Saturday morning they went from Peter's apartment to her's so that she could change into something fitting for the graduation ceremony. She put on a blue dress that complimented Peter's suit, and three-inch heels. She took the opportunity to check on the books and then went out to join Peter in the living room.
"Do you want to come back here tonight or go back to my place," He asked.
"Either way. You know at this point I may want to think about getting rid of this place and just moving in with you full-time. We never sleep apart anymore anyway."
"You're sure you want to live in my father's apartment? I promised to take care of the place I didn't promise to live there."
"I'm sure. When he comes back we can give it back to him and take it from there."
"Alright. That sounds reasonable. Are you sure you're real? Because I don't recall being involved with reasonable women in the past."
"I have my less-than-reasonable moments. We've argued. Remember the terrible frozen yogurt fiasco? And ahm... the I hate baseball war? And the never to be forgotten or lived-down would John Wayne actually be a badass in the real 1800s feud that lasted three days."
"I was... actually the unreasonable one with that last one." He said sheepishly.
"You are adorable when you do that." She said.
"What?"
"Get all mildly embarrassed and eat crow."
"That wasn't crow." He said.
"No?"
"No that was mildly anemic pigeon at best."
She laughed. "Okay, I can concede that. Okay the gift is still in the car, right?"
"Yes. But we need to get going." He said looking at his watch.
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Paul Blaisdell watched as his son got into the car with the pretty brunette. He frowned and started his car following them to the high school where the rest of his family was gathering. He waited until everyone else was in the building and went inside, standing at the back of the stands. He needed binoculars to see his daughter receive her diploma but he had them. There was no way he was going to miss this. He felt bad enough missing his family's everyday life, he wasn't going to miss their important events. Or let someone take advantage of them.
He slipped out of the gymnasium and back to his car. He'd be home before the rest of the family could get out of their seats. Annie knew he'd be there. He'd asked her not to tell the kids he wanted to surprise them. And he needed to talk to Peter alone before this went any further. Before he was hurt.
He slipped inside and waited in his office for the family to get home. There was no way this conversation was going to go well. He'd have to put it off until after the party. He wouldn't ruin his daughter's evening with the argument that he knew was coming. Kelly would go off with her friends eventually.
He sat in the dark sipping at a glass of scotch. He didn't know what this woman wanted with his son, but he was going to find out. He heard the front door open and everyone filed into the living room. Carolyn and Peter were bantering as usual. Everyone else was laughing. The sounds of his family plus one more voice. The voice that had him on edge. He put the scotch down and put on his best smile as he heard them all file into the family room.
He left his office and stepped out into the family room. " Is there room for one more?"
"Dad!" Three voices chimed and Paul Blaisdell was pounced upon by his three children.
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Kwai Chang helped his father into his easy chair in the living room. It was getting harder for him to make the trip from his bed to the living room on his own. Some days were better than others. This was not one of his better days.
"I will bring you tea." He said. His father didn't eat much anymore. It was occasionally a chore to coax him into it.
"Thank you," Matthew said as he adjusted his lap blanket and picked up his book.
Kwai Chang was beginning to suspect he would be attending Peter's wedding after all. He put the kettle on to boil, putting some of the powdered tea he made for his father into a cup.
There was a knock at the door and he walked quickly to answer it.
"Am I too late?" Martin asked.
"No." He said stepping aside to let his brother into the house. "But it is good that you have come right away. It could be months... could be days. He is in the living room."
"Thanks."
He went back to the kitchen to prepare his father's tea, then made two cups of oolong tea for himself and his brother. He carried them into the living room.
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Blaisdell had been as welcoming as he could manage to Peter's fiancé. Leanne Garret or whoever the hell she was. His wife and daughters liked her. Only Annie (as far as he knew) picked up on the fact that it wasn't genuine. The afternoon was pleasant despite having this viper in their midst. Even though It was hard to watch how in love Peter was, knowing that he was going to have his heart broken.
Eventually, Kelly left with her friends to have their own first party post-high school. He played nice until Carolyn and Todd excused themselves. "Peter lets go into my office." He said.
"Sure," Peter said. He kissed Leanne on the cheek. "I'll be back in a bit." He followed Paul into his office. "Why do I feel like I'm about to be called on the carpet for missing curfew."
"I wish it was that simple," Paul said.
"And now I'm worried." Peter said leaning against his adopted father's desk.
"So, your mother told me about your engagement when she first found out."
"I figured she would. What I didn't figure was that you'd take an instant dislike to her." He said. "Want to tell me why?" Peter was much more observant than Paul remembered him.
"It wasn't instant, Son." He said "I was in Hong Kong when I got word and I decided to do a little investigating."
"Paul, you had no reason or right to do that." Peter said.
"I had every right." he said, his tone as strident as his son's. "I'm your father. One of them anyway and yes, that gives me the right to make sure someone isn't taking advantage of you because of me."
"She's not taking advantage of me at all much less because of you."
"She's not who she says she is. There is no Leanne Garret from Hong Kong."
"I know that." Peter said "I have known that for months. I knew that before I asked her to marry me. Just because I'm a priest now instead of a cop doesn't mean I'm suddenly a gullible civilian."
"Anyone can be fooled, Peter. Especially by a beautiful woman who meets every criteria you could ever want in a woman. Except honesty."
"So someone hiding from people that want to kill them is dishonest? Really? That's rich coming from you. Should I suddenly start worrying about Mom because you're now dishonest? Or is that different because it's you."
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Leanne looked down at her hands and closed her eyes. And so much for his fathers liking her. One clearly did not and she didn't think there was much chance of the other one being much different. She knew Peter loved her and would as he kept saying keep his promise. She just didn't want to listen to it destroying his relationship with Paul Blaisdell. She hadn't cried in a long time but the tears came now. Silent, hot and unwelcome.
"They'll sort it out." Annie said, feeling the tension rising. She could sense Leanne's reaction to it as well.
"I ahm think I better go. I'll call a taxi. Tell Peter I've gone back to my place and I'll – you know- no that's not right. You're not a messenger. I just don't want to interrupt to tell him myself. I think it would make things worse. So I'll text him where I am in a few minutes. I'm sorry this happened."
She walked quickly outside and called for the taxi to pick her up. She wasn't thinking about anything but wanting to be away from that house, wanting to be away from the disapproval and angry tones. If Peter didn't love the man so much she wouldn't have cared what he thought of her. But he did so she did.
She stepped out onto the sidewalk to keep watch for the yellow cab. She didn't notice the shadows shifting to her left. She wiped the tears from her eyes then folded her arms across her chest. She felt a stinging sensation at the back of her neck and swatted at what she thought was a bee. Instead of an insect, she brought away a small dart, barely having time to recognize it for what it was before she slumped to the ground.
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Annie was frustrated and she wasn't going to let this continue. She opened the door to her husbands study and walked in "That is enough out of both of you." She said.
"Annie, stay out of this." Paul said.
"No, this is ridiculous. You have that poor girl in tears. She has gone outside to call a taxi to take her home because she can't bear to hear you two fighting. Nor should she have to. Of all the inconsiderate things you have done this is at the top of the list."
"She what?" Peter said, color draining from his face. He started toward the door, pausing as the first image flashed before his eyes. Leanne unconscious and being put into the trunk of a car. "Li Na." He called out running out of the house and to the street. He looked to the right in time to see a car turning the corner quickly. He ran back to his car and got in.
"Peter, what's going on? Come back inside." Paul said.
"No." Was all he said as he started his car and pulled out of his parents drive way at breakneck speed.
"Peter!"
He followed the car, as closely as possible memorizing the license plate number. He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Kermit.
"Pete, how goes the graduation party." he asked.
"Over. I need your help, Kermit."
"Name it."
"They've kidnapped Leanne. I have the license plate number. I'm in pursuit but I don't know that I'll be able to keep up."
"Give me the number."
He gave the number as he turned another sharp corner. Then swore as a police car began to follow, the siren blaring. "They're going to make me pull over Kermit. It's the sing wah that have her. I can't lose her."
"You're not going to want to do this. But you have to pull over. I'll have an APB on the car and if you manage not to get put in jail for the night I'll do everything in my power to help you. But if you get arrested there is nothing I can do. Pull over Peter." he said as he rapidly typed into the computer, putting the entire city's police force on the look out for a blue sedan with that license plate.
"Damn it." Peter said but did as his friend told him.
An hour later he was seated in the 101st precinct having just had the handcuffs removed from his wrists.
Captain Simms pulled him into a hug. "We'll find her, Peter." Kermit had filled her in while they fixed the traffic violation that had gotten him arrested in the first place. Apparently the arresting officer figured he was too hot headed to let go.
"I just hope it's not too late." He knew she was immortal and they wouldn't be able to kill her easily but that didn't mean it wasn't possible. Especially if they poisoned her qi. He ran his hands through his hair. "I'm supposed to be able to protect her."
"She'll be found, Peter." Captain Simms repeated.
"Let's go" Kermit said "The car was found over on 132nd street."
Peter nodded.
Paul Blaisdell took the steps two at a time to get into the precinct and to his son. "Peter, are you alright."
"That's not your problem any more." Peter said angrily. "you know, I understood when you had to leave. I did. I understood that you couldn't contact me directly even though you managed to talk to other people. Okay so you don't trust me with secrets. I get it. Apparently I engender that in father figures. Don't like it but I get it. What do you do when you find out I'm getting married? Do you tell Mom to send me best wishes or ask for pictures? No, you go and investigate something you have no chance of understanding. You don't ask me about any of it, you don't ask her, you get half an idea about something and suddenly I'm a fool and the woman I love is some kind of Mata Hari. Now that I don't understand and I don't want to. So from now on you can stay out of my business." He pushed passed the man he had considered his father since he was 15 years old.
"I'll look out for him." Kermit told his old friend and followed Peter out of the precinct. "Peter... what the hell was that about?"
Peter shook his head "I'll tell you later."
"You can tell me now. We'll go see what we can see with the kidnappers car, then we'll take it from there, but you need to tell me what that was all about."
Peter nodded, not trusting himself to speak until they were settled into the Kermit-mobile. "Leanne has been hunted by the Sing Wah off and on for years. She's managed to evade them by running at the first sign of detection. She's changed her name in the past to make it harder for them to find her."
"Understandable." Kermit said. He didn't think he'd stick around if they were out to get him either. Well maybe he would. If Karen asked him to.
"Yeah well Paul doesn't think so. He decided that he needed to do a background check on her and when it didn't come up how he thought it should he decided that she was I don't know what he thought she was other than up to no good. After the girls left and the party was over he pulled me into the office to tell me all about how Her real name isn't Leanne etc. Of course the fact that I've known this from almost the beginning didn't make any difference. I'm an idiot apparently."
"ouch."
"Of course you know me and Blaisdell. Neither of us is exactly quiet when we're angry. So she heard this and decided that she was going to leave. She called a cab and she was taken while waiting for it. I saw the vision of it just as Mom came in to read us both the riot act." he shook his head "Kermit, she stayed here because of me. She was going to run and I talked her out of it. She trusted me to protect her."
"And you will. You will do that shaolin voodoo that you do so well and we will go and get her back. We've got this." He said "I will lay odds that Karen is giving Paul a piece of her mind right now that he will never forget and once he has picked his head up off the ground and puts it on straight, he'll do everything he can to help too."
"Oooh That could get loud." Peter said. "You're going to miss out on the betting pool on who will draw first blood."
"No need. She'll go ice queen on him and give him frost bite. He doesn't stand a chance. Did the two of you ever talk about when she and your father were kidnapped?"
"No."
"She says they were taken back in time to 1977."
"What?"
"She also says you were an adorable little cue ball. So technically she met you before Blaisdell did and even he does not want to piss off that mama bear."
"That was … I never could get my father to tell me who the woman was he'd brought with him back to the temple... Now I know why."
"Blaisdell will eat crow when the time is right. He loves you. He might have my inability to trust people, but he loves you. People make mistakes. Even larger than life fathers and you have two of them."
He pulled into the empty lot where the sedan had been found. Two squad cars waited, keeping the car protected until forensics could get there. The officers stepped forward to stop them from proceeding but Kermit flashed his badge and pushed past. "I know what you're feeling right now. I know how hot under the collar you can get. Remember your training." he said. "Police training." He specified.
Peter nodded and said nothing. He looked into the back seat and saw nothing, he moved to the back of the car and with a moment of concentration he was able to make the trunk latch unlock and pop open. He touched nothing but stepped closer to get a look inside. "That's her purse." He said nodding toward the white handbag on the dark carpet. "Is that a dart there?" He asked pointing toward a brightly colored item. They'd drugged her. They'd have had to in order to take her so quickly.
Kermit rested a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Come on, I'll take you home."
Peter almost protested but nodded instead walking back toward the Kermit-mobile.
"Then you can do that meditation thing and see what you can see but I really don't think you want to do that here in front of the mundanes."
"You're right" He said "And you were right to tell me to pull over even though it pissed me off at the time."
"I figured you knew I was right or you wouldn't have pulled over."
"I just hope they aren't able to block me." Peter said quietly.
"Then we'll get The Ancient to help."
Peter shook his head "He left town a few days ago. Shamballa stuff. He wouldn't tell me what or where. And before you ask Pop is in St. Adele, France. His father is dying."
"Doesn't mean he can't boost the signal if needed." Kermit said. "Sorry about his father though."
"they'll contact me soon enough even if I can't locate her."
They got into the car before Kermit spoke again "What is it they want ?"
"She's the guardian of something that can't be allowed to get into Sing Wah hands." He said quietly. "It could turn the tides completely into their favor. They'd be literally unstoppable."
"Then we'll make sure they don't get their hands on what ever it is and we will bring her home."
"You keep saying that like you don't think I believe it."
"you don't." Kermit said. "It's written all over your face"
"My face lies."
"Not to me it doesn't."
