They’re finally together again, after a hundred years or more of waiting, the Magnificent Seven is together again. I, and my fellow Watchers before me, have watched this man cry as his friends died off one by one while he was cursed with the gift of Immortality.

: Note to myself, edit this before transferring it to his official Chronicle. The head honchos frown on the idea of Immortals being cursed by their Immortality.:

Uh, oh, freeze frame time. Either he knows I’m watching him, or he’s felt the buzz of another Immortal. Time to duck back into the shadows.

Thunk, clang, clang, clang.

Dammit, they never tell you about this at the academy. How the hell am I supposed to silently keep watch over one of humanity’s champions if I keep tripping over my own feet and knock over garbage cans.

A familiar chuckling makes me look up. He’s standing over me again, the twitching of his lips threatening to break out into full-fledged laughter.

“You’re my new Watcher?” He asks, pulling me to my feet.

“Yep, I already knew the seven of you, so the Watchers made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I keep tracks on you, you are allowed to edit my reports before I send them in, and we can freely exchange data.”

“What happened to the days when Watchers weren’t supposed to be known by the Immortals they watched?”

“Joe Dawson broke that rule all to hell with his friendship with a certain dark-haired highlander.”

We part company inside the garage. I pause to put my Watching gear away in the car. I keep a second camera upstairs in my desk, not for official reports but for capturing the antics of my boys on film. And trust me, my boys get into a lot of mischief.

Heading out to the lobby, I bend down to stroke the cat twisting his way around my ankles. Looking around, I see somebody has recently filled his food dish and grabbing a bottle of water from the box, I fill his water dish.

With a yowl that echoes through the empty garage, Cuervo dashes to the water dish and drinks his fill. I head back towards the lobby, pulling money out of my pocket to buy a paper, a couple of muffins, and a roll of antacids.

Nathan’s at the elevator as I head that way. He’s frowning at me, wonder what I did this time?

“What’s with the antacids? You’ve been popping them like candy all week.”

“Bad case of acid indigestion. Buck’s chili should be considered a dangerous weapon.”

‘I want you to see me or Rain. You shouldn’t still have indigestion a week after eating his chili.”

“Only a week, Damn, I must be losing my touch.” Buck says, shoving an arm though the closing doors. The doors open again and Buck holds the door long enough for JD to limp through them.

“And you should still be in bed. That was a bad sprain, the only reason the doctors released you was because we promised to keep you off your feet for a couple of weeks.”

“The big brass wants to go over my report of the shooting. The demanded that I come in this morning so they can question me about some ‘irregularities’ between what happened and the reports from another team.” JD says in disgust. The turban of bandages that he had been wearing when released from the hospital has been downgraded to a patch of white over his left eye that gives him a slightly lopsided look. He’s moving slowly, Nathan knows that his ribs must still be bothering him.

“Does Chris know about this?”

“Oh yeah, he was cussing a blue streak this morning when he called.” Buck says, pushing the button for our floor. “They called him up about an hour ago, demanding our presence immediately.”

We all get off on the twentieth floor. The office is empty of the others and I go to the break room to grab a carton of milk from the refrigerator. Going back to my desk in the common room, I look over to see the doors opening and Chris Larabee enter the office.

“Buck and JD show up yet?”

“Yeah, we shared an elevator up. They’re in their room right now.” I say, pointing to the closed door that leads to their office. The man in black walks across the room and raps on the door.

“We’re nearly ready Chris, just have to get the last couple of files together for the damn witch hunt.” Buck bellows through the door.

“Never mind, they called the damn thing off.” Chris says, heading back to his office.

“What the hell do you mean they cancelled the goddamn inquiry?” Buck bellows, throwing open the door and staring at Chris’s retreating back.

“Just what I said, they called the damn thing off. Seems Talbot has been under investigation by internal affairs for the last six months and they have proof he falsified the reports. They don’t need JD’s report now, they got proof from internal affairs and the local feds.”

“Well, shit.” Buck says, slamming the office door on JD’s enraged voice. A second thud announces the fact that Chris’s door was closed just as firmly.

“They ordered me over here and then cancel the damn inquiry?”

“You’re kidding.” Nathan says, looking at the closed door to Chris’s office. “What the hell is going on up there?”

“Judge Travis’s office, PLEASE.” Chris growls from his office, loud enough to be heard by everybody in the outside room.

“I don’t know, but Chris is going to find out.” Buck says in satisfaction, pouring himself a cup of coffee and grabbing another carton of milk from the refrigerator. Handing it across the table to JD, he reaches into his jacket and takes out a couple of pill bottles.

“Time for your medication.”

“Damn things make me sleepy.” JD says, pushing the bottles away. Buck frowns and pushes them back into his hand.

“Then you can sack out in the break room. We ain’t supposed to be here anyway.” Buck says, standing over his roommate until the pills are swallowed. The door across the room opens again and Ezra Standish enters the office, pulling off his coat and neatly hanging it up.

“What is going on? I could hear Mr. Larabee yelling the minute I stepped off the elevator.”

“The brass is running around in circles biting their own tails.” Buck says in disgust. “They called JD in off of medical leave to answer questions about irregularities in his report and then cancelled the damn meeting.”

I rummage through my in-box and hand Ezra a package before he goes into his office. A smile almost crosses his face as he takes the letter knife from my desk and peels off the paper.

“What is it Ez, dirty pictures?”

“No, Mr. Wilmington, it is some reference material Ms. Jones found for me on the Internet.” Ezra refuses to say more, taking the envelope and locking it in the bottom drawer of his desk as the outer door opens again and the last two members of team seven enter the room.

Vin Tanner takes off his dripping leather jacket and places it on a hook. Josiah is busy unwrapping the wool muffler from around his neck and the muffler and coat join the others on the coat rack. The mist that had been threatening all morning turns into a light rain that coats the windows as four of the seven members of the team settle down to work on reports. Chris is still on the phone with Judge Travis, JD is dozing in the break room, and Vin is making a pot of his infamous coffee when the lights flicker and every computer in the office crashes.

“Penelope?”

“Already on it.” I call as I pick up the telephone, calling down to the computer center on the fifth floor.

“One of the mainframes is down for repairs. The LAN won’t be up again for at least 48 hours.” I report after getting off the phone.

“Let’s take an extended lunch then.” Chris says from his office doorway. “Buck, wake JD up and we’ll go to the Saloon. Leave that for later Penelope, we’re all going.”

Ezra takes my coat from the closet and helps me put it on, ignoring the catcalls from the others.

“A proper gentleman always helps a lady on with her coat.” He merely says, taking my hand and gently kissing my knuckles.

Once down in the garage, we decide on which vehicles we’re taking. Buck helps JD into his truck, Nathan rides with Josiah, Chris grabs Vin by the collar and pulls him into his Ram, and Ezra holds the passenger door of his jaguar open for me.

“Will you open that envelope for me? I’m amazed you found those old photographs.”

I open the envelope and pull out copies of photographs another Watcher had sent me when I got this assignment. The black and white background shows an old west town and seven men are gathered in front of a sheriff’s office. I look at the faces of the men, knowing that I work with one of them every day.

“Can you tell me which one is supposed to be my great-grandfather?”

“Yes, the note says that he’s the second man from the left. The others are identified as Sheriff JD Dunne, Buck Wilmington, Chris Larabee, Vincent Tanner, Nathan Jackson, and Josiah Sanchez. According to my friend, they were hired to keep the peace in a town in New Mexico before it became a state. The town later died out during World War II as most of the young men left for war. When the war ended those who were still alive chose to stay in the big cities. It’s a ghost town now.”

“Is it still standing?”

“According to my friend yes, it’s a well kept secret by the natives. According to the local tribes, there’s a legend that the seven will return one day and the town is kept ready for them.”

“What is the name of this place?”

“Four Corners.”

We’re the last car to pull in the parking lot and the others are waiting impatiently for us at the door. Ezra gets out and opens my door, helping me out of the car, and keeping a protective arm around me as we walk to the door of the Saloon. The others have gone inside and Ezra joins them in pushing two tables together so we all have room to sit. I drop my coat on a chair beside JD and head for the bar to place my order. Inez looks at me across the bar as I settle on a stool.

“What can I get you Senorita?”

“A coke.” I say, and lowering my voice slightly add, “and to introduce myself. I’m Penelope, Michael said to tell you hi.”

“I’m not sure I understand you Senorita,” Inez says, turning to stare at me, her eyes narrowing.

I place my hand to my cheek, pulling back my sleeve enough to show a glimpse of the tattoo on my left wrist. She nods and turns back to her work, an identical tattoo gracing her own wrist. Turning back, she hands me a glass and a bottle of coke.

“Meet me here later tonight,” she whispers as she hands me my drink. “We have much to talk about.”

I nod quietly and head back to the table, settling between Nathan and JD. A waitress brings their drink orders and taking their orders, leaves again. The food arrives ten minutes later, and a piece of paper is tucked under the platter of baby-back ribs placed in front of me.

Slipping the paper into my lap along with my napkin, I open it under the table and sneak a quick peek while JD and Buck are lobbing pretzels across the table at each other’s plates. Excusing myself to go to the bathroom, I head instead for the office in back.

Knocking quietly at the door, I step inside and find Inez and another woman waiting for me.

“Penelope, this is Maria de la Vega, regional supervisor for the Watchers.”

“Pleased to meet you Ms. De La Vega,” I say shaking her hand and taking the chair Inez motions me to.

“So you’re his new Watcher. Tell me a little about yourself.”

“I’ve been a watcher for a little over ten months. My foster father is Immortal and I kept seeing somebody out of the corner of my eye every so often. I finally had enough and, taking the bull by the horns, cornered him one day and asked him who he was and why he was taking pictures of my family. He denied that he was following us until my father saw the watcher symbol and told me to let him go.”

“Your father knows about Watchers?”

“It was a Watcher who found me and gave me to my father to raise. It was during a duel, a headhunter had attacked his watcher and challenged my dad. Dad won the challenge, found Daniel barely alive, and took him as a student after he died. Daniel found me a couple of years later and took me to Dad, knowing I would be safe.”

“A Watcher just knocked on an Immortal’s door, gave them a baby, and nothing was ever said about it? It should have showed up in the chronicles if nothing else and Watcher/Immortal communication is still frowned upon.”

“You mean besides, ‘Congratulations, It’s a girl.’ Not really, Daniel and Dad were already partners. He just opened the door, handed me over, and went upstairs to the attic to get the crib down. Dad says he just looked down at me, looked at Daniel’s retreating back, and said ‘here we go again, don’t tell me she followed you home.’ To which Daniel replied, ‘Yeah Dad, Can we keep her?’ Seems there was a duel in the neighborhood, Daniel was on his way home, by this time he was Dad’s official Watcher and could edit the official chronicles, and came across the results. The winner couldn’t keep me, she knew Daniel as a friend’s husband, and handed me over. I don’t know how the other Immortal got me, Aunt Amanda didn’t find any records about me among his belongings, so they didn’t even know my name or how old I was, Daniel named me Penelope after the cartoon character Penelope Pittstop on the Wacky races, Dad gave me Artemis for a middle name after the Greek Goddess of the Hunt, and they gave me Jones as a last name to protect me if anybody happened to come after them.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to get going. Nathan and the others are becoming concerned about how long I’ve been gone.”

“What will you tell them?”

“That I got a phone call after I used the bathroom and couldn’t get away.”

I make my way back to the table to find seven men staring in the direction of the bathrooms.

“Where have you been?” is the general question asked as I did into the platter of ribs and fries the waitress brings back to me after quickly warming them again.

“I got a phone call and couldn’t get away until now.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing much, I just have an overprotective father worried about his little girl all alone in the big city.”

Suddenly, three of the men at the table stiffen and turn their attention to the door and the young man who just walked into the saloon.

I immediately look towards the door and roll my eyes when I see who it is.

“Don’t tell me they sent you to check up on me?” I ask as Adam Pierson, a. k. a. Methos, the world’s oldest known Immortal walks across the room to the table. “Or did Joe finally get tired of your freeloading and cut off your bar tab?”

“Don’t even think about that.” Adam says, shuddering theatrically. “Amanda’s in town, seems there’s a traveling exhibit of jewels at some museum or other here and Mac came along to keep her out of trouble. Why Mac dragged me and Richie along, I’ll never know.”

“Misery loves company?”

“That’s about it.” Adam says, cuffing me gently on the back of the head and heading for the bar,

Three people at the table heave silent sighs of relief when Adam moves away. I dig into my second order of ribs as the others get up to use the facilities, put money in the jukebox, and get refills on their beers. About an hour passes when the door flies open and two more men come into the saloon, look around hurriedly, and head immediately for the men’s room.

Adam cocks one eyebrow up and turns towards the door, knowing who should be walking in behind the two hiding men.

The door opens again and a familiar figure strides into the room.

“All right, which way did they go?”

“They ran out the back door Amanda, begging for their lives.” Adam says, not even bothering to look up from his second beer.

“I should have known I’d find you in here. We’ve only been in Denver three hours and you’ve already found the nearest bar. If the others ever decide to come back” Amanda raises her voice and edges closer to the men’s room door, “tell them to get their butts back to the hotel. I’m tired and would like to go to bed early tonight.”

Amanda flounces out the door, leaving seven stunned ATF agents, one slightly hysterical with laughter watcher, two stunned watchers, and two immortals hiding for their lives, if not their sanity, in the men’s room.

“You two can come out now, the big bad Amanda monster is gone bye-bye.” Adam singsongs from the bar as the door opens and first one, then the other, head pops into view.

Duncan MacLeod strides to the bar, grabs Methos by his collar, and pulls him off the barstool. “Pay for your beers and let’s get out of here. I am not facing Amanda by myself and you are not going to be drinking every minute we’re in Denver.”

“What the hell is this place today? Immortal Central?” Inez asks me as she brings me the check. “I’ve seen more Immortals in here today than I normally see in a week.”

“No, that was just part of my wacko family. I take it you recognized some of them?”

“Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod, his student Richie Ryan, Adam Pierson, Watcher Researcher, and your Aunt Amanda?”

“Paid in full?” I ask, looking down at the check.

“Consider it part of being a watcher. Since Maria came in while you were here, you don’t have to come in tonight to meet her. Do you need copies of my notes? There’s some stuff in there I didn’t put in the official chronicles?”

“That would be nice.”

“Part of the job. Since you’re actively involved with Immortals, you should have them. If you had been like some of the other Watchers, those notes would never have been seen by another Watcher, instead they would have been quietly destroyed.”

“All Right People, let’s get back to the office and at least try to get some work done today.” Chris says, pulling Ezra and JD from the pool table, Buck away from the bar trying to get a new waitress’ number, and yells for Josiah to hurry up in the men’s room.

Buck and JD go back to their apartment instead of returning to the office. JD is still supposed to be on Medical Leave and I noticed he was drinking Coke just like I was. I grab the hard copies of the reports the others had managed to complete before the system went down and give them to the messenger when he arrives before getting my coat on and going to the elevator. Chris is waiting for me and we ride down in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

Cuervo is settled on the hood of my car and jumps in when I unlock my door. A parcel has been placed in the passenger seat. Chris grabs for my arm when he sees the package, trying to drag me away from the car.

“Relax Chris, I recognize the handwriting. It’s from Amanda, she always leaves me packages in my car whenever she’s around.”

“Penelope, we’re in a secured federal building and your car was locked. How could she have gotten near your car to leave a package?”

“Amanda’s a jewel thief Chris, she can get through security and pick locks like they weren’t even there.”

“That’s why your other friends are in Denver?”

”Yeah, they’re trying to keep her out of trouble. Luckily, Amanda’s having too much fun running them ragged to actually try to steal anything, we hope.”

I watch as Chris leaves the garage, the last of the seven to leave the building. I leave the building and head back to the saloon, not surprised to find that he beat me back there.

“Welcome back, Penelope.” He says, as Inez hands me another bottle of coke and a thick manila envelope of papers. I put the envelope in my shoulder bag with the package from Amanda and take the bottle back to the table we just left a couple of hours ago.

“I noticed something earlier when Adam first came in.”

“You mean how I wasn’t the only one to react to the buzz? I’ve noticed that myself a time or two. At first I thought it was just the others picking up on my distraction. We have worked together for a while now, but then I realized they could actually sense them. I think it may be linked to that connection Vin and Chris seem to have.”

“I did notice them finishing each other’s sentences every once and a while during lunch.”

“They do that sometimes. Mostly it’s a silent communication. They seem to know what the other one is thinking and act accordingly. I’ve seen them work together at the ranch all day and never say a word to each other. They did that back in Four Corners, too.”

“You’re certain then, that they are your friends reborn and it’s just not a coincidence that they have the same names and look the same?”

“No, it’s no coincidence. I’ve seen memories emerge, usually during dreams or nightmares. My brothers have returned to me, and this time we need to be prepared,

I can’t train them all at the same time, but I do want them to know the basics before they have their first deaths. That’s why I asked my old teacher to help me train them when the time is right.”

“They are all pre-immortals then? I noticed Adam looking at them strangely a time or two from the bar.”

“You wouldn’t know it, but their buzzes seem to resonate together. Alone, they’re just a typical pre-immortal buzz, but when you get them together, they’re more than their separate parts.”

“Yes, they do have most peculiar pre-immortal buzzes.” A familiar voice says from behind me as Adam takes the other seat at the table. He hands me another bottle of pop and pushes a beer across the table.

“Try this Devlin, I’ve been working on a new recipe.”

“Still trying to find the recipe for the world’s best beer?”

“These modern brands are too weak. Let me do the honors. Penelope Artemis Jones, Watcher and pre-immortal daughter of Dr. Sean Burns and his partner Daniel Olsen, may I formally present my student, Devlin James, also known as Josiah Sanchez, also known as the false Methos.” The real Methos grins as he looks over at the dumbfounded pair, then winces as a sharp heel kicks him under the table.

“Damn brat, I thought I broke you of that nasty habit.” He says, rubbing at the spot on his ankle.

“Don’t drop bombshells and I won’t take retaliation.” I say smugly. “According to all the official Watcher Chronicles, Josiah was supposed to have died a couple of years ago.”

“It was all a plot between the boy scout, Richie, Joe, and I to get Devlin out of Seacouver and to Denver so he could meet up with his friends. Do you really think I would have allowed anybody else to become me?”

Outside the quiet saloon, two men step out of the shadows. The questions that had been plaguing them for the last couple of weeks answered. Nathan Jackson and Ezra Standish step away from the saloon, knowing that the dreams that have plagued them the last couple of nights are merely old memories re-emerging and that their brother will tell them the entire truth when the time is right.

Ezra gets into his car, looking down at the pictures in the passenger seat. Picking one up, he stares at the images captured on film. A picture of him and Josiah, the image shows two laughing men with their arms around one another. He smiles sadly, the look of love in the taller man’s eyes takes his breath away.

“Why didn’t I see how much you loved me, Josiah? Well, maybe this time we can actually have a life together.” And with those quiet words, Ezra Standish, former Watcher for one Josiah Sanchez starts the car up and heads for his condo. He can’t call it home anymore, his home is where his heart is, and his heart belongs firmly to Josiah Sanchez.