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Without any further yada yada yada...
No major warnings for this chapter.
Chapter 3.
Steve was starting to hate this.
"Now I know how Danny feels," Steve thinks.
The kids perform everything; from making beds to homework, with precise, military precision.
No matter what time Steve gets up, the kids are already up, beds made and teeth brushed to perfect measures.
Steve got the kids report cards from the last 2 years, finding marks exclaiming praise for neatness, and mostly A's.
Today, the kids came home, Kale dropping them off at home before heading out to a night class.
They head straight up to their room, as usual.
It made Steve sick. Who decided it would be a good idea to drill military precision into kids? Kids? Really?
Steve caught Alex the next day. She just finished her homework and was heading to the kitchen to get an apple.
"Hey," Steve says from the living room.
Alex walks into the living room, apple in hand.
"Yeah?" Alex asks.
"You guys, you know, don't have to be so, military all the time." Steve suggests, and the rest of the kids look up from the papers they were previously drawing on. They're all listening now.
"You telling us to…?" Kale doesn't get what Steve is saying.
"To stop growing up and just be kids." Steve explains.
"You think we're trying to be like this?" Alex asks, calmer than she feels.
Steve nods half-heartedly.
"We don't know anything else. We've always been like this." Lili seethes.
"But I don't need you guys to be like that." Steve explains. "You can relax,"
"Relax?" Lili asks, visibly boiling now.
"Woah, settle down," Eke whispers to her.
"Mr. Steve, you know, let's just drop this for now," Kale suggests.
"There it is again. I'm not expecting them to call me dad or anything, but just 'Steve' would be fine," Steve thinks.
Steve nods in consent and Ollie looks back to his drawing.
Steve wakes up the next morning. He checks in the kid's room, as usual. Of course, just like yesterday, just like the day before yesterday, the kids aren't in the room and the beds are made, as if nobody slept in them the past night. Something's off, but Steve can't seem to fathom the backpacks aren't in their spots lined up against the door. Still not noticing the distinction, Steve heads downstairs, looking for the kids outside. Still not seeing them and slightly more panicked, he methodically scans the waves in the case of the kids swimming or surfing.
He doesn't see them at all. Steve checks all over the property. No sign of them. Then it hits him. Kale car is missing from the driveway. Steve now recalls the missing backpacks.
"Kono, it's a red 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe 1500. How many of those are on the island?" Steve asks, irked.
"A lot, boss. You got a plate?" Kono retorts.
Steve recites the license plate off the top of his head.
"Of course. Who but you looses newly adopted kids within a week?! Not to mention you know Kale's license plate, you stalker," Danny mutters to himself.
"Easy, bro," Chin suggests to Danny. "Why would they do this, Steve? DId you fight or argue with the kids?" Chin asks.
"No, we didn't fight-" Steve remembers the argument. "I told them they could relax, and stop being so hard on themselves," Steve remembers.
"Woah! Number one rule of parenting!" Danny shouts.
"What? You couldn't have told me this before?!" Steve shouts back.
"I thought you knew! Always let the kid be, never try to tell them to be something else other than they are," Danny says quietly. "If they want to be military strict, let them be. Considering you don't know anything about their past, don't try and tell them anything yet."
"Um, Steve?" Kono asks, interrupting what very well could have been another hour of banter.
"What?" Steve asks, finally turning away from Danny's stare.
"I have one, but the signal is triangulating from multiple areas. Like something's wrong with the car's built in tracking system." Kono says.
"Like somebody's messing with it," Steve says, Kono showing him the location.
"Search it. The whole area. Get HPD on it. I want these kids home now." Steve demands, walking out to begin searching the area himself.
It's around midnight. Danny finished issuing HPD orders and joined Steve in his on-foot search. They're scouring a patch of woods on the east side of the island.
"You think they made it out this far?" Danny asks. "It's a little extreme even for your conditions."
"I know," Steve says. "But they're somewhere in the triangulated area," Steve tosses his phone to Danny, who studies the picture.
"Wait, it stopped triangulating," Danny says, passing the phone back to Steve. Steve watches as the triangulating signal fades away, before completely disappearing.
"They cut the signal," Steve says, moving with more urgency, if that is possible.
That's when he sees Kale's car, tucked away in a grove of trees clustered closely together.
Trying to pick the lock quietly was another problem. A quick glance inside the car showed the kids sleeping in the back, and Steve relaxes, just the smallest bit.
"C'mon. Are we getting this thing open or not?" He asks as an HPD specialist works on the car.
"Do you want the alarm system to go off? Let the guy do his job!" Danny shouts at him.
When the hatchback is opened[it felt like an hour to Steve but was really 5 minutes], Steve pulls the hatch up, not at all expecting Lili's cold stare looking him right in the eye.
"You got tired of my military precision. You didn't think I'd keep a watch?" She asks sarcastically, pulling the hatch back shut and locking the door once again.
The door is unlocked and pulled open.
"C'mon, I'm giving you a chance to go away before he wakes up," Lili whispers, also groaning.
Door shuts.
Door opens.
"Go away."
"No."
Door shuts.
Door opens.
"Listen to her. Go away." This time it's Kale speaking.
"No. You're under my charge."
Door shuts.
Door opens.
"You can't keep slamming the door on them. You're going to wake everybody else up." Kale whispers.
"Let's go," Steve says.
"No." Lili says.
"You didn't want us." Kale adds.
"I made a mistake." Steve says, and this time, Danny backs him up. Sort of.
"He's really stupid. Makes stupid mistakes all the time." Danny explains.
"Whatever. I don't care, you're my charges, you're coming back to my place." Steve demands.
Kale shrugs.
"Sure."
"What?" Steve asks, wondering if he heard Kale right.
"Lead the way, we'll follow." Kale says, pulling out the keys to the car.
The whole way back, Steve checks the rearview mirror 2 times a second. With the ease that Kale answered to his pre-rant, Steve expects Kale to take a turn and turn this into a car chase. Not that Steve would object, but Danny was already threatening to give him a ticket for distracted driving.
"Stop looking in the mirror!" Danny shouts. "Look at the road!"
Steve heard something in the kid's room the next night. He almost pulled his gun from its holster, but decided against it when he realized it is just the kids talking.
"I like it here," He barely hears Alex say.
"But he doesn't accept us. He wants us to be something we're not. He wants us to 'relax'. Relax?! No! What if-" Kale cuts off Lili's rant.
"Be quiet. Eke and Ollie finally fell asleep."
"Sorry." Lili says.
"We could listen to him. Maybe try to chill just a little." Kale suggests.
"Eke and Ollie already have." Alex adds.
"Maybe it would be better for us to run away again. This time, I'm talking international. Couple plane tickets-"
"Lili, nobody wanted to run away." Alex reminds her.
"Yeah, but it showed him. Hopefully he learns a lesson now." Lili says.
"Look, you have great plans for running away, but when are you gonna realize we don't need to run away?" Kale asks.
"I don't know, maybe when he realizes what his words and actions actually mean." Lili retorts.
"Go to bed." Alex groans.
"I am in bed."
"Go to sleep then." Kale says with an air of finality, and not another word is said.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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