Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 13:05:27 -0700 From: Freewoman I got this idea after reading part of Out There. I thought, what would happen if Duncan (Highlander) found Nick instead of Reece? This is my story. I've mucked around a bit with some HL stuff. This part only has Duncan in it; the next part should have an FK in it. It's also a tad bit depressing. AND, this is my first one, so be nice, please. Also the name that was signed on to this list is my mother's, since the account is under her name; please note that my name is Julia Glover, not Faith Freewoman. Nick and company do not belong to me; I'm just borrowing them. Duncan and company don't either. UNANSWERED QUESTIONS Part 1/7 "Light and dark, good and evil-what are these things? Are they just words or are they states of being? Could one person's evil be another man's good, or do they just depend on the person his nature what was destined to be and do?" Duncan Macloud "The shadows of life" 2016. The wind and rain did a merry dance around the sky, causing havoc for other drivers. Duncan sat in his car, he felt alone but he wasn't. Tessa sat next to him her body rigid with fear; but in her eyes he saw the woman that she once was and would be again. She was only now remembering how to form words, other than his name. ********* May 1996. Duncan raced to Toronto after Dawson's call. *I'm the last* he thought. That didn't matter right now. All that mattered was that his Tessa was still alive according to Dawson. "She'll be all right sir, but I can only let you in for a few minutes," the orderly said. "Fine. I just want to see her" said Duncan. He'd sat next to her for a long while, longer than he'd expected. When he was told to leave he smiled at her and left. Her eyes pleaded with him to stay. "Duncan" her weak voice reached his ears. Another orderly turned "That's all she's said. We don't know who she is calling for." "That's my name. She's calling for me" said Duncan. "So you know her"? "Yes. Her name is Tessa Noel, and she's my fiancee." "Very good Mr. Macloud. I hope June got that right?" "She did. You still want me to leave?" She nodded and Duncan left. - Julia Glover Nick&Natpacker UNANSWERED QUESTIONS part 2/7 "They say the hardest thing to lose is a child. This is not so; the hardest thing to lose is love and hope, and when the one person who embodies these qualities for you dies you can stand no more. Your life has ended even with years left to it." Duncan Macloud "Life's Love" May 1996 LaCroix looked down at the body of his fallen child with contempt. He'd always known he would outlive his children, especially this one. He'd known this day would come! Even with this knowledge, seeing Nicholas here lying lifeless next to his beloved Natalie did not make it any easier. He left the shutters open. The sun would turn his son's body to ashes. Natalie's would not be found for weeks; who would come looking for him, anyway? The only two people who visited him were dead and undead. Who would know? ******* May 1996 "Nick, I thought you were a cop! You left your door open......" Duncan stopped short. Then "Oh God" Nick's body staked through the heart lay next to a women's. The women was pale and appeared dead. Duncan knew what happened. Duncan knelt by nick's body and smiled, keeping back tears. "So this is your Natalie, Nick." He closed the metallic shutters. "She made you happy. I hope that you're with her." He put his hand on his friends face, then passed his hand over his eyes. "I'll make sure you're together" Duncan vowed. -Julia Glover Nick&Natpacker UNANSWERED QUESTIONS Part 3/7 "I have lost many people in just a few years, but I hold on to the belief that were they are they are happy. What I found the hardest was not the loss of one person or many, but somehow discovering that I had a very empty life without them." Duncan MacLeod "Going On" 2016 Duncan sat in the car remembering the brilliance and heat of the flames he had set that night, covering both their bodies. Then sending their ashes together down the stream. Next to him Tessa's eyes met his, much calmer now that the rain had passed. It distressed her when they were on the road. Twenty years of therapy were beginning to pay off, but she had not grown a single wrinkle. Whatever they did to her, they gave her eternity to get over it. He'd started his first book fifteen years ago and, it had come out five years ago. Never in his life had Duncan thought of himself a writer, but after winning The Gathering and suffering the loss of a dear friend right after it, he'd had to sort things out. Five years later he thought of writing books, not just for him, but for anyone going through a life changing process. He could almost hear Connor sometimes saying "You Duncan, a writer? I thought you were a warrior!" -Julia Glover Nick&Natpacker UNANSWERED QUESTIONS 4/7 "I had this reoccurring dream for about five years, until I started this book. Nick would come up to me. He would smile and say 'Thank you Duncan for what you did for us. May you live your years in happiness and peace.' He'd then shake my hand and turn to her and walk away." Duncan MacLeod "Going On" 2016. Duncan pulled into Toronto a city he had not been in since the funeral. ******** December 1996. The hall emptied quietly. Still Duncan sat there, deep in thought_of Nick, of their long friendship, of the questions that still bothered him. Why in bloody hell would those two try something like that?! He had thought about it over again and again; nothing could explain it! Nothing could erase the feeling of missing something some vital portion of the puzzle that would make it all the peaces fall into place. "Mr. MacLeod?" Duncan turned around. "Yes, what can I do for you?" he said, a little more icily than he intended. "Captain Joe Reece." Joe took a breath, then continued. "Do you have any idea what might have happened? I mean why someone like Nick would just disappear? He did leave almost everything to you and Natalie and with her gone.." Duncan put his hand up. "Captain, I've been going through that in my head too and I" Duncan took a deep breath, keeping back tears "can't think of any reason for this. Nick was a good man, a good cop. Nothing computes as to why something like this might happen." "Thank you, anyway. I guess we both will have to accept that they are gone and get on with our lives." "Yes, Captain get on with our lives. I'm afraid that I'll be leaving soon, but it's good to know that Nick had a good and happy life here." "Will you ever be back?" "Maybe" Duncan said, "but not for a while the wound is to fresh. It hurts to be near this city." Duncan smiled. "Besides, Tessa needs the best money can buy, and that is not in Toronto." Joe shook Duncan's hand. "I'm sorry for your loss, and may you be more fortunate with your Tessa." Duncan smiled at the gesture. "May you find some peace as well, Captain wherever this life takes you." Duncan walked out of the cemetery and toward the long and uncertain future ahead of him. -Julia Glover, Nick&Natpacker (freefolk@halcyon.com) UNANSWERED QUESTIONS 5/7 "I once asked Connor why he believed in what was going on in our lives without question. He turned to me and made some comment about me being a 'doubting Thomas.' I didn't discuss it with him ever again, but he knew that I wanted more than the answer 'just because.' Connor just didn't need answers. He put himself in a shell and was determined to stay there." Duncan MacLeod "The Shadows of Life" 2016. Duncan parked the car and got out. He opened the door on Tessa's side. "OK, Tess we're here! I'm going to get you out of the car; then we'll go to our room." Duncan reached in and helped her out of the car. She took his hand, glad to be out of the car. Duncan always wondered what it was about cars and roads that made her so nervous. Doctor Smith had been a great help, with explaining and setting up a program for Tessa with Duncan's help. Duncan understood now that this shell she wrapped around herself was a defensive mechanism. He opened the door, and Tessa entered and starting to do her usual patrol of the room while Duncan went to fetch the bags. 2001. Duncan looked at the computer with contempt. Why in bloody hell was he doing this? " Maybe because you need to process some of this garbage you're carrying around with you, Duncan" he muttered to himself. " Is that the book you've been thinking about starting?" asked a voice behind him. "Yes" said Duncan. "How is she doing?" "When are you going to stop asking that?" "When you stop looking like you have news, Smith" "Well, she's doing all right. We got her to stay in a car without screaming and fainting for 30 whole minutes," said the doctor. "Any way of knowing why she is so afraid?" "You ARE processing, aren't you? She probably was raped and beaten in a car is my best guess." Duncan nodded and finally turned to Smith. "Thank you for helping both me and Tessa." "It's my job." "You've done more than your job, and you know it! So thank you for being kind, understanding and for not asking all the unanswerable questions." "You're welcome Duncan." UNANSWERED QUESTIONS 6/7 "We all have lovers- people with whom we feel close enough to have an intimate relationship-but few of us have life mates. Few of us look hard enough, or perhaps we simply do not see that one person who is destined to make us whole again when we do not know that anything is missing. I was fortunate enough to find that person, and so was one of my dearest friends; and when you have that kind of love, nothing else and no one else ever comes close to that person." Duncan MacLeod. "Life's Love" 2016. Duncan flipped through the letters from Nick one caught his eye and he sat down and started to read. "Dear Duncan, "My friend, the most wonderful thing happened to me today, and the saddest thing. I've fallen in love. I remember all the times you told me the wonders of it and how it compares to nothing else in the world and how you never get over or want to. You were right! I have thought I was in love before, but I was wrong. She makes me so happy, just by a smile, a touch even by nagging me about too much blood. Her name is Natalie and she is helping me with my cure. She knows what I am, Duncan, and still she cares for me! Loves me? At least I hope she does! "How can I doom this women to a life with me? Tell me how you rationalized it, because I'm in desperate need of advice and a friend who does not lecture. She is everything, Duncan, and I feel that these years will be the happiest and perhaps the last of my life. "Foolhardily, Nick" Duncan smiled and put the letter back. Nick had truly loved her, and she him. That gave him some amount of peace, knowing Nick died for true love. ******* 1880. "Do you think you will ever fall in love completely?" Duncan asked. Nick smiled. "I don't know if I can, but I hope that I do, my friend. I'd like to spend the rest of my life with someone who truly loves me and will never leave me." "So would I" said Duncan "so would I" ******* Duncan smiled at that memory. They had only been wishing then, not expecting those wishes to come true. They did come true, for the most part, just in the way they had anticipated. -Julia Nick&Natpacker UNANSWERED QUESTIONS 7/7 "For once-just once-is it to much to ask the universe to have a storybook ending where everyone lives happily ever after? Probably that's why we make them up, because they so rarely happen. Also, nothing ends. Everything is a beginning. Something that may seem full of sorrow now may turn out to be a wonderful ending at the end of your life your story or is it just another beginning." Duncan MacLeod "The Shadows of Life" The door bell rang and Duncan hurried to catch it. He opened the door and said "Can I help you?" "Yes. My name is Lucien Lacroix and I want to know what you had to do with my son?" "You're Nick's master?" "Yes. You are?" "Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I'm the last of my kind of immortal and a close friend of Nick's." Lacroix stepped in. "I thought no one would know he was dead until days later. I was wrong. "Where did you put the bodies?" "I burned them and put them out to sea so they could be together forever. Why did they do it?" "Nicholas was leaving and Natalie wanted to be with him, no matter what. There was a cure, but it took a risk of making love to a mortal. Natalie talked Nicholas into taking that risk." "And he took to much and asked you to kill him." Duncan finished for him. "Thank you! Now I at least have one unanswered question answered." "You're welcome, and I am glad that it is someone who knew Nicholas who put him to rest. Now both of us can rest in somewhat more peace tonight, knowing at least this answer." Lacroix turned to leave. "Lacroix if you or any of your kind ever need my help, look me up." Lacroix turned and left without another word. Duncan walked into the bedroom, where Tessa was sitting on the bed waiting for him to go to sleep. He looked at her one unanswered question had been answered, but her answer was along way to go maybe another 20 years away. At least he would sleep with a lighter heart tonight and no longer worry about how and why of Nick's death. The end? -Julia Nick&Natpacker. I'd love to hear what you thought of my first attempt Write me at freefolk@halcyon.com