Hu Li glared at Yulong Yeoh. "Why the hell does the Spanish Peacock get to go to Kunlun Shan but I have to stay here? Why can't I go? I can handle your crap there better than he can."

"You stay here because I tell you to stay here." He growled irritably.

"Hey, don't take it out on me because your granddaughter isn't timid and submissive. I'm not the one that raised her."

He slapped her hard but took a step back as her form shifted instantly from a human to a humanoid fox. Her tails swished angrily behind her and she clacked razor-sharp teeth at him.

"You forget your place little fox." He said.

"No. You forget. I do as you bid because you have my kin hidden away. Do not make the mistake of doing to them what you did to the monkeys. Do not ever strike me again."She said "Or I will remind you exactly who and what I am."

"You stay here because my granddaughter and her overprotective priest know you, and that you belong to me." He said, ignoring the danger standing before him. "They will not give the book to anyone else. Besides, Navarro grows more arrogant every day. I do not trust him to do as I command. You, I know will not cross me."

She nodded and returned to her human form. She pulled a chair over to the window and stared out at the storm. "What do you want with the priest?" She asked. She liked Peter. She thought he was naive in some ways but such was the way of priests she supposed. But she genuinely liked him and didn't want to see him caught up in Yulong Yeoh's schemes.

"You would not understand." He said.

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not an idiot, you know." She said.

"It is complicated." He sighed when she continued to stare at him. "There are prophecies involving the line of Kwai Chang. Some that even the Shamballa masters do not know about. I have been collecting them for a very long time." He said. "All of them say something about the last of the line of Kwai Chang. Of course, it is never really the last of the line. The line continues. It is the last of a generation that accomplishes great things."

"So you want him to marry into your bloodline so you can control the prophecies by controlling the last of the generations to come."

"You are smarter than you look, little fox." He said. "If that fool my granddaughter first fell in love with had stayed and married her then I would have had control of four generations now. Or if she had found him as I commanded. Now she is in love with a man who is as Chinese as tap water." He grumbled.

She shrugged. "He's Shaolin."

"I shall try not to hold that against him." He said,

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Peter walked Leanne down the stairs toward the cafeteria. Even if it wasn't open there would be tables to sit and talk without the crowd that was in the Ancient's room.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when he showed up," Peter said.

"I know. I was fine. Shaken but fine. You didn't have to risk your life to come here." She said. "My god, Peter, if you two had been hurt or killed I wouldn't have known… no one would have known until the city is unearthed again."

"My father was determined to get to Lo Si with those herbs he got from Shamballa and he would have tried making it over here on his own…" He laughed quietly at the look she was giving him, "And it was the perfect excuse to come over here without looking like I was insane."

"I wouldn't go that far." She said but laughed as well. "You're both nuts and you should have stayed where you were safe… but now that you're here, I'm glad you're here."

He took her hand in his and squeezed it. "It's going to be okay." He said.

"This plan of your father's… do you think it will work?"

"That depends on how arrogant your grandfather is." He opened the door at the base of the stairs and they exited onto the main level.

"He is exceedingly arrogant. He is also exceedingly intelligent and calculating and evil."

"Arrogance makes mistakes." He said. "He wants something from me. He wants the book from you, but he wants something else from me. If my mother is to be believed."

"Knowing my grandfather, he hasn't told her anything useful." She said leaning into Peter and sliding her arm around his waist.

"Even if he had told her something useful it's doubtful that she'd tell me. She's too afraid of him to say anything." He said. "So is Hu Li. At least she is obedient because he has hostages. My darling mother is only worried about himself."

"I'm sorry." She said, "But hey, you got a better one out of the deal."

He nodded "I did. I think she cares about Julian, but I swear she couldn't care less about Amelie." He told her about his day. "You know I think I have spent as much time out in that storm as I have inside."

"I'm glad you found her. Maybe this will build a little trust with her."

"I hope so." He said. "When this is over I'm going to want to sleep for a week."

"I'm sure there is an empty room they'll let us crash in for the night." She said. "Or at least a couple of cots we can put in Lo Si's room. If you're planning on taking on my grandfather you're going to need your beauty sleep."

"I am going to need more than that if he was the guy moving a city bus around with his qi."

"When did we wind up in a xianxia film?" She asked.

"I think that happened the day we were born," Peter said. "Not that I believed in all of that until after Pop turned up."

"You grew up in a Shaolin temple and didn't believe in the mystic side of things?"

"I believed in the philosophy, and the discipline, but no I guess I didn't believe. It's not something that you learn at an early age. A lot of monks and priests never get to a level where they can move things with the force of their qi. It wasn't like my father went around showing off to the students."

"I suppose not." She said. "You were a quick study though. I think the talent runs in your bloodline. Although I never saw your great-grandfather do anything of a mystic nature."

"When I was talking to myself during your abduction, he said he was never a mystic. And to be fair my abilities are limited in that regard. I can blow out a candle or deflect something light, I've even made a guy's gun glow red hot. I couldn't move a fiberglass sports car with my qi much less a city bus."

"Give it a century or two," She said "You'll catch up."

"I guess that's back on the table since we know your immortality isn't tainted."

"So is me giving up my immortality." She said.

"Not if it does to you what it's doing to Lo Si. Although Pop thinks that it might just be that he was poisoned by the flowers he was experimenting with."

"I hope that is the case. There are antidotes for poisons. The only cure for old age is rebirth." She said, "Wukong went back to Kunlun Shan to try and get one of the celestial peaches."

"Is he really the Monkey King?" Peter asked. "I'm going to wake up and this is all going to have been a dream I swear."

"I believe he is, yes. He was heartbroken that the peaches weren't ripe."

Peter shook his head. "I know it's silly that this is throwing me. I just spent a couple of hours in Shamballa. That's supposed to be a myth as well. He's fond of Lo Si."

She nodded. "Yes, he is. So is Sparrow. He brought leaves from the peach tree for him. I gave them to your father while you were drying off." Leanne said "Apparently he was told they would help Lo Si feel better. They seemed to be working. Combined with what your father brought, we'll have a hard time keeping him in bed come morning."

"Good." He said. "I want you to stay with him while all this goes down," Peter said as they found a table and sat down.

"No." She said.

"Leanne-"

"No." She repeated. "I'm not going to stay hidden while you are in danger. If you were still a police detective I'd stay home and wring my hands. But you're not and this isn't the same sort of situation so don't even use that excuse with me."

Peter sighed "And we're about to have that same argument we had when the apartment was trashed."

"Only if you keep telling me to stay here." She said folding her arms across her chest.

"He threatened to kill you," Peter said. "I don't want you anywhere near him."

"So you want me here where he knows where to find me? Don't you think he'd just come here after me when she doesn't show up with the book?"

"Fine, I'll ask my father to take you to Shamballa. Your grandfather won't find you there." Peter said firmly. "I know you're capable. I do and if it were any other enemy I would want you at my back."

"Now you're trying to placate me."

"That wasn't what I meant." He said. "I was being honest but your grandfather scares the crap out of me and I know he scares you too. I heard your voice over the phone, remember."

She shook her head not sure how to get through to Peter.

"Leanne, I don't want to fight with you." He said.

"I don't want to fight with you either." She said "But that doesn't change the fact that we are going to have to finish this argument. I am not helpless. I can help."

Peter ran a hand through his hair. "You know maybe we need to decide if we're going to have a traditional marriage or a modern one."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm getting whiplash trying to figure out what you want from me. One minute you're an old-fashioned girl with old-fashioned ideas about how to best support me as a priest and the next you're a modern capable woman and how dare I suggest that you shouldn't be neck deep in danger."

"You mean you want to know if we're going to be using the word obey in the marriage vows." She said.

"Stop putting words in my mouth. It's hard enough talking around my foot, I don't need to dodge someone else's words too. I love you, Leanne, and it doesn't matter how capable you are, how much older than me you are, or how often it makes us argue, it's my job to protect you."

"No. It's our job to protect each other." She said. "We share a life with everything that entails. The good, the bad, and the terrifying, we face it together or we don't face it at all." She said.

"Not facing it isn't an option this time." He said. "There is too much at stake." Too many people were being hurt already and if Yeoh was part of the evil that was going to spread through Shamballa, the suffering would spread into the rest of the world and never end.

"Then we face it together." She said resting her hands over his.

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Lo Si drank the cup of tea that Caine handed him. "The peach leaf tisane was starting to work. Combined with what you have here I will be better soon." He didn't think he retained his immortality, but that didn't mean he wouldn't have several more years.

"Good. Then you won't argue about drinking it." Caine said. His old friend could be cantankerous when he didn't want to do something. Usually when it involved someone else taking care of him.

"I will drink it because it means I can get out of this bed. I am very old, but I am not very infirm."

"I know, Old Friend."

"I wish to help in the apprehension of Yulong Yeoh." Lo Si said.

"If your strength has returned in time there is no one I would rather have at my side." People underestimated Lo Si because he was old. Caine did not.

"Hu Li will not be easy to detain," Wukong said.

"She will fight to keep her loved ones safe," Caine said. "How many tails does she have?" He asked.

" She is from the Green Hills," Wukong said sadly. "Sun Tiao Hu was once a good omen. She was charged by Nuwa with protecting the good foxes and punishing the wicked. She is as old as I." He shook his head "Now she is enslaved because of that duty to protect."

"The foxes from the Green Hills are said to have nine tails." Lo Si said. "She is a celestial fox?"

Wukong nodded. "If she knew where the other foxes were she would tear out the evil one's throat. But she does not. So she will try to tear out mine to protect them."

"She fought Leanne and lost," Caine said.

Wukong shook his head. "She did not wish to harm the girl. If she had wished it, she would have won."

"Then we must find another way to contain her than violence," Caine said. "I do not believe she is corrupted by Yulong Yeoh. She needs our help."

Lo Si nodded. "I will think about this. Nothing that lives is free of vulnerabilities."

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Jody Powell rapped lightly on the captain's door and entered. "Hey, ahm, the hospital wants me to check a couple of things. They want pulse and respiration"

Karen nodded and placed her fingers over his wrist,

"Heart rate is 55." She said, thinking that was a little low. "I think it skipped a few beats."

Jody wrote it down and waited while Simms counted the breaths Kermit was taking.

"20 breaths per minute, " She said eventually.

"Okay," Jody said. "I'll be right back."

Karen stroked his hair. "You have to wake up, Kermit. It's been hours. Nap time is over, okay. I need you to wake up."

Jody came back into the room. "They are on their way. They don't know how long it will take to get here. There is a lot of debris on the roads and some places are flooded to the point of being impassable. But they're going to try and make it here as soon as possible. His pulse and respiration are fine. It's the fact that he's still unconscious that they are worried about."

Karen let her head loll back as she drew in a deep breath. "Thank God." She said softly. She rubbed at her face with her hands before standing up. "And thank you, Jody. I know you have been hounding them to get here all day."

"I had to do something other than twiddle my thumbs. I might have started shooting people otherwise."

Karen laughed softly. "How are things out there."

"Everyone is either napping or bored out of their minds. You're not missing anything."

She nodded. "Now that the roads are almost passable I'll call around to see if any of the other precincts can take our prisoners until we can get the lower levels pumped out and maybe then the rest of you can go home and get some rest."

"You don't need to stay here if everyone else is gone."

"No… but I'll be going in that ambulance with Kermit." She said.

"Good," Jody said. "And you know… everyone knows how you two feel about each other. Quit trying to hide it. It's not working anyway." The trick was going to be keeping Kermit alive long enough for that to happen.

Karen nodded but said nothing. First things first after all. She went to her desk and began to make calls to the other stations.

Jody went back to her desk and sank into her chair with a sigh.

"How is he?" Strenlich asked.

"No change." She said. "But at least he's breathing on his own, his heart is still beating. That's all we can say really."

"Damn." He said. "Well, at least that ambulance is on its way."

She nodded. "Yeah. As long as it gets here in time. The captain is calling around to see who we can palm these guys off to until the cells are safe again."

"Can't happen soon enough to suit me." He said. "I just hope the other precincts aren't in the same shape we are."

"They might not be if they are further away from the river," Skalany said. "We can always hope anyway. Having to look at these guys creates a hostile work environment."

"It's not as much fun when they aren't in the interrogation room," Powell said.

"It chaps my hide that Javier Navarro got out of here somehow." Frank shook his head. "Dying out in that storm is getting off easy for what he's supposed to have done in France."

"If he died out there. He could have found somewhere to hole up for a while." Skalany suggested. "I doubt he'll be sticking around long enough to be found again at any rate."

"With any luck, he'll take that wife of his with him," Powell said. She still cared deeply for Peter and what that woman did to him and his father was reprehensible. How hard would it have been to get a damned divorce?

"I'm betting he doesn't even say goodbye," Strenlich said. "Too easy to track a family man." He said then turned to go back to his office.

A/N Wow I am amazed at how many people are reading this. Thank you! I hope you'll take the time to review it. It's like getting paid in chocolate :)