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The fic affectionately known as "Wombat".
The oldest one first. I know that this was posted in 6 parts, so I divided it up into 6 parts and commented on the first 6th.
Ah, yes. "With Human Blood and Human Tears", which was inspired by a discussion somewhere about the scripted vs. the shown ending of "Living Stones" (to the extent that to this day some people think that the actual original ending was my creation). I forgot to note in the story itself that it's after that episode, but it is.
Disclaimers: Some characters belong to Roger Damon Price and Nickelodeon, Thames/Tetra, and others. Highlander universe belongs to Rysher, as does Adam Pierson/Methos. Charity McCullen belongs to Wendy Kelley Perkins and is used by kind permission. Greer Lewis and Michael Gardner are mine.
Not anything fancy here. It's succinct, it tells you who belongs to whom (including my two OCs and Wendy's OC), and that's it.
Author's Notes: Telepathy is denoted by //.
With Human Blood and Human Tears
By Selma McCrory
copyright 1996
The flat was way too cold.
Two people sat in cheap chairs silently regarding each other. The flat was just recently moved into, with everything not completely where it was meant to be. The woman shifted, trying to wrestle with the uncomfortable chair and the uncomfortable question the young man had posed. He was uncharacteristically tense, shifting as much as she did. She folded her hands on the table and spoke.
This is uncharacteristically descriptive of me. It seemed to me that Greer wouldn't have the money to live anywhere really expensive, or for that matter, buy anything really expensive.
"I usually go to you for advice, not the other way around, Adam," Greer said, pausing for a moment to sip her tea. "I don't know if I can help much."
I think, at the time, I saw Adam as incredibly wise. I knew *Greer* did. She was still feeling misplaced after becoming Immortal, and Adam was one of the few people that she really, really trusted.
The young Australian shrugged, and took a gulp out of the mug, nervously. "I'm just trying to understand why."
Greer looked at the young man. Even though she was his elder by a decade and a half, he'd always seemed wiser. Now, he seemed like the young man that he really was, and she quietly considered the question, trying to sort out her jumbled thoughts. "Why people want to kill? People kill for greed. For hate. For pure satisfaction, sometimes. I'm not that much an expert in human nature, Adam. I know about my own kind. I know why we kill. But I don't know a full-depth answer to your question. You'd be better off asking questions of a bomber, or someone like that."
"You told me once that you needed to kill."
Typical of Adam. Sieze on the smallest of points. As Greer will point out, it's part of the Game, but it's still a choice. However, I'm sure the reason that Adam is approaching Greer here is because she *has* killed. No matter that he stopped her the second time, she still killed Leland before the two of them met. Adam, being a Tomorrow Person, wouldn't know what to do with a genuine murderer other than try to stop them. However, he sees Greer as relatively blameless. To him, she kills because it's in her nature, not because of who she is.
"Sort of. It's part of who we are. We can avoid it. I have, if you haven't noticed. I haven't killed in the last four years," she said, getting up and pacing. Then she looked down, confused, at the young man. "But why all this fascination with homicide, Adam? Forgive me, but you don't have any killing instincts left. Why would you need to understand them?"
*shakes head* Greer, Greer, Greer. If he's asking you, it's not out of idle curiosity.
The young man shrugged again, miserably. He turned the mug once around in his hands, then ran his hands through his dark hair.
Greer made a circle through the room, passing her hands over the wallpaper, making minute examinations of her furniture. Adam sat there, looking so distressed and vulnerable that she wanted to hug him, put a bandage on his wounds, tell him that it was all right, and send him off. Not a wise idea with a young man out of his teens, even one prone to physical contact. Besides, she had no idea where to start.
"I killed."
Now we reveal the reason he's so melancholy. Since this takes place after "Living Stones", where the creatures are apparently destroyed (in the script, they were merely driven away), Adam's dealing with the guilty aftermath of being (he thinks) a killer.
Greer sat down, stunned. The young man in front of her fell silent. Greer was quiet also, trying to absorb the full implications of what Adam said. Finally, she looked at him, sitting across from her and said, "You -- killed? That's impossible."
Which merely echoes what a lot of fans thought at the time about the ending of the story. The aliens seem dead - but the Tomorrow People can't kill, so something's wrong....
"I thought it was, too," the young man said miserably. "But I think I managed it."
"Tell me," Greer said.
****
I didn't want to have to re-explain the whole ending to "Living Stones", even to the Highlander folk, so I let the reader imagine. Good on the TP fan side, not so good on the Highlander end. Bad Selma.
"That's quite a story, Adam," Greer said. "I can see why you'd be confused. But it sounds like you did kill them, as impossible as it may seem."
"I thought you might be able to figure it out," Adam said quietly. "But how is it possible?"
"I have no idea. It's like one of us killing on Holy Ground and getting away with it," she said. "An impossibility."
"I was happy at first," Adam said. "But then I'd realized what I'd done."
The TP were grinning at the end of that scene, which doesn't jive with what we've been told about their inability to kill. Therefore, there has to be a reason why Adam went from the end of the story to where he ends up at the beginning of this story.
"Tell me more about these alien smoke pod beings. Obviously there's got to be some reason why you were suddenly able to kill."
The young man shrugged. "I don't know anything beyond what I've told you: they possess people, they reproduce by seeds and are killed by bright light, that I know."
Okay, I tried to do *some* explaining to the Highlander folk.
Greer sighed. "I don't know. If you were Immortal, I could explain it. Of course, if you were Immortal we wouldn't be having this conversation."
Poor Greer. She's a scholar, not a counselor. She may know a lot about the Tomorrow People, at least what Adam and the others have told her, but she can't understand how they think.
"I know," Adam replied. "But I'm not sure what's going on."
"Oh, dear."
Adam nodded.
"Adam, this might be something you'll have to work out yourself - I don't know if I can be of any help -"
"But somehow, you should know. You've been an observer for so long."
"Observing doesn't always mean understanding, Adam. And besides, we're trained not to interfere."
Greer is a typical Watcher, an observer. Even as an Immortal, she's not ready to get rid of that oath (well, except later on in this story). In a way, I think she's still trying to *be* the Watcher she once was.
****
"You sound like a mad scientist, babbling about biology and such," Michael teased her.
"Not funny, Michael."
I can just picture Greer sitting at the table with a pile of textbooks. Unfortunately, at this point I didn't remember to describe it.
"My, we're in a mood today."
I'm now wondering what in the heck Michael saw in Greer. Especially after she became Immortal and became really melancholy.
"Sorry."
Michael, Greer's husband, sat down beside her. "So why are you grumbling so much about biology?"
Greer sighed and put down the genetics book she was reading. "I told you that Adam was here today?"
"Don't think that you did," Michael said, picking the book up and looking at it.
Michael's a Watcher (Greer thinks he's an ex-Watcher). He's innately curious. Plus, technically speaking he's *Greer's* watcher, though this wasn't brought up in this story, I don't think.
"He was," Greer responded tiredly. "He has a problem, and I think he was looking for some advice that I couldn't give."
"So, what's this got to do with biology?"
"I'm trying to figure out what part of him is responsible for his inability to kill."
"Kill? Adam? Adam hasn't the slightest idea about killing!" Michael said incredulously.
No, but he knows how to use a knife. But Michael wouldn't have known that.
"Oh, he has the slightest idea. He just doesn't have the ability. He could be perfectly willing to kill someone, he just wouldn't be able to do it even if he was so inclined."
On the other hand, Greer does know about the knife and the shark, and has a better idea of what the TP can and can't do better than her husband does. Michael's study subject is Greer, Greer's study subjects are the TP. Of course, neither is very formal about it. Both regard their 'subjects' as friends and would place their friendships above their scholarly inclinations.
Michael rolled his eyes. "Great. So what brings us on the topic of Adam's biology?"
"He thinks he managed to kill."
"I can see that this is going to be occupying your time for a while. Still up to the trade?"
Yes, I actually have another (semi-unrelated plot strand in here. We're about to meet it.
"Yeah, do you know who's to meet?"
"Um...let me check. Another Adam. Adam Pierson."
"Wonderful. I hope he's less of a problem than our Adam."
I admit. I couldn't resist using Methos, since his current name is Adam - or was at this point in the series - and that he's another Immortal who's been/is in the Watchers.
"Should be - it's the usual drill. He picks up the package, hands me the request, I hand him their request. We have two happy camper groups."
"It's weird. Somehow, I didn't expect to be spending my life exchanging information between British Intelligence -MI5 I think it's called? And the Watchers."
I assume General Damon set this up. And really, it's the only reason I think I've ever given for why they're in London, and what they do.
"It is weird. It's also called life."
"Yes. It's weird, all right. Okay, you trade, I'll figure out what's gone wrong. Lunch first?"
"Lunch."
Gads. Even in my old fics, my characters keep stuffing their faces.
****
It was a good, if noisy day. The streets bustled with Saturday shoppers. They'd always chosen this particular cafe for lunch before their afternoon drops.
Michael held the disk with the information on it carefully with his hands. Greer was pondering the menu with more interest than she even had before, probably because she was paying half of her attention to it.
Have the disk in his hand. Yeah, that's smart.....
She'd be busy trying to figure out Adam's problem for probably the rest of the day and possibly the rest of the week. He knew how she felt about them; being unable to have children had somehow caused her to be concerned about the young people who heralded Humankind's future.
Greer looked up, greatly startled, and started looking around. Michael saw a woman coming into the shop, who also had the standard look of an Immortal trying to figure out who they've sensed. He figured that they'd either miss each other, or they'd begin a short conversation. He was quite surprised when Greer began smiling and waving.
The woman, astonished, came over to their table. "Georgina Lewis? Is that you? What happened? How?"
"'Tis me, Charity," Greer said. "Want to join us for lunch?"
The woman smiled in return and sat down. "And who is this?"
"This is my husband, Michael Gardner. Michael, meet Charity McCullen, she was a classmate of mine."
Charity's cameo in this fic was mostly because Wendy and I thought it would be fun to have a scene in here, showing that Charity and Greer knew each other.
****
Greer smiled as she sat down on the bench.
She'd had an enjoyable lunch with Charity and Michael. Once assured that Michael knew about Immortals, Charity had started chatting animatedly. They'd compared notes, talked about the university, Charity's deli (which she still ran), and how each other's life was going. Charity had told them that she hadn't detected that Greer was going to become Immortal, which had startled the both of them, and that she had taken on a protege named Gabrielle, who didn't know yet that she was going to become immortal.
This ties in with the storyline Wendy was working on at the time, with Charity and Gabrielle.
Greer was overjoyed to come in contact with Charity again, since she had enjoyed being around her before, when she was assigned to her by the Watchers. She'd had to explain, of course, how she'd become Immortal, and how she'd known Charity was Immortal, but the evasions that she'd learned in the Watchers server her in good stead. Even if she wasn't sure if Charity had bought her story about being good at observation. She'd left the entire deal with the Watchers out.
This being of course because Greer'd had problems when she had told both her mentor, Alberta, and Duncan MacLeod, about her watcher past. She didn't particularly want to tell yet another Immortal, particularly one she liked, about what she had been doing hanging out at Charity's deli.
It was too bad that Charity had to leave for her flight later that day. Greer gave her their address and phone number so that she and Charity could stay in touch.
I think Greer also gave Charity her email address, as Charity had it in one fic Wendy wrote. It's been a long time.
She'd needed the uplift in spirits, with Adam being in the mood he was. The park wasn't helping, and neither was the weather. Her husband was sitting on a park bench a few yards away. She'd settled down first, seemingly a young woman enjoying a bright (if cold) day. He'd sat down a few minutes later, on a bench under a tree. One might think that they were young, secret lovers instead of husband and wife.
I seem to remember that I thought at the time that they'd probably worked together and pulled this off before, in events before "Change of Perspective".
She shivered, partially due to the cold weather (which was totally normal for London at that time of year) and partially because of the problem that she was considering.
And then she realized that there was another reason. And that reason was walking down the path towards her husband.
The other Immortal was male. Dark haired, but the sunlight obscured her efforts to discern his eye colour. He was thoughtfully looking around, and she was glad she had muted her own reaction, the one that would have given her away as another immortal.
The reason Greer didn't challenge the guy then and there was because, of course, she didn't want to draw attention to Michael, nor was she the challenging type.
She looked away, and watched as he shrugged the feeling off. For the moment, anyway. She had no doubt that he was being very cautious.
Greer continued her watch of the Immortal while keeping an eye on her husband. And then, he did something unexpected.
At least unexpected to her. As any Highlander fan can tell you, Methos can be a very tricky person.
The Immortal was sitting down with her husband, talking with him. They had a few words, obviously some kind of discourse of ideas, and then the man left. She waited until he had left her sensing range, and then moved off.
****
Michael didn't remark on her mood as they came up to the flat. They had paralleled their courses for a few blocks, and then had ended up together, taking the Underground to the proper stop on the proper route. They settled down in the chairs, Greer nervously braiding and unbraiding locks of her hair.
Greer was so nervous, that she picked up one of my nervous habits, that of braiding my hair when I'm worried.
"What did you say his name was again?" she asked Michael.
"Who?" Michael said absentmindedly. "Oh, you mean my contact? Adam Pierson."
"You haven't met him before?" Greer asked him, concerned.
"Of course not," Michael said, clearly puzzled.
Clearly Michael needed to be watching his wife when Methos came in, but he didn't, much to his dismay and the advancing of my plot line.
Greer twisted her hair around, then tried to braid some of her braids together, rather unsuccessfully. She tried paying attention to the newspaper. She looked up to see Michael, who was staring at her rather anxiously. She then decided to speak up.
"He's an Immortal."
When Michael failed to produce a clue... Greer gave it to him. I think she was rather hoping he picked it up by himself.
"WHAT?" Michael exclaimed, then calmed down. "You're kidding, of course."
Whoever did the screening that missed Greer must have also been the one who missed Methos, I swear. Or they need a whole lot of retraining. (I'm not fond of this line... Michael should have known better, having *married* an Immortal ex-Watcher.
"No, I'm not."
Michael sat back down in the chair. "There's an Immortal in the Watchers?"
"It's happened before, you know."
Greer's reminding him of the events of "Change of Perspective", where she managed to hide her new status from him... at least until she got called into combat.
"Yeah, but I didn't think it would happen twice. And the scary thing is, I think I've heard his name before. Can't remember where."
"Please, remember where!" Greer said. "If there's an Immortal in the Watchers, we need to know how entrenched he is, how long he's been there, other things like that."
One thing that's important with Greer, at least in this timeframe, is that she still thinks of herself as a Watcher, is still concerned with the welfare of the Watchers, and so on. Heck, this is a lady who refuses to get rid of her Watcher tattoo! In her heart of hearts, Greer will be a Watcher until she dies.
"We?"
"Yes, we. Unless you want an Immortal in the Watchers, possibly using the information to track down and kill all the others."
Here I predict the Watcher CD fiasco, or make reference to it. I'm not sure. I think this story predates that episode.
"Not really. I mean, I don't want you to have any info if you don't want it."
"I don't want any info. It's enough that I remember as much as I do."
Michael sighed. Just then, twin flashes of light burst forth a few feet away. The light cleared to reveal Megabyte and an unfamilar young woman.
Yes, Michael, you married The Ultimate Watcher.
Greer forced a smile, hiding her bad mood about the Adam problem. "Hello, there. Decided to drop in?"
I assume I meant Methos and not Adam the TP. It could have meant both.
Megabyte grinned. "Well, you did say, 'drop in whenever.'"
"That I did. And who's your friend?"
"Oh," the young man said, apparently a bit embarrassed. "This is Jade Weston. Jade, this is Michael Gardner and Greer Lewis."
Greer met the other TP, but Jade had just broken out. I assume Adam N. forgot to introduce Jade because he was too busy brooding.
"Is she...?" Michael asked, amused.
The young man nodded. Greer's smile became genuine. "A new Tomorrow Person. That's wonderful news! She's the first one in, what, two years?"
Yes, Greer has dedicated herself to keeping track of the TP. It's the Watcher in her.
Ah, yes. "With Human Blood and Human Tears", which was inspired by a discussion somewhere about the scripted vs. the shown ending of "Living Stones" (to the extent that to this day some people think that the actual original ending was my creation). I forgot to note in the story itself that it's after that episode, but it is.
Disclaimers: Some characters belong to Roger Damon Price and Nickelodeon, Thames/Tetra, and others. Highlander universe belongs to Rysher, as does Adam Pierson/Methos. Charity McCullen belongs to Wendy Kelley Perkins and is used by kind permission. Greer Lewis and Michael Gardner are mine.
Not anything fancy here. It's succinct, it tells you who belongs to whom (including my two OCs and Wendy's OC), and that's it.
Author's Notes: Telepathy is denoted by //.
With Human Blood and Human Tears
By Selma McCrory
copyright 1996
The flat was way too cold.
Two people sat in cheap chairs silently regarding each other. The flat was just recently moved into, with everything not completely where it was meant to be. The woman shifted, trying to wrestle with the uncomfortable chair and the uncomfortable question the young man had posed. He was uncharacteristically tense, shifting as much as she did. She folded her hands on the table and spoke.
This is uncharacteristically descriptive of me. It seemed to me that Greer wouldn't have the money to live anywhere really expensive, or for that matter, buy anything really expensive.
"I usually go to you for advice, not the other way around, Adam," Greer said, pausing for a moment to sip her tea. "I don't know if I can help much."
I think, at the time, I saw Adam as incredibly wise. I knew *Greer* did. She was still feeling misplaced after becoming Immortal, and Adam was one of the few people that she really, really trusted.
The young Australian shrugged, and took a gulp out of the mug, nervously. "I'm just trying to understand why."
Greer looked at the young man. Even though she was his elder by a decade and a half, he'd always seemed wiser. Now, he seemed like the young man that he really was, and she quietly considered the question, trying to sort out her jumbled thoughts. "Why people want to kill? People kill for greed. For hate. For pure satisfaction, sometimes. I'm not that much an expert in human nature, Adam. I know about my own kind. I know why we kill. But I don't know a full-depth answer to your question. You'd be better off asking questions of a bomber, or someone like that."
"You told me once that you needed to kill."
Typical of Adam. Sieze on the smallest of points. As Greer will point out, it's part of the Game, but it's still a choice. However, I'm sure the reason that Adam is approaching Greer here is because she *has* killed. No matter that he stopped her the second time, she still killed Leland before the two of them met. Adam, being a Tomorrow Person, wouldn't know what to do with a genuine murderer other than try to stop them. However, he sees Greer as relatively blameless. To him, she kills because it's in her nature, not because of who she is.
"Sort of. It's part of who we are. We can avoid it. I have, if you haven't noticed. I haven't killed in the last four years," she said, getting up and pacing. Then she looked down, confused, at the young man. "But why all this fascination with homicide, Adam? Forgive me, but you don't have any killing instincts left. Why would you need to understand them?"
*shakes head* Greer, Greer, Greer. If he's asking you, it's not out of idle curiosity.
The young man shrugged again, miserably. He turned the mug once around in his hands, then ran his hands through his dark hair.
Greer made a circle through the room, passing her hands over the wallpaper, making minute examinations of her furniture. Adam sat there, looking so distressed and vulnerable that she wanted to hug him, put a bandage on his wounds, tell him that it was all right, and send him off. Not a wise idea with a young man out of his teens, even one prone to physical contact. Besides, she had no idea where to start.
"I killed."
Now we reveal the reason he's so melancholy. Since this takes place after "Living Stones", where the creatures are apparently destroyed (in the script, they were merely driven away), Adam's dealing with the guilty aftermath of being (he thinks) a killer.
Greer sat down, stunned. The young man in front of her fell silent. Greer was quiet also, trying to absorb the full implications of what Adam said. Finally, she looked at him, sitting across from her and said, "You -- killed? That's impossible."
Which merely echoes what a lot of fans thought at the time about the ending of the story. The aliens seem dead - but the Tomorrow People can't kill, so something's wrong....
"I thought it was, too," the young man said miserably. "But I think I managed it."
"Tell me," Greer said.
****
I didn't want to have to re-explain the whole ending to "Living Stones", even to the Highlander folk, so I let the reader imagine. Good on the TP fan side, not so good on the Highlander end. Bad Selma.
"That's quite a story, Adam," Greer said. "I can see why you'd be confused. But it sounds like you did kill them, as impossible as it may seem."
"I thought you might be able to figure it out," Adam said quietly. "But how is it possible?"
"I have no idea. It's like one of us killing on Holy Ground and getting away with it," she said. "An impossibility."
"I was happy at first," Adam said. "But then I'd realized what I'd done."
The TP were grinning at the end of that scene, which doesn't jive with what we've been told about their inability to kill. Therefore, there has to be a reason why Adam went from the end of the story to where he ends up at the beginning of this story.
"Tell me more about these alien smoke pod beings. Obviously there's got to be some reason why you were suddenly able to kill."
The young man shrugged. "I don't know anything beyond what I've told you: they possess people, they reproduce by seeds and are killed by bright light, that I know."
Okay, I tried to do *some* explaining to the Highlander folk.
Greer sighed. "I don't know. If you were Immortal, I could explain it. Of course, if you were Immortal we wouldn't be having this conversation."
Poor Greer. She's a scholar, not a counselor. She may know a lot about the Tomorrow People, at least what Adam and the others have told her, but she can't understand how they think.
"I know," Adam replied. "But I'm not sure what's going on."
"Oh, dear."
Adam nodded.
"Adam, this might be something you'll have to work out yourself - I don't know if I can be of any help -"
"But somehow, you should know. You've been an observer for so long."
"Observing doesn't always mean understanding, Adam. And besides, we're trained not to interfere."
Greer is a typical Watcher, an observer. Even as an Immortal, she's not ready to get rid of that oath (well, except later on in this story). In a way, I think she's still trying to *be* the Watcher she once was.
****
"You sound like a mad scientist, babbling about biology and such," Michael teased her.
"Not funny, Michael."
I can just picture Greer sitting at the table with a pile of textbooks. Unfortunately, at this point I didn't remember to describe it.
"My, we're in a mood today."
I'm now wondering what in the heck Michael saw in Greer. Especially after she became Immortal and became really melancholy.
"Sorry."
Michael, Greer's husband, sat down beside her. "So why are you grumbling so much about biology?"
Greer sighed and put down the genetics book she was reading. "I told you that Adam was here today?"
"Don't think that you did," Michael said, picking the book up and looking at it.
Michael's a Watcher (Greer thinks he's an ex-Watcher). He's innately curious. Plus, technically speaking he's *Greer's* watcher, though this wasn't brought up in this story, I don't think.
"He was," Greer responded tiredly. "He has a problem, and I think he was looking for some advice that I couldn't give."
"So, what's this got to do with biology?"
"I'm trying to figure out what part of him is responsible for his inability to kill."
"Kill? Adam? Adam hasn't the slightest idea about killing!" Michael said incredulously.
No, but he knows how to use a knife. But Michael wouldn't have known that.
"Oh, he has the slightest idea. He just doesn't have the ability. He could be perfectly willing to kill someone, he just wouldn't be able to do it even if he was so inclined."
On the other hand, Greer does know about the knife and the shark, and has a better idea of what the TP can and can't do better than her husband does. Michael's study subject is Greer, Greer's study subjects are the TP. Of course, neither is very formal about it. Both regard their 'subjects' as friends and would place their friendships above their scholarly inclinations.
Michael rolled his eyes. "Great. So what brings us on the topic of Adam's biology?"
"He thinks he managed to kill."
"I can see that this is going to be occupying your time for a while. Still up to the trade?"
Yes, I actually have another (semi-unrelated plot strand in here. We're about to meet it.
"Yeah, do you know who's to meet?"
"Um...let me check. Another Adam. Adam Pierson."
"Wonderful. I hope he's less of a problem than our Adam."
I admit. I couldn't resist using Methos, since his current name is Adam - or was at this point in the series - and that he's another Immortal who's been/is in the Watchers.
"Should be - it's the usual drill. He picks up the package, hands me the request, I hand him their request. We have two happy camper groups."
"It's weird. Somehow, I didn't expect to be spending my life exchanging information between British Intelligence -MI5 I think it's called? And the Watchers."
I assume General Damon set this up. And really, it's the only reason I think I've ever given for why they're in London, and what they do.
"It is weird. It's also called life."
"Yes. It's weird, all right. Okay, you trade, I'll figure out what's gone wrong. Lunch first?"
"Lunch."
Gads. Even in my old fics, my characters keep stuffing their faces.
****
It was a good, if noisy day. The streets bustled with Saturday shoppers. They'd always chosen this particular cafe for lunch before their afternoon drops.
Michael held the disk with the information on it carefully with his hands. Greer was pondering the menu with more interest than she even had before, probably because she was paying half of her attention to it.
Have the disk in his hand. Yeah, that's smart.....
She'd be busy trying to figure out Adam's problem for probably the rest of the day and possibly the rest of the week. He knew how she felt about them; being unable to have children had somehow caused her to be concerned about the young people who heralded Humankind's future.
Greer looked up, greatly startled, and started looking around. Michael saw a woman coming into the shop, who also had the standard look of an Immortal trying to figure out who they've sensed. He figured that they'd either miss each other, or they'd begin a short conversation. He was quite surprised when Greer began smiling and waving.
The woman, astonished, came over to their table. "Georgina Lewis? Is that you? What happened? How?"
"'Tis me, Charity," Greer said. "Want to join us for lunch?"
The woman smiled in return and sat down. "And who is this?"
"This is my husband, Michael Gardner. Michael, meet Charity McCullen, she was a classmate of mine."
Charity's cameo in this fic was mostly because Wendy and I thought it would be fun to have a scene in here, showing that Charity and Greer knew each other.
****
Greer smiled as she sat down on the bench.
She'd had an enjoyable lunch with Charity and Michael. Once assured that Michael knew about Immortals, Charity had started chatting animatedly. They'd compared notes, talked about the university, Charity's deli (which she still ran), and how each other's life was going. Charity had told them that she hadn't detected that Greer was going to become Immortal, which had startled the both of them, and that she had taken on a protege named Gabrielle, who didn't know yet that she was going to become immortal.
This ties in with the storyline Wendy was working on at the time, with Charity and Gabrielle.
Greer was overjoyed to come in contact with Charity again, since she had enjoyed being around her before, when she was assigned to her by the Watchers. She'd had to explain, of course, how she'd become Immortal, and how she'd known Charity was Immortal, but the evasions that she'd learned in the Watchers server her in good stead. Even if she wasn't sure if Charity had bought her story about being good at observation. She'd left the entire deal with the Watchers out.
This being of course because Greer'd had problems when she had told both her mentor, Alberta, and Duncan MacLeod, about her watcher past. She didn't particularly want to tell yet another Immortal, particularly one she liked, about what she had been doing hanging out at Charity's deli.
It was too bad that Charity had to leave for her flight later that day. Greer gave her their address and phone number so that she and Charity could stay in touch.
I think Greer also gave Charity her email address, as Charity had it in one fic Wendy wrote. It's been a long time.
She'd needed the uplift in spirits, with Adam being in the mood he was. The park wasn't helping, and neither was the weather. Her husband was sitting on a park bench a few yards away. She'd settled down first, seemingly a young woman enjoying a bright (if cold) day. He'd sat down a few minutes later, on a bench under a tree. One might think that they were young, secret lovers instead of husband and wife.
I seem to remember that I thought at the time that they'd probably worked together and pulled this off before, in events before "Change of Perspective".
She shivered, partially due to the cold weather (which was totally normal for London at that time of year) and partially because of the problem that she was considering.
And then she realized that there was another reason. And that reason was walking down the path towards her husband.
The other Immortal was male. Dark haired, but the sunlight obscured her efforts to discern his eye colour. He was thoughtfully looking around, and she was glad she had muted her own reaction, the one that would have given her away as another immortal.
The reason Greer didn't challenge the guy then and there was because, of course, she didn't want to draw attention to Michael, nor was she the challenging type.
She looked away, and watched as he shrugged the feeling off. For the moment, anyway. She had no doubt that he was being very cautious.
Greer continued her watch of the Immortal while keeping an eye on her husband. And then, he did something unexpected.
At least unexpected to her. As any Highlander fan can tell you, Methos can be a very tricky person.
The Immortal was sitting down with her husband, talking with him. They had a few words, obviously some kind of discourse of ideas, and then the man left. She waited until he had left her sensing range, and then moved off.
****
Michael didn't remark on her mood as they came up to the flat. They had paralleled their courses for a few blocks, and then had ended up together, taking the Underground to the proper stop on the proper route. They settled down in the chairs, Greer nervously braiding and unbraiding locks of her hair.
Greer was so nervous, that she picked up one of my nervous habits, that of braiding my hair when I'm worried.
"What did you say his name was again?" she asked Michael.
"Who?" Michael said absentmindedly. "Oh, you mean my contact? Adam Pierson."
"You haven't met him before?" Greer asked him, concerned.
"Of course not," Michael said, clearly puzzled.
Clearly Michael needed to be watching his wife when Methos came in, but he didn't, much to his dismay and the advancing of my plot line.
Greer twisted her hair around, then tried to braid some of her braids together, rather unsuccessfully. She tried paying attention to the newspaper. She looked up to see Michael, who was staring at her rather anxiously. She then decided to speak up.
"He's an Immortal."
When Michael failed to produce a clue... Greer gave it to him. I think she was rather hoping he picked it up by himself.
"WHAT?" Michael exclaimed, then calmed down. "You're kidding, of course."
Whoever did the screening that missed Greer must have also been the one who missed Methos, I swear. Or they need a whole lot of retraining. (I'm not fond of this line... Michael should have known better, having *married* an Immortal ex-Watcher.
"No, I'm not."
Michael sat back down in the chair. "There's an Immortal in the Watchers?"
"It's happened before, you know."
Greer's reminding him of the events of "Change of Perspective", where she managed to hide her new status from him... at least until she got called into combat.
"Yeah, but I didn't think it would happen twice. And the scary thing is, I think I've heard his name before. Can't remember where."
"Please, remember where!" Greer said. "If there's an Immortal in the Watchers, we need to know how entrenched he is, how long he's been there, other things like that."
One thing that's important with Greer, at least in this timeframe, is that she still thinks of herself as a Watcher, is still concerned with the welfare of the Watchers, and so on. Heck, this is a lady who refuses to get rid of her Watcher tattoo! In her heart of hearts, Greer will be a Watcher until she dies.
"We?"
"Yes, we. Unless you want an Immortal in the Watchers, possibly using the information to track down and kill all the others."
Here I predict the Watcher CD fiasco, or make reference to it. I'm not sure. I think this story predates that episode.
"Not really. I mean, I don't want you to have any info if you don't want it."
"I don't want any info. It's enough that I remember as much as I do."
Michael sighed. Just then, twin flashes of light burst forth a few feet away. The light cleared to reveal Megabyte and an unfamilar young woman.
Yes, Michael, you married The Ultimate Watcher.
Greer forced a smile, hiding her bad mood about the Adam problem. "Hello, there. Decided to drop in?"
I assume I meant Methos and not Adam the TP. It could have meant both.
Megabyte grinned. "Well, you did say, 'drop in whenever.'"
"That I did. And who's your friend?"
"Oh," the young man said, apparently a bit embarrassed. "This is Jade Weston. Jade, this is Michael Gardner and Greer Lewis."
Greer met the other TP, but Jade had just broken out. I assume Adam N. forgot to introduce Jade because he was too busy brooding.
"Is she...?" Michael asked, amused.
The young man nodded. Greer's smile became genuine. "A new Tomorrow Person. That's wonderful news! She's the first one in, what, two years?"
Yes, Greer has dedicated herself to keeping track of the TP. It's the Watcher in her.