Steve and Carl met at their usual diner the next day. They had been having lunch every now and then since that terrible poker game. Steve had hoped to get there early enough to settle into their usual booth and practice what he was planning to say, but a couple of lab accidents had slowed him down, and he ended up sprinting into the diner five minutes late.

"Hey, Steve," Carl said in surprise.

"Hey, Big Guy," Steve panted, carefully setting a large bag in the booth before he sat down.

"What's that?" Carl asked immediately.

Steve swallowed hard. "Yeah, that's why we're having lunch today."

"Ok…?"

"So… Um… You know, Laura took her LSAT's in September," Steve began.

"I know! And we're so proud!"

"I know we are," Steve agreed, "but focus, Big Guy, this is serious."

Carl's face fell, and he refocused.

"She was studying with this group, and it was fine for a while, but one of the guys developed a crush on her."

Carl chuckled. "Oh, is that all this is about? Steve, you have nothing to worry about. If Laura were going to pick anybody over you, it would have been Stefan, not some random-"

"No," Steve barked, "Carl, seriously. Shut up."

Carl's brow furrowed in offense, but he did as he was told.

"Sorry, but… I need to get this all out. After the test, they were all going out for drinks, except only this guy, Alex, and Laura showed up. That was his plan. He wanted to get her alone. He slipped a roofie in her drink, Carl."

Carl's eyes widened. First he grew deeply concerned. "Oh, my God! Is she ok? Did he…?"

"No," Steve sighed in relief. "She's ok. The bartender stopped him from taking her home. She's just really shaken up."

"Oh, thank God," Carl relaxed. "Ok. We need to pick her up from school and bring her down to the station. We need to file a police report." He stood, mentally making a list of all the things they had to do before he tracked this man down and killed him with his bare hands.

"Carl, sit down," Steve instructed. "I'm not done yet."

Carl sat and stared intensely.

"That was a few weeks ago."

"What?! Steve, why didn't you tell me right away?!"

"Because Laura didn't want me to."

"So? Sometimes you have to put what she needs in front of what she wants. She needed you to make her take this to the police."

"I was taking care of it, Carl. I was taking care of her!" Steve growled, growing defensive as he was being accused of not doing the right thing for the person he cared about most in the world.

"You can't handle something like this. This is a legal matter."

"She didn't want to go to the police, and she knew you'd make her! Clearly, she was right about that. I was keeping her safe from that monster and from all the people in the legal system who would force her to relive one of the scariest nights of her life. You can't make someone go through that until they're ready."

Carl frowned. He would never understand why women were so hesitant to report these things, but he knew from the stats that they were. Maybe he needed to observe his team the next time they handled a case like this, especially one that wouldn't receive the special treatment he would be sure his daughter did. He rubbed his palm against his forehead.

"She's ready now," Steve explained, "not because she wants to talk about it yet, but because things have gotten worse, and she's scared."

"What happened?"

"He followed her into the apartment yesterday. She got him to leave by kind of going along with his delusion a little. He gave her a present, and they hugged, and she promised to call him. She asked me to come home, and we changed the locks, she finally changed her classes to get away from him, and I started to put together a full security system. It's still a little buggy, but I'll get it up and running as soon as possible."

"Ok, so we need to file a report for stalking, then?" Carl clarified, trying to keep up.

"Yeah. Um. The last straw was the present he gave her yesterday." Steve pulled the bear out and slid it across the table.

Carl picked it up and examined it. It looked like a bear, until he turned it around and saw the gaping hole Steve had opened in its belly, the camera clearly visible. "Oh, God," he said softly. "Did he see anything?"

"No. He almost saw us… make love, but thankfully, I figured it out before then."

"Is it off now?"

"Yeah," Steve nodded. "I cut all the wires and deactivated it before bed last night."

Carl stared at it for a long time. "Is this the end of your story? I know everything now?"

"Yeah," Steve said again.

"You should have told me, Steve. Even if you told me she wasn't ready to go to the cops or for me to know. You should have told me!"

"I wanted to," Steve admitted. "I wanted to so badly, Carl. I was drowning with the weight of all this. I didn't want to go through all this alone, but I need her to trust me. She has to know that she can tell me anything, and I'll respect her boundaries, because if she starts hiding things from me, then she's going through it all alone, and I can't let that happen."

Carl frowned and stared at him for a long moment. "I'm glad that she has you, but I hate that I'm not the first person she goes to when she's scared anymore. I feel so powerless all of the sudden."

"You're still the first person I go to when I'm scared," Steve admitted with a smirk. What a consolation prize, he was!

Carl smirked back, too stressed to really laugh. "Oh, great. Thanks. That's the same thing," he said sarcastically.

"So what do we do now?"

"We still go pick her up. We still need to file a police report."

"We can't do that without her? I wanted to take this off her plate."

Carl stood and put on his jacket. "No, it's gotta be her."

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When Laura got out of her new class, Carl and Steve were there waiting for her. Her face fell, suddenly ripped from the hypothetical crimes in her classes and textbooks and hit all over again with everything that was really happening to her. She walked up to them and hugged Carl. She felt him hug her back and squeeze her tighter than he had in a long time. She let go and leaned into Steve. She felt him kiss the top of her head and wrap an arm around her. Silently, he led her out to the parking lot.

———————————————————

"I'm not ready for this," she said suddenly as Carl held the door to the police department open for her.

"Yes, you are," he said firmly.

She looked at Steve.

Steve looked back, his face filled with helpless sympathy. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to," Steve said softly.

"Oh, yes, she does!" Carl exclaimed, releasing the door. "Laura Lee Winslow," he said, turning her around to look him in the eye, "you cannot let him turn you into a victim. Not without a fight. You are going to march into that building and demand that the people who are paid to protect and serve you do so. You've taken enough criminology courses at this point to know that this is only going to get worse. You have to fight, Sweetheart."

Tears welled in Laura's eyes. "I've taken enough criminology courses to know that he hasn't done anything yet that you can really do anything about!"

"Laura, he roofied you!"

"You can't prove that!" she exclaimed. "The evidence is only circumstantial. You're not going to be able to do anything for me until he hurts me!"

Steve reached forward and pulled her away from Carl and into his arms. "I'm not gonna let him hurt you," he promised softly.

Laura wrapped her arms around his waist tightly and buried her face in his chest. She inhaled deeply and tried to concentrate on his scent. She felt his lips gently kiss the top of her head.

"Steve," Carl complained, "she has to do this. We talked about this."

Steve exhaled sharply. He pushed Laura back slightly so he could look deep in her eyes. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but I know you know why this is the right thing to do, and I hope you know that I will do everything I can to help you through it, and so will Carl. Right, Big Guy?"

"Right," Carl agreed firmly, placing a hand on Laura's shoulder. He reached for the door and held it open again. "C'mon, Sweetheart."

Laura looked at the two most important men in her life for a long moment. Then she nodded, and held Steve's hand tightly as she walked into the station.

————————————————————

Steve held Laura's hand the entire time she had to speak to anyone in uniform. As he was giving his statement, she slipped into the restroom to take a minute to fix her makeup. While her mascara really was smudged, she really just wanted to take a minute to breathe away from all of the men trying to exert their power over her, to protect her or otherwise. She just wanted a moment without men.

————————————————————

When she came back from the restroom, she immediately reached for Steve's hand again. She turned to her father who was just walking back up to them. "So are we done now? Can we go home?"

"You're done, but you're not going back to the apartment yet. You're going home to your mother."

"What?" Laura asked. "Daddy, we don't need to do that."

"Not forever. Just for now. I'm gonna keep Steve here for a little bit, and I don't want you in that apartment alone. It's gonna be dark soon."

"Why are you keeping Steve?" she asked, turning to face Steve.

He shrugged and looked at Carl. "I'd really rather stay with Laura."

"No, we need to go over some things. I've already called your mom. She knows what's going on, and she wants to see you. Give Steve some time with me, Sweetheart. Please."

Laura looked at Steve and had a silent conversation with him. They eventually agreed, just through reading each other's body language. "Ok," she said, "but walk me to my car first."

Steve nodded and walked her out.

————————————————————

When Steve got back, an officer led him back a few hallways to Carl. He had never been to this part of the station before. The officer explained that it was usually off-limits to non-officers, but Captain Winslow had insisted they make an exception. He opened a door with a keycard and held it for Steve. "Good luck, kid," he said.