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Greetings:  This apparently didn't go through right the first time; I
suspect operator error.  Sorry folks.  Blessings, Cathryn

Title:  Spirals
Author: Cathryn Bauer
E-mail: cathryn@mindspring.com
Rating:  G
Character Listing: DM, Gina de Valicourt, Marta Fisher (OC), various OC
Watchers, mentions of Dawson, Horton, and Sean Burns.
Archive: Seventh Dimension and probably anyone else who asks.  But not
just yet please; I may want to tinker a bit.
Sequel to: Follows Peace of the Angels in sequence.

Disclaimers:  Highlander-style Immortality was not my invention and none

of the characters are mine unless marked OC above.  No profit made
(that’s for d*** sure), no harm intended by me or our faithful
archivist.

Summary: Marta, the mortal lover of Sean Burns, finally agrees to a
meeting with Duncan MacLeod following Sean’s death at his hands.


(Unedited notes of Petra Montaigne, assignment: Gina de Valicourt.)
Thanks to Paulette’s keen listening skills, I am ready for GdeV’s
appointment.  I’m already settled at the Café de Cluny when GdeV arrives

promptly at 11:00.  This must be important; it’s not like her to be
punctual.  I have a seat in the corner, facing the room from behind my
laptop.  GdeV wears a black raincoat which the waiter hangs up on a rack

near the door.  Her smile dazzles him.  GdeV’s hair is simple today,
tied back in a barrette. She sits upstairs, her back to the wall,
waiting.  I see her start.  She has that look, that wariness that they
have: Friend or foe?  Do I need my sword?

I see her face brightening: friend.  The other Immortal stands in the
doorway.  He is dark, like her, his hair tied back in a ponytail.  His
face is familiar.  I should know his name, but it’s not coming to me.
He has the same wariness, but their faces relax when they see each
other.  It’s the Scot.  I should know his name.  I don’t know his name.
I’ll have to look it up.  He’s been around a while; has he not?  He
starts toward her.  It’s coming to me: Duncan.  His name is Duncan
MacLeod.  I’ll read up on him after my shift.  They kiss on both
cheeks.  I see Franz sidle in behind him.  Looking good, Franz; that
beard and jacket definitely still work, at least in here at the Cluny.
The newspaper under the arm is another good touch.  No wonder Mr. Dawson

recommended you to spell him on this field assignment.

(GdeV may well have history with the Café de Cluny.  Mr. Dawson said
they liked to come here when it opened in 1862.  A lot of interesting
people passed through its doors.  Delahaye painted here, and the likes
of Arthur Koestler, Simone de Beauvoir, and Marguerite Duras have made
it their unofficial headquarters.  I remember reading in Gina’s
Chronicle of her early association with Duncan and Fitzcairn.  They’re
frequently in touch, and there is no mention of any separation or
quarrel.  It is a mystery to me how Immortals can be friends at all,
much less for so many centuries. How do they ever trust each other when
there’s so much to gain from another Immortal’s death?  Maybe they have
some kind of oath that two Immortals can take, and it’s like the Holy
Ground rule; we don’t know why, but none of them will fight on Holy
Ground.  “They just don’t,” Mr. Horton said.  “There’s a lot we still
don’t know about them.”  I think that friendship between Immortals must
be either very tenuous or enviably strong.  Oh, I am going to do my own
typing-up this time so that I can edit my ruminations judiciously.)

They are watching the door, the two of them.  But they look hopeful, not

fearful.  DM asks GdeV a question; she says something reassuring in
reply.  They look toward the entrance, and their faces brighten.  The
woman in the doorway is young, 30 perhaps.  She is blonde, short, wears
her hair in a braid.  She wears jeans, a denim jacket like Franz’s.  The

jacket is buttoned all the way up.  Her face is wary, perhaps even
sullen.  She is late.  She is not sure she wants to be here.  Duncan
rises.  Gina calls to her.  I catch the name, though just barely:
Marta.  The blonde woman’s name is Marta.

Wait a minute.  Wasn’t that – I saw her in the Chronicles a few years
back.  Marta Fischer was with Sean Burns, the psychiatrist.  She’s
mortal.  We know that.  There was a flurry of interest in her a few
years back when we thought she might be pre-Immortal.  She knows about
Watchers which means that SB probably knew as well.  She confronted
Matthew, telling him that she was not Immortal and wanted the Watchers
to leave her and Sean alone.  Evidently a woman of some spirit despite
her quiet life.  And here she is, seeing Sean’s – no wonder she’s wary.
She is the first to say hello, but she does not offer her hand to DM.
GdeV begins to speak.  Marta says something quickly.  Her face is not
pleasant as she speaks.  DM and GdeV look worried.

DM recovers first.  I catch the last words of his suggestion that she
sit down “… just for a minute, before you go back.”  She complies, and
DM sits, as well.  A waiter hovers momentarily; GdeV sends him away with

a glance.  Marta opens the top button of her jacket and stares down at
the table.  I can’t hear what she says, but it is terse, and it is
clearly hard for her to speak at all.

DM’s face is understanding.  I can’t hear his reply – this is so
frustrating!  But a moment later, Marta’s face relaxes a bit, and she
undoes the next two buttons on her jacket.  GdeV catches the waiter’s
eye, and soon they are opening menus.  They don’t say much until the
waiter delivers their lattes.  They stir and sip.  I see GdeV reach to
touch Marta’s shoulder, then pull back her hand.  Marta sets down her
cup and opens the rest of her buttons.  She wears a gingham blouse
underneath the jacket.   As she removes her jacket and turns to place it

over the back of her chair, I catch the glimpse of a gold ring on her
right hand.  She doesn’t seem to be wearing other jewelry.  The group to

my left rises to leave, and suddenly I can hear much more clearly.

“I don’t want to do anything for you,” says Marta.  She looks around,
embarrassed, then lowers her voice and continues.  "Is this to make you
feel better?”  DM’s face is inexpressibly sad.  GdeV looks
disappointed.  I beckon the waiter and ask for another espresso.

“I know we’ll never make it right,” DM says at last.  “But I want to do
what I can to make it better.”

“Marta,” GdeV says, “we didn’t do this to upset you.  You know that.  I
told you that Duncan wanted to let you know if there was ever anything
he could do, if there was some way you needed help…” her voice trails
off.

“I know,” Marta replies wearily, “I’m sorry.  I really hate the way I’m
acting.  It’s just that – I went back and forth with thinking that this
was a good idea, and now I’m – I’m back.  I don’t want you to feel okay
about this, Duncan.  Give you peace around it when I’m still without
Sean.  So I don’t, I don’t even think I should have come today.”

“I will never be at peace about Sean,” DM tells her.  How solemn they
all look.  The waiter sets a second espresso on the table beside my
laptop.  I certainly hope GdeV decides to go for a walk after leaving
the café.

When I turn my attention back to them, Marta is talking to GdeV.  “It
always comes and goes.  I think I’m through it, and then it turns out
I’m not.  Everything was better after Iona, but here it all is again.”
She tries to smile, but I think she wishes she were somewhere that she
could burst into tears.  She pulls her braid in front of her and begins
doing something I can’t see to it.

“I understand,” DM replies.  “I know what I did.  I know – “ his voice
trails off.  “It’s like it came out of nowhere, the very worst, the
unimaginable, rising from nothing.”  Marta is silent.

“You are talking about Tessa,” GdeV says, and DM nods.  Marta looks up
inquiringly.

“I was very much in love with someone once,” DM explains.  “And she
died.  Killed by a mugger, a drugged-out thug who took her rings, shot
her, and disappeared into the night.  It happened very fast.  He came
out of the dark and went back into it.  She was dead when I got to her.”

Marta pays close attention to her latte, not looking at DM or GdeV.
“Did you ever find out who he was?”

“Yes.”

“Do you mind telling what you did?”

“By the time I found him, he wasn’t the same man.  He was clean,
working.  Had a young woman who loved him.  And he was about to be a
father.  I went to him.  I could have taken him, I’m sure, but I saw
them together.  And I remembered my own dark Quickening, a force
powerful enough to make me kill a friend, an inspiration.  Someone I
counted on to be there.  I knew for myself that such things could
happen.  For Tessa’s killer, it was a bad start in life that led him to
drug use.  For me, it was bad magic.”

“So you let him go.”

“I did, but a friend of mine didn’t.  Oh, he’s alive.  But he knows what

he did now.  I don’t know how he’s dealing with it.”

“It didn’t bring Tessa back.”

“Nothing can do that.  But I can remember her.  And I can remember Sean,

and do what I can to build things up for you again.”  GdeV looks at
Marta significantly.  I see Marta fling the half-loosened braid over her

shoulder.  “There’s someplace I’d like to take you, Marta, perhaps
tomorrow, perhaps next week.  But I thought we could spend some time
today talking about Sean.”

“You helped him with the soldiers when he had the hospital in World War
I.”

“Oh, he told you about that.”  She nods.  She considers.  She nods
again, and Gina smiles.  The noise level rises as the lunchtime crowd
arrives, and it’s harder to hear.  I quietly pack up my laptop, one eye
on the trio as they finish their lattes.  I see DM pay the waiter.  They

gather their coats and rise to leave.  I stay half a stairway behind
them.  When I reach the front door, GdeV is getting into a taxi, and
leaving Marta and DM on the sidewalk.  I glance around for another taxi
and wonder where Eric has gotten himself off to.  Fortunately, the
street is jammed, and GdeV’s taxi isn’t making much progress.  I walk
along the sidewalk in the same direction, watching for another empty
cab.




--
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Cathryn Bauer
cathryn@mindspring.com

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