Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 18:24:22 -0500 Reply-To: shannara@TWAVE.NET Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Kim Sefcik Subject: "'Til Death Do Us Part" (Part 13/13) EPILOGUE Joe's Bar A week later, 8:39pm Joe's was a hubbub of activity. Joe had been released from the hospital that morning, with only a bandage around his ribs and instructions to take it easy. Of course, with the grand reopening of the bar, he wasn't following the doctor's orders. Instead, Joe was on stage, playing his heart out on a soulful blues riff. The music drifted around the bar mingling with snatches of conversation of people who frequented Joe's, and knew nothing of Immortals, Watchers, and went home to perfectly normal lives. Richie and Michelle sat in a relatively quiet corner of the bar, sharing a bottle of scotch. They hadn't discussed "the incident" since that night. Michelle had broken several Rules and they both knew it, but neither had wanted to talk about it. "So," Richie said, breaking the thoughtful silence, "what are you going to do now?" "I don't know," Michelle sighed, taking a sip of her drink and swishing the liquid around in her glass, "probably back to the Abbey with Amanda," Michelle smirked over the top of her glass, "she doesn't even know where I am... she's probably gotten worried." "I wouldn't count on it, this *is* Amanda that we're talking about." Michelle smiled, "Touche," she trailed off again and stared despondently into her drink. "Michelle?" Richie said, "what's wrong?" Michelle looked up at Richie, "It's just that... you loved Felicia, didn't you?" Richie sat in shocked silence, and looked at Michelle, "Yea, but that was a long time ago..." Michelle studied Richie's face for a long moment, "I'm sorry," she finally said. "For what?" "For anything." Richie smiled, and gazed at the beautiful young Immortal who sat in front of him. /Damn the Game,/ he thought. Michelle herself had shown that it wasn't everything. There had to be more to Immortality than killing, the Prize, and 'There can be only one'. There had to. Richie needed to get away for awhile and sort things out. Just get away from his life... if only for a short time. "Penny for your thoughts," Michelle said, breaking Richie's train of contemplation. "Nothing..." Richie said, glancing back up at Michelle, a thought wandered across his mind, "Hey, Michelle, um, I know this sounds *really* dumb, but last week just before you met me, you didn't happen to get in a car wreck with another Immortal, did you?" Michelle gave him a weird look over the top of her glass, "Actually, yea. How'd you know about that?" Richie took another drink to conceal a grin, "Um, because I think it was me that you ran into." "Get outta here," Michelle said, incredulous. "I'm serious... the same thing happened to me." Joe finished his tune and climbed down off the stage, letting the regular band take over with a mellow blues tune. Joe walked over toward Richie and Michelle, his cane making a hollow thump on the hardwood floors. "Hey, Rich, who's the lovely lady?" "Oh, this is Michelle Webster, Joe. We "ran into" each other last week... OUCH!" Richie added as Michelle kicked him under the table. "Charmed," Joe said, extending his hand. "You see Richie, chivalry isn't dead," Michelle smirked, shaking Joe's hand, "Oh, what an interesting tattoo," she said, noticing the Watcher's tattoo on Joe's wrist. "Oh, um, thank you," Joe said, pulling his coat sleeve down to cover the tattoo that looked suspiciously like a Mercedes hood ornament, "May I speak with Rich for a minute?" Joe pulled Richie out of earshot from Michelle for a moment, "So, Richie, Mike tells me that Felicia was responsible for all this shit." Richie grimaced, "Yea. It's been taken care of Joe, I don't think you guys will be having any trouble for awhile," Richie smirked with mock casualness, "I've filled Mike in on all the details, and I found all the Chronicles at Felicia's hotel...Mike'll tell you what happened." Joe rolled his eyes at Richie, "I can take a hint. I'll leave you two alone then, and I'll go have a chat with Mike," Joe said, "I see you finally got your stuff back," he noted. "Hm? Oh, yea," Richie said, straightening his leather jacket, "The police said that it gave some of their experts a headache trying to figure out were I hid my sword." "You know, Rich," Joe added as an afterthought, "from a purely professional standpoint, where *do* you hide 'em?" "Sorry Joe, that's a trade secret," Richie said with a lopsided grin, "See ya." "Care to enlighten me as to what that was about?" Michelle asked as Richie sat back down. "Maybe later," Richie grinned taking a sip of his drink, "So, where to now?" "Haven't we done this already?" Michelle asked, "Tell you what, Rich, let's just go." "Go? Where?" "Anywhere! Doesn't matter. C'mon," Michelle said dragging Richie to his feet. "What? Now?" "Yea, seize the day and all that!" Michelle said, tugging on Richie's arm. Richie threw some bills down on the table and stood up, "Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to regret this?" He only half-joked. "What was that?" Michelle asked, still concentrating on guiding Richie to the door. Richie grinned, and resigned himself to being dragged out the door, "Nothing..." FINIS ============================================================ CREDITS: Okay, I must give a few more credits to other people's fanfics which I blatantly ripped off. :-) (But as long as they don't sue... who cares?!) Okay, first off, I got the slams about Diet Coke from the Forever Knight fanfic "Gay Vampire Toronto Cop Fathers Alien Love Child" by Maddog and Rastro, and it's on the Forever Knight Fan Fiction Page. Also, the "Lassie dream" reference, is from "Dog Days", is on the Mithral Web HLFIC-L Archive. Both stories are also on Cer'rin BBS which is owned by Archangel and can be reached at 1.704.328.2217. However, while I must claim responsibility for the 'Star Wars' thing, I must also add that it was written in a moment of insanity by the little voice in my head named Bob...:-) So don't be too hard on me...Thanks for reading! ============================================================ Kim Sefcik Watcher-in-training Richie Reservist Internet: shannara@twave.net shannara@ravenwood.com | "I am Richie Ryan of the clan . . . wait, /~\ can we try that again?" @xxxxx| (|===============================- \____/\_/ "Being blind, you would wish all others blind | as well." -- Cleante, "Tartuffe" =========================================================================