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Chapter Six
Out And About, And Then Back In
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Sue drove back into Macon, looking for food. She had a simple plan: Get Food, Clothes, a Cell Phone, and head back to the hotel.

Her first stop was at a Burger King. A Chicken Whopper and cup of Ice Water solved the initial item on her agenda.

From there she headed to a local mall. Parking outside of the Macys, she headed inside for some quick shopping.

Choosing expediency over fashion, she swiftly selected three pairs of jeans in her size one tan, and two blue.
She added six tops in various colors, and then selected two long trench type coats, chosen based on their fall and length so they might help hide the Katana.

Two extra pairs of running shoes, and a pair of flats, plus eight sets of underwear and socks rounded out her little clothing search, although she added a rolling suitcase large enough to fit it all in as well.

She then swung by the cosmetics counter to obtain larger bottles of shampoo, and conditioner, along with a new supply of makeup in her proper colors.

A quick trip to the car to drop off her purchases, and she dove back into the mall in search of a phone.

It only took a glance at the Mall Directory to determine there was both a Nextel and an AT&T store in the mall. She chose the AT&T store, as it was closest.

For $145 plus tax she picked up a Nokia "go" phone with 550 anytime flat rate minutes, and internet access.

On an impulse, she stopped in a sewing supplies store on her way out of the mall, and bought some dark cloth, lots of thread, a pair of scissors, and some needles. She realized that while sewing was not her forte, she would have to find some way to carry the Katana in the two coats she had purchased earlier and preferably in a way that didn't show.

Her needs thus met, she headed back to the hotel.

Once there, she shuttled the backpack containing Ed's cash and various documents up to her room, along with her new clothes, phone, luggage, and of course, the Katana. The hard drives and blood soaked clothing was all she left behind in the car.

Once everything was in her room, she set about packing her bags. First off, she chose a top and a pair of pants to replenish the Emergency Kit. Likewise, she refilled the small travel sized shampoo and conditioner bottles, and returned them to their places, along with two pairs of underwear and socks.

Next, she examined the pants she had worn the previous day. Deciding they were not a total loss, she set them aside, and proceeded to pack the suitcase with all but one pair of blue jeans, a matching top, and a complete set of both underwear and socks. She set another set of underwear aside, next to her sleep shirt, which like the small supply of scrunchies, she had not replaced in the Emergency Kit.

She then trekked down to the car, bringing up the duffel bag containing the hard drives.

She opened the backpack, and separated out its contents. Taking the cash, she separated it into three piles of roughly $40,000 each. The smallest pile, made up of the largest bills, she added into the Emergency Kit.

The largest pile, made up of the smallest bills, she placed into the Duffel Bag, along with Ed's spare identification documents and the deed to the back house.

Changing to one of the two new pairs of shoes, she placed both the shoes and the socks she had been wearing the previous day into the backpack and carried both the bags from Ed's house back down to the car.

At the car, she added the ruined clothes to the backpack, and locked both bags into the trunk.

Returning to her room, she turned to the third stack of money, and separated out the fifties and the hundreds. She now had two stacks, one with $12,450 in it, and the other worth $23,900.

She stuffed the $100's, along with 22 of the fifties into the suitcase, completely filling the internal zipper compartment with $25,000 worth of cash.

The remaining $11,350 she again divided, creating eight stacks of 25 fifties each, which she fit into the Laptop case's side pocket, after removing the phone cable, power supply, and manuals.

This left her with 27 $50 bills, from which she made a final stack of 25, bound them with the ruined scrunchie, and placed in her purse next to her wallet. The final two bills she added to her almost empty wallet.

Finally, she carried the lighter of her two coats back down to the car, and placed it in the trunk on top of the two bags already there. As she turned to head back up the steps, the oddity of her actions caused her to pause, one foot on the first tread of the stairs, the other still on the ground. She was not one to meticulously plan and plot things out. Her normal course of action when faced with a big bag of cash would be to keep it that way - as a big bag of cash, digging into it if she needed it, not sorting it logically into separate categories, then packing them away in a manner to let her choose what to grab should an emergency arise.

Shaking her head, she dismissed the action as an example of the Watcher Academy training FINALLY clicking in, and headed back up to her room.

Back in her room, she turned her attention to trying to disguise her Katana in the remaining heavy coat.

She swiftly determined she could not hang it on either side of the coat, as its weight was more than enough to cause the coat to slump to the side where the katana rested.

This prompted her to finally attach the scabbard to the middle of the back, where the sword would ride just above her Butt if she sat down in the coat. Testing this with the rooms chair, she winced as the back of the chair caused the katana to shove against the Bowie knife she was still wearing, and both to painfully poke her in the back.

Standing back up and removing both coat, and after a glance to insure the curtains were still tightly drawn, her top, so she could remove the Bowie knife, she thought to herself "There has to be a better way." What did the other Immortals do?

She had seen several Immortals over the course of her life, both male and female, but most of them seemed adept at hiding their swords so well that even she, who often looked for them, could not find them. As a young girl she had hypothesized a secret Immortal ability to make swords vanish to alternate dimensions when looking at an Immortal who she utterly failed to spot a place for a blade. As she grew older, however, she noticed they did tend to wear looser clothing, and when they did not, they tended to carry something with them. But there were still times when she would have sworn the Immortal she was watching was utterly unarmed. At least once she knew she had been wrong.

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June 1996, Torrance, California...

Twelve year old Sue and her father wandered through the Del Amo shopping center, both of them surreptitiously keeping an eye on the lovely brunette woman who was apparently doing some very early Christmas shopping.

Amanda Darieux. Her Dad had said she was over a thousand years old. She looked to be in her twenties.

Dressed in a tight, formfitting top, and a daringly short skirt, with open toed high heel shoes, Sue wondered how she could be carrying a sword. She really didn't think the woman was.

Amanda did have a small purse dangling from her shoulder, but it was barely large enough to hold a wallet. Certainly too small to conceal any sort of weapon.

Yet there is no way an Immortal could survive for over a thousand years if she constantly wandered around unarmed. Sue was mesmerized by more than the woman's grace and beauty; she was fascinated by the mystery of her survival.

Dad said she was a thief. Not the kind who runs around stealing purses and wallets though, but the dress in black and slide down a rope to steal the crown jewels type. To Sue, that just made her even more romantic. It was like seeing the character from some spy movie in real life. Of course, all she had been doing today was crawling through the mall, looking at clothes and trinkets.

Amanda had an odd way of shopping, that was for sure. For over three hours, she had not bought a single thing, simply wandering from store to store. Now, having hit the far end of the mall, she was making her way back, but had stopped in three stores so far to pick things up she had expressed interests in earlier.

It was as they were passing the food court, with Amanda in the middle of the bridge which connected to Stor that Amanda stopped suddenly and looked around frowning.

A small, twitchy man at the other end of the bridge, having just left Stor and heading towards the food court was also stopped. His eyes met Amanda's and he nodded.

Amanda and the man met towards the middle of the bridge. Sue and her father waited on the food court side, him leaning against the wall watching out of the side of his eyes, while Sue just stood next to him and watched the two speaking. While they were too far away to catch even a speck of sound, they were close enough to see the aggravation on Amanda's face, and the seemingly smug satisfaction of the twitchy man.

Finally, both Amanda and the other apparent Immortal turned and made their way back through Stor. Amanda looked annoyed.

With a bit of a rush, as soon as the two targets had entered Stor, Sue and her father dashed across the bridge, then more slowly resumed their careful trailing of Amanda and her companion.

As they exited Stor, her father nodded to another man, apparently the other gentleman's Watcher.

The gentleman joined them, and together the three followed Amanda and her associate out of the mall and into the parking lot.

It then became a matter of strolling amongst the cars while maintaining a discreet distance as the two Immortals sought out a somewhat more private area for a meeting.

Eventually Amanda pointed back towards the mall, and the man with her flung up his hands in exasperation, and they reversed their course. It seemed the two Immortals had realized there was no shelter to be found in and amongst the sparse trees and the various cars they purported to shelter from the summer sun.

Back beside the mall was a wall, behind which dumpsters were secluded. It was to this area that the two Immortals finally made their way.

Sue and her father followed, along with the other Watcher, who still had not said a word to either of them.

Finding a vantage point along the wall of the mall, where they could see the two Immortals amongst the dumpsters, but were far enough away to be less noticeable, they watched as the twitchy man finally pulled a sword, literally out of his pants. No wonder he had been so twitchy, Sue thought with a giggle.

Amanda on the other hand just set down her packages, leaving her purse on top of then, and backed away a bit. She said something to the man, but his only response was to slice the air with his blade back and forth and advance on Amanda another step. She backed up one more step, until she was in between the dumpsters, and out of view of the three Watchers.

The twitchy man raised his sword and took another step forward, apparently intending to simply move in and hack off Amanda's head, when suddenly his grin changed to a look of surprise, and his body jerked as a small knife buried itself, apparently out of nowhere right in his heart.

The sword fell from his hand, and he followed it a moment later to land on the ground in a heap.

Amanda stepped back into view, a look of distaste on her face as she rolled the body over, and dragged it back behind the dumpsters. She returned a moment later and retrieved the sword, and vanished from sight again. The booming flash of a Quickening however provided ample testimony to what happened next though.

Several moments later, Amanda came back into view, without the sword. Her clothes looking mussed, and her hair no longer looking as perfect as it had up until that time.

She bent over and retrieved her purse and her bags, then with a final look of disgust at what must have been the corpse of the twitchy man, she headed back towards the parking lot and her car.

Her father nodded to the still silent Watcher, and the two of them followed Amanda to their own car, parked a few rows further away from the Immortal's.

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That had been the first time Sue had actually seen an Immortal take a head. Not that she had really seen it, just heard it and saw the flash. It had not been a particularly large Quickening, but that was not what had stuck with Sue all these years. What stuck with Sue was Amanda. She had apparently not wanted anything to do with the twitchy man, but when pressed, she had produced a knife from somewhere, and dispatched him with a cold efficiency. It helped to explain how she had managed to survive for so long. But what still tickled Sue's thoughts was where Amanda had hidden the knife.

Especially now, it would be really nice to know.

Shaking off her thoughts, she picked up the cell phone, and again dialed the Seacouver number.

"Joe's Bar, Joe speaking." A mellow voice answered, almost lazily.

"Uh, hi Joe. This is Sue. Is Mike there?" she asked, hoping this was not going to be the start of something bad.

"Sue? Sue Danning?" the voice asked, with a hint of suspicion.

"Uh, yeah. Mike asked me to call him back when I talked to him this morning. Didn't he tell you?" she responded, visions of legions of Watchers combing the countryside at Joe's direction looking for HER suddenly flashing through her mind. As North American Regional Head he could literally order any Watcher to face the tribunal. With suspicion of being a Hunter, he would have more than ample reason.

"Yeah, he did. Your story checked out as well. We pulled David in about an hour ago. So far other than his lying about hearing from you, and the message he sent telling you to report to HQ, we don't have any evidence he is involved in the Hunters, but even by itself it is pretty damming. I am glad you called us instead of getting back in touch with him. He was obviously planning to set you up to take the fall for everything. He had been spreading stories about your snide remarks about Immortals to other Watchers for the past few weeks, you know."

"What remarks? I don't have a problem with Immortals! Other than once declaring an intent to kill the bitch who murdered my Dad, there isn't a single Immortal I have ever said anything bad about. And I have specifically asked to be kept as far away from that particular Immortal as possible, as you well know." she responded, thinking to herself she certainly shouldn't, being one herself now.

"Oh, nothing specific, he just told people you seemed to have a less than healthy attitude towards Immortals, and that he was getting worried about you. That general impression with the folks in Savannah, coupled with your apparently going off the radar, then going AWOL and your Immortal ending up dead, well, let's say that the Tribunal would have been more interested in getting a hold of you alive, or even dead. I've called off the dogs though, so you can relax now. I just wanted to tell you, you showed good instincts in dropping out of sight AND in calling Mike the way you did. Your father would have been proud. I know I am. I personally could not believe the reports I was getting. I couldn't picture my little Susie-q going on an Immortal killing spree, especially with as inoffensive a guy as Eadgils. I was relieved when Mike told me you had called."

"Thanks Joe." She said, swallowing a lump at the thought of her Father, who was apparently not really her father.

"So, what happened anyhow? I saw the pictures taken by the cops, and I couldn't see any sign of a Quickening. What did you see?" Joe asked.

"I didn't see much, I'm afraid. I saw the Hunters, I don't know if I did the right thing or not, according to the Oath, but I yelled at Ed to run. Then I tried to jump the one next to me, we fought, Ed stabbed him, I got his gun, shot the other Hunter, and that's about all I remember. When I woke up, I had a huge headache, and was lying in the water, Ed was dead, the two Hunters were dead, and the sword was gone. I took the gun I had fired, grabbed my purse, and made myself scarce." She explained, not really lying, other than about the sword.

"Do you think there was a third Hunter? One that hit you from behind and finished the job?" Joe asked.

"Well, someone took the sword." She responded, grimacing at the act of deliberately misleading a man who had always been there for her, especially after her Father's death.

"Damn. I was afraid of that. We can never seem to find them all. Ok, we'll keep looking for the missing Hunter. So far the police have no clues. I can tell you they are not happy. They have a Gunshot victim who had fired a gun, and two people killed by a missing sword. They raided Eadgils's house but apparently didn't find anything. The Police are labeling it some sort of gang or drug killing for now, but they really don't have any leads. Unfortunately, other than David, neither do we."

"Uh, yeah. I wish there was more I could add. I wish I had done something different somehow, I feel like I failed both the Watchers and Ed." Sue said honestly.

"Sweetheart, you were just lucky you weren't killed. You were dealing with Hunters. The deck was stacked against you, literally. My first fear was for you when I heard you were missing. Then when I heard about them finding Eadgils body, I honestly didn't know what to think. I am just glad you are safe. Mike said you wanted to take some time off, by the way, is that true?" Joe responded.

"Uh, yeah, if I can. I would like to go home, and try to get my head on straight." She answered.

"You want to come out here? You've never been out to Seacouver before. I'd love to show you the bar. I have a spare room in my house you could crash at, if you want. You could meet Duncan MacLeod. Oh, and Adam is here as well. I think you met him in France. At least he seemed to know who you were, and was concerned about you when you were missing." Joe said.

"I don't think so, Joe. Thanks for asking though," she said. "I really just want to go home. Sit in my back yard, where everything is familiar, and unwind. Right now I'm not even sure I want to stay in the Watchers." She added, with yet another subtle bit of honesty. "I need to take some time and evaluate my life. Nothing like almost getting killed to make you want to think, you know what I mean?"

"I do. You want to talk to Mike now, he is here both glaring at me, and making a worried expression at the same time. I'd take a picture of it for you if I had a camera."

"Yes please," she replied, "I need to give him a new phone number for me."

"Ok, I'll let you go. You give me a call when you get home and let me know you are all right, ok Susie-q?"

"Ok Joe. I'll do that." She answered.

She could hear a shuffling in the background, then Mike's familiar voice filled her ear. "Sue? You doing ok?"

"Yeah Mike. I bought a new phone. Wanted to give you the number so you could get a hold of me when things were sorted out. I didn't expect things to move so fast on your end. Oh well, I'll give you the number anyhow. You ready?" she asked.

"Go ahead." He answered.

"Ok, it's area code 478, and the number is 411, 1975. Got that?"

"478 411 1975. Got it." He answered.

"Ok, do me a favor, and give it to Joe as well. I'm going to leave here in the morning and head back to L.A. I think I want to drive, so I'll be a while getting there."

"Will do. Why do you want to drive?"

"'Cause it'll give me some time to think. I just told Joe, I'm thinking about leaving the Watchers."

"What!" Mike exclaimed.

"Heh, I'm not quite handing in my resignation sheet yet, just considering it. Like I told Joe, there's nothing like almost getting killed to make you want to re-examine your life." She explained.

"Ok, I understand. But promise you will talk to me some more before you make any decisions. Like Joe said, your father would be proud of you and the way you handled yourself. I know I am. You are a top notch Watcher, even though you are less than six months out of the academy. I can honestly say I have never seen anyone with your raw talent. It would be a shame to throw all that away. But if that is what you want, I will promise to support you in your decision. Just promise me to give me a chance to change your mind before you do anything final, ok?" Mike responded.

In the background, Sue could hear Joe saying softly "Mike, give it a rest, the girl has just been through hell. She needs time to think. Push her now, and you could just push her away."

Sue herself responded "I'll do so Mike. I promise. Look, I gotta go now. I just wanted to check in and give you this number before I went back to bed to get some more rest. I promise I'll call again tomorrow. Ok?"

"Ok. Take care, and I'll talk to you again tomorrow." Mike replied.

Hanging up the phone, Sue turned at last to Ed's Laptop. She pulled it out of the case, opened it up, and turned it on.

As the screen glowed to life, she noticed it was asking for a BIOS password.

Confidently she reached out to the keyboard, placed her hands on the keys, and just sat there. Much like when she had tried out the sword earlier, what she had expected didn't work. Unlike the day before, when she seemed to be more Ed than Sue, now there was no Ed left at all. Not even a slight echo. She was all alone. It frightened her.

Turning the laptop back off, she stripped off her pants and socks, pulled on the sleep shirt, locked and bolted the door, and climbed back on the bed to get some more rest. Closing her eyes against the afternoon sun slanting in through the drawn curtains, she tried to relax and go back to sleep. Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day. At least no one had tried to kill her today.

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