Chapter 2

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The three of them made their way across the resort, heading towards the bar. It was slow going as word had spread that he was back. It seemed like they couldn't walk ten feet without someone stopping to welcome him home and comment on the changes in him. Ernesto caught Kai rolling her eyes several times when some of the female employees were more than a little enthusiastic about said changes. Surprisingly, Alex seemed a little flustered by the attention. The man had an ego the size of Texas when it came to his abilities to do his job but when it came to him personally, he seemed to have a hard time accepting a compliment. They finally made it to the bar and grabbed a table. Without even ordering, three beers appeared on the table with yet another welcome home sentiment, along with being told it was on the house. They settled in and took a moment to sip their drinks and get used to the old dynamics. Finally, Kai spoke up.

"So, first things first, how did the trial go?" She desperately wanted to ask if the DEA had said anything about him going back to them, but knew it was better to wait for him to offer up that kind of information.

Alex laughed. "About as I expected. Carpenter and his lawyer tried to say I was the traitor and that I'd set up Todd to take the fall. That he'd spent over a year trying to clear his name."

"He what?" Ernesto asked, offended.

Alex shook his head. "Didn't work. Too much evidence against him. Plus, Aguero threw him under the bus, offering to testify against him in exchange for a reduced sentence." His annoyance at that last statement was palpable.

"Did the DEA make the offer?" Kai asked, afraid of the answer.

"Yeah, but I don't think he got what he thought he was going to get. He's either going to die in prison or be a very, very old man when he gets out." He smiled at them both. "I can live with that as it means Carpenter got what was coming to him."

"He really got life?" Ernesto asked.

Alex grinned. "He did! Conspiracy to commit murder for forcing me into "assassinating" Usato. Treason, drug trafficking, three additional counts of attempted murder, me twice and Evelyn once." The smile left his face as he thought once more about how close he'd come to losing his daughter to a dark remnant of his old life. Kai reached out and patted his hand as Ernesto placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

"Hey, bud, it's over. You're both safe and he's in jail for the rest of his life. He can't hurt either of you now."

"Thanks Ernesto, I know. It's just…it's hard to reconcile the man who'd been so close to me, so much like a brother, with the one who tried to use my daughter against me, threatened to kill her, with no remorse." He swallowed hard. "He was almost gleeful as he told me how the building would collapse on our dead bodies and no one would ever know what happened to us. That we'd just go missing. It was like the man I thought I knew, the one I trusted with my life, had never existed."

Kai sniffed. "He had no idea what he was talking about. If you'd gone missing, the entire Mactan police force would have been looking for you, and for Evelyn. We wouldn't have given up on you Walker, no matter how long it took."

The stunned look on Alex's face was enough to make Ernesto both sad and fighting a desire to burst into laughter. He suppressed the latter as he knew this was a solemn moment between his two friends. Kai finally admitting that he mattered to her and him finally getting it. The friendship the three of them had forged over the last year, was strong. He knew that if anything happened to either himself or Kai, hellfire would rain down on whoever had messed with them, in the form of one very pissed off ex-DEA agent with skills that he was pretty sure he and Kai hadn't uncovered yet.

Alex opened his mouth to say something when Cory appeared out of nowhere, hauled him out of his chair and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. When she let him go, he said breathlessly. "I thought you said that was harassment, Cory?"

"No, you stupid man, that was then, this is now." Cory held him out at arm's length. "Humph, you look like a hippy."

"Good to see you too." He groused but she just frowned at him. "Oh, I have something for you." He reached into his pocket, pulled out the last bag and handed it to her.

"For me?" She was surprised that he'd thought to bring something back for her.

"Yeah, picked it up in Indonesia when I was visiting my daughter."

She opened the bag and pulled out a bracelet made of glass beads in the resort colors. "Oh, Alex, it's beautiful." She put it on her arm and turned it this way and that, admiring it. "How did you find one in the correct colors?"

"I had the artist make it up based on a picture I had on my phone." He admitted a little shyly.

She pulled him into another hug and then pushed him away. "I need to get back to work. I can't stand around here all day talking to you. Some of us have things to do." She turned to bustle away as quickly as she'd appeared. She only took a couple steps before she stopped again. "It is good to have you home. It's always hard when pamilya is away." She said without turning around. She headed off to do whatever it was she had to do, always something that needed her expertise.

Alex watched her go, bemused. She'd called him pamilya, family, once before when he'd been sure the gift shop had blown out to sea during the typhoon. He had a hard time getting a handle on her. One minute she was calling him family, the next she was slapping him, calling him stupid and haranguing him about overdue bills. He sat with down with a huff and took a deep swallow of his beer. Looking up, he found his friends looking at him, identical smirks on their faces.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing." Ernesto said.

"Whatever."

"So, Carpenter got life and then what happened? Why were you gone so long?" Kai asked.

"Why? Did you miss me?"

"Keep it up and I'll have a hard time remembering why."

Ernesto broke in before things could escalate into one of their standard arguments. "What did happen, Alex?"

Still scowling at Kai, Alex continued. "Well, after the trial was over and the verdict was in, the director of the agency asked me to stay awhile." He noticed when both of them tensed but didn't know that the reason was that he'd said he was home but hadn't actually said he was staying.

Kai finally asked what had been foremost in their minds. "Did they offer you your job back?"

"Yeah, actually, they did." He was smiling widely when he said it. It had felt like a vindication. Neither of them liked seeing him look so happy about it.

"And you said?" Ernesto asked.

Alex frowned. "Well, of course I said no, otherwise I wouldn't have come back." He looked at Kai out of the corner of his eye, knowing his next statements were just to yank her chain. "After all, what would you guys do without me? This place would be overrun with drug dealers and gun runners before a year was out." He watched Kai puff up just like he'd expected.

"We did just fine before you ever set foot on this island, Alex Walker! Most of the time you're more hindrance than help!"

"Oh really?"

"Guys, come on." As always, Ernesto played the peacemaker.

Suddenly serious, Alex nodded. "I know you don't really need me. You guys are two of the best cops I've ever worked with." He picked at the label on his beer.

Now, of course, Kai went in the other direction. "Of course, we need you. Most of the time, it's your plan that helps capture the bad guys, illegal and outrageous as it may be."

Ernesto just shook his head. He wondered if this was going to be the rest of his life, playing referee between the two of them. He couldn't decide if that bothered him or not. He finally decided it didn't. "So, what happened when you said no?" He asked, trying to get them back on track.

Alex shrugged. "They tried some full court pressure, the whole you took an oath, you owe it to your country, that kind of thing. When I asked where that all was when we originally parted ways, they really had no answer. So, nothing much else happened, other than to be told I needed to stick around for a hearing on my disability status."

"What? Were they trying to take it away from you?" Kai asked, getting angry on his behalf.

"No, just the opposite. Turns out it was Zivic and A.D. Lockhart who had put the pressure on the agency to have me reinstated, which is why they made the offer in the first place. Zivic really surprised the hell out of me. He actually gave me credit in his report to the DEA on how he managed to bring in Todd. Anyway, in light of my refusal, both of them then pressed to have my case reviewed and the final decision was that I should get my full agent pension, retro to my leaving the agency." He grinned at them. "No more going to the doctor in order to get my pay and a nice little nest egg to keep me from going under." He looked at Kai. "So, that's the answer to your question about how I could afford to bring home gifts for everyone."

"Alex, that's amazing news!" She replied. Smirking, she asked. "Does that mean you can finally afford to buy a car, so we don't have to chauffeur you everywhere?"

"Why would I do that? You guys don't mind driving me around. Besides where would I keep it?" He smirked back.

"Oh please." She just shook her head at him. "So, what happened after that? That didn't take three months! And what's with…." She gestured towards him, sweeping from head to foot. His hand went to his hair self-consciously.

"I didn't want to spend the money on some overpriced hair cut so I just let it grow out. When I got my back pay, I'd gotten kind of used to it and decided to keep it, at least for now. Not like it's the first time my hair's been long. Usually it was for an op, but this time was just for me."

"And the rest?" Ernesto asked.

"What rest?" He knew exactly what they were asking but he wanted to hear it. He hid a smile.

Kai rolled her eyes and answered. "Why do you look like you've been working out around the clock?"

He grinned. "Bored."

Ernesto's eyebrows went up. "Bored?"

"Yeah, they put me up in a little hole in the wall motel with nothing else to do but go to the gym. At least they had a gym. Even the tv was crap, like four channels. I'd already been to all the museums as I'd been to D.C. many times, so I just went down and listened to music while I worked out." He flexed a little and wagged his eyebrows at them. "Why? You like what you see?"

"Oh please." Kai dismissed it as not worth replying. "So, back to how you broke up Evelyn and Chaz."

"Well, you know that August Crowe and I became friends after the whole bodyguard and kidnapping thing, right?"

"Yeah. And?" Ernesto prompted him.

"Well, we kept in touch. He postponed the rest of his tour while he got things in order. Dwaid didn't book just Cebu, that would have looked too suspicious. August had to hire a new manager as well as a lawyer to work out kinks from the paperwork Dwaid tricked him into signing." He had never told either of them about the drugs and the drinking. That was between him and August and he would never betray the other man's confidence. Part of the tour's delay had been a stint in a very private and discreet rehab facility.

"Anyway, he let me know that he was starting up the tour again and gave me his itinerary. Told me to stop in and see him if I happened to be anywhere near where he was going to be. Turned out one of the upcoming stops was in Jakarta so I timed my trip to see Evelyn around that. I had some time to kill, so I went home to Oklahoma."

"Is that where you lived with your Uncle Danny?" Ernesto asked. They'd never been able to get a straight answer from him about the man who'd wreaked such havoc in Alex's life in the short time he'd been on the island. There were small things they'd overheard and knew that there was tension there, as well as a deep-seated love for each other. How a con man like that had raised a man like Alex, neither of them knew. Some of his trust issues could be laid at the man's door and his ability to run a con on the bad guys had to have been learned at the man's side, but his almost pathological need to see justice done and the guilty behind bars where they belonged, went against everything the older man seemed to embrace.

Alex hesitated and then nodded. "When we weren't on the road, that was home base." He didn't elaborate and they didn't push. "I stayed in town for a little while, taking in the changes and picking up some of the gifts. It was…different without Uncle Danny there." He sounded far away, and they quietly waited for him to come back. He shook himself and continued. "Anyway, after that I headed to Jakarta and rented a four-wheel drive when I got there. Evelyn had sent me directions to the village a little outside Bandung where she was volunteering at. Luckily, she's stationed in West Java, so I didn't have to drive to the other end of the island. Still took me about three hours to get there. She was actually happy to see me." He smiled at the memory and the other two smiled with him. The scene in the gift shop when she was leaving, had stayed with them both. Evelyn unexpectedly flinging herself into her father's arms was one of the sweetest things either one had been a witness to.

"And the boyfriend?" Kai teased, dying to know what had happened there.

Alex frowned. "His name was Chaz. Chaz! And it wasn't even short for Charles!"

Kai frowned. "I think it's a nice name. Why would you be against him just because you didn't like it?"

"It wasn't just that. That I could overlook. He was a spoiled trust fund baby from England whose mommy and daddy wanted him to learn something about the way the rest of the world lived, so forced him into the Peace Corp. Guy was a tool."

"What happened to make you think that?" Ernesto asked. Privately, he was sure it was more that Alex didn't think anyone would be good enough for his daughter.

"He was incredibly condescending. He didn't even bother to learn anything about me before explaining how things worked differently there than what I was used to in the United States, patronizingly telling me not to expect being able to run to a grocery store for milk and bread or to find a Starbucks on every corner. Like I needed that? I've lived in more third world countries than he could probably name!"

"Maybe he was just trying to impress his girlfriend's dad?" Kai asked, her head tilted and a smirk on her face.

"I don't think so. I saw the confusion on Evelyn's face. I found out later that she'd told him about some of the places I'd lived. He either ignored her, didn't believe her or just flat out didn't listen." Kai could see that this bothered him. She remembered him telling her during that first case, that he was always paying attention. She'd found that to be true over the course of the last year. He noticed things that others didn't and would remember what she'd said to him, sometimes months later. That the man, boy, dating his daughter didn't, was something she thought Alex would find discourteous in the extreme.

"Is that why they broke up? Not really your fault, buddy." Ernesto said.

Alex grinned and shook his head. "Nah. That came later. Turned out that they'd bought tickets to the August Crowe concert for the three of us." His smile widened. "Evelyn remembered that I loved his music!" He preened a little.

"Well, that was nice of them, wasn't it?" Kai asked.

"Yeah, it was. So, I decided not to say anything about knowing August. Just figured I'd surprise them with maybe being able to go backstage once we got there. The concert was about a week away and we figured we'd go into Jakarta that day, take in some sights and eat at a nice restaurant. Then we'd go to the concert and stay overnight with me heading home the next day. I'd turn in the rental and they'd head back on the bus. While I was there, we kind of settled into a routine. Evelyn and Chaz would do their Peace Corp assignments during the day and I wandered around the village, meeting some of the people they were helping. Really nice people, kind of like here." The other two smiled at him. "That's how I met Kartika. She's a local artist and really talented."

He stopped and pulled out his phone, opening the photo gallery. Finding the pictures, he wanted, he passed the phone to Kai. Ernest leaned over to look over her shoulder at them. A picture of Alex with an older smiling woman, their arms around each other, was the first one up. Kai shook her head at it. For someone who could've made a career out of annoying people, Alex Walker had a way of drawing people into his orbit and making lifelong friends. She swiped left and found pictures of the woman working on her jewelry, one of which she was pretty sure was the bracelet he'd just given Cory. She kept swiping to find more pictures of the woman's work, a ton of Alex with other locals, most of them children and a few of him with Evelyn and a younger blonde man. The way he had his arm around Evelyn, putting space between them and Alex, had both Kai and Ernesto leaning towards disliking him without even knowing him.

She handed the phone back. "Looks like you had a good time there."

"I did. It was nice to see what Evelyn is doing, the difference she's making. It really makes her happy. The locals were so welcoming, I never felt like a stranger." He puffed up again. "I was Evelyn's dad. That's all they needed to know!"

Ernesto smiled. He could really see a difference in his friend. The tension that always seemed to be lurking just under the surface wasn't completely gone, but it was definitely less than it used to be. "So, you made nice with the locals, spent time with Evelyn and then you went to the concert. How did that lead to you breaking them up?"

"Well, let me tell you…."

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