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Date: June 8th, morning
Location: Forest
Status: Public
Summary. Duncan goes for a morning run

Feeling a need for fresh air, Duncan decided to go for a run before his morning exercise.

He left the premises at a brisk trot, headed for the forest.

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Maybe it was a nice holiday, if you weren't crippled and couldn't just leave whenever you liked, Jan thought. But he couldn't tell McLeod so.

"Oh, I've had enough of them approach me pretending to want to be friends. They all turned out to be after my head in the end, though. I much prefer the friendship of normal humans, thank you. At least they hardly ever try to kill me."

McLeod chuckled. "Come to think about it, I've had more mortals try that one on me than immortals."

He held out his hand. "Look," he said. "I promise I'll not try to kill you... here or elsewhere. And I hereby offer to teach you, properly, if that is what you wish."

Jan shook his head.

"I promise to give you the benefit of the doubt - because you appear to be Benjamin's friend and because you haven't killed me yet, not because of merely the things you say - but I cannot trust you that far. I won't try to kill you unless you try to kill me."

McLeod didn't have to know that Jan very much doubted that he could kill him anyway.

McLeod laughed. "Agreed," he said. "To that I agree gladly. We'll be eternally safe from each other then. Or well, that is unless you start to randomly slaughter mortals. In that case, I would feel compelled to stop you."

He held out his hand, palm open and up, waiting for Jan to take it.

Jan hesitated, but then hesitantly let go of the gun he'd been clutching in his pocket and took McLeod's offered hand.

Was it a wise move though? McLeod probably couldn't miss the missing thumb - or the fact that Jan's hand was shaking.

McLeod smiled at the other immortal.

"Most of us aren't that bad," he said. "Methos, for example... You guys know each other, I gather?"

"You mean Benjamin? I knew him a long time ago. Before ..."

"Before me?" Duncan suggested. "That's likely. We only met maybe 15 years ago. In any case, what I mean is, he's spent hundreds of years hiding himself in plain sight without ever coming within reach of a swordfight."

"Before ... my ... death, I meant," Jan said. "But yes, that was a lot more than fifteen years ago. I haven't seen him since then, though, so you probably know him better than I do anyway."

He shrugged trying to pretend that it didn't really matter.

"Ah, he met you as a fledgling. You didn't die while he was around, right? If you did, I would have to give that man a very severe talking-to for not taking you on as his apprentice."

Some of them did that, leaving young ones to fend for themselves. They were the kind of immortals that he didn't mind beheading as much.

"Oh no, nothing of the sort, that happened a year or two after we parted, though I do wish he had warned me. I had no idea what had happened to me at first."

He did not want to get Benjamin in trouble with his friend no matter how uneasy he still was around the man.

"It can be hard to warn someone," Duncan pointed out. "Unless they witness you revive, they're note likely to believe you. Methos hasn't been big on risking being recognised for what he is for as long as I've known him... I'd be surprised if he was any different back then."

Jan had to think about that for a moment.

"To be completely honest, I don't think there was much danger of that. I'd probably have thought he was joking."

"I don' think he would have wanted ta risk it anaway," Duncan said, his Scottish accent growing stronger as he thought back at his own past.

Jan sighed.

"I liked him," he said more to himself than to McLeod. "Even admired him in a way. I thought I knew him."

He'd trusted him was what he meant, and a very strong part of him still did, but then he had been much more trusting in that distant past.

"He's still the same person," McLeod pointed out.

"But am I?"

And could anyone really be the same after this long? But that was a question he ought to discuss with Benjamin. If they still were the same they would both enjoy it a lot.

"Deep down where it matters you'll always be the same person," McLeod said. "Filtered by more and new experiences maybe, but at the core, you'll always be you."

"I was human then - or thought I was. Now I know that I am not and I've had time to find out what that means."

Yes, that did make a huge difference. He'd never again be that innocent.

Moved to http://www.ltsafehouse.com/sites/thread.php?type=1&name=Thread%20243

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