Title: Shimmers of home

Author: Lore

Rating: G

Summary: Ghosts of the past drive Connor to a place he knows, but has never been before

Disclaimer: Don't own, please don't sue

Feedback: please (lilith93@hotmail.com)

Archive: sure

Fandom: Highlander

Characters: Connor, Maria (oc), Stevie (oc), the Kurgan

Shimmers Of Home
by Lore

Connor stared at the board welcoming him in town. It was a bit stained and some of the letters were almost unreadable. He wasn't really sure what he was doing here in the backparts of Tennessee.

He'd been coming home from work three days ago, three days and half a continent apart. Things had been quiet all week. Alex was at a dig in Japan and John was spending the week with a couple of friends in the woods. Connor let his body rest back in his seat and wondered again.

He hadn't planned to do anything more than just go home, take a bath, watch some television and wait for Alex's call. Instead some young punk he'd never even met had attacked him. The boy had been trying to make a reputation. A stupid thing really. What kind of a fool wanted a reputation anyway. The Game was hard enough as it were. Connor wet his lips, trying to forget about the fool.

So he just stared at the streets in front of him. Forenzers were moving out of the towns center, back to their homes in the suburbs. They all wanted to go home so badly that the cars piled up and most of them would be stuck in traffic for at least a while. Connor was almost glad he was going in the opposing direction.

But then again, maybe he was the fool. He'd never even been in this place, so why had he felt like coming here since the moment after taking the kids head.

The boy hadn't even been powerful, yet when he'd had the Quickening, all he could think of was stepping in his car. Up until the moment he'd seen that board welcoming him in Brinxston.
He'd just wanted to go home and instead he'd ended up here after a few days drive.

But where could he go now?

He let his instincts guide him and followed them up the road to the old part of town. Old. A typical American thing, the town could barely be a bit over a century, yet any building over 50 was seen as old.

He parked his car and stared at the diner in front of him. Mrs MacGivins Bed and Breakfast.
Snacks and Refreshments since 1879. For some reason he'd expected the place to be darker, with viola's hanging from the upper windows. Instead he was greeted by a white wall, and small blue curtains on the glass door.

The door creaked as he opened it though and he almost got ready to bump into a young woman with black sleek hair and dark brown eyes. Where had that idea come from? He wasn't that clumsy and that woman…He faced the back of a woman with dark hair, but when she turned
around, her eyes were light blue.

The Highlander sat down and ordered a coffee. He stared at it for a while, stirring his spoon through the coffee, without even sipping it once. Everywhere he could feel those dark eyes following him, looking at him. But how? He left his cup on the table and stood up, leaving pay and a tip next to his cup.

"Daddy look up!"

His head shot up, but the only thing in the tree was a small Siamese cat that jumped from branch to branch and crawled further up as soon as it saw him staring. It jumped out with all due speed.

"I lost my ball daddy."

Connor turned in a single move.

Nobody.

A few people gave him odd glares as they saw him staring around. He just ignored them and pushed a path through the still busy streets. He noticed a few teenagers entering the mall and followed them.

They muttered something about him being a major freak, but he ignored them and just stared at the hall that he just entered. It was big, it probably seemed huge to a town like this.

Some kids sat on benches all around, chatting, hanging around. The doors of a shop opened as soon as he caught the cameras rays, but all he could see was an old wooden building stocked with groceries and other utilities. There were some broken boards on the side, barely fixed and the glass window was shielded of.

"I'll make it work Gerald I promise." The voice sounded young, hopeful. "Ill show them all I can do it and then I'll pay you back for every penny. I give you my word." Connor tensed up, but there was no one. No one that he saw at least. He put his hands on his head, trying to shut the voice out.

"Daddy look up!"

Was that the kid? He grabbed a boy, making the child face his eyes. He almost got into a fight with he kids parents for assaulting their son. Was he going crazy?

"Do you love me Gerald?" Connor forced himself not to search for the voices owner.

"Could be." He heard himself mumble. Could be what? What was happening with him?

But his feet had started moving again. His mind moved through a street that was both the same and completely different from the one he was in now.

"Daddy! Dad!" A kid came running at him. The boy was dressed in some kind of jeans and a shirt. His eyes were filled with fear. He was breathing heavily and had to stop to be able to breath. He was afraid, but for whom?

"Someone's got mom."

And Connor could see it happen. He could feel himself get up out of his lazy chair and beg of from his friends to get up out of the shades and take his son home. He swallowed a second, spat out his tobacco in a lump before turning the corner.

Then Connor opened his eyes and he stood in front of a barbershop, filled with images of young men and women with the weirdest kinds of haircuts and colors.

Memorial lane.

One long trip down another's mind. Foot by foot, away from himself.

"Daddy, daddy."

"I love you Gerald."

Warm hands, the smell of freshly baked bread early in the morning. Lavender on her dress. Gazing into brown eyes filled with love.

"Look up daddy."

And Connor did, staring up at the sky in a sense of wonder that he hadn't felt in ages, just because a small hand was holding his own and telling him about boats and warriors in the lights above them.

"Daddy we won.

"Of course you did." She said cheerfully.

"You always will." Connor mumbled.

He stood still in front of a plate attached to the side of an old brick wall.

The Gerald Victor Kruger memorial, for his great contributions to town. An immortal like himself. Connor had no idea who he could have been, all he knew was that the man was inside of him and refused to let him go.

Ghost voices in his ears chattered loudly, others whispered softly of a past he'd never had. But the town around him, wasn't standing still, like he was.

People pushed him forward out of their way and he apologized quickly to a woman he nearly hit.

Dark eyes under raven hair.

Where …

The house was burning, he could hear her screaming inside. He tried to get in, but the men stopped him.

"It's too dangerous Gerald."

"Daddy!"

The voice came from inside, yelling for his help.

"Daddy, please help us."

A small boy was held in his mothers hands.

She screamed at him, holding the boy, trying to be between the child and the fire, but knowing there was no way out.

"Throw him!" Connors minds voice yelled at the woman, she looked at him, and listened.

He could feel the boy in his arms. Scared but safe.

She was still inside and he held his hands over the boys eyes, knowing he'd never be able to silence those screams for him.

Then he looked down and his hands were empty.

"Look up daddy!"

The building wasn't there anymore. Ruins and scattered ashes were all that remained.

"Daddy, look at me, I'm flying."

"I love you Gerald.

Do you love me?"

"Maybe."

His face stood grim, but her dark eyes pierced through him in a way he hadn't ever imagined possible and she just smiled.

Make it stop!

He just followed the voices.

"I love you."

He could see a woman give him a strange look, tapping her head as she pointed him out. He just snorted and walked on.

The kid was laughing, running after a butterfly.

Connor thought of Rachel, the way she looked at him when she was younger.

"Daddy, please don't go."

"Daddy please come."

"Daddy."

But as always an immortal couldn't deny the Game for long and sooner or later, usually sooner, he'd had to go, as always.

He almost didn't see his destination.

A huge farmstead.

A children's swing was moving with the wind.

"Daddy look up."

It felt like coming home.

Without even asking himself why, he took the key from under the tile over the door and let himself in.

He knew his slippers should be waiting on the side and maybe his paper from the last time he'd been here, would still be lying there on the table.

But it wasn't.

The entire room was covered of with linen. Every seat, every table, every surface. Boxes stood against the door, he opened one and stared at the little items carefully placed away by loving hands.

The rooms were waiting for something.

It all seemed strangely cold.

He sat down and stared up almost unconsciously.

"I love you Gerald."

"I love you too."

The Kurgan stared down at him from the family portrait and for just a single moment, Connor knew that his old enemy had finally come home.

END