Title: "Unfinished Business"
Author: Valleya
Disclaimer: KFTLC and its myriad of characters belong to Michael Sloan and others. I am only borrowing them for the purpose of delivering another Halloween tale, to frighten, creep, and generally gross out my cyber-buddies. The legal beagles among TPTB require I must declare that I will not claim credit for any of the following for monetary purposes. Anything else would like chasing after the wind, cuz there's definitely no money involved! Only the story itself is mine as are the original characters.
Canon Characters: Peter Caine, Kwai Chang Caine, Blake, Kermit Griffin, Mary Margaret Skalany, Jody Powell, TJ Kincaid, Dr. Sabourin and other medical staff, Chief Strenlich, Xenia, Inky, Randy, and an old villain
Original Characters: Paramedics, carnival workers, various hostages held by Dr Frieze, the assorted Medical Staff at Mercy General.
Author's notes: This story was written several years ago following the death of my mother. I have recently pulled it out and polished it up to post here. I hope you enjoy it!
Archiving: By permission only
Rating: R for violence
Word count: 41,774
Synopsis: Peter is on a stake out at a cemetery when he and his prisoner inadvertently open a tomb filled with the spirits of murdered Chinese workers, all bent on murdering all those tainted by the ashes of the tomb. It's up to the gang to prevent that from happening.
Warning: There's some Peter/Jody shipping, along with Caine/Skalany shipping. Just FYI, if that makes you squeamish. Nothing over the top, but it's there.
"Unfinished Business"
By ValleyA
Chapter One
(Time line: Set one year after "Chill Ride")
Peter Caine sniffed and rubbed at his nose. He was supposed to be off duty hours ago, but a last minute stakeout had changed his plans. One of the suspects in a murder case was supposed to show up at an illegal after-hours visit to a cemetery as part of a gang initiation.
This particular cemetery was chosen because a rival gang member had been killed the previous month and was now buried there. The Dueling D's gang initiation involved defacing the dead man's grave site, among other things.
Peter skimmed the area with a sweeping glance, just as he'd done countless times in the last few hours, and sighed when he found nothing different. The place was so quiet all he could hear his own breathing. How ironic that in a world filled with motors and machinery the only prominent sound he could hear was his own respirations in and out. The foreboding quiet made him feel as if he was the only man alive in the world.
The thought unsettled him and he stomped his feet to stave off the cold and to make enough noise to assure himself that he was still in the land of the living. A full harvest moon overhead provided him enough light to see if anyone was sneaking around, but still dim enough for him to stand behind the cemetery's main entrance without being seen.
"Come on, Ricardo, show your sorry ass, so I can arrest you and get to the carnival," he whispered, not meaning to say the words aloud.
Blake's voice came across Peter's earpiece, startling him since the electronics expert had been silent for nearly an hour. "Peter, do you actually think that they will still be waiting dinner for you?" Blake asked with a curious tone in his voice, "I mean, you are officially two hours and three minutes late for that dinner at the moment."
Peter grunted, glancing at his watch, and turning it so the face of the watch picked up the ambient moonlight, allowing him to read the time. "Thanks for reminding me, Blake. Just keep your mind on work and tell me if you see something, anything, on your video hookups?"
Peter heard the nervous edge echo in his voice. Being in a cemetery with a full moon overhead had evoked long forgotten childhood fears about the dead rising again and coming after the first living soul available – namely him. Apparently, old horror films watched in secret in the dead of night at the monastery had left a lasting impression on young Peter. Most of his jitteriness was his own fault, though, he certainly hadn't planned on the stakeout consuming most of the night.
"What are you expecting me to see, Peter? I told you this rumor was a longshot and it was likely that we'd both be wasting our time here."
Peter rubbed his arms in an effort to warm himself. His leather jacket and layers of shirts kept out most of the late October chill, but it was obvious that winter had settled in for a long and arduous season.
"Yeah, Blake, it might be a colossal waste of time, but if Ricardo does show, it will be well worth the effort. This is one bad ass dude and he's all mine," Peter said ominously, then he grunted. Maybe, he'd been around Kermit too much – he was definitely starting to acquire some of Kermit's more threatening characteristics.
Blake didn't seem to notice. "Leave him to the gang task force, Peter. They can nail him much easier than we can. They deal with these people all the time."
Ricardo had been part of the bold drive-by shooting that had inadvertently caught Jody while she was doing some undercover work. The shooting a week earlier had left Jody in a deep coma. The three hookers standing beside her, also caught in the hail of bullets, weren't as lucky. They didn't even make it to the hospital alive. The other two cohorts in the car with Ricardo had been arrested, but Ricardo, the shooter, had eluded capture.
Peter knew he should listen to Blake's advice, but his desire to nab Ricardo Espinosa was too strong. Remembering his interview with his snitch, there had been something truly fearful in Donny DD's eyes, as if he was battling his own survival instincts in order to share the meager information with Peter. Fear like that wasn't easily contrived. It connected with Peter on a gut level, telling Peter he'd better follow the lead and check out the cemetery, or he might be missing a very good chance to grab Espinosa.
Blake's voice drew him from his thoughts. "Besides, Peter, nailing Ricardo isn't going to get Jody out of the hospital any faster. Personally, I think you're wound a little too tight from spending so much time at the hospital this week, waiting for her to come out of her coma. And the fact that she hasn't done so yet has gotten to you. It's tough, but I think we all need to brace ourselves for the possibility that Jody might not ever wake up."
Peter practically growled, "She'll wake up, Blake. And I don't want to hear another word about her not waking up!"
The gruff tone Peter used surprised himself. He hadn't meant to come down on Blake so hard. Peter took a deep breath to calm his overactive nerves. The truth was, it had been a very long week, with hour upon hour spent sitting at Jody's side, praying that she would awaken and be okay again, only to be disappointed by her complete lack of response to outside stimuli.
Blake's voice interrupted the disturbing memory, as if he had somehow sensed Peter's thoughts had drifted back to Jody at the hospital. The older man's tone was softer as he added, "I'm sorry, Peter. Sometimes I say things without thinking them through. We are all praying for Jody's recovery, but I still think your exhaustion is clouding your judgment here."
The older man went silent for a moment and Peter could hear him sigh before he said, "Maybe you should consider a leave of absence. That way, you can spend all the time you want at the hospital. You're burning the candle at both ends by trying to be there and working, too. That kind of overexertion causes a man to make stupid mistakes. And in our business, one stupid mistake is all it takes to make you dead."
Peter began pacing, infuriated by Blake's practicality. It was nearly as irritating as some of his father's advice. Besides, it cut deep into his well of swirling emotion. Blake might have been right in his comments, but there was something inside of Peter driving him to be the one to bust Jody's assailant, therefore the leave of absence was out of the question.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized Blake had been on target on several points. Peter wasn't a Superman, as much as he tried to prove to the world otherwise. Jody needed him and he was determined to be there for her as much as he possibly could, but he was also determined to bring down Espinosa for what he did to Jody.
The two goals battled for Peter's attention. If they could nail Espinosa tonight, then Peter could stop by the hospital to tell Jody the good news. Maybe it would make a difference to her. He debated calling Xenia and Inky on his cell phone. Getting together with the two of them would have been good, especially after all this time, but he just couldn't stay away from Jody when she needed him so much.
He hesitated, though. More than food, he craved a taste of how the rest of the world calmly went on without the worries of drive-by shootings and gang initiation rites. It seemed there was way too much drama going on in his life to afford that kind of luxury.
Peter dragged a hand through his hair and was about to apologize to Blake when the older man's voice broke through his thoughts. "I'm going to make this suggestion one more time. Maybe we should break this thing up. We've been here for hours and nothing's happened."
A sudden movement out of the corner of Peter's left eye ended any thoughts of leaving.
"Hold on, we've got company," Peter whispered as he hugged the shadows to follow a lone man walking along the sidewalk as if it were the middle of the day instead of midnight. The man was medium height, but muscular. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his long trench coat and, as if expecting trouble, he constantly glanced over his shoulder.
Peter could hear Blake moving in the van as he spoke, probably checking his equipment, then Blake said, "There's nothing on my monitors!"
"Shush," Peter whispered. It didn't matter the perp couldn't hear Blake through Peter's ear piece, but Peter wanted to focus his attention solely on his prey. He began shadowing the man's movements.
Suddenly, the suspect turned around without warning, causing Peter to draw deeper into the shadows. As he moved, the man's face became clearly illuminated in the bright moonlight.
Peter clenched his fists when he recognized Ricardo and he whispered, "Gotcha, you asshole. You won't ever do a drive-by shooting again, if I have anything to say about it."
Ricardo went back on the move again and Peter fell into step behind him as he said, "This is for you, Jody."
oOoOoOoOo
"Oh, Caine, you never cease to amaze me," Mary Margaret Skalany said as she watched Kwai Chang Caine make balloon animals for the children on the midway of the fairgrounds.
She chuckled at Kwai Chang's bemused smirk. Caine finished making a giraffe, the final in a series of complicated balloon figures, and handed it to the last remaining child.
The kids shouted their thanks and took off running to show their parents. Caine slipped an arm under Mary Margaret's and whispered, "It is such a little thing to produce amazement, Mary Margaret."
He kissed her cheek, as he whispered, "The trick is to remain in constant wonder at the miracle of life going on all around us."
Mary Margaret smiled as she watched the children carrying their prized balloons and sighed. "It is a trick you do very well, my friend."
The noise of the carnival nightlife ebbed and flowed around them. It surged again and drowned out any further conversation. She looked up at him, noticing how the glow of the neon lights highlighted Caine's sweet smile.
He took her hand as they wandered through the midway's attractions. When the crowd's din quieted again, Mary Margaret leaned toward Kwai Chang. "Sharing my birthday with you like this is much more romantic than spending it with the gang from work last year, especially when dead bodies started popping up like apples in a barrel at a Halloween apple-bobbing contest."
Caine's smile vanished as he nodded slowly. "That was a very dark time. Freize's evil was nearly unstoppable."
Mary Margaret touched his arm. "Hey, why the grim face? You stopped him with the help of Peter and Freize's brother, Wolf. You did stop him."
The Shaolin priest's expression didn't soften with her words. If anything, a dark cloud of apprehension seemed to descend upon his normally serene features. Mary Margaret felt lightly shaken by the sight and touched him, gently trying to pull him out of his trance when he didn't do so on his own. The longer it took to get a reaction from him, the more worried she became. She had been around Caine long enough to know his silences were often portents of dark times to come.
"Caine?" she asked, raising her voice to be heard over the happy shrieks of the Ferris wheel riders as it swirled a short distance from them. "What's going on?"
Caine moved finally, closing his eyes. He nearly dropped to his knees before she caught him. There was a nearby booth selling cinnamon rolls and she led him over to sit at one of their tables. Kneeling down, she put a hand to his face. "Kwai Chang Caine, if you don't answer me this second, I'm calling in the paramedics."
Caine's hazel eyes rose to meet hers and her heart ached to see such fear and anguish there. "He – he has returned."
"Who...who has returned? Dammit, Caine, talk to me!" she nearly shouted to be heard as the noise level rose again.
Caine pushed away from the table, staggering to his feet, as he whispered, "We must warn Wolf. He is in grave danger."
Mary Margaret followed him, still unsure why Wolf would be in danger, but she was positive that wherever Kwai Chang went in the next few moments, mayhem was sure to follow.
She reached into her purse and grabbed her cell phone, then dialed the precinct's direct line to the police dispatcher. "This is Detective Skalany. I need an available unit to be sent to the fairgrounds ASAP, but make it a silent approach unless I call you back. I'm at the far west side of the grounds, off McClelland, near the big carnival rides at the rear of the park."
She hung up and shoved the phone back into her purse, but her gaze never left Caine's back as he stumbled along. The fact that he seemed to be gaining strength gave her little consolation. There was something in his body language that frightened the hell out of her. She hurried to catch up with him, again touching his forearm to get his attention.
"Caine, where are we going? Did you say that Wolf is in danger?"
Caine nodded, and then shifted directions and shook his head in disagreement, his erratic gestures adding to Mary Margaret's fear and confusion. "The danger is all around us now. Around so many. I – I must go to where I sense the greatest risk," he whispered breathlessly, almost as if he was apologizing for his decision.
Mary Margaret swallowed and glanced to the carnival rides ahead of them. She remembered some of Peter's stories of his time spent undercover at the carnival and how Wolf, the head roustabout, often patrolled the area in the evening before turning in. Just then, through the crowd, she recognized Wolf standing near the Ferris wheel, talking to one of the ride's operators.
"There he is," she said, surprised at the level of excitement in her voice.
Mary Margaret pointed out the older man, but Kwai Chang was already heading in Wolf's direction.
As they approached, the equipment containing Ferris wheel beside them exploded without warning. In a blinding blast of light and sound, it loosened the wheel from its base. Mary Margaret gaped at the sight. She could see the horror in the eyes of those on the ride and felt it clutch at her own heart as the monstrosity lurched forward. All she could do was gape in disbelief.
oOoOoOoOo
One moment Kwai Chang's world was engulfed in blinding light, the next he was on the ground with a paramedic relaying his vital signs to the hospital via a radio. Kwai Chang gasped as a wave of pain swept over him. He was injured, but he had suffered far worse injuries before. In fact, his own pain was nothing compared to the tide of agony and fear he felt emanating from those around him.
He opened his eyes to see pandemonium in the aftermath of the Ferris wheel's collapse. While Kwai Chang had been unconscious, the area had become filled with rescue personnel. Interspersed among the injured were policemen and fire fighters, along with several other paramedics.
Kwai Chang found himself momentarily distracted by some of the more frantic people in the area. Most were also injured, but now they were searching for their missing companions, shouting their names in a chorus of cries that blended into something completely indistinguishable.
Kwai Chang swallowed, and worked hard to push back his pain until it became more tolerable. He was weak and disoriented, with a rising frustration at his inability to concentrate, but everything became crystal clear when he remembered Mary Margaret and Wolf in the instant before the night went white with the destruction of the Ferris wheel.
Kwai Chang's already rapid heart rate jumped when he couldn't sense Mary Margaret's essence or Wolf's. He reached up, startling the EMT attending to him, and grabbed the man's shirt. "My friend, Mary Margaret, is she injured?"
The paramedic shook his head, dismissing Caine's question as his voice filled with compassion. "Easy, buddy. Lie back and let me do my job. I'm sure the others are looking after your friend, but there's just too much happening right now for me to go looking for her."
Kwai Chang pressed on, whispering hoarsely, "No, it is very important that we find her. She is a police detective and my friend. We must... "
Kwai Change started to rise, but then everything went dark.
The paramedic's voice broke through Kwai Chang's impending unconsciousness, disrupting it enough for Kwai Chang to cast off its dark grasp. Leaning closer to Kwai Chang, the EMT said, "Buddy, I understand you're worried about your friend, but we need to take care of your own injuries first. Okay? I promise to get someone looking after your police detective in a sec."
The paramedic quickly checked Kwai Chang's blood pressure, pulse, and breathing. The man didn't look pleased with the readings he got and he flashed a pen light into Kwai Chang's eyes, pausing for pupil reactions, as he asked, "Does any area of your body hurt more than another?"
Kwai Chang took a deep breath, channeling his chi to begin the healing process, while trying to quiet the whispered warnings of danger echoing in his heart. They had to be silenced for the qi gong to work most effectively. Yet, the overwhelming urgency he felt overrode any attempts at healing he tried to do for himself.
The paramedic gently slapped his face a few times. "Hey, buddy, you still with me?"
Kwai Chang opened his eyes, trying to focus, but the blurred vision remained.
"What's your friend's name?" the paramedic asked, still trying to get his attention.
"Mary Margaret Skalany. A detective with the 101st precinct," Kwai Chang rasped.
"Okay, okay, that's good. Now, we got a name to look for. And what's your name?"
"I am Caine."
"Okay, Caine, talk to me about how you're doing. Dizzy, nauseated, or in pain? Anything like that?"
Finally, Kwai Chang felt a small increase in his meager strength and managed to sit up despite the paramedic's efforts to keep him down.
"I am fine," Kwai Chang said simply, "There are others who are more badly injured that you must attend to first. I shall find my friend myself."
The paramedic started to argue when another explosion rocked the area, followed by the total collapse of another nearby ride. The man automatically shielded Kwai Chang with his own body, but the blast knocked them both to the ground, hard.
Kwai Chang pushed the stunned paramedic lying on top of him off as carefully as possible and stood with amazing speed, considering his injuries. He was finally reaping the benefits of qi gong, his body's chi facilitating the healing process.
The paramedic wasn't badly injured, merely stunned by the blast, so Kwai Chang stumbled deeper into the scene of destruction. The rescue workers around him, many now among the injured, began calling out for their partners. Other cries for assistance were shouted in a desperate attempt to be heard above everything else, but all was lost in the prevailing horror.
Kwai Chang tried to screen out the screams and focused solely on those closest to him. He came upon a husband holding his dead wife in his arms. Kwai Chang consoled the man, but the poor fellow was beyond reason. Kwai Chang had once known such devastation and bowed in prayer for his loss before he took a few more steps.
Two teenage girls were trying to revive a boy their age in a letterman's jacket. Kwai Chang went to them and was able to draw them away, handing the injured boy over to a newly arrived team of rescue workers. He held on tightly to the girls to keep them out of the way of the medical workers, willing peace and calmness into their near hysterical state of mind. Soon, he was able to pass them on to other firefighters who appeared on the scene.
Tears streamed down Kwai Chang's face. He was devastated by the tragedy of so many dead and so many injured. The fact he still couldn't detect anything from Mary Margaret or Wolf stole at his breath.
The paramedic who had been treating Kwai Chang earlier finally caught up to him, angry and frustrated that Kwai Chang had walked off without permission. Kwai Chang shrugged off the angry man's words. Instead, he knelt beside a sheet of aluminum torn off from the back of Ferris wheel's neon sign.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the paramedic shouted at Kwai Chang, but he stopped when Kwai Chang lifted the sheet enough for him to see an injured child lying beneath it.
"She is one of those more in need of your help," Kwai Chang said softly.
"Shit," the emergency medical worker cursed, glancing between Kwai Chang and the girl for a moment before he went to work. He checked her vitals, and then grabbed his hand mike.
"Cap, I've got a bleeder here. I need a boatload of help on the double!" he took a deep breath and revised his request. "And I need whoever you can spare ASAP."
The walkie-talkies all around them sang with nonstop chatter of requests and orders. The commander trying to organize the ensuing chaos, but it was a wasted effort, as futile as trying to manage a hurricane. There would be no quick fix to this disaster. It would be hours before most of the ongoing drama would truly under control.
The paramedic worked silently on the child as Kwai Chang leaned down, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder and closed his eyes. Those less knowledgeable might have thought Kwai Chang was praying for her, but others who really knew him knew he was sending the girl life-sustaining chi to strengthen her long enough for the emergency teams to do their work.
The paramedic had the girl stabilized and in an ambulance in less than fifteen minutes. In the ongoing madness, Kwai Chang avoided another confrontation with the medical technician by slipping away to aid others before the paramedic noticed he was gone.
Kwai Chang was still searching for Mary Margaret and Wolf while also watching for Freize. He almost expected the evil one to jump out and attack him. On further reflection, he realized Freize would never move against him in such an overt move.
So, instead, Kwai Chang simply went to those individuals who were close to death, if not found soon. Hope turned into despair as Kwai Chang found more victims dead than alive, and he paused every few steps to pray for another departed spirit.
His gaze swept around the area with growing worry as there was still no sign of Mary Margaret or Wolf.
"Where are you?" he whispered.
The question went ignored by the rest of the world, but it didn't stop him from continuing, "You should be here... "
Their absence was almost too hard to bear, knowing they should have been in the immediate area. Kwai Chang took another deep breath, turning his chi outward, searching with ebbing strength for the missing twosome. Suddenly, he dropped to his knees. There was a new source of danger, something so horrific and so intense, it felt like he was dying.
Kwai Chang's last word before unconsciousness claimed him was, "Peter."
oOoOoOoOo
The man cloaked by shadows stepped deeper into them as he watched the carnival's lights flame brighter than they'd ever been before – but now they were the flames of death, for both the carnie and those who had been foolish enough to be there at that moment.
He watched as the carnival went up in fiery explosions, one ride at a time. Something that he should have done long ago, he decided. He chuckled as he surveyed the dead and dying sprawled across the midway like spent soldiers in a war scene.
He inhaled the tantalizingly sweet life force of all the departing souls, feeding on their fears as they left this earthly realm. This was so much better than it had ever been in his carnival ride, mostly because he had been limited to one or two souls at time.
No, this was so much more fulfilling, but still it wasn't nearly enough to sate his hunger after his year-long fast and he still had much to do before he could exact his full revenge against those who had conspired to send him away.
So many things to do, so many deliciously evil things to begin. He sighed with relish, but the enjoyment quickly faded as he recalled how Kwai Chang Caine and his own brother, Wolf, had betrayed him, using the dust of their ancestors to destroy his wall of souls. They had cast him into an unspeakably ghastly prison, where he was then entrapped by the very souls he had held captive.
The climb out from the clutches of his spirit jailers was a long and torturous one, but he'd finally managed to escape. The time he'd spent healing and regaining his strength had seemed intolerable. The only thing that had sustained him was the dream of making Kwai Chang Caine his willing slave for all eternity.
"Yes, Caine and all those who thought they'd defeated me will scream in agony. I am going to enjoy every precious moment as long as possible, because it will please me to do so."
He had learned much on the other side of hell. Lessons he would apply to the eternal torture and torment of each of his victims. Secrets he could use against his enemies. Many dark and forbidden secrets. Soon, they would be secrets no more, but a reality for his victims to experience.
He licked his lips. "It is time to continue with my plan. Time to begin the end of all of those who worked against me. Time to begin my reign on earth as a true prince of evil. Yes, it is more than time."
And then he laughed maliciously as he stole away, still clinging to the shadows that protected him.
oOoOoOoOo