Title:
Perspectives: Joe: Discovery
Author:
Endaewen
Series:
Perspectives – Characters thoughts on the events of “In The Open”
Fandom:
Highlander
Rating:
G
Summary:
The discovery of immortals by the general public. A series of connected vignettes. Joe's thoughts and perspective on the chapter “Discovery”.
Disclaimer:
All characters and settings belong to Davis/Panzer.
It's been one heck of a day, and everything's changed, but yet it hasn't. The day-to-day minutae of life goes on unchanged. I know, that doesn't make sense, but I've got to put this down somehow for the Chronicles. This is going to be a day to remember. This was the day when the existence of Immortals was revealed to the general public. It is no longer a secret held only by the Immortals, and the Watchers. What the world will make of it has yet to be shown.
When I woke up to the phone ringing at four this morning, only two possibilities came to mind. Either that something had happened to Amy, my daughter, or that one of my Immortal friends had fallen to the Game. Thanks to my job involving following Duncan between Seacouver and Paris on an irregular basis, I don't have too many mortal friends, and most of them are Watchers. Most of them have backed away since the revelations of the treason trial and my friendship with my Immortal.
So, to find out that it was none of these things was a relief. Not that Methos made things much clearer with his demand that I put a Watcher on Mac's loft. Because it was Methos, the five thousand year old Immortal speaking, and not his Adam Pierson, researcher persona. Especially, as Mac was at Adam's apartment. So, why did he need someone to run surveillance on the dojo? At leas I still held the position of Area Supervisor, so it was something I had the authority to order.
The only explanation he gave at that time was to say
“Remember that conversation we had a couple of weeks ago?”
The only conversation I think he was referring to was one about the eventual revelation of Immortals.
With the surveillance team sent out, I was too awake to go back to sleep, even though I knew my performance at the bar that night was going to suffer, so I turned on the T.V. Not much was on the news, really, the biggest story was about a murder at a gas station. At the time, I didn't think twice about it.
I spent the next few hours dealing with the paperwork of my many jobs. Running the bar is a full time job on it's own. On top of that, I have to keep Duncan's chronicles up to date – which was a lot easier when he was more or less out of the Game before the last couple of years, and do my job as the area supervisor. All three occupations provide an ever growing amount of paperwork, of which there are not enough hours in the day to deal with.
Then, I half-heard the update to the case at around seven in the morning, something about a mysterious second victim and I immediately began to pay full attention to the T.V. Not that it did me any good. There was no more information. Still, the pieces started to come together in my head.
One: Methos, a friend of Duncan's requests surveillance on the loft. Duncan's at his apartment. Two: Duncan arrived before four in the morning. I did some mental calculations and the time was about right for him to have been at the gas station around the time of the murders. Three: the reference to that conversation. Four: a mysterious second victim, which wasn't reported at first.
MacLeod
must have been that victim. He certainly wasn't the murderer!
A second phone conversation with Adam confirmed it, and I got MacLeod's version of the events as well.
Nearly two hours later, the second shift of the surveillance team went out on duty. Soon after, the Watcher doing the first shift brought in his report, including the audio notes he'd made throughout the night. I looked them over quickly, then took them over to Adam's. Just that quick look though, was enough to make me grateful for two things: one, and most importantly, that Duncan hadn't gone home last night, and two, that Adam had told me to put the team on the building. Until that moment, I'd thought it was a wasted effort.
As we went through the report at Adam's, I was reminded again how Methos survived those five thousand years he's lived. He has a keen grasp of strategy, details and implications. That's also what made him such a good researcher for the Watchers. Well, that and the personal knowledge he's gained by living through the times. It also helped, of course that he was researching himself, and doing more to keep himself hidden than actually working to find his subject.
I got back in time to just as the phone stopped ringing, and to turn on the T.V. to the promised press conference.
Obviously, something new had come up, with the way the reporters were asking questions. It seemed as though they'd heard something the police representative wasn't prepared to admit to. From the sounds of their questions, someone had leaked an account of the security footage of Mac's recovery. Not the actual footage, but a description.
During the first half hour of the conference, the phone rang again. It was the Watcher hired by the police. She was phoning to let me know about the conference, and to say I should be watching if if I hadn't been already. She knew who it was from the description as well. Mac's pretty well known on sight and description among the Watchers. Especially after that time was in the Headquarters last year.
No sooner had I hung up on that call, and focussed back on the conference than the phone rang again. And that was the start of it. Almost every one of Mac's Immortal friends on the North American continent, along with Anne Lindsey, his former girlfriend started calling for confirmation of what was happening. The notable exception was Richie. I guess his was the call I missed as I got in the door. I didn't get to see much of the conference after all. I ended up answering questions, and redirecting some of the calls to Methos. Not all of them, only the ones who already had his number. I didn't think he'd appreciate something like twenty probable strangers getting his number.
Not all the calls the rest of the day were from Duncan's friends though. There were several calls from other Watchers wanting confirmation of what had happened as well.
The next months, or even years are going to be interesting as the world both reacts and adjusts to the presence of Immortals in their midst. I'm hoping things will go smoothly, but I know better than to expect it. Not after seeing the Watchers turned Hunters and the problems they caused. Hopefully, I can talk to Adam sometime in the next few days and see what his perspective is. He's lived through so much that he might be able to predict how people will react better than I can. And figure out what MacLeod can do now. Hiding won't be an easy option for him. Not with the way the story's been carried across the States. I'm sure that by tomorrow it will have spread through Europe and Asia.
He's also got so many enemies, or at least that's how it seems these days. Thanks to this, they'll all have a much easier time finding him, if they are interested in taking his head. I hope he keeps a low profile and a good watch out for them.
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