CHAPTER 17

"Hey, Johnny." Miguel said, walking into the living room that morning. "What say you, you and I do something tonight?"

Johnny, who was sitting on the sofa, watching a football game, looked at him and nodded. It was his final day of Christmas break before he had to go back to work as a handyman so he had the day off. He really wanted to spend time with Miguel as he hadn't seen him very much the entire week as Miguel had spent most of his time with Sam.

"Sure. What do you want to do?" Johnny asked. Miguel shrugged and sat on the armchair opposite Johnny.

"I don't know. What do you feel like doing?" Miguel asked. Johnny thought for a moment.

"Well, the Kings are playing the Caps at the Staples Center tonight. We could try and get tickets." Johnny suggested. Miguel smiled and nodded. Hockey was one of him and Johnny's favourite sports to watch together. The sport was extremely rough, eventful, fast-paced… just pure awesome. In addition, Johnny was an L.A Kings fan and Miguel was a Washington Capitals fan (Washington D.C was the closest city to Virginia) so it was bound to be very fun for them. This was all part of the plan for Miguel. He wanted to get Johnny in the best possible mood before him and Sam attempted to parent trap their dads.

"Yeah, sure. I'll get the tickets. I got a buddy who's a scalper so I'm sure he can get us some really good seats." Miguel replied.

With that, Miguel walked out the room, booked the tickets, and then sent Sam a quick message…

Step 1 of the plan done. I'm taking Johnny 2 a Hockey game tonight. What u got planned for ur dad this afternoon? Let's plan to meet at around 9. Sound good?

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Hey, dad?" Sam said, walking into the kitchen, where her dad was sitting and drinking a cup of coffee. It had been just over a day since Miguel had come over, and Sam had barely spoken to her dad. Daniel's head shot up, surprised that his daughter was speaking to him.

"S… Sam?" Daniel stammered. "We're talking?"

Sam smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, look, dad, I was thinking. It was wrong for me to be too mad at you. You really were just looking out for me. I haven't yet decided whether I'm going to end things with Miguel or not, but I just wanted to make sure that we're good?" Sam lied, feeling a pang of guilt in her chest as she lied to her dad's face. She wasn't breaking up with Miguel. She just needed to get her dad to the location that evening.

"Yeah, we're good." Daniel smiled. Sam hugged her dad.

"Thank you so much, Dad." Sam replied. "So I was thinking… Why don't the two of us spend the day together, like the old days?"

Daniel nodded eagerly.

"Yeah, I'd love that!" He exclaimed. Sam nodded.

"Cool. Well I had a great idea of what we could do…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Miguel, why are we leaving so early?" Johnny asked as he put his coat on. It was 2 in the afternoon and the game was starting at 6, so they had a good couple of hours but Miguel was insisting that they leave at that moment.

"Yeah, we're going on a slight detour first. I had an idea for a fun activity we could do first." Miguel said, cryptically. A couple of hours before, he had thought of an AMAZING way to get Johnny in the best possible mood before the parent trap. Something they could do before the hockey game.

Miguel grabbed a black backpack from the side of the room, threw on his Capitals jersey, and headed out the door after his step-father.

They got in the car and Miguel drove for 10 minutes, before parking in front of an unmarked, run-down building. Johnny and Miguel got out of the car, and immediately, Johnny heard the unmistakable BANG! BANG! BANG! of a gun. Johnny looked nervously at Miguel, who looked perfectly calm.

"Um… Miguel? Are you sure about this?" Johnny asked. "That sounded like…"

"Gunshots? Yeah." Miguel replied. Johnny's eyes widened in alarm and Miguel chuckled. "Don't worry. You're gonna love this! Just trust me."

"Uh… okay." Johnny murmured. The two stepped inside and Johnny immediately realised that he was at an indoor shooting range. Miguel casually walked up to the counter, and then he surreptitiously gave the front desk lady his backpack. When Miguel walked back to his stepfather, Johnny looked at him, suspicious. Miguel noticed.

"What?" He asked.

"Uh… did I just witness a drug deal? That looked kinda shady, not gonna lie." Johnny stated. Miguel laughed when he realised what the bag hand-off looked like, and he shook his head.

"Chill out! I'm a Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy SEAL Team 2! I get drug tested once a month, for God Sake! I'd be stupid to get involved in that shit. You'll see in a second what was in the bag. Now let's get some guns and get started."

Johnny rubbed his hands together in anticipation and grinned, before following Miguel to the gun armory.

"So… you fancy a little wager?" Johnny asked. Miguel looked at him and smirked.

"You sure? They don't call me Deadshot in the Navy for nothing." Miguel stated. Johnny looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Who? Who calls you Deadshot?" Johnny asked. Miguel was temporarily speechless and he blushed.

"Okay, I call me Deadshot, but that doesn't mean I'm not the best shooter in my platoon. You don't want to face me."

"I'll take my chances. 20 dollar bet?" Johnny asked. Miguel shook his hand.

"You're on." He replied, picking up a Desert Eagle pistol and handing one to Johnny. The two then walked over to their two private lanes in the shooting range and moments later, the two human shaped targets were connected to the conveyor belt and pulled towards them until they were just a couple of feet away. When Johnny saw them, he couldn't help but laugh… Miguel had given the front desk lady a large picture of Daniel's head, and a large picture of Sam's head and they had stuck the two pieces of paper on top of the normally plain white target.

"Woooow. That is just… gorgeous." Johnny remarked. "Okay, I'm shooting Larusso. You're shooting your girlfriend."

They clicked the button to send the two targets rolling back until they were 7 yards away from them. The two then raised their guns so they were pointing at Daniel and Sam's head. As Johnny fired his bullet that buried into fake-Daniel's chest, Miguel hesitated. He was about to shoot a very life-like picture of Sam, and that was harder than it seemed.

"Okay, this just seems wrong." Miguel stated as he stared at Sam's face, and he lowered his gun without taking a shot.

"Forfeiting already, Diaz?" Johnny smirked. Miguel shook his head furiously.

"Hell, no." He replied, raising his gun again and aiming at the target. Normally, the expert marksman that he was, he could bury that bullet right between the eyes. However, when he fired the bullet, he couldn't bring himself to shoot Sam in the head. Instead, he fired the bullet into the arm of the target, a place where he had been taught to shoot when ordered to wound but not kill. Miguel sent all 9 of his bullets to his target's arms, but Johnny missed 3, hit 2 to the chest, 3 to the arms, and 1 to the head. Needless to say, Johnny had beaten Miguel by a lot.

Johnny grinned at Miguel.

"Pay up." Johnny stated. Miguel reluctantly took out a 20 from his wallet and handed it to Johnny, who smirked and waved the bill triumphantly in Miguel's face. "Wow, for someone in the Navy, you really have shit aim."

"Hey, it's the face targets. Normally I can bury 9 to the head no problem!" Miguel exclaimed.

"Sure. Sure you can." Johnny grinned, disbelieving.

"I can!" Miguel exclaimed.

"Excuses, Excu…"

Johnny couldn't finish his sentence because in the blink of an eye, Miguel had reloaded his gun and had fired 9 bullets into the head of a faceless target in the next lane over, right between the target's eyes. He then turned to Johnny.

"So… Double or nothing on different targets?" Miguel asked gleefully. Johnny, who was speechless after seeing Miguel's expert shooting, struggled to form a reply.

"I… um… let's get going to the Staples Center. Don't want to be late for the hockey game." He stammered. Miguel laughed and the two of them walked out of the gun range together. Miguel smiled to himself. Johnny was in a great mood, and hockey was going to only raise that even further…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Wow, Sam! I can't believe you still remember Golf N Stuff." Daniel laughed as they finally got in the car after their long day out. They had first of all gone to watch Bohemian Rhapsody in the cinema - a biography about Daniel's favourite band's lead singer - and after that, Sam decided to take him on a blast to the past by going to the amusement park Daniel had taken her to countless times when she was younger. After an afternoon of mini-golf and arcade, they had finally started walking back to the parking lot, towards Sam's car.

"Are you kidding?! I could never forget this place. We came here like every week when I was 8!" Sam exclaimed. Daniel smiled.

"Oh, yeah! Every Friday after school, we'd come and spend the afternoon here." Daniel reminisced. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, those days were awesome." Sam remarked. "So, do you want to go get a drink or something?"

Daniel's eyes narrowed.

"Drink?" He asked. Sam giggled.

"Dad, I'm 27! I'm well above the drinking age!" She laughed. Daniel chuckled, nodded and relaxed considerably. "Oh, wait! I had one more place I thought we could go first!"

"What's that?" Daniel asked. Sam grinned.

"You'll see…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Man, the Caps suck!" Johnny exclaimed as him and Miguel got into Miguel's car after the hockey game and Miguel started driving away from the Staples Center.

"Hey! That's not true! We just have bad goaltending, bad defense and a bad attack!" Miguel exclaimed. Johnny raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, then. What good things to the Caps have?"

"Um…" Miguel stammered, silent for several moments. Johnny was right. The Capitals do indeed suck. "Well, the jerseys look kinda cool this year."

"The jerseys?!" Johnny laughed. "Jeez, the team must be really struggling if that's how low you're going to go."

"Shut up." Miguel murmured, rolling his eyes. The two parked moments later, and Johnny looked at where Miguel had taken them. It was the All Valley Sports Arena, location of Johnny's infamous loss to Daniel 45 years ago! Johnny tensed up.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Johnny snapped. Miguel smiled.

"Well, given that you and Larusso are back in each other's lives, I figured there was going to be a fight between the two of you eventually. I thought maybe I could teach you some Krav Maga that I learned in the Navy, and in return you could teach me some of that Karate I've heard so much about?"

Johnny eventually smiled and nodded.

"Great idea, kid." He said, as the two of them walked into the deserted arena. As they made it to the karate arena, Miguel turned to Johnny.

"Hey, I'm just going to run to the bathroom real quick. I'll be right back." Miguel said. Johnny nodded and Miguel walked towards the exit door of the arena…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Here we are." Sam said, parking her car and stepping out with her dad. As Daniel looked around, he smiled widely.

"Aw, it's the All-Valley arena." Daniel smiled. Sam nodded.

"Yeah. We've been doing a blast from the past kind of thing all day so I thought you and I could practise sparring together like we used to, and what better place to do it than the place you won your All-Valley title."

"That sounds amazing." Daniel replied, and the two of them walked inside. Just as they were about to get to the Karate section of the arena, Sam turned to her dad.

"Hey, Dad? I think I forgot to lock the car." Sam said. "You go ahead. I'll meet you at the arena."

Daniel nodded and Sam turned around and walked away. As she walked out of Daniel's sight, she was about to take out her phone and text Miguel when she felt a strong hand grab her arm and pull her into a dark room. Sam was about to scream when she saw herself face-to-face with Miguel, and she immediately relaxed.

"Jesus, Christ! You scared me!" She exclaimed, kissing him quickly.

"Sorry!" Miguel whispered. "Are you sure this is going to work, Sam? I mean, taking our parents back to the time where they hated each other most just seems like a recipe for disaster to me."

"Yeah, it might be." Sam stated. "But it's the only way we're going to ever get them in the same room as each other so I guess we have to try…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Daniel walked through the familiar halls of the All-Valley sports arena. He saw the pictures of the only two double All-Valley winners: him and Johnny Lawrence, and his eyes lingered on the latter. He couldn't believe his bad luck. How could that man be back in his life 45 years later?! As Daniel then looked at the picture of himself lifting his first All-Valley trophy, he noticed something… Amidst the scrum of people celebrating him and lifting him into the air was Johnny Lawrence, a faint smile on his face. He then saw Kreese in the background, murder in his eyes. That made Daniel think… Was Johnny Lawrence really that bad a guy? Was it Johnny or was it Kreese's influence on Johnny that caused the teenager to bully him back then? Maybe Johnny truly had changed. His son clearly made Samantha extremely happy, and that was enough to make Daniel actually consider giving Johnny a second chance.

At that moment, Daniel opened the door and walked onto the karate mat. There was one other person at the corner of the mat practising some kicks, but Daniel couldn't see who it was as his back was facing him.

"Oh, I'm really sorry to disturb you sir!" Daniel said, and he started to head for the exit when the man turned to face him. When Daniel saw the man's face, his heart dropped… it was none other than Johnny Lawrence himself.

"You…." Johnny growled, his eyes wide in surprise, but the surprise was quickly turning to anger.

"Johnny, I, um…" Daniel never got to finish his sentence because before he could, Johnny lunged at him…