Another short one I thought you would like. Enjoy. Pulled from the files. No changes.
Subj: The Gift
Date: 10/24/96
To: hlfic-l@psuvm.psu.edu
Standard disclaimers for this short piece. Highlander ain't mine, never was and never will be. But then I'm only borrowing, not keeping. Just for those that read a lot of my scribblings, I seem to be in a snipet mood lately. In another words, not in the mood for something serious and long. I just finished watching re-runs on USA (again) and they showed the one about the Methulsah stone and then the next one....Alexa's grave stone........Crap, that just does not do it for me folks...I mean I liked the character. And I love Methos...so here's a short one from the depts of my warped mind...................m
The Gift
by mhm
Adam sat in the chair and leaned his head into his hands. Reaching across the bed, he took Alexa's hand in his and brought it to his lips.
She looked so fragile he thought like a delicate flower on a hot summer's day. Cursing first her mortality, then his immortality to himself, he leaned across and laid his face against the white sheets. "Anything." he thought again for the millionth time. "I would give anything. Do anything.To have you with me one more day."
The tingling in his mind, brought on by the approach of another of his kind, made him raise his head and look towards the door. A beam of light from the hall fell across the still form on the bed as the door opened.
A figure stood in the doorway, outlined in the light. Stepping into the dim room and letting the door close behind her, Methos sighed as he recognized his old friend Zyra. Shaking his head, he thought of the irony of it all. In the doorway stood a woman so old, she had died millinia before Methos was even born. He closed his eyes for a moment and "felt" her. The strength, the antiquity. His heart started to pump faster and his breath came in gasps. He looked into her eyes and smiled. Knowing she was no longer a part of the game, didn't make it any easier. She smiled at him and closing her eyes, lowered the barriers that protected her so well.
He stood and watched as she crossed the room. All these years she'd only changed a little, outwardly. But he could feel the strength in her that still made him quiver. He held out his arms, so she could see he carried no sword.
She was tiny and dark and moved like a shadow. Methos knew she only came to his chest. Her ebony hair that normally flowed down her back to her knees was plaited into hundreds of tiny braids that fell across her shoulders. He could see the glint of thousands of beads worked into the midnight tresses. As her face appeared out of the shadows, he saw the tattoos across the dark brown of her skin. Swirls of blue, red, and yellow. Sacred colors. Earth colors.
Zyra wore a simple sand colored sheath that fell below her knees. Ropes of beads and trinkets were wrapped around her tiny waist, her ankles and laid against the gentle swelling of her breasts. She carried a fur lined cloak and wore ornately beaded moccasins on her feet. He heard a slight tinkling as she moved as though accompanied by hundreds of tiny bells.
Stopping in front of him, she looked at him and searched his face.
"You summoned me?" she asked. The richness of her voice moving into his mind, soothing and calming.
He took her hands in his and bowed his head over them. "Help me." he whispered. "She's dying."
Pulling her hands from his, she glided to the side of the bed and looked down at the still form. Alexa's face was so pale, her eyelashes casting deep shadows against the white of her cheeks. Her chest rose and fell as the machine breathed for her. But she lay still, as if already gone from this time and place.
Wrinkling her nose at the offensive mediciny smell, Zyra leaned over the still form and touched her fingers to Alexa's throat.
"What is your wish?" she asked the other immortal. Looking across the bed to the worn face of her friend.
Shaking his head, Methos sighed. "Whatever you wish to give.""he told her.
Reaching out, she ran her fingers down the pale cheek and then touched the pale blue lips. "She lingers." she told him.
"I know." he sobbed. "Please!"
"I can not save her." Zyra told him. "It has gone too far."
Collapsing into the chair, Adam stared at the woman who had become such an important part of his life. He shook his head and looked at the ceiling. "I just had so much to show her." the ancient immortal whispered, tears running down his face. "So much I wanted to tell her."
Zyra once more laid her fingers against Alexa's temple. The dark brown of her fingers a sharp contrast to the paleness. The silver on her fingers, wrists and arms glimmered in the faint light as she straightened up and looked at the man slumped in the chair.
"The showing time is past." she whispered. "But I can help with the telling part. I can give you some time."
"You can wake her up?" he asked hopefully.
"No," she sighed, shaking her head sadly, "But I can trade places with her. For a short time."
"Please?" sighed Methos, "Anything."
"I can not maintain the link for long." she told him. "I can offer you twenty-four hours. No more."
He gasped and went to take her hands in his. "Please." he asked her. "I need this time with her."
Zyra looked at the woman on the bed and then at the face of her friend. How long had they known each other she wondered to herself. So long. This was a hard thing for her to do. Not impossible, just hard. Reaching out, she released the metal rail of the bed, and then sat on the edge of the bed.
Reaching over, she gathered Alexa's unconscious form into her arms. Putting her head against Alexa's she looked at Methos, "Remember." she said "Twenty-four hours." Then closing her eyes, she opened the link.
Alexa wandered in the darkness of her subconscious, she was resigned to her fate. Knew this was the end. She was scared, just a bit. More for Adam than for herself. She hated the fact he watched her die like this. But he had given her so much. Shown her so much. Had she made sure he knew how much she loved him. Had she said thank you. She was interrupted by a gentle voice that called her name.
"Alexa." came the softness again.
She opened her eyes to stare into a mirror image of herself. Deep pools of chocolate stared at the still form on the bed. Bringing her hands to her breast she could feel the panic start to rise.
"Alexa." came the soft voice again and she turned her head and looked to the source.
"Adam?" she whispered. "What?"
He leaned close and took her face in his hands. "It's all right." he told her.
"Am I dead?" she asked.
"No." he sighed.
"Then what?"
"This is a gift." he told her. "A gift of time. From an old friend of mine."
She held up the ring covered fingers and stared at the dark brown hands. Shaking her head, she asked "Why?"
"Because there is so much I want to tell you." he whispered. "So much more I want you to know about me."
"I don't understand." she said. Looking at the still form on the bed.
"Come." he said and helped her to stand. "I have it on the best authority that we have twenty-four hours."
She stood there and looking back at the bed, she sighed. "I have a lot I want to say to you too." she told him.
Putting his arms around her shoulders, he led her from the room. "For a start." came his voice as they walked down the hall. "My real name is Methos."
On the bed in the silent room, the still figure smiled in her sleep.
The next day, Zyra opened her eyes and rose from the bed. She looked down at the still form of Alexa as she lay. The battle was over. Alexa was gone. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the man who sat in the chair.
"Thank you." he whispered as the tears fell from his eyes and splattered on the coldness of the tile floor.
She shrugged her shoulders and looked back at Alexa. "What are friends for?" she answered. Laying her fingers on his shoulder, she let him see Alexa as she was in those last few moments. Happy and unafraid. Saddened only by the fact that this really was good-bye for her and Adam.
"Will she remember me?" he asked. The tears catching in his throat.
"I don't know." she answered. "Maybe."
Wrapping his arms around himself, he looked up into the face that lingered over him. "It never gets any easier."
She sighed as she turned to go. "No." she said, shaking her head. "" It never does."
Methos watched as the ancient one left the room, her shoulders slumped just a bit. Her step slowed a little and he got a glimpse of thousands of years of watching others die. Thousands of years of feeling others suffer and reaching out to help whenever possible.The millions of people that this one immortal had known, helped and loved down through the years Then standing, he leaned across the bed and kissed Alexa's lips for the last time.
FINIS