Duncan swung the front door open and let everyone in, then he slammed it.

"I don't believe it, the nerve of some people," Duncan said.

"I've heard of great crank calls, but impersonating Amanda having us wait at the airport for 2 hours, that's just ridiculous," Amber said.

"You sure we didn't just miss her?" Joe asked.

"We checked every gate, and checked the lists of all the people on every flight, there was no Amanda on any of the flights that came in today," Richie said.

*************************************************************************************************

"Duncan, there's something I have to say..."

"What is it?"

"I have to be honest with you about something..."

Before Tessa could say anything, the bedroom door got kicked open, in came 3 men in black trench coats with guns and fired.

*************************************************************************************************

Duncan shot up in bed and realized it was a dream, he turned over and faced the empty side of the bed, Tessa had been gone for 6 long years, there were times where he thought for a second that she was still alive, then he faced reality.

Come 1:30, in came Amber, looking for him.

"Hey Mac! Hey Mac, where are ya?"

She heard (she figured) him blowing his nose in the bathroom.

"For a minute, I thought it was an elephant playing a tuba...Mac, are you allright?" Amber asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine...what're you doing in here?" Duncan asked.

"Just out of curiosity, how far away are we from the swamp?" Amber asked.

"Why? You going for a midnight swim?" Duncan laughed.

"No, Mac, I woke up about 10 minutes ago and saw this purple stuff all over the room, I figured it might be swamp gas, so I thought I'd see what the odds are of it," Amber said.

"Did you see it in any other room?" Duncan asked.

"Nope, so tell me, how far away from the swamp are we?" Amber asked.

"Exactly, I can't tell you, approximately, 40 miles," Duncan said.

"That's too far for swamp gas to travel, you think maybe someone set off a smoke bomb?" Amber asked.

"Why would they do that?" Duncan asked.

"Well incase you haven't noticed, Joe ain't too fond of me," Amber said.

"Amber, this is ridiculous, go back to bed," Duncan shoed her out.

"Allright, but if I come back in an hour yelling 'brains', I'm holding you responsible," Amber said.

"If you should be so lucky," Duncan replied.

Duncan laughed it off for a while before he went back to sleep.

*************************************************************************************************

"Hey Mac, I got a question about this place," Amber said the next morning.

"What is it?" Duncan asked.

"Did someone die here?" Amber asked.

"At some point or another I'm sure, why?" Duncan asked.

"Remember that swamp gas last night?" Amber asked.

"Amber, don't get me started on that again," Duncan said.

"Which reminds me, why were you up last night?" Amber asked.

"Is it so unusual if I'm having trouble sleeping?" Duncan asked.

"You? Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod? Hell yeah, there's plenty of times I come in your room in the middle of the night, you're sawing lumber by the truckload. I poke, pinch and pound ya, but you never do anything, half the time I wonder if you're even still alive," Amber said.

Duncan must've been slipping, he never knew Amber came into his room before.

"What were you doing in my room?" Duncan asked.

"Like it's important? Anyway, I was thinking, if someone got murdered here..."

"Amber, don't tell me you think the house is haunted," Duncan said.

"It already is, by Joe Dawson and whatever the hell that moron's name is," Amber said.

"Methos," Duncan said.

"What about his alter ego, Adam Pierson the Watcher?" Amber asked.

"Amber, there's something about Methos I think you should know," Duncan said.

"He's not really a Watcher, he just poses as one, his own, that way no one can ever find him," Amber said.

"How did you know that?" Duncan asked.

"You don't go through 16 nightcaps in an hour with someone without finding out a thing or two about them," Amber replied.

"16? boy, you sure can put them away," Duncan said, "I never knew you drink."

"And I never knew you snored until the first time I went in your room at 2 in the morning," Amber said.

Duncan didn't even want to go at it with her today, he was exhausted, after last night he got very little sleep after Amber left. And speaking of which, after she slammed the door on her way out, Methos came out of his room.

"Well I'll say this much, I wouldn't be surprised if the place is haunted," he said.

"You heard?" Duncan asked.

"No, I'm a mutated fly, I just happened to be on the wall when you two were yammering, of course I heard!" Methos slapped him.

"And you think she might have a point?" Duncan asked.

"She had 14 blood marys last night, I'm surprised she was able to get her boots on today...It's not just since last night, maybe its us, or maybe it's just our rooms. Two days ago, I out cold drunk, when the bed broke, with me in it. The next thing I knew, I was taking the headboard out of my spine. Night before that, when I was in the shower, first the lights went out, then the water immediately went from burning hot to freezing cold, then I felt someone grab me," Methos said.

"Should I guess where or are you going to tell me?" Duncan asked.

"I wasn't blind and I could tell there was no one else in the bathroom, so how could something grab me? And if it is what use to be a person, I don't care what sex it used to be, it has hands like a lady's," Methos told him.

"Oh boy, tell me something Methos, how many drinks did you have last night?" Duncan asked.

"23, why?" Methos asked.

"Methos...go put a bag of ice on your head, keep a bucket near the bed and go back to sleep for 2 days and don't call me in the morning!" Duncan said.

"Are you insinuating I'm drunk?" Methos asked.

"I'm insinuating you don't have 23 drinks one night and remotely know what you're talking about the next day," Duncan said.

*************************************************************************************************

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

"Having a drink, do you mind?" Richie asked.

"I swear, I only filled up the liquor cabinet 3 days ago, and you guys are going to clean it out before the week's up," Duncan said.

"I don't know about you, but I had a hard night, I've got an excuse," Richie said.

"Did you see Amber and Methos drinking?" Duncan asked.

"Nope, I didn't see anything, for a while, I thought I was just passed out drunk, but, I'm guessing it was after you threw Amber out of your room..."

"I didn't throw her out, I asked her to leave."

"Well whatever, she came into my room, at I'm guessing around 3 o' clock, and I was already half asleep, and she started banging on this set of bongo drums, and she started yelling like Zed from Police Academy," Richie said.

"Good, for a while I thought I was going crazy, then what?" Duncan asked.

"I said 'what the hell you doing here?' and she said 'My room's currently occupied', and I said 'by who?' and she said 'Swamp mist'. So I figured, there's no sense with aruging with her tonight, so I let her stay, that was a mistake...I don't know what's gotten into her...Maybe she needs to see a psychiatrist, but it looks like the fearless punk I knew since I was 16 has turned into either an insomniac or a coward," Richie said.

"Well, I don't think coward would be the right word...could just be she was drunk."

"What?"

"Methos told me she had 14 bloody marys last night," Duncan said.

"Wow...I didn't know she could put them away like that," Richie said.

"You knew she drinks?"

"A bit...so, let's just forget for a moment that she was probably knee-walking drunk last night and found a pretty damn good way to hide it. What would this purple gunk in her room be?" Richie asked.

"I don't know, I think she was probably seeing things, if we weren't 40 miles from the swamp, she might have something..."

"Her? Have something? That's a new one on me..."

Duncan got a look at the boy and picked up the half empty beer can.

"What're you doing?"

"As long as we're going to be running around this house playing Dick Tracy, I want you sober for the remainder of this...First Amber complains to a swamp thing in her room, then Methos complains the bed broke with him in it, the shower ran out of hot water immediately, and someone grabbed him in the bathroom."

Richie laughed at that last one, why anyone would be interested in a 5,000 year old man was beyond him, which gave Duncan the no-doubt fact that he was drunk.

*************************************************************************************************

"Hey Methos!"

"Yes?"

"What's going on around here? Somebody die? Where's Mac?"

"He's up in his room, Amber, he asked to be alone for a while."

"What's wrong?"

"What? Can't a 400 year old man be entitled to privacy without someone demanding to know why?" Methos asked.

"I was just wondering, I've never known him to lock himself in his room."

"He locked himself in?"

"Yep, and I found out the hard way, Joe stuck his whole hand in my mouth and threw me across the room like a bowling ball, and I hit the door."

"Amber, I'm going to tell you something and do keep in mind it's with all due respect..."

"What is it?"

"...MOVE!"

In all truthfulness, Methos was yelling at Amber like a drill sergeant because he promised Duncan he wouldn't have her come in his room. Duncan explained to Methos that he wished to be left alone for a few hours, Methos, often being a man of his word promised Duncan he wouldn't let anyone, especially Amber in.

Everyone was familiar with the death of Tessa Noel, except Amber, Duncan hadn't told her, and he figured neither had Richie... There were some days where the fact of it didn't bother him so much, then there were days it hit him like a brick wall, and this was one of those days. He just stayed in his room looking at a picture of Tessa he had framed, it was one of the last pictures he'd gotten of her. He tried to imagine what she would look like if she was still alive, she probably wouldn't have changed that much, but he didn't care, she'd still be beautiful in his eyes...he just still couldn't believe that she was gone.

*************************************************************************************************

"Hey Mac! I've been worried about you, you been sick?" Amber asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Duncan asked.

"Your face is red, were you throwing up?" Amber asked.

"No...I'm fine, what've you been up to?" Duncan asked.

"Methos has been yelling at me like I'm in boot camp, giving me all sorts of orders," Amber said.

Duncan went over to Methos, who looked half alive.

"Methos, what've you had Amber doing?" Duncan asked.

"I've been keeping her out of your room, that's what you wanted, isn't it?" Methos asked.

"Yeah, but I didn't want you using her as a pack mule," Duncan replied.

"It kept her out of your room, didn't it?" Methos asked.

"Yes, but..."

"Well then I've done my job," Methos said.

Duncan didn't know what to say to him after that.

*************************************************************************************************

"Where's Duncan? Don't tell me he locked himself in his room again," Amber said.

"Yeah, today hasn't been too good a day for him," Joe answered.

"What happened?" Amber asked.

"Well he's, he's...he's in mourning, Amber," Joe said.

"For whom?" Amber asked.

"Tessa Noel, she and Mac had known each other for 12 years, then one day, some junkie came up, shot she and Richie both... You know well enough how bad it is to lose someone, so you got anymore questions?" Joe asked.

"Just one, does Duncan usually drink on nights like this?" Amber asked.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked.

"I mean, Methos and I only went after the bloody marys and the beer in the liquor cabinet, the scotch, rum, gin, vodka and jack daniels' drinks are gone," Amber said.

"Oh boy."

Oh boy was right, Duncan was hitting the bottle hard tonight, in an attempt to drown his sorrows in alcohol. He had already downed 3 bottles of rum, as awful as it was, he didn't care, it was awful to him because it was only 3 days old, to him, good rum usually came around from about at least 2 months' wait. Duncan's vision became blurry, but that wasn't enough for him, he wasn't going to stop until he totally blacked out.

Come a few hours later, Duncan was almost completely out of it, he couldn't see straight, he couldn't think, he couldn't even remember how many bottles of what he drank. In the back of his mind, he was just hoping that this time, he would slip through his Immortality and die for good, and at that exact time, he completely blacked out...

End of chapter one.