========================================================================= Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 21:08:05 -0700 Reply-To: Mike Goldman Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike Goldman Subject: "Feels Like Rain" (02/03) "Glad you're back!" Duncan greeted her warmly as he stood up. He looked at Joe, then walked over and gave her a hug. Joe looked on as the two Immortals greeted each other. Rory was a little thinner than he remembered and he could make out her collarbones underneath the T-shirt she was wearing. Her hair had grown a bit and it was loose over her shoulders instead of pulled back as she usually wore it. The thing Joe noticed the most as she and Duncan walked back to the bar was there was an air of...fragility was the only word he could think of...that had not been there before. Instead of the "perpetual motion" he remembered, she now seemed to be moving much slower. The Immortals sat back down at the bar and Duncan took another drink of his beer as Rory played with one of the coasters Joe kept stocked at the edge of the bar, turning it over and over in her fingers. Finally she looked up at him. "Hi Joe." she said softly, the attempted smile only highlighting her nervous manner. Joe nodded and manuevered himself to turn around and grab his bar rag. As he did so, bottle cap came whistling by his left ear, landing with a "ping" on the floor. He grabbed the rag and turned back around, glaring at Duncan. "Sorry." Mac said, shrugging and smiling a little half-smile. "Must have slipped." Joe's look clearly said that he didn't believe that one bit. He turned towards Rory. "Can I get you something?" he finally asked. "Just coffee, please." Joe poured her a cup and placed it in front of her. "How long have you been back?" Mac said cheerfully into the silence threatening to take over as Rory studied her coffee and Joe seemed to be trying to polish the bar top out of existence. "Just got in." she responded. "And that's all your luggage?" Duncan said incredulously as he looked at her backpack. "Nope. Anne was kind enough to let me forward my stuff to her place in the meantime--till I can find a place to live." That was Joe's cue...although he didn't deliver his lines as might have been expected. "Here." he said, taking a small envelope out from underneath the bar and shoving it across the counter. "What's this?" "Open it." Rory did so, her fingers clumsily shredding the envelope, and a small key fell onto the bartop. She picked it up. "It's the key to my old place...but the band is staying there." She turned her body towards the bare stage. "Where are they anyway? They should be setting up." "They're gone." Joe said shortly. "What do you mean 'gone'?" she asked, surprised. "The contract was up and, since you didn't appear to be with the band anymore, they decided to move on." "Why didn't someone let me know?" Rory asked, surprise giving way to anger, as she stared at him. He shrugged. "They didn't know how to reach you. Things might have been different..." Joe let his words trail off, but the words "if you had been here" could still be heard loud and clear. "I'm sure they'll be back." Duncan tried to interject. Rory continued to hold Joe's gaze and only held up a hand to tell Duncan to stop. "*You* knew how to reach me." she responded pointedly to Joe. Climbing off the barstool, she grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. "Seems a lot has changed since I've been gone." She walked to the door but stood there for a moment, motionless, then, "Nice to see you, Macleod" and Rory walked out. Duncan turned back to Joe in disgust. "What do you do for an encore? Pull the wings off insects?" Joe ignored him, turned around, and began to check his stock. Not one to be dismissed easily, Duncan stood up and walked around the bar, placing himself directly in the mortal's path. "I hope you feel good about yourself." he spat. "What are you so hot about?" Joe asked, his eyes fixed on a point over Macleod's shoulder. "I thought you and she didn't really like each other anyway." "Whether *I* like her or not is not the *point*." the Immortal responded emphatically. "The *point* is she still loves you and I think you still love her--although from that display I just witnessed, I'm not so sure anymore." He paused and looked at Joe expectantly, moving so he was directly in his line of sight. When Joe didn't answer, Mac tapped his ear and sing-songed, "I'm waiting..." "Yes, I do!" Joe snapped. "Happy now?" "Well, you've got a funny way of showing it!" Duncan took a breath to calm himself, then continued. "I know you're angry and upset over a lot of things--she didn't tell you about her IRA connections until she had to, you found out about Stefan the hard way, and then she left before you could even try and sort some of this out." "Yeah, she *left*." "Yeah, she *left*." Macleod mimicked. "She *left* so that she could get some help. She *left* because she wanted to give both of you some time to heal before you tried to continue your relationship." He made a disgusted noise and turned, walking back around the bar and picking up his coat. Joe leaned against the wall and watched him go. At the door, Mac paused in the same way Rory had. "Think about it." he said, shrugging on his coat. Then he departed, leaving Joe in the now-empty bar. Lori mgoldman@cts.com Bass Player/Musical Director for the SJD Kick-Ass House Band CFW/WAR Chief for Smokin' Joe Dawson in the first HL WAR "Necessity is the mother of invention...and sometimes she can be a pretty mean mother." --Frank McPike "Living and Dying in 4/4 Time"