Work Text:
Duncan's phone rang in the middle of class. No one typically called him while he taught, all his friends knew his class schedule, fearing that it was Joe with news of someone's death, he left his class with a strained "Practice your speaking skills" and a tight smile. He could hear whispers break out as he closed the door.
"Duncan MacLeod." He answered.
"Ah, Mac..." He heard Methos reply on the other side, "I just realized the time, I'll call back later."
Duncan grew immediately suspicious, it was not like Methos to so quickly change his mind nor was it like him to hang up if he realized he was interrupting something. The two had had their rough spots in their friendship, some so rough it seemed they would never recover it, but a few years after falling out of touch with each after O'Roarke they had met by chance and had truly started patching things up. Methos was no longer his opposite of a fair weather friend- only there when it was stormy- and well past the acquaintance stage at this point.
"No, its no trouble." He assured. "Why did you call?"
"I just have a query that was troubling me slightly, and then I recalled you were an expert in the matter."
Methos's tone was charmingly polite, either there was no big deal, or something horrible was about to be revealed. Duncan knew that Methos normally would never admit to needing advice on most things.
"What subject matter do you admit I'm better versed in?" Duncan asked, slightly smug.
"Well, since you are a boy scout, I would have to say a matter of honor. Maybe integrity too. This query was keeping me up all night and then I remembered! I have a boy scout I can call!" His mockingly shocked sounding sarcasm reassured Duncan slightly, the danger seemed to be at least less than a head hunter next door.
"Well then," Duncan said jauntily, trying to convey that whatever this question was it had his attention, "What is this matter of honor you needed to call a boyscout to resolve?"
"Lets say... hypothetically-"
"-Of course"
"That someone made a promise not to tell another person some information, and not caring that much that person agreed." Duncan made an affirmative noise to show that he was listening and wondered when Methos would get to the point.
"After all," Methos continued, "that person didn't really care about either side at the time. However! More recently the one that promised-"
'You' Duncan thought
"-met the person who was uninformed and grew attached-" he says it likes its a dirty word thought Duncan, amazed. "and now doesn't know what to do. Should this person keep their word? Should they break it? Hypothetically of course." Adam finished.
"May I ask what brought this question about?" Duncan inquired.
"Well this hypothetical question was brought about, as you put it, because I was working with a client and it was vented to me that their friend had died alone in the hospital over the course of a few months, some sort of slow disease death the doctors could do nothing about as I understood it, and that my client's other friend knew but had been sworn to secrecy. I was quite summarily informed that being sworn to keep a secret had no power when it involved a matter of life and death, and that the decent thing to do would have been to tell them. So, my question is, should the person with the secret tell the other? Or keep the secret to themselves."
"Is your hypothetical secret a matter of life and death?" Duncan asked, wondering what on earth Methos had gotten himself into.
"It's not my secret, this is totally hypothetical you must understand, Duncan-" Oh no, thought MacLeod, he used my first name, Methos never used his first name. Whatever was going on, it was serious. "-however, I guess, theoretically, it could be conceived that the hypothetical secret may be one of life and death."
"Then I believe the best course of action would be to tell the person in the dark about the other's situation." Duncan said calmly, wondering what on God's green earth was going on.
"Ah..." Methos paused for several seconds and just as Duncan went to prompt him, Methos continued. "Promise me that you won't be too mad." All of the alarm bells inside Duncan's head started ringing - he had one thought, was Joe dying and hadn't told him?!
"You see, I truly did forget, I mean really, it wasn't like I was meaning to lie to you, I just thought it would never come up between the two of us, especially since we really haven't been talking for awhile and I really did forget for quite awhile. Really, it was only when I was talking with Joe that I even had half a thought towards the whole mess I swear!" Duncan's worry about Joe intensified as Methos began speeding up his words about how "really, it took me forever to remember, I had to check my journals just to make sure I got it right-"
"-Adam!" Duncan cut in, "I forgive you in advance now please just tell me what it is!"
The line was quiet for awhile then "... I know where Connor is."
"WHAT!" Duncan shouted, his brogue thick in his voice showing his distress. His thoughts scattered in a multitude of directions and only one clear imperative formed his words. "Connor's no' dead is he?" He blurted out.
"No, no, nothing like he just entered a little thing the watchers like to call The Sanctuary."
The End