The temperature was crisp, the sunlight bright. It was a rare winter morning in the Pacific Northwest city of Seacouver. It was dry.

Richie Ryan walked briskly along the crowded downtown sidewalk. MacLeod had asked him to do several errands today as a favor and he was almost finished, only one more, a pick-up over on Front Street, near Joe's.

Just before he crossed the intersection, Richie paused. Slowly shaking his head, he glanced behind him. Then shrugging, he continued.

Melody was following Richie. This was her first day as a Watcher. He had crossed the street, and was moving quickly away from her. She hurried to follow, right into the path of a car.

Shouts of warning went unheard as Melody's attention was on the Immortal in front of her. But Richie heard and turned back in time to see the young woman fly through the air and land on the pavement in the middle of the roadway.

Richie ran to help, kneeling beside her. The driver of the car tried to explain -- "it wasn't my fault, she came out of nowhere." The crowd pressed forward, some trying to help and some just wanting to gape at the pretty young woman lying motionless.

Richie was confused. The feeling he had had a few minutes earlier, the one he'd shrugged off, was back, and it was coming from the girl on the pavement in front of him. She was an Immortal. To be specific -- she was a pre-Immortal and she was dying. She was badly injured. Should he leave her there to die and find her later before she awoke as an Immortal? Or take her somewhere now? In either case, he already knew he would help her through this, her first death. He'd be the one to teach her what she was.

Melody opened her eyes to find Richie looking at her with a great deal of concern, holding her lightly. "Richie, it hurts," she gasped.

Richie was astounded. "She knows me!" he exclaimed softly. "How does she know me?" He made up his mind. "Hold on."

He picked her up and made his way over to a taxi conveniently snared by the traffic jam and climbed into the back seat with the soon-to-be new Immortal. "Mac," Richie murmured, "I sure hope you're home."

Richie lifted the gate on the apartment elevator while holding Melody against the side of the cage. He picked her up and carried her across the huge room to the bedroom end of the apartment and laid her down on Mac's bed.

MacLeod wasn't home.

Melody had a grip on Richie's coat. "Richie, it hurts," she informed him again, faintly. "Don't leave me."

"I won't leave you, you'll be okay. You'll see," he promised. Melody's hold on his coat dropped away and he held her as she died.

Richie stood and looked at her now peaceful face. "You'll be okay," he whispered to her still body. "You'll see," he repeated, backing away from the bed.

Richie took off his blood-stained coat as he walked across the room and into the kitchen. He collected a small basin and some cloths from under the sink, then filled the basin with warm water. Taking the supplies back to the bed, he sat down on the edge.

He removed Melody's badly torn coat and started to wash the blood from her face, her hands and her arms. Richie paused. She had a tattoo on the inside of her left wrist, about the size of a silver dollar. Just like the one Joe wore. She was a Watcher.

"Whoa," he exclaimed, leaning back. He sat quietly for a minute, then walked over to the wall phone and picking up the receiver, he dialed. "Joe?" Richie said. "You're not going to believe this."

Richie heard the lift moving up from the floor below. Joe soon came into view through the bars of the old freight elevator. Richie walked over and lifted the gate.

"Thanks for coming, Joe. Mac's not home and I wasn't sure what to do. I guess she was one of you guys. And now, she's one of us." Richie moved out of Joe's way, allowing the Watcher to enter the apartment.

Joe looked toward the opposite end of the flat. He could see Melody lying on the big bed and he started walking toward her.

"She's still out, but that won't last long," Richie explained as he followed Joe.

Joe stopped at the end of the bed and looked down at his niece, a sad expression on his face. He finally spoke. "Her name's Melody and she was like a family to me."

"She'll be all right. Don't you understand what I said?" Richie repeated to the Watcher.

"Yeah, Rich, I heard you." Joe moved stiffly over to the side of the bed and sat down beside her. He smoothed her hair back from her face then took her hand in his.

She awoke with a start and a moan, her eyes still tightly closed.

"The pain will go away soon, just be still," Richie promised.

Melody opened her eyes, looking from Joe to Richie, then at her surroundings. "Where are we?" she asked her uncle. "How'd I get here?"

Richie took the stuff back to the kitchen end of the huge room as Joe answered her questions. "We're at Duncan's. Richie brought you here."

"I remember the car. And the pain," she said. Melody sat up. "The pain. It's gone."

"You know what Immortals are, Melody," Joe said.

"Of course, I do," Melody answered.

Richie was rinsing out the basin in the kitchen sink. "Welcome to the club," he called out to her, then turned his head toward the door as he felt the presence of another Immortal.

Melody also felt it. She grabbed her head with both hands. "Uncle Joe, what...?"

"That feeling lets us know when another Immortal is around," Richie explained. "It'll fade. That must be Mac."

MacLeod came into the apartment through the front door. He stopped when he saw the three occupants, looking first at Richie then at the other two at the other end of the room. "What the hell happened?" MacLeod asked as he took off his coat and hung it on a hook at the end of the entry hall. Walking toward his bed, he repeated, "Someone tell me what happened."

Melody tried to smile. "My first day on the job and I messed up."

Richie walked over with a glass of water and offered it to Melody. "Mac, she was following me across the street and got hit by a car. See, well, I felt this weird kind of feeling. Kinda like an itch I couldn't reach? You know?"

MacLeod said nothing. He stood, hands on hips, as he listened to Richie and watched Melody's full return to health.

Richie continued his story. "Well, when I heard all the noise and went to help, I realized it was coming from her, you know, that itchy feeling." He shrugged. "Well, then she called me by name. Mac, she knew my name! So, I brought her here. And she was hurt bad. And then she died."

"Uncle Joe?" Melody interrupted. "This must be a shock to you. I'm sorry."

Joe looked at MacLeod, both deciding without words that no one needed to know about their conversation of the night before.

"It's okay," Joe assured her. "Like Richie said, everything is going to be all right."

Richie had gone back to the kitchen and poured some coffee into a mug. "Hey, Mac?" Richie called. "Is that the way it happened when we first met?"

MacLeod looked over at Richie, puzzled.

"You know. That weird feeling," Richie explained.

"Oh," MacLeod said, "you mean the thing I couldn't get rid of? Yeah, Rich. Just like that." He baited the youngster.

"Mac," Richie spoke with confidence, "you don't mean that."

"Uncle Joe?" Melody asked. "What do I do now? Richie's my assignment."

MacLeod answered for the Watcher. "Things have changed, you need to realize that and what it means for you."

MacLeod sat on the opposite side of the bed from Joe. Then he and Richie both tensed and looked at each other as they felt yet another Immortal nearby. Melody looked bewildered.

MacLeod got up and walked over to the front door just as a knock sounded. He opened it and greeted the newcomer. "Can I help you?"

The visitor appeared to be in his early thirties. His hair -- blond and straight -- fell below his shoulders and he wore a long coat similar to the one MacLeod had just taken off. "I was told I could find Joe Dawson here," he said with a midwestern drawl.

MacLeod nodded slowly. He noticed the new arrival's cautious manner and his stance, ready to defend against a challenge. "If you're a friend of Joe's," MacLeod told him, indicating the sword under the other man's coat, "you won't need that here."

The stranger nodded, and let his hand drop to his side as MacLeod motioned for him to enter the apartment and then closed the door behind him. "Joe," MacLeod announced, "you have a visitor." The new arrival glanced at Richie, then at Joe and then at Melody sitting in the middle of the bed. "Mel, what's happened to you?" he called out, rushing toward her.

Melody bounced up off the bed and ran into his arms. "Scott, I'm so glad you're here." She greeted him with a kiss.

MacLeod, Richie and Joe all exchanged a look of surprise.

"You're an Immortal!" she exclaimed, interrupting their kiss to look up at him in surprise.

He laughed at her statement. "Yes, I know." Then his smile turned into a frown. "And so are you. What happened?" he demanded, realizing that the Immortal aura was also coming from her.

"I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," she confessed. "I was too busy following Richie and I got hit by a car." She was still hanging on to him when she finished, her arms around his neck.

"Who's Richie? And why were you following him?"

Melody glanced at her uncle. Joe's answer was imperceptible to anyone that didn't know him well. A slight change of his posture, a look at the floor then back at his niece. But she understood. Melody couldn't talk about the Watchers.

"It's nothing now." She changed the subject. "Why are you following me?" she asked him, dropping her arms to her sides.

"Because you wouldn't stay in L.A. and I want to be with you," he admitted.

"But your job!" she exclaimed.

"Not so important anymore," he answered, shaking his head.

"But you said...," Melody argued.

"Never mind," Scott told her.

"I guess I'm out of a job too," Melody told him.

"Then let's go home, back to L.A.," Scott suggested hopefully, reaching down to tug playfully on the sleeve of her sweater.

"No," Melody answered, moving away, turning her back. "Not yet. I have to find out what's happening with me. And why."

"There are no answers to the 'why'. As for the rest, I can teach you." Scott looked over at the three men, then following her, he took Melody by the shoulders and gently turned her around. "Melody," he continued in a soft voice, "you don't know these people. It's important that you be around someone you can trust."

Melody shook Scott's hands off her shoulders. "I trust my uncle, and these are his friends," she told him in an indignant voice.

"But he's not really your uncle, is he?" Scott firmly reminded her.

Melody again turned away and walked over to the windows, staring at the view, saying nothing.

"You just met these guys," Scott continued, raising his voice at her. "How do you know you can trust them?"

MacLeod interrupted, "Melody's been through a lot today, Scott. Give her a little time. She's in no danger from us."

"Who are you?" Scott demanded.

"Duncan MacLeod," Mac introduced himself, then waited to see if there would be a reaction. As usual, there was.

"Yeah, I've heard of you. The Highlander," Scott admitted as he offered his hand to MacLeod. "I'm Scott Bryant."

"She needs a bit of time, Scott," MacLeod said again, shaking his hand.

Scott hooked his thumbs into his jeans' pockets, looked at the floor for a few seconds, then nodded. "Yeah. She needs some time," he agreed. Backing toward the door, he called to Melody, "I'll be back later, I'm just going to take a walk, clear my head."

Melody turned away from the window and watched him as he stopped and started to say something else. But instead, he gave her a small wave, then turned and left the apartment.

Joe pointed at the closed front door. "I haven't heard of him, he must be fairly young," he informed MacLeod.

"Why didn't you want me to tell him about the Watchers?" Melody asked her uncle.

"Mel, you know we can't tell them about us. Mac found me," he explained at her questioning look toward MacLeod and Richie. "And now here you are, another Immortal that knows all my secrets." Joe grinned at his niece.

Richie was feeling like a fifth wheel. With Joe and Mac here to help Melody through this new beginning, she didn't need him too. Now was a good time to leave. He went over to Melody, took both of her hands in his and gave a little squeeze. "I have to get going now, but Mac will take good care of you," he assured her.

"Thank you, Richie," she said, smiling at him. "Thanks for everything."

"Not a problem," he replied, waving to Joe and Mac as he headed for the stairs.

Mel, I'm sure Scott will be back soon," Joe said, putting his arm around her shoulders. "You'll be okay while Mac and I talk about some things downstairs?"

She nodded and hugged him fiercely. "I'll be fine."

Joe kissed her cheek affectionately, then turned away and walked to the elevator. MacLeod held the gate up for him, then joined him inside the cage, motioning to Melody that he would be right back.

The two friends descended to the main level in silence, then walked slowly across the wooden floor of the dojo.

"I don't think he's a danger to her or he would have taken her head long ago," MacLeod said, trying to reassure.

Joe nodded. "I agree."

They walked together slowly for a few more steps, then stopped as Joe turned to face MacLeod. "Will you teach her, Mac?"

"I'm not so sure she wants my help, Joe. He'll want to teach her about the 'Game'."

"Yeah, you're probably right," the Watcher replied reluctantly. But he wasn't ready to give up on what he considered to be Melody's best chance. "Will you if she asks?"

"Yes," MacLeod agreed, "if she asks."

"I'll talk to her," Joe said, looking more at ease.