First chap = disclaimers

Tracy: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I was concerned about it being mushy instead of believable. I'm glad it worked out. Which of your fics will my "stolen" idea be in?

There will be one more chapter after this. BTW, I realize that this next part is a touch far fetched.

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Steve walked with as much projected calm as he could while carrying one child on his hip and holding the other by the hand. People were staring again. His father must not have spread the news around. Plastering on a smile, head went to the front desk.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where Dr. Sloan is?"

The nurse, thankfully, did not know him. "May I ask the nature of your visit?"

"Personal business, he asked me to come by."

"Ah, may I have your name?"

"Steve Sl.. MacTyre." Steve was amazed at how easily he had reverted to his true name, but he thought the nurse would be a touch suspicious if he used his given name.

"He's busy right now, why don't you go wait over there."

Steve bit back his retort and moved off. Fighting with the nurse would not solve anything. He waited for a few seconds until her back was turned. Then he quickly picked up both children and swept past the desk.

Gingerly he set the kids down again and began moving towards the doctor's lounge. One of the doctors should know where his Dad was at.

Mark, meanwhile, was being highly annoying to the other three doctors gathered in the lounge. His chipper attitude was annoying to the sleep deprived surgeons and was grating on Amanda who was in a bad mood due to the fact that CJ had decided to go into a rebellious phase and dye his hair green.

"I remember when having green hair was a bad thing. Now it's a status symbol." Amanda complained.

"Too bad it wasn't a status symbol when Jesse played that prank on me." Steve's voice came from the hallway.

Three doctors jumped at the voice. Mark merely beamed.

"What are you doing here?" Jesse inquired.

"I'm making a special delivery to a Doctor Sloan." Steve came into the lounge followed closely by two children. Mark and Amanda immediately melted into adoring smiles. Jesse adopted a confused look and Angel just stared, bewildered at her husband's sudden turnaround.

"Those are yours?" Jesse asked.

"No, Jess I just picked them up off the street. Of course their mine."

Mark knelt slowly down to be more at eye level with his grandchildren.

"Hi, what are your names?" He asked.

Marcus lifted a stubborn chin and did not respond.

"I'm Lauwa." Steve's little girl replied in a tiny voice.

"Daddy said not to talk to strangers." Marcus quickly corrected his sister.

Mark's face flinched slightly before Steve knelt beside his father and children.

"It's okay Marcus. This is your grandfather, Mark."

Marcus eyed the elderly man. "You're not gonna dress me funny are you? My other Grampa does."

Mark chuckled. "No, no. Would you like to see a trick?"

Steve glanced at his father. He should have known his dad would be prepared to win the kids over. He probably had his entire prop collection with.

As Mark began to make a scarf "disappear" Steve rose from the floor. Amanda had moved over to Angel and was whispering something that sounded close enough to "adorable" to cause Steve not to join them. He loved his children, but he learned quickly that "women's talk" about children rarely appreciated a man's view.

Jesse was grinning at him. "You realize that Mark's going to spoil them rotten don't you?"

Steve nodded. "I think it runs in the family. Angel accuses me of doing the same thing."

"So, where'd you get the name 'Lauwa' from."

"Oh, very funny Jess. Make fun of a two-year-old's diction."

"Hey, I'm allowed. Amanda says I'm barely three emotionally."

The sound of laughter cut into the conversation ad Mark finished his third trick. As Mark began to rise, Steve helped him up.

"I'm definitely not as young as I used to be." Mark commented.

"Are you going to tell us why you had a change of heart?" Angel asked as she moved over.

"Yes, he is," Mark answered "but he has to go down to the Station first. There is the slight problem of him being officially dead. And I am going to spend the rest of the afternoon taking care of my grandchildren. Then we can all meet at Bob's around 3:30 and discuss everything."

Amanda smiled. "You two didn't have this planned by any chance did you?"

"Why Amanda, whatever makes you think that?" Mark said as he innocently smiled back.

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Steve Sloan stood gazing at the front doors of the LAPD. He had thought that going to see his Dad was hard. He had thought that going to Community General had been hard. This was somehow worse. He had to convince himself to go into his one time second home.

It wasn't working. That building had been his entire life. Now he was just another civilian. Still, he wouldn't be able to have much of a life if he did not go in there.

Taking a deep breath, he trudged up the stairs.

His father had not called the police because of how Steve had first reacted. He had not wanted Steve to become more agitated by the added stress of being declared alive. Granted, Steve could probably have just gone to a judge to be re-declared alive, but there was a small matter of changing the status his supposed homicide.

It was just his luck. There was a line, a big line. He'd probably be there for four hours before they even called his name. Involuntarily, his eyes drifted to a staircase. That staircase led to the second floor. A few more twist and turns, and he would be in the homicide department.

Without thinking, he began to move in the direction of that staircase. The officers did not stop him mainly because they did not see him leave due to all of the people milling around.

A couple of minutes later, he was standing outside the door of the homicide department. It was logical he tried to convince himself. He wasn't dead. The police thought he'd been murdered. Why not just inform the Homicide department himself?

"Hey buddy, could you open that door for me?" A uniformed police officer shouted as he trudged along carrying a large box of what was probably donuts.

Steve obliged and found himself following the officer into the room. His stomach clenched at the number of people he recognized. He moved through the department quickly without being noticed. Then he arrived outside the captain's door.

The door was cracked open and he could see his former partner being chewed out.

"What is it with you Lieutenant? Your paper skills have all of a sudden become as awful as Sloan's ever were."

Steve chuckled.

"With all due respect Captain, I do not believe they could ever be that bad."

Steve frowned. Was there no respect for the dead?

"That is no excuse! At least Sloan was able to bring in some perps. When was the last time you made any progress on ANY of your cases? Do you know how hard my butt is being chewed for our numbers? We need results!"

Steve glanced behind him and saw a small crowd gathering around to listen at the door. A beleaguered officer pushed his way through the group.

"Excuse me, I have to get this to the captain." The harried man pushed open the door and gave the captain a stack of papers. The man handed over the documents and turned to leave.

The captain's head shot up. "Anderson, this is the wrong…" He trailed off as his eyes settled on Steve. Blood drained from his face. He swayed on his feet.

"Captain, are you alright?" Cheryl asked.

Steve swallowed and walked into the office. "I don't think he is."

"Sloan!" he croaked.

Cheryl turned around. "Steve? But you're…"

"I'm here to correct a couple of mistakes on my file."

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As Steve wandered into Bob's at 3:45 his mind whirled around him. In a daze he went over to the table where his family sat.

"Things not go well at the precinct?" Angel asked.

"Actually, it went really well. They offered me my job back. Apparently they're willing to take me back because I was a junior officer while I was Stephen MacTyre. They're going to put me onto some cold cases at first. They want to make sure I can handle any higher stress levels before they give me something else."

"Cold cases seem high stress enough." Angel observed.

Jesse laughed. "Those cases are pretty low key given Steve's previous life as a cop."

"Well, I guess that saves you from job searching." Amanda noted.

Steve nodded. "That leaves me with one more thing I need to do today."

"What's that?" Mark asked.

"Angel, honey, how do you feel about the last name Sloan?"