Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this fic, except the ones that you don't recognize. Disney and Alliance Atlantis and so forth own them all. ESPN is not mine : )

A/N: If you don't recall who Walter Steinberg is, turn to chapter 3.

Note: *~*~* means a switch from present time to the time in the book and vice versa; ~~~~~ means a switch between different scenes; and ***** means a switch from past to present in the book or flashbacks. The italics are mostly when someone's thoughts.

Realization of Fate

The Ultimatum

The sound of his shaky footsteps echoed against the kitchen wall. It was only seven o'clock in the morning, and the house was practically barren except for petty noises from the playroom. He had been in the same state for almost half an hour. He figured it would only take a moment before he bore a hole through the floor.

"What am I going to do?" he murmured before grabbing the phone and dialing the number he called frequently before in times of crisis.

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It was the terrific time of the day to spend in the comfort of your own bed. Usually during weekends, he would be in bed until ten o'clock at the latest. It was a routine that he had gotten used to for the past years and one that he had grown to love: the sweet aroma of the coffee as he steps into the kitchen, the joy of finding out that his favorite team has just won a game on ESPN, and the few minutes of silence before his son comes out of his room.

Today was a different story: his best friend just woke him up with an urgent call at seven in the morning, and there was no coffee yet for the coffee maker was set to a later time.

"What are you going to do?" Hank asked. "And what did you call me for anyway?"

"That's exactly what I called you. That answers both questions by the way."

"Tyler, I don't think I can help you with that."

"Come on, Hank. You're the reasonable one."

"I'm not in the position to give you any advice."

"I'm desperate here!"

"You want my advice. Fine. Dump Andrea. There you go. Problem solved."

"What the hell was that?"

"An advice?"

"That's not an advice. I can't just dump her. She's my fiancée for crying out loud!"

"Then dump Val."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this… FROM YOU!!! I can't abandon Val. She's my wife!"

"What!?!"

"I meant my ex-wife… No!!! I meant… Ugh!!! She's the mother of my child. She's one of my best friends."

Hank remained quiet for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

"What is so funny?"

"You are so hopeless. You're still hung up on her."

"On who?"

"Don't play dumb on me. You know that I'm talking about Val."

"I am not! How can you say that? I'm getting married here."

"If that's the case, then why did you have to make this such a big deal?"

"Because IT IS A BIG DEAL!!!"

"All right!!! You don't have to yell. What I'm saying is that you could have just talked to Andrea and made some kind of compromise or something. If that didn't work, you could've talked to Val. I'm sure she would've understood."

"That's not the point…"

"Do you love Andrea?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to marry her?"

"That's the reason for the proposal."

"Then work things through with her."

"Do you think she'll understand?"

"If she really loves you…"

"She does."

"Then there you go."

"Thanks Hank."

"You're welcome. Now could you please go put down the phone so I could go back to sleep."

"Oh, right. I'm sorry about that. Bye."

"Bye."

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For the first time in his life, Tyler learned to appreciate the great goodness of the redial button. He has been trying to contact Andrea on her cell phone for fifteen minutes. For the past year that he has known her, she has never turned her cell phone off, except when she's at home or when the battery is almost out. This only made him worry more. Then again, he figured that maybe she is just ignoring him. They now have caller IDs on cell phones nowadays. 'Hopefully, Treb's with her. At least her driver can keep her from being harmed.' He put down the phone and immediately headed to his room to get dressed. On his way up the stairs, he met Val.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"It's a long story."

"Is something wrong?"

"To put it in a nutshell, I'm trying to save my marriage."

"Did something happen?"

"I can't talk right now. I have to go. Alyssa's downstairs in the playroom. I'll be back later."

"Tyler, is everything all right?" she asked with concern.

"Everything's fine, Val. You have nothing to worry about."

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It only took him twenty minutes to take a shower and get dressed when the phone rang.

"Andrea?" Tyler said.

"No, this is Walter Steinberg. Is this Tyler Connell?"

"This is Connell."

"I was made aware that you declined my offer."

"I assigned Robert O'Brien to the case, sir."

"I understand that completely, but I wanted you."

"Well, I took a break to be with my daughter."

"You should have told me that. I would have waited for the best guy in the business."

"Thank you, sir, but my partner and I had some conflict on the matter."

"Are you still available?"

"I'll be glad to work for you."

"Can I ask you a huge favor?"

"Anything."

"Your partner, Mr. O'Brien, has some of the files for the case in his office. Do you mind if you could get it for me?"

"I'm on my way out. I'll get them for you."

"Thank you."

"I have to go, sir. I'll talk to you later."

Once again, he put down the phone and hurried down the stairs.

"Are you going already?" asked Val.

"I have to go. Less talk and more moving."

Before she had a chance to say anything, Tyler was out of the door.

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Tyler waited until the elevator reached his floor. When the doors opened, he went directly to Robbie's office. He's the only person who has the master key to every room in the building. He promptly searched his desk until he found a folder with the words STEINBERG, WALTER.

"Bingo!" he said as he went for the door.

On his way, he saw a picture of Robbie, Andrea, and him at one of their company parties. They were quite a trio. The other gang that he belonged to without his high school friends. The picture reminder him of Andrea. Pushing his luck, he called her once again. Tyler jumped with surprise when he heard a phone ring from behind.

"What was that?"

He turned around and saw a familiar object on the table.

"What is this thing doing here?"

He picked up the brown leather purse on the table. It was the one she gave her for Christmas. With the process, Tyler accidentally knocked over a glass-plaque on Robert's desk.

"So much for his award."

Tyler put down the purse and picked up the pieces of the plaque. As he put them in the trash, he noticed a piece that contained his first name. From his point of view, the letters read T-R-E-B-O-R.

"Trebor," Tyler said out loud for fun before realizing something that he can't even start to comprehend. "Treb? The driver? It can't be… Then again, I've never met the guy. It can't be. He isn't even here. He's in Hawaii for vacation."

Tyler grabbed the purse, left the office in a hurry, and went down to the main desk.

"Good morning, Mr. Connell."

"Good morning, Stella. Could you show me the list of attendance for the day?"

"I'll get the attendance for you, sir. Just wait a minute."

One minute turned into ten and no record was present. Impatience got the best of him and Tyler decided to leave before the woman could catch him.

"Only Mr. O'Brien was in this morning…" she said when she realized no one was there. "Oh well, the things you do to for someone."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tyler headed straight for Andrea's house to return her purse. He figured that it would give him an excuse to see her. He parked his car on her driveway and went to the door. He didn't even bother knocking for he had his own key like she had one for his house. The house seemed equally quiet as his and almost as desolate.

"She must be upstairs."

Tyler went up with the purse in his hand. Of course, he knew where her room was so he just went straight directly to its location. He knocked on the door.

"Andrea? It's Tyler. Look, I'm really sorry about earlier. I know we can work something out. We said, well, you said that I have until tonight, but I want to get this over now. I don't like it when we fight. Please open the door. I know you're in there."

Tyler waited when he heard footsteps on the floor.

"Are you all right in there? It sounds like you have a visitor."

There was still no response. Tyler reposed on the floor when he noticed something from the little opening of her door at the bottom of the floor. Like a child, he swooped down and got a closer look. To his surprise, it resembled a tip of a tie. Using his best abilities, he tried to pull out the whole thing, only to discover its owner.

"This can't be happening…" he said to himself. "Andrea! Let me in right this instant. I know you're not along so just stop pretending."

There was no reply. Tyler got irritated and broke the door open with a mighty kick. Just as he suspected, he saw his fiancée with Robert, who were both partially dressed.

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That was it! I'll continue it later, but it's past 1 in the morning. Thanks for reading. I'll be back! ~ Scarlet182