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-z- It’s 1972 and Beau Daniel celebrates turning nineteen with three bullets to the chest deep in the jungles of Vietnam. - He had died choking on his own blood as John begged for him to hold just a little bit longer. Beau tried, he did, but then he felt his head loll to the side and he saw David, his best friend, already dead and gone – eyes closed as if he were sleeping.Then he woke – the sun shining bright on his face as he turned onto his side, coughing up the blood from his lungs.He sits up and looks for the rest of his platoon. He only sees David, a Texan who had had bright dreams of marrying his girl named Becky. Beau had tried to protect to him – when David had fallen behind, a bullet having found his leg, Beau had come back for him, ignoring the order to retreat.Then John had come back for Beau and now, looking around – Beau doesn’t see him. He takes it as a sign that he got out.Beau wants to call out for John – he wants answers because, looking down at his uniform, he knows with certainty that he should not be alive. There’s too much blood – cold and sticky against his skin – and the wounds he knows he should have, are gone. So he stands shakily, picks up his M16 and begins to walk. - It’s not long before he finds the enemy and he’s falling to his knees again, hand over his stomach and looking down at the blood.Wonder if I’ll wake up again, he thinks as he falls face down into dirt. - He does and it’s just as a dog begins to gnaw on one of his fingers.“Fuck!” Beau shouts as he rears back and tries to stand up, he gets to his feet just to trip on another dog that had been standing behind him. He looks around desperately for his rifle or his handgun – shouting another curse when he finds they’re both missing.The dogs, having jumped back in surprise at first, press back in again as Beau fights to get to his feet.“Back off, you mongrel fucks,” Beau snaps, a hand going to his head after a wave of nausea crashes down on him – he realizes that he needs time to recover. And then he realizes that he doesn’t have it as one dog licks at its lips and another snaps at his uniform.Then there’s a quick burst of machine gunfire and the dogs yelp and take off.Beau snaps his head to the side and sees John.“Holy shit,” John says as he stares at Beau, “you’re dead – I watched you die!”“I know!” Beau cries, slowly getting to his feet and trying to ignore how his legs trembled, desperation fills his voice as he looks around, at the edge of the jungle and the gun in John’s hands and at John’s face. “I woke up and then I died again, and then I woke up and then the dogs were about to eat me and then you came!”“Okay, okay,” John waves his hands for Beau to stop talking. “Okay,” he continues, like he doesn’t know what else to say.“Where’s everyone else?” Beau asks after a beat.“Paddy field just over the ridge,” John says with a jerk of his head, indicating the direction the rest of the platoon was in. “I heard English so I came down to check it out.”“Glad you did,” Beau says, trying to smile. He’s relieved when John smiles back.“C’mon,” John waves for Beau to follow him. “I don’t know how the LT is going to react, but I think everyone else is going to be happy to see you again.” - In the morning, no one dares to ask about Beau’s return. They just take turns poking and hugging him, making sure that he was real, before they start moving again. It doesn’t take long before they come across a dead American; Beau hesitates for only a second before he takes the guy’s M16.“It’s better than you walking around without one,” John says, handing over a cleaning rag and gun oil.Beau nods and begins to wipe away the dirt and blood from the gun’s barrel. - It was weird for Beau, to like someone like John. While Beau came from California, John Winchester was from Kansas. He always talked about his girl back home, about how she had only promised to marry him if he bought her a VW van, how they were going to have three kids and a perfect two story home.“I’ll work at a garage and coach baseball,” John says, grinning like he always does when he talks about the future.“I just want to play hockey,” Beau says with a wave of his hand, trying to bat away that perfect little dream of John’s in case it infected him.“Hockey?” John asks, his eyebrows knit in a mix of confusion and incredulousness. John’s never been able to appreciate any sport other than baseball and it makes Beau sad for him.“Yes, Johnny, hockey,” Beau says, poking John in the chest. “It’s a sport with ice and skates and sticks.”“What kind of ball does it use?” and Beau can see the mischief in John’s eyes, knows that the man is messing with him. So Beau sighs and shakes his head and launches into a long lecture about how chasing a puck on half-inch steel blades was far nobler than tossing around a ball of any size or shape. -x- After Vietnam, after the months in the dark jungle – when the battalion is shipped back to Pendleton – Beau excitedly takes John under his wing. He shows him a proper Californian beach, shows John all of his old haunts. And, when hockey season starts – he takes John down watch a Kings game. John doesn’t quite take to hockey, admitting only that it was clear those goaltenders were insane.John and Beau leave the Corps at the same time and Beau drops John off at the airport.“Don’t forget to invite me to the wedding,” Beau says as he wraps John into a tight hug, resolutely ignoring the heat behind his eyes.“I won’t,” John laughs; Beau punches his shoulder and shoves him away. “You know? I might watch some hockey if you tell me which team you’re going to be on?”“I don’t know yet,” Beau says with a shrug, “and I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself watching something besides baseball.”“Ha ha,” John snarks as he shakes his head and turns away, heading towards his gate.(It’s the last time they see each other.)They write to each other and when John finally gets married, Beau can’t make it because he’s at the Kings’ training camp. Beau doesn’t tell him about Amanda, an Immortal he meets, and how he has to learn how to handle a sword, lest other Immortals come for his head. He doesn’t tell him about how Amanda calls down an old friend from Seacouver to train him, how Beau can’t quite take to sword lessons like he can to hockey lessons – and then it’s not long before Duncan leaves and Amanda follows him.John tells Beau about Mary, about how he doesn’t get the van, instead getting an Impala on the advice of a strange man he’d met. Beau tells him he’ll save John and Mary tickets to a game if they ever get out to LA. John tells him he’ll see what he can do, maybe if he can time off work. Then he’s writing Beau about the sudden death of Mary’s parents – a burglary gone wrong and how the killer hasn’t been found. -x-
1980
Beau’s almost twenty-six when he realizes that he’s never going to look a day passed nineteen.Then he shatters his arm, he retires from hockey with nasty words spat at him from his coaches, words about him being a quitter, about how maybe he should've just died in Nam since he was never going to amount to much outside of hockey. His teammates, the only voices he really listens to anymore besides his family, simply wish him well and a speedy recovery. And then Beau leaves California. He goes to Texas then Florida, then up the east coast and into Canada. He thinks he feels the buzz of another Immortal when he passes through Winnipeg, so he rushes out of the city and hopes whoever it is doesn’t come after him.Then starts to feel the itch for warmer weather, so he heads back home. -x-
1983
Beau takes his first head from an Immortal who refused to leave him alone. It’s the same year that he stops getting calls from John.So Beau heads out to Lawrence, finds only a half-burned down home and a young black woman waiting for him.“Hello, Beau,” she says, “I’m Missouri. John said that you might come looking for him.”“Where is he?” Beau asks, he can’t quite bring himself to look away from the house.“I don’t know.”“What happened here?” he’s not sure if he really wants to know, but Missouri tells him and Beau simply leans back against his car and puts his head in his hands. Mary was dead and John was gone, off fighting another war with two children in tow. -x-
1991
Beau’s sister gives birth to a stillborn in her bathtub – and Beau takes what would have been the child’s social security number. He takes her husband’s last name, switching from Beau Daniel to Beau Daniel Bennett. -x-
2005
Beau turns his eyes to the television and watches as it’s announced that Sidney Crosby, The Next One, the hockey phenom who came from out of nowhere, is headed down to Pittsburgh. It’s the same year he gets a call from Missouri, telling him that John Winchester was dead – killed by the demon he was hunting. -x-
2007
Beau finally gets to a Kings game for the first time that season. He watches they against the Blackhawks. And, when Jonathan Toews comes charging out onto the ice for warm-ups, Beau feels the buzz and he has to fight to keep his legs underneath him.He looks around - then sees Toews doing the same.And Beau realizes that he’s sitting right behind the Blackhawks bench and it’s the first time he’s hated being so close to the visitor team – having used the seats before to playfully heckle. But now, Toews is staring at him and there’s a flash anger and annoyance – and Beau does his best to smile reassuringly.Toews doesn’t seem to buy it. Later that night, after Toews has been glancing over his shoulder the entire game, Beau meets Toews out by the Blackhawk bus.“You wanna go?” he asks, and Beau is struck by how different this Toews is versus the one that was on the ice – the nervous little rookie now pulling himself up, exuding confidence and danger. Beau spares a moment to wonder how old he is.“No,” Beau answers right away, shaking his head for emphasis. “Then why are you here?” he asks, stepping forward and trying to crowd Beau back against the wall.“Just watching the game, buddy,” Beau snaps, refusing to be crowded as he puts a hand against Toews’s chest and giving him a shove, trying to keep some distance between the two of them. “Look, I always sit behind the visitor’s bench – it has nothing to do with you.”Toews stills for a moment, searching Beau’s face for any hint of a lie. And when he doesn’t find it, he takes a step back and holds his hands up.“Okay,” Toews says. Then Patrick Kane is calling his name and, after a hesitant handshake with Beau, he disappears into the Blackhawks bus. -x- Three years later, Beau is sitting at the NHL draft, his hands steepled under his chin as his leg jiggles up and down.Then the Penguins are calling his name and he absolutely cackles with glee as he turns and gives his sister (mother, to everyone else) a hug as he rushes down the stairs to pull that jersey over his head. - As he walks into the Penguin’s locker room, he feels twin buzzes from Sidney and Geno.Sidney’s head jerks up from where he’s tying on his skates and he cocks his head to the side and then he’s welcoming Beau with wide smile and a firm handshake. Sid gestures for Beau to come over and take the stall next to his.“I saw the work you did for the Kings in the late seventies,” Sidney says, leaning in close and keeping his voice a low whisper so no one else could hear him, “it was good work.”“Thanks,” Beau says, grinning wide.“We’ll talk more after practice,” Sidney promises.Beau nods and talk turns to hockey, to how to deal with each coach or trainer, which of Beau’s new teammates were bigger assholes then the others. Duper had waved when Sid looked over at him pointedly. - “Why’d you leave the team after you broke your wrist?” Sid asks, taking a sip of his beer as he hands another one over to Beau. Beau accepts it and settles deeper into one of Sidney’s recliners while Sid and Geno settle into the couch, Geno leaning back and putting his arm across the back of the couch. Beau doesn’t think he imagines seeing Geno brushing a thumb across the nape of Sidney’s neck, but he ignores it all the same.“I realized I wasn’t aging and I maybe panicked a little,” Beau answers. He looks down at his beer says, “I died in Vietnam, 1972.”“Army?”“Marines,” Beau says, “I was 19. You?”“I don’t know,” Sid says, his eyes taking on a mischievous glint, “I haven’t been human since the Stone Age.”Beau’s mouth drops.“He lie,” Geno says with a wave of his hand, “Sid is primordial.”“Whatever, G,” Sid says as he glares at the side of Geno’s head, “you were the first person to domesticate a wild horse off the Mongolian steppes.”“Yeah, because you tell me to!” Geno shoots back. He says to Beau: “Sid turn to me say ‘Geno, my feet hurt – go catch horse, we use one to ride’. I say ‘Can’t do, Sid, impossible.’”“So you went out and caught a horse?” Beau asks.“Caught two,” Geno beams while Sidney rolls his eyes.“How long have you two known each other?” Beau asks, almost afraid of the answer.Sid looks over at Geno as he says, “I think it was 6? 7,000 years ago that we met?”“We together for 6,078 years,” Geno replies, “it was 6,071 when I pick number.”Sid stares at Geno for a beat before he leans in close and whispers something in a language Beau doesn’t recognize. Whatever it is he says, though – makes Geno’s pupils blow wide and his breath hitch.“Um,” Beau coughs in his hand, starts to stand, “should I leave?”“Yes,” Geno says at the same time Sid says: “No, it’s okay.”“We’ve got plenty of time to catch up and I’d like to hear some more stories,” Beau says as he waves and begins to head towards the door, “but, I can see you two have… um, things.”Geno’s laughter follows Beau as he hurriedly shows himself out of Sidney’s house. - “Who was your teacher?” Sidney asks as he settles next to Beau in the cafeteria.“Amanda Darieux. Kind of,” Beau says, “she didn’t want a student so she called Duncan MacLeod. He’s the one that explained the rules of the game and showed me how to use a sword.”“The Highlander?” Sid raises an eyebrow, before he turns his head around and calls something over to Geno – speaking the same language he had used the other night. Geno frowns and yells angrily back in the same language, making Sid laugh.“Wanna share with the class, Sidney?” Duper asks as he passes by.“Nope,” Sid says, still laughing. He turns back to Beau, says: “Geno doesn’t like Mac, he thinks I slept with him.”“Oh,” Beau glances up when Geno joins them, “did you?”“Please, Beau,” Sid snorts and shakes his head, “Zhenya and I have been monogamous for six thousand years. A Scottish cock isn’t going to change that.”Beau promptly chokes on his food. - “Wait, Watchers?” Beau asks, not liking the sound of that. Beau, Sidney, and Geno are walking out of the locker room.“People who stalk Immortals,” Sidney answers. “They’re harmless, really. Just think of them like your own personal chronicler.”“You guys have one?”“Pierre McGuire,” Sid says with a heavy sigh. “They all have these little wrist tattoos and I saw Pierre’s during an interview. I don’t know if he’s just covering us, or if he’s covering all NHL Immortals.”“How many Immortals are there in the NHL?”“Four,” Geno answers, “now that you drafted.”“So Jonathan Toews is the other one?” Beau asks. Sid lifts an eyebrow in question. “I still went to the Kings games – sorta had a run-in with him after the Blackhawks played there.”“Did he try to take your head?” Sid asked.“He asked if I wanted to go,” Beau said, “but I really didn’t. Even if I could have won, I didn’t want to take someone like Toews out of hockey, y’know?”“Makes sense,” Sid said with a nod.The silence stretches comfortably between them as they enter the parking garage.“The watchers have been around almost as long as we have,” Geno says as he unlocks Sid’s Range Rover and opens the passenger side door for Sidney (Sid gets in after giving Geno a really? look and a snort), Beau climbs into the back to sit just behind Sid, “but they were dismembered during the nineties. They form again not that long ago under Joe Dawson and Adam Pierson.”“That’s cool,” Beau says, not knowing how to respond.“It is,” Sid turned in his seat so he could look at Beau. “Adam is actually Methos—”“Sid!” Geno groaned as he started the car and began to back out. “What part of secret you not understand?”“Oh, please,” Sid says with a roll of his eyes, “what’s Methos going to do? To us? Geno, he doesn’t even remember the days of magic.”“Magic?” Beau asks, leaning forward.Sid’s eyes brightened as a grin spread slow across his face. It was almost terrifying.“Yes, Beau,” he says, “magic.” He lifts up a hand and a small ball of light formed in his palm, the light steadily grew bigger as it changed from white to yellow to green to blue. The ball left Sid’s palm and floated over to Beau, dancing and bouncing across Beau’s arms – making Beau giggle.“Geno and I are the only Immortals left who remember when the world still had magic,” a sad look passed over Sidney’s eyes as he glanced over to Geno, “but, just as there’s no longer glaciers hugging each mountain – magic passed into memory. Perhaps it’s for the best. Weapons used in war today are terrible enough as it is, I wouldn’t want to imagine what would happen if magic was thrown into the mix.”A beat of silence passes and the little ball of magic dissipates. Then a fond expression crosses Sidney’s face as he turns back to Beau.“Did you know that Geno invented the calendar as we know it today?” he’s still grinning even as Geno groans and slams his forehead against the steering wheel. “He wanted a way to keep track of our anniversaries.”“Six thousand years’ worth of anniversaries?” Beau asks incredulously as he raises both eyebrows. It was so disgustingly romantic that he was in awe.“Only important ones,” Geno says as he pulls up in front of Beau’s building. He begins to count them off on each finger, “First time we meet—”“We locked eyes across a battlefield,” Sid says, “burning and dismembered bodies between us – both of us in the middle of killing someone. It was so romantic.”Beau stares. “Remind me never to piss you off,” he says even as Sid waves him off; he wondered if it would be rude to just jump out of the car and start running.“We were different people back then.”“First time we fuck, first time we kill together, first time we say we love each other.”“Some Egyptian Immortal had come for Geno’s head,” Sid’s voice is distant, “I thought he had got it. I was ready to raze the entire upper kingdom to the ground. Then I would probably have taken the lower kingdom, too – just to make sure my point got across.”“Then whatever other anniversaries come up during the life we living,” Geno says after he’s leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to Sid’s cheek. He stops the car in front of Beau’s building. “Like now – we celebrate when I sneak over from Russia, our first game together, first fights, first Stanley Cup. We celebrate everything!”“You two are so adorable that if I don’t get out of this car right now, I’m going to start vomiting rainbows.”“Want me to hold your hair?” Sid asks, laughing as he watches Beau hurriedly clamber out of the SUV, dragging his duffle behind him. Later that night, Beau texts Geno – When’s the next big anniversary?This weekend, Geno text back, we celebrate first time Sid burned at stake.Beau just stares at his phone and wonders if living as long as Sid and Geno have has a negative impact on one’s sanity. - Beau walks into Sid and Geno’s home, pausing when he feels the buzz of two other Immortals.“Um,” Beau stumbles to a stop when he rounds the corner. He sees Geno locked in a death glare with Duncan MacLeod of all people. Sidney is sitting on a coffee table with his head in his hands and another Immortal is standing next to him, hand over his mouth as he tries to control his laughter.“Hey, Beau,” Sid said, sounding tired as he stood and bumped his fist against Beau’s.“Is everything—” he didn’t finish, just let his sentence hang as he gestured between Geno and MacLeod. Beau had only seen that level of hate in Geno’s eyes whenever they faced down the Flyers.“Give them about five more minutes,” said the man who had been standing next to Sid.“Beau, this is Methos,” Sid said with a gesture to the Immortal beside him, “and you remember the Highlander.”“Nice to meet you,” Beau said as he shook Methos’s hand; he turned and waved to Duncan. The Highlander flicked his eyes to Beau and opened his mouth to say something – he was abruptly cut off when Geno’s fist slammed into his jaw.“Idiot,” Geno spits before he rounds on Beau, throwing his arms open and yelling, “Beau belong to us!” Then Geno wraps him in a tight hug.A noise of surprise escapes Beau along with all of the air from his lungs as he was picked up and twirled around.“Wait what?” Beau asked when he had finally been set down.“They were arguing about which of them had a larger claim over your Immortal self,” Methos says, eyes traveling over Beau before flicking away. “Mac says that you’re his student because he taught you how to use a sword—“Not very well,” Geno grumbles as he sat on the couch.“—but Evgeni says that you’re his student because he and Sid are teaching you hockey,” Methos continues, ignoring the interruption.“Not that you really need it,” Sid said, slowly massaging his temple, “you know what you’re doing. We’re just helping you evolve your hockey to fit today’s game.”“That’s so sweet,” Beau grinned, punching Geno’s arm, “I’ve never had anyone fight over me before.”“Of course, Beau,” Geno grins widely, pulling Beau down next to him. “Not only you Penguin rookie, you also Immortal rookie.”“You know I’m almost sixty right?” Beau asks with a quirked eyebrow as Geno laid a heavy arm across his shoulders.“Yes, but you have misfortune to die at nineteen,” Geno says, “will always look like baby.”“That’s not fair,” Beau says with an exaggerated pout. Sid and Geno just laugh at him. -x- It’s 2013 and Beau celebrates turning sixty with a home town win against the Toronto Maple Leafs and another hat trick to his name – two goals assisted by Sid, and the third assisted by Geno.“Happy birthday, Beau,” Sidney grins, letting Beau slam against him into the boards – hats raining down around them. -z- End