"Hi Dad," Piper smiled and hugged her father. Everyone had been waiting for the guest of honor to arrive and Piper made sure that none of them would pounce on him. After all, they had all day to ask him questions.

"Where are my newest granddaughters," he asked and turned to give Paige a hug.

In the past couple of years Victor had really stepped in as a strong male role in Paige's life, even though she had Henry and Sam was starting to come around more often. Still, since her mom and dad weren't here to see her girls, Victor had taken a very proactive part and Paige appreciated it.

Pointing to the travel crib, Paige only half whispered as she said, "I just got them down for a nap. I figured they'll sleep through lunch and then you can officially meet them when they're not cranky," the youngest joked.

"Well, they're beautiful. Poor Henry," he muttered.

"What do you mean Daddy?" Phoebe looked perplexed.

"I got to skip the whole teenage boy phase and I have it on good authority that Grams handled that like a champ, but he's gonna have to lock these two up in a tower; boys are gonna be beating down the door to get to them!"

"Oh, God," Piper drawled out. "Knowing our luck they will get stuck in some tower. Especially with the evil queen as their mother," she grinned at Paige.

"You know, I'm one third of the most powerful good witches in the world and have lived who knows how many lives as a good witch and you have one life as an evil witch and no one lets you forget it!"

"At least it wasn't two," Phoebe told her and thought about when she visited the past to find that she, Piper, and Prue had lived together before as cousins, and then to her marriage to Cole.

"Dad, you remember Billy," Piper said pointing to the blond. "That's Richie sitting next her. He's a new friend."

Victor turned to her and used the 'magic-related' tone, "friend?"

"Richie's an immortal," Phoebe told him. "He died in his early twenties and he's been helping us with some work."

"Well, nice to meet you," Victor said and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Richie replied.

"Um, lunch is just about ready. Why don't we all go sit at the table?" Piper guided her father to the table and everyone gathered together, interested in what they would find out.


"Duncan, what are you doing?"

The younger man avoided his friend's gaze and looked at the items he and Connor had come to look at for their collections. "I don't know what you mean."

"Don't act like some prissy little girl with her nose in the air and a stick up her ass," Connor told him. "I know something happened otherwise Richie wouldn't have called me."

"So Richie did call you," Duncan turned and faced his friend. "That's why you're here. Richie went crying to you and you decided to come play the hero and fix me. Well, I don't need fixing!"

Leaving the antique shop, Duncan put his sunglasses on and pushed through the crowd as he tried to lose himself. Of course, Connor followed him, until they reached Golden Gate Park. By that time Duncan had grown tired of distancing himself from his oldest friend and only family member.

Denying himself the opportunity to feel anything lately had robbed him of all his energy. Settling by the gardens, he continued to face away from his cousin as he allowed himself to speak.

"I was summoned here," the younger man began. "Methos was killed and I came to seek out his killer. He had found something that he said belonged to me once."

"What was it?"

Duncan turned to face his companion. "I didn't know at first. I reached out to Richie because I thought he might have heard rumors that could lead me to whatever Methos was involved in. It led me to something else entirely."

"And what exactly did you find," Connor asked.

"A woman," he answered. "Someone I loved for a short time and have hated ever since."

"Ah, so I see," Connor laughed. "And so it all comes down to the one who got away," he referred to Persephone.

Giving him a nasty glare, Duncan paced as he tried to focus on the beauty of the garden over their topic of conversation.

"I always knew you weren't over that girl," his cousin continued. "Of course you barely spoke of her so I knew you had to have had it bad," he laughed. Connor walked over to Duncan and gave him a slap on his back. "So what does Persephone have to do with Methos' murder?"

"He must have found her here, I'm not quite sure," Duncan told him. "I'm just trying to focus on finding his killer so I don't have to think of her."

Connor curbed his sense of humor and began to sympathize with Duncan. "Did you know she was immortal back then?"

"She wasn't," Mac said perplexing the other man.

"What do you mean? Was she changed later on?"

Duncan stared his friend in the eye for a moment as he tried to figure out what to say. "I need to bring you somewhere," he said after a moment.


"I have to say," Victor spoke, "I'm pleasantly surprised that you're trying to learn about my side of the family. Obviously, the Halliwell side had a bigger part of your identity because of your destiny but it always felt like my role was as a second class citizen."

"Well, Grams was very adamant about teaching us about our maternal side," Phoebe said.

"And after you left we didn't really have any contact with your side of the family," Piper added. "We just want to know more especially since we're all married and starting our own families."

"Well, my father passed away when I was in high school and my mother passed away a couple of years later. They never got to meet your mother," Victor told the girls. "I have an aunt from my father's side and an aunt and uncle from my mother's. Their kids are still in California and I talk to them every once in a while."

"Any cool family stories about ancestors," Paige asked as she rocked Priscilla back and forth. "You know, something fun we can tell the kids about."

The sisters still hadn't told him about Prue and they wanted concrete evidence that they had in fact inherited the mutated gene for immortality before they unleashed that information.

"Tons of stories," Victor told them. "Mostly made up I'm sure, but still, my father always said that we came from a long line of warriors. Well, like your mother's side, my family is of Scottish and English descent. In celtic mythology there was an army known as the Fianna and our ancestors were warriors in fierce battles."

"That's pretty cool," Henry said.

"Yeah, well my dad was a story teller. It's all myth," Victor told him. "My dad also told everyone that our ancestors had developed the ability to live forever. Something about the fae granting them immortality in order to win in battle against other nations."

Piper and Phoebe shared a look and Paige glanced up to look at her almost dad. They asked more questions about the fianna before sending the men out to the backyard with the boys to play ball for a little while.

"So it is possible that Prue inherited her immortality from dad," Phoebe said. "When are we going to tell him that Prue is up and walking around San Francisco?"

"When we know for sure where she is and what she's been doing for the better part of a decade," Piper said, clearing the table. "We need to find out more about dad's family and see if it comes back to Duncan at all if he and Prue are really soul mates."

"Do you think Duncan is really going to want to help us," Paige asked. "He's only been avoiding us ever since he found out that his lost love is alive and roaming around the city."

"He'll come around," Phoebe said. Turning to Piper she asked, "Right?"


"It's Holy ground here, Duncan," Connor said. "Why are we here?"

"As immortals we can sense each other," Mac spoke. "We can sense Holy ground too, apart of the game I suppose." Looking at Connor, he asked, "do you know why this is Holy ground?"

Connor paced back and forth for a moment. "There's no church here because we're in the middle of the woods, and this area doesn't have any ties to Native American reservations but it does seem to have a similar feel." Connor bent down and felt the grass, digging his fingers into the dirt. "Like nature itself is protecting this very spot."

"Piper brought me here," Mac said. "She's a friend I've recently made. She brought me here because she wanted me to understand the connection that binds her and her sisters. You may have heard of them; they're the Charmed Ones."

Connor turned sharply to stare at his clansmen. "You're kidding me," he choked. "That's myth!"

"Nay, 'tis the truth! Our paths crossed in our search for a mystery woman I believed knew something about Methos's murd-" Duncan stopped as he read the text message he just received. "We must go," he yelled at Connor and went to leave.

Connor grabbed him by his forearm. "What's going on, Duncan?"

"The gallery manager just told me that new portraits were delivered. The first series I saw clued me into the fact that we were once lovers. I think if I see her new work I might be able to learn more."

"Alright," he said. "Call Richie and tell him to meet us there."