Title: "Anniversaries"
Author: Rebecca Bradstreet
Rated: PG
Archive: Sure
Summary: In Paris to mark one anniversary Grayson is reminded about another.
Warning: Talk of a Quickening, and a kiss.
Disclaimer/Notes: I don't own Grayson, Darius or any of the other Highlander characters in this story. They belong to Panzer/Davis. I do own Theresa Joy "TJ" Grey. This story is set in my version of the To Be/Not To Be timeline "The Light in the Dark" AU. I don't own "Stand Inside Your Love" it's by the Smashing Pumpkins. I use // as thoughts, and ** as emphasis. Being a Lyric Wheel story this is unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own. Hmpf gave me the Smashing Pumpkin lyrics. ;)
"Anniversaries"
Rebecca Bradstreet (c) 2001Paris 2003,
A tall man with dark blond hair sat on a park bench in the moonlight. Grayson was dressed warmly. He knew he wouldn't be disturbed in the park both because of the hour he was visiting it, and the time of year. He wondered why he came to the little park every year.
//It isn't as if I have to come here to listen to you, Darius. You're with me all the time. Your Quickening changed me so much old friend. TJ says your Q left me recast as a child and a mystic sage. I don't know about the mystic sage part, but there are plenty of times when I feel like I'm a little kid again.// He'd taken Darius' head a few feet from the bench he was sitting on. Grayson had been so empty without being able to see it, hollowed out with a hatred he found hard to understand anymore. It had been important then he knew, more important than TJ's love for him. It was easy to tell people that Darius' Quickening had filled him with love, with a *real* understanding of love, but it wasn't quite true.
//Even then I loved TJ. I might not have had the sense to know it, but she did. Did she ever tell you how it puzzled me that I never frightened her? TJ had the good sense not to try and explain it to me. I'd have been so angry at her. I couldn't have understood it even if she'd tried.// Grayson pulled his coat tight around him, closed his eyes, and had the midnight quiet broken by an Immortal buzz. Someone was walking softly through the snow toward him.
"It's been ten years. Will you still be coming here in a century -- a millennium?" TJ asked softly as she placed her hands lightly on his shoulders.
"TJ? I was just wondering why I keep coming here. I wish I could tell you why, but I don't understand it." Grayson took one of her hands.
"However much Darius' Q has changed you there is a connection between you and me that doesn't seem to change." Theresa smoothed some of his wavy hair.
"After 800 years it does seem to be immutable," he agreed, pulling her from behind the bench, guiding her to sit next to him on the bench.
"811 today. If I were someone else I *could* resent Darius for bringing you here on *our* day." TJ leaned against Grayson.
"811 Today? If you were someone else you might have run off to travel the world with Methos five years ago." He put an arm around her.
"If I were someone else maybe. *This* is where I want to be." She put an arm around him.
"Your home is here, hu?" Grayson squeezed her, and smiled.
"My home is where ever you are, love." TJ squeezed him, and answered his smile with one of her own.
"Happy anniversary TJ." He leaned in close, and whispered to her.
"Happy anniversary Grayson." She kissed him.
"Stand Inside Your Love"
by Smashing Pumpkins
The lyrics I used in the story I've highlighted with *'s*you and me*
meant to be
*immutable*
impossible
it's destiny
pure lunacy
incalculable
insufferable
but for the last time
you're everything that I want and ask for
you're all that I'd dreamed
who wouldn't be the one you love
who wouldn't stand inside your love
protected and the lover of
a pure soul and beautiful you
*don't understand*
don't feel me now
I will breathe
for the both of us
*travel the world*
traverse the skies
*your home is here*
within my heart
and for the first time
I feel as though I am reborn
in my mind
*recast as child and mystic sage*
who wouldn't be the one you love
who wouldn't stand inside your love
and for the first time
I'm telling you how much I need and bleed for
your every move and waking sound
in my time
I'll wrap my wire around your heart and your mind
you're mine forever now
who wouldn't be the one you love and live for
who wouldn't stand inside your love and die for
who wouldn't be the one you love