Title: The Trouble with Secrets
Category: Charmed/Highlander crossover
Rating: T
Disclaimer: The characters and concepts from Charmed belong to Constance M. Burge and Spelling Television Inc. The characters and concepts from Highlander: The Series belong to Gaumont Television, Davis Panzer Productions Inc. and Rysher Entertainment. Everything is made up.
Author Notes:
1) This story takes place somewhere in the second half of the second season of Charmed after Prue quits Buckland's and somewhere in the second half of the fifth season of Highlander.
2) This story is the second of a trilogy and is the sequel to A Charmed Beginning.
3) When I first wrote this story, I was watching Charmed and Angel at the same time, and I got my clairvoyants (i.e. Phoebe and Cordelia) mixed up. I didn't even realize until I had already completed and posted this story on another website. Unfortunately, given how I structured the story, I had to keep the headaches. My apologies.
Summary: Duncan and Richie move to San Francisco and make new friends.
Chapter 1
"Admit it, Richie," Phoebe said. "You're having fun."
Richie grinned in spite of himself. When Phoebe suggested that Richie and Duncan join the Halliwells in attending the "Free Shakespeare in the Park Festival," he was reluctant. His tastes ran more along the lines of "I'll be back" rather than "To be or not to be." Always trying to expose his young friend to Culture, Duncan pointed out two things.
First, the performance fit nicely into his budget. Second, that there were worse things one could do than spend a day in the park relaxing with friends. It was the temptation of a picnic lunch prepared by Piper that finally convinced him to go. Thus, he found himself sitting on a blanket in Golden Gate Park surrounded by thousands of people watching Twelfth Night.
"Okay, okay," he confessed. "This is pretty cool."
Richie saw the 'I-told-you-so' looks reflected in his friends' eyes but ignore them. Piper was packing the picnic supplies. Duncan was finishing the fruit salad that was dessert. Prue was swirling the last of the wine in her glass. Phoebe was offering Richie some popcorn.
"Do you attend the festival every year?" he asked.
"We try to," Piper answered.
"This is where I found out there was more to Shakespeare than Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Hamlet," Phoebe said. "My favorite is A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a supernatural soap opera."
"What about you, Piper?" Richie asked.
"I like Much Ado About Nothing. The parties, the banter between Benedict and Beatrice though Claudio should be smacked upside the head for believing Hero would cheat on him. What about you, Duncan? What's your favorite?"
"I'm partial to MacBeth since it's 'The Scottish Play' and was the first Shakespearean work I read."
"Funny. I thought Taming of the Shrew was one of your favourites," Richie said smiling cockily as his friend glared at him. Duncan once told him of being a travelling actor in the 1660s and playing some of the female roles including the shrewish Kate.
"Taming of the Shrew, huh?" Prue smirked eyebrow raised.
"I saw the movie as a kid. Elizabeth Taylor made an impression," Duncan explained quickly. "What about you, Prue? What's your favorite?"
Prue was about to reply when Phoebe moaned. Everyone looked to find her eyes shut, and her fingers rubbing her temples.
"Phoebe?" Richie asked his voice filled with concern as he placed his hand on her arm. The moment he touched her Phoebe's eyes snapped open as she gasped startled.
"Sorry. Just a migraine," she explained breathing deeply.
"Have you seen a doctor about these headaches?" Duncan asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," Phoebe insisted, "but I think I'll go to the washroom before the second half starts. Prue? Piper?"
"Why is it that women always go to the bathroom in groups?" Richie asked as the Halliwells got to their feet.
"It's one of the universal mysteries of life," Duncan replied earning a look from the trio as they left.
The three witches finally found a relatively secluded place and stopped.
"Vision?" Prue asked.
"Yeah," Phoebe replied still somewhat shaken. "It was strange. There was a woman being sucked into some kind of vortex. The thing is the woman looked like Mom."
"Mom?" Piper asked. "Are you sure?"
"How can that be?" Prue asked.
"I don't know," Phoebe said hating it when her visions didn't make sense.
"Any clue as to what we're supposed to do?" Prue asked.
"No," Phoebe said. "All I saw was the woman and the vortex."
The three sisters slowly started back toward their friends. Phoebe was lost in thought. The woman in her vision really looked like her mother, but how was that possible? Since her mother died at the hands of a water demon, how could she have disappeared in a vortex?
By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes, Phoebe thought as she followed her sisters.
Author's note: I'm trying something new and possibly tempting fate by posting this story at the same time as I post the next story in "The Life and Times of Dawn Summers, College Student" series. I plan on updating this story every other day.