When he got there he found a note on the door from Mac, telling him to come up whenever he got back and get his sword from the loft. He sighed. “Great Mac, next you’ll be telling me off for being out after curfew.” he muttered, then went up anyway.

“Richie, I’m glad you’re back.” Mac called over to him as he walked in.

“Still in one piece you mean? I told you, Viv isn’t after my head.” Richie replied, tired and not really in the mood for a lecture. Let alone the ‘I told you so’ speech he would get if he shared his suspicions about Viv’s work.

“Well if she was you practically handed it to her on a plate tonight. It doesn’t matter how good you are with a sword if yours happens to be half way across town.” Mac said, handing it over to him.

Rich put it away and sighed. “There were guards on the door, no one could have got so much as a table knife in without them noticing. Just like Viv said. Mac, surely you’ve checked her out with Joe by now? If she was an old Immortal, he would know, right?”

“Maybe. You know there are some Immortals they lose track of. They haven’t got anything about Vivianne Impson, but they have got a report they think might be her, two incidents about a Nina Simonise that fit her story. Once she cut the other Immortal’s arm off, the other time she got arrested.”

“So she’s telling the truth. You can relax.”

“Maybe.” Mac sighed. “There are still some things... I just get the feeling that there are things she isn’t telling us. Important things.”

Richie sat down and looked at his hands. “Yeah, I guess I get that feeling too. I mean, I trust her, I don’t think she’s going to do anything to me or anything, just... she has secrets. But we’ve all got secrets. So she doesn’t tell us much about her work or friends. I don’t tell her about Methos..”

“I should hope not!”

“I mean, about me and him.” Rich said, touching the amulet around his neck. “And there’s probably stuff you wouldn’t tell her if she asked about it. So why shouldn’t she have secrets?”

“There is a difference between things that are just private and secrets you don’t even tell your friends. I don’t know if Viv’s secrets could be dangerous to us, and that’s what has me worried.”

“Yeah.” Richie sighed, and admitted. “Me too.”

Mac looked at him and nodded, a little surprised.

“Just because I like her doesn’t mean I’m blind, Mac.” Richie said, noting the surprise. “I’ve been betrayed too many times for that. So, the only thing is, what to do about it? If she won’t talk to us, we can’t just send her away. She’s Immortal, she needs the training.”

“Actually she is better with a sword than you were when you took Mako’s head. Now she knows the rules I could tell her to leave.” Mac said, sounding doubtful.

“You won’t, will you Mac?” Rich asked. “She’s still learning, we could teach her so much.”

“Yeah, we could.” Mac replied, slightly stressing the ‘we’ with some amusement. “But I think we should also keep an eye on her.”

“Yeah.” Rich agreed a little sadly, then got up to leave. “Well, I better go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you then.” Mac said, and Richie let himself out.

There was no sense of her at her apartment, and no signs of a recent Quickening, so he parked his bike outside the diner and decided to walk around the neighbourhood to see if he could sense her. He couldn’t recall any garages around there, but if he was right he didn’t expect the place she worked to be widely known.

He was a couple of blocks away from where he started when he sensed her. Right then there was a crash like a crate being dropped, and raised voices from the alley he was just passing. He looked and took a couple of steps down it, to see light spilling out of a large open door onto a truck surrounded by people carrying boxes out, and Viv standing there with a knife in each hand backing towards the door, a spilled box of car parts lying where she had been when she felt the buzz. When she saw it was him the knives disappeared up her sleeves and she started to jog towards him. Then Marcus came out to see what was wrong.

“Ryan! Viv, what the hell is he doing here, I thought you knew better than to invite your boyfriends to watch us work. Or maybe you’ve told him all about us. Maybe that’s why we’ve got trouble!” Marcus called when he saw them.

Rich went forwards to meet Vivianne. “Viv, you didn’t show, we were worried..”

“Richie this is a really bad time. You shouldn’t have come, I told you M gets jumpy about people.” Viv half hissed, worried, trying to hustle him out the way he had come.

Marcus turned up beside her. “Too damn right I do. Just tell me this is a coincidence, Viv. He knows where we are, we hear someone told the cops where we are..”

“Oh come on M don’t tell me you’ve never had to move before! From what I hear you move like once or twice a year anyway! This is just bad timing. You know the cops are always looking for this place. So they found it, big deal. We’ll be cleared out in like five more minutes. No problem.”

“Like Hell there’s no problem. I see a big problem right here. Vivianne..”

“M, we’re all packed, you coming or what?” Someone, sounded like Steve, yelled from the truck.

Marcus glared at Viv and Richie, but a distant siren spooked him, even though it probably had nothing to do with them. “You two, in the van. You’re with us.”

“Marcus..”

“No arguments, Viv, I got a lot more people with me than you have.”

Viv’s face set angry, but she glanced at Richie and shrugged, then gestured for the back of the truck. Reluctantly he followed her and they jumped in, settled down next to where Viv’s bag was wedged on top of some boxes. A couple of people Richie didn’t know got in after them and closed the door, then the truck started up and they drove away. From in the back he couldn’t tell where they were going.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, Richie looking around at the contents of the truck. There were trunks full of tools, car parts, and paint. Also a neat little box of number plates.

“So, Viv, this is where you work. Nice place.” Richie said sarcastically.

Viv shook her head, not now. “Save it, Ryan. Not your business.” she told him in a low voice.

“You came to us, Mac took you in as a student, you hang out with us for months without mentioning you steal cars for a living? I’d say that is our business.” Richie hissed in reply.

“I don’t steal them, I work on them.”

“Strip them, paint them, change the plates.”

“Yeah, and make good money at it. What can I say, I make three times as much here as I would even if I owned my own damn garage. I needed some travelling money, I figured I’d be in town a month, tops. Why not work for the family business? I didn’t exactly expect to meet you or Mac, let alone have you, like, adopt me.”

“So now we’ve got Family in the family.”

“We ain’t Italian, Rich. We just have a business. A few garages, a lot of cars go through...”

“Stolen by kids who’d only get juvenile time if they get caught, and of course they know they got jobs waiting for them when they get back.”

“Do you see anyone else employing punks like us? What am I supposed to do, walk into some garage and say hey, I don’t got qualifications or formal training and the only references I can get would come from folks currently staying at Her Majesty’s, but I can fix cars pretty good? Get real. I’m not even legally supposed to be in this stupid country. Any of me. I’m just passing through. Who’d give me a job when I’ll be gone in a week? Family or people who are just as dodgy, that’s who. Hell, I’d have thought you would understand. Steve says you’ve been there.”

“Yeah, and got out of it. There’s no future in it, Viv. Always hiding, not being able to trust..”

“Hello, sound familiar? And who cares if there’s a future when right now there’s nothing to eat? I never expected to make it this far anyway. Hell, I didn’t make it this far.” Viv said, whispering even more for that last bit.

The truck was slowing down, and as the engine noise diminished they both decided to save the argument for later. The others hadn’t been able to hear exactly what was said, but they gathered that all was not well between the supposed love birds and there were amused glances all round.

They came to a stop, and after a couple of moments the back slid up and Marcus looked in. The two guys right at the back jumped out.

“Remember, make yourselves scarce, I’ll find you later.” Marcus said to them, then turned back to Richie and Viv. “You... I think I better sort you out now.”

“Hey M, he was pissed at her about something. Seemed to me like he didn’t know.” One of the guys piped up.

M turned to glare at him. “When I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.”

The other guy looked rather taken aback, but his friend put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him away. “Don’t mind him.” he said, as Marcus turned back to look in the van. “Late night last night.” He pantomimed drinking, and the other guy nodded and shrugged as they disappeared round a corner.

Viv hoisted her bag onto her shoulder then clambered down, and Richie went to follow her.

“No sudden moves.” M warned, bringing his other hand into view. He held a gun, pointed quite steadily at Richie.

“Oh for goodness sake Marcus..” Viv said, exasperated.

Richie gestured for her to be calm as he climbed out of the truck slowly, as far away from Marcus as possible and keeping his hands in view. “Viv, don’t worry. I’m sure we can sort this out.”

“Yeah, a couple of quick solutions spring to mind pretty readily right now.” M said.

Steve appeared behind Marcus, waving the keys to the truck. “Hey M, should I keep these or.. hey, what’s this? Richie? M, what are you doing.”

“You know him?”

“Yeah, I told you last night, we go way back. You aren’t thinking of..?”

“Steve, lock up the truck and keep the keys. I’ll call you tomorrow. Go.”

“Marcus..”

“I said I’d call you.” Marcus snapped, never taking his eyes off Richie. Behind him, Steve looked doubtful, but nodded slowly anyway, closed and locked the back of the truck, and walked off.

“So, even odds now.” Viv remarked, crossing her arms. “What are you planning on doing. Shooting us both? Cos I tell you, you want to shoot him you go through me.”

“Young love.” M sneered. “Give me a break Viv, you don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself. I bet you’re just using him for one of your sick little games. What do you want out of this? More money? A fancy car? Or just the satisfaction of seeing us all dance to your tune.”

“Projections from the control freak among us. I missed a workout, Richie came looking for me, he found me, end of story.”

“Ending this sounds pretty good to me.” M said, raising the gun.

Viv stepped in front of it. “Come on Marcus, stop thinking with your hangover and think like a businessman. Problem elimination has never been your style. Try some problem solving. What would it take to persuade you he’s on the level?”

“A miracle. Get out the way Viv.”

“Not happening. This isn’t your call anyway. My friend, my problem. And I say we don’t got a problem, so let’s leave it at that for right now.”

“And you just happen to be my problem while you’re in town. You think they dumped you with me for my health? I’m your baby-sitter. You don’t get a say in this.” Marcus told her.

Viv looked taken aback and dropped her bag next to her. Richie wanted to do something but he couldn’t make a move without messing up whatever Viv was trying. He couldn’t even run without getting shot, if Marcus had even the faintest idea how to use the gun he was holding. And right now he looked like he had used it before.

“Marcus, you are not going to do this.”

“I am not going to take orders from a bitch who breezes into town and thinks being related five generations back gets her the keys to the city! Family doesn’t work like that, Viv, you don’t run anything here, you don’t even have a voice here until you’ve earned it. Get the hell out of the way.” M waved the gun practically in her face.

Viv narrowed her eyes and stepped forwards. “Like hell. No one gets hurt because of me, least of all Richie. Now are you going to start being reasonable or do I have to give you some reasons?”

M’s response was to move the gun down to point at her heart, and Viv had to consciously make sure she didn’t gulp.

“Marcus, you shoot me and I do not care how little standing I have over here, there are people who will know and care and at the very least kick your sorry arse out of the business so fast you’ll leave skid marks. And if you let me live, and kill Richie, then I have five secrets on you I know you don’t want to be public knowledge, and I will not hesitate to print them in the paper just to repay you for all your consideration. But if we all walk out of here calmly, and I meet you after the weekend when you got more information, then we can work out something a bit more beneficial.” Viv said with deadly calm. Marcus seemed unsure for a moment, but a pressure against his thigh made him look down, where he found one of Viv’s knives held so only a twitch of her wrist would sever an artery.

Anger flickered across his face, then he swallowed and looked up with a calmer expression. “Monday, then. I will not forget this Vivianne.”

“Neither will I, Marcus. Not a word of it. Now get out of here. I’m not walking away with a gun at our backs.” Viv said, the knife disappearing again.

Marcus took one step back, looked at Viv for a long moment, then shoved the gun in his pocket. He shot Richie a look of pure venom, then turned on his heel and walked away. Viv watched him until he was out of sight, then picked up her bag again and turned to go.

“Viv, I..”

“Not a word, Ryan. Just.. shut up for a bit. If I say anything to you now it will not be polite, believe me. Seacouver just went bad in a big way. Come on, I need a beer. Or ten.”