Thanks for the reviews.  I wasn't going to write this chapter quite so soon as I have tons of projects going in the "real world." But, I just couldn't help myself.

Tracy: No, I don't mind that you thought the last chap should be in two parts. I was actually going to split it up, but it was about 1 am when I finished it, and I was just feeling too lazy to.

Alf & C.T. Torris: Thanks for the input on Norman. I do remember the bomb thing now that you mention it. I'm just glad I didn't miss an explanation of what happened to him.

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Steve ran an angered fist through his hair. His whole life had changed in a span of mere minutes. Once again life had thrown him a curve ball.

He had been too upset to go back to the house. There was no need to upset the children, and they had a babysitter, so he had just started driving. He had not been surprised when he ended up at the beach.

The water was, after all, what many of his life's major experiences centered around. He'd lived on the beach with his dad. He had been attacked on a pier. He had almost drowned in the ocean. That same ocean had carried him to his new life after beating the first one out of his mind.

Steve stopped his angry stalk along the shore line to stare out at the waves. He remembered days when he'd gone surfing with Jesse out on that same water. It had always held such comfort for him before. Then, after his amnesia, it had held the mysteries of his life.

All it held now was the sounds of uncertainty.

Absently, his eyes traveled along the sand. If he kept walking, he would reach his father's house after about a mile and a half.

Hurt welled up to regain its position as dominant feeling. Even though he hadn't remembered his father, he had missed him. In some way, he had still held on to the bond they shared.

His father, apparently, had not.

Oh, he supposed Peters had lied pretty well to all of them once Peters had removed Steve from the scene. Still, his father had proved a man innocent when no-one else believed him. Mark Sloan had beaten impossible odds over and over again. He had always found the loophole.

For the first time in his entire life, Steve questioned his father's love.

As tears started to well up in his eyes, Steve tugged his bow tie out of its knot. He pulled it loose and fingered the material. There was a time that he had protested wearing any sort of fancy suit. Now, he was wearing a designer original, compliments of his father-in-law. The irony did not escape him.

He had somehow turned out to be something worse than an amnesiac. He was a homicide investigator. Or, rather, he was a homicide investigator.

Ruefully, he kicked the sand and slumped down into a small dune.

"You know, I should have bet money on where you were."

Blue eyes flickered to the shorter man that had just deposited himself next to Steve.

Jesse sent a hesitant grin back, and Steve went back to glaring at the ocean. Jesse saw his jaw set in the infamous Steve Sloan clench.

"Steve."

"Don't Jesse."

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"I believe it was going to be something along the lines of 'Why don't you go talk to Mark?'"

Jesse flinched at the sound of Steve calling his father by his first name.

"Actually, I was going to say 'I missed you' first."

Steve laughed humorlessly. "You know Jess, I think you're a better man than I am."

"Me? Nah, I don't think I could stand to live with that wife of yours."

"Angel? Why, what'd she do?"

"Well, Mark gave her the short story about what happened."

"And?"

"First, she got pissed at Mark for not searching harder. Then she was angry with you for running off. She started getting a touch loud in the lobby when Norman came up and suggested that her behavior was unbecoming a doctor of Community General."

"What did she do?"

"She told him to go do something that even a first year medical student knows is anatomically impossible. Amanda took her to her car before Norman had her fired on the spot. Then I took Mark home. I still don't think Norman has a clue to what is going on."

"I'm not so sure that he doesn't. I ran into him at the bar before I saw Dad."

"I think you're giving Norman a bit too much credit there buddy."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

A short silence prevailed.

"So…" Jesse began.

"I can't Jess. You and Amanda had lives. You were good on cases, but you weren't my father. You don't understand."

"You're right. I don't understand. Steve, my father really didn't care about me. He did push me out of his life. Mark would never do that to you. If he had had the slimmest of hopes you were still alive, he would never have rested until you came home."

Steve sighed and stood up. "I can't deal with this right now. I'm gonna go back to the house. I'll be in touch."

Jesse watched helpless as his newly returned best friend walked away. He had been returned, but only Steve could decide when he would come home.

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Angel was waiting for him when he got back.

"Hi" He said uncertainly.

"You want to give me you version of the story?" She asked.

"Feeling a touch blunt tonight?"

"Don't get snippy with me Steve."

"I can snippy if I want to. I case they didn't tell you, you made the mistake of marrying a cop. We aren't exactly high on the class scale."

"Where is this coming from? I didn't do anything to you. You've been trying to regain your memory for years, and now all you can be is a jerk."

"You're taking my father's side?"

"I didn't know there were sides. This is supposed to be a happy occasion. You appear to be the apple of your father's eye, and you find this a problem?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Hey, I'm the one with the whacko father. You are the one with the loving family. Steve, I was envious of that group when I got to know them. You have a first class ticket into familial happiness, and you want to throw it away?"

"I already have a family."

"Yes, you do. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be larger."

"I can't deal with this right now. Goodnight, Angel." Steve started to move away.

"Steve! For heavens sake, do you really not want your father to know his own grandchildren?"

Steve stopped in his tracks for a second, and then kept moving. A few moments later she heard the spare bedroom door slam shut.

"Bastard." She huffed. Then she moved to her own bedroom.

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Mark sat in the doctor's lounge the next day swirling his remaining coffee around and around in his coffee cup. Amanda sat next to him and Jesse across.

"Mark,' Amanda began, 'I'm sure he's going to come around. This is all quite a shock."

"I'm not so sure Amanda. He's been gone for so long, and it isn't like he doesn't have a right to be angry."

"A right?" Jesse intoned. "Mark you would do anything for him. You know that. He knows that. He's just being…"

"Stubborn.' Amanda finished. "Actually, it's a good sign. Steve equals stubborn. And a stubborn Steve is just a Steve that is protecting someone he loves."

Jesse switched his gaze from Mark to Amanda. "Thank you Dr. Amanda Freud."

"She's right Jesse. Steve is only like this when he is protecting someone else. But who does he think he is protecting?"

Amanda smiled. "Isn't that fairly obvious?"

Two blank stares answered her question.

"Men." She muttered under her breath. "I suppose you two have totally forgotten that Angel has two children? Two children whose father's name is Steve. The same Steve that is our Steve?"

"Way to go with the confusing sentences today." Jesse quipped.

Mark frowned. "Steve is protecting his children from me?"

"Not originally, but he probably doesn't want to upset their lives like his has been."

"So, what do we do then?" Jesse asked.

"We do the only thing we can do. We let Steve figure this out. It is either that, or we shoot him, drag him to the ER and make him listen." Mark said.

Jesse nodded. "That is how it used to work. Isn't it?"

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Steve sighed. It was now officially midnight, and he couldn't sleep. Angel hadn't said a word to him when she had gotten home from the hospital. He had not had the courage to ask her if she had seen Jesse, Amanda or his father.

Instead, the four of them had eaten and not talked. Once the children had been put to bed, Angel had wandered off to work on paper work. Then she had gone to bed. Steve had resigned himself back to the guest bedroom.

Rain pulsed outside of the window and a flash of lightening illuminated Steve's room.

The anger had left about midday that day. He was haunted by what Angel had said about the children not knowing their grandfather. He didn't want to upset the life he had remade, but it was inevitable. He couldn't keep hiding.

With that decision made, all that was left of yesterday's emotions was pain; pain that came from the fact that he was separated from his father.

Unfortunately for Steve's pride, there was only one way to fix that problem. He swung his legs out of bed, put on his jogging suit, and grabbed his car keys. If he couldn't sleep, then his father wasn't sleeping either.

Resolutely, he marched out into the rain.