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.Duel	By : keithcompany Category: G through L > Highlander Views: 1431 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
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- 5
Lincoln selected his tie while his student protested. "She's not even half your age!"
"That doesn't make me a pedophile," he said. The burgundy one caught his eye and slid off the rack.
"Oh, triple ick!" She ran across his dresser to stand before his mirror. "You... You can't date Destiny! I forbid it!"
"You're the student, formerly my pet. When did you get a say?" He tied the knot with centuries of practice. Perfect, he observed.
"You have nothing in common!"
"A beautiful woman who knows about my past-"
"What little you've revealed."
"Hush. Who appreciates my company. Who deserves to be treated properly. And who understands why every so often I might have to run out to the parking lot for the duration of a small, localized, highly destructive lightning storm. She's perfect."
"I'll kill you," she said seriously.
"Do it before I leave for the date and I won't go," he said. She smiled and ran for the door. There was a whisper of sound. Last time, she'd ducked under the throwing knife so this time she jumped high. The metal flashed past and lodged in the wainscoting.
-------
Destiny opened the secret panel connecting the condos. She was adjusting an earring as she came through. "Link? I was trying to decide what shoes to wear."
The doorway connected stairwell landings in the two units, halfway between the office and bedroom levels in Lincoln and Eve's side. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go up or down to find him when the problem was solved for her.
A shadow dropped past her as Lincoln's limp form fell from the fourth to the first floor. Destiny looked up. A tiny face smiled between uprights in the railing overhead.
"Did you kill him?"
"Yep," Eve said.
"Good for you, girl." She leaned over to look down. The form wasn't stirring yet. After such a short fall, that had to mean electrocution or toxins of some sort. "When will he be ready to go?"
"Oh." Her embarrassed tone dragged Destiny's gaze back up. "That, uh, that was the fight. That was what the fight was about. That, uh... He promised he wouldn't go on your date if I killed him before you left."
"And why would he have done that, Eve?" Destiny asked far too sweetly.
"Um...."
------------
Lincoln came to with a gasping breath. He was in the Porsche. In the passenger seat. Destiny shifted down for the freeway exit.
"Um. About our date," he began.
"Look, you two can stick knives in each other all FUCKING day," Destiny hissed. "MY chances to have an evening out have to fit between your workouts, your field trips, your research, your eternal search for the perfect wine... They are NOT part of your game." She merged onto the highway, shifting savagely.
"Yes, Destiny," Lincoln said. He considered pointing out that it was Eve's challenge, but figured that part had probably been resolved already.
Eve took a deep breath and grabbed another rose from the delivery. She continued to spread the path of rose petals between Destiny's bed and the secret door. One petal at a time.
She was within two feet of completing her assigned task. She paused, hands on her hips and looked up at the bed.
Destiny's plush dragon, Maleficent, looked down judgmentally.   "She coulda just asked," Eve said. "I mean, as a favor. She didn't have to threaten me with...." She shuddered theatrically and went to get another rose.
----------
Destiny had taken to buying two of every article of clothing. One for her, the other was used to create a tailored suit for Eve. They matched.
So when she went out, she often had a posable Dolly that looked just like her. It appeared to be a fashion statement, and a bit of eccentricity. And it was far more comfortable than the Baby Suit.
The only difficulty was tourists trying to photograph her as the 'local color.' She usually talked her way out of such encounters.
There was a lot more of Boston that drew camera focus finders anyway.
Eve relaxed her attack research a bit, though they still sprung out at each other at the oddest times.
Destiny refused to 'allow' the two of them to be in her part of the condos at the same time, for that reason.
The Immortals agreed. They usually agreed with Destiny. Each wanted the other one to be known as the troublemaker...
So, from time to time, Destiny invited one or the other over for dinner, hanging out... Spending the night...
----------
Lincoln sat in the back of the canoe. It gave him more control. He did the steering, Destiny just helped with moving it along.
He was also in position to grab her oar when she dropped it in the lake.
Eve just sat on top of the piled equipment in the middle, watching the wilderness.
"I still don't know why I'm here," Destiny muttered. She switched rowing sides to relieve one shoulder.
"Because I can't row," Eve pointed out.
"And to keep us from killing each other," Lincoln said.
"How much risk can there be," Destiny protested. "You guys sleep together!"
The rhythmic splashes behind her stopped suddenly. "I mean, um, you share a bedroom." She started to paddle industriously. Lincoln started up again.
Eve was furious that Destiny knew. But confused. She'd have sworn that Lincoln wouldn't have told anyone that he had invited her into his bed from time to time.
After so long alone, it seemed that The Ancient One had a need for a simple friend and the uncomplicated intimacy of a platonic cuddle. But he should have told her he'd told Des.
Lincoln was at peace with the revelation much more quickly. BFF's told each other everything, he realized. He should have expected Eve to admit to Destiny that she'd invited herself into his furs from time to time.
For all her efforts to keep him at arm's length - his arms - she still seemed to see him as a protector in the long run. She found security inside the circle of his arms. But she should have told him she'd told Destiny.
So they were soon back to the companionable silence of their travel. Some time around noon, a pontoon plane flew overhead, dipping down and waggling its wings in salute. Then it continued across the sky and over the hills.
"Wonder what they thought of us?" Destiny asked.
"I know exactly what they thought," Lincoln said.   "They saw us and told each other: Damn! This spot's taken!"
Eve looked around. The lake stretched so far lengthwise that the beaches at either end were not visible. The lake curved to follow the Earth's surface.
Not a single tree in view bore so much as a hatchet's mark. No industry, no tourists, no one else on the water, the shore or the hills above. Just three people in a canoe. Well, two, visible to the pilot.
"Taken?" she asked.
"Well, we're here to hang out where no one, no one, no one can see us. They're looking for the same thing." He nodded towards a likely spot. "Let's have lunch there, see if it's good camping."
There was a small stream emptying into the lake there, and a wide, flat spot just uphill from the mouth. Lincoln declared it a good spot and started humping goods up to the site.
Eve wasn't much for wilderness, but she'd been paying more attention. She directed Destiny in the complex efforts of assembling their tents. "Pull that cord and throw it."
"Throw the cord?"
"Throw the tent."
"Why would I- " FWOOMPH! "Oh, look. A tent."
"Now stake it down."
"You're such a bossy little dolly," Destiny grumbled. She found the stakes and the rubber mallet.
When the tents were in place, the fireplace cleared and stones laid, food stowed in proper bear-proof manner and everything to Lincoln's satisfaction, he started teaching Eve about wilderness survival.
"But I've always stayed in urban settings!" she'd protested when he announced the trip.
"And what if the next person to kidnap Destiny is Cole the Mountain Man, or Carl the Hermit?"
"NEXT?" Destiny's voice had shrieked, muffled slightly by the wall.
So now she was to learn the basics of finding or creating food, tracking and shelter.
"Room and bored, bored, bored," Destiny grumbled. She attended each lesson but couldn't keep up with the particulars.
She wasn't immortal, and couldn't practice what she came to call 'the reindeer games.'
For Eve, the best part of the camping trip was time alone. Really alone.
A short jog out of camp, she could almost convince herself she was back to normal. The water gurgled over rocks large and small. The trees loomed, but they always loomed.
But there was no giant furniture. No doors that needed climbing equipment to open. No carpeting that snagged her feet.
And after a slightly longer jog, there wasn't that background buzz of a nearby Immortal.
She tried not to look too deliriously happy, especially when Des was fishing bugs out of her food.
----------
They had three tents, so everyone could be alone if they wanted. Destiny was surprised at how cold it got that first night ("Really? Des, the sun goes behind the mountain at four in the afternoon. And we're right next to this big, blue heat sink..."), and demanded a heating source.
Lincoln shrugged and said she could bury embers from the fire under her tent or move in with him.
"Is your tent heated?"
"We can generate some body heat," he said with a smile. She pretended to be flustered.
"Hey, what about me?" Eve protested. "You can move into my tent!"
"You?" Lincoln said, surprised. "You don't generate body heat."
"You actually leech it out," Destiny whispered, as one sharing bad news.
"It's your body mass," Lincoln added.
"And you're so bony!"
"You keep wiggling."
"I think she's looking for more heat."
"Yeah, after she's leeched my arm to a withered, frozen popsicle, she moves to my belly."
"I've found her burrowed under my nightshirt at least twice."
"Can't blame her for that," Lincoln said with a perfectly straight face.
"Oh, ICK!"
"So," Lincoln said. "Weapons in tent two, food in tent three, and three of us in one?"
"Do we HAVE to let little Eve in?"
"Hey!"
----------
Lincoln was shocked to find that no one had ever taught Eve how to use the Quickening to 'touch' animals.
He could extend his aura towards any animal he could see and, to a large extent, become that animal.
"See that rabbit?"
"Yes." She crouched on his arm, feeling like a bird of prey.
"Imagine your soul flying out through your eyeballs..." His voice went on and on, droning.   She stopped hearing words and became the bunny.
Her heart beat with a foreign pulse. She twitched her nose. Destiny watched as her posture came to resemble the distant rodent's.
"Now RUN!" Lincoln shouted. Eve ran down his arm and shot across the ground. The rabbit ran off at the shout, Eve gave chase.
She crossed the grass in leaps and bounds, cornering like she was ricocheting of walls. She even reached the frightened bunny and slapped it on the rump. Then she continued on, out of sight.
Lincoln turned and walked towards the water's edge. "Is she coming back?" Destiny asked.
"When she gets hungry," he said. "Want trout?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever."
"Trout's best when you can still hear the water it came out of," he said. Then he picked up a wooden spear he'd made and walked into the water.
He disappeared. Destiny reall hated it when they did that. They didn't even take a deep breath before going under and staying under.
She fidgeted for a moment, looking from lake to hillside. Then she went back to the tents to slap another lay of bug spray on.
Destiny did admit that trout smelled fantastic, roasting over open flames. But she kept looking into the dark woods. "Is this one of those scifi stories where she loses her mind and comes back thinking she's a lynx or a hawk?"
"More of a fantasy than scifi, I should think," Lincoln replied. He tilted his flask to pour a tot of Jim Beam onto the fish.
"And no," he added as she opened her mouth. "It's no more compelling than wearing a costume." He glanced across the fire. She didn't look enlightened.
"Okay, can you imagine wearing a Wonder Woman costume to a party and feeling more confident?"
"Oh, yeah, this one time-"
"I don't care," he said. Ha, she thought. He wants to explain but he's short with me. This is not for my sake. He's worried about her, too. "But that's the idea. She touches a rabbit, she feels like she can run like a rabbit.
"She finds a lynx, an owl, a snake, any of these, it's more like a costume than possession or whatever you're thinking of."
"YaaaaaHOOOOOOO!" They looked up just as a form fell out of the sky. Eve landed at an angle, rolled easily and popped to her feet beside the tents. "I touched an OWL!"
"You did NOT learn to fly by touching a bird," Lincoln said.
"Have you ever touched a flying bird that had more mass than you?" she retorted. "How would you know?"
His mouth gaped open, silent. He stared.
"Wicked cool!" Destiny said. She patted the spot next to her on the log. Eve ran over.
"So where were you really?" she asked.
"Oh, all over. Birds, cats, a grumpy damned badger, then I spent a couple hours making a tree into a catapult that'd loft me into camp. Is the fish ready? It smells ready. I've worked up an appetite."
---------
Eve proved to be a quick learner. She preened until Lincoln pointed out it was knowledge she'd probably gained from a conquest. She just needed to be taught to access it, to use it, to understand it.
"Ew!" Destiny overheard. "That means you're hunting with a dead man's nose!"
"Destiny," Lincoln said. Something in his tone made the woman shut up instantly. "She doesn't need any sort of neuroses about her skills."
"Yes, Lincoln," she replied. Eve watched the interchange from where she stood, straddling a pile of kindling just starting to crackle into a fire.
"You think I might develop an issue?" she asked.
Lincoln shrugged. "It used to be an insult...back home. Loosely translated, it identified a skank. 'I wouldn't fuck her with a dead man's dick,' they'd say."
He shook himself and smiled. "It screwed me up from time to time."
"Iiiiiiiiiiiick," the women chorused.
"Enough. Off with ye," he waved. Mornings were for lessons. When he broke for lunch, he cooked for 'the tall people.' Eve had the afternoon off, but she was expected to find her own meal.
She smiled and took off. She carried her bow, a sword and one quiver of arrows. It was more than enough.
After two weeks, Lincoln kicked her out of camp instead of a morning lesson. "Get out. Away. Far enough that you can't feel me. Spend the night somewhere. Channel your inner savage and burrow or build a lean to or a hogan or something."
"Yes, sir!" She gathered a bedroll and a few tools. Then she was off.
Destiny stepped out of the tent, rubbing her back. "Can we move the tent? I think there's a rock under my side of the bag." She held up her hands. "I know you don't care, because you'd heal it in your sleep-"
"No, Destiny," he said. "I'm fine with moving the tent."
"Really?"
"Sure," he said. "Rip up the stakes." She did a doubletake, hearing something in his tone.... He just started moving towards the tent with purpose.
---------
Eve limped under the underbrush. She'd touched a squirrel and tried to see if it helped climbing trees. It had at least made it easier to see handholds.
But now her tail kept trying to send signals to the other squirrels. Just about every thought made her try to twitch her tailbone.
She treated it like an earbug, music that played itself in her mind with unrelenting repetition. She concentrated on her times tables.
When she was at twelve times four, a plane flew overhead. They'd seen a couple during the weeks. All had noted the camp and gone elsewhere.
This one flew out over the lake, then came back a couple of times. That was new.
Being new wasn't automatically danger, but it was better to be sure. She estimated the direction of the camp and started running.
She startled a deer, then touched it. After that, she bounded through the forest.
Before she made it to the stream, she heard the plane come down on the lake and taxi towards the camp.   She stopped her mad rush as she got close and snuck up.
Probably some hunters or fishermen asking about game in the area, she thought. Or rangers asking if they'd seen a lost hiker.
Or "hunters" that found where Kane was hiding and came to get even... She sped up a bit, but only as fast as she could go without being detected.
Finally, she came under a fallen tree that gave her a view of the camp but plenty of deadfall to hide behind.
But there was no camp. Not only did she not feel Lincoln, or any Immortal, she didn't see the tents or the canoe. Just two guys walking slowly up from the beach.
"That...bastard," she said softly. She imagined Destiny held back for a while, out of loyalty.
Right up until he promised her a hotel room and a heated bathroom, she figured.
------------
They wore fairly typical outdoorsy clothes. No suits, no Ranger uniforms.   They approached the camp and started to search it without speaking.
So she assumed they were used to working with each other. She waited for them to talk.
"So, Barney was right," the one to her left said. "He moved." He bent to feel the ashes. "But did he move to another part of the lake, or what?"
'He,' not 'they.' So they were only interested in Lincoln. Kane. Whoever. Seemed like everyone in and around the Game saw mortals as window dressing.
She wondered how they knew Des wasn't Immortal, then remembered the comments in the kidnapper's house. They assumed Kane would have killed her if she was.
"Hey, look!" The other man picked a rock up off the ground. There was a piece of paper under it, protected by a Ziploc from their food stores.
She was a little angry that he'd left that for her. He'd made SUCH a big deal about packing all their trash out. Now she had to take care of the letter and the bag.
There was a moment of impatience and she realized she was waiting for the man to read the letter to her. Then she realized that was what they did on TV.
Now, his friend just walked over and read over the first mans' shoulder. "Huh," he said. "Is this to us?"
"Figure Kane must know about Watchers by now," the other said. "But he's never contacted us before."
"And what's that about hot soup?"
They shrugged and started to walk back to where the plane waited.
With her letter!
Eve scrambled backwards through the branches, thinking furiously. She had to get that letter.
She didn't know if she should kill to get it, though. If these were hunters, she'd do well to drop them while she had the chance.
If they were just watchers, no one was in danger. It'd be murder. And there wasn't even a benefit from taking their heads.
She got past them through the tall grass, running far faster. The winds blew the stalks and hid her movement. She got to the very edge of the beach and took stock.
Not much of her training was geared towards non-lethal. In fact, Lincoln had stressed that she wasn't in a position to show mercy or hesitation to any opponent. She'd drilled a spear into his lip halfway through his justification.
She was well aware of that.
But she didn't consider deadly force to be justified right now. And all she could do without exposing herself was shoot arrows.
And the curare would be fatal.
Then she thought. She didn't have to shoot them both...
She grabbed some sand and scrubbed curare off of a shaft. Not all, just most of it. Trying to reduce the dosage.
She stood as tall as she dared as the men passed her position. She let fly. The arrow slid into the pants of the man slightly beside the other. NOT the one holding her letter in his hand.
If she did it right, he was only scratched, not pierced. He exclaimed mildly at the pain, bending down to grab his calf. The other man turned.
The victim fell, gasping. His partner knelt beside him, calling his name. Eve paid little attention. The wind had caught the letter when he dropped it. She watched like a hawk.
The drug didn't stop Wayne's heart. But his breathing failed. His partner was forced to help him breathe. When they were engaged, she ran for the letter and snatched it behind some driftwood.
She read quickly. "Graduation exercise... Canoeing down river... heated bathrooms... I KNEW it! Room service. Room Service! Follow the river... Willow Creek... Moose Lodge... East Bank."
Eve glanced up for a second. So she had to travel downriver AND cross the river to get where they were going.
And they had maybe a three day head start.
She didn't blame Destiny. She hadn't really fit in to this expedition since Lincoln had wrestled the canoe out of the seaplane.
But oh, her master was going to pay. "Room service, my tiny but taut ass," she muttered.
She stayed behind the driftwood for the next hour. The not-victim Watcher or hunter ran down to the plane once to get a bottle of oxygen. He alternated pumping that into Wayne with doing his breathing for him.
Wayne finally protested. "Geddoff me."
"Are you okay?"
"Ah c'n talk."
"Let's get you into the plane. There's a doctor in Willow Creek." Eve's ears picked up at the name of their destination.
"That might... might be good."
"What happened? Are you allergic to anything?"
"Kane," he gasped. "Bastard booby trapped...something."
"The letter!" Just as he started looking around, Eve threw the paper up. The wind took it down the beach and out over the water. "Dammit. We might need that to know what happened to you. Well, no help for it. Come on."
They staggered slowly across the gravel beach. Eve waited until the pilot was pretty much shoving Wayne up into the plane, then crossed to one of the pontoons.
She crouched behind the upright, waiting but ready to move.
Once both men were inside, she used some rope to tie herself in place.
The sun was setting as the plane followed the river. She saw two people and a canoe in a campsite quite a ways down the river. She didn’t wave.
She wondered if the pilot had noticed his quarry, or if he was too busy with Wayne. She was glad Wayne lived. The other guy might have buried him out there, and she'd have had to spend another night in the wild.
The sun was completely gone when lights appeared ahead. She saw a couple dozen little houses, a few stores and one big, sprawling campus that had to be the Lodge.
She marked the location as the plane turned to land on another lake, then taxied to a pier.
Mentally wishing Wayne well, she scurried down the pier as the other guy was securing the plane.
Ghosting through the small town after dark wasn't difficult. The only person she saw was too drunk to see her.
Then she was into the lobby. There was a fire burning in the hearth. She was wet and cold and found a spot behind a bucket of kindling to dry out.
She kept an ear out for any hoteliers poking about, but concentrated on her fury. Her anger at being abandoned would keep her concentrated on her mission of vengeance.
She woke with a start at midnight. There was a man in a red coat locking the front door. He turned out most of the lights and left down a long hallway. The fire had died down to nearly nothing.
Eve crept across the floor and around the counter. The chair gave her a route to the counter. By the glow of the one light left on in the lobby, she found the reservations for a Mr. Evelyn Side. Eve Inside, she muttered.
He obviously expected a couple of days in luxury while she force marched over hill and dale, then searched out their room. There were some notes about what to stock the minifrige with, for Evelyn and his fiancé.
Well, if you're going to lie, give the lie that gets you free chocolates, she figured. They had him firmly penciled in for one of the two suites the place had. There were margin notes wondering about why a couple needed a suite, but no one questioned the platinum credit card or the enormous fee he'd paid to keep the room open until his arrival.
She really wanted to surprise them, but of course he'd feel her aura as they got close.
Unless... There was something bouncing around in the back of her mind. Probably someone else's memory.
Something they'd never done, but had...maybe heard a rumor that another Immortal had accomplished...something?
---------
She found what she needed in a general store down the block. A large fat cat lounged in the front window. Eve reached out and touched the cat.
She brought the cat's essence within. She wrapped her brain up in cat thoughts, in being cat, in living cat. Then worked her way back to the hotel. She snuck into the reserved suite when the maids were stocking the minibar and hid there.
The cat mentality was rather easy to slip into. The suite faced south so the sun drifted nicely across the bed as she lounged on it.
The minibar goods she ate would eventually come off of Lincoln's bill, which was part of her plan. But as a person half-way to being a cat, she just didn't care.
She caught up on sleep and exercised and just indulged herself in some me time.
After five days, she felt the barest touch of an Immortal's aura. Eve ran to the bed and crawled under it, moving to the exact center. Then she started licking her paws.
Cat concerns were foremost in her mind and the feel of Lincoln's aura faded. She curled up and slept.
The door opened and woke her. She pawed lazily at the air, listening to Destiny exclaim at how cozy the suite was.
Lincoln grunted and went straight to the bed. He threw himself back on it, as Eve had predicted. He lay there, talking about how long it might take Eve to catch up to them.
"It took us a week, so she might be ten to twenty days until-"
Eve smiled wickedly, then let the thin veneer of cat slough off. Her aura radiated into the room. She felt Lincoln's.
It didn't descend upon her. She was already in the middle of it, inside the half-a-city-block diameter of his presence.
His being crushed in on her from all sides, like a diving bell below crush depth. She was swarmed with his scent, his temper, his power. She nearly cried out at the rush of sensations.
And she was expecting it.
Lincoln felt the power spear up into him, directly through his heart, at a speed he associated with artillery rounds.
Destiny turned as he screamed in mortal terror, throwing himself to the side and rolling off the bed. He spat one word, probably a Sumerian swear, and looked around with wide, crazed eyes.
Then he ran head-first into the wall.
"New custom?" she asked. There was no reply. "That's what I like about travel. Seeing new places and the traditions of the people that live there."
She prodded the still form with a toe. "I'd almost say this had to be Eve's work but-"
"It IS!"
Destiny dropped to the floor and gazed under the bed. "Eve! You're here! How the hell did you get HERE? Before us!"
"I flew," she replied simply.
She and Destiny were lounging in the Jacuzzi when Lincoln staggered out onto the deck. He glanced at the two, then shook his head and undressed.
They sat quietly in the tub. The deck was in the open and no telling who would listen, wonder about three voices in a room with two guests.
Eventually, the later arrivals felt civilized enough for conversation and climbed out. They called room service and put on bathrobes.
Eve described the watchers or hunters. Destiny gasped when she thought Eve had killed just to get that note.
Lincoln had held her wrist and make calming sounds even before Eve had explained. He nodded approvingly at her solution. She smiled at that response, then described her flight and her infiltration of the hotel.
"Watchers," Lincoln said confidently. "If he performed CPR, he's a Watcher. Hunters just shout 'you died for the cause' and then go shoot the Immortal they're chasing."
"Eek!" Destiny shook her head. "How do you people live with that?"
"Same way you live with cars hurtling down the street," Eve said. "Driven by people putting on makeup or having phone sex."
"Or real sex," Lincoln added.
"But that's normal!" Destiny protested. "You keep your eyes open, take precautions and... Oh. Ooooooh." She looked thoughtful and was quiet for a while.
---------
Wayne was still pale as Tom helped him down the pier to the plane. They both noticed the waiting pair at the same moment and froze mid-step.
"Hey!" Kane said in a friendly tone. There were a couple of bags piled behind him. Destiny sat on a piling.
"Um..." Tom started to say. Then he realized he had to act natural. "Hey," he returned.
"I'm really sorry," Kane said, waving at Wayne.
"Sorry?" Wayne asked.
"About the booby trap. It was meant for someone else. But you survived, glad to see."
"I don't know what you're talking-" Tom started.
"No fault of yours," Wayne growled. Tom turned to stare at him in surprise.
"I know, I know," Kane shook his head. "Listen, I called the place you rented the plane from. They don't have any left to come pick us up." He waved to include Destiny in the 'we.' "But they did tell me you're scheduled to return the plane.
"They even suggested I might get a ride back from you."
They blinked. Nothing else moved on the pier. Kane's voice dropped almost to a whisper. "Now, you can report this contact and go on your merry way. I'm still sorry about the trap. Or we can pretend you just happened to give me a ride, report my location, and pretend your cover was never blown."
They still stared.
"Look, I feel bad. I'm trying to do you a favor but I don't know how Watchers really work. Would tailing me even after you're wounded be a good thing?
"Or saving some other Watchers the effort in finding me? Maybe even radio ahead so someone's waiting?"
"I, uh... I thought you had more luggage?" Tom asked. Kane nodded.
"Yeah, this was the minimum we wanted to take, but the rest of the stuff... We can still get it while you radio...um."
"Our flight plan," Wayne coughed. They all nodded.
"And gas the plane," Tom said. Kane handed over a credit card. Tom stared at it, wondering how that would look in the expense report.
"Since you're doing us a favor, it's the least we can do."
"Well, let's get your bags aboard," Tom said. "Then you go get the rest of your stuff, we'll taxi over to the gas pump."
"Meet you there!" Kane said. He and Tom loaded the luggage while Wayne stared at Destiny. She figured the attention would be flattering if Kane hadn't predicted it. And explained it.
The man was wondering if she was an Immortal, too.
She smiled and lifted a pants leg. It was covered with scratches from her wilderness ordeal, and a few bug bites.
"In case you were wondering," she said. "I mean.... I hate the wilderness. I'll be scratching for a week. And unable to wear nylons for two!"
"That's too bad," he said. And then wondered what the hell she and the Ancient were doing out here anyway.
Tom helped him into the plane, then started it as Kane cast them off. Then the couple walked back to the hotel. "I think we should report everything," he said to his partner.
"Yeah," Wayne agreed. "I mean, it's a rare treat to meet an Immortal. And talk, you know. But I'm not comfortable with lying in my report."
"No," Tom said. He aimed for the fueling pier. "So what should we ask him about?"
"Well, if he's in the mood to share, I wanna know more about where he was during the French Revolution."
A few feet behind them, Eve unstrung her bow and relaxed. She shifted the shirts under her to a comfortable nest and lay back.
---------
On the way back home, Lincoln made sure to spend a day at a large zoo. He wanted to try to replicate Eve's Quickening Stealth Trick.
She tried it, too, and found that touching most mammals would allow her to adopt the mask. She could touch lizards and birds, but she couldn't internalize the true essence of the creature.
Destiny ate popcorn and made fun of Lincoln's attempts. "You realize you're crossing one eye right now, right?"
"What?"
"Never mind. Daddy, can I please have an Italian Ice?"
"Next time we're in Italy,' he promised. "Now sit down and guard the dolly."
"Are you going to try the elephant? What are you going to do if you succeed? I mean, are you going to try to pick things up with your nose? OR will you think your dick is prehensile?"
"Destiny, be quiet!"
"I mean, I don't mind crackers in bed, but if you're been trying to eat peanuts with it, it's not going into-"
"Hush, woman!"
"Did you hear him HUSH me?" she asked Eve.
"Yes," Eve whispered. "But if you do, then he won't be able to blame you for a distraction and he'll have to admit there's something I can do that he can't."
"Will both you bitches shut up!" he snapped.
Destiny shot him the evil eye, then stood and walked away. She carried the doll bag out to the parking lot. They got in the rented car and continued on towards Boston.
"I don't care to be spoken to in that manner," she said as they merged into freeway traffic.
"Well, be fair, I have said you were bitchy a time or two," Eve said.
"But you didn't demean the entire gender."
"He is far older than feminism," Eve pointed out.
"I don't really care about his upbringing. I care about how my boyfriend acts towards me, even in sickness and health and frustration and denial."
"Good point," Eve agreed. Boyfriend, she thought? Up on the lake, she accused ME of being his girlfriend. I think.
---------
The flowers were waiting when they got home. "Sorry," the card said.
Another assortment arrived as they were unpacking. "I admit I cannot do it," was on the card.
"He's here!" Eve called out two days later. She felt the aura outside. He'd brought the Porche back from the airport.
He apologized a few times. Destiny acknowledged the apologies without explicitly accepting them. Eve watched from the arm of the chair Destiny sat in.
"What's wrong?" he finally asked.
"There are words I don't use," she said. "Things I don't say. Especially not to friends. Extra especially not to people I am or could expect to be sleeping with."
"I was frustrated," he explained.
"I know. I can forgive your being testy." She shook her head. Eve reached over to pat her upper arm. "I just... I can't believe you really care for me, if you use 'bitch' that way, that casually."
"Of course I care about you!" he protested. Destiny stood up.
"You don't see me as a girlfriend, though. Do you?"
"Des...."
"You like Eve. That's okay. I understand. You really care FOR Eve. I'm okay with that. Yours is the longest relationship I've ever seen her have.
"But I just fit in there somewhere. An emollient. A bit of grease between you guys' gears." Lincoln was silent for too many moments. Destiny nodded.
"Destiny, I'm very sorry. You're a great person, fun to be with, beautiful inside and out, but... I've had seventeen mortal wives. It's always painful. I can never commit.
"Not fully."
"Thought so," Destiny said. She reached down to pat Eve on the head. "So, I'm Eve's advocate, your companion, and until Eve grows big enough for sex, I'm handy."
"No!" he said firmly. "I would never treat you as just a sex partner. I really do care about you, Destiny."
"As Eve's friend."
"At first," he admitted. "But I got to know you and...things worked out."
"But they'll never work all the way out." She turned to head back to her condo. "I have to be alone for a while."
"I really thought she thought we were just having fun," he said to Eve.
"Kane," Eve said slowly, using that name to underscore the importance. "She went into the WOODS with you! Destiny FISHED with you.
"These seventeen wives? Did you have any common languages with ANY of them?" She dropped to the floor and jogged to the stairs. He watched her go, comprehension dawning on his face.
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