Suddenly, the overwhelming presence of another immortal washed over Duncan again and his brain and spinal column began to throb and tingle with the power it contained. Just as he had last night, Methos clutched at his head and squeezed his eyes tight. "Evil bees in my brain. Begone I say!"

Joe just gaped at him. "Evil bees? MacLeod, what's he talking about?"

Before Duncan could explain, the sensation faded into the sense of mere awareness and there came a knocking at the door. Richie's voice came from the other side. "Hey Mac. It's me, Richie."

Smiling, Duncan wiped his mouth and stood up. "Methos thinks that bees sting his brain whenever he senses another immortal. It happened last night, too." With that, he walked over to the door and let Richie in. The boy looked tired and there was a tightness of his jaw that spoke eloquently of his anger and confusion over the recent events. Duncan didn't blame him. The boy had fallen in love with a beautiful woman and had been floating on cloud nine. Then, his most trusted friend seemingly turned against him, the woman of his dreams tried to take his head and his foster sister was almost drowned.

Walking slowly and with his eyes cast down, Richie began to speak softly. "Look...uh, I just wanted to let you know that Maria's going to be okay. The doctor's at the hospital were able to flush the drugs out of her system and they've prescribed an outpatient treatment for her lungs to insure that she doesn't develop pneumonia or something from the water she inhaled."

A huge wave of relief washed through Duncan and a big part of his stress melted away. While he didn't know Maria too well, he did know how much she meant to Richie. She was a sister to him and always would be, no matter how old Richie got. The thought that she would end up permanently injured because of Kristin was just too much to accept, either for him or, he suspected, for Richie. "That's great Richie. I'm glad to hear that. She's a wonderful girl and she didn't deserve anything that happened to her."

Richie nodded solemnly and then a ghost of his normally sunny smile drifted across his face. "She's already decided to contact that jean manufacturer that wants her to model for them in Martinique. Hopefully they'll be able to work something out so that she can put this whole thing behind her. I mean, it would just be too much if this thing ruined her chance for a career."

Duncan sighed and nodded. That would be cruel of the fates, but he'd seen Maria. She was a truly beautiful young girl with a soft innocence about her. It was his opinion that the clothing company were fools if they turned her away. Gently grasping Richie by the elbow, he lead him away from the door and towards the main part of the loft. "Come on in and have some breakfast, Richie. There's...something that happened that you might need to know about."

One of Richie's fine eyebrows arched up and he allowed himself to be led down the short hallway. "It's about Adam...something happened to him from Kristin's Quickening. Apparently, he's still...um..."

With characteristic bluntness, Richie cut to the chase. "Whacked out of his head?"

Duncan grimaced at the crudity of the phrase, but didn't deny it. "Yeah...but Joe thinks that it's only a temporary response to the Quickening having stirred up all the other Quickenings that he's taken."

Richie nodded, "Ah."

Then they walked around the corner of the hallway into the main part of the loft. Methos glanced up at them, paused dramatically and then stood up quickly and sauntered over with an arrogant sneer on his face. "Cassie!" With that shout, Methos pulled Richie into another one of his big bear hugs complete with another grope to the boy's backside. With an exasperated grunt, Richie shoved the other immortal off of himself and Duncan was torn between wanting to defend his former student's honor and laughing at the absurdity of it.

Suddenly, Methos frowned and reached out to run his fingers through Richie's short cropped curls. Richie flinched away with a hastily shouted, "Hey! Hands to yourself."

Methos ignored his remark as a look of anger crossed his face with a frightening intensity. Both Duncan and Richie froze under that gaze. "Cassandra! Did Caspian cut off your hair again? That *bastard*!" Methos turned and jabbed at Duncan's chest with one finger. "I don't care what you say this time Kronos. Brother or no brother, I'm going to punish him for this impertinence. He is to *never* touch what's mine unless I give him permission to do so." Then Methos turned back to Richie again. "Don't worry, Cassie my pet. It'll grow back soon enough and I'll peel off a layer of Caspian's skin to make you a new belt with." Then he grinned and patted Richie on the bottom with a lusty familiarity. "Now be a good pet and bring us some ale, yeah?"

Confused and secretly bemused, Duncan let Methos sling an arm across his shoulders and lead him back to the table where Joe was waiting. He had no idea who Kronos was even though the name seemed to be hauntingly familiar and he wondered if he'd heard it somewhere before. He was more interested in the amusing fact that Methos still thought Richie was some long lost female named Cassie. If nothing else, between last night's butterfly impersonation, today's outfit and the multiple groping of Richie's ass, Duncan at least had a lot of material to torment the older immortal with once his marbles had all been collected and put back in the bag.

Reaching the table, Methos sprawled into his chair, a sharp contrast to the neat courtliness that he had shown earlier. He turned slightly and pounded Joe on the back, "Ah, Silas. You might want to round up your slaves and put them to tending your flocks and geese. I have a plan to take the Assyrian village of Thillandrosis and soon, my brother, we shall ride again."

Joe looked up at Methos, smiled and nodded uncertainly, and then turned his head to look at Duncan, a million questions in his eyes. Duncan had no clue so he merely shrugged and shook his head slightly in confusion.

Then, after shoving another bit of food into his mouth, Methos turned to Duncan and mumbled around his eggs. "So, Kronos...*mumble mumble* poison the well *mumble mumble* and make up several torches *mumble mumble* divide up the women and *mumble mumble*..."

Duncan didn't know whether to be thankful that he could only understand half of what the older immortal was rambling on about or to be morbidly curious as to what the full plan really was. It almost sounded as if Methos was planning a slaughter. Duncan shook his head, that couldn't be right. Before he could decide what to do about it in either event, Richie came over with the bottle of beer that Methos had requested and plunked it down in front of the old man.

Methos stopped his mumbling narration of his great 'plan' to grin up at the boy and simultaneously reach out and pinch his behind. Richie, finally pushed beyond the stress levels that he could calmly handle, turned and shouted, "I *said* to watch your fucking hands!" and then punched Methos right on the jaw. The older immortal went ass over teakettle, chair and all, only to thump his head loudly on the floor. He laid there in a daze blinking rapidly for a long moment and then gazed up at a silently fuming Richie with a confused look on his face.

"Ah...Richie? What's...um, going on? And where the hell am I?"

Duncan and Joe exchanged startled glances even as Richie snorted in frustrated anger. "What's going on is you insisting on playing grab-ass and where you're at is laid out on the floor. Pinch my ass again and you'll wind up right back there, you got that?"

Methos blinked. "Grab-ass?"

Richie growled at the older man and Duncan jumped up out of his chair and quickly got between the two immortals before the situation deteriorated even further. "Me...Uh, Adam. It's Duncan, Adam."

Richie backed away and stomped off into the kitchen. Sighing in relief at that, Duncan looked down in time to see Methos looking at him as if he'd grown another head. "Of course you're Duncan. I fell over, I'm not daft."

Duncan snorted and Joe chuckled even as Richie's muttered comment of, "Yeah right, now pull the other one, it's got bells on it." drifted over to them. Methos blinked. "What?"

Reaching out a hand, Duncan helped his friend up off of the floor and righted his chair. "Well, Kristin's Quickening seemed to play havoc on your mind for a while there Adam. Last night you insisted I was the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland and then this morning I was suddenly Augustus. You gave a stirring speech in Latin, but I'm afraid I have no idea what the contents of it were. After Richie got here, you kept calling him Cassie and called me Kronos."

Methos went pale, blushed red and then went pale again. Joe patted him soothingly on the arm, "Does this mean that I don't have to get my slaves to tend my flocks and geese while we conquer that Assyrian village?"   

Methos looked up at this startled and then moaned, burying his face in his hands. "Oh gods, it's happened again, didn't it?"

Duncan blinked. "This has happened to you before...this strange...uh..."

Methos looked up, a pained expression on his face. "Lack of sanity?" Duncan could only nod. "Yeah...a few times. Not every time, but enough that I don't like to take heads anymore. It's too...risky." Suddenly the embarrassment on Methos' face drained away to be replaced with a tightly coiled terror. "I...uh, I didn't...hurt anyone, did I?"

Suddenly, Duncan understood why this could be so dangerous. Not just to Methos, but to anyone around him. A battle trained immortal with a multitude of memories and personalities popping up all over could be deadly to everyone he met. He hurried to reassure his friend, "No! No, you didn't hurt anyone or damage anything. Well, except for your dignity and getting a bit too familiar with Richie's backside, that is."

Richie snorted from his safe position behind the kitchen counter. "Too familiar, Mac? He groped me twice, patted my ass like I was his personal property and pinched my behind. That doesn't include him calling me a 'lusty wench' and offering to peel the skin off of some guy for cutting my hair without his permission."

Methos' eyes went wide and his cheeks burned bright red. "Uh...Richie, I'm...well, saying that I'm sorry seems sort of trite, but I really am." Then, in typical Methos fashion, he buried the intensity of the moment behind a flippant comment. "I promise that the next time I grope your bottom that I'll call you by your own name."

Richie made a face at him. "Thanks." Then he put down his mug of coffee and backed away towards the hallway leading to the stairs. "Look, as exciting as Adam's mental breakdown has been, I've got to go home and shower. I promised Maria I'd take her home from the hospital and get her prescriptions filled out at the pharmacy for her." Turning to walk out, Richie paused and called over his shoulder. "Oh, and Adam? Nice outfit."

Methos looked down at the forest green, burgundy and gold paisley print sheet wrapped toga-style around his body and moaned in pure embarrassment again. "Gods...I'm *never* going to live this down, am I?

Duncan smirked. "Nope. In fact, I feel the burning need to tell you all about it, in excruciating detail. Shall I start with you flapping about the loft in nothing but a pair of boxers while you insisted you were a butterfly?"

Joe chuckled, Duncan continued to smirk and Methos sunk down lower on his chair trying to hide his face behind his hands. "I'll pay you lots and lots of money to *not* tell me what happened."

"No way old man. You're the one that declared me to be Augustus Caesar, so I'm going to use my authority ruthlessly to make you squirm."

Methos merely moaned in embarrassment again.

The End