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A/N: Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers. So here we have the beginning of another tri-chaptered episode. It was supposed to be two but this chapter ended up being 19 pages and I had to cut in two. We're going to have a lot of fun with Conejo in this chapter, so I hope you guys enjoy it. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Friday.

Chapter 371

Steve woke up to someone in his room. Someone other than his kid and his wife.

He woke up to the sound of the floorboards creaking by the foot of his bed and this blinding heart pounding fear that he had slept through an intruder both breaking into his house and coming into his room.

His first thought was to protect his wife, as the intruder was heading to her side of the bed. The second thought was to somehow get to his gun, but that was behind him, on his bedside table.

His third thought was making sure that Nahele was safe and that was by taking this person down.

He felt it, when a hand went for Rowan. He didn't know what was in that hand, just that it was moving for Rowan. So, he lurched for it.

He got a hold of the wrist and twisted, but the person didn't go down. No, they grabbed his arm and slammed down on it. Steve cried out and then twisted to get the grip off of him.

By then he was half on his wife, trying to shield her with her own body, but that had woken her up. And clearly, she had panicked too.

One of her own hands whipped forward and the person above their bed went flying, having been hit with an orange translucent shield. The person hit the dresser across from the bed and then just lay against it catching their breath and groaning.

"What the hell Ro?!"

Oh Steve knew that voice.

Rowan was now sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes and groaning too. From the hallway came the mad scramble of feet against the hardwood floors and then Nahele was in their room with a lamp in his hand.

"What? What is it?" he took in the sight of both his parents sitting in bed and his Uncle Con draped against the dresser catching his breath and the lamp lowered slightly. "Hi Uncle Con, what are you doing here?"

"It's okay, Nahele," Rowan said, waving him off. "We're okay, go back to bed."

"Oh… uh… okay… good night then," he said. "Good night Uncle Con."

Rowan threw herself back down to the bed and Steve did the same. "Is your arm okay?" she asked softly and while it was still a little sore, he was sure it wasn't broken.

And they had bigger issues at that moment.

He put his hands to his eyes. His heart rate was finally going back to normal now that he knew his wife wasn't in danger.

"Why is he here, Rowan? Why… why do your brothers keep breaking into my house?"

"I unno, what day is it?" Rowan asked sleepily rolling over and back onto Steve's chest.

Sin Nombre had picked himself up from where Rowan had thrown him and came to stand above her again. "That's not why I'm here…"

"Is it the 17th or the 18th?" she asked completely ignoring him and his shaking head.

"That's not why I'm here…"

"It's the 18th."

"Aww, okay," Rowan said, rolling back over, she grabbed Sin Nombre's hand and tugged him down into the bed. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders while she pressed him to her chest and pet his head. "It's okay, let it all out."

"I'm not crying, that's not why I'm here," Sin Nombre said, but he still wrapped his arms around her and pushed Steven away from them. Wow, great, his wife was cuddling with an international assassin in his bed while right beside him.

"If you're not here because it's the 18th, then why are you here?"

"Because of Gray… I… I kind of lost her. So, I need your strings."

"Wait hold on… Dr. Gray?" Steve asked sitting up. For a second, he was blinded by the fact that Rowan had just clasped this criminal to her chest the same way she did to him when he was overwhelmed and needed comfort.

"Yeah, I mean Dr. Gray. And Rowan said she was supposed to go to Colorado, but I haven't been able to find her, and Ro was certain I couldn't lose her but I did so like… I need the strings to keep haunting this bitch. I don't want her to think that she got away… you know?"

"Okay I'll do it in the morning," Rowan said sleepily, her hands threading through Sin Nombre's hair the way she usually did for Steven.

Seriously what was he looking at right now? And why the hell was Sin Nombre practically clinging to her. In fact, his face had disappeared entirely, he was burrowed into her neck.

What… what was he witnessing right now?

"Okay, get off my wife," Steve said immediately moving to get her brother off of her, but he had two hands deflecting him, first Sin Nombre's and the second his wife.

"Rowan!"

"Leave him alone," she cried and then lowered her voice to hiss: "Today's the 18th" like that meant anything to him. She hadn't told him the 18th was important to them, how was he supposed to know what was going on if she wasn't telling him things.

On the nightstand his phone began to ring and he went for it, growling as he went. He answered it quickly, half listening to Chin as he talked him through what was happening. He was too distracted with Rowan and Sin Nombre. How she was pressing kisses into his hair. How Sin Nombre had his arms tightly wrapped around her, his forehead resting against her shoulder.

When the call was done, he hung up the phone and turned a glare onto the two of them

"Gray's not in Colorado, she just surrendered herself to HPD," Steve said.

At that Sin Nombre propped himself up to look down at Rowan. "What the hell Ro?"

Rowan just blinked her eyes. "Then what the hell is in Colorado? I swear, something is in Colorado…"

Sin Nombre turned to Steve as if her confusion about his was his fault. That meant that she told Wo and Sin Nombre all about how he messed up her powers and her dreams.

"Okay, first thing you gotta learn is that Rowan Pierce isn't always right," he said as he swung his legs out of the bed. "And seriously. Get the fuck off of my wife."

Sin Nombre answered that by snuggling back into Rowan. "No. I'm comfy."

Rowan should have stopped him but instead she just hit Steve with a frown. "Nahele's going to be upset that you missed his shrimp truck unveiling."

"ROWAN!" he snapped. "This is Dr. Gray. She stabbed me, she hit you with a tenderizer, and then threw us in a hole!"

"Okay the King and Queen threw you in a hole, I was fine," Rowan snapped.

"You called him!" Steve cried pointing to Sin Nombre, just as he said: "What'chu talking about mami? You had to pull me!"

"Okay if you're gonna side with Steven, get off," Rowan snapped and then shoved him right off of her and off of the bed entirely. Steve was surprised the man even let her do it.

But he didn't have time for this. He had Dr. Gray to deal with. And it was always a wild ride, filled with mind games, where that bitch was involved.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve was in a terrible mood.

For starters as he was getting ready to go to the precinct, Nahele had gotten up, said that he was too excited about the unveiling he'd be working to go back to sleep. When Steve apologized and said he probably wouldn't be able to make it, the kid had the nerve to say that he had a feeling Steve wouldn't be able to come, so he wasn't all that surprised.

Except he said it all disappointed like and Steve hated that he disappointed his kid. That his kid had low expectations of him of him in the first place and he still couldn't measure up.

It wasn't his fault he caught a case today, it was stupid Dr. Gray. Why couldn't she have resurfaced tomorrow?

Then Rowan came down the stairs, also too awake now to go to sleep, with Sin Nombre on her heels.

As he went to go talk to Nahele, she pulled Steve aside. She told him that he had to take Sin Nombre with him. Not just because he had been dealing with her for the last several months but because today was the 18th and he needed to be distracted.

But she wouldn't tell him what the 18th meant to either of them, or why Steve had to babysit the assassin.

It wasn't her story to tell.

God, he hated it when she said shit like that. It made him feel out of the loop.

But after all the baby-sitting Sin Nombre did for him, of both his kid and his wife, he couldn't really say no. So, he had Sin Nombre pare down his weapons to the absolute essentials which lead to him unloading more weapons then a human body could hide onto Steve's kitchen table, and then the two of them were heading to the precinct.

He made a joke about pulling a Steve and not letting him drive his own car, but that just won him a silent glare. It wasn't funny, he drove the Camaro because he got motion sick in the passenger seat. But he knew Rowan didn't believe him, neither did Danny, so Sin Nombre wouldn't either.

They got to the precinct, they met with Chin and he got all the dirty details.

She was claiming to be a tourist from Wisconsin named Lauren Parker. She came in covered in blood and claiming she had no recollection of the last twenty-four hours.

Steve was calling bullshit. And so was Sin Nombre, because the last he saw her, which was a week before Valentine's day, she was in LA.

They had sent a few samples of the blood on her hands to the lab for DNA analysis, but Steve was worried that they were probably looking for a body.

Steve went in first, with Sin Nombre coming in behind him.

She jumped when the door open but she seemed relieved to see him for some reason. Steve had to guess that he was playing into her plan. Great. Just wonderful.

He waited to see if any sort of fear would come out when she saw Sin Nombre but it never came. Probably because he wasn't wearing his mask, just his black leather jacket, his dark blue denim jeans and his white tee-shirt. Jesus, didn't he own any other clothes?

Steve sat down across from her while Sin Nombre chose to lean against the two-way mirror.

"I didn't think I was gonna see you again," Steve said after he allowed her time to wipe her crocodile tears away.

She stared at him a bit and then asked: "I'm sorry, have we met before?"

Behind him Sin Nombre snorted and drew out one long sigh of: "Wow."

Yeah, but Steve was expecting this. Had a feeling that was her plan. To pretend she had no idea who he was and what she had done.

"Oh, that's right. You don't remember me. You're not," he paused to clear his throat before hitting her with her real name. "You're not Madison Gray. You're, uh… who are you again? Lauren…"

"Parker," she finished for him. "I'm Lauren Parker."

Behind him Sin Nombre snorted again and followed that up with a louder even longer drawn out: "Wow!"

Steve continued to ignore him. "Lauren Parker. Right. From Wisconsin?"

"Eagle, Wisconsin. I came here two days ago on vacation."

"Right…"

"Why don't you believe me? Why doesn't anyone believe me?" she cried.

"Because, Bitch, you ain't been anywhere near Eagle, Wisconsin, unless you flew there from fucking LA! And then came here, which is one hell of an unnecessary detour," Sin Nombre snapped.

Gray turned her eyes to him, not a single shred of familiarity in those eyes of hers. "I don't know what he's talking about…"

Steve continued to ignore him. "We don't believe you, because you're lying, Dr. Gray."

"I'm not…" she started and then took a deep breath. "For the last time, I'm not this Dr. Gray. Whoever that is, I'm… I'm Lauren Parker from Eagle, Wisconsin and I have no idea what's going on or how this blood got on my hands and I'm scared."

And then she put her head in her hands and started to sob. But Steve wasn't buying it and neither was Sin Nombre

"Right, this is going no where," Sin Nombre said, pushing away from the wall. "Look, you need her to talk, it's easy. Just bar the door, turn off the recording equipment…" he was already taking out a knife from somewhere behind his back and Steve lurched for him.

Why the fuck was a seven-inch knife a necessity? What the hell did Sin Nombre think Steve was taking him into? Cause it wasn't the fucking jungle.

"No, no, no…" he said trying to push him towards the door, but Sin Nombre wouldn't move. In fact he turned around to look Steve right in the eye.

"Look this bitch is a grade-a psycho. You can't play nice with her. You gotta hit crazy with crazy it's the only thing they respond to," he said.

At that Gray turned to him. "I'm not crazy!" she cried. "I'm not Dr. Gray and I don't know you either!"

"Bitch!" Sin Nombre snapped. "Listen here, I've been fucking haunting you for months, don't give me this victimized ohhh I don't know who you are bullshit. I've been giving you nightmares!"

Gray just looked confused. "I'm sorry… I don't… I don't remember…"

"Oh, doesn't fucking remember, maybe I'll fucking hit you with a reminder huh?"

He was going for something behind his back again, probably his mask. Fucking hell.

"Nope, no, you're not putting that on in the middle of a precinct…" Steve said once again pushing him towards the door. "Just go wait… watch on the other side, can you do that?"

"Why the hell did you bring me here if you weren't going to use my help?"

"Because my wife made me, and neither of you will tell me why today is so fucking important that it requires me pandering to you!"

Sin Nombre blinked his eyes. "Well frankly it's none of your business."

"Oh my god, just get out," Steve ordered and then shoved him right out of the door and then shut it.

Fucking hell.

Steve turned back to Dr. Gray and almost smiled, just to make up for the fact that the other person in the room was basically threatening to torture her.

And, maybe, Steve might have let that fly if they were somewhere else, but not in the middle of an HPD precinct. How the hell would he be able to explain that? Or clean it up for that matter?

He sat back down at the table where she was still crying and then leant forward in the chair. "I need to ask you a question."

She looked up at him, wiping those tears away again. "Yes…"

"Do you really think that I'm gonna fall for this? Do you think that anyone is gonna fall for this?"

In the TV shows and movies this is where the bad guy trying to play the amnesia card stopped crying and hit the good guy with a glare. And then they'd go on about how yes, they did think they were stupid and they're surprised that they bought it.

He did not get that moment though.

"I don't know what this Dr. Gray did to hurt you, and I am sorry, I really am, but… that wasn't me. I'm Lauren Parker and I need somebody to help me figure… Can you help me, please?" she lurched for him, and Steve threw himself back so she couldn't get her crazy ass fucking hands on him again.

And she just kept sobbing. "Can you help me? Can you help me please? Can you help me, Mr.… what? I don't know, you never said what your name was. What's your name?"

Steve just stared at her. "I don't know what kind of sick game you're playing. But I promise you… I'm gonna figure it out."

Steve got up from the table and left, as she screamed for him not to leave her in there, that he had to believe her. Except he didn't. And as he shut that door, he realized that what he wanted was his wife, he wanted his wife to help him so she could throw her psycho-babble at her.

But he also didn't want his wife anywhere near this.

He was right about one thing though. He needed a shrink. And he knew exactly who he was going to call.