Date: Fri, 9 Sep 1994 19:15:49 +0100 Reply-To: Highlander TV show stories Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: John Markor Subject: Immortal Unawares 3 of 4 --========================_11459090==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Part three, are we still here? --========================_11459090==_ Content-Type: text/plain; name="Immortal_Unawares_-_Part_3"; charset="us-ascii" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Immortal_Unawares_-_Part_3" JANUARY 16, 1994, Very Early in the Morning...... Why is the phone ringing this early? Groggily reaching for the phone, she knocked it off onto the floor. In her half awake state she almost followed it to the floor. With an awkward stretch and a yank on its cord, she had it in hand and croaked a sleepy hello into the mouthpiece. "Liz?" Joe's voice on the other end jolted her awake. "Liz is that you? What's wrong?" "Nothing my dear, you just woke me from a deep sleep and I almost fell off the bed answering the phone....that's all. So why call me this early?" Joe paused a moment and then replied. "I've got bad news my love. There's been a family emergency and I can't fly down and see you." "No! Joe, what happened? Can I help? I can fly back up....." "Liz, wait.....I don't think I'll be gone that long, and when I get back I'll come see you." "Gone? Where?" She tried reaching out to her beloved Joe over a thousand miles to the north, but was still too sleepy for that kind of mental activity. "What's going on up there?" His voice sounded very distracted, "I wish I had time to explain. I have to go to Paris immediately." "Paris? Paris! And you're not taking me! Not even inviting me! Sheesh!" "I'm so sorry Liz. But I promise, when this emergency is all cleared up, I will hurry back as fast as I can and come knocking on the door to your cabin in the mountains.....and then take you to Paris, if you still want to." "Want to? You bet! I'm gonna hold you to that one Mister Joe Dawson! You wanna know what's outside my window right now? Fog. Ugly gray Kern County fog. I can't see a single tree. Just ugly gray cold, damp fog." "Don't feel too bad. From what I understand, Paris is still under water. Feel fortunate you only have thick fog to deal with." "Oh Joe, I was so looking forward to having you with me. Being really together again. I love you so much....." "I love you too. I wish I didn't have to go....But I'll call as soon as I get to my hotel. I'll be arriving Monday afternoon Paris time. Oh, Liz....I am so sorry about this.....I promise....the next time I go to Paris, I'm taking you. I love you." Liz felt her voice waver, "I love you too Joe. You take care. Have a safe flight and call me the moment you get to your room!" Joe's voice cracked with emotion as he said his good-byes over the long-distance lines. Perhaps it was just as well his beloved Liz was busy pursuing a career in the movie industry after all. His career as a Watcher had become a bit more exciting than he had ever expected or been told it could be when he took his oath so many years ago. He had watched Duncan MacLeod from afar for fifteen years and now had gotten to know him as a fellow human, albeit Immortal human, but learned from firsthand experience that this particular Immortal was as human as he or any other man could be. Joe didn't like being in the position he found himself in. His brother-in-law had gone off the deep end and had taken many Watchers with him. They had gone beyond mere watching and declared themselves judge and jury and sentenced all Immortals to death. Apparently Horton had help now, help from one sociopathic Immortal named Xavier St. Cloud. This was not going to be a pleasure trip to Paris at all.....not in the slightest. Liz was busy in California, far away from this dangerous and bizarre situation. Liz didn't know about the Watchers and even though he loved her very much, the Watchers were a part of his life he could not share with her. He recalled her asking about the tattoo on his wrist not long after she and Ian met. He had explained it to her as being a part of a drunken fraternity initiation ritual when he was an undergraduate. She laughed and said she had heard of worse initiation rites. Drunken, no, he laughed to himself, he was stone sober when he took the oath, fraternity ritual....yes. The Watchers are a fraternal organization, he nodded in agreement with his assessment, a fraternity belonged to by his father, grandfather, and generations of ancestors before him. Dawson gathered his things and began packing for his trip to Paris. Sleep was impossible after Joe's call. Like a restless caged tiger, she paced her cottage. Lighting a fire in the fireplace, she next paced to the kitchen, fixed a pot of tea and shuffled back to a weakly burning fire. Settling in the cane rocker, she sipped her tea and stared at the flames until they sputtered and died. Jack, her dog plopped down by her feet. Kelson, the cat curled on her lap. It was difficult enough knowing Joe was over a thousand miles away, but now, very soon he'd be on his way to the other side of the world. She wanted the fog to come in and envelope her until she could hold Joe in her arms again. She floated through Sunday as if the fog had invaded the innermost part of her soul. The fog only made her longings to be with Joe even more unbearable. The psychic intimacies they had been sharing were only half of what they should have been sharing at that point in time. Her great-grandmother's words comforted her, "Sometimes even those of us with great vision have blind spots." Liz shifted the cane rocker closer to the fireplace, "Blind spots, " she sighed, "why did I have to move so far away before we realized we were so much in love with each other?" Liz stood up and grabbed the poker and stuck the smoldering logs. A puff of smoke lazily rose from the fireplace. The fire stubbornly refused to rekindle. Outside the fog stubbornly refused to lift. For about two hours the sun attempted to burn through the gray mess, revealing itself as a pale silvery disk, only to be blocked by late afternoon fog dropping it's numbing blanket on an already drenched landscape. Perhaps an early bed would provide escape from this fog dulled depressing day. She prepared a nutmeg and cinnamon flavored mug of warm milk, found the most boring textbook left over from her college days and gathered up her cat and headed for bed. The warm milk and boring book worked, sleep came quickly and easily. Kelson finished off the milk and was soon stretched out next to her purring himself to sleep. Darkness woke her and a sound, a shriek, a long keening wail jolted her to full wakeful attention. "Kelson?" She patted around the bed. The cat was no longer by her side. She switched on the light and glanced around the room. Nerve shattering sounds swirled through the cabin again, more urgent, more plaintive and much louder than before. "Oh God! Jack!" She thought of old Jack, injured and helpless out in the woods. She hurriedly dressed, grabbed a flashlight and ventured out into the foggy predawn hours. Liz followed the keening and wailing sounds past the gate marking the boundary of the cabin's property, and the US Forest Service land it bordered. The air quality changed from just cold and damp, to cold damp and oppressive once she was on the Forest Service land. The wailing encircled and pulled at her. She stopped at the edge of a small embankment. A cold stream ran in front of her, ahead, a rocky mountain side rising sharply from the flat land on which she stood. At first it was imperceptible, but it grew, Liz felt the ground shift gently at first, and then violently. Before she could think the word "earthquake" she lost her footing, tumbling willy-nilly down the embankment as the earth convulsed below her. Unconcisous by the time she landed face down in the cold flowing creek, she did not see or feel the boulder crack into her skull, killing her instantly. Fog swirled around her and through her as if her body had no substance. Grayness enveloped and pulled her far away from the boulder strewn creek bed and her blood soaked battered body. She glanced down and shrieked a silent scream. No silver chord bound her to the scene below as she floated farther and farther away. So this is death, she thought. A pale blue light appeared before her and her floating sensation ceased. "Go back!" cried the blue light, "Go back! You are not mine!" Liz protested, "I'm dead. I can't go back. I have no chord binding me." "Go back. You are not mine. I do not want you. Continue on a new path. Go back!" With those forceful words a brilliant blue flash enveloped Liz's soul and threw her back to her battered body. Cold dawn light began filtering through the January fog as Liz awoke from her deathsleep. Pain wracked her cold and wet body as she sputtered cold bloody water out her mouth and nose. Dark fog shrouded the creek bed, an after shock sent more rocks down the hillside. Liz struggled up from the creekbed, unaware of the bloody and torn clothes hanging limply on her body. Once atop the embankment, she collapsed in numb exhaustion and slept. Martin felt it first, struggled out of bed and hurried to a door jam. Maria hurried out of her room and faced her brother standing across the hall. "Do you feel it?" he asked his sister. Plaster fell from the ceiling above them. "This is the White Wolf awakening isn't it?" she sighed sleepily. She looked around as if listening for something, "Yes, I feel one joining us, becoming one of us. The White Wolf has delivered Liz to us, hasn't he?" "We must hurry and find her. Prepare her for the Brown Warrior." Martin and Maria hurried and dressed in the predawn hours. The entire town was wide awake, people, frightened, milling about in the streets waiting for dawn to reveal the full impact of the earthquake's horrors. Martin and Maria were not noticed as they quietly stealed themselves out of town. They drove to the end of a Forest Service road and walked the rest of their way. "She is this way. Yes, I feel it, she is one of us now." Martin confirmed what he had felt moments after the quake hit. Maria nodded in agreement. They found her where she had fallen, soggy, blood soaked and still comatose. Liz woke with a start, a feeling; alien and sickening surging through her shaken body. She slowly sat up and glanced around. It was Martin and Maria. "What happened to me?" she asked helplessly as Maria offered a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Let's get you home first, then we will explain." Martin and Maria helped Liz to their car and drove her back to the cabin. Through her still dazed eyes, Liz noticed that the cabin had been undamaged by the quake. A feeling of comfort and safety filled her. It was good to be home. Maria helped Liz out of her bloodied and torn clothing and encouraged her to bathe. She changed into warm and fuzzy sweats and padded out to the living room. Martin and Maria greeted her with a warm cup of tea. "Thank you. Thank you for everything. How did you know where I was?" Martin shook his head, "We just knew. Please drink your tea. It will make you feel better." "You suffered a severe psychic shock. When the earthquake hit you felt the pain and fear of thousands of people all at once. Your perceptions of the last five hours are distorted by other people's pain." "I thought I died out there. I remember the rocks and cold water. Floating unbound by the chord, and a blue light.....You and Martin found me in the woods." "It was a dream my dear child, a dream. In your shocked condition you went wandering and passed out in the cold." Maria took Liz's hand and smiled, "If you were dead, would you be here? Sipping tea and talking to me?" Liz felt warm and comfy, and continued sipping the tea. She smiled and nodded in agreement. She felt warmer and very relaxed, and soon faded into a halfsleep. Martin and Maria smiled. "Her mind is wide open now. We must hurry with our work before she fully recovers. Everything you have told her must become reality for her." She turned to her brother and nodded. Martin gathered up her soggy and bloody clothing and removed it to the car. Maria worked silently inside Liz's mind, planting memories that would keep her safe and ensure her emotional equilibrium until she once again encountered the Brown Warrior . It was difficult working with one of such strong gifts, someone of two natures. Maria knew many gifts lay dormant in Liz and those gifts would also protect her until her next encounter. Treading gently among the memories of her great-grandmother and mother, Maria reached deep into Liz's psyche, bringing their unused gifts out and within easy reach for Liz. "The gifts that make you strong make you vulnerable now that you are one of us. There are those of us who would kill you for what you have. My child, your masks will protect you. You've gone unnoticed before, When you feel certain feelings, wear your mask, go unnoticed......" Liz nodded in agreement to the suggestion. She stirred in her seat as if awakening. Maria handed her the tea again. "Drink my child, drink......." Liz obediently drank the rest of her tea and handed Maria the cup. "What do I do next?" "Rest, and when you awaken you will remember me telling you about your psychic overload, and bad dream about dying. You are alive. The earthquake did not hurt you." "I'm sleepy think I'll go to bed." Liz padded to her bedroom and crawled under the covers and was soon fast asleep. Maria followed as far as the door, shut it and joined her brother in the kitchen. Into a jar of loose tea he mixed some dark powder. "The dampener will continue to work in her tea. She will have no memory of what really happened to her. " "Is it necessary to block her like this?" "As long as she is here she is safe from those of us who would kill her for her gifts. But if she leaves this place, as she will, she must have all the protection she can have. She mustn't remember until the proper time." "When will that be?" asked Maria. "Autumn has turned to winter and winter must turn to spring, when the spring is late, she will make a long journey, that will be the time." Martin turned to his sister, "It is time for us to leave. We've done our part. We must return to Cahokia." Maria nodded at her brother, gathered their coats and supplies and together they left the cabin. --========================_11459090==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" *************************************************** * John and/or Lydia - Can there be only one? * * sundari@halcyon.com * *************************************************** --========================_11459090==_-- =========================================================================