By: Suepafly
The phone rings at the Inverness Police Department. The normal investigations are going on, but today is different, so much so the constable needs a drink. He has to meet with Frank, and there are still no findings of Claire. He had low expectations on the department, and they've lived up to those, finding nothing, but there is nothing to find. Claire remains missing, and Frank distraught over her missing. With no body, no blood, no signs of a struggle, the police department thinks its most likely that she left of her own free will, and that the highlander that he spotted the night before is probably her lover that she ran off with. Frank does not believe that she's with another man.
But Claire is with Jamie at the moment, and he's got an awkward question for her. He asks if it's usual as it is between the two of them when they touch, when they're together. Claire admits that it isn't, that its unusual, which brings a smile to his face. A arrow interrupts their hilltop picnic. Jamie tells Claire to lie down while he investigates, and friends that it was friendly fire. Jamie happily introduces his wife to his old friend, Monroe, who speaks in mostly gestures, after he lost his tongue. He gifts Claire a dragonfly in amber. Jamie tells Claire Monroe's sad story, and then he gives Jamie the latest news, and meeting location for Horrocks. There's a chance that Jamie can remove the price from his head, a witness, but Jamie isn't sure he can trust him. With the slight chance that he can go home with his bride, he cannot give up the chance. Claire embraces Jamie, and on each of her ring fingers she wears a wedding band. Jamie's on the left, and Franks on her right.
The police weren't open to Frank's theory that Claire could have been swept down river, and is hiding out in the wildreness. It's plausible, but still a long shot.Frank looks over Claire's missing poster, and the stones of Craig na Dun. He heads out for something stronger than tea. As he sits in a pub "Sally" sits down next to an intoxicated Frank. He asks what he can do for her, but its what she can do for him. She shares with him a wanted poster, and gives him a cryptic location to bring the reward. She isn't sure if Claire is with him, only that he must come.
Rupert tells the story of the water horse's wife around the fireplace. Claire and Jamie get cozy, talking about Christmas. The horses are restless, which catches Jamie's attention. The men are all edge, and Jamie hands Claire a dagger, before sending her off right at the men attack the robbers. A bloody sword fight begins, but soon they run off. A horse and a few bags of grain is all they ran off with. The men have a chuckle.
Frank meets with Sally, right on time. She leads him back into an alley and backs away. A pair of men attack him, but Frank wasn't just twiddling his thumbs during the war. He takes down the two men, and Sally screams for him to stop. He chokes Sally until she finally confesses that there is no highlander.
Frank talks with the reverend about good and evil, how Frank was slowly descending down a dark path. He suggested that Frank should leave Inverness, put Claire behind him as she has. He asks if the reverend thinks that Claire left him too, and however improbable, all signs point that way, and it must be true.
Claire gets a lesson in dagger throwing from Rupert. Jamie takes over. The blade is too large for claire, and Dougal points out that she needs a hidden dagger. Angus has a small blade that would be perfect for her, and gives her a further lesson showing her the best places to stab a man to inflict the most damage. Claire is a quick learner.
Frank packs his things, preparing to leave. He spies Claire's suitcase, and opens it. Inside is all her belongings, and a frame of the two of them.
Jamie and Claire take a roll in the grass. The pair tear at each other's clothes and make love. It's all sweetness, as he tells Claire that it feels like heaven inside of her, to which she laughs. Jamie takes a more punishing rhythm in jest, when they're rudely interrupted by a pair of red coats. They pull Jamie from his bride, and one prepares to rape Claire while the other forces Jamie to watch. Claire puts her training to good use and kills her attacker, giving Jamie the opportunity to kill the other. He lifts her from the scene and carries her off.
The housekeeper will keep quiet no longer, even though the reverend doesn't want to give Frank false hope. The house is small, and Frank hears. She tells Frank there are stories about the stones, very old ones, stories where people travel through the stones. The stones are in a focusing circle, and for certain people on certain days it allows them to travel through time. They know Claire went to the stones, and its her belief that Claire traveled someplace in time. Frank asks when and where it would be. She isn't sure, ever travel is different, every soul has its own path, but that the songs do say that the travelers often return. Frank makes the decision to leave anyways, he doesn't believe.
Bloodied, Jamie apologizes to Claire. He should have never taken her out there he tells her. He blamed himself for what happened to her. Her hands shook, and she was going into shock. She knew Jamie was worried about her, wanted to talk about what happened, but Claire wasn't ready to let everything pour out of the dammed wall she built. The Clan looks over the slain men. Dougal doesn't want Jamie meeting with Horrocks. He'd be a deserter like the men who attacked them, and honorless, likely setting a trap. Murtaugh thinks if Jamie is set on meeting Horrocks, that he shouldn't do it alone.
Frank takes one last look at the room he shared with Claire, leaving her suitcase behind.
Claire rode in silence, anger filling her. The group stops. Jamie prepares to leave Claire behind, unwilling to risk her again, but she doesn't want to stay. She proved that she could take care of herself, but still he couldn't risk it. He promises to come back for her, and she angrily tells him not to make promises he cannot keep. He will keep this one, and he makes her promise to stay put. Claire realizes that her anger has nothing to do with Jamie, but herself. She's angry that she forgot her own promise to return to the stones of Craig na Dun, to return to her own time, to her husband Frank.
Frank drives away, as he passes the road to Craig na Dun he pauses seeing the rocks on the hill. He backs up and takes the road up.
Claire stares off into the forrest as her watcher goes to takes some business. She wanders, trying to avoid thinking of the meadow, but she couldn't. As she walked she suddenly spotted Craig na Dun. She was so distracted she didn't even realize that she was on the same road. When she first went there she was Claire Randall, then Claire Beecham, now Claire Frasier, but she had to ask herself who she wanted to be. Without hesitating, Claire heads to the stones.
Frank has made his way to the stones in his own time, look around them. He faces the one that took Claire away, beginning to weep. He calls to Claire, and she hears him, telling him to wait for her. He hears her reply, and she runs forward, her hands inches from the stones, but she's captured. Redcoats drag her away, and Frank leaves broken. The soldiers drag her to a covered wagon, and Frank walks alone from the stones.
They're headed to Fort Williams, the same place that Jamie was flogged. Claire had time to plot, hoping it would be enough as they headed to Black Jack's stronghold. Black Jack greets her with wine, uncaring if she considers herself an Englishwoman, or a Scots now. It doesn't matter to him. He notices that she wears both wedding ring, but doesn't buy her sentimental explanation. He's more curious why Dougal would adopt her into his clan rather than hand her over to him for questioning. Claire isn't sure what he's talking about. The pair toast to the king, and he's surprised she still toasts him, and she tells him that even as a Scot, they share a king. The two share some jarring banter. He pulls his chair closer, behind her, explaining her position. He fully intends to find out her true nature and all her secrets by any means necessary. She tells him that he should ask the Duke and Sandun, and he sputters wine out in shock. Score one for Claire. She got that little tidbit from Frank and the reverend as they had speculated how Black Jack was able to get away with his various crimes. Black Jack struggles with his neck cloth, asking what he knows of the Duke. Claire tells him that it should be obvious by now that they're both employed by the same man. He doesn't think believe her, and threatens to write a letter to the Duke for clarification. Claire helps him with his neckcloth, telling him the folly of his plans, how uncovering her identity could prove disastrous for him as well. It was all going too well, but as she goes to leave he asks about the Duchess. Claire says she has never met the Duchess but they're in contact. There is no Duchess, and no escape from the room with a guard outside the door. The guarding Corporal ushers Claire back into the room, as Black Jack orders him to not come back into the room no matter what he hears as he ties up Claire's hands. She begins to scream fro help, but no help is coming. He wants to begin with her name them what she knows about Dougal, then everything down tot he Duke. He cuts open her bodice, throwing up her skirts. He pulls her dagger from her boot. Before he can do any damage, Jamie throws open the window, musket drawn telling Black Jack to take his hands off his wife.
And that ends the first half of the season! What a cliffhanger to leave off on and it's a long wait until the Midseason Premiere on Saturday, April 4, 2015.
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