I
Try as she might, Amy Thomas couldn't seem to move her hand from the light switch in her kitchen. A bottle of forty year old single malt whiskey was sitting in the middle of her kitchen table, with a red bow tied around its neck.
It hadn't been there five minutes ago.
Her mind did a mental list of her apartment's security. The door was bolted and chained. She was five floors up, and there was no fire escape outside her windows; her entire home was also alarmed. Amy's eyes flitted to the windows, nonetheless. They were closed and latched.
She took a deep, shaky breath, and approached the table slowly as she took out her phone. Amy had the Watcher's task force on speed dial - never let it be said she didn't learn from her mistakes.
A small card lay flat on the table. The penmanship was beautiful.
He doesn't like ice. He does like the Blues. Welcome to the family ~ Amanda.
She let out a tremulous laugh. “Mad. They're all mad,” she said. She fingered the bottle, nonetheless.
II
Rebecca stepped out of the rain and closed the front door behind her, leaning against it as the warmth of her home eased the December chill from her bones. As far as she was concerned, central heating was one of the great boons of the twentieth century.
“Rebecca, could you come here?”
It was John. She still wasn't used to sharing her space with him, but he had moved in only the week before. It would take time, it always did. She slid out of her raincoat, and propped her umbrella by the door, before heading in the direction of his voice. He was in the dining room.
Rebecca halted at the door, her eyes widening. The entire room was decked out with winter roses and ribbons. The table was elaborately set, and steam curled from under covers of the silver platters. A decadently wrapped present was placed carefully in the middle of the table.
“Honey, you shouldn't have,” she said, as her mind tried to figure out what it was all for. Surely she hadn't gotten the date wrong for Christmas again? No, still four days to go--
“Honey, I didn't.” His voice cut through his thoughts, and Rebecca noted the flatness of it, as he handed her the card that had been resting on the parcel. She flipped it open. It was in Amanda's hand, a neat, copperplate script, “Happy Birthday, Darling.”
Rebecca shook her head, smiling. “Nothing to worry about, John, just Amanda's idea of a fun birthday surprise.”
He stiffened further. “Rebecca,” he said lowly. “You told me your birthday was in May.”
Ah. It was time for the talk. “You may want to sit down for this, John.”
III
Nick Wolf had never considered himself a coward. When death came, he met it straight on, not even flinching as the poisonous vapours enveloped him... but the look in Amanda's eyes, as she raised the gun and took aim, made something inside him flinch. He knew, in that instant before she pulled the trigger, that his life until now was going to become a footnote, a shadow, a codicil to his immortality.
He railed against his maker, against his new rebirth, and fled Paris. He ran as fast as he could, and as far as he could, and only relaxed when he felt the hot, bleached air of an Australian summer in his lungs.
The sword was waiting for him in his hotel room, its pommel resting on his pillow.
IV
There are two things that Methos knows about Amanda; one is that she has the soul of a magpie, and the other is that she has only a passing acquaintance with the word no.
So when Methos arrived back at Alexa's bedside, after his vain attempt at collecting the shards of the Methuselah stone, he guessed he shouldn't have been surprised at the thin cord that hung around his lover's fragile neck, or the crystal that rested against her breastbone.
A third thing he knew about Amanda. She was a good friend.
V
Duncan smiled, shoulder resting against the doorjamb, as his eyes took in the sleeping form draped out under his sheets. “Amanda?” he asked softly, as he kicked off his shoes.
The sheets rustled as she stretched luxuriantly and slowly opened her eyes. “I brought you a present,” she said huskily.
“Oh yeah, and what is that?”
She tugged aside the sheet.
FINIS
Five Times Amanda Broke In To Leave Something by jinxed_wood
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine....