Sandcastles Chapter Three
Sandcastles
By Darian
Sorry that it took me so long to update, this time I don´t have an excuse I was just being too lazy to write anything. But hey this chapter is the longest one that I EVER wrote so forgive me please 8o)))
Chapter Three
Methos was just pulling Duncan´s second favorite sweater over his head when someone knocked hesitantly on the bathroom door.
"Come in.”
The door opened and revealed a very embarrassed-looking Sarah. Her cheeks were still as red as right after the moment when Duncan had introduced them to each other. And her eyes were looking anywhere but at him.
"I……I want……. to….. apologize. For the ……earlier.” Her voice was barely a whisper at the beginning but it was getting steadier and louder as she continued.
"I´m really, …..really sorry, I thought that you were here to kill us.” Her cheeks brightened even more after that statement when she realized what she had just said.
"I mean……well don´t meant that you would, sorry……… sorry, I will just stop talking so I won´t put any more feet in the mouth that I already did.”
She still stood in the doorway and was fiddling with her arms nervously. She looked like she would rather be anywhere but there. If the earth opened right now at her feet to swallow her up she would probably have jumped into the hole without the slightest hesitation.
"Apology accepted.” Methos lips twitched as he saw visible relief in her face. But she still looked like she didn´t want to leave.
" Did you need something else?”
"Oh……….Uhm… I just wanted to ask you if wanted to wash something. I will be doing laundry so I can add yours.... to it too?”
"Thanks for offering, that shirt I was wearing this morning saw over half of this planet since its last washing…..literally. I just got here from the States last night.”
Her lips twitched but she still refused to look him in the eyes.
Oh for gods sakes.
Methos sighed. People in this century were such prudes. Not even two thousand years ago in Rome you could run around as an athlete naked and everyone actually cheered you on and if they really liked what they saw they even made you a statue or two.
Today you couldn´t show a patch of skin without making someone flustered.
He made a mental note to visit the Louvre soon. They still had one of his statues as a part of an Ancient Rome exhibition. It was almost intact if you overlooked the missing nose but at least no one would be able to recognize him. He had given it to them as an anonymous gift last summer when he went through one of his many warehouses looking for a thirteen century manuscript that would make a rather nice Christmas gift for Joe and decided to tidy it up a little.
He really needed to buy another one soon. Right now several of them were filled to their full capacity. In five thousand years you could pick up a rather impressive pile of junk even if you kept only the bare minimum of your possessions. His library alone was currently scattered over twelve warehouses, some of them weren´t even on the same continent.
Methos took his clothes from the counter next to the sink and gave them to her. She still refused to look at him as she took folded shirt and jeans from his hands.
Methos mentally rolled his eyes.
This was getting ridiculous. He planned to stay at least several days until he found something more permanent and this whole thing was already getting on his nerves.
People saw him in much worse states than just without his clothes.
For example that night in Sodom which involved full amphora of really cheap wine, two prostitutes, a camel and a crowded main hall of the Innana´s temple right in the middle of the harvest festival. Not one of his brightest moments when he agreed to participate in the fertility rite that was part of the celebrations. He still couldn´t recollect the whole night but the few pieces that were clear made even him still blush after almost forty centuries.
Enough, old man, you can go through your embarrassing memories of your teenage years later, right now you need to deal with this.
"You don´t need to feel bad about earlier, it was an honest mistake and it could have happened to anyone.”
Macleod´s wife snorted laughingly and finally lifted her eyes from the tile floor that she had been thoroughly examining few seconds earlier.
"Do you often attack people with a sword while they are taking a shower?”
Methos grinned right back at her. Looked like Duncan really liked the sharp-tongued ones too. The Highlander had always good taste when it involved women; it balanced his poor choices of music.
Maybe I should buy him some Queen DVDs for his birthday again.
"Only when they really deserve it,…….. or when they steal my favorite shampoo.”
"I'll try not to do that in the future, but thanks for the warning.” Her eyes were twinkling with silent laughter.
"Duncan is making breakfast. I will just put these into the washing machine and join you two in the kitchen.”
"Ok, thanks, I really hate doing laundry.”
"Don´t mention it, it´s the least that I can do after almost decapitating you.”
She finally left with her eyes still twinkling and he followed her out to the main living area. Macleod was standing behind the stove in the kitchen corner and was mixing some kind of omelette in the big frying pan. His mouth watered at the smell.
I just hope that it will taste better than that spaghetti that I made for Joe. Or we will probably have to order pizza again.
"Do I even want to know what you put in it, or is it better to be left in the dark about its contents?”
Highlander threw a glare at him.
"I will let you know that this is my famous vegetable omelet, people would kill for it. Sit down at the table and you will soon find out yourself.”
"Then let's hope you made enough, because if your wife wants to have seconds it could get really ugly. She has a really mean right handed swing.”
This time Highlander had at least the courtesy to blush.
"I´m really sorry about that, she normally gets home much later. Night shift at the hospital must have been really quiet, I thought that I'd be back before she arrived.”
"Another doctor, huh. You seem to collect them quite often, my friend.”
"Actually, she's a nurse at the children's wing of the Metro hospital, and for the record only the doctor I ever dated was Anne so I wouldn´t call that collecting.”
"Yeah, whatever you say, so where is that famous omelet you promised? I´m starving.”
"Don´t worry, it's almost finished.” Macleod turned off the stove and added the last pinch of salt.
"Here we go. Omelet ala Macleod, hope you will like it.”
Methos started to eat as soon as the Highlander served him his portion. He'd only had a light dinner on the plane, well, if you could call those little colored pieces of rehydrated gods knows what food.
The cardboard boxes that it was packed in probably tasted much better.
Hmmm, not bad. Maybe I will stay a week or two longer than I previously planned.That coffee isn’t bad either.
"You know I´m rather hurt, we've known each other for over ten years and you never mentioned me to your wife. And there I thought that we were best friends.”
"Actually, he did mention you very often.” Sarah came from the laundry room carrying a basket full of clean laundry from the previous evening and gracefully put it aside while taking her own plate from Duncan.
"He just never told me that you go by the name Adam Pierson. He always used the name Methos.” She answered and started to eat her still hot omelet.
The words oldest immortal slammed the fork that he was eating with loudly onto table.
"Dammit Macleod, do you want to get me killed? How many times did I tell you not to use that name. It took me centuries to turn myself into the myth and I want it to stay that way at least several more.”
"She won´t tell it to anyone, you can trust her. I explained how important your secret was”
Loud clearing of a throat interrupted their argument.
"Love, its rather rude to talk about someone while they are in the room, you know I can speak for myself.” Sarah turned towards Methos.
"And I´m giving you my word that I will never reveal anything to anyone about you without your permission. My husband told me how many times you stood at his side when he was in trouble and how many times you saved his life. And I would like to thank you for that.”
Methos calmed down and relaxed his pose in the chair again.
He knew that Macleod would never reveal the truth about him to anyone that couldn´t keep it secret. And it was rather hard to keep something like this from your own wife. Even small untruths could ruin a marriage and that was something that the Highlander would avoid at all costs.
Sarah was still watching him during her meal and waiting anxiously for his reaction.
You are getting soft at your age, old man.
" You are welcome, you know kids these days always getting into some kind of trouble, you really should keep an eye on him, he is rather hard to handle sometimes.”
Sarah´s laughter echoed though the loft while Macleod threw a deadly glare at him promising all kinds of bodily harm.
"Trust me I know. But training is still in progress and I have a high hopes for this man.”
"Hey, you should be on my side not on his, last time I checked it was me who you married.”
Sarah put her now empty plate aside and petted the Highlander's cheek lovingly.
"Of course I´m always on your side love, I´m just teasing you and you know it. So stop brooding, it doesn´t suit you.” The frown on Macleod´s face instantly melted away and was replaced by a gentle smile when she stood up on her toes and kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Well I'm knackered, hope you gentlemen don’t get into any trouble while I catch up with my beauty sleep. Oh and ……Adam, I found this inside of your jeans pocket, you have a beautiful family.”
She reached into the basket with clean clothes and pulled out a Polaroid photo.
Methos felt like somebody stabbed him in the chest with a dull knife. All color disappeared from his face in a matter of seconds.
That picture, how could he forgot about that picture, it was from the day that they spend on the beach, from the day that he asked Julie to marry him.
He could still feel the warm sand under his knees as he knelt in front her and begged her to spend the rest of her mortal life with him. It was in the spur of the moment he hadn´t even had a ring, for god's sake. And she still said yes, she said yes.
One of his happiest days in his five thousand years full of grief, blood and Death.
His trembling fingers reached towards the picture, afraid it would disappear in the moment he touched it. That it would crumble under his hands like that sandcastle that they'd build during a tide. Afraid he would lose the last reminder of them.
Strong arms encircled his shaking shoulders and returned him back to reality. The gentle Scottish brogue got louder and the words started to make sense again.
"……thos, Methos what´s wrong, tell me what happened. What´s wrong.”
The Highlander and his wife both glanced quickly at the photo but nothing seemed amiss.
Well, the only thing that was a little strange was that his paranoid friend let himself to be photographed in the first place. He had known the man for over a decade and didn´t have any pictures of him because Methos refused out of fear that someone might recognize him one day as a mild watcher researcher specializing in the mythical Methos and put two and two together.
The picture looked rather nice. It captured a blonde woman with loose thick braid and radiant smile; her hands were put onto the shoulders of a little boy with messy dark hair that stood in front of her. Methos was embracing them both from behind and grinning happily into the camera.
"Hunters.” The world's oldest immortal whispered into the silence. "Headhunters came the day before the wedding. Two of them.”
TBC
Please, please read and review. If you let me know that you liked it maybe I will make me update sooner next time, really I swear 8o)))