========================================================================= Date: Sun, 10 Mar 1996 21:25:58 -0500 Reply-To: LC Krakowka Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: LC Krakowka Subject: Cardinal Rules 6/6 Disclaimer on section one. Cardinal Rules. LC Krakowka part 6--conclusion Sarah was erasing the notes from her lecture on Yeats' Chuhulain cycle from the blackboard in her classroom when the buzz hit. Her sword was across the room under her coat. She sighed, but made no move toward it. Whomever this was, Sarah hoped they weren't after her head...she just didn't have the energy to fight. "You look tired," Mac said. "I'm suddenly feeling my age," she answered, sitting on the corner of one of the student desks. "What brings you to the English Department, Professor MacLeod?" Mac handed her a newspaper clipping and picked up where she had left off on the board. "MacGreggor's Mourn Loss of Chieftain, Plant New Tree," she read the headline aloud. There was a picture of Ethan standing with a shovel. "Where did you get this?" "Connor sent it, he was worried about you." Sarah smiled and gave a soft chuckle, "Does he know *everything* that goes on in Scotland?" "Pretty much," Mac set down the eraser. "He likes to keep track of what's going on in the homeland." Sarah sighed and handed the clipping back to Mac. "I can't believe Donald set me up like that," she said. "I loved him once." "Mortals sometimes have a strange way of thinking when it comes to us. I think that, in his heart, he believed he was doing what was best for the clan." "The clan. Only you and I and Connor understand about the clan, Mac. The rest of these people are looking for a glory that is lost in history and maybe never even existed at all." Mac knew that she would recover from the emotional trauma of recent events with time. A home cooked meal could only speed the process. "Can I make you dinner?" Sarah nodded. "Petey and I were going to go to the movies, but he had to rush off somewhere for some secret Watcher meeting...I'd love to." Duncan was a bit disappointed to hear that Methos would not be able to join them. Watching those two together gave him hope. In a world where he was constantly having to bury friends and lovers, it was good to see that fate could work in the favor of immortals and bring close friends back together. And Methos and Sarah had a friendship like no other he had seen. *** Three days later, late at night, Adam was dawn from his notes by the sensation of another immortal in close proximity. He looked to the door of Sarah's apartment, waiting. "It's Richie," she said, looking up from her book. Moments later, a knock sounded at the door. Sarah closed her book gently and set it down on the coffee table, but made no move toward the door. The knock sounded again and Adam crossed the room, letting the young immortal in. "Adam? I'm...I wasn't...is Sarah here?" Richie asked, setting down his duffel and looking around the apartment. He had spent an extra week in Glenstrae, helping to clean out the garden and attending the funeral of Donald MacGreggor, only just arriving home minutes ago. Sarah stood up and motioned for him to come inside. Richie looked around the room, wondering if he had interrupted something. Adam's notes were strewn across the dining table, mixed with dinner plates that had been shoved to one end. A fire was blazing in the hearth--late winter had returned to Seacouver with a fierce cold snap--and Sarah was standing by the couch. There was no indication that they had been doing anything but enjoying the solace of each other's presence. "I...I just flew in from Glasgow...I wanted to talk to you. I didn't get the chance while we were there," he said, hearing the nervous edge creep into his voice. Adam hovered by the door, wondering if he should make himself scarce. A look from Sarah told him that she wanted to talk with Richie in private. "I um...it's late. I'll be going," he grabbed his coat and disappeared down the stairs. "Come on in," Sarah said, flopping back onto the couch. "There's some dinner left on the stove if you want it." "No thanks. They fed me on the plane," Richie crossed the room and sat down in the chair across from her. He didn't know where to begin. "Thank you," she said suddenly. "For what?" Sarah looked at him, catching his glance and holding it. "For what you did in Glenstrae." "Oh, it was nothing....they needed help cleaning up," he shrugged, knowing that she had been talking about something else. "I figured you just needed to get out of there." "I meant what you did for me," Sarah said. "I just did what my gut told me to," he said, looking over at her. "That's where honor and nobility come from...your gut." Sarah squeezed his hand. "If this were ancient Scotland, I'd be in your debt for three generations." "Do you believe Adam's theory? That our quickenings mixed?" Sarah thought about that for a second, then nodded. "I think so." "I...I think I understand a little bit about you and Mac now. There is something in me that knows what it's like to be so closely tied to the highlands...to your clans." "And you're sure it's not Heather MacGreggor's red hair that sparks that stirring in your blood?" She grinned. Richie flushed and chuckled softly. "No, it's more than a girl. It's history. And family. And a sense of who you are," he paused. "I didn't stay behind because of Heather, I stayed because you didn't. Because one of us had to see Donald MacGreggor put into the ground. One of us had to clean up the remnants of that tree. It was a beautiful tree Sarah, I'm sorry you lost it." "Sometimes we hold on too tightly to what we once had," she said. "Immortality isn't about who you were once, it's about what you are now. We have our many lives to build on, to draw on when we need strength, but the only thing that really matters is the present. The tree...lovely as it was, was planted by a different Sarah MacGreggor. I think that part of me is in you now." Richie thought about that for a moment and a brief silence fell between them. He replayed the scene at the Oak in his head. For the first time, Richie had a sense of what his friends felt when they remembered lives long past. Maybe it was the part of Sarah that now resided inside, or maybe it was his own experiences, beginning to coalesce...regardless, he knew he was forever changed. Sarah leaned back on the couch and sighed. "Next time you go to Scotland, you can wear the MacGreggor tartan if you like," she said. Family. She had accepted him as family. More than the fact that immortals had to forge their own families over the years, never able to have true blood ties, Richie understood this to be a gesture from her that meant she had acknowledged the strange bond between them. He ventured to test the waters of his new relationship with her. "What about you and Adam?" She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Give the boy a bit of your quickening and suddenly he thinks he's the right to ask personal questions," she joked. He watched as she got up again and paced across the room to the table. She leafed through the papers there for a moment, then turned to look out the window. Just when he thought she wasn't going to answer his question, she spoke. "Petey and I have a long history between us, it's not over yet." Richie smiled. "And what about you? Will you be going back to Glenstrae?" She sighed, "Someday, but not any time soon." [end] copyright, 1996. LC Krakowka Author's notes: The back story for this one was inspired by Loreena McKennit's song "Bonny Portmore", which, coincidentally, was featured in the episode _Homeland_. (Great album by the way--very haunting and takes my soul to places Celtic.) The song is about the Portmore Oak in Ireland, which, along with most of Ireland's old growth forests, was cut down by the English to make houses and boats for war. Mostly though, it was inspired by a speculation about what would happen if an immie broke a rule. Please let me know if you think my take on it is an okay one. As for the "history" of the clans herein, it's take from my limited knowledge base and from Fitzroy Maclean's most excellent history text _Highlanders_. (A bit expensive, but if you have highland roots, as I do, it's worth every penny.) Of course, I have fudged here and there...this is *fiction* after all. It might interest you to know that, despite the very real clan wars between the MacGreggors and the Campbells, Rob Roy MacGreggor's mother was, in fact a Campbell, and he took her name for a while, while living in hiding from the English. Glen Strae is a real place on the shores of Loch Lomand, and is "MacGreggor terroritory" though I don't think it's the clan seat. I truncated the name to make it obvious that I was taking liberties. -- LC Krakowka hck1@cornell.edu