Peter sighed. "Mom… I don't want her there at the wedding. You're my mother. She just gave birth."

"Well, I can tell you from experience that there is no such thing as just giving birth," Annie said with a quiet laugh.

"No such thing as just walking away either," Peter said.

Annie put her hand over her son's. "I wish I could make this easier for you. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way."

"Unfortunately," Peter repeated a little sadly.

"I can only imagine how hard this day must have been for your father." She said. "He spoke of her with such warmth and gentleness. I was certain he was still in love with her."

Peter sighed. "I know. I think he's ready to move on. I hope he's ready to move on. I can't help but think she's after something. It was just a couple of weeks ago that she was denying who she is much less that she was my mom… and now she's desperate to talk to me. I don't know if she's using me to see more of my father or using my father to see more of me. And now I sound like Paul." He shook his head. "I guess I should let it go and trust that my father knows what he's doing."

" Not so easy to do when it's someone you want to protect, Is it," Annie said, squeezing Peter's hand.

"No, it's not easy at all." He said. "We made up by the way. Paul came by my grandfather's place in France while I was there."

"I'm glad," Annie said.

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"Just like that?" Mary-Margaret asked. "She just turned up out of the blue to ask for a divorce?"

"Yes," Caine said simply.

"After almost thirty years ?"

"Yes."

"What does she really want?" Mary- Margaret gingerly took a sip of her fresh cup of tea. The brownstone looked so different since Peter had moved his things out. It was almost exactly how it had looked when Caine had left for Paris.

Caine laughed quietly. "You sound like Peter." He said.

"You do know there is no such thing as a retired detective." She pointed out. "He might have a new job but he's still Peter. So when you have two detectives telling you the same thing, it might be time to consider Laura might be up to something."

"I think she is trying to please her current husband," Caine said with a shrug. "I do not believe she intends to harm either Peter or myself."

"Well, I reserve the right to be suspicious even if you are probably right." She said.

"I will keep my eyes open," Caine said as he reorganized his things in the cupboards. "I have been wrong about her before, and she may not be aware of the machinations of others."

"That makes me worry a little less. " She said. "So how does it feel to be back?"

"Good… different, but good."

"It will be interesting to see how Chinatown deals with both of you here." She said. "I hope it means the two of you will have more free time, rather than it being … I don't know… bad guy critical mass."

He laughed quietly. "No more so than before I would think," Caine said with a shrug. "I am worried about The Ancient. It is not like him to be gone for so long." Especially not as he left Peter to deal with the Sing Wah before he had fully healed from being poisoned. It must have been a matter of grave importance.

"Do you have any idea where he may have gone?" She asked.

"I think I may know where his journey began." He said. "If he does not return soon I will try to find him."

She tensed a little but nodded.

Caine tilted his head a little as he studied her reaction. "You do not wish me to go."

She drew in a deep breath. "I don't." She said, "But I can't ask you that."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't." She said in frustration. "I haven't heard from you in two years. We're practically starting from scratch so it's not like I have any right to make demands, and-and if you're worried about your friend there has to be a reason, so even if I could ask you to stay I wouldn't. But I have to be honest… I can't keep waiting for you every time you decide you have to go away for months or years on end."

"I would not ask that of you." He said although part of him wished that he could.

"So here we are not asking each other things we should probably be asking."

"For now there is nothing to ask." He said gently and pulled her into his arms. "I would very much prefer to stay here with you and with my son."

"That's good because we would both very much prefer for you to be here." She closed her arms around him, resting her head against his chest.

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A long string of Chinese invective spewed forth from The Ancient's mouth. This made Sun Wukong giggle. He liked this Holy Priest. He was different from the other one he had served when he had journeyed west and he made him miss his old master, his old friend, less.

"What is wrong, Sifu?" Sparrow asked, setting aside the four-stringed pipa she had been playing.

"I cannot find the way to control what the elixir takes. If I do not find a way for the potion to only free the stolen souls the host could die. Or worse become a soulless monster."

Monkey moved to his new friend's side. "I know that you are not supposed to kill. But sometimes it must be done." He said gently. Holy men he had known in the past had not believed this and had endured terrible consequences for their mercy and compassion. He did not wish to see this happen to the old one. "They have stolen souls to live forever. Is that not evil? Is that not the work of a monster?"

"I do not believe that his granddaughter knew that was what was happening. It is not right that she should die for the sins of her grandfather."

"Then do not give her the potion," Wukong said with a shrug.

"And then because of my affection for her and Peter, because of my need to see the prophecies of the line of Kwai Chang come to fruition, I would condemn the souls within her to oblivion." Lo Si said and sighed. "I must keep trying."

"I think The Old One needs to leave this house. To walk along the river, and meditate on the fish that swim in its clear waters." Sparrow said. "His spirit needs to find peace or he will not find the answers he seeks."

"I do not have time to indulge, even though I would very much like to do so."

"You do not have time not to indulge." She countered. "Your fear drinks your strength of purpose."

There was little that Lo Si feared. He did not fear death, he did not fear the battle with Yulong Yeoh. These things were inevitable and it would do no good to fear them. He didn't even fear the destruction of the prophecies he was charged with protecting. What he feared was that Kwai Chang Caine and his son would hate him for the death of the girl Peter loved. A woman that he too looked on fondly. He feared the weight that would be on his soul for killing a woman he believed to be innocent of these transgressions. For this reason, he had to find a way to prevent this without leaving the stolen souls within her trapped in oblivion.

"Perhaps you are correct." He said with a sigh.

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Peter sat behind the driver's seat of the Dodge Stealth and took out his cell phone. He called Leanne. They were still in the habit of letting each other know where they were. Neither was convinced that the Sing Wah had given up.

"Hey, it's me." He said when she answered.

"Well, hello Me." She said. "Leaving your Mom's?"

"Yeah, I was thinking, maybe it's time to do something… fun."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Binan Suo," Peter said. The sanctuary club for those who only spoke English. There was another level for those who spoke Chinese and their guests. As a cop, he had been assigned to get into that secret level and report what he'd found. Of course the police had expected illegal gambling, maybe a good old-fashioned opium den.

What he found instead was just an elite club, there was live music and dancing, and a film usually played along one wall, with the sound muted. They were always wuxia or Xianxia films. Sometimes people played Wei qi or Xiangqi at the quieter corner tables. The liquor was top notch and the food was good.

"That could be fun." She said. "It will be good to do something that doesn't involve work or your mother… or my grandfather…"

"How do you feel about my Pop?" He asked "I was thinking we could invite him and Mary- Margaret to join us. I know it's odd to double date with my father but… I think he needs a little fun too. The guy is getting divorced after all."

"Sure." She said. "The lights are on over at the brownstone. I'll go see if they want to join us and meet you at the club."

"I'll see you there."

(0)

It was a Wednesday night. The club was quiet compared to weekend nights, but that didn't mean it was by any means empty. Peter found a table where the four of them could see the musicians and he waited. It had been a rough day and he was tempted to order a glass of bourbon while he waited. So very tempted when the waitress approached.

She was a pretty girl, he knew he had seen her somewhere else but couldn't put his finger on where.

"Hello, Master Caine." She said with a pretty smile. "What can I get for you this evening?"

If she had addressed him by his given name, or Detective Caine (some people remembered him very clearly as a police officer), or skipped the name entirely he would have given in to his temptation. But she addressed him as a priest. Of course, she did.

It was probably a good thing.

"Just a cup of tea for now. There will be other's joining me soon."

"Shall I bring a pot then?"

"Yes, please," Peter said, leaning back in his chair. There was a feeling he couldn't shake. That sword of Damocles feeling. It wasn't the first time he'd had that sensation. He doubted it would be the last. He'd had them his entire life, well as much of it as he actually remembered. Like most people, he didn't remember as much of it as he liked to think he did.

There would just be these… feelings… that something sinister was lurking, waiting. He had told his father about these feelings but there had never been anything that Kwai Chang Caine could find. Of course, his mother's insistence that Yulong Yeoh had always been there, watching, lurking, manipulating his life was probably the source of his current twitchiness. Nothing more than the equivalent of suddenly feeling like you're being watched after people start talking about Ghosts. That was why he had wanted this little get-together. Something to get his mind off of it and chase away the imaginary lurking ghosts.

He smiled at the waitress as she brought over the pot of tea and four cups. "Thank you." He said, being jostled out of his thoughts.

"Is everything alright?" She asked. "You seem… worried."

"I'm fine. Just lost in thought. Thank you for asking." He said. He still couldn't place where he'd seen her before. It was probably just that she was one of many people he regularly crossed paths with daily in Chinatown. That had to be it, right?

It wasn't long before his father and the girls joined him. "Hey." He said as he got to his feet, waiting for Leanne and Mary-Margaret to be seated before he took his seat again. He took his fiancé's hand in his.

"This is the best idea you've had in a while," Skalany said.

"Well, not THE best." He said, looking at Leanne.

The conversation became light-hearted. Caine and Skalany took turns enlightening Leanne about Peter's history while they ate dim sum and drank tea.

"I kid you not, there he was buck ass naked and stuffing his face full of bread."

Peter laughed and blushed. "Well, it worked didn't it? It took a few seconds for them to get over the shock and start shooting. "

"He had hidden his gun in that loaf of bread. I'm surprised it worked after that." Skalany said.

Leanne laughed at the imagery.

"Well … it did jam after a couple of shots," Peter said. "Smelled like toast when I took it to the firing range for months." He teased.

"Oh, it did not," Skalany said, laughing as well. "Gotta say we have missed you at the precinct."

"Part of me misses being there. But that's not who I am anymore." Peter said.

"Well, it is still who I am." Skalany said "And Powell and I are on the early shift tomorrow. I need to get going."

"I will go with you," Caine said rising to his feet. Her car was parked in front of his home. It hadn't been a long walk to the club.

"Yeah, We should be going too," Leanne said. "I have clients in the morning."

"And it's delivery day for Mrs. Chen," Peter said, nodding. He felt lighter. The sensation of doom hanging over his head had faded into nothingness as it always did. "Do you need to pick anything up from the Kwoon before we head home?"

"No, I'm good." She said as they left. Home. She liked the sound of that. It was no longer her place or his place, it was their place. It would be even better when the apartment above the kwoon was finished. It would be someplace that had only ever been Theirs, not hers, not his or his father's but theirs.

She studied him a moment as he drove. "You do know that if what your mother said is true… I'll turn my back on my grandfather."

He took her hand in his as he drove. "I know." He said. "I'm not sure what to believe about what she said. I'm not sure she can be trusted to tell me what day of the week it is." He had spent nearly his entire life missing a woman he hadn't even had a chance to know except through his father's memories. To say he was disillusioned would be an understatement. "But it doesn't matter. She is getting her divorce from my father and heading back to Spain where I don't have to deal with her again."

"Is that what you really want?" Leanne asked as they pulled into their parking space.

Peter sighed. "I don't know." He said and turned the car off. "I… when my father left to go looking for her I had hoped he'd find her and that maybe there would be a good reason for her abandoning us."

"My grandfather can be pretty intimidating," Leanne said. "Don't get me wrong, I don't trust her either. But I'm just saying that maybe when she first left she didn't think she had a choice."

"I guess, maybe. It doesn't matter. The only thing I am going to regret is that I won't likely get the chance to get to know Julian. He seemed like a good kid."

"He might surprise you." She said.

Peter got out of the car and walked around to open her door for her. "I hope so. Either way, I think it's time I let that go for a while before I turn into someone I don't want to be." Bitterness was the thief of peace and joy. They walked up the short sidewalk that lead to their home.

He reached for the apartment doorknob and paused before closing his hand around it. "The door isn't latched." He frowned. He was the last one through the door that morning and he always double-checked that it was closed and locked. He wasn't as trusting as his father and Lo Si were about such things. There was too much of the policeman still in him to want just anyone in his home at just any time. "Wait here."

"Peter!" She whispered.

"Wait here." He said again, more firmly as he pushed the door open slowly.

He entered the apartment silently. Someone had torn the place apart. Bookshelves had been toppled to the floor, the sofa cushions had been ripped open. He quietly moved toward the kitchen, glancing into the room. Things had been pulled from the cupboards and tossed to the floor. He swore quietly and moved to the bedroom. The bath. Eventually hazarding a glance toward Leanne's apothecary, showed that it was in the same condition.

"Damn." He said. Peter hurried back to the front door. "I'm sorry, honey." He pulled her into a hug. "They were looking for something. Pretty sure we know what."

Leanne eased out of his arms and went into the apartment. "Oh, my god." She breathed.

"I'm going to call it in," Peter said and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "Don't touch anything yet."

She nodded, folded her arms across her chest, and began to pace.

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Kwai Chang Caine lightly caressed Mary Margaret's cheek. "Do you need to leave now, or would you like to come upstairs."

"I would very much like to come upstairs." She said, leaning into his touch.

Caine kissed her temple lightly before leading her up the stairs to his home. He paused at the entry and scanned the room. "Someone has been here." He said, stepping further into the room, and letting her follow after him.

"Oh, Caine…" She said softly. The only reason the place wasn't demolished was that he had very few possessions for them to toss about. The last few boxes of Peter's things that had remained stacked against the wall had been opened and the contents dumped. "I'll put a call into the precinct." She said taking out her phone.

"That is not necessary." He said.

"Yes, it is," Skalany said. "This wasn't someone looking for food or desperate to have a place to stay. They were looking for something and if they didn't find it you can bet they'll be back."

Caine shrugged.

"Even Shaolin priests have to sleep sometime." She pointed out and took her cell phone out of her purse and placed the call.

Twenty minutes later Kermit stood in Caine's doorway. "You weren't the only one whose home was broken into." He said "So was Peter and Leanne's place. They are on their way over to check on the Kwoon and see if it was ransacked as well. Do you know if anything was taken?"

Caine shook his head "All of my things are still here. I do not know what was in the boxes Peter had stacked against the wall."

"You don't think it could be another attempt to get those books by the sing wah do you?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Perhaps…" Caine said. "It is not their usual method."

"Well, the forensics team is on its way over here to fingerprint the place."Kermit said, "Maybe that will tell us something."

"You can stay at my place tonight." She told Caine. "But we can wait for Peter and Leanne before we head that way." She knew that he'd want to check on his son. "This has been one hell of a day." One she had hoped to end on a much happier, more intimate note.

He was about to say that wasn't necessary, but he stopped himself, instead nodding. "We should go to the Kwoon, they will be there shortly."

"I'll wait here for forensics," Kermit said. Normally he didn't handle breaking and entering cases but he'd made a promise to Blaisdell that he'd keep an eye on Peter, so he'd programmed an alert to pop up on his computer any time something involving the Caines or their addresses drew police attention.

"Thanks Kermit." Skalany said.

She and Caine vacated the brownstone and walked across the street, just as Peter's purple stealth pulled up to the curb and parked.

"I did not say, imply, infer, or even suggest that you couldn't take care of yourself," Peter said, loudly, as he turned the car off. The argument they had been having all the way from the apartment was still ringing in his ears.

"Really? Then why did you make me stay outside while you went inside?"

"Because I'm-" He stopped and drew in a slow deep breath. "I almost said because I'm a cop and it's my job to go into potentially dangerous situations." He laughed a little, even if humorlessly, and shook his head.

Leanne sighed. "Are we back to the whole once a cop always a cop thing?"

"I guess we are. You know that's probably never going away." He said, his tone much calmer than it had been.

"Neither am I ever going to be a meek and timid mouse in need of constant protection."

"Oh thank god." He said. "I wouldn't know what to do with a mouse. Thank you for humoring me and waiting outside anyway. I love you."

"I love you too." She said. "Even when we argue."

"Making up is the best part." He said with a grin. "Fortunately they didn't feel the need to tear apart the mattress."

She playfully swatted his arm. "You have a one-track mind."

"I would show you how comfortable this car can be but my father is standing there watching."

She looked into the back seat and raised an eyebrow. "I am not going to ask why you didn't just take whoever she was back to your place."

"We were at the coast… and well… anyway… ahm… my father's waiting …"

She laughed. "It's impossible to stay mad at you. Especially when you blush like that."

"You would be surprised how many people manage to stay mad at me." He kissed her lightly and got out of the car. He walked around and opened her car door for her.

"We only thought we were going to go home and go to bed," Skalany said. "Was anything taken from your place?"

Peter shook his head. "No. If I had to guess I'd say that what they were looking for is no longer there." He walked over to the doors to the kwoon and unlocked them. "Well, this is a good sign. Unless they broke in through the back."

Once inside Leanne locked the door behind them. The four of them made quick work of searching the building, finding nothing out of place.

"I don't know if they have been in here or not," Leanne said. "But at least my grandfather's book is safe in the bank."

"The sing wah are not known to be bank robbers," Caine said. "Who knows that you had the book?"

"I had never told anyone about the book until the sing wah attacked Peter. Then I told him and The Ancient. I don't know how the sing wah came to know that I had it." She said.

"And they weren't exactly in a chatty mood when we met last," Peter said. "It never occurred to me to ask how they knew we had it. They murdered your parents over it so they had to have known the book existed … a ahm… long time ago." Mary Margaret wasn't in the know about Leanne's longevity.

"So the question becomes how did they know that Leanne Garret is Li Na Yeoh," Caine said.

"My Grandfather is the only one who has known all of my aliases."

Peter slid his arm around his fiance. She might not need protection from whoever broke into their home, but he was beginning to think she needed protection from her grandfather.