See Part One for Full Disclaimers and Author's Note.

- Two -

Claudia's fingers paused over the keyboard, then she withdrew them and shook her head.  "I can't.  I just -- it won't work."

Rhea sighed and sat down on the bench beside her.  "Yes, it will," she said softly.  "Immortality, fearing death, all that is just excuses.  Your gift is in here," she tapped the brocaded vest over her heart, then her forehead, "not up here.  Stop thinking and start feeling again.  That's what's been missing."  Claudia gave her a doubtful look and Rhea sighed, with a touch more exasperation.  "Remember what you said, about playing when you were a child?"

"I'm not a child anymore."

"No," Rhea agreed.  "But that didn't interfere with your gift as an adult.  Why should not being mortal anymore interfere with it now that you're Immortal?" Claudia looked thoughtful; Rhea pounced on the crack in the walls.  "Close your eyes."

Claudia looked at her in surprise.  "What?"

"Close your eyes," Rhea repeated.  Claudia looked to MacLeod, seated in the front row, only to have him frown and shrug.  Rhea followed her gaze and caught MacLeod's; she chuckled.  "I'm not going to try anything inappropriate," she said dryly, her eyes sparkling.  "Come on."

With a sigh, Claudia complied, though she was obviously puzzled.  "Good," Rhea said.  "Now, relax.  I want you to think of ...  of the most beautiful sunset you ever saw."  Claudia's brow furrowed and Rhea smiled.  "Do it," she said.  "Now...describe it to me."

Claudia frowned, then fixed the image in her mind and spoke.  "I was in Arizona," she said slowly.  "I was staying at a house out in the desert...the hills were a few miles away, but they looked like they were right up close.  The sky turned the most incredible shade of orange at first, then crimson...so deep...I'd never seen colors that deep."

With every word, she relaxed visibly, and a small smile started at her lips.  MacLeod looked at Rhea, but the woman's gaze was fixed on Claudia; he looked back to Claudia as her voice continued.  "As the sun sank lower, the hills became this stark, black outline.  And all around it, crimson and above that, the sky was purple and blue and pink.  All the colors of the rainbow..."

"What did it sound like?"

MacLeod frowned at the question, but Claudia didn't.  She simply seemed to consider briefly before answering, "Chopin.  It sounded like Chopin."

Rhea nodded and her voice dropped to a murmur.  "Play it for us."

Claudia frowned minutely, but it wasn't from confusion; more like she was choosing something.  Her hands rose to the keyboard and she played.

MacLeod leaned forward, caught in the beauty of it, the sheer power and love in the sounds Claudia brought from the keys.  He could almost see the sunset she envisioned, feel the radiant glory of the sight...and the woman he wanted to share it with, the wild tumble of her dark hair about her against the sheets of his bed.  Was it as soft as it looked? Rhea's gaze moved to his as Claudia played and he smiled as their eyes met, a dozen wild thoughts rushing through his mind, corralled by the music.

Claudia's eyes opened slowly as the last note faded.  She stared at her fingers on the keys, then turned to Rhea.  "I did it," she whispered, stunned.  "I did it!"

Rhea smiled broadly at her.  "Yes, you did," she said, and let out a cry of surprise as Claudia hugged her fiercely.  When the other woman pulled back, there were tears in her eyes; they inspired cousins in Rhea's.

"But how-?!"

Rhea chuckled, feeling a tear slip free.  "You've been thinking of life as the time before you die: mortality.  That's why the thought of Immortality was so difficult, why you had to feel death in order to feel life.  But that's not what life is, Claudia."  Her voice turned gentle, almost motherly, despite the fact that she was Claudia's junior by a good ten years.

"Life is so much more.  It's sunsets, and the laughter of children, watching a movie with friends.  Laughing, crying, wanting, giving.  Life isn't the interval before death, it simply is.  And it is so full of beauty, in all different shapes.  Wonders and discoveries, friends and lovers.  And music.  Life is music, Claudia.  All the great composers knew that, deep inside; that's why they evoke such emotion in us.  You were so wrapped up in reaping the rewards of your music that you forgot what it was really about.  That's why you lost your music when you thought you lost your life.  But it was never gone; it was just hidden."

Claudia smiled tremulously.  "Until now.  Thanks to you."

Rhea shrugged, uncomfortable under the grateful gaze.  "You would have figured it out eventually."

"Eventually," Claudia agreed dryly.  "Before or after I let some one take my head?"

Rhea looked away for a moment, then returned her gaze to Claudia.  It was so quick, the other woman didn't even notice it; MacLeod did.  He wasn't sure what it meant, but he determined to talk to Rhea.  In truth, he had determined that far before this, even before Claudia played, but he had only admitted it to himself now.

I want to know her, find out how she knows so much about life at such a young age, know the thoughts that make her eyes shine so.  And I want to hear her play again, see her eyes as she does.  More than that, he wanted to see them as he made love to her, wanted to see if her olive skin was the equal to his own when it was bare.  He swallowed hard at the sensations those images brought, surprised at himself; he hadn't felt that intensely about a woman for a long time, and certainly not in so short a time.

He realized with a start that Claudia was speaking.  "Did you hear, Duncan?" she asked excitedly.  "Did you hear it?!"

He smiled, happy to see the overwhelming joy in Claudia's eyes.  "I heard, Claudia," he assured her.  "It was...wonderful."

Claudia laughed and got up to run over to him, hugging him as he came to the stage.  "Yes," she agreed.  "It was!  I can feel it, Duncan!  All the fire...I need to play more! I need to feel it again!"

She raced back to the piano and Rhea and Duncan exchanged a look remarkably similar to that of parents fondly indulging a child's whim.  Claudia sat down and looked up at Rhea, who had stood when the immortal ran to MacLeod.  "What next?"

Rhea laughed and MacLeod felt his heart, as well as certain other parts of his anatomy, tighten in response.  "Whatever you like," the young woman said.  "It's your gig."

Claudia smiled happily and thought for a moment, then placed her hands on the keys and started a piece by Tchaikovsky.  The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.  "The first time I saw snow, in New York when you took me to see The Nutcracker -- you remember, Duncan?"

Duncan smiled.  "I remember, Claudia."   He looked at Rhea, letting his gaze go soft as it met hers, knowing it had the desired effect when her breathing changed, her eyes fixed on his.

Suddenly, she blushed, as heavily as her skin-tone would allow, and looked away.  "I have to go," she said suddenly, clearing her throat.

Claudia stopped and looked up at her in confusion.  "Why?"

Rhea looked at her, then at the floor and curtains; anywhere but MacLeod.  "I left my violin with Joe.  I should get it before someone drops a beer on it or something."  She gave Claudia a reassuring smile.  "You know how protective we musicians are of our instruments."  She started for the stairs at the edge of the stage, moving hastily.  "Besides, I have to check into my hotel before they toss my reservation and I end up sleeping outdoors."  She was half-way up the aisle before either Claudia or MacLeod could do more than open their mouths.  "I'll see you later."

Then she was gone, her last few steps a near run, and Claudia turned confused eyes to MacLeod.  "What was all that about?" she wondered aloud, though her gaze seemed to Duncan to suggest she knew exactly what it was about.

She was only partly right.  Duncan knew the other part though, and cursed himself for not having considered it before.  He had seen a beautiful woman, obviously as interested in him as he was in her, and had dismissed the most vital piece of information about her.  She was a Watcher.  She had risked a great deal for Claudia, but friendship and romance were two very different things.  No matter how much either of them might want it, and Duncan knew from the flush on Rhea's cheeks that she did want it, there was not a snowball's chance in hell of either of them getting it.

Duncan sighed and shook his head.  "Politics," he answered softly.



From the moment she had seen him, she'd lost the battle and Rhea knew it.  MacLeod had an aura that the Oracle of Delphi could have seen clearly.  She had felt as if someone had knocked all the breath out of her, even before she saw Claudia at his side.  And it did not help matters at all when he looked at her that way at the concert hall, his gaze an almost physical caress against her skin.  She shivered again, remembering it, and felt her body responding just as loudly in other ways.

She had been glad when Claudia came to see him, for a variety of reasons.  Firstly, the hope that Claudia would now learn how to use a sword, and secondly, because she had heard so much about the Highlander and wanted a chance to see him in person.  Be careful what you wish for.  She'd met the man behind the legend and had found him to be even more appealing than any fantasy of him had suggested.

MacLeod was the most purely sensual man she had ever seen, as well as being drop-dead gorgeous.  But in addition to that, he was honorable, compassionate, willing to give his life for his friends, as he had proved at Dawson's "trial", and he had a smile that could tempt a saint.  In short, it would have taken a much stronger woman than Rhea to resist him.  Unfortunately, regardless of character, she was a Watcher, which made all of it a moot point.

Rhea sighed wearily and leaned her head back against the head-rest in her car as she reached the parking lot for Joe's.  "Shit," she muttered.  "I had to be assigned to Claudia.  I had to come to Seacouver and follow them out of the bar."  She looked at her reflection in the rear-view mirror and frowned at herself.  "I had to have been celibate for over a year and a half."

She sighed again and composed herself, then ran into the bar with the intention of simply grabbing her violin, thanking Joe, and leaving.  She pretty much succeeded, though Joe did give her a curious, and worried look.  She reassured him as best she could that no harm had been done, but begged off conversation, saying she was tired from her trip.  "Maybe later," she told him.  "When's that poker game?"

Joe sighed, realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere at the moment.  "Thursday, 7 o'clock p.m.," he answered.  "But you're free to come by before then.  Any time."

Rhea smiled.  "Right," she said.  "Thanks, Joe."

Joe nodded, then watched her leave, tension in every line of her face and body.  He shook his head, wondering, then decided to find out the only other way left to him.  He left the bar in Mike's capable hands and went to visit MacLeod.

Unfortunately, what MacLeod told him didn't serve to make him feel any better.  "What are you, nuts?!" he exclaimed, not sure whether to rant or laugh.  "Mac! She's a Watcher -- you can't take her out to dinner and a movie."

MacLeod scowled at him.  "I know that, Joe," he said stiffly.  "I wasn't intending to.  All I said was that she is a very attractive woman and that if I could, I'd ask her to dinner."  He sighed and tossed the towel he was holding onto the sink.  "But I can't, so I won't, so you don't have to worry about it."  He was silent for a moment, then gave his friend a hopeful look.  "So you think she likes me?"

Joe scowled good-naturedly at him.  "She's a woman, ain't she?"

MacLeod wisely didn't point out that he was fully aware of that fact.

Continued

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