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rivendellroseWell. It only took me a little over a year to finish it, but ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zinjadu, I finally have your birthday fic done.
You guessed it - it's that damned crossover I've been promising.
Fandoms: Highlander and X-Files
Characters: Scully, Mulder, and Maggie, Charlie, and Bill Scully (Jr), and Joe, Methos, Richie, and Amy.
Summary: This is a bit of an AU for both series. Basically, blip out the whole Ahriman situation for Highlander, and forget about that crazy situation where Mulder disappeared from the X-Files. This fic also assumes the background of my "Interference" series, namely that Amy was assigned as Methos' Watcher and things... got a bit messy after that. Forgive me, I have no control over my own characters.
And dear gods, don't squint too hard at the plot. I know it's cracked. o_O
"What can I get you?"
Maggie Scully looked up at the bartender as he took orders for her son Charlie's beer and her daughter-in-law's red wine. He was a rather good-looking man - tallish, although he leaned on a cane, with a shock of salt and pepper hair and a lot of laugh lines around his eyes. His voice was nice, too - rich, with a twang born somewhere more familiar to Maggie than the coast of the Pacific.
"And you?"
"A Manhattan, please."
He smiled. "Now, that's not one I get much call for here. Coming right up."
She watched as he walked away, noting the stiff swing of his legs. Prosthetics, probably - she'd seen that sort of walk on one of William's old friends.
"A Manhattan, Mom? Bit posh for a bar like this."
"I'm sure he can handle it. I haven't had one in years." She listened attentively as Clare and Charlie filled her in on the kids' school projects and interests, asking all the right questions at the right times, but her eyes wandered every so often to the bar, to watch as the man who'd taken their orders combined vermouth, bourbon whiskey, and bitters over a cherry in a cocktail glass, then rubbed the cut side of an orange peel over the edge of the glass before twisting it over the drink. Expert and attentive. She was hoping he'd bring the drinks over himself, to give them another chance to talk, but he handed the tray to a girl with short dark hair and bent over in conversation with the two dark-haired men at the bar.
It wasn't long, though, before he was back at their table, asking if they were enjoying their drinks, and the platter of appetizers Charlie'd ordered with them. "Everything is wonderful," Maggie assured him. "Especially the Manhattan."
"Hey, I try." He grinned. "This place is my baby, I gotta give it my best. Haven't made one of those in a while, glad I haven't lost my touch."
I'm betting you haven't lost your touch for much of anything... "It was perfect. You own this bar, then?"
"Yeah. Own it, run it, play a bit of blues... it's a good life. Joe Dawson," he added, holding out his hand.
"Margaret Scully. What instrument do you play?"
"Guitar. Acoustic and electric, and a bit of singing." he added, at Maggie's questioning look.
Maggie shook her head, impressed. "I'm guessing more than a bit. I'd love to hear that."
There was that gorgeous grin again. "Well, who'm I to say no to a lady?"
They stayed a few hours, and Maggie chatted almost as much with Joe as she did with her own son and daughter-in-law - a bit embarassing for a woman of her age, but she’d have the whole ferry ride and the rest of the weekend to talk to them. Eventually, though, it was time to go down to the pier to catch the ferry back across the sound. Charlie helped his wife into her coat, then turned to do the same for his mother. “Ask for his number, Mom. Or at least his email address,” he urged in a whisper.
Maggie smiled up at her second-eldest child. “I already have both, dear.”
* Six Months Later *
“Got plans for the Fourth?”
Amy looked up from the burgers on the grill. “No, not yet. Do you need somebody here?”
“Nah, I’m closing the bar the night of, and Lou and Mike’ll run it for the weekend. I’m headed back east for a bit.”
“Family?” The word felt awkward, used between the two of them. Joe had already told Amy he had family back in Chicago, a widowed sister and her daughter, a few years older than Amy, but if she was hardly ready to accept Joe himself, Amy knew she was nowhere near prepared to deal with his family, and the potential repercussions of explaining who she was to them.
“No.” Joe shifted, focusing on the glass he was polishing with an expression Amy’d learned to associate with guilt or worry of some kind. “There’s a lady I’ve been seeing. Well, talking to. She lives in Virginia. Invited me out for the holiday.”
“Oh.” The world shifted into a new perspective. Intellectually aware though she was that Joe was still relatively young, and certainly handsome... well, even if a man was only technically your father it was hard to think of him dating, and more so when trying to work out a real familial relationship with him. “Well, that’ll be nice, then. It’ll be good for you to... see her.”
“Yeah.” More shifting, more of that expression. Whatever was still to come, Joe thought it’d be more awkward than what had already passed. “Thing is, she asked if I wanted to bring any of my family. You know. Kinda have everybody meet up.”
Oh dear. “Oh. I see. I...”
“You don’t have to,” he broke in quickly. “It’s cool, it’d be a long trip, she’s got kind of a big family, it’d probably be boring for you. I’m sure you’ve got friends having some party.”
Amy bit her lip. Yes, her friends back home would probably have a party, but they rarely saw each other, now - the burden of secrets to keep from them felt heavy, after the incident with Walker. She kept in touch with friends from her class at the academy, but they were all over the world, now, and making friends in Seacouver had been a slow process, especially because so much of her time went to Methos, and much of the rest to the bar. And the very speed with which Joe’d discounted the idea set a pit of guilt in her stomach, thinking of him all the way across the country from his friends, trying to get to know this woman and her big family. “Would she mind if I came?”
It was embarassing how surprised Joe looked, before his face split into that wickedly cheerful grin that always made Amy want to laugh. “She’d love to meet you, honey. I told her about the whole... well. Hope you don’t mind, but we’ve been chatting online and on the phone for months after she went back east, and I thought... seemed like something she oughtta know. We’re kinda... ‘serious’ is a heavy word, but we’re not getting any younger.”
A big family of strangers who knew, when Amy hadn’t even found a way to tell her old friends back home, yet. Hiding a sudden wave of nervousness, Amy smiled. “Sounds good. I guess I’d better look into packing.”
“Yeah, we’re leaving on Thursday. And, uh... Richie’s coming, too. Mac’s out of town, and he wouldn’t have anywhere else to go, if we didn’t take him. Methos, too, if he wants...”
Methos, Richie, and a family of strangers sizing up Joe (and, by extension, Amy) as a potential part of their family. It was promising to be a long weekend.
* * *
"I can't believe I let you convince me into this."
Amy rolled her eyes, trying not to look at the lanky man next to her. She was well acquainted with the sulking, irritable expression that went along with that tone of voice. "I thought you loved to travel."
"I do. Alone. Or at least not with him."
Amy glanced across the aisle and up one row to where her father was asleep, and where Richie had looked up from his Gameboy long enough to begin flirting shamelessly with a stewardess. She heard something about motorcycle racing. At least the stewardess seemed more amused than irritated. "You didn't have to come, you know. You could have stayed at home in Seacouver."
"And been bored out of my mind? MacLeod and Amanda are in Paris, Lou and Mike would be the only ones in the bar... No one to talk with, no one to drink with--"
"No one to listen to you whine?"
Methos turned to her and smiled. "You know me too well."
Amy snorted. "I ought to. It's my job."
"Ah, is that why you spend so much time with me? Cruel woman, winning away my secrets with your feminine wiles..."
"I wish. What are all these deep, dark secrets I'm supposed to have won? 'Oh, yes sir, I know all about Methos, now. He's obnoxious, an unapologetic cynic, a complete snob about everything that's ever been invented, and, oh yes, he's a horrible jogging partner.' I'm sure the Tribunal would love that."
"I thought you liked jogging with me." Methos frowned, digging around in the little boxed lunch that had been passed out a few hours ago. "You know, I think I prefered the field rations in the early Roman empire to these things... at least back then we got better than a tiny cellophane bag of peanuts. I can never open these damned things, anyway."
Amy plucked the bag out of his hand and opened it for him. "I like it fine, but you’re still arrogant and obnoxious. And you're also just angry that Joe forbade you from drinking on the flight, since Maggie and her kids are picking us up."
"It's not like one beer would've made me drunk."
"It's not like you would've stopped with one," Amy retorted. "Anyway, you can stop whining - we should be landing in about half an hour."
Methos yawned and made a valiant effort to stretch, which was completely foiled by the unfortunate side-effects of having long legs and arms in a seating space intended for someone much smaller than him. "Fine. But mark my words - this was a big mistake. You'll understand when we get there."
"Whatever." Amy patted him on the shoulder and turned her attention back to her book, leaving the immortal to sulk on his own.
* * *
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Mom? You don’t even know this guy. You meet him once, in some seedy bar, and next thing we know...”
”We’re not discussing this any further, Bill. I told you, Joe and I have been talking on the phone and by email for the last five months. And he owns that bar, so be polite.” Maggie smoothed her jacket, and started worrying at her short brown curls for the third time since they’d arrived in the terminal.
“You look great, Mom.”
“Thank you, Dana. Are you sure Fox couldn’t have come?”
“Mulder’s busy finishing some things up at the office.”
Bill snorted. “Busy. Right.”
“Not now, Bill. Not this weekend. For once, I’d like us to make an effort at being a family. God knows we don’t want Joe and his family being immediately put off. And it wouldn’t kill you to call him by his first name, Dana. You’ve been working together for coming up on five years, now.”
“If they’re gonna be weirded out by old Mulder, Mom, it’s not gonna be Dana calling him by his last name that does it. It’ll be better if this guy and his family see what that ba--” Bill caught his mother’s glare and redirected himself quickly, “old boy is like, straight off. God knows Dana’s taken too long to figure out he’s crazy.”
“He’s a perfectly nice man, Bill. Leave your sister alone.”
Bill looked on the verge of arguing, but gave up when the airport loudspeaker interrupted to announce the arrival of flight 761 from Seacouver International Airport.
“Please be polite,” Maggie repeated, beginning to sound a bit desperate.
“You said his family’s coming with him, Mom?” Dana interjected. It was a bit random, but any effort to save her mother’s nerves, at this point, was a good one. “He has kids?”
“He has a daughter - he said she’s a few years younger than you, Dana. And then two friends of his.”
“Friends?” Bill sounded suspicious, but at that exact moment people began to filter through the tunnel into the terminal. Maggie waved her hand to shush him, and began scanning the crowd for Joe while Dana and Bill tried not to feel strange, standing in an airport while their mother waited for a man they were both trying very hard not to consider her boyfriend.
“There they are!” Maggie pushed through the crowd toward a trim-looking older gentleman leaning on a cane.
“Here we go...”
“Be polite, Bill.”
“I’m always polite.”
Dana threw her oldest brother a significant look. “Mulder?”
“Except to him.” Bill shrugged, unrepentant.
“You’ll have to be nice to him, too, you know. Mom invited him to the barbeque.”
“She what?”
* * *
As soon as they’d arrived back at the house, Maggie had made a point of telling the whole group from Seacouver to make themselves at home, and it didn’t take long for her to realize that Joe’s young friends, at least, didn’t have the slightest problem settling into a new house. Before a few minutes were up, Richie had disappeared into the yard with her grandkids, and from the delighted shouting coming from outside, she had a feeling they were pleased with the arrangement. The other, Adam, had slouched around awkwardly for a few minutes, but perked up considerably after Richie left, and further when she pointed out the cooler of drinks. Joe’s daughter looked on the verge of saying something, but then shook her head and gave up, following him to retrieve a wine cooler from the pooled ice while he rummaged through the beer.
“It’s so nice having a full house again,” Maggie started awkwardly. “Dana and the boys are usually too busy with work to come out for holidays, and even when they do... well, it’s not the same as having children around.”
“I’m sure Richie will remind you what it’s like.”
“He does seem very... young. Are he and Amy...?”
“Oh god, no. No.” Joe shook his head as though banishing unpleasant mental images. “Richie’s my buddy Mac’s adopted son. Mac’s traveling with his girlfriend, and the kid... he hasn’t got any other family. He’s an adult and all, but I didn’t want to leave him alone.”
“And Adam?”
Joe was suddenly glad that they’d spent the night before the trip at the bar planning out these stories. “He’s a graduate student, spends a lot of time at the bar. Him and Amy are kind of...”
“Seeing each other,” Amy supplied, reappearing at her father’s side with wine cooler in hand. “In a manner of speaking,” she added with an impish grin.
“Yeah,” Joe agreed, looking somewhat irritated.
“That’s exciting,” Maggie commented. “I love seeing a young couple just starting out... God knows Dana’s put it off. Not that I blame her,” she added quickly. “Focusing on her career has been wonderful for her, I mean the FBI is very important of course, but sometimes...”
Joe choked on a peanut. “The FBI?”
At that moment, the front door opened. “Scully, I’m here, and I - oh, hi Mrs. Scully!” A gangling brown-haired man pushed into the room carrying a pair of grocery bags. “Sorry I’m late.”
If Joe and his daughter noticed the mumbled ‘not late enough,’ from Maggie’s oldest son, at least they didn’t comment on it.
“Oh, hello, Fox!”
Fox? Methos mouthed. Joe shrugged. People had weird names sometimes. And the doofy-looking guy at the door sure seemed to fit the profile. He hugged Maggie, shook hands with the younger of her brothers, and ignored the elder, who was glaring at him from the couch.
“You what, Mulder?”
“Ah...” Mulder glanced around at the others, especially the cluster of strangers around Scully’s mom. “I just got word on a case we might be able to do something with. After the holiday,” he added quickly. “It’s a side-line kind of job, nothing immediate.”
“Right. We can talk about it later.”
Dana didn’t exactly sound thrilled, Joe noticed, but probably working for the government meant a lot of jobs that interfered with her minimal free time. Odd, though - her partner looked awfully damned excited about the idea. Never figured a government guy to like his work that much...
* * *
“I’m telling you, Scully, that’s the guy! I’ve been finding pictures of him all over the place in records - just one or two at a time, but he always looks the same.”
Scully took a quick look at the printed out black-and-white Mulder was brandishing, and rolled her eyes. “Mulder, he’s a twenty-eight year old graduate student. I listened to him talk about his thesis for two hours tonight while his girlfriend made rude faces behind his back. I thought I’d never get away. At the very least, I’d expect someone over two hundred years old to have a better sense of dignity.”
“Quit joking. Come on, Scully, we’ve seen this kind of thing before. Eugene Victor Tooms! And the other one - you remember, the guy with the camera?”
“I couldn’t exactly forget him, could I?” Scully set down the pile of blankets she’d brought to the guest room and folded her arms over her chest. “But Mulder... this is not that kind of situation. This isn’t an x-file. This is... this is my mother’s first chance at being happy with someone since my dad died, and I don’t want to ruin this for her with a bunch of... paranoid mumbo-jumbo! For God’s sake, even Bill is behaving better than you, for once. They’re a perfectly nice group of people, and Joe makes my mom happy. Isn’t that enough?”
“Okay, but what about the tattoos?”
“What tattoos?”
Mulder pursed his lips grimly. “Didn’t you see? Joe’s got this weird, kind of tribal-looking tattoo on his left wrist--”
“He was in the army, Mulder!”
“And his daughter has the same thing! I saw it when your nephew knocked into her earlier and made her spill her drink. And I think this Adam guy has the same thing. I haven’t seen one on the other guy, but maybe he’s still too young or something... It could be a cult, Scully. You don’t want your mom getting mixed up in something like that, do you?”
“No, of course not, but that’s only a concern if it’s actually something real.”
“I can’t believe this, Scully. After all these years, after all we’ve been through... you still don’t trust me.”
Scully sighed. “Of course I trust you, Mulder. I just... doubt your impulses, sometimes. You take things too far, too fast.”
Mulder grinned. “You know what your brother’d say if he overheard that...”
“And my mother would get irritated, and tell me that she’d be happier if it were the case. She’s still angry that I call you Mulder, you know.”
“Nobody but my mom calls me Fox.”
“Yours and mine, both,” Scully agreed. “I’ll think about it, Mulder. I’ll keep an eye on them tomorrow, I promise. Just take the blankets, and go to sleep. Mom already put new sheets and pillowcases on the bed, so you should be fine.”
“Aren’t you going to tuck me in?”
Scully snorted. “No, but I’ll make sure to leave the Mickey Mouse night-light on in the hallway. Goodnight, Mulder.”
Mulder sat back on the bed, contemplating the neatly folded blankets that smelled of the same laundry detergent Scully used. And the neat, attractively domestic little basket of soaps, shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste on his bedside table. It was all so... normal. Everything his life hadn’t been in a long time. “’Night, Scully. See you in the morning.”
* * *
“You think he noticed?”
“He looked right at it, Amy. I saw him.”
“Shit.” After an instant, Amy covered her mouth. “I mean... sorry. I keep forgetting there’s kids here. I mean not here here, but...”
“It’s okay, they’ve gone to bed. And so’s Maggie.”
“Right. I’m sorry, Joe, I didn’t think...”
“Another thing they might consider strange,” Methos drawled from his place on the bay window of Joe’s guest bedroom, “would be you calling your father by his first name.”
“Er...”
“Maggie knows about that whole thing, that’s not an issue,” Joe assured her.
“Not for her, maybe. But her daughter might be another story.” Methos unfolded himself from the window seat and moved over to sit on the bed with the two Watchers. “I don’t know why you’re worried about this Fox guy, Joe - he’s not the concern, here. His partner, on the other hand... If anyone here is a risk, I’d lay money on it being her.”
“We’re talking about a pair of FBI agents! They’re both risks.” Joe pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry, okay? If she’d told me ahead of time, I’d have just come alone.”
“It’s okay, J--” Amy stopped herself, glanced at Methos, and then frowned. “Dad. Damn it, you’re right, that does sound weird! Damn, damn, damn.”
“So what do we do?”
Joe looked at his hands. “We could leave.”
“No.” Amy shook her head firmly. “No, that’s not... Joe, you like this woman, right?”
Joe nodded. “Yeah, but--”
Someone knocked on the door, and after a tense moment Richie poked his head in. “Hey. I, uh... am I interrupting?”
“No, Richie, we were just having a slumber party, why do you ask? Hold on just a second, I’ll get the face masks and nail polish.”
Richie glared. “Alright, man, you know what? I’m getting seriously--”
“Shut up, both of you. We’ve got bigger problems than this. Richie, did you hear anything while you were out there?”
“Other than the kids starting up video games in the guest room?” He pulled a fun-size bag of cheetos out of his pocket and settled down on the bed next to Joe. “Nah, everybody’s gone to bed. Why, what’s up?”
“Hard to say, but we’d better watch it. Keep your ears open - you’re probably the one they’re least likely to get suspicious of, so you’re our best chance for hearing if anything goes wrong.” Joe sighed, then nodded grimly. “Alright, people. Let’s get to bed. Hopefully everything’ll go smooth from here on out.”
* * *
By midmorning the next day, everyone was beginning to get a little stir-crazy. William and Fox had already had one barely-restrained fight, and Richie had gotten the boys into a water balloon war that kept the adults hiding inside in fear of being soaked. The situation was, to say the least, somewhat tense. So when Maggie suggested that the young people might want to take a look into the quaint little beach town nearby, Amy grabbed for the opportunity right away.
“I don’t like tourist towns, Amy,” Methos hissed as Amy pulled him out into the hallway to get their coats.
“That’s fine. You can hate it all you want, but I want you out of this house for a while. That Fox keeps looking at you like he’s trying to figure something out, and I don’t like it. Joe might be right about him, and if we have a problem brewing it’s best for you to stay out of his sights.”
“Fine. But if we see any adorably twee little shops that spell themselves with two p’s and an e, we’re staying on the opposite side of the road.”
Amy just rolled her eyes and handed him his trenchcoat. “Fine. Same goes for any salty little pubs, that’s all I’m saying. I work for a bar every day of the week, the last thing I want is to spend my vacation in one, too.”
* * *
“Now’s our chance, Scully. I’ll just tail them, find out what’s going on...”
“You’re not tailing my mother’s boyfriend’s daughter, Mulder!”
“No.” He grinned. “I’m tailing your mother’s boyfriend’s... daughter’s boyfriend. That should be far enough down the line to make it okay, right?”
Scully’s head made an audible thump against the kitchen table. “Just get some more charcoal while you’re out. I think the boys got the old bag wet with those damned balloons, and Joe and Bill want to do barbeque for dinner. And Mulder?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t get into trouble.”
“Come on, Scully, you know me...”
“Exactly.”
* * *
“Well. What have we here?”
Something about the tone of that voice made Amy pretty damned certain the man in the long coat wasn’t talking about the kitschy little kite shop across the parking lot.
“Nothing to interest you, I’m sure. We’re just here on vacation.”
“Vacation, huh? Benjamin... always so coy. But this time you won’t have your friends to hide behind, will you?”
“Who the hell scripts your dialogue?”
The new immortal looked at Amy as though just now noticing her. “Who are you?”
“I could ask the same.” Amy crossed her arms over her chest. Unless this guy was a total wacko, he shouldn’t be willing to start a fight with a mortal nearby... “Look, I don’t know who this Benjamin you’re talking about is, but we don’t know him. Do we, Adam?”
“No, I can’t say we do.” Methos smiled his most innocent smile. “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re just here vacationing. You must be mistaking me for someone else.”
“Of course. Alright, Adams, if that’s the way you want to play it... let’s take a walk. The lady can stay here, and we gentlemen will have a little chat to settle our differences. I can... introduce you to the more interesting sites. After all, I’d hate for you to miss out on anything while you’re here.”
“You’re not very subtle, you know. Why should I go with you?”
Keelan shifted his coat ever so slightly, revealing a gun, and lowered his voice so only Methos could hear him. “Because if you don’t, I’ll fire three warning shots into that pretty little companion of yours, old friend. I may not be able to fight you while she’s here, but while these bullets won’t do much good against you, I assure you they will put her out of any kind of condition to talk.”
“Riiight.” Methos hesitated. For one, Amy usually had a gun of her own, ever since the disaster with Morgan Walker, but she carried it in her purse, and he rather doubted she’d taken the risk of taking it along through the airports, given the contemporary political climate. Methos did have his sword, hidden as always in the inside pocket of his trenchcoat, despite the bloody nightmare it had been getting the paperwork to certify it across state lines. Thank god the government was willing to make certain allowances for academics and antiques dealers. In any case, he was fairly sure that he could take Keelan. Or at least get away from him, once he’d gotten the man out of the parking lot and into somewhere more private.
“Alright. Let’s be reasonable about this. Amy, wait here. I’ll be back soon,” he told her with a firm look that he hoped she’d understand. “This shouldn’t take long.”
Keelan grinned. The old thug never changed - he’d never had the subtlety of a rock. With any luck, Methos thought, he’d be able to give him the slip as soon as they got out into the shadows nearer to the beach. As they walked, he was concentrating so hard on his would-be opponent that, had he noticed the shadow slipping behind them, he would have only chalked it up to Amy doing her job as a Watcher. He would have been right - she was there. But there was someone else, too.
* * *
Back at the house, Scully’s cellphone rang just as she was pouring batter for banana bread into a trio of bread-pans.
“Could you get that, Mom? Just... check the caller ID for me?”
Maggie wiped her hands off with a dishtowel and picked up the tiny phone. “It’s Fox, dear.”
“Oh, no... Just... ask him if it’s important.”
“Hello? Oh, yes, Fox, she’s here, but she’s a bit tied up. No, not literally. Is there... Why are you whispering, Fox?”
Scully groaned. “Here, Mom. If you can put those in the oven, I’ll take the phone. What’s going on, Mulder?”
“Hey, Scully, you’ve gotta get out here. It’s that Adam guy, and I think I--”
“Mulder? Mulder, what the hell is going on over there? Mulder? God damn it!”
“Language, Dana.”
“The call just cut out. I have to go find him, Mom. God only knows what he’s gotten himself into...”
“Probably just a dead spot in the service,” Joe offered. “Get those all the time in Seacouver, spots where the signal towers just don’t--”
Everyone in the room looked at Joe as his cellphone began to ring.
“That’s weird, not many people have my number... Oh. Hi, Amy, what’s up?”
“Joe, we’ve got a problem.”
Joe was careful not to react. “That’s okay, hun. I figured you guys might want to spend some time alone.”
“Methos went and got himself into a challenge, and, uh... I think I just committed a felony. Assaulting a federal officer is a felony, isn’t it? It was just a piece of driftwood, but...”
Shit. “You guys’ll be back for the fireworks, though, right?”
“Looks like Methos managed to slip away from the other immortal.” Amy sounded distinctly irritated, but still relieved. “Umm... okay, as long as he doesn’t trace us back to the house we should be okay. But you’d better have somebody come looking for Mr. Mulder. I’m not sure how high the tide rises around here, but it looks like he’s below the drift-line.”
“Okay, sweetie. Take care, and I’ll see you in a bit.” Joe snapped his phone closed and turned his attention back to Maggie. “Sorry - she was just checking in to let me know they’re gonna take their time. Adam’s kind of a loner sort of guy - I think maybe the whole crew’s been getting to him a bit, wanted to spend some time out where it’s quiet. Heh. Kids.”
“Of course.”
Joe shifted awkwardly, trying to sort out how to fix the rest of their problem. A federal agent getting knocked out by the tideline of a beach on his vacation wasn’t exactly a good thing to have associated with their trip.
“I’d better go look for Mulder. Did... Amy didn’t mention seeing him, did she?”
Time for literal interpretation... “Nope, she didn’t say.”
“Take the car, Dana,” Maggie told her daughter. “There’s a flashlight in the trunk. Do you want your brother to come along with you, to help?”
“I doubt that’s a good idea, Mom.” Scully pulled a firearm out of her bag in the closet, and tucked it into the waistband of her jeans, pulling a windbreaker over it all. “I’ll be fine.”
Joe and Maggie watched her leave, and then Maggie sighed and shook her head. “I wonder about those two, sometimes. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was all an excuse just to get away from us and be alone for a while. At least Amy and Adam are honest about it, you know? It’s not as though we weren’t the same at their age.”
“Heh. Yeah.”
* * *
Darkness had fallen completely by the time Scully made it to the beach on her circuit, and she was surprised to find Mulder sitting comfortably on a pile of driftwood, holding his head. “What are you doing, Mulder? Why didn’t you come back to the house?”
“I just woke up a few minutes ago. Somebody cold-cocked me. My head still hurts.”
“Then why didn’t you call me? I was worried, with you just cutting off like that.”
He lifted his cellphone. It dripped. “It fell in a tidepool when I got knocked out.”
“So... was it worth it?”
“They had swords, Scully. They were talking about some kind of game, and...”
“Did you get any record?”
“Yeah, I did. With the video recorder on my phone.”
“Right.” Scully sighed and sat down on the driftwood next to him. “Mulder...”
“I know, Scully. Nobody’ll believe it. But I’m telling you, this is the same guy I’ve found in all those other pictures. Ten different cities over the last hundred and fifty years. And now he’s here. And doesn’t it seem just a little bit coincidental that he’d tie himself to your family?”
“Are there any crimes associated with him?”
Even in the darkness, Mulder looked embarassed. “No, not really, but--”
“Then compared to all the other people we’ve seen, Mulder, what’s the danger?”
“But the tattoos...”
“We’ll keep an eye on them, alright? But... if they’re not actually causing trouble... Unless you think he’s the one who knocked you out?”
“He was right in front of me.”
“Amy?”
“She was back at the car - he told her to stay when he went off with the other guy.” Mulder’s voice sounded worn, tired. Defeated. Not as though that was anything new for them... Scully was oddly tempted to pat him on the head.
“Then it must’ve been somebody with the other guy. There’s no crime in being old, I don’t suppose, Mulder.”
“No. I guess... maybe it’s the kind of thing we’ll just have to watch. And it’s easy to watch them if they’re close.”
“Exactly.” Scully sighed. “You know, I don’t know why we don’t come up here more often. I miss the ocean.”
“Me too. We should come up, you know? Just... relax for a while.”
“Mulder, you know what my mother will think if we do that.”
“We don’t have to stay with her...”
* * *
“I’m sorry the fireworks got off to such a late start, Joe.” Maggie poured whiskey over ice into a tumbler, handed it to Joe, and then poured sherry in another, smaller glass.
“That’s okay. They were good ones.”
“The kids seemed happy.”
“They did.” He shook the glass a little awkwardly. “Is Fox okay?”
“He’s fine. Dana checked him out for concussion and gave him an ice pack. It’s convenient having a doctor in the family, even if she doesn’t practice.”
“That’s good.” And the situation was stupid. Tomorrow morning he’d be back on a plane to Seacouver, and God only knew when he’d see Maggie next, but all he could think about was the stupid challenge, and the fact that he’d had to lie to her about it. That his own daughter had knocked her daughter’s... well, boyfriend wasn’t the right word, from the way Dana glared at her mom whenever it was hinted at, but it was as close as he was getting. Knocked him in the head with a piece of driftwood, anyway, to keep him from recording the fight and potentially finding out about immortals. Figures Methos would get into one the one weekend when Joe wanted him to stay the hell out of the game.
You couldn’t have just told me, could you? Amy asked in a memory. You had to let me wonder, and play these stupid games. Do you have any idea how that made me feel? Like you didn’t care enough to just tell me. I know that’s not it, but... it’s so hard, Joe. They’d gotten by all that, now, but he wondered sometimes how close he’d come to losing her forever. How close had she been to just walking out of his life and never coming back? And now he was getting ready to do the same thing with Maggie.
Sometimes a secret isn’t worth the price you pay to keep it.
“Hey, Maggie, I gotta tell you something. It’s about... uh...” What the hell was it about, anyway? There’s these immortals, and I watch them. I record everything they do. And your daughter and her partner almost caught them tonight, and that’s why Fox is running around with a pack of frozen peas held to his head. That just didn’t sound like something he could say.
“About?”
“Uh.” Crap. If he didn’t say something now she’d know he was backing off from something big, and she’d probably imagine worse than it really was. Think fast, Dawson... and stick with the truth as much as you can. “I really like you, Maggie.”
She smiled. It reminded him of that first night they’d met, and the sexy grin she’d tossed him when she asked for that cosmopolitan. “I like you, too, Joe. We should do this again. Soon.”
“Yeah. I just, ah....” Now or never... “The bar isn’t my only job, okay? It’s, ah... I do some other work on the side, and I... I know it doesn’t sound good, but it’s not like it’s illegal. It’s just not the kind of thing I can talk about yet.”
“Amy’s involved, too? And Adam?”
Joe gaped for an instant, then laughed. “We, uh... okay, we’re not usually that bad at hiding it.”
Maggie laughed. “I imagine not. But between my first husband and both my sons in the military, and my daughter in the FBI... I’ve learned a thing or two about secrets. And secrecy.”
“I guess so. So... are you okay with this?”
“I’m a little worried, I admit.” She sipped her drink slowly. “I think I told you, my oldest daughter died because some men who were looking for Dana shot her instead. I have to worry about my children first.”
“I know. And I can’t promise... Sometimes this job gets dangerous,” Joe admitted. “But it wouldn’t usually come near you, and I’d do the best I can to keep it that way. That’s not saying something might not happen, though.”
“I don’t suppose we ever have that guarantee in life, do we?”
“Nope, guess not. So...”
“So.” Yup. Definitely the sexiest grin he’d ever seen. “Next time, maybe I’ll come out to Seacouver and stay with you.”
Joe took a minute to imagine that. Taking Maggie to see the sights, maybe borrowing off Mac’s season tickets to the symphony, or his membership at the art museum... Her sitting at the bar, chatting with Amy and listening to the band while he worked. Walks on the waterfront in the afternoons, maybe some music and drinks after they got back to his place...
“Sounds good to me.”
zinjadu, I finally have your birthday fic done. You guessed it - it's that damned crossover I've been promising.
Fandoms: Highlander and X-Files
Characters: Scully, Mulder, and Maggie, Charlie, and Bill Scully (Jr), and Joe, Methos, Richie, and Amy.
Summary: This is a bit of an AU for both series. Basically, blip out the whole Ahriman situation for Highlander, and forget about that crazy situation where Mulder disappeared from the X-Files. This fic also assumes the background of my "Interference" series, namely that Amy was assigned as Methos' Watcher and things... got a bit messy after that. Forgive me, I have no control over my own characters.
And dear gods, don't squint too hard at the plot. I know it's cracked. o_O
"What can I get you?"
Maggie Scully looked up at the bartender as he took orders for her son Charlie's beer and her daughter-in-law's red wine. He was a rather good-looking man - tallish, although he leaned on a cane, with a shock of salt and pepper hair and a lot of laugh lines around his eyes. His voice was nice, too - rich, with a twang born somewhere more familiar to Maggie than the coast of the Pacific.
"And you?"
"A Manhattan, please."
He smiled. "Now, that's not one I get much call for here. Coming right up."
She watched as he walked away, noting the stiff swing of his legs. Prosthetics, probably - she'd seen that sort of walk on one of William's old friends.
"A Manhattan, Mom? Bit posh for a bar like this."
"I'm sure he can handle it. I haven't had one in years." She listened attentively as Clare and Charlie filled her in on the kids' school projects and interests, asking all the right questions at the right times, but her eyes wandered every so often to the bar, to watch as the man who'd taken their orders combined vermouth, bourbon whiskey, and bitters over a cherry in a cocktail glass, then rubbed the cut side of an orange peel over the edge of the glass before twisting it over the drink. Expert and attentive. She was hoping he'd bring the drinks over himself, to give them another chance to talk, but he handed the tray to a girl with short dark hair and bent over in conversation with the two dark-haired men at the bar.
It wasn't long, though, before he was back at their table, asking if they were enjoying their drinks, and the platter of appetizers Charlie'd ordered with them. "Everything is wonderful," Maggie assured him. "Especially the Manhattan."
"Hey, I try." He grinned. "This place is my baby, I gotta give it my best. Haven't made one of those in a while, glad I haven't lost my touch."
I'm betting you haven't lost your touch for much of anything... "It was perfect. You own this bar, then?"
"Yeah. Own it, run it, play a bit of blues... it's a good life. Joe Dawson," he added, holding out his hand.
"Margaret Scully. What instrument do you play?"
"Guitar. Acoustic and electric, and a bit of singing." he added, at Maggie's questioning look.
Maggie shook her head, impressed. "I'm guessing more than a bit. I'd love to hear that."
There was that gorgeous grin again. "Well, who'm I to say no to a lady?"
They stayed a few hours, and Maggie chatted almost as much with Joe as she did with her own son and daughter-in-law - a bit embarassing for a woman of her age, but she’d have the whole ferry ride and the rest of the weekend to talk to them. Eventually, though, it was time to go down to the pier to catch the ferry back across the sound. Charlie helped his wife into her coat, then turned to do the same for his mother. “Ask for his number, Mom. Or at least his email address,” he urged in a whisper.
Maggie smiled up at her second-eldest child. “I already have both, dear.”
* Six Months Later *
“Got plans for the Fourth?”
Amy looked up from the burgers on the grill. “No, not yet. Do you need somebody here?”
“Nah, I’m closing the bar the night of, and Lou and Mike’ll run it for the weekend. I’m headed back east for a bit.”
“Family?” The word felt awkward, used between the two of them. Joe had already told Amy he had family back in Chicago, a widowed sister and her daughter, a few years older than Amy, but if she was hardly ready to accept Joe himself, Amy knew she was nowhere near prepared to deal with his family, and the potential repercussions of explaining who she was to them.
“No.” Joe shifted, focusing on the glass he was polishing with an expression Amy’d learned to associate with guilt or worry of some kind. “There’s a lady I’ve been seeing. Well, talking to. She lives in Virginia. Invited me out for the holiday.”
“Oh.” The world shifted into a new perspective. Intellectually aware though she was that Joe was still relatively young, and certainly handsome... well, even if a man was only technically your father it was hard to think of him dating, and more so when trying to work out a real familial relationship with him. “Well, that’ll be nice, then. It’ll be good for you to... see her.”
“Yeah.” More shifting, more of that expression. Whatever was still to come, Joe thought it’d be more awkward than what had already passed. “Thing is, she asked if I wanted to bring any of my family. You know. Kinda have everybody meet up.”
Oh dear. “Oh. I see. I...”
“You don’t have to,” he broke in quickly. “It’s cool, it’d be a long trip, she’s got kind of a big family, it’d probably be boring for you. I’m sure you’ve got friends having some party.”
Amy bit her lip. Yes, her friends back home would probably have a party, but they rarely saw each other, now - the burden of secrets to keep from them felt heavy, after the incident with Walker. She kept in touch with friends from her class at the academy, but they were all over the world, now, and making friends in Seacouver had been a slow process, especially because so much of her time went to Methos, and much of the rest to the bar. And the very speed with which Joe’d discounted the idea set a pit of guilt in her stomach, thinking of him all the way across the country from his friends, trying to get to know this woman and her big family. “Would she mind if I came?”
It was embarassing how surprised Joe looked, before his face split into that wickedly cheerful grin that always made Amy want to laugh. “She’d love to meet you, honey. I told her about the whole... well. Hope you don’t mind, but we’ve been chatting online and on the phone for months after she went back east, and I thought... seemed like something she oughtta know. We’re kinda... ‘serious’ is a heavy word, but we’re not getting any younger.”
A big family of strangers who knew, when Amy hadn’t even found a way to tell her old friends back home, yet. Hiding a sudden wave of nervousness, Amy smiled. “Sounds good. I guess I’d better look into packing.”
“Yeah, we’re leaving on Thursday. And, uh... Richie’s coming, too. Mac’s out of town, and he wouldn’t have anywhere else to go, if we didn’t take him. Methos, too, if he wants...”
Methos, Richie, and a family of strangers sizing up Joe (and, by extension, Amy) as a potential part of their family. It was promising to be a long weekend.
* * *
"I can't believe I let you convince me into this."
Amy rolled her eyes, trying not to look at the lanky man next to her. She was well acquainted with the sulking, irritable expression that went along with that tone of voice. "I thought you loved to travel."
"I do. Alone. Or at least not with him."
Amy glanced across the aisle and up one row to where her father was asleep, and where Richie had looked up from his Gameboy long enough to begin flirting shamelessly with a stewardess. She heard something about motorcycle racing. At least the stewardess seemed more amused than irritated. "You didn't have to come, you know. You could have stayed at home in Seacouver."
"And been bored out of my mind? MacLeod and Amanda are in Paris, Lou and Mike would be the only ones in the bar... No one to talk with, no one to drink with--"
"No one to listen to you whine?"
Methos turned to her and smiled. "You know me too well."
Amy snorted. "I ought to. It's my job."
"Ah, is that why you spend so much time with me? Cruel woman, winning away my secrets with your feminine wiles..."
"I wish. What are all these deep, dark secrets I'm supposed to have won? 'Oh, yes sir, I know all about Methos, now. He's obnoxious, an unapologetic cynic, a complete snob about everything that's ever been invented, and, oh yes, he's a horrible jogging partner.' I'm sure the Tribunal would love that."
"I thought you liked jogging with me." Methos frowned, digging around in the little boxed lunch that had been passed out a few hours ago. "You know, I think I prefered the field rations in the early Roman empire to these things... at least back then we got better than a tiny cellophane bag of peanuts. I can never open these damned things, anyway."
Amy plucked the bag out of his hand and opened it for him. "I like it fine, but you’re still arrogant and obnoxious. And you're also just angry that Joe forbade you from drinking on the flight, since Maggie and her kids are picking us up."
"It's not like one beer would've made me drunk."
"It's not like you would've stopped with one," Amy retorted. "Anyway, you can stop whining - we should be landing in about half an hour."
Methos yawned and made a valiant effort to stretch, which was completely foiled by the unfortunate side-effects of having long legs and arms in a seating space intended for someone much smaller than him. "Fine. But mark my words - this was a big mistake. You'll understand when we get there."
"Whatever." Amy patted him on the shoulder and turned her attention back to her book, leaving the immortal to sulk on his own.
* * *
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Mom? You don’t even know this guy. You meet him once, in some seedy bar, and next thing we know...”
”We’re not discussing this any further, Bill. I told you, Joe and I have been talking on the phone and by email for the last five months. And he owns that bar, so be polite.” Maggie smoothed her jacket, and started worrying at her short brown curls for the third time since they’d arrived in the terminal.
“You look great, Mom.”
“Thank you, Dana. Are you sure Fox couldn’t have come?”
“Mulder’s busy finishing some things up at the office.”
Bill snorted. “Busy. Right.”
“Not now, Bill. Not this weekend. For once, I’d like us to make an effort at being a family. God knows we don’t want Joe and his family being immediately put off. And it wouldn’t kill you to call him by his first name, Dana. You’ve been working together for coming up on five years, now.”
“If they’re gonna be weirded out by old Mulder, Mom, it’s not gonna be Dana calling him by his last name that does it. It’ll be better if this guy and his family see what that ba--” Bill caught his mother’s glare and redirected himself quickly, “old boy is like, straight off. God knows Dana’s taken too long to figure out he’s crazy.”
“He’s a perfectly nice man, Bill. Leave your sister alone.”
Bill looked on the verge of arguing, but gave up when the airport loudspeaker interrupted to announce the arrival of flight 761 from Seacouver International Airport.
“Please be polite,” Maggie repeated, beginning to sound a bit desperate.
“You said his family’s coming with him, Mom?” Dana interjected. It was a bit random, but any effort to save her mother’s nerves, at this point, was a good one. “He has kids?”
“He has a daughter - he said she’s a few years younger than you, Dana. And then two friends of his.”
“Friends?” Bill sounded suspicious, but at that exact moment people began to filter through the tunnel into the terminal. Maggie waved her hand to shush him, and began scanning the crowd for Joe while Dana and Bill tried not to feel strange, standing in an airport while their mother waited for a man they were both trying very hard not to consider her boyfriend.
“There they are!” Maggie pushed through the crowd toward a trim-looking older gentleman leaning on a cane.
“Here we go...”
“Be polite, Bill.”
“I’m always polite.”
Dana threw her oldest brother a significant look. “Mulder?”
“Except to him.” Bill shrugged, unrepentant.
“You’ll have to be nice to him, too, you know. Mom invited him to the barbeque.”
“She what?”
* * *
As soon as they’d arrived back at the house, Maggie had made a point of telling the whole group from Seacouver to make themselves at home, and it didn’t take long for her to realize that Joe’s young friends, at least, didn’t have the slightest problem settling into a new house. Before a few minutes were up, Richie had disappeared into the yard with her grandkids, and from the delighted shouting coming from outside, she had a feeling they were pleased with the arrangement. The other, Adam, had slouched around awkwardly for a few minutes, but perked up considerably after Richie left, and further when she pointed out the cooler of drinks. Joe’s daughter looked on the verge of saying something, but then shook her head and gave up, following him to retrieve a wine cooler from the pooled ice while he rummaged through the beer.
“It’s so nice having a full house again,” Maggie started awkwardly. “Dana and the boys are usually too busy with work to come out for holidays, and even when they do... well, it’s not the same as having children around.”
“I’m sure Richie will remind you what it’s like.”
“He does seem very... young. Are he and Amy...?”
“Oh god, no. No.” Joe shook his head as though banishing unpleasant mental images. “Richie’s my buddy Mac’s adopted son. Mac’s traveling with his girlfriend, and the kid... he hasn’t got any other family. He’s an adult and all, but I didn’t want to leave him alone.”
“And Adam?”
Joe was suddenly glad that they’d spent the night before the trip at the bar planning out these stories. “He’s a graduate student, spends a lot of time at the bar. Him and Amy are kind of...”
“Seeing each other,” Amy supplied, reappearing at her father’s side with wine cooler in hand. “In a manner of speaking,” she added with an impish grin.
“Yeah,” Joe agreed, looking somewhat irritated.
“That’s exciting,” Maggie commented. “I love seeing a young couple just starting out... God knows Dana’s put it off. Not that I blame her,” she added quickly. “Focusing on her career has been wonderful for her, I mean the FBI is very important of course, but sometimes...”
Joe choked on a peanut. “The FBI?”
At that moment, the front door opened. “Scully, I’m here, and I - oh, hi Mrs. Scully!” A gangling brown-haired man pushed into the room carrying a pair of grocery bags. “Sorry I’m late.”
If Joe and his daughter noticed the mumbled ‘not late enough,’ from Maggie’s oldest son, at least they didn’t comment on it.
“Oh, hello, Fox!”
Fox? Methos mouthed. Joe shrugged. People had weird names sometimes. And the doofy-looking guy at the door sure seemed to fit the profile. He hugged Maggie, shook hands with the younger of her brothers, and ignored the elder, who was glaring at him from the couch.
“You what, Mulder?”
“Ah...” Mulder glanced around at the others, especially the cluster of strangers around Scully’s mom. “I just got word on a case we might be able to do something with. After the holiday,” he added quickly. “It’s a side-line kind of job, nothing immediate.”
“Right. We can talk about it later.”
Dana didn’t exactly sound thrilled, Joe noticed, but probably working for the government meant a lot of jobs that interfered with her minimal free time. Odd, though - her partner looked awfully damned excited about the idea. Never figured a government guy to like his work that much...
* * *
“I’m telling you, Scully, that’s the guy! I’ve been finding pictures of him all over the place in records - just one or two at a time, but he always looks the same.”
Scully took a quick look at the printed out black-and-white Mulder was brandishing, and rolled her eyes. “Mulder, he’s a twenty-eight year old graduate student. I listened to him talk about his thesis for two hours tonight while his girlfriend made rude faces behind his back. I thought I’d never get away. At the very least, I’d expect someone over two hundred years old to have a better sense of dignity.”
“Quit joking. Come on, Scully, we’ve seen this kind of thing before. Eugene Victor Tooms! And the other one - you remember, the guy with the camera?”
“I couldn’t exactly forget him, could I?” Scully set down the pile of blankets she’d brought to the guest room and folded her arms over her chest. “But Mulder... this is not that kind of situation. This isn’t an x-file. This is... this is my mother’s first chance at being happy with someone since my dad died, and I don’t want to ruin this for her with a bunch of... paranoid mumbo-jumbo! For God’s sake, even Bill is behaving better than you, for once. They’re a perfectly nice group of people, and Joe makes my mom happy. Isn’t that enough?”
“Okay, but what about the tattoos?”
“What tattoos?”
Mulder pursed his lips grimly. “Didn’t you see? Joe’s got this weird, kind of tribal-looking tattoo on his left wrist--”
“He was in the army, Mulder!”
“And his daughter has the same thing! I saw it when your nephew knocked into her earlier and made her spill her drink. And I think this Adam guy has the same thing. I haven’t seen one on the other guy, but maybe he’s still too young or something... It could be a cult, Scully. You don’t want your mom getting mixed up in something like that, do you?”
“No, of course not, but that’s only a concern if it’s actually something real.”
“I can’t believe this, Scully. After all these years, after all we’ve been through... you still don’t trust me.”
Scully sighed. “Of course I trust you, Mulder. I just... doubt your impulses, sometimes. You take things too far, too fast.”
Mulder grinned. “You know what your brother’d say if he overheard that...”
“And my mother would get irritated, and tell me that she’d be happier if it were the case. She’s still angry that I call you Mulder, you know.”
“Nobody but my mom calls me Fox.”
“Yours and mine, both,” Scully agreed. “I’ll think about it, Mulder. I’ll keep an eye on them tomorrow, I promise. Just take the blankets, and go to sleep. Mom already put new sheets and pillowcases on the bed, so you should be fine.”
“Aren’t you going to tuck me in?”
Scully snorted. “No, but I’ll make sure to leave the Mickey Mouse night-light on in the hallway. Goodnight, Mulder.”
Mulder sat back on the bed, contemplating the neatly folded blankets that smelled of the same laundry detergent Scully used. And the neat, attractively domestic little basket of soaps, shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste on his bedside table. It was all so... normal. Everything his life hadn’t been in a long time. “’Night, Scully. See you in the morning.”
* * *
“You think he noticed?”
“He looked right at it, Amy. I saw him.”
“Shit.” After an instant, Amy covered her mouth. “I mean... sorry. I keep forgetting there’s kids here. I mean not here here, but...”
“It’s okay, they’ve gone to bed. And so’s Maggie.”
“Right. I’m sorry, Joe, I didn’t think...”
“Another thing they might consider strange,” Methos drawled from his place on the bay window of Joe’s guest bedroom, “would be you calling your father by his first name.”
“Er...”
“Maggie knows about that whole thing, that’s not an issue,” Joe assured her.
“Not for her, maybe. But her daughter might be another story.” Methos unfolded himself from the window seat and moved over to sit on the bed with the two Watchers. “I don’t know why you’re worried about this Fox guy, Joe - he’s not the concern, here. His partner, on the other hand... If anyone here is a risk, I’d lay money on it being her.”
“We’re talking about a pair of FBI agents! They’re both risks.” Joe pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry, okay? If she’d told me ahead of time, I’d have just come alone.”
“It’s okay, J--” Amy stopped herself, glanced at Methos, and then frowned. “Dad. Damn it, you’re right, that does sound weird! Damn, damn, damn.”
“So what do we do?”
Joe looked at his hands. “We could leave.”
“No.” Amy shook her head firmly. “No, that’s not... Joe, you like this woman, right?”
Joe nodded. “Yeah, but--”
Someone knocked on the door, and after a tense moment Richie poked his head in. “Hey. I, uh... am I interrupting?”
“No, Richie, we were just having a slumber party, why do you ask? Hold on just a second, I’ll get the face masks and nail polish.”
Richie glared. “Alright, man, you know what? I’m getting seriously--”
“Shut up, both of you. We’ve got bigger problems than this. Richie, did you hear anything while you were out there?”
“Other than the kids starting up video games in the guest room?” He pulled a fun-size bag of cheetos out of his pocket and settled down on the bed next to Joe. “Nah, everybody’s gone to bed. Why, what’s up?”
“Hard to say, but we’d better watch it. Keep your ears open - you’re probably the one they’re least likely to get suspicious of, so you’re our best chance for hearing if anything goes wrong.” Joe sighed, then nodded grimly. “Alright, people. Let’s get to bed. Hopefully everything’ll go smooth from here on out.”
* * *
By midmorning the next day, everyone was beginning to get a little stir-crazy. William and Fox had already had one barely-restrained fight, and Richie had gotten the boys into a water balloon war that kept the adults hiding inside in fear of being soaked. The situation was, to say the least, somewhat tense. So when Maggie suggested that the young people might want to take a look into the quaint little beach town nearby, Amy grabbed for the opportunity right away.
“I don’t like tourist towns, Amy,” Methos hissed as Amy pulled him out into the hallway to get their coats.
“That’s fine. You can hate it all you want, but I want you out of this house for a while. That Fox keeps looking at you like he’s trying to figure something out, and I don’t like it. Joe might be right about him, and if we have a problem brewing it’s best for you to stay out of his sights.”
“Fine. But if we see any adorably twee little shops that spell themselves with two p’s and an e, we’re staying on the opposite side of the road.”
Amy just rolled her eyes and handed him his trenchcoat. “Fine. Same goes for any salty little pubs, that’s all I’m saying. I work for a bar every day of the week, the last thing I want is to spend my vacation in one, too.”
* * *
“Now’s our chance, Scully. I’ll just tail them, find out what’s going on...”
“You’re not tailing my mother’s boyfriend’s daughter, Mulder!”
“No.” He grinned. “I’m tailing your mother’s boyfriend’s... daughter’s boyfriend. That should be far enough down the line to make it okay, right?”
Scully’s head made an audible thump against the kitchen table. “Just get some more charcoal while you’re out. I think the boys got the old bag wet with those damned balloons, and Joe and Bill want to do barbeque for dinner. And Mulder?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t get into trouble.”
“Come on, Scully, you know me...”
“Exactly.”
* * *
“Well. What have we here?”
Something about the tone of that voice made Amy pretty damned certain the man in the long coat wasn’t talking about the kitschy little kite shop across the parking lot.
“Nothing to interest you, I’m sure. We’re just here on vacation.”
“Vacation, huh? Benjamin... always so coy. But this time you won’t have your friends to hide behind, will you?”
“Who the hell scripts your dialogue?”
The new immortal looked at Amy as though just now noticing her. “Who are you?”
“I could ask the same.” Amy crossed her arms over her chest. Unless this guy was a total wacko, he shouldn’t be willing to start a fight with a mortal nearby... “Look, I don’t know who this Benjamin you’re talking about is, but we don’t know him. Do we, Adam?”
“No, I can’t say we do.” Methos smiled his most innocent smile. “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re just here vacationing. You must be mistaking me for someone else.”
“Of course. Alright, Adams, if that’s the way you want to play it... let’s take a walk. The lady can stay here, and we gentlemen will have a little chat to settle our differences. I can... introduce you to the more interesting sites. After all, I’d hate for you to miss out on anything while you’re here.”
“You’re not very subtle, you know. Why should I go with you?”
Keelan shifted his coat ever so slightly, revealing a gun, and lowered his voice so only Methos could hear him. “Because if you don’t, I’ll fire three warning shots into that pretty little companion of yours, old friend. I may not be able to fight you while she’s here, but while these bullets won’t do much good against you, I assure you they will put her out of any kind of condition to talk.”
“Riiight.” Methos hesitated. For one, Amy usually had a gun of her own, ever since the disaster with Morgan Walker, but she carried it in her purse, and he rather doubted she’d taken the risk of taking it along through the airports, given the contemporary political climate. Methos did have his sword, hidden as always in the inside pocket of his trenchcoat, despite the bloody nightmare it had been getting the paperwork to certify it across state lines. Thank god the government was willing to make certain allowances for academics and antiques dealers. In any case, he was fairly sure that he could take Keelan. Or at least get away from him, once he’d gotten the man out of the parking lot and into somewhere more private.
“Alright. Let’s be reasonable about this. Amy, wait here. I’ll be back soon,” he told her with a firm look that he hoped she’d understand. “This shouldn’t take long.”
Keelan grinned. The old thug never changed - he’d never had the subtlety of a rock. With any luck, Methos thought, he’d be able to give him the slip as soon as they got out into the shadows nearer to the beach. As they walked, he was concentrating so hard on his would-be opponent that, had he noticed the shadow slipping behind them, he would have only chalked it up to Amy doing her job as a Watcher. He would have been right - she was there. But there was someone else, too.
* * *
Back at the house, Scully’s cellphone rang just as she was pouring batter for banana bread into a trio of bread-pans.
“Could you get that, Mom? Just... check the caller ID for me?”
Maggie wiped her hands off with a dishtowel and picked up the tiny phone. “It’s Fox, dear.”
“Oh, no... Just... ask him if it’s important.”
“Hello? Oh, yes, Fox, she’s here, but she’s a bit tied up. No, not literally. Is there... Why are you whispering, Fox?”
Scully groaned. “Here, Mom. If you can put those in the oven, I’ll take the phone. What’s going on, Mulder?”
“Hey, Scully, you’ve gotta get out here. It’s that Adam guy, and I think I--”
“Mulder? Mulder, what the hell is going on over there? Mulder? God damn it!”
“Language, Dana.”
“The call just cut out. I have to go find him, Mom. God only knows what he’s gotten himself into...”
“Probably just a dead spot in the service,” Joe offered. “Get those all the time in Seacouver, spots where the signal towers just don’t--”
Everyone in the room looked at Joe as his cellphone began to ring.
“That’s weird, not many people have my number... Oh. Hi, Amy, what’s up?”
“Joe, we’ve got a problem.”
Joe was careful not to react. “That’s okay, hun. I figured you guys might want to spend some time alone.”
“Methos went and got himself into a challenge, and, uh... I think I just committed a felony. Assaulting a federal officer is a felony, isn’t it? It was just a piece of driftwood, but...”
Shit. “You guys’ll be back for the fireworks, though, right?”
“Looks like Methos managed to slip away from the other immortal.” Amy sounded distinctly irritated, but still relieved. “Umm... okay, as long as he doesn’t trace us back to the house we should be okay. But you’d better have somebody come looking for Mr. Mulder. I’m not sure how high the tide rises around here, but it looks like he’s below the drift-line.”
“Okay, sweetie. Take care, and I’ll see you in a bit.” Joe snapped his phone closed and turned his attention back to Maggie. “Sorry - she was just checking in to let me know they’re gonna take their time. Adam’s kind of a loner sort of guy - I think maybe the whole crew’s been getting to him a bit, wanted to spend some time out where it’s quiet. Heh. Kids.”
“Of course.”
Joe shifted awkwardly, trying to sort out how to fix the rest of their problem. A federal agent getting knocked out by the tideline of a beach on his vacation wasn’t exactly a good thing to have associated with their trip.
“I’d better go look for Mulder. Did... Amy didn’t mention seeing him, did she?”
Time for literal interpretation... “Nope, she didn’t say.”
“Take the car, Dana,” Maggie told her daughter. “There’s a flashlight in the trunk. Do you want your brother to come along with you, to help?”
“I doubt that’s a good idea, Mom.” Scully pulled a firearm out of her bag in the closet, and tucked it into the waistband of her jeans, pulling a windbreaker over it all. “I’ll be fine.”
Joe and Maggie watched her leave, and then Maggie sighed and shook her head. “I wonder about those two, sometimes. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was all an excuse just to get away from us and be alone for a while. At least Amy and Adam are honest about it, you know? It’s not as though we weren’t the same at their age.”
“Heh. Yeah.”
* * *
Darkness had fallen completely by the time Scully made it to the beach on her circuit, and she was surprised to find Mulder sitting comfortably on a pile of driftwood, holding his head. “What are you doing, Mulder? Why didn’t you come back to the house?”
“I just woke up a few minutes ago. Somebody cold-cocked me. My head still hurts.”
“Then why didn’t you call me? I was worried, with you just cutting off like that.”
He lifted his cellphone. It dripped. “It fell in a tidepool when I got knocked out.”
“So... was it worth it?”
“They had swords, Scully. They were talking about some kind of game, and...”
“Did you get any record?”
“Yeah, I did. With the video recorder on my phone.”
“Right.” Scully sighed and sat down on the driftwood next to him. “Mulder...”
“I know, Scully. Nobody’ll believe it. But I’m telling you, this is the same guy I’ve found in all those other pictures. Ten different cities over the last hundred and fifty years. And now he’s here. And doesn’t it seem just a little bit coincidental that he’d tie himself to your family?”
“Are there any crimes associated with him?”
Even in the darkness, Mulder looked embarassed. “No, not really, but--”
“Then compared to all the other people we’ve seen, Mulder, what’s the danger?”
“But the tattoos...”
“We’ll keep an eye on them, alright? But... if they’re not actually causing trouble... Unless you think he’s the one who knocked you out?”
“He was right in front of me.”
“Amy?”
“She was back at the car - he told her to stay when he went off with the other guy.” Mulder’s voice sounded worn, tired. Defeated. Not as though that was anything new for them... Scully was oddly tempted to pat him on the head.
“Then it must’ve been somebody with the other guy. There’s no crime in being old, I don’t suppose, Mulder.”
“No. I guess... maybe it’s the kind of thing we’ll just have to watch. And it’s easy to watch them if they’re close.”
“Exactly.” Scully sighed. “You know, I don’t know why we don’t come up here more often. I miss the ocean.”
“Me too. We should come up, you know? Just... relax for a while.”
“Mulder, you know what my mother will think if we do that.”
“We don’t have to stay with her...”
* * *
“I’m sorry the fireworks got off to such a late start, Joe.” Maggie poured whiskey over ice into a tumbler, handed it to Joe, and then poured sherry in another, smaller glass.
“That’s okay. They were good ones.”
“The kids seemed happy.”
“They did.” He shook the glass a little awkwardly. “Is Fox okay?”
“He’s fine. Dana checked him out for concussion and gave him an ice pack. It’s convenient having a doctor in the family, even if she doesn’t practice.”
“That’s good.” And the situation was stupid. Tomorrow morning he’d be back on a plane to Seacouver, and God only knew when he’d see Maggie next, but all he could think about was the stupid challenge, and the fact that he’d had to lie to her about it. That his own daughter had knocked her daughter’s... well, boyfriend wasn’t the right word, from the way Dana glared at her mom whenever it was hinted at, but it was as close as he was getting. Knocked him in the head with a piece of driftwood, anyway, to keep him from recording the fight and potentially finding out about immortals. Figures Methos would get into one the one weekend when Joe wanted him to stay the hell out of the game.
You couldn’t have just told me, could you? Amy asked in a memory. You had to let me wonder, and play these stupid games. Do you have any idea how that made me feel? Like you didn’t care enough to just tell me. I know that’s not it, but... it’s so hard, Joe. They’d gotten by all that, now, but he wondered sometimes how close he’d come to losing her forever. How close had she been to just walking out of his life and never coming back? And now he was getting ready to do the same thing with Maggie.
Sometimes a secret isn’t worth the price you pay to keep it.
“Hey, Maggie, I gotta tell you something. It’s about... uh...” What the hell was it about, anyway? There’s these immortals, and I watch them. I record everything they do. And your daughter and her partner almost caught them tonight, and that’s why Fox is running around with a pack of frozen peas held to his head. That just didn’t sound like something he could say.
“About?”
“Uh.” Crap. If he didn’t say something now she’d know he was backing off from something big, and she’d probably imagine worse than it really was. Think fast, Dawson... and stick with the truth as much as you can. “I really like you, Maggie.”
She smiled. It reminded him of that first night they’d met, and the sexy grin she’d tossed him when she asked for that cosmopolitan. “I like you, too, Joe. We should do this again. Soon.”
“Yeah. I just, ah....” Now or never... “The bar isn’t my only job, okay? It’s, ah... I do some other work on the side, and I... I know it doesn’t sound good, but it’s not like it’s illegal. It’s just not the kind of thing I can talk about yet.”
“Amy’s involved, too? And Adam?”
Joe gaped for an instant, then laughed. “We, uh... okay, we’re not usually that bad at hiding it.”
Maggie laughed. “I imagine not. But between my first husband and both my sons in the military, and my daughter in the FBI... I’ve learned a thing or two about secrets. And secrecy.”
“I guess so. So... are you okay with this?”
“I’m a little worried, I admit.” She sipped her drink slowly. “I think I told you, my oldest daughter died because some men who were looking for Dana shot her instead. I have to worry about my children first.”
“I know. And I can’t promise... Sometimes this job gets dangerous,” Joe admitted. “But it wouldn’t usually come near you, and I’d do the best I can to keep it that way. That’s not saying something might not happen, though.”
“I don’t suppose we ever have that guarantee in life, do we?”
“Nope, guess not. So...”
“So.” Yup. Definitely the sexiest grin he’d ever seen. “Next time, maybe I’ll come out to Seacouver and stay with you.”
Joe took a minute to imagine that. Taking Maggie to see the sights, maybe borrowing off Mac’s season tickets to the symphony, or his membership at the art museum... Her sitting at the bar, chatting with Amy and listening to the band while he worked. Walks on the waterfront in the afternoons, maybe some music and drinks after they got back to his place...
“Sounds good to me.”
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Date: 2006-07-31 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-31 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-31 10:07 pm (UTC)Dude, awesome. This. Yes. ^_^
I'm still supressing my giggle fits at work after reading it.
You did a great job of meshing the two worlds.
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Date: 2006-07-31 10:08 pm (UTC)I'm so glad you liked it!