Even though Katherine was now safely back in Edan and under the care of the physicians at the clinic, things were still rather uncertain. When she had been on the ship heading back to port, she had actually been retching up blood, and Dr Helm had resorted to giving her a mild sedative in order to make it stop. She was severely dehydrated and physically drained from the almost constant nausea and vomiting. It took a while, but the doctors finally got it under control, and from that point on, she recovered fairly quickly. But she was so exhausted, she slept for almost 18 hours straight.

When she finally woke, it was to the buzz of another immortal in the room. Even so, it was a struggle to get her eyes to open. Her body was stiff from lying in the same position for so long, and she moaned softly as she tried to move.

"Ohh, ohhh," a soft sound came from near her side. Opening her eyes, she saw Johnny looking down at her, concern clearly written all over his face.

"Hey, Johnny," she said with a yawn. As she stretched her arms, she noticed the IV line that were going into one of them. "I see you found the town and doctors." Johnny nodded and ran his hand through her hair, touching his forehead to hers.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," a familiar voice came from her other side. "You gave us all a fright, my love."

Katherine stiffened, almost afraid to look. "Connor?" she whispered, turning her head, wondering if she was dreaming this. He was on the other side of the bed, looking down at her with the same concern that Johnny had shown.

"Yes, Kat, it’s me. Alive and well," he said, tears misting his eyes as he took her hand in his and raised it to kiss it tenderly.

Katherine tried to say something, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, she wept uncontrollably, held tightly by the two men she loved.

* * * * * *

"I want me pipes," Kat grumbled for the fifth time that day. "And I want the clothes that was in the sea chest. There are baby clothes in them too. Looks like I will be needing them after all!"

"I don’t want to leave you to go back to the cove just yet," Connor said patiently.

"Then send someone else. But I want me pipes! The drums too! Musical instruments are more precious as far as I am concerned than a room full of gold!" She was propped up in her bed, wearing a hospital gown. A lunch of clear broth, thin oatmeal, and applesauce was on a tray beside her. She had eaten about a half of it, and so far it was staying down.

"I’ll send someone," Connor promised.

"Today?"

"Today."

Johnny, who had been listening carefully to the exchange, handed Kat the flute that hung from a leather belt around his slender waist along with his panpipes and knife. He had grabbed them both as they were leaving the tree house. He knew how important making music was to Kat.

"Thanks Johnny," she said with a smile. She was happy to see both Connor and him getting along for the most part. Connor had assured her that they had talked, with Jonathon and Lupe helping to translate when necessary, and some sort of understanding between the two of them had been reached, even though Johnny was still obviously trying to be the alpha male at times. Connor knew what he was doing, of course, but carefully controlled his own body language. He wanted Kat’s friend to know he was his equal when it came to Katherine. The two of them shared a common bond besides just having the same face - they both had the love of a special woman.

Katherine played the flute for a few moments, then laid it aside. "I’m a little tired. I think I will take a nap now. Connor, why don’t you show Johnny around? Introduce him to some of the people. And don’t forget to send someone for me pipes!" She wasn’t going to let the matter drop. Connor had a feeling that if he didn’t send someone after them, she would take off on foot to fetch them herself as soon as she was able.

"Sure, love," he said with a smile, leaning down to give her a tender kiss. Not to be outdone, Johnny kissed her as well, and the two men left the room. Katherine watched them go, and with a soft sigh, turned over on her side and within moments, was sound asleep. She didn’t even hear Sarah Jo come into the room and take the tray.

* * * * *

Everything in the town fascinated Johnny. Duncan saw them walking around, so he joined the two men. Connor took him into the mercantile, where Johnny made a royal nuisance of himself by touching and investigating everything he could. After that was the church, where he was introduced to the two priests. Johnny was intrigued by Father Alec, touching his clothes and hair and sniffing him, making soft ape talk all the time. Father Alec bore the exam very well, remaining still and talking gently to the jungle man. But when Connor stepped over to the piano in the corner of the church and started to play, Johnny jumped around in excitement for a moment before settling down to listen, humming along softly to the melodies of the songs.

After a while, he raised up the panpipes attached by a woven vine to his belt and proceeded to play them along with the music Connor was playing, interweaving an almost haunting counterpart to the main melody. Both of the priests were impressed. "Would you be interested in playing the piano during the services?" Father Ralph asked Connor, who just grinned.

"Maybe. Once Kat is back on her feet, she could do it too," the Highlander answered. "She also has a flute."

He played several more songs, and then firmly escorted Johnny out. He was determined that he was going to try to play the piano himself! Connor solved it by promising to teach him how to play later on.

The next stop was the stables, where Johnny met Gideon, whom he instantly seemed to like. Gideon thought it was funny the way Johnny patted him on he head and made ape talk to him.

"I have to finish brushing a horse," Gideon said after a moment. "Mr Grisham wants to ride." He then turned and went back to grooming the beautiful horse. Connor led Johnny around the stables, letting him pet and talk to all of the horses there. He seemed to have quite a way with them. Johnny found a brush like the one he saw Gideon using, and started to mimic his actions, and with a little help from Connor, he was soon doing a very good job of grooming the friendly black yearling filly that was stabled next to Methos’ red bay.

Gideon grinned at Johnny as he led Grisham’s horse out of the barn. A few minutes later, an angry voice could be heard from outside. "I don’t want a dummy like you touching my horse!" Grisham yelled at the top of his lungs, making the horse shy and pull away from the confused Gideon. The horse then took off down the street at a dead run, lead rope dragging on the ground.

"You idiot! Now look what you have done!" Without warning, he backhanded Gideon across the side of his face, sending him to the ground in a limp heap, his face bleeding from where Grisham’s fancy gold ring had sliced him across his cheek.

A loud roar rose from Johnny’s chest, and he bounded from the barn, over a fence, screaming his outrage. The lord of the apes grabbed Grisham by his coat, lifting him high and shaking him like a leaf before slamming him down on the ground, his knife at the man’s throat. It took the efforts of three men to pull him off of him. Sputtering with fear, and angry at the indignity that had been thrust upon him, Grisham staggered to his feet. But before he could voice his complaint of being viciously attacked by that uncontrollable savage, the sound of snickering could be heard. A dark wet stain was spreading across the front of his riding britches. Apparently he had been so terrified he had lost control of his bladder.

"I’ll take him to Methos," Duncan volunteered, grabbing Grisham by the collar. "Wet pants and all. Hopefully Lupe won’t rip his throat out when she hears about this."

Still being held by Connor and a couple of other men, Johnny growled deeply at Grisham, fury written on his face, making Grisham turn white. Johnny was making it quite clear that he wouldn’t mind ripping out Grisham’s throat himself.

As soon as Grisham was led away, Johnny shook off the men holding him. He picked up the knife that Connor had wrestled out of his hand and sheathed it before dropping to his knees beside the dazed Gideon, tenderly touching his bleeding cheek and making soft "ohh ohh" sounds. By that time, a large crowd had gathered, and one of the doctors came running up.

"He is going to be fine," Giles assured everyone after he did a quick check of Gideon. "But let’s get him to the clinic where we can fix up the cut on his face." Gideon was helped to his feet, his legs shaky and a sad, bewildered look on his face.

"Why did he hurt me?" he asked. But no one had a good answer.

Gideon was a very special person, and well loved by almost all. If Methos didn’t sufficiently deal with him for assaulting Gideon, there was more than one man in the crowd that was contemplating making Grisham pay for what he did.

Johnny patted the top of his head, hugging him close. He had been the alpha male, the protector of his ape troop. Since the apes were gone, he was transferring his attentions to the humans. Especially the ones that looked like him, like the defenseless and gentle Gideon. Together, he and Connor helped the shaken man to the clinic where he would be well taken care of.