Title: Still Beautiful

Author: lisa roquin

Rating:

Pairing: Willow/Methos

Disclaimer: Nothing BtVS or Highlander belongs to me, all belongs to their various creators and prodution companies. Not mine, no money, no harm no foul.

Story Note AU: Connor MacLeod and Richie are alive

Author's note: Secret Santa fic for Fan at TtH. Sorry your original author flaked.

"C'mon, Red, do your magic with that thing," Faith grumbled glaring at the laptop in front of Willow. Life on a hellmouth was life on a hellmouth--be it Sunnydale or Cleveland. They needed info on this latest threat last week, though they hadn't even found out about this demon making a bid to rise until today. Evil was like that about giving the proper warning.

"I'll get more done faster without you pacing and growling," Willow huffed.

"C'mon, Faith, let's go find something nasty for you to slay and let Netgirl get to it," Xander said urging the Slayer to the door of the apartment to let Willow research in peace.

Emails with the information were shot off quickly to Wesley and Giles. Though Giles was rather pointless, he still had issues with the 'infernal machine' only cemented by the cyberdemon Willow had had the problem with in highschool. At least if the info was sent, she could call Giles as soon as it was a decent hour in London and he could have Dawn help him get into his email. It would certainly save on the phone bill.

Willow snorted at her laptop screen. "Rode A Pale Horse? That is soo not a welcome phrase when you're dealing with an apocalypse, Wes. Even in an email addy." She sent an email back to Wes pointing out who was known for a pale horse. Wesley's reply told her to stop being ridiculous. He'd spent three years as Adam's roommate at Oxford. He was quite sure he would have noticed rooming with the Fourth Horseman.

When the email did come from Adam-- RodeAPaleHorse @ Hotmail Willow shrugged and opened it. If whoever this was actually roomed with Wes for three years back when he was a tweed-clad idiot with a prissy stake up his butt and refrained from killing him or throttling him then that went a long way in the not-evil, patience of a saint column. "And c'mon normal people do not think in apocalyptic terms on a regular basis" Willow mumbled. "Just everyone I know."

~~*~~

Apocalypse averted. The latest big bad trying to end the world slayed. Faith wired from the rush she got from Slaying. Xander concussed and sporting a dozen stitches and splint on his severely sprained wrist. Andrew nearly comatose from magical exhaustion and Willow not far from the same. Willow showered and headed for her room. Too tired to sleep she booted up her laptop. A tired smile crossed her face as she looked through her email.

"Well the world didn't end so I'd call that an A+," Willow grinned. A research paper for a mythology class had been the official reason Wesley had sent her email in his direction for help with the history of this particular demon and how to kill it.

Methos twisted the cap off his beer and tossed it behind the fridge.

"How many times have I told you no' to do that?" Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod glared. "You could help with this, you know."

"But I'm a guest.."

Duncan snorted with a grin. The Old Man was...well Duncan couldn't quite put his finger on what it was exactly, but something. In a very good mood at any rate, had even accepted the invitation to Thanksgiving in Seacouver with minimal snarky comments and he'd been less droll and annoying than usual.

Both stopped still, then Methos quickly went for his sword at the sound of the elevator coming up to the loft and the distinctive Presence of another Immortal coming with it.

"Oh, it's just you" Methos shrugged and headed for the couch sprawling almost bonelessly in the corner of it his Ivanhoe laid on the coffee table and laptop picked up, beer in hand all the way.

"Good to see you, too, Old Man," Amanda laughed.

"Hello, Methos" Joe shook his head amused. The older the Immortal the younger they could act sometimes. He was the youngest person in the room, and half the time he felt like the father to the unruly bunch of Immortals that had become his family.

"How you been, Joe?" Methos asked not looking up from his laptop screen.

Joe chuckled. "This is new. A book yeah, especially one in some language no one spoken in a few hundred years. But the computer?"

"Unlike certain Highland Infants I'm not completely helpless when it comes to technology." Methos huffed.

Methos began smirking, eyes trained on the laptop screen. Amanda squealed. "Look at that face! Joe! Duncan! Our little Methos has got himself a sweetheart!"

"Cyber dating, Old Man?" Joe chuckled.

"So, who is it? Where did ye meet?" Duncan asked.

Amanda squealed again. "He's blushing! This is serious!" She plopped down on the couch next to Methos trying to get a good look at what was on the screen and had a glint in her eye that was reminicent of a pit bull with a bone.

Gods, where was some young headhunter wanting a challenge when you needed one?

~~*~~

"You've never even laid eyes on this girl?" Joe shook his head amused. The old man was well and truly over the moon about this girl though. Joe hadn't seen him act like this, except for Alexa.

"You actually used that email?" Duncan snorted, knowing full well the only reason Methos had chosen that particular phrase for an email address was to aggravate him.

"You have to invite her for Christmas." Amanda insisted.

"It's not like that for the thousandth time." Methos glared at Amanda. "She broke up with her girlfriend not a month ago."

Duncan choked on his scotch giving Methos a dark look, knowing the older Immortal had timed that comment to see if he could get just such a reaction.

"So what? Invite her anyway." Amanda insisted.

"Will, you do remember the last time you did the cyber-dating bit?"

"One! One lousy cyber demon! Mr. The-only-true-human-I-dated-ended-up-turning-part-demon-anyway!"

"One lousy cyber-demon, a werewolf, a witch and a slayer....hellooo there Miss-hasn't-exactly-dated-your-normal-humans-either!" Xander shot back. "Wesley and I are going with! That way Wes is within arms reach if this guy turns out to be a creep I can beat Wes up for pointing you in this PaleHorse guy's direction!"

~~*~~

With a heavy heart, Methos reluctantly opened the email he was certain that was going to tell him that Willow wasn't coming.

Adam,

Goddess, I am so so so so sorry..but about Christmas. Yes, I'm still coming. But...so are Xander, Wes, Spike and Faith. I'm not sure you're going to want us all descending on you but.

Methos let out a sigh of relief. She was coming. Wesley could be a problem, as "Adam Peirson" hadn't aged in the thirteen years since they were at Oxford together and Adam was already supposedly twenty two then. Xander was someone she mentioned often. Willow did a lot of travelling for her job--taking the odd class mostly through correspondence. Xander was the one she usually travelled with. He had no idea who Spike and Faith were.

Amanda and Joe watched the series of expressions wash over Methos' face as he read the email. Whoever this Willow was she was in a world of hurt if she hurt Methos Amanda decided.

Connor MacLeod shook his head. "Heh, heh, heh, you're going to wear a hole in the floor, laddie"

"Crap," Joe muttered as every last one of his 'kids' stiffened in the way that usually signified the presence of another Immortal. Connor, Duncan, Amanda, Richie and Methos were all edging towards their stashed weapons. Connor's daughter Rachel looked worriedly at them as well.

~~*~~

"This better be the right place--" a cockney accented voice grumbled.

"Shut up, Spike," a second voice came. "Damn headache again."

"Or wot, whelp?"

"You guys are making me cranky." a female voice joined in.

Methos caught his breath as the red-headed woman entered the bar. He scanned the group--bleached blonde man dressed in all black including a long leather duster. Everything about him screamed predator. Tall dark haired Immortal with an eyepatch and a very powerful resonant presence that was unusual. Dark jeans, dark sweater, long leather coat. Tiny dark haired woman who was something else again. Dressed in leather pants and jacket with a tiny scrap of a top, all black there was something about her as well, not Immortal but something. The final member of the group Methos barely recognized. Scarred throat, leather pants and duster, dark sweater.."Wesley? Wesley Wyndham Pryce? My god I barely recognize you"

"You on the other hand haven't changed a bit, Adam." The man said. "Willow--Adam Pierson. Adam, Willow Rosenberg."

The redhead smiled half shy half impish. "Nice to meet you, Adam," she said. She'd been the one to say she was getting cranky.

"Nice to meet you."

"And to get the formalities out of the way--"

"Xander!" Willow glared.

"Uh uh, Wills, Resolve face is soooo not working this round he's getting the shovel talk!"

"Alexander LaVelle Harris!" Willow snapped.

"The shovel talk?" Duncan growled stepping forward in full Clan Protector mode. "I'm Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod"

Wesley gasped.

"Well, isn't that nice for you." Xander snarked. "You--you hurt my Wills, make her cry or break her heart I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth and bludgeon you to death with a shovel. Got it?" he glared at Methos for all he was worth.

"Y' canna come in here and threaten my friends" Duncan glared.

"Ooo big brother pissing contest. Can't ya just feel the testosterone and here I thought this was going to be boring. Hey Scotty, you single?"

"Well he's mine for the night, but I might share" Amanda laughed.

"Oh good lord, Faith" Wesley groaned.

"AMANDA!" Duncan yelped.

"I did apologize in advance," Willow said biting her lip looking shyly at Methos.

"I can see why now." Methos managed.

"You recognized his name Watcher, and none of the younger ones smell entirely human. So as this lot would say, what's the what?" the bleached blonde man growled. "The smell like the whelp."

"Hellooo! Human here, fangless!"

"Not quite, not since that demon last month and that freaky lightning storm we thought killed you." Spike shook his head.

"DEMON!" Duncan bellowed.

"Watcher?" was what Connor wanted explained.

Ignoring the standoff between their friends Methos took Willow's hand and led her to sit on the small stage in the back of the bar, where they could talk but still keep an eye on the brewing confrontation between the Highlanders and Willow's friends.

"You know about the Watchers?" Methos frowned.

"Wes was Buffy's Watcher and Faith's for a while."

"A Champion?" Methos was momentarily distracted. "As old as she is? Truly?"

"She's twenty two...so you know about Slayers and Demons?"

Methos nodded slowly. "What do you know about" he swallowed. "Immortals?"

"Immortals..the sword carrying head-chopping kind with the lightning?" Willow said slowly. "Oh Goddess, SPIKE!" her attention caught by a now game-face vampire holding the smaller Scotsman in the air by his shirt front.

"That's a vampire." Methos swallowed.

"He's a good vamp. Housebroken."

"I heard that Red!" the vampire snarled.

"He's got a soul he's trying to be good. Succeeds every now and then." Willow said. "So you...are Immortal?"

Methos nodded slowly.

"You owe me five bucks Willow! I told you he couldn't be a normal person. Your track record is as bad as mine when it comes to picking normal humans!"

Willow ignored Xander and studied the anient hazel eyes in the surprisingly young face of the man in front of her. "You mean you rode a pale horse literally."

"I'm Methos."

Willow started giggling.

"Wills?" Xander called across the bar.

"Wes..." gasp "Wes said he was certain he would have known if he was rooming with the fourth horseman for three years."

The old woman chuckled softly to herself as she stood looking at the Christmas tree, remembering the chaos of their first Christmas. A chaos they'd be revisiting in an hour or so with Xander, Connor, Amanda, Duncan, Richie, Spike and Angel due to arrive for the evening.

"What's so funny love?" her husband murmured in her ear, coming up behind her encasing her in his arms. He inhaled her scent, the shampoo and perfume, the baking she'd insisted on doing that day though it tired her so, more and more with each passing year. The scent that was simply her. He'd never had so long with any of his wives, any of his loves. She was ninety-three, while still healthy for her age, nothing was going to stop the passage of time, he'd only have a handful of years left with her at most. Her hair had long since faded to white, and the smooth creamy skin marked with wrinkles of worry and time, but her green eyes as sharp and beautiful as ever and the soul that shined behind them even more so. Gods, he didn't know how he would survive losing her.

"I was remembering the night I met you."

"Yes, you did apologize in advance didn't you." Methos chuckled into her hair. "You took my breath away. You still do, you're even more beautiful now."

She snorted. "I think you got hit in the head to hard today working out with Duncan."

"You're my WitchyRedTree" Methos squeezed her gently. "You're always beautiful to me."

"None of that." she murmured turning in his arms raising her arms and wrapping them around his neck. "Don't mourn me before I'm gone. Don't mourn me. I've had a good life, and I have no intentions of calling it quits anytime soon."

There'd been a time she'd fussed and worried when her flame red hair had first started fading to white, with the first wrinkles. He was still as he'd been when she first met him, as he would always be. Her Methos. The years taking thier natural toll had been a source of insecurity, he'd stubbornly loved her so thoroughly through her insecurities she'd forgotten. In her mind, in her heart she wasn't any older than she had been then in many ways...though in the cold and damp her bones disagreed these days. "I love you."

"And I you, always."