"Mac, what the hell are you doing?" Joe walked in.

"What? No 'Hello Mac, what the hell are you doing'?" Duncan asked, appearing to be full of sarcasm.

"What do you think you're doing?" Joe sat down.

"I'm packing my suitcase, why? You weren't done looking through it?" Duncan asked.

"You and your sense of humor, one of these days, they're both going to die, or at least wish so," Joe said, "MacLeod, it's the middle of a pouring down thunder storm, don't tell me you plan on leaving in weather like this."

"I do, and I will," Duncan replied, "I have a plane to catch, and so do you."

"Me?" Joe asked.

"That's right, Richie, Methos and Amber are coming along too," Duncan reminded him.

"Amber's coming?" Joe asked.

"That's right," Amber walked in, "I flunked in 10th grade the first time and don't intend to try it again and fail again, so I'm going."

"Where we going? You didn't bother to tell me," Joe said.

"Amanda called, she said she wanted to how you say, patch things up, but...she won't do it here, she told me to meet her in Germany, and she said for some reason, to bring all of you with me," he said.

"Huh.....Wonder why," Joe exhaled.

"I don't know, but if Mac takes all day packing, we're gonna miss the flight," Amber said.

"Excuse me, missy," Duncan confronted her, "what about your packing?"

Richie, standing in the doorway, knew that tone, it was a warning, if she got smart with him, it wouldn't be good....

"I already finished my packing, and Richie's to boot," she replied.

Duncan sighed, it was impossible for him to outdo her, Richie had to laugh, all the years he'd tried to trip up Mac, and nothing, but her, this stuff just seemed to flow right off top of her head.

"Well, I'm almost done, in any case, the airplane will probably be late getting here because of the rain," Duncan said.

"Which reminds me, how long is a flight from Detroit to Germany supposed to be?" Richie asked.

"I'm guessing about 15 hours," Duncan said.

"15 hours?" Amber asked, "great, by the time we get off, the first thing I'm going to do is look up a good mortician, and see if he has anything planned for the weekend," Amber said.

"Why a mortician?" Richie asked.

"Why not? Should anything.....happen, he knows how to arrange it like an accident," Amber said.

"Amber, that's a coroner," Duncan told her.

"Coroner, mortician, tomato, tomoto, whatever you call it, I'm not waiting around to find out, let's go," Amber said.

"Allright, but be nice, don't bite the cab driver like last time," Duncan reminded her.

"Hey, he bit me first," Amber said.

Well, Duncan didn't argue with her too long, they headed down to the airport, with just enough time to catch the next plane heading to Germany.

As they were boarding, Richie and Amber found a couple of seats on the right side of the plane.

"So, how do you do with air sickness?" Richie asked.

"What sickness? It stays in my stomach, then when we hit ground, it disappears, like that," Amber snapped her fingers, "you?"

"I don't know, I'm usually asleep, and when I wake up, I have the most horrible migraine," Richie said.

"I know, just like that time you were spiting Mac at the hotel, when we were talking, I had this headache, but I just thought it was sinus. By 5 o' clock, I wanted you to kill the lights and I felt like throwing up...Figures, me, I can watch 500 pound men get slaughtered like pigs, I can stand a sonic boom at a near distance, but out of nowhere, I can get a bad stomach and head," Amber said.

"In that case, you DON'T want to try any of the food up here," Richie replied.

"Don't worry, I can go quite the while without food when necessary," Amber told him, "so, why do you think Amanda's having Mac meet her in Germany?"

"Who knows? Maybe she's taking up a new language to cuss Mac out in," Richie said.

Well, the flight was less than pleasurable, the whole flight was bumpy, a storm had come up around noon, and the echoing gossip of all the other passengers didn't help.

Amber looked beyond nervous, she had turned pale, and her eyes seemed to stick out like a zombie's, as she looked around, she noticed Richie coming back.

"You ever see Zero Hour?" she asked.

"What?" Richie asked.

"Zero Hour, the movie that Airplane! spoofed," Amber replied.

"Can't say I did," Richie said.

"These people go on a flight, and one of the passengers...a father...is a man from the war, he was a fighter pilot and developed a phobia of ending up in the cockpit again. Everyone gets food poisoning, including the pilots, he has less than 2 hours, to get the plane through a thunderstorm and landed, or else everyone, including his family dies," Amber replied.

"Hope they don't show that on the in-flight movie," Richie said, "otherwise this whole plane's going to mass hysteria."

"At least with Airplane!, you get a laugh out of it, at one part, where Ted Striker's showing the Africans to play basketball, one of the natives choice uses his middle finger to keep the ball spinning...I'd take his drinking problem anyday...I don't drink coffee, I hate wine...His stories about his past love life with Elaine drive everyone to kill themselves, an old lady hangs herself, a foreign soldier shoves a sword through his stomach, another passenger douses himself with gasoline and lights a match....Robert Stack was more than fit for a comic role...Then that, crazy, horny captain, it's uh.....well he...he was that news reporter from The Addams Family Values, the reporter of the black widows...had these crazy fettishes it seemed."

"You're doing this to stall for time until we land," Richie realized.

"Maybe I am, so what?" Amber asked.

"Nothing, I like it, you're good company, a lot better than some people...whenever I went on a flight with a beautiful woman, she got uncomfortable and spent the rest of the flight in the bathroom throwing water on her face and taking aspirin. At least you stay up front," Richie said.

"That's not my fault, I don't want to go to the wrong place at the wrong time...I heard of this lady, who lived in a small town where they always got tornados, during a heavy storm, she went to the bathroom, and when she came back, the walls and roof of her house had blown away," Amber replied.

"Sheesh, no wonder whenever you go to wrestling, you always sit up front," Richie said.

"Yeah, if a bloody fight breaks out, I wanna be a part of it, but I don't want to be part of a house getting blown away, during a tornado," Amber replied.

Over on the left side of the plane, Methos and his never failing ear for gossip was picking up their conversation.

"Well, it sounds like those two are breaking the ice," he said.

"That's good, Amber's okay on the ground, but I hear when she gets in the air, you better know how to strike up a converstaion. She worries when the whole flight gets quiet, and Richie...I don't ever recall him managing to stay awake during a full flight, so I don't know how he's going to turn out," Duncan replied.

"So, you ever been to Germany?" Richie asked.

"You nuts? I've been all across the States, I've been to Russia, England, South America, and Norway, but I've never been to Germany," Amber replied, "you?"

"Never," Richie said.

"I always wanted to see what it was like, considering, that's where Dracula was supposed to have lived," Amber said.

"You really believe that croc?" Richie asked.

"And how, that 'croc' was based on a real prince in Bram Stoker's time," Amber said.

"Really?" Richie asked.

"Yep."

"Never knew it."

"From what I heard, he wasn't nice, hardly ever seen in the day, terribly pale...and since that book was written, look where the superstition of the undead has gone," Amber said.

"I know, the movies have gone from Nosferatu to Interview with a Vampire," Richie replied.

"You saw that movie too?" Amber asked.

"5 times, you?" Richie asked.

"18, I never can get over how corny it is at the end, when Lestat throws the interviewer into the passenger side of the car, bites him, takes the wheel, rips the cuffs out of his jacket, and starts singing. You'd almost think he'd done it before or something," Amber returned.

"But seriously, you really think vampires exist?" Richie asked.

"They say the 4 most common horrific but true sights are ghosts, aliens, zombies and vampires, I have seen just about everything possible. I haven't seen a vampire yet, but that doesn't mean I won't, and it's not just those who aren't seen in the daytime are accused. There's all these things on the net, chat rooms, message boards, people claiming to be vampire, some women who talk to them, disappear and are never found, others....they end up dead, I'm not sure whether or not vampires exist, but I dont' doubt it," Amber said.

While Amber and Richie were talking, Joe was eavesdropping, and got a look in his eyes like he did when he got an idea.

After what seemed like forever, the plane came to a land, in foggy Germany.

"Wonderful, you have to walk on all fours to see through the fog," Amber said.

"Wonderful place to get lost, not exactly the best place to stick your neck out either," Richie said.

Amber stumbled around through the fog on all fours, feeling for anything out of the ordinary, she found herself stumbled upon a steel toed boot.

"Amber, what're you doing?" Duncan asked.

"Making sure someone doesn't lead me off a cliff, in this weather, that's very easy," Amber said.

"Come on."

Duncan bent down and picked Amber up.

"Hey! Hey! Where we going?" she asked.

"You'll see," Duncan grinned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is the place you had in mind, MacLeod?" Amber asked.

The house didn't seem too pleasant, it was even worse on the inside, it was old, filled with cobwebs, no lights, looked like Duncan was there about 100 years ago.

"Let me guess.....home away from home," Amber said.

"Well, I know it doesn't look too good now, but it should do," Duncan said.

"When was the last time you stayed here?" Methos asked, "About 1900?"

"Yes."

"And it still hasn't been dusted," Methos realized.

"Richie, where are you?" Amber asked.

"Down here."

"Where?"

"Next to your foot."

"What're you doing?" Amber asked.

"Working on a fire to get some light in this place, although, as old as the house is, I hope the fireplace doesn't cave in," Richie replied.

"I agree with Methos......boy there's something you don't hear everyday.....this place could use a good dusting, not to mention, a bulldozer," Amber said.

Amber felt along the walls for any hooked in candelabras, seeing how the house didn't have any real light to it, at that point, the fire kicked in and Amber got a real surprise when she got a look at a portrait on the wall.

"Hey Duncan! What's the matter here? Did you forget to jump in the lake that day?" Amber asked.

Duncan came up to look at the portrait, it was indeed an odd looking fellow, with his distinct facial bones and his quite recognizable nose and eyebrows, dressed like he got out of the French Revolution.

"Ah, I see you've dug up one of my old relatives," Duncan said.

"Say what? Mac, you told me you were dropped off in the Clan MacLeod, this guy looks just like you," Richie said.

"Yes, I know, that's the one thing we never could figure out about old Brom, anyway, he lived outside of the states at the time, he went into a career of being a doctor, when he received his diploma in 1776," Duncan said.

Amber couldn't help but notice at that time, Duncan's tone had gone down but his voice up.

"Mac, this is a long shot, but have you been inhaling that swamp gas?" Amber asked.

"Anyway, short while after that, he fled to Germany and stayed here for some time," Duncan said, "however, Brom, he was never too big for hygeine."

"I can see that, his hair's all mussed up like a husky's during high humidity...after jumping into the water," Amber said

(End of chapter 1....don't worry, this story won't be as long as Going My Way)