Title: Long Time No See
Author: Arsenic
Rating: R (language and implied slash)
Keywords: XOVER (duh) HL/OaT
Characters: Mac Ramsey, The Director, Lianne Tsei (cameo), Victor Mansfield (cameo), Amanda
Notes: The Mac in this story is not a MacLeod, he belongs to John Woo's Once a Thief.
Disclaimers: Amanda belongs to R/P/D, the others belong to John Woo and whatever Canadian company did OaT.
Thanks: To Mark Jones for my lyrics.
Dedicated: To Dianne for making it possible for me to see all of OaT here in America.

---

"Good morning boys and girls."

Mac noted without looking up that the Director was once again purring this morning. Sometimes he wondered what she would do if he ever responded to her with a direct come back. He had been tempted, but regardless of what Vic and Lianne thought, he did have moments of thinking before he acted. He liked to consider it his self-preservational streak. Especially when it involved the Director.

"What makes you so happy this lovely morning?" Lianne didn't bother making her tone sarcastic, the sky hadn't been blue in over two weeks and all of them had been called into work even earlier than usual.

"We have a new case." She motioned toward the screen behind the team members with her hand. "A jewel thief." She smiled wryly at the backs of Mac and Lianne, both of whom had perked up at that. "The person we are looking at is a professional. She never hits the same spot, let alone country in the space of a year. As far as we can tell there isn't an alarm she can't bypass. The only reason we have any idea of who it might be is because of an anonymous tip by a person supposedly walking by one of the scenes of the crime. However, she has a tight alibi for that night and we can't seem to pin her to anything." She handed out packets to each agent. "Here is a list of spots she has hit in the last year alone. From what we can tell, she is probably responsible for over fifty jobs that had previously gone unsolved over the last ten years, and those are just the ones that we have discovered as possibly hers." She waited for reactions, verbal or non-verbal.

It was Victor who spoke up first. "I don't get it, we don't usually worry about jewelry theft unless it is connected with something much larger and possibly world-threatening." His tone was only borderline sarcastic.

The Director nodded and gave Victor an indulgent smile. "Good boy. See, we have reason to believe that her latest thefts have not been of jewelry or anything so mundane, but rather that she has moved on to bigger and more lucrative jobs."

"An example of one such job would be..." Lianne raised her eyebrows in an interrogative manner.

"An arms shipment of the latest military weapon prototypes, sent out from military headquarters to a base in California." She answered casually.

"You gotta give it to her, the lady knows how to pick'em." Mac grinned cockily even as his eyes held back unease.

"I'm glad you think so Mr. Ramsey, because you are the one who is going to work this case."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just yesterday you were trying to impress upon us the importance of teamwork, what happened to all that?"

"That was yesterday. Don't worry, you won't be going alone, I'm sending someone with you. In the packet I gave you there is a ticket to Paris that leaves out in less than three hours. The woman we suspect owns a nightclub there that is where you will attempt to make contact. There will be plenty of time for you to read all the information we have gathered on the plane flight over there. Victor and Lianne will be flying over as well but since they are working on this from the angle of recovering the missing arms shipment, the less contact they have with you, the better. Do I hear any complaints?" She turned her back as all three agents opened their mouths to speak. "Good. I expect all to be safe in the world by the next time I see you."

---

Mac got himself and a carry-on with a few days worth of clothes to the airport an hour before boarding and went to the gate to find his mystery partner. He had let himself get slightly involved in the paperback he had picked up on his way down the terminal when he heard a familiar voice. "Fancy meeting you here, stranger."

Mac lifted his head and barely held himself back from rolling his eyes. "You're kidding, right? Don't you have something better to do this weekend? Torture cute baby mammals or something?"

The Director didn't respond in any way other than to sit down next to him and cross her legs resolutely. Mac sighed and put his eyes back on the pages of the book. If he was being completely fair, he would admit that she had been different since the three of them had survived Puchie's "back-up." Asking had become more of a policy than telling and her concern for them was more evident at times than it had ever been before. All the same, Mac was quite sure that a mission with just the two of them was not a good plan.

The plane started boarding and the Director got to her feet, She glanced back at Mac and said in her most unassuming manner, "Coming?"

Mac glared, but he came. When they were both seated he tried finding out what all this was about. The Director hadn't decided to come on the mission because she had suddenly taken it into her head to seduce him. "Tell me about this Amanda Leureaux, a.k.a. every last name under G-d's green earth."

"I watched you read the file. Unless you've gotten really good at moving your eyes along the page blankly." She casually waved a stewardess over and requested a drink.

"Something the report didn't tell me." He smiled at the stewardess and asked for a drink as well, she made it back with both in record time. He wondered if this was due to attraction on his part or intimidation on the Director's. Looking over, he noticed that she had had turned her face to the window and was tapping long nails against her armrest rhythmically.

"You are to act as my lover when we go to the club." She turned to face him as she said it.

Mac tried hiding his confusion for all of three seconds. "Why did you come and not Lianne? We may not do well as a married couple but we have the lover thing down flat."

"Because I am hoping that I still have the ability to make Amanda jealous."

Mac surreptitiously reached a hand down to make sure his seat belt was securely fastened. Sometimes talking to the Director was more throwing than any plane flight could ever hope to be. He was proud when he managed to make his voice level for the only question he could wrap his mind around. "You knew her?"

When she answered, her voice was as close to sad as it ever got. "We go back a ways."

"In that case, I assume there is more of a plan than we go in there and make her jealous."

She gave him a look that he couldn't define and wasn't sure if he wanted to. "Trust me, you'll figure it out as we go along." With that she turned her head back to the window and closed her eyes as if to sleep. Mac noticed that her breathing still hadn't evened out when the plane left ground.

---

The hotel they checked into was gorgeous -- five-star with all the toppings. Mac thought about asking why they never got treated like this when it was just the three of them traveling. She dropped a key into his hand, mentioned that the rooms were adjoining and told him to be back in the lobby dressed for club-hopping at eleven that evening.

He followed her instructions and was sitting in one of the big chairs placed in a convenient lounge at five 'till the designated hour. She walked in at five minutes after and took a good three minutes to reach him, having to stop and glare at men trying to pick her up on her way to Mac. She did look good, he would have to be dead not to recognize that fact. Her hair was pulled away from her face in an elegant French twist with wisps coming down on each side to frame her face. Her makeup was all deep shades and elegant lines emphasizing her eyes, mouth, and cheeks. The blue velvet choker that she wore was the only thing above the strapless tube dress that hugged her body down to a little below her thighs. It was a deep blue as well, velvet twisted and curled around in a pattern, with sheer material covering where the velvet did not. Blue stockings came up to exactly where the dress ended so that the garter belts were only sometimes seen, depending on where she was in her stride. The shoes were clear Mary Janes with heels that looked like they could cause permanent damage.

If she hadn't been who she was, he would have been one of the men trying his luck. He stood and waited for her to make it to him. She approached, nodded appreciatively at his form-fitting black leather pants and sheer t-shirt. "It'll do."

"I was of under the notion that you were the one we were sending out to catch flies this evening."

"Don't get uppity Mr. Ramsey."

He gave her a particularly innocent "me?" face and they walked out of the lobby together, hand in hand. She started to tell him what he needed to know. "From here on out, for the rest of this trip, we are lovers, you can keep your name, even if she does do a back-up check on you, I doubt she would expect less from me. We will hit a couple of clubs before the one that Amanda owns, it wouldn't do for things to be too consequential. The end goal of all this is to get her in our confidences. She is not na1ve nor easily led into traps. I expect you to do anything I ask of you. If she is the one with these weapons...I think you can complete that sentence all by yourself."

"If?" Mac had never heard any real doubt in her suspicions that someone was guilty before.

"This isn't like the Amanda I knew. But then, she's had a lot of time to change."

Amanda felt the buzz long before she saw who had entered her club and brought it with them. Instinctively, she pressed her back further against the chair she was sitting in to feel the sheathing of the blade against her skin. Reassured, she stood up to look over the railing at the floor below. After all, it could be MacLeod or Nick or Adam or any one of several other immortals that wouldn't be any cause for alarm. As far as she could tell, none of them were here. If it was one of them, they normally would have come and said hello by this time. Sighing, Amanda descended the stairs and went to investigate.

The crowd was heavy by this time, late on a Friday. Amanda found herself fighting for balance as well as the ability to see anything more than just a mass of bodies in front of her. The minute Amanda found her though, she knew what she had been looking for. It had been near to two and a half centuries, she would remember everything about the women standing just feet away from her if she lived for three eternities. She slipped in between people until she was standing behind the woman she had taught to steal and fight and survive. A name she hadn't spoken in longer than she cared to think about came to her lips on a breath. "Rhia."

The other woman was staring at her with two parts shock and one part wariness. "Amanda. What are you doing here?"

Amanda smiled wryly. "I own 'here.' What about you?"

Rhia leaned into the tall, incredibly handsome man she had been dancing with, a man Amanda had chosen to note only peripherally but now realized was more than just another clubber. "Mac and I decided to take the night off. We've been in Paris on...business."

Mac kept on supporting her lightly as he wondered if the business she was hinting at was a jewel heist, which led back to the question of how the Director -- Rhia?-- knew this woman in the first place.

Amanda laughed softly, seductively. "A new partner, hmm? How does he compare?" She watched as the woman who was no longer her student eyed Mac speculatively.

"Less experienced."

This earned Rhia a full laugh. "That's hardly fair." All the same, whether Amanda wanted to think about what the reaction meant or not, it had made her feel better. "I have an office upstairs, we can talk there. I'll even let you drink for free."

Rhia smiled ever so slightly. "Well then, I suppose that makes it worth the danger."

Amanda shook her head once. "The only danger that will come from me will be one you initiate yourself."

"In that case, lead on." She gestured ever so slightly with her hand for Amanda to lead. Mac followed. It was because of this, and the fact that he had spent almost two years analyzing her, that he was the only one to notice the look of unease the Director allowed to cross her face for less than a second before regaining her customary non-expression.

When they reached the office, Amanda nodded her head toward a love seat near the windows overlooking the club. Mac sat down at one edge and was nearly surprised when the Director curled up almost on top of him. It took him less than a second to relax and mold himself against her. All the same, Amanda noticed and wondered what had him so scared of Rhia. Back when she had known her, the woman had known exactly where power games should begin and end.

"I don't suppose you would want to tell me exactly what your 'business' here in town is?" Amanda walked over to the bar. "Want anything?"

"No, and I don't suppose you keep sake?" Behind her, Mac relaxed a fraction more. She was glad, she only got off on him being scared if she was in control of what was frightening him.

Amanda gave her an odd look but nodded slowly. "I have another friend who is partial to that as well."

"One for both of us."

"Well look, I haven't really been on the scene much in a while, but if you need some help, I'm never adverse to a little excitement." Amanda brought two glasses over to the entwined couple and felt a pang that there wouldn't be any other kind of excitement occurring while the younger immortal was in town.

"You retired?" She took a larger sip of the drink than she would have normally. She had learned over sixty years of being a student, crime partner, and lover to the woman, that Amanda had certain idiosyncrasies that showed up when she lied. None of them were occurring at the moment. Then again, it had been well over two centuries since she had left in a fit of independence.

"You make me sound so old." The voice was teasing, but the eyes were wearier than when Rhia had last seen the other woman.

Rhia ran her fingers lightly over Mac's inner thigh. "I would still take you in a minute."

Amanda's eyes narrowed. "You have only gotten more troublesome."

"Maybe. Have you noticed you have a copycat? I thought it was you I was seeing in just about every international paper I could get my hands on." Mac recognized her tone. She was still suspicious.

Amanda, for her part, looked somewhat mischievous and completely proud. "Did you think you would be my last student?"

Mac almost came off the couch at this. Seeing as how the Director had admitted to having a past with this woman, nothing until now had really thrown him. Amanda though, looked to be at least ten years younger than the other woman. And yet she referred to her as a student. One she had trained before others. He had forgotten how dangerous judging a book by its cover could be.

The woman in his lap had tensed to the point where he was afraid if she fell that something would just shatter right off. Amanda noticed. "Rhia? I didn't mean it that way. You were the one who walked away, I had to get on with things at some point."

Rhia was caught between wanting to get up and leave, walk across the room and have sex with Amanda on the carpet or tie her to one of the plush chairs and keep her there until she explained how she could have let a student of hers off without teaching them the complexities of having a conscience. That had been the first lesson Rhia had ever learned. It had also been the second, third and last. The ones in between had been inconsequential, regardless of what those who saw her in her day-to-day persona thought.

"You know this student of yours is suspected of having stolen a state-of-the-art weapon from the military?" Her voice would have made those who could handle the sound of nails on a chalkboard queasy.

When Amanda looked up at her, Mac saw a woman who might as well have been drifting at sea for all the grounding she seemed to have. "It doesn't surprise me. I mean, you pick someone up from what they perceive as their end, and you begin to teach them things that can make it a beginning...it makes it hard not to realize that something isn't quite as pure as you would like in the other person. I don't suppose you've tried it in the time since I have seen you?"

"Teaching?" Rhia shook her head. "I wouldn't trust myself. That, and the opportunity really hasn't come up. I've heard there are fewer and fewer of us; that the youngest rarely survive their first year."

Mac finished off his sake figuring that at this point, it didn't really matter if he was drunk or not, considering the percentage of the conversation that he had actually understood.

Amanda nodded. "Do you know where he is with this weapon? I have friends, someone would take care of it for me."

The Director squeezed Mac's leg where she had been stroking. "You have your phone on you?"

Mac found the hand-size phone that he had placed at the ankle without a gun near it. He took a look at the screen and dialed the number for his voice mail. He nodded silently at her. "They found an auction in Guam, they seem to think our suspect is heading there."

"Sound like your boy?" Rhia's voice had softened. Mac wasn't sure exactly what to think of it. She wasn't precisely sympathetic, but it was the closest he had ever seen her.

"Yeah, Guam is where I found him. A challenge of sorts, I suppose."

"I could be the friend who took care of it for you."

"I don't ask favors of people I haven't seen in as long as it has been with you. Especially not when they were the one to leave. I still believe in pride."

"Think of it as my apology to you. I was wrong, I've spent a long time knowing that and being too proud to admit it. Fortunately, I don't seem to believe in pride as strongly of late."

Amanda let her head tilt to the side. "I would have to come with you. I may not be able to do it myself, but I won't just send you off to do it without having the courage to accompany you."

Rhia smiled somewhat bitterly. "Mac, call Dobrinsky, have him book us three tickets to Guam. Early." Mac was already dialing by the time she gave her last instruction. She looked back at Amanda. "Why don't you grab what you need and stay at the hotel for the night. We can arrange for a car in the morning, and we eliminate the need for a meeting place and all other complications." She didn't add that she felt uncomfortable leaving the woman she had once loved alone the night before she went off to see a student be killed by another student. It was the equivalent of a parent having to watch two siblings square off. She called out as Amanda left the room to pack. "Amanda."

Amanda pivoted on her right foot to face the woman calling her.

"His fighting style...does he -- are there things I should know about?"

"He keeps knives on himself, usually one near his ankle, one on the lower arm, and possibly one on his back. I can't guarantee he'll fight fair either. He's weak, though, one cut and you'll have him, he lets his fear get in the way." With that, she turned and left.

"I think it's only fair that I ask what the hell is going on at this point."

The Director gave him her hardest stare. He didn't flinch and she sighed. "I brought you along with the knowledge that you might hear things and even see things that you didn't understand and that I couldn't explain. I need you to just accept all of this and not tell anyone, not even Lianne and Vic."

He stared back at her equally as hard. She relented. "Please. If you have ever felt the need to show your loyalty, please do so now."

That hit a chord. "You must really like that the Tangs trained me like some lovesick puppy to pant every time loyalty is mentioned."

"No, I don't, but that doesn't mean I won't use it. Is it working?"

He let her know how much he hated her in that moment without bothering to speak. Amanda came back in and broke the moment of silence with a whispered "let's get out of here," and they left, heading back to the hotel.

Mac moved his stuff into the Director's room while Amanda settled in his, too numb from all that had happened to mind that he was being relegated to the couch. He dumped his bag at the foot of the impromptu bed and then swore as he realized he had left his shampoo in the shower of the other room. Knocking lightly, he went in at what he thought was a murmured "uh huh."

Amanda twirled in surprise at his entrance, her eyes brighter than they had been earlier and surrounded in red. She smiled ruefully at his mumbled apology and watched as he ducked into the bathroom. He crossed back to the door quickly, stopping only inches away from it.

"You okay?" It took all his willpower not to kick himself. This was not a woman he wanted to get messed up with. But she was beautiful, and he would admit to being an idiot for pretty women. Especially when they were crying.

She nodded slightly. "Yeah."

He smiled and turned to leave, stopping at the sound of his name.

"I kind of figured out that you and Rhia aren't lovers, I mean, with the whole separate rooms thing, and I was kind of wondering if you would mind staying on the couch in here for the night?"

Mac's only reply was to eye her somewhat suspiciously.

"I don't want to be alone, and I can't ask her. Please."

Mac set the shampoo down on a nearby dresser and retrieved his bag from the other room. He went into the bathroom to change and came back to find Amanda already in bed with the lights out. He settled himself on the couch and was in the middle of drifting off when he heard muffled sounds coming from the direction of the bed. Sighing, he got up and walked across the room. Cautiously, he sank into the bedding, so as not to startle the woman busy asphyxiating herself with a pillow. She started all the same and he apologized.

"I think you lied to me when you told me you were okay."

She gave him a waterlogged giggle. "Maybe just a bit."

He moved further onto the bed so that she had no choice but to move over as well. Slowly, so that she would have the chance to push him away if she chose, he curled his arms around her and settled himself so that he was holding her with her back against his chest. "This all right with you?"

She nodded and yawned. "Thanks." Within seconds, both of them were sleeping heavily.

The Director noticed Mac's absence the moment she emerged from the bathroom where she had been changing. She indulged herself with a cup of green tea before going into check on Amanda. She was somewhat interested to find both of them curled up together, but understood all the same. Amanda had never been a loner. Neither was she, for the most part. After Amanda she had stayed with two men and one woman until the time of their natural deaths.

It was tiring though, to have to mourn again and again without fail. There wasn't a day when she didn't miss Amanda or one of the others. Loneliness was the worst part of living. Sometimes she thought that was her reason for constantly trying to get Mac and Lianne back together. There were even days when she felt like telling all three of them that Lianne didn't really need to choose. She smiled as she thought of the look that would appear on Vic and Mac's face if either man was aware that they would both be willing to go for that kind of arrangement.

Against her better judgment, she walked around to the side of the bed that Mac didn't inhabit and crawled in silently. Slipping under the covers, she sidled up to the woman she had slept with -- and without -- for so very long.

Sleepy eyes fluttered open to look at the woman who had just settled herself into a comfortable position. "I missed you." Amanda moved her head in and claimed a kiss, soft and undemanding, before pulling Rhia closer into her -- and Mac, and closing her eyes into sleep once more. Rhia licked the taste of the other woman up from her lips and followed suite.

---

They were in Guam late the next evening. Mac had been on the phone since landing trying to pinpoint the exact location of the auction and where they could find Amanda's student. By the time they finally had an address it was close to eleven o'clock at night. It didn't take long to do the actually physical locating, they found him in the hotel where Vic had said he would be.

Amanda lured him to a deserted area on the beach, promising something. She was aware that it didn't really matter what she said, he wanted to fight her anyway. The Director had ordered Mac to stay at their hotel.

Mac had responded belligerently. "Hell no."

"Hell yes, don't make me repeat myself Mr. Ramsey."

"Don't worry Rhia, I won't." He stressed her name and was happy to note that her jaw moved ever so slightly. "I promised you last night, by my loyalty to you that I would keep whatever secrets I learned on this little jaunt of ours, but there is no way that you are going to go out there and handle our suspect and not even take me along. No way."

"Mac, you -" She had stopped suddenly and her whole expression had changed from "bitch-in-charge" to considering. "Okay, but no matter what I do, you CANNOT interfere. Understood? I will sic myself on you with a vengeance you can't begin to dream of should you decide not to listen to me on this."

"I hear you." With that, the two of them had gone to the place Amanda where she had promised the boy would be.

He was a boy; maybe not to Mac, but certainly to Rhia and Amanda. She hated killing immortals so much younger than herself. Then again, she hated sending the team into mortal danger time and again. The lessen Amanda had taught her that she hated the most was that sometimes, you did what had to be done and gritted your teeth all the way through it. She interposed herself between Amanda and the boy before he could issue the challenge upon her arrival.

He chafed. "Who the fuck are you?"

She pushed Amanda toward where Mac was observing. "Someone who has come to teach you that no one lives forever." She drew the rapier that she carried at all times and placed herself in position to fight.

The boy sneered and nodded at the full moon. "So you think. It's the hour of the wolf and I don't want to die." He had his sword out at this point as well.

From back in the shadows, Mac was unsure as to whether this whole scene was a product of hallucination on his part. He watched as the Director threw slashes, evaded knives that seemed to come from nowhere and parried erratic thrusts. He winced each time enemy steel came in contact with her skin, but she didn't seem to notice. By the end of the entire fight it had to have been no more than four or five minutes, but had he been asked, Mac would have told you it took at least an hour. The Director managed a direct blow to her opponent's spleen, bringing him to his knees. Mac almost fell over at the quick slash through the boy's neck. He stood there gaping as the most concentrated light storm he had ever seen seemed to pour into the woman he worked for. A mantra ran through his mind, "No intervention, no intervention..."

He was shocked to find himself being pulled along behind Amanda as the storm died down. She quietly commanded him to pick the Director up and between the two of them, they brought her back to the hotel. Upon regaining consciousness, the Director had him phone Lianne and tell her everything had been taken care of and that she would see her and Victor in the office on Tuesday, giving her and Mac time to return. When he hung up the phone there was an odd silence in the room. Feeling that it was the right thing to do, Mac excused himself and went back to his own room.

Amanda stayed seated next to Rhia, but took his absence as her chance to speak. "I owe you."

"If anything, I am working off debt, you know that." Both women fell into an uncomfortable silence at this.

"Mac seems afraid of you. At first I thought maybe it was a scene kind of afraid, but if he works for you then you aren't players."

"No." She thought about how to explain that she had become removed because of hurt and disillusionment and had no idea of how to go back to what had been before. "You weren't the last lover I had."

Amanda smiled sadly. "Mortals."

Rhia nodded. "The only way I knew to create distance had to do with creating fear as well. You never taught me that particular skill."

"I don't have that particular skill, it's not like I just chose to omit it." She shook her head. "What we are, what we do and see and survive, it ensures pain. Life sucks that much harder for us given that it is that much longer."

"Inspiring."

"What is inspiring is what we do to alleviate that. You alleviated the pain in my life for sixty years, first as the young woman I found struggling to find her next meal and later as the immortal I trained and fell in love with. I don't regret the pain that has come with missing you, it was worth the time when it wasn't there."

"I do regret it." Rhia extended her hand to Amanda. "I regret having been fool enough to think that I could discover more without you. I regret not calling when I realized I was wrong not long after. But what I will regret most is if you refuse me now when I am asking you for a second chance."

"Mac told me earlier today that asking is a newly learned skill of yours."

"No, just one that I had forgotten and took a bit of digging to find again."

"In that case," Amanda brought Rhia's hand to her lips and bit at each of the fingertips, drawing her teeth along the pads, before kissing the center of the upturned palm, "I have always been one to encourage the rebirth of old talents."

---

Lyrics to No One Lives Forever
By Danny Elfman (Oingo Boingo)

You worry too much/ You make yourself sad
You can't change fate/ But don't feel so bad
Enjoy it while you can/ It's just like the weather
So quit complaining brother...
No one lives forever!

Let's have a party there's a full moon in the sky
It's the hour of the wolf and I don't want to die

I'm so happy dancing while the grim reaper
Cuts, cuts, cuts
But he can't get me
(I'm as) Clever as can be, and I'm very quick,
but don't forget
No one lives forever!!!

You think you got it rough/ What about your darling doggy?
Ten short years/ And he's getting old and groggy
I don't think it's very fair
Cold, chop, low, but it's all relative my friend 'cause
No one lives forever!!!
Let's have a party there's a full moon in the sky
It's the hour of the wolf and I
Don't want to die (but)...

No one beats him at his game
For very long but just the same
Who cares, there's no place safe to hide
Nowhere to run -- to time to cry
So celebrate while you still can
'Cause any second it may end.
And when it's all been said and done...
Better that you had some fun
Instead of hiding in a shell - Why make your life a living hell?
So have a toast, and down the cup
And drink to bones that turn to dust ('cause)...
No one, no one, no one, no one... (etc.)
No one lives forever!! (Hey!!)