Chapter Two:

"What the hell happened?!" She demanded from her two finest detectives.

They stood there, studying the ground like children being punished, "Honestly I don't have a clue, we'd already called both banks, the robberies seem completely random," Kermit spoke first.

"Could it be a copy cat?" Simms questioned a little quieter.

"No," Peter replied, "It's the same MO, everything, whoever's doing it appears then disappears the next minute. Leaving everyone wondering what the hell just happened. Whoever this is they're good."

"Okay so what's the plan?"

"There have been five robberies in as many weeks; this is the first time anyone has died. Something's going on inside their heads."

"What do you mean?" Simms asked looking at Peter.

Peter shrugged, "Think about it Captain, they've never killed anyone before, you only shoot someone in two cases, you're pissed or you're scared. My guess is one of them is becoming nervous. Maybe he's getting trigger happy, I don't know, but I'm willing to bet more are going to die if we don't figure this out."

"Well then I'm making this your top priority case, do whatever it takes gentlemen, I want this case solved before the next robbery."

"Yes ma'am," Peter replied softly.

Kermit made his way to the door, still angry at himself for what had happened. Peter grabbed the door, ready to close it behind himself when Karen spoke up, "Caine, stay here for a moment, I'd like a word."

Feeling like a kid in the principle's office he nodded and closed the door taking a seat across from her at the desk. "Captain?"

She sighed and handed him a small card, "I don't know what Kermit's told you about Alex, she lost her fiancé a little over a year ago. She hasn't had or seen anyone since, now suddenly for whatever reason she seems to find you fascinating. Her personal number is on the back. She'd like you to give her a call if you're free for dinner."

"Thanks Captain…"

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear here Detective. That's my little sister, and if you so much as put one toe out of line with her you will find yourself so deep in paper work that you won't be able to see the light of day ever again. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

He smiled ruefully and nodded, "Yes Captain."

o0o

It was nearing eight when Peter finally entered his apartment, exhausted and feeling foolish after his day. He dropped his jacket onto the couch, noticing that the business card fell onto the floor. Sighing he bent over and picked it up, studying it for a second he grabbed his cell phone and began to dial.

He felt a nervousness begin to creep into his body, normally he was fairly smooth with women…well until they began to see the real him. Why was she so different? He wasn't concerned about his Captain, no this was definitely different. For a moment he considered hanging up the phone, but realized he wasn't a teenager anymore.

"Hello?" A cheerful and beautiful soprano voice answered the line.

A natural smile flickered onto his face, "Alex, this is Peter Caine, from earlier today."

"Oh yeah! How are you?"

He smiled at her obvious exuberance, "I'm fine, I was wondering if you had plans for dinner?"

"No not at all…well unless you count Ramen Noodles a plan…"

Peter chuckled, "Well then, there's a nice little Italian place on 8th and Watson, I could meet you there in an hour? Unless that's too late."

"Nope, sounds wonderful, I'll see you then."

"Okay bye," He smiled as he hung up the phone, feeling confident all over again. Thirty minutes later Peter was showered, shaved and headed out the door for his date, trying not to feel too nervous after the day he'd had.

o0o

Alex took a slow deep breath and stepped into the little Italian restaurant. She could tell it was probably family run. She spotted Peter quickly standing over by an older Italian gentleman who he was chatting with candidly. She took the detective in for a moment, studying him, he looked relaxed. His hair was still a little damp from a shower; he wore a dark navy blue blazer with a button down gray shirt underneath and a pair of comfortable fitting jeans and boots. He didn't appear to be carrying his gun, but she wasn't positive, she assumed he probably always had it. From the way they were talking and standing, she could tell Peter knew this man pretty well and perhaps was even friends with him.

"Peter?" She asked softly as she stepped closer to him.

He looked over at her and smiled, holding his breath for a moment, she looked wonderful, she was dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans and a beautiful pink button down blouse, her hair was bouncing off her shoulders making her look like an angel. "Alex, I'd like you to meet an old friend of mine, this is Dominic, Dom this is Alex Campbell."

The older gentleman held out his hand and shook hers firmly, his smile was warm and authentic. "It is nice to meet the girl that appears to have already stolen this one's heart. He's a good boy."

Alex smiled as she looked over at Peter who was turning bright red, "Yes he seems to be."

"I'll take you to your table. Matt will be working tonight; perhaps you'd like him to be your server?"

Peter grinned, "Oh good so you actually got the little brat to do something with his life. That'd be great Dom."

The older man chuckled and nodded as he led them to a private table a little further from the regulars who were idly chatting. There was already a bottle of wine waiting in a bucket of ice. Peter released her arm and pulled out her chair, he then moved around to take his own seat, "You two enjoy your dinner and I'll send Matt your way."

"Thank you Dom, tell your wife I said hello."

The man nodded, "Nice meeting you Alex."

Peter smiled as he looked over at Alex, "I ordered a red wine, but if you'd like something different—"

She shook her head, "This is wonderful, thank you!" she studied him for a moment, "So how does a guy like you end up in Chinatown?"

He chuckled and nodded, "I was born in California, my mother died before I was two—I barely remember her. My father is a Shaolin, or a type of Buddhist Priest, or he was anyway. I was raised at a temple until I was twelve."

She smiled, "Are you serious?"

"Oh yeah, trust me, it only gets weirder. So anyway there was an explosion at my temple—" his eyes glazed over for a minute.

Alex was sure she'd just lost him to a sea of memories, she pressed her hand against his arm gently, "You don't have to keep going if you don't want to. We just met—"

He shook his head, "I'm fine, it still hurts. Anyway this old priest brought me to Chinatown where I lived for a little under six months before he became ill. I spent the next year or so in an orphanage."

"Oh God, that had to be horrible, what happened?"

He smiled, he hadn't expected her to be so interested so he continued, "Well a cop came to talk to the orphanage one day—his name was Paul Blaisdell. My future stepped through the door with him. Paul spent the next six weeks taking me to his house every weekend; he spent money to get me a tutor. Introduced me to his family, then one day they asked me to join their family."

"That's wonderful," she smiled looking at him. He was about to say something else when a young boy, no more than fifteen walked over to them. For a moment Alex was sure he was too young to be working, she realized this must be Matt.

"Hey kid," Peter greeted pleasantly as he looked at the boy with fondness.

"Pete! Dom said it was someone I'd know! How are you? How's your dad? Man you need to swing by more often!"

Peter chuckled, "Alex this is Dominic's foster son, Matthew, he's one of the kids I try to visit regularly from Pine Ridge, the orphanage I used to be at. Matthew I'd like you to meet my friend Alex Campbell."

The boy smiled at her, "Hi!"

She giggled at him, he was adorable, and it was obvious he hero worshiped Peter as the boy looked back at him, "It's nice to meet you Matt."

"What can I get you two?"

Once they'd ordered, and Peter had offered the coming Sunday with him for a game of basketball he hurried off to put their order in. Alex watched the boy hurry off before looking at Peter, "You're just full of surprises."

He shrugged, "I try. So, my question is how you ended up here?"

"Only about five months, I grew up in Maine as a kid, went to college in Boston, so the stories go, I had a position with a hospital in Boston, before I decided I had to get away. I moved here about five months ago, when I was offered a job with a former friend of mine."

"What made you move?"

It was such an easy question to ask, but she found it the hardest question to answer, "Honest answer?"

He smiled sadly, having a pretty good idea of the answer, "That bad huh, if you don't want to say you don't have to," he squeezed her hand softly and smiled.

She hesitated only for another moment, deciding since he'd told her his story, it was only fair to offer the same, "My fiancé died a year ago—it was such a freak accident," she shook her head. "He was a firefighter, great guy. It was a simple mission; the house wasn't that bad off. But things went bad quickly," she shook her head, trying to hold back the tears.

"God Alex, I'm so sorry."

She shrugged, "I had to get away, and everything reminded me of him. My parents understood, my mom's first husband was a cop and she'd lost him to a stray bullet. Anyway I was offered the chance to come work here with a former Professor of mine from Med School, I loved the idea. It would bring me closer to my sister as well, so I agreed."

Peter nodded, "I'm so sorry Alex," he whispered again squeezing her hand.

"Thanks Peter, it's gotten better, I'm glad I moved it's been a chance to start over."

"I know how that feels," he whispered.

She smiled, "Enough depressing stuff…"

Three hours later they sat side by side, his arm around the back of the chair as they sipped their glasses of wine, dinner and dessert having come and gone. As they continued to chat about their lives and families, "Seriously, she was such a wild child! Mom says she get's her father's sense of justice though. She was a bit of a hard ass before Kermit; she's much smoother than she used to be."

"Well, they're quite the couple; it'll be interesting to see how much longer before he pops the question."

Alex smirked at him, "How long have you known him?"

"Fifteen years or so. I'd just moved in with the Blaisdells and he was invited to Thanksgiving dinner. He was about…twenty two, still wore those damn glasses. Believe me we weren't instant buddies, it took a very long time for us to warm up to one another, and even then we didn't trust each other long."

She smiled softly, "Can I ask you a question?"

Peter chuckled, "I thought by now you'd know the answer to that."

"Why did you become a detective?"

He smiled knowingly, "Well originally my mother blamed it on Paul, but back when I was a kid in the temple I used to think how cool it would be to be a cop."

"Shaolin Cop?" She giggled playfully.

He smirked, "Something like that—wow how much does your sister tell you?"

Alex shrugged, "She can't tell me too much case work until its post case, but she's told me about most of her people."

Suddenly he felt his anger beginning to rise, he grew stiff as he looked at her seriously, "Talk to her tonight?"

She knew where this was going and hoped she could stop it at the pass, she wouldn't lie, "Only briefly—"

"I see, goodnight Miss Campbell," what had been a wonderful and warm tone from Peter was now dark and chilly. He paid the bill and began to walk away from the table.

Alex found herself wondering what the hell had just happened as she ran after him, thanking whatever deity had been watching out for her and that she was wearing shoes she could run in. "Now wait a damn minute!" she reached out and grabbed his arm, "Just what do you think is going on here?"

"Hey I'm more than aware that everyone at that precinct thinks I'm only playing with about half a deck! So big sister calls you and next thing I know I'm being set up to see a shrink!"

She felt her own blood begin to stir with a boil; anger seethed from her every pore, "Now you wait just one second Peter, in case you've forgotten you called me! As for my sister calling she wanted to make sure I'd gotten back the office safely since she was forced to leave because of some 211 in progress! If that's what's got a burr up your butt then you can just take it out! I didn't come here tonight for a therapy session with you Detective, believe it or not but I actually leave my work at the office! Now you can believe whatever the hell you want, but don't go around accusing me, or my family of talking about other people. If you're so unsure suddenly why don't you ask Kermit, he was the one holding the phone while my sister drove him! Give me a call when they've removed the burr, because I find myself still wanting to see you after that accusation." Without another word she stormed off to her car, leaving Peter in the parking lot.

"I'm an idiot," He whispered as he watched her drive away.

TBC