A/N: Apologies on the wait for this chapter, I'm out of town and the internet connection is worse than dial up. First I wanna say when I was proofreading these last few chapters I had forgotten how light and fluffy a lot of them had been, it won't always be like that obviously but even as the darker stuff comes about I tried my best to keep the tone of this story that same as it has been. I'm also glad you guys enjoyed the fight because back when I came up with these chapters I wanted a when it rains it pours kinda situation so I decided they had to have a fight. I went over a few different ideas of reasons why they argue and landed on what I feel is the most fitting one, something to do with her kids. So I'm happy you all felt that was true to their characters. Anyways I will have another author's note down at the end of this chapter because it contains spoilers, so for now enjoy!

Alex had a ton of fights when he was married, most of them were intentional on his part. He used them as a way to distance himself from his wife, the more he fought with her the more she pulled away from him till finally she up and left him. After that point in time Alex never stayed with a woman past the point of their first fight, when that happened he gladly took it as an out. His life was simpler that way, letting someone too close to you always complicated things. No woman was worth the trouble to him, not till Norma anyhow. With their amount of emotional baggage it was surprising to him they had gotten this far into their relationship without a blowout, and now where he would normally bail out he couldn't even fathom the thought. Although that really had nothing to do with how long they were together, he's sure he would have fought for her from the first second they kissed. He wasn't sure Norma felt the same way though since she had ignored every form of contact he tried to have with her the last couple days, when he called she would send it straight to voicemail and when he dropped by the motel she would claim she was too busy to talk. It was safe to say everyone at work knew something was up, where he had been more outgoing the last few months was now replaced with his old shield of armor and short temper.

"Stanley, if I wanted your life story I would have asked for it, you come in late one more time and it will be the last time." Alex said sternly.

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Stanley said, walking away with a similar expression as a puppy who just got scolded with a newspaper.

"Geez Alex, he was helping his poor old grandmother move into a home." Chloe said from the desk next to him.

"I don't care about his excuses, it's his job to be here and if he wasn't he clearly was doing it wrong. And stop calling me Alex, I am your boss not your locker room buddy."

"Well that's probably a good thing because they have pretty strict rules about men and women sharing locker rooms."

"Chloe." Alex warned.

"Oh, you get to use my first name."

"Does it seem like I am in the mood for your jokes?" Alex said, raising his voice at her.

"Alex." She said kindly. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Alex said and ignored her, turning back to his desk.

"You can talk to me about it, I'm not going to tell anybody."

"I don't want to talk about it with you. I don't want to talk about it with anybody, so will you just leave it alone?"

"Okay." Chloe said then went back to work.

At the motel Norma was working the front desk, Dylan and Norman where working on the inventory and she had to admit they were doing a great job at it so far. She also enjoyed this time alone since the two of them had been grilling her about Alex, asking when she was going to talk to him again, trying to get her to forgive him already. She wished she could, every part of her wanted to tell him everything was okay and go back to how they were before but she had to be stronger than that. All her life she was walked all over by the men around her, and she knew Alex cared for her deeply but if she let him back in again what kind of point would she be making? He put her son in danger then he insulted her, sure he probably didn't mean to do either and he was clearly sorry by the amount of missed calls on her phone but she needed him to learn that she was never going to be some doormat again. She heard the office door open and she looked up to see a man coming inside, he had a duffel bag slung over his shoulder and an outfit that didn't really fit in with the Oregon weather so she assumed he was coming from somewhere that was much colder this time of year.

"Hello, welcome to Seafairer." Norma said with a smile. "Can I get you a room?"

"No, that's not necessary." He said, tossing his bag on the floor. "Who are you?"

"I'm Norma Calhoun."

"You work here?"

"I hope so, otherwise I wasted my time cleaning all those rooms today." She said sarcastly and his expression remained the same.

"Where's Maggie?"

"And who's asking?" Norma said, taking the defensive side with this strange man.

"Keith." He said and Norma looked at him waiting for more of an explanation. "Summers.. Keith Summers, this is my families motel."

"Oh, you're her brother."

"Yes, so where is she?"

"She didn't tell you? She had to go out to Denver to help look after your aunt, she was in a car accident a few days ago."

"No, she didn't."

"Well I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you, but I spoke with your sister this morning and she said she is doing a lot better."

"Good to hear." Keith said then the motel phone started to ring on the counter, she glanced over and looked at the caller ID then pressed ignore. "Aren't you paid to answer that when it rings?"

"It was just my boyfriend calling, he calls here when he can't get a hold of me on my cell." Norma said then Dylan and Norman walked out from the back room.

"Here's the inventory list." Dylan said, handing Norma the clipboard he was carrying.

"My sister hire them too?" Keith asked, looking past her at the boys.

Norma chuckled. "No, these are my sons. They're helping me out with a few things." She said then pointed at each of her sons while she talked. "This is Dylan and Norman, this is Maggie's brother Keith."

"Hi." Norman said, smiling at the man.

"Hey." Dylan said before turning back to Norma. "We going up to make dinner now?"

"Ah, we are going to have to change our plans for dinner tonight." Norma said then looked at Keith. "Maggie usually lets us cook in her kitchen but I don't wanna be in there bothering you."

"Are you staying in the house?"

"No, we stay in room four. Maggie let's us go up there whenever I'm making homemade meals, we could use a night out for dinner anyways though." Norma told him then he nodded and picked his bag back up, leaving the office without another word.

Later that night after dinner out the three of them went back to their motel room and Norma went to take a shower while Dylan and Norman watched a movie. Norman fell asleep not long into it and Dylan was left sitting alone watching the film, a few minutes later he heard a light knock at the door. He got up from his bed and stood up on his tippy toes to look out the peephole, when he saw a familiar face he opened the door.

"Hey." Dylan said, looking up at Alex.

"Hey Dylan, how have you been?" Alex asked and he shrugged back.

"Alright." Dylan said and looked back in the room toward the bathroom door then back to him. "She's in the shower."

"Oh, I'll just come back tomorrow then. You guys are probably going to bed soon." Alex said and turned to leave.

"Alex." Dylan said and he stopped, looking back at him. "Just give her a few days, when she gets upset she gets even more stubborn than usual. You have to give her a bit of time to calm down, she'll come around."

"Are you sure about that? She didn't act like she was going to be ready to forgive me anytime soon."

"Trust me. A few years ago I dug a hole in the backyard at the old house because I wanted to make a pool, I put the hose in it then went inside and fell asleep. I ruined all the grass, the backyard was muddy for weeks and our water bill that month was an extra forty dollars. She yelled at me and I hid out in my room, she forgave me two days later."

"I think this is different, I'm not her son."

"But you are the closest person to her aside from me and Norman, she will forgive you." Dylan said making Alex smile.

"I'll see you in a few days."

"Looking forward to it." Dylan said then he shut the door and Alex started to walk back to his car, stopping when he heard a voice.

"Alex Romero." Keith said, walking over to him with a beer in his hands.

"Keith, when did you get back to town?"

"This afternoon."

"You didn't want to go visit your aunt first?"

"Well since the first time I heard about her being hurt was from a stranger I didn't think I was wanted there."

"I'm sure Maggie just had trouble getting a hold of you, your number doesn't stay the same very long ever."

"Always ready to defend her, no wonder she falls all over you." Keith said then took a swig of his beer. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"I came to see Norma, she's the one covering the motel till Maggie gets back."

"I met her, a real spitfire that one." Keith said with a smirk.

"You stay away from her, you understand me?"

"Oh, I get it. You're the boyfriend she was talking about, guess that's why she looks so unsatisfied."

Alex took a step toward him and lowered his voice. "I'm warning you Summers, I hear one word about you messing with her and I will burn you to the ground."

"That threat of yours didn't scare me when we were kids and it's not gonna now." Keith said then took a step back. "Have a nice night." He said with a grin, turning his back to him and walking away.

Alex decided to take the advice Dylan gave him the night before, he had been at work all day and hadn't tried calling Norma once. He had no clue how to tell if it was working or not which actually bothered him more, but what he was doing before wasn't working so he was open to trying this approach. He had been out on a case earlier which helped a bit. Him and Oliver had checked out some trouble with missing items from the boats at the Marina, but that only kept their attention so long then he was right back at the station. It did nothing to lower his quick fused temper, all the officers who had finally stopped being afraid of him now crept past him quietly hoping not to draw any attention to themselves.

"Where the hell is everyone?" Alex asked Chloe, looking around the station.

"Hiding from you." She replied.

"That's great." Alex said, rifling through his desk frantically.

"Did you need something?"

"Yes, I'm out of incident report forms."

"I can get you some."

"I know where they are, I can get them myself since clearly my staff is cowering in the bathroom stalls instead of doing their jobs." Alex said then slammed his desk drawer shut harshly, catching his hand in it as it closed. "Son of a bitch." He said, covering his injured hand with the other.

"Are you okay?" Chloe asked, hopping up from her chair.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Alex said, pulling his other hand away to look at it.

"Oh my god, you're bleeding." Chloe said, looking down at his hand. It was covered in blood and she could already start to see the bruising underneath it. "I'm getting the first aid kit." She said and walked over to where they kept it in the office, bringing it back over and setting it on his desk then she pulled her chair over to his. "Sit."

"I'm okay, I can just go wash it in the sink."

"You need to wrap it or it's going to keep bleeding, just sit." She said and he sat down across from her.

Chloe reached over and opened up the kit, pulling out what she needed then turning back to him. "This might sting." She said then covered a piece of gauze with rubbing alcohol and started wiping away the blood. Alex looked down at his hand as she cleaned it, thinking back to how Norma had taken care of him after he was hurt. "Alex, are you okay?"

"Norma won't talk to me." Alex said, looking up at her.

"Why? What happened?"

"We got into a fight after I brought Norman with me to the station that day, she got upset that I put him in a situation where he could have gotten hurt."

"You didn't know that was going to happen, you two could have just as easily been anywhere else and had someone do something like that."

"I think it's probably more likely that a criminal would be at a police station opposed to the park or the store."

"You never know when bad things are going to happen, you got shot in your own backyard." Chloe said as she set a large piece of gauze on his hand and starting taping it.

"It doesn't matter, Norma isn't going to forgive me for it. I made a promise not to hurt her or her sons and I already messed it all up."

"It was not your fault, and if she can't see that then she doesn't deserve you." Chloe said, finishing tending to his hand and setting the tape back on his desk. "If things don't work out you will find somebody else."

"I won't find anyone else." Alex said, shaking his head and looking down.

"You will." She said then he saw her set her hand on his leg, when he stared up at her she leaned in and placed her lips on his.

Alex pulled back immediately, pushing his chair away from hers. "No, don't." He said sternly. "Don't ever do that again."

"I'm sorry." She said, her face red from their interaction.

"I- I need to go." Alex said, grabbing his coat off the rack and putting it on.

"Your shift isn't over yet."

"Tell Oliver I went home sick." He said, leaving the station quickly.

Norma finished up cleaning all the rooms, they'd only had a couple guests the last few days so they were a lot easier to get done than usual. While she had a free chunk of time she made herself some lunch and left a note of the office saying she would be back in twenty minutes then went back to her room. After she ate her sandwich she went into the bathroom and started washing her hands when there was a knock at the door, she started walking toward it when they knocked again.

"Just a second." She called out, she opened the door and looked at the man standing there.

"There was a guest complaining about trouble with their sink." Keith said. "I wanted to check how yours was working."

"There is nothing wrong with my sink."

"I fixed the other one but all of them are doing it, I'm thinking it's a problem with the plumbing, I should really check yours."

"I assure you it's working, I was just using it." Norma said then he decided to stop pretending and shoved his way into her room, slamming the door shut behind him. "What are you doing?" She asked then he ripped off a piece of duct tape from his belt and placed it over her mouth. She went to pull it off and he grabbed her hands, holding them in place. She struggled to get out of his grasp, swinging her body every which way while he backed her up to the bed and handcuffed her to the railing.

"You sleep in my motel, you cook in my house, you think you own this place now. Well I'll tell you something, everything here is mine." He said into her ear as he ripped off the panties from under her dress. All she could feel next was the pain. A pain she was familiar with, a pain she thought she would never have to feel again now that she had Alex. Seconds later there was a loud knock at the door that made him stop, he stood up and pulled up his pants.

"Norma, you in there?" Alex called from outside and knocked again. "Will you please just open up, I really need to talk to you."

Keith uncuffed Norma and pulled her off the bed and into the bathroom, he tossed her onto the floor and turned on the shower faucet before walking back over to her. "Keep quiet, I don't have any problem killing your boyfriend if I need to." He said then closed her in the bathroom.

"Norma, I can hear that you are in there. Please answer the door." Alex said then Keith opened the door. "Keith, what are you doing here?" Alex said, looking past him into the room. "Where's Norma?"

"She's in the shower, she asked me to come over and fix the bed. Her kids were rough housing on it this morning and a leg broke."

"And you were fixing it while she's in the shower?"

"She got in while I was fixing it, it was the only time I could do it today and she needed to get ready for something."

"Okay, thanks." Alex said then Keith walked past him and Alex went inside, shutting the door behind him. He looked around the room, the blankets and sheets on her bed were thrown all about which hardly seemed like something Norma would do. He walked over to the bathroom door and knocked on it lightly. "Norma, you almost done in there?" He asked and he heard what sounded like muffled cries from inside. "Norma? Norma, I'm coming in." He said and opened the door. His eyes quickly found hers, she was laying on the floor with her mouth still covered in the duct tape. He rushed over to her and kneeled down on the floor, holding the side of her face while he used his other hand to gently pull the tape off. "Norma, what happened?"

"He- he raped me." Norma managed to get out in between cries.

Alex's comforting face turned to pure angry then he stood up and rushed to the phone, he dialed 911 and set it back on the end table before walking back to the bathroom and lowering himself to her level again, placing his palms on each side of her face. "Stay right here, don't move till the police get here."

"Where are you going?" Norma asked, reaching up and grabbing his hands.

"Just stay here." Alex said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. He released her hands and stood up, leaving the motel room and going straight to his car. Driving off he noticed tire marks going to the left and turned onto that side of the highway, he drove as fast as he could down the road till he noticed a truck up ahead. He slowed down his own car and followed behind it a good enough distance till he saw him pull off the highway onto a dirt road. The road thinned till the point where they were both driving on what looked to be a walking trail in the middle of the woods, he slowed to a stop when he saw him pull up to a small trailer. Alex threw his car in park and got out quietly, sneaking up to where Keith was getting out of his own car. By the time he reached his trailer Alex was right behind him, he stopped when he heard the sound of Alex's gun cocking behind his head. "Put your hands up and turn around you piece of shit."

Keith did as he said and put his hands in the air, turning around slowly to face him. "Go ahead, arrest me, I'll be out by tomorrow."

"For rape, I don't think so."

"Are you really still that naive about how this town is run? I'm one of the people who keep this place in order."

"Sex trafficking isn't part of keeping this town in order."

"So what are you waiting for? Arrest me." Keith said and held out his hands. Alex shoved his gun back in his holster and reached for his cuffs when he spoke again. "She liked it." He said with a smirk plastered across his face. Before Alex could really think about what he was doing he reached for Keith's belt and pulled off the xacto knife, opening it and slicing across his throat. Keith reached up and grabbed his neck with one hand and Alex's shirt with the other, ripping the pocket on it as he fell to the ground. Alex stared down at him, watching the blood pour out of him onto the patio bricks below them.

A/N #2: Quite awhile back a guest reviewer sweetly suggested I don't add Norma being raped into this story, I had already had this chapter written at the time and even if I hadn't I still would've continued with this storyline. I debated with myself when I was making this story about whether or not that was something I wanted to do then I thought about the scene in the show where Norma tells Alex she wishes she could erase all the bad things that happened, although that would be amazing to do that is not what reality is about and I wanted this story to be true to the series. I didn't want to erase all the bad things, I wanted her to experience them in a whole different light where she had this person who would stand by her through it all so that even the hard times wouldn't seem so bad. Another part I took a long time thinking about was how close would Alex be to the man we saw in the first season. I didn't want him to be a complete saint from the start but I also wanted him to gradually become closer to his character and not to give anything away but I'll soon explore how far he'll go now that he's got people in his life keeping him grounded. This chapter was really hard to proofread let alone write so I hope it's not too difficult for you all to read, let me know what you think.