Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 00:05:00 +0100 Reply-To: Sascha Regh Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Sascha Regh Organization: S.Regh Subject: From the dawn of time they came Part 3 Right, here's part 3. And thanks again for the encouragement. Make that part 3.1. Part 3.2 will follow tomorrow. ------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM THE DAWN OF TIME THEY CAME Part 3 Three weeks later It was almost closing time, and Joe was glad he could get to bed soon. There were only a few customers left. His eyes trailed towards a baseball cap that was hanging on the wall and he again wondered what had become of its owner. He had not seen or heard anything of the stranger since he had walked out of the bar three weeks ago. All he knew was that Duncan had tried to contact Connor to warn him, but had not reached him. He seemed to be very worried about that. No watcher either in America or in Scotland had seen anything of the elder MacLeod, either. The door of the bar opened, and he was about to say "Sorry, we are closing.", when he saw that the woman that entered was highly pregnant. She also looked very tired. She walked towards a chair and simply dropped herself into it. Then she smiled at him and said "Sorry. If you are closing I will leave, but please let me sit down for a moment." "Sure" he said. "Do you want anything to drink?" "If I could have a cup of tea?" She looked at him pleadingly. "Sure" He was wondering what she was doing at this hour on the street. In her state of pregnancy moving around must be rather difficult. The last group of customers came to the bar and paid, and when they had left he brought the woman her tea. She said: "I am sorry to keep you up." He said, "Never mind, I will have to clean up a bit anyway. Stay where you are and have your tea." She nodded gratefully at him and sipped her tea while he collected the empty glasses and cleaned them. He did not notice that she observed him closely all the time. When he had finished, he poured himself a drink, then looked at her. She shook her head, smiling. He came over to her and sat down. He looked at her curiously. What he saw was a woman in her mid-twenties, with brown curls that hung around her head, big brown eyes and a dark complexion that was no suntan. Her face was not stunningly beautiful, but certainly pleasant, especially when she smiled, as she did now. The clothes she was wearing were naturally not very elegant, but not cheap and they showed that she was a woman of taste. There was something about her that drew him towards her immediately, that made him want to just sit next to her and talk. He also felt that he had to protect her - although he had no idea what he should protect her from. As he looked at her, images of her on horseback, slender now, galloping through a dessert, and her long hair trailing behind her, came to him, and for a moment he wondered where these images came from. He felt utterly at home with her. And it made him wonder when he had felt like this the last time, and his eyes trailed towards the baseball cap again. Then she said, "Actually, I came to you for help." She looked uncertain. He said "Sure. Everything I can do." She still looked uncertain. "Yamo told me you might be somebody one can trust." He looked utterly puzzled. She looked even more uncertain, drew her brows together, and then with a surprisingly quick movement grabbed his hand and exposed the tattoo on the wrist. "But you are the watcher from the yard!" Joe said "Yamo is the man with the green eyes!" "Yes, he said he had been here, too, in the rain, and had spoken to you." "So he did, but he did not tell me his name." "Not even a false one? The mysterious stranger, this time?" She smiled. Joe smiled back. "So at least I know his name now. And he said I was a man one can trust? Despite my peculiar choice of friends?" "Actually, if you make Yamo one of them, the choice will be even more peculiar." Joe shook his head. "Now why am I not surprised to hear that?" he mused. "But how can I help you?" "I have been looking for Yamo." "I have not seen him since he walked through that door, three weeks ago." Joe replied. The word she answered with was definitely *not* ladylike. "I had feared you might say that but I had hoped... Somebody is after me, and I am pretty helpless for the next few days, as you can see." "Days?" he asked. "Yes, two or three days at the very most." "And you can't go home now?" "No, not like this. And all I have with me is a few dollars and my library card." "No, you would need somebody to protect you." She seemed amused when she replied "Usually I am not really worried about someone protecting me. That is, when I can move a bit better than a swan on the land." "Well," he said, "at the very least I can offer you a bed tonight. When have you eaten the last time?" "Do two donuts in the morning count?" she asked. "Let's go. Do you think a steak and some fried potatoes will do, or should we stop at a restaurant? By the way, do you have a name?" "Sounds like heaven to me! And my name is Isis." In the car Joe wondered for a moment why he was helping a total stranger whose only reference was a man that was even more mysterious. But then he could not have sent a helpless girl out into the night. * * * * * * * * Two hours later the two of them lay in Joe's large bed. Joe was sleeping peacefully. Isis was almost asleep as well. She just thought that it had been indeed a good idea to trust Yamo's short description of Joe. She smiled when she remembered that it had actually taken some effort to convince Joe to sleep in the bed. But neither did she want to sleep on the couch, and she had no intention of letting him sleept there, either. It seemed that assuring him that she was in no state to rape him anyway had helped. He seemed to be a nice guy. As for Yamo, she just wished she knew where he was, and whether he had found Connor. Well, for the time being she had a place to stay. Certainly Joe would not throw her out in the morning. Now all she had to do was to prevent him from getting any funny ideas like 'hospitals' or 'midwifes'. Well, she would manage that, too. As usual. And with these thoughts she went to sleep as well. * * * * * * * * In the morning Joe and Isis sat in the kitchen and were having breakfast. Isis was wearing an old sweater of Joe's that stretched alarmingly over her body, and an old pair of sports trouser that were ways too long for her. She did not look very elegant now, but very comfortable. She said "You are engaged." He looked up and said "What for?" "As my cook. There are few people who can make steak and fried potatoes the way you can. Not to mention this breakfast." Joe smiled. "Well, it is certainly a pleasure to cook for you! At least there is one woman under 50 around who is not on a diet." She grinned just broad and mischievously. That grin reminded him a *lot* of Yamo's. "Have you known Yamo for a long time?" "Oh, it has been quite a while. He is a good friend. And good friends are hard to come by. Talking about friends - what about your good-looking friend. Does he still want Yamo's head?" "Oh!" Joe could not help smiling. "I suppose if he would see him now, he would look for the next mouse hole to crawl in." But immediately he became serious again. "He did not know, you know. All he knew was that Parker had once helped him to bring a group of children out of a besieged city, and that he had acted quite bravely by that. After that he met him only once or twice again, but he never suspected anything." "Well, it is hardly the kind of thing you ever suspect from someone you know." she tried to reassure him. Joe continued "You know, Duncan found him crouched over a dead girl's body, crying. He told Duncan that she was his daughter, abused and slaughtered." "Was she?" "Hardly any more than the girl that disappeared from the group one night, or the poor girl in Atlanta. When I showed Duncan the drawing of the suspect he did not believe it. He went down there himself. But it was true." Both sat in silence for a moment. Then Joe wanted to know "How do you know that Duncan was good looking? Did Yamo say so?" "What he said was that Duncan looked like a wet dream. Although I suspect Yamo's wet dreams usually have better manners." Both smiled again. Joe asked "How did Yamo know about Parker anyway?" "Well, back where he had spent the last few years, the daughter of a friend of his disappeared. Parker had been there at the time, and he became a suspect. When the suspicion became certainty, Yamo vowed that he would stop him. Unfortunately he did not catch up with him until it was too late for the girl in Atlanta." Joe stood up to clear the table, and she stood up to help him. "Please, don't bother." he said, but she just replied "Let me do at least something helpful" He said "Well, we have to do something about you, you know, with the child coming soon. I will check with a hospital. If necessary, I will pay the bills." "Oh, err, well, there is still some time for that. I would not feel save in public." "But a hospital is hardly a public place. I mean if we would tell them someone is after you, maybe a case of domestic violence or something, then you would be save. By the way, who is after you anyway?" The conversation definitely went into the direction Isis wanted to avoid most, so she simply took a desperate measure: "Oh, well, that is a long story. But... you will have to excuse me!" and with these words she pressed her hands on her mouth and went as fast as she could to the bathroom. Unfortunately that would only provide a very short relieve. Again she cursed the idea to become pregnant *now*. But nine months ago everything had just seemed fine. She sighted, and then she let some water run, set up her most charming smile, and went back to Joe. *S.Regh@puti.dinoco.de* ## CrossPoint v3.02 ## =========================================================================