Mr Hyding

By Donna and Abby

The Fuzzy Penguin was overflowing!  People from Esperanza and Edan had flooded the place, and all were having a wonderful time.  It was nice, of course, to meet new people, and to see new things, but at the same time certain people continued to "hang out" together.  Doc Adams, who was wearing much the same as he usually did, stood close to his two women, Sarah Jo and Prudence.  Each of those women had other men, too, and those men were also close by. 

Sarah Jo was fidgeting with her country girl outfit, trying to pull the skirt down so that it didn't reveal quite so much of her legs. "Ben," she grumbled. "I swear I'm gonna get you for this. First you insist on me wearing this get up, and then you show up in your doc's outfit!" 

He grinned as he placed a hand on his own breast. "I am a mad scientist!  Have you never heard of Dr. Jekyll?  Or Perhaps Frankenstein?" 

"I read the books," she said. "I supposed you knew the author or something, didn't you?" 

He laughed, smiling happily.  Then he pointed across the room to where Methos was speaking to another young man.  "That's Lord Byron.  He did not write those stories, perhaps, but without him I daresay Mary Shelley would never have written Frankenstein.  And that man, there, is Shelley's husband, Percy." 

"Is there anyone that you don't know?" Duncan snorted. 

"Look who's talking," laughed Adams.  "What did Kalas say? 'Duncan MacLeod knows everybody!'" 

"At least for his time," said Mosby with a grin into his drink. 

"Could there have really been a Jekyll and Hyde?" Sarah Jo asked. "There are people with split personalities like that after all." 

"I sometimes wonder if someone was watching me a bit too closely," Adams said cryptically, no longer smiling as he said it. 

Duncan frowned. The Highlander knew a lot more about Methos' history than Sarah Jo did, but he wasn't sure why Doc Adams would say a thing like that. And Duncan wasn't sure he wanted to know! 

"Oh?" asked Prudence, snuggling up to him in her Dance Hall outfit.  At five months, she was still able to pull it off.  "What do you have hiding in your closet?"  She said it lightly, but suddenly Doc turned to her, and his eyes had gone golden. 

Sarah Jo froze, and seeing that, Duncan stood up. He had never seen Methos look that way before. "Doc?" he asked. "What's going on?" 

But Doc was looking only at Prudence. "You've got something under that dress, whore," he said evenly.  "Who put it there?” 

"Ben!" Sarah Jo gasped, surprised by the tone of her lover’s voice. 

Duncan was now trying to get between Adams and the bewildered pregnant woman. 

"Hey! What in the hell is your problem!" he yelled, moving Prudence behind him. 

He turned his eyes on Duncan.  "Is the bastard yours, then?" 

Before Duncan could answer, Mosby said, "No, suh, it is mine.  Now, if you have anything to say about it, Ah suggest we take it outside." 

Sarah Jo grabbed Pru's arm and pulled her back. Both women had frightened expressions on their faces. "Ben," she moaned. "Don't do this! You are scaring me!" 

Her voice was just high enough to cut through the noise of the party. On the other side of the room, a suddenly pale Methos saw what was going on, and he started to run.  But Mosby and Adams were already going outside. 

Duncan yelled at the girls to stay where they were, and he went running outside as well, right on the heels of Methos! 

Mosby, who had had two guns on him, and who had gladly and honorably given Adams one of them, was standing, coat thrown back and ready, in the center of the street.  Ben Adams had his gun in the pocket of his lab coat, which seemed an awful disadvantage. 

"What the hell?" Duncan gasped. "How can he get a gun out of a lab coat pocket? Is he wanting to get shot?" 

"Mosby's a dead man," muttered Methos.  "Get me a gun.  NOW!" 

One of the men from the fort had followed them outside, and Duncan without hesitation grabbed his gun, tossing it to Methos with one fluid motion. 

Without even thinking, Methos put a shot in his alter ego's shoulder.  The minute the bullet hit, another shot rang out, but fortunately it was wild.  Mosby's gun had just cleared his holster.  "Dear God," said the southerner.  "Ah'm considered very fast at the draw!  But Ah've never seen anything like that!" 

Methos went to check Adams, who was now lying quietly.  "Damn, Doc, why'd you let him out?" he asked.  He was nearly crying. 

"What is going on?" Duncan demanded. 

"He's gone," Doc said, holding his shoulder and wincing.  "Go ahead and tell them." 

Methos shook his head. "Next time the bullet goes in your fool *head*," he swore.  Then he turned to those watching and said. "Let's just say my angry adolescence outlasted that man there."  He indicated Bronze Age Methos.  "And straight into the wild, wild West." 

"Crap," Duncan swore. 

"As you can see, I was quite good at the art of the day."  Methos picked up Mosby's gun and gave it back to him.  "Called myself Able Cain.  I sincerely hope, for all our sakes, that he does not show up here in the flesh." 

"You and me both," said Adams.  "Bad enough he came out at an inopportune time."  His shoulder healed, he excused himself to go back inside.  "I have some apologies to make." 

He found the women clinging to each other, both of them white faced. "Ben?" Sarah Jo whispered. "Are you okay? What's going on?" 

"I am fine.  But as I said, I am apparently more like the fictional doctor in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel than I care to be."  He looked at Prudence and said, "I could never apologize for what I said to you." 

Prudence just sobbed as she fell into his arms.  She knew *her* Doc was back and that was all that mattered.