SquidgeWorld Archive

This story is dedicated to Al Waxman, a great actor who will be sorely missed. He 'died in the saddle' playing Othniel.

Title: WHEN COVINGTON WAS ALMOST CROSSED

Author: josh emmett

Email for feedback: twobluemirrors@yahoo.com

Fandom: Twice in a Lifetime/Covington Cross

Pairing: none

Rating: PG

Summary: This is a crossover between two shows. The death of a young man sends him back in time to correct a wrong that was done to his family many generations ago.

Warnings: None

Archive: Yes

Disclaimer: This is a fanfic based on people and places from two TV series: Twice In a Lifetime and Covington Cross. It is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by PAX Television, Stephen Sohmer, ABC Television, Gil Grant or any other holders of Twice In a Lifetime and Covington Cross copyrights. There is no intention of making any money from copyrights held by anyone with either series. It was written for fun.

PROLOGUE

The young man in jeans, white t-shirt and black leather jacket stood unseen by those around him and watched the wretched sight. It was bitterly cold and people were huddled around fires under a concrete freeway overpass. The sight hurt his soul. He'd been in this position before, waiting for a death, but the cruelty of it was almost more than he could bear this time.

He thought: "The Bible said the poor will always be among us in both the Old and New Testament but where is the charity it's supposed to inspire? Not here with these families, down on their luck with the few shelters available overflowing. The children huddled with their parents in blankets and newspapers. How do humans let this happen all around them?"

But there was no time for more thought as the sun rose and a man began to sob openly over the frozen body of one of his children.

The youth, still under his blanket in jeans, knit cap and newspaper-lined tennis shoes, stood up looking at himself and those around him. An anger rose in him and he yelled: "I hate the Mullins and the Grays! I hate them all!"

"Don't say that!" the first young man called out to him. "Come over here," he said in a quieter voice.

The youth stepped through the undulating distorted barrier to 'The Other Side'.

"Don't tell me what to say!" he yelled, and turned still able to see his family. "If I were Shakespeare, I'd put a curse on both your houses!

"And who are you?" he continued in the same breath turning back to the other young man.

"I'm Mr. Smith, but just Smith will do..."

"I'm Richard Gray... Where am I?"

"In Limbo: A courtroom, you might call it."

The scene under the overpass faded away from Smith's view and Richard stared at the black robbed figure, which had appeared behind Smith.

Smith turned and said: "This is the Hon. Judge Othniel from the Old Testament, Judges."

"Hatred won't get you where you want to go, here or there", the Judge chided Richard. "But I can give you 3 days, and 3 days only, to try and right the wrong you think has been done to your family. You will go back with all your memories intact, but no one will recognize you. You are a free agent."

The gavel hit the palm of Othniel's hand and Richard and Smith found themselves in the midst of a wholesale slaughter in a small village in the late 1300s.

+++++

CUE THEME MUSIC

ROLL OPENING CREDITS

OPENING: SMITH AND RICHARD IN SMALL VILLAGE

WHEN COVINGTON WAS ALMOST CROSSED

josh emmett

A man on a dark horse was bearing quickly down on the two young men. Smith pushed Richard one way and he went the other. From their vantage points, flat in the dirt, they could see several small fires, masked men on horses striking without heed at anyone near them and people running for their lives, screaming and crying. Then the men suddenly galloped off into the night.

Everyone ran to get water to put out the fires that they could. Smith and Richard jumped up and joined in without thinking.

"WHY WON'T THE GRAYS DO ANYTHING TO STOP THIS?!" a voice yelled out of the melee. No one answered.

+++++

Sitting at the edge of the village, the two of them took stock of themselves.

"Usually, I get to be invisible for a while..." mumbled Smith, looking at the peasant clothes he was now wearing instead of the black leather jacket that afforded him invisibility except from his assignee.

"Let's head for Covington Cross," said Richard, "and see what we can find out there."

"All business," thought Smith, "still so full of hatred, he can hardly take anything in except his second chance." Then he called out to a boy nearby for directions. The lad pointed down the only road running through the village.

+++++

"What is Covington Cross?" asked Smith.

"The castle of my ancestors. I'm named after one of Sir Thomas Gray's sons," Richard answered.

"What's going on with you and this hatred?"

"When Henry of Gault, John Mullins' son, married Lady Eleanor Gray, they and their children on down, slowly gained all of the Gray holdings. They became very rich, and the Grays left for London. But every time a Gray got established, a Mullins ruined him. So, they left for a new land: 'America'.

But, by marriage, aren't you all one family?"

"If I weren't so empty right now, I'd throw up just thinking about being a Mullins..."

+++++

They had reached the castle and headed for the kitchen. Everything was bustling, as a party was going on. Smith and Richard were pressed into service helping load the platters with food. They had stopped to clean themselves up and, although their clothes were worn, they looked good enough to work. In all the confusion, Richard sneaked food into his mouth, and chewed while he worked.

When things slowed down a bit, they slipped into the hall. They moved along the wall and into a passage leading to a hallway. They stopped and looked at the goings on.

"Do you see the bearded man and the girl in white he's talking to?" asked Richard.

"Yup."

"Well, they are Henry and Eleanor themselves! I've seen portraits." And he turned and heading down the hallway.

"Where are you going?"

"Did you see the guy at the foot of the stairs? The curly-haired one dressed in the brown studded outfit?"

"The one with the two other guys scowling at Henry and Eleanor?"

"Yeah. Well, he's Richard, my great, great, great, whatever Grandfather, the one I'm named after."

"He doesn't look too happy. As a matter of fact, you looked a lot like him around the eyes and mouth after you died when you cursed the Mullinses. Maybe you're more like him than you think. And Eleanor doesn't look very happy, either."

"Whatever... Shhhh." They had stopped outside a room with two men.

"There's Thomas Gray and John Mullins." he whispered. He was frustrated that he couldn't talk with Sir Thomas. The two men were pouring over a map talking about land and dowries.

"What are you two doing here?!"

They turned to see a Friar.

"Well? Speak up!" He closed the door and stood with his back to it.

"We took a wrong turn." Smith offered. "We're from the kitchen for the party. Hungry, Friar?"

That got him. "Well, I could use a little something...."

In the kitchen, Richard looked at Smith: "Maybe we'd be better off at the other place..."

He let his words trail off and Smith worried about what Richard might be thinking. Talking to Thomas Gray was one thing, but.....

"We'll leave in the morning."

Smith just shrugged.

COMMERCIAL

After receiving directions from a stable boy, Smith and Richard set out.

"Okay, I'll bite," Smith said. "What does all this have to do with you?"

"The new colony was 'riches for the taking'. The Mullinses soon arrived on the shores and they started a musket factory. Then the Revolution started and they remained loyal to the King, while selling guns to rebel armies. They were passing on what they heard to the British soldiers. The Grays, who were for breaking away from England, tried to tell the new government what was going on but the Mullinses had friends to protect them there too; so the tables were turned and a Gray went to prison for the treason..."

"Oh, let me guess: The Mullinses fought for the North and the Grays for the South, the current head of the Mullinses is up the next head of the NRA..." Smith sighed.

"To make a long story short!" Richard cut Smith off with a sarcastic tone in this voice.

+++++

They heard the sound of fighting and ran to the edge of the village in time to see one of the bandits giving a pouch of coins to another, still on his horse. The village leader was trying to hold the villagers back but one ran forward and pulled the black-hooded man off his horse and grabbed his sword from the scabbard. Jumping up, the man asked for another's sword and easily outfought the poor villager. Seeing no escape anyway, the peasant pulled the black hood off, revealing Henry of Gault, who promptly killed him! Mounting his horse, they all rode off.

Smith and Richard helped bury the dead and began to help with another clean up, when a huge white horse walked into the village. It frightened a little girl, who was searching for her father. The father ran over, picked her up and, backing away from the horse, clutched her tightly. She was asking her father what they were going to do now, with her mother dead, and he reassured her as best he could, hugging her. He looked up at the man on the white horse.

Thomas Gray looked at the pair and a light seemed to dawn in his eyes. He threw the man a large pouch of coins and the little girl smiled at him through her dirty, tear-stained face. Shaking his head thinking of his own daughter, Gray rode off in the direction that Smith and Richard where headed.

+++++

Later, back on the road, Smith asked: "So, what about your family? Why are you living in the streets?"

"Mother died when we were young and Dad had to raise us. He ran a franchise for a computer business and was doing quite well, until the parent company got eaten up in a stock takeover..."

"Oh, let me guess again: the Mullinses did it?"

"We suspected it. Dad was fired immediately and was blacklisted everywhere. My brother and I wanted to quit school but Dad wouldn't let us. We did get part-time jobs at a burger place but the bills piled up so quickly everything was repossessed at once. We were out on the street. Welfare kept a roof over our heads for awhile but then we got a letter saying that we had been caught in a 'scam' and were cut off. We have a court date coming up for fraud and Dad could get a lot of jail time..."

"The Mullinses!" Smith threw his index finger in air, making a safe guess...

"...To make a long story short." Richard continued as if Smith had never said anything. "So, here I am...DEAD!"

"You've got to drop the hatred Richard."

"I will as soon as I settle things here."

"I think you're missing the point of your second chance..."

"Am I? Thomas Gray just sold his only daughter to his worst enemy!"

Before Smith could answer, they were almost run down by a carriage headed in the opposite direction. They dove to the sides of the road. After the dust settled, Smith lifted his head and mumbled: "I think I'm getting used to being on my face on the ground..."

They stood, brushed themselves off and started walking again. Smith was trying to think of the right words to change Richard's mind. He didn't want to even think about it but he knew Richard was planning on killing his family curse at the source, no matter that it would cost him his soul.

They had almost reached their destination when two things happened that would change Richard's fate forever: Thomas Gray galloped past them heading home and a servant from the Mullinses came running along soon after.

"Oh the news! Have you heard the news?!?" he puffed bent over with his hands on his upper legs. "Thomas Gray has refused the marriage of the Lady Eleanor to Henry Mullins, and a duel has been proposed between the two of them! What do you think of that? And I even heard Lord Mullins saying that the Grays don't charge enough taxes!" Then he ran off without an answer.

"Curses! Foiled again?" Smith brightened up.

"What?"

"Well, no marriage."

"Henry will likely win and he'll marry Eleanor or someone else. It will still be the Grays against the Mullinses, only worse if he marries another."

Smith's face fell.

"But, I should give the old goat a shot at it and I just thought of a good way to make them angry at me, if Gray fails! I still have time! Back to the village!"

Richard turned and ran after the servant, while Smith stood and stared with a bewildered look on his face.

COMMERCIAL

Richard, Smith and the servant all entered the village at the same time. The servant relayed the news as Richard sought out the leader of the village.

"I was captain of the football team when I was in school," he assured Smith. If there was a point to that remark, it had just sailed over Smith's head like an arrow.

"I'm Richard and this is Smith." he said.

"I'm George," the village leader answered, shaking Richard's hand.

"You're a blacksmith, then?" he asked, as he shook Smith's hand.

"Yeah, whatever... Look, we need some strategy here." Richard put his arm around George's shoulders and walked away before Smith could correct the man.

+++++

In George's hut, Richard was using ashes, he'd dipped his fingers into, on the table.

"Here, here and here..." he was saying to the group of men gathered around the crude drawing of their village. "If everyone pitches in, we can be ready before Henry's men come back."

"But we have no swords!" one of the men protested.

"All we need is our brains, some hard work and a lot of rope! You'll see! Look, you guys, what have you got left to lose?"

"We should hang our heads in shame for being such cowards!" George shouted at them. "We blame the Grays because they own the land...but we rent it, we work it, we call it our home! They can't be everywhere...but maybe we can! At least here! So, is everyone willing to give it a try?"

"Aye!" they all shouted (including Smith, caught up in the fervor). And everyone headed for the door to start work.

Richard ran to and fro shouting directions, straightening a pole, and helping carry or dig. He was like a man possessed. Smith smiled to himself. Perhaps, this will work out with the good Lord's help, he thought.

+++++

The young boy came running into the village, shouting that the hooded men were coming. It was his third trip and everyone was surprised. The first was to tell them that he saw Thomas Gray galloping past in full armour. The second was to say he saw a carriage racing past in the same direction. ("Surely, everyone was at the dual," Smith thought.)

"MOVE!" yelled Richard. "EVERYONE TO THEIR PLACES!"

"Think we are ready, young man?" George asked.

"Looks like it to me. Everyone is still so full of adrenaline, they should be more than ready."

"Adrenaline?"

"All fired up!"

"Oh, that we are!"

+++++

The hooded men on the horses looked at the people doing clean up work in the village.

"They will never be expecting us and I have it on good authority, they have a new pouch of money. This time, burn the whole place to the ground!" said the man in front. He wheeled his horse around and threw his arm out in a forward motion. The horses took off in a full gallop around him and he brought up the rear.

The first sign that there might be something wrong, was several shouts of surprise and anger over the hooves of the horses from the front. The vanguard had tried to gallop over some brush and the horses' front legs had fallen through into the ditches underneath. The rest of the men started to pull up. Some ran into the fallen men and some managed to come to a halt. They jumped off of their horses and stood to look at the few peasants standing in the middle of their village with pitchforks and staffs.

The man in the back, still on his horse, laughed at their lame attempt to stop them.

"DRAW YOUR SWORDS AND RUN FORWARD! MIND WHERE YOU STEP!"

The hooded men realized they were superior in number and weapons. They, too, now laughed and then started to run at the center of the village.

As they entered the first ring of houses left standing, a mighty roar was heard behind them. The rest of the villagers, hiding in the trees, rushed out. The hooded men were trapped between the ones inside and the ones outside. The anger of the people made them stronger and after a fierce short battle, they won the day!

As they were all cheering and beginning to tie up all the hooded men, Richard called to George and they, and several others ran for the horses, to catch a man who had dismounted and pulled off his hood and cloak to blend in ("With those clothes?" George was later to laugh as he told the story yet one more time over a pint at the tavern) and was now running for the woods.

+++++

"But if Henry of Gault is here, who is fighting Thomas Gray?" Richard asked.

"Good question," George answered. "I say we go and find out and return this one to his Father."

"Wait! We'll be recognized as soon as we get near the place."

"Not if we wear their hoods and cloaks!" Smith smiled, finally feeling useful for coming up with a plan of his own.

+++++

The Grays stood together in the center of the courtyard, Mullins' fallen men around them. They were sighing with joint relief when the gates opened and black-hooded men galloped in and surrounded them. So they raised their swords to fight again.

The village leader pushed back his hood and informed the Grays that they had been waiting for the villains this time and won! Smith and Richard rode in last and as the horses parted, they pushed Henry forward. The Grays were told that 'this one' was trying to get away and it was his men who had terrorized the villages.

Richard sat on his horse as Thomas Gray challenged Henry Mullins to the promised duel. Maybe the Grays had more in them than he had ever thought. Even Eleanor was in trousers and fighting along side her brothers, just like his own sister when she joined in their sports groups.

They all watched as Gray fought Mullins. Just when it looked like Mullins would win; Gray rallied and brought him to his knees with his sword at Henry's throat. Henry had declared his intentions of killing Thomas Gray but Thomas stopped short of that act declaring that God and the law would take care of Henry of Gault. He turned his back to walk away and Henry, reaching in his boot for a knife, started to lunge at Thomas. Everyone drew in a breath when an arrow to the chest stopped him cold. They all looked to see that Lady Eleanor had fired the crossbow, herself. The whole family came together as a unit and smiled with relief.

"Well," Richard leaned toward Smith; "it seems the Grays are more family than I thought. We are still around after all these centuries. At least...I was..."

COMMERCIAL

Richard Gray stared around him as he realized that, in the blink of an eye, he had gone from a dirty, crowded courtyard to a large, clean foyer. He was standing at the foot of a staircase on a slate floor with Smith.

Smith was feeling much more comfortable back in his black leather jacket, and knowing that only Richard could see or hear him. He was, also, feeling uplifted. If they were here then Richard had managed to secure his second chance at life.

Richard looked around and turned to familiar laughter and shouting coming from outside the double doors off of the large living room.

"Where am I?"

"Home."

"Home? This is our home!?"

"Yes. The new memories will come back very soon, and you won't remember what just happened. Or me.

"When Henry Mullins died, that left John Mullins without an heir. His daughter, Alexandra, married a man whom John adopted to give him the Mullins name. Things were bad in the past, but this time your Father found proof of the stock manipulation by the current John Mullins and he was sent to jail on white collar stock fraud. The parent company was restored to its original owners and your Father was rewarded with a partnership and a seat on the board."

"I'm starting to remember now...but I'm losing you."

"Well, hopefully, you'll see me again some day."

"Wait a minute! Father gave all the rest of the Mullins family jobs!"

"Remind you of the original Thomas Gray...?" Smith's voice faded into the air.

Just then, the Gray children burst into the living room, and yelled at Richard in the foyer: "Catch, big shot! Prove the winning touchdown you threw, to take the championship this year, wasn't just pure Gray luck!"

Richard laughed and caught the football easily. He threw it back, and the youngest caught it for a moment. Then he tripped, fell, landed on the sofa and the football flew into a lamp, sending it crashing to the floor.

William, Richard and Eleanor stood with their arms around each other's shoulders and laughed as Cedric rolled onto the floor.

"I believe that's my spot," Richard thought, and wondered where that idea had come from.

Just then a man with gray hair and a beard appeared at the top of the stairs looking at his children and the broken lamp with the football beside it.

"How many times have I told you? NOT IN THE HOUSE!"

FREEZE FRAME ON THOMAS GRAY

CUE MUSIC

ROLL CLOSING CREDITS

josh emmett

gabriels_girl@hotmail.com