mulder
responded. He noticed her
destination and asked, “Hey Natalie, could I impose on you to bring me a
bottle of whatever you’re having?” He
smiled, slightly embarrassed at her knowing look.
“Oh? Are you thirsty,
Mulder? Feeling a bit… drained?”
she teased as she collapsed into the chair facing the couch Mulder was sprawled
out on.
Mulder noticed that her legs looked like they had lost a fight with a dull
razor, “I’m lucky, I guess. Mine
all healed,” he said, gesturing toward her legs.
It was Natalie’s turn to blush as she handed Mulder his bottle of orange
juice. She had brought herself a
glass to go with her bottle. She got
tired of refilling it after the 3rd time and joined Mulder in
drinking straight from the bottle, upending it and not putting it down until it
was empty. “Wow.
I was really thirsty!”
Mulder smirked at Natalie and said, “I hope you two weren’t planning
on waiting very long before you come across.
It doesn’t appear that you’ll be able to hold out much longer.”
Natalie blushed furiously at that, but all the same, she was quite happy
that she and Mulder could tease each other like that.
She hadn’t had a close friend outside of Grace and Nick in what felt
like ages, and for her and Nick to have another couple so close, and not have to
hide anything at all, “Well, it feels wonderful!” she mused.
“I hope you and Dana hang around for a while, Mulder.
I really like you guys.”
Mulder’s smile faltered slightly at that.
Instantly concerned, Natalie leaned toward him asked, “Mulder?
What’s wrong?”
Mulder sat up and put his face in his hands, resting his elbows on his
knees, “I don’t know what we are going to do, Natalie.
For the last seven years, the X-Files were my whole life.
Scully’s too. I have spent
years searching for the answers to certain questions.
There are conspiracies that we have been trying to crack for just as
long. I am not sure how I feel about
giving up on that, even for a year or two that
Natalie nodded her head. “I
always knew Nick would have to leave someday.
He can’t stay in one place for more than a decade or maybe fifteen
years at the outside before people notice that he isn’t getting any older.
I dreaded that time, not knowing where our relationship would be when it
came.”
She stopped for a moment and smiled, wistfully.
“I will miss my career, and my friends.
In the end though, being with Nick is more important than being the
youngest coroner in
“I hadn’t really thought of it like that,” Mulder said in wonder.
“How do you think Nick managed to have the highest solve rate in
Department history?” Natalie
smirked. “He’s a very good cop,
but being essentially impervious to bullets, being able to hypnotize suspects
and witnesses, and preternaturally acute senses all stack the deck in your
favor.” She laughed, “If I had a
dollar for every bullet I’ve removed from Nick in the years I’ve known him,
I would be almost as rich as he is.”
“Well, that’s definitely one more thing to consider,” Mulder said.
“When Scully and Nick wake up we need to talk.”
Mulder closed his eyes and clasped his hands on top of his head, sinking
down into the couch, “I need to figure out what I am going to do about my new
status. I am not sure I want to
spend eternity going around chopping off people’s heads.
I know I don’t want to spend eternity on holy ground, not to mention it
might be a bit painful for Scully.” He
opened his eyes and smiled at Natalie, “I do know that despite all of the
uncertainty regarding our changes, I am happy… content.
You have no idea how big of a change that is for me.
I haven’t been at peace like this since I was a young boy.
I am happier right now than I have ever been in my life.
However we move forward, so long as it is together, I will adjust to
whatever else comes.
Natalie felt almost exactly the same way.
Definitely content, whatever may come.
She was suddenly struck with a thought, “Aren’t you supposed to be
flying back tomorrow?” she asked.
“I called our boss and arranged a couple of weeks off,” he responded.
“I need to do that, too. Nick
suggested a couple of months,” she said.
Mulder raised his brows at that, “Can you get that much?” he asked,
surprised.
Natalie smiled, “We both have tons of leave accrued.
We never really take any,” she said.
“Besides, we have a good excuse,” she said, waggling her left ring
finger at him.
“Yeah? When are you guys
tying the knot?” Mulder asked.
“We were thinking about the weekend before New Years,” she answered.
“What about the… other event?” Mulder
asked slyly.
Natalie blushed slightly, “Saturday… I can’t wait!” she confessed,
sounding like a little kid two days before Christmas.
Mulder laughed out loud. “Well,
I don’t know about you, but I am starved.
How about I buy you breakfast to celebrate your impending immortality?”
He added, “It’s not as if our significant others will feel left
out.”
“Ok, let me leave a note, Nick might actually wake up,” Natalie said
getting out a piece of paper and a pen from a kitchen drawer and scrawling a few
words. “Ok, let’s go.”
“Uh Natalie? You going in
that?” he asked, gesturing at her robe.
“Oh… I guess I’m a
little distracted,” she said, blushing again.
“Let me go throw something on,” she said running up the stairs.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Nick slowly achieved consciousness. He
could feel that the sun was still up, and wondered what had awoken him.
He rolled over to look at Natalie and saw that she wasn’t there.
“That must have been it,” he thought.
Remembering that they had guests, he put on both the top and pants of his
pajamas. He was about to head out of
the bedroom when he heard Natalie running up the stairs.
She swooped into the room and suddenly stopped short when she saw him up
and dressed, sort of.
“Oh, Nick! I didn’t think
you would be up already,” she said.
“What’s the matter, Nat?” Nick asked, concerned.
Natalie went over to her bag and took out a pair of jeans and a sweater,
as well as a bra and panties, and began getting dressed.
“Nothing’s wrong, Nick. Mulder
and I were going to go grab some breakfast.
Want to join us?” she asked, pausing with her arms crossed above her
head, about to pull her sweater over her head, and looked at him for a response.
Nick stared at Natalie, clad in jeans and a bra with her hands
semi-confined above her head and started to get some ideas he wanted to explore
Saturday night prior to her conversion.
Natalie noticed the predatory look he was laying on her and blushed head
to toe, “Nick… Breakfast?”
“Thanks Nat- I’m tempted, but I think you had better eat something
first. I don’t want you getting
anemic!” he replied, deliberately misconstruing her question.
She blushed even harder and pulled her sweater on.
“Nicolas de Brabant! You
are incorrigible!”
“Nat, after you guys eat, why don’t you go in to the morgue and see if
you can arrange that time off. If
you can keep Mulder out of Dana’s and my hair until about
“Isn’t that awfully fast? Just
a couple of days and she is good to go?” Natalie asked, concerned.
“I don’t know what it is, Nat. Maybe
it’s the immortal blood she is feeding on, but she’s advancing faster than
I’ve ever heard of. Even with the
deep link training I’m using, it should take a several days for the basics,
and she had them mastered the first night.”
Nick shook his head in wonder. We
just need to cover a couple of things and practice them a little and she should
be ok.”
“And that’s it?” Natalie asked.
“No, she will still need time and practice to master some of the more
challenging skills, but she won’t need to be attached to my hip.
First of all, those lessons will be intermittent, and second, those
lessons can wait. Until we get you caught up to her level.”
Nick smiled tenderly at the love of his life.
“If things go normally, it won’t take more than two or three weeks at
the outside, and who knows? Being
filled with your very own supply of immortal blood may accelerate your progress
as well.”
“Or I might not come across at all,” Natalie said, somewhat glumly.
Nick refused to let the possibility bring him down, “Then sword lessons
for you, young lady! Now, go.
Eat. Keep Mulder occupied.
I’ll see you tonight.” Nick
laid into her with a searing kiss, giving her a taste of just what he had in
store for her tonight.
Natalie kissed him back just as thoroughly, letting him know she was more
than ready for whatever he had for her tonight.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Natalie and Mulder had each consumed 2 entrees and about a gallon of
orange juice before they felt sated. The
bemused waitress had stopped even asking if there was anything else she could
get them, and just brought them a pitcher of juice.
Mulder was laughing at Natalie’s stories, sharing things with her that
he had only shared with Scully. He
was suddenly struck by the fact that he hadn’t sat and talked with a friend,
about nothing special, for… “I can’t remember doing this since I joined
the FBI.” No conspiracies, no
aliens, no work at all. It was
almost like he was exhaling after holding his breath for years.
No angst, no emotional investment, just a nice chat with a friendly
person who had no political interest or reason for betrayal.
Natalie noticed Mulder drifting off into another world and smiled at him.
He looked relaxed. “I think
this is the first time I’ve seen you relax this week, Mulder,” she observed.
That was exactly it. He felt
relaxed. In his anal-retentive
obsessiveness, now that he could put a name on it, he could quit thinking about
it. “Yeah,” he said with a kind
of satisfied sigh. “Actually, I
think it’s been quite a while longer than a week.”
Natalie leaned back and smiled at Mulder.
Outside the sun was setting, and she could see part of the sunset between
the buildings. She was enjoying the
peaceful companionship. She suddenly
started at the look of utter shock on Mulder’s face.
He looked like he had sat on a tack, or been touched by a live wire.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Scully came back to life with the setting of the sun.
She could feel it slipping over the horizon with her newfound senses,
“That’s strange,” she thought, she felt as though she had just lain down.
She remembered the last thing she had done before falling asleep-
drinking Mulder’s hot life’s-blood as she rode out her own orgasm and,
through the link, felt his as well. “That’s
definitely the way I want to fall asleep from now on!” she thought.
[*That* can be arranged] she heard Mulder say.
She rolled over to look at her lover when she noticed she was alone in
bed. She immediately sat up and
looked around for him, but he was nowhere in sight.
“Mulder! Where are you?” she asked out loud.
[Actually Scully, I am downtown having breakfast with Natalie.]
“What?!” she almost shouted. She
suddenly realized that she wasn’t hearing him with her ears, but rather in her
head. She closed her eyes and saw a
table full of empty dishes in front of her and a very concerned looking Natalie
leaning forward and asking her ‘what’s wrong, Mulder?’
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Mulder answered Natalie’s question, “Nothing, Natalie.
Scully just woke up, that’s all.”
[Tell her that her theory of the blood exchange was apparently right]
Scully thought to Mulder with a sense of wonder at this new sensation.
“Scully says your theory was right.
What theory was that?” Mulder
asked.
Natalie’s train of thought was completely derailed.
“You… She???” Natalie
paused and scrubbed at her face with her hands and swept them up and through her
hair, taking a moment to put her thoughts together.
“You can hear her?” she asked, still trying to reorganize mentally.
Mulder was starting to feel very hungry suddenly.
*Very* hungry. He closed his
eyes and groaned at the hunger pangs. As
his eyes closed he suddenly found himself in Nick’s guest bedroom, but only
for a moment and then the scenery whizzed by and he found himself, not half a
second later, wrenching the refrigerator door open, grabbing a bottle, tearing
the cork out and chugging it down.
[Sorry, that was me.] Scully thought.
[I felt how full you were and my own hunger didn’t hit me for a
moment.]
Mulder was momentarily lost in the sensation that came from the blood.
He had a faint impression of a young man laying on a table at the Red
Cross, donating for his school’s blood drive.
As he opened his eyes he came back to himself and noticed that Natalie
was looking a little green, “Actually, everything looks a little green,” he
thought.
Natalie was about to ask Mulder what was wrong when he opened his eyes and
she saw that they had changed to the green/gold of a vampire.
Her hands flew to cover her mouth as she gasped out loud.
“Mulder! Your eyes!” she whispered loudly, looking around to see if
anyone else noticed.
“What?” he said, blinking rapidly until the greenish tinge everything
had was gone. “What just
happened?” he demanded in a harsh whisper.
He focused on Natalie who was still staring at him, stunned.
Abruptly he stood up and pulled out his wallet. Throwing two fifties on
the table he said, “Come on, let’s get out of here.” He growled.
Natalie silently stood up, grabbed her stuff and walked out with Mulder.
As they got outside she explained what she had seen.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Scully had her eyes closed, listening in, but not commenting.
She didn’t know what to think- Mulder’s eyes vamping out?
Was it an echo of her, or was he changing?
What did it mean? Suddenly
she felt something she had never felt before- like fire in her head and a
buzzing in her ears.
[Oh, no. Not now!] she heard
Mulder think.
She saw through his eyes an intense man striding through the parking lot
towards Mulder and Natalie with violence written all over him.
[It’s not Froag. I don’t
know who it is.] she heard Mulder tell Natalie.
[Go get in the car, get it running and I’ll jump in.]
She heard Natalie answer ask him what he was going to do without a sword.
[I don’t think he will try anything here, it’s pretty public.
Just go!]
Scully saw him pull a sword from his coat and felt Mulder’s fear
blossom. “NO!” she screamed.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Natalie jumped into the driver’s seat of the Caddie and started it up.
She pulled out of the parking spot and dropped it into drive with her
shaking hand. She headed to where
Mulder was and saw the immortal cocking a sword back over his shoulder, getting
ready to swing it at Mulder. What
she saw next almost caused her to wreck the car.
Mulder moved faster than the eye could see- he struck the other immortal
in the neck with the edge of his hand like he was trying to crush his larynx,
but he struck with such force that he took his head almost entirely off.
It remained connected by only a little bit of skin and muscle on the
right side of the neck. Apparently
it was enough, because within several seconds of the body hitting the ground,
the light show began.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Nick was drying off when he heard, and felt, Dana’s angry/fearful yell.
He had the impression through the link that she felt threatened with
deadly force, but he couldn’t sense anyone else- vampire or mortal.
That didn’t stop him from flying down the stairs at top speed.
He was just in time to see Dana floating, bathed in a crackling blue aura
and screaming like to tear out her throat. He
tried to reach through their link and it felt like he was opening his mind to an
electric current. He immediately
clamped down on the link and watched, helplessly, as she convulsed in…
actually she didn’t look like she was in pain anymore, and suddenly the aura
collapsed and she crashed to the ground.
“Dana? Are you alright?”
Nick asked softly. He gingerly
reopened the link between them and felt… He
smiled at the feeling. “Dana, do
you need a cigarette?”
Scully sat up and looked at Nick, confusion written on her face, “Nick,
you know I don’t smo…” she suddenly caught the almost smile on his face
and the humor through their link.
Nick suddenly laughed out loud, “Now there is something you won’t see
again anytime soon. A vampire
blushing!” he crowed. Suddenly he
got serious again. “What just
happened, Dana?”
In the afterglow of the quickening Scully had momentarily forgotten
herself. She pressed into the link
with Mulder and saw him tossing the body into the trunk of the caddie and
yelling at Natalie to drive. He was
looking around for any witnesses but didn’t see anyone.
Natalie gunned the engine and squealed the tires as they left the parking
lot, on their way back to the loft.
Nick only caught about a third of all of that through his link with Dana,
but he could tell that she was completely immersed.
“Wow, Dana. Wow.
I mean… Wow.” Nick was
shaking his head in amazement. “I’ve
never heard of a link like that, not even legends.
The master/childé link is usually as strong as it gets, but it’s never
like this. Never like becoming the
other.” He sat down at the table
and just stared at his childé. “It’s
like you are in a bloodkiss. Total
immersion!”
Scully just said, “We tried out your suggestion.”
“Well I’d say it worked,” Nick said with a loud exhale.
“So I take it Mulder took his first head?
Was it Froag? How did he do
it? He doesn’t even have a
sword… Does he?”
Scully levitated herself up off of the floor and went over to the fridge
and pulled out a couple of bottles. “That
really made me hungry,” she explained at Nick’s raised eyebrows.
“Tell me what happened, Dana,” Nick said.
Scully drained about half of a bottle and began, “Well, I woke up and
was talking to Mulder when I noticed that he wasn’t in the room,” she began.
She recounted all of the events up until the feeling of the quickening
and seeing the unknown immortal.
“Who was it?” Nick interrupted. How
did Mulder beat him without a sword?
“We don’t know who. As to
how… I’m not sure, Nick. It’s
almost like when I… That night, when I watched Mulder get shot- it was like
that. I was seeing through
Mulder’s eyes, and everything around him slowed to a crawl and we hit him in
the throat… but it was too fast. Our
hand didn’t crush his larynx, it went through his neck…”
She looked up at Nick with worry in her eyes.
“Mulder shouldn’t be able to move that fast!
It’s not possible, is it?”
“What’s not possible, Dana?” Nick
asked.
“He can’t have come across? He
ate Pancakes! I could taste them.
And he was in the sun, I could feel it and it didn’t burn at all!
He can’t be a vampire. Can
he?” She asked, ranting and
throwing her hands in the air.
Nick replied honestly, “Calm down, Dana.
This is new to all of us. We
will figure it out.” Nick reached
over and took her hand, “The important thing for now is that Mulder is alive.
Focus on the positive, Dana.”
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
They had driven about 5 minutes when Natalie finally asked the question.
“Ok Mulder, you want to explain what just happened?”
She continued to stare straight ahead, made sure she had both hands on
the wheel and tried very, very, hard to keep her voice calm and even.
It was the only way to keep from falling into a complete panic.
Mulder started to laugh, becoming a bit manic before he shut himself up.
He could feel a nagging little thread of panic itching to break free.
“Sorry Natalie. I would
really like to tell you. I really
would. But I don’t have a clue.
I don’t know if that was Scully acting through me, or if I somehow took
some of her attributes, or… I
don’t even know where to begin.” Mulder
paused for a moment as if waiting for an answer and then said, “Nick and
Scully don’t have a clue either.”
Natalie gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, and her voice was
just a little more brittle as she asked, “You can hear Nick too?”
“Yeah… I mean I can’t hear him, but Scully can and I kinda hear what
she hears.” Mulder started to
notice that Natalie was more than a little freaked out and hastened to clarify,
“I don’t have a link with him if that is what you’re asking.
I mean that I can hear him with Scully’s ears.
They are talking. Out loud, I
mean.” Suddenly he sobered as both
the topic of Nick and Scully’s discussion, and the memories that he could
sense Scully recalling came through, “She caught part of the quickening.”
“Natalie was distracted from the weirdness of the situation by the
thought of an innocent bystander being injured, “Innocent?
Bystander?” she wondered. “Maybe
kind of ‘not directly involved’, ‘semi-bystander.’
Maybe.” she thought. “Is
she ok?” she asked Mulder.
“Yes. Nick is razzing her
about the… Well, it kind of starts
off really painful, but it ends… Well… Let’s
just say I can see how someone might get addicted to headhunting,” he said,
blushing.
Natalie saw the blush creep up his face out of the corner of her eye and
barked out a short, but genuinely amused laugh.
“Do you need a cigarette Mulder?”
Mulder stared at her goggle eyed for a second, “Do you and Nick have a
link, Natalie?”
Confused by the apparent non sequitur, Natalie just gave Mulder a puzzled
look.
Mulder said, “That is exactly the same question Nick asked Scully.”
Now Natalie began to laugh out loud, dispelling all of her tension in a
virtual celebration of the ridiculousness of the entire situation.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Methos was standing on the deck outside the sliding glass door of the
hotel room Mulder had ‘loaned’ him when he saw the quickening in the
distance. He focused on where he
could see it, about a quarter mile away. As
soon as he thought he had the landmarks committed to memory he ran back into his
room and through the door to Mac’s room. He
saw him coming out of the bathroom, pants on and sword in hand- his hair still
damp from the shower.
“What the bloody hell?” Mac demanded.
“Methos, I told you I would be over when I was ready!”
Methos interrupted him, saying, “I just saw a quickening, MacLeod.
Not a quarter mile south of us.”
MacLeod didn’t even pause, “One minute” was all he said as he
quickly finished getting dressed.
They were in the car and on the road within 5 minutes.
They both knew whoever was involved would be long gone, but if it was
Froag, he might leave the body behind. At
least they might be able to tell if it was Mulder who was involved.
Maybe there would be witnesses from whom they could find out something.
“Here Mac, I’m sure it was here,” Methos said, indicating the
parking lot beside a little diner.
They parked and began to walk around the parking lot, looking for
anything. Strangely, there was no
one milling about; no police cars, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
If this was the place, there must not have been any witnesses.
“Methos.” Mac called.
“Look here.”
Methos went over to where Mac was standing and looked down at the large
blood puddle at his feet. “Someone
or something died here.” Mac said.
“I see a few scorch marks, but no broken glass,” Methos added.
He noticed something lying between two cars across the drive aisle and
went over to it. “Somebody lost
their blade,” he said, bending down to pick up the short, broadsword.
“Froag’s?” Mac asked.
“Could be, I know he uses a broadsword, but I’ve never seen it.
The question is who else is in town?”
Methos frowned. “Froag is a
prick, but he’s pretty darned good. If
someone took him they had to have done it quickly- you would think the sounds of
a prolonged sword fight would bring someone else out of the diner.”
“We can’t be positive, Methos. He
could have lost his sword and had to leave quickly,” Mac said.
“But he had time to grab the body?”
Methos answered. “Not
bloody likely.”
MacLeod thought about it for a moment, “Well, Somebody had time to grab
the body and leave the sword. We
shouldn’t assume who it was. We
need to try and find out.”
“Yeah. I’ll see if his
watcher has caught up with him yet.” Methos
said, resignedly.
“I have to run an errand across the border.
There’s a dealer who claims to have a 13th century
kogarasu-zukuri,” MacLeod began.
Methos started laughing, “You were going to come out here anyway!
And you want me to feel guilty about ‘dragging you across the
continent!’ you…”
“I didn’t plan on dragging myself out of bed and rushing to the
airport to catch a plane! I was
going to fly in this weekend.” MacLeod
said, indignantly.
“Sure, right, whatever.” Methos dismissed MacLeod’s protest.
“When will you be back?”
“I told Mulder I would meet him Sunday night at the Raven,” he
answered. “I’ll be there about
ten or so.”
Methos said “Ok,” and walked away.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
Halfway to the loft Mulder said, “Nick wants you to call him.”
Natalie wasn’t angry, but she was getting a little tired of this silent
communication. “Alright Kreskin,
it’s getting a little old already,” she said as she hit the speed dial.
“Yes Nick? The Amazing
Kreskin said you wanted me to call?”
“Actually, I was telling Dana that I should call you.
Apparently speaking to one, is the same as speaking to both,” he said
as he shot Scully a dirty look.
She shrugged her shoulders and smiled impishly back at him.
Natalie shot Mulder a dirty look and received the same impish grin.
“Why were you going to call me?”
Nick said, “Dana said that you’re coming back to the loft?”
“Yeah, why?” Natalie asked.
“I think you should go ahead to the morgue, try and get the vacation.
I want to wrap up Dana’s training and…” Nick began
“Nick- there’s our passenger to think about… Remember, he can’t
stay long.”
As macabre as it was, Mulder couldn’t help but laugh at Natalie’s
delicate description. Of course,
that set Scully off and both Nick and Natalie had to listen to laughter in
person, and over the phone.
Nick sighed at the ‘children’s’ antics.
“Natalie, go to the Raven. I’ll
call LaCroix and tell him you’re coming.”
Nick added, “Be back here at
This, of course, caused Natalie to blush, while Scully laughed at the
suggestion, and Mulder laughed at Natalie, and then Mulder and Scully each
laughed even harder at what each other was hearing and seeing.
After a few moments they settled down, wiping the tears from their eyes.
“All right Nick,” Natalie said. “I
think in the future we will have to avoid phone conversations in these two’s
presence. It’s distracting.”
“Absolutely,” Nick agreed. “I
will see you at
“I can’t wait!” Natalie replied and then disconnected the call.
She found the next turn and headed toward the Raven.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========
They drove for about 10 minutes before getting to the alley behind the
Raven. As they stepped out of the
car they were almost simultaneously struck by the situation.
“I never thought I would be doing something like this,” Mulder began,
quietly.
Natalie agreed, saying, “I handle bodies all of the time, but this is
definitely different. I’m usually
trying to catch a murderer, not helping cover one up and disposing of the
body.”
“I didn’t really think of it as a murder, Natalie.” Mulder said
somewhat defensively.
“Mulder, ritual combat is still murder in the eyes of the law,” she
began, but then relented at the hurt look on his face.
“I know you would have avoided this if it were possible, Mulder.
But you have to accept that your life now includes behavior that
civilized society calls murder. Two
hundred years ago duels might have been an accepted and even celebrated
activity. Today, they are considered
murder.
Times change, but it seems that immortals don’t.”
She heaved a big sigh, “It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person Mulder.
If things don’t go the way I want them to, I will be joining you in
this ‘game.’ Don’t think for a
moment that I won’t take someone’s head if it comes down to them or me, but
it is still murder in the eyes of the law, and I have always been on the other
side of the fence.”
Mulder sighed himself. “Yeah.
I don’t think I can live like this and stay in the Bureau.
I don’t think they would look kindly on having a head-chopping agent in
their employ,” he said leaning against the car and scrubbing at his face with
both hands. “Not to mention a mass
murderer with a literal taste for blood,” he added with a smile.
[Hey!]
“Sorry, Scully, but you did kill a dozen men.
It doesn’t make you a bad person.” He said, quoting Natalie and
chuckling. He looked at Natalie and
saw the worried look on her face. “Don’t
worry Natalie. I’m not loosing it,
at least I don’t think so. I am
just trying to accept my new reality. Scully
and I are murderers. We didn’t do
it out of malice, or because we are evil, but because it was all we could do
under the circumstances we were in. And,
we will both kill again, for the same reasons.
So will you. Watchers,
Hunters, the ‘Game’; to protect ourselves- and our friends- in our new
reality, we will kill. I think I
will be better able to accept that if I don’t try to deny it or dismiss it.
I will kill to live, but I don’t have to live for the kill.”
[Boy, talk about ‘paradigm shift’.] Scully added.
[Whoops! Got to go, Mulder.
Nick’s going to try and block our link so we can finish training.
Don’t worry if you don’t hear from me for a while, Ok?]
“Ok Scully,” Mulder said and then felt their link quiet down almost to
nothing.
“Ok, Mulder. I’d just like
to go on record saying that this whole ‘mental conversation’ thing you’ve
got going with Dana is starting to be really exasperating,” Natalie said,
facing him with her hands on her hips and giving him an annoyed look.
“Come on, let’s get LaCroix and get this over with.
I’ve got to get to the morgue and arrange time off,” she said,
heading toward the door to the club.
========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========