Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 21:11:00 PST Reply-To: Mike Goldman Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike Goldman Subject: Counterfeit Friends (19/22)--HL Story BTW: One or two mild profanities. At 11 the next morning, Duncan and Richie entered Joe's. They heard guitar music, but couldn't place where it was coming from. They visually scanned the first floor of the club, but no guitar-strumming mortal or Immortal popped out from behind door number one. "Joe?" Richie yelled. "Back here." they heard him yell in response. They turned to their right and walked past the bar into Joe's storeroom, where they saw Joe stacking boxes of scotch into the corner. He turned around, dusting his hands, as he heard them come in. "Morning, gents," he greeted them, pressing the stop button on the tape player, "Nice of you to drop by." "Drop by?" Richie echoed. " You told Mac to meet you and Rory here." "Where is she, by the way?" Duncan asked, gazing around the room as if he expected Rory to leap out from behind the boxes. Just as he finished asking the question, he felt the buzz. Turning around quickly, he and Richie saw Rory leaning against the storeroom door. "Good day to y'all." she said pleasantly, smiling at them. "Joe, what is going on here?" Duncan wanted to know. "Why don't we go out to the bar?" Joe waited for Duncan and Richie to leave first and then followed them out, stealing a kiss from Rory as he went by her. Once they were all gathered around the bar, Joe said, "I'll let Rory talk as it was her idea." Rory cleared her throat. "Samuel called - it's tonight." She named the time and place for them, then continued on. "Now Samuel, he was always a devious son of a -- well, y'know. Even when we were in the same IRA faction, I never trusted the man." "And?" Richie prompted. "I want some help to make sure he's not setting me up for something." "What *kind* of help?" Macleod growled. She looked at him. "Nothing that I think will upset your finely tuned internal sense of chivalry, Macleod. I just want to throw him off a bit and see if he'll tip any hand he might be holding." She went on further, explaining what she needed them to do. By the end, Richie was nodding his agreement although Duncan was a bit more reluctant. "It's cheating." he said petulantly. "It is *not* cheating," Rory said firmly. "I'll still be fighting him -- I just need a small distraction." He looked at her for a long moment. "OK." he finally agreed. "Thank you, kind sir." she replied, sweeping him an only semi-sarcastic low bow. After a few more minutes fine tuning, Duncan and Richie took off. Rory and Joe sat at the bar a long moment, both of them looking into their coffee cups as if they were hoping the future could be divined from the grounds at the bottom of the cup. Rory finally spoke. "Joe," she said, "I've got some things I need to go do and I need to spend some time alone for a while before tonight. Do you understand?" Joe nodded. "Sure." "Thank you." She leaned over the bar and kissed him. Holding his gaze, she forced herself to continue. "There's a chance I might not come back tonight--" "You'll come back!" he said fiercely. "I hope so," she agreed, "but you know as well as I do that might not be the outcome. If...if that *does* happen, I want you to have this." She reached into her denim jacket and pulled out a small key, handing it to him. "What is it?" "It's the key to my steamer trunk. I kept kind of a diary throughout the years and, if I don't come back, I want you to have it." "No-" Joe began to protest, but Rory took the key and placed it in his palm, closing his fingers over it. "Yes." she corrected. She stepped down off the barstool. "But," she added, waving a playful finger at him. "If --*when*--I come back tonight, I get the key back. A girl's gotta have some secrets." Joe chuckled. "OK, *when* you come back tonight." "Good." She grinned at him while walking towards the door. She opened the door, looked at him for a long moment, then waved goodbye and left. Joe unfolded his palm and stared at the key for a moment, then he placed it gently in his shirt pocket. "You *will* be back tonight." he whispered. Just then, a loud knocking at the back of the club interrupted his thoughts. "Who the hell is that?" he yelled, grabbing his cane and walking back through the storeroom to the door that led onto his loading dock. Opening it, he saw no one in sight. "Stupid kids." he mumbled. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a large formless shape jumping down at him. The next thing he saw were the fuzzy outlines of his vision fading into blackness. =========================================================================