Jason Scott was in fine form as usual in the a.m. After getting rid of the teasing little princess who thought she was so tough, he had instantly found company in the form of Vi Hargitay, a cheerleader that was stacked to the nines. A very pleasant night was had by both and he reminisced fondly over certain key elements as he strolled down the necessary evil - the hallways of the crowded high school. In fact, Vi was in his next class and he was looking forward to watching her as the teacher droned on about crap like Beowulf and Shakespeare.

After flirting with a few babes in the front row, the bell rang and he reluctantly took his seat. He consoled himself by staring at Vi's sweater and grinning to himself.

Fifteen minutes later, he was deep in a wet daydream when the door crashed open, startling him out of his reverie.

A wiry man stood there, shoulder-length grayish-black hair, black suit, sunglasses, and it looked like he was mad. REALLY mad.

The teacher approached him but one look from the guy made her keep her distance prudently. "Yes, sir, can I help you?"

"Yes, ma'am, you can," the guy said. Funny - he didn't raise his voice but the tone carried very well. No doubt about it. The guy was very angry. "I'd like to say a few words to your students. Your female students, to be exact." He walked to the center of the front like he owned the place. "I have a warning for you young ladies. I want you to be aware of the fact that Jason Scott is pure poison and is to be avoided at all costs."

Jason sat up in his seat as everyone looked at him. Meanwhile, the teacher was inching toward the door but another look from the guy stopped her.

"He went out with my daughter last night," the guy continued. Jason started to sweat. "When she wouldn't give him what he wanted, he dumped her out near the docks all by herself. Now, she's in the hospital with a concussion and a broken arm."

"Look...sir!" the teacher interrupted. "You can't just come in here and threaten-!"

"Have you heard me threaten anyone, ma'am?" Kermit asked mildly. "I just wanted to warn these young ladies in case they were thinking of going out with him. It's my civic duty. I didn't want this to happen to any of them."

"Sir, in that case, I suggest you make a complaint at the school office-"

Kermit ignored the teacher and walked to Jason, who was sweating bullets and blushing crimson.

"Sir!" the teacher said. "You take one more step toward that boy and I'll call the police!"

Kermit was close enough, anyway. He leaned over a bit, allowing the kid to get a good look at the Desert Eagle inside his jacket. "That should screw up the rest of your senior year. I'd be very pleased if you look me up in about five years or so when you're officially an adult. I'd love to beat the crap out of you."

He smiled pleasantly at Jason and turned to nod a thank you to the teacher as he left the building, already feeling better.

*****

Stuffing his daughter's favorite warm-ups into a bag, Kermit prepared to return to the hospital. Savannah couldn't leave her and had sent her husband for fresh clothes for Kat to wear home from the hospital. She waited for the doctor, who would hopefully allow them to bring her home in a few hours.

His steam-roll over young Jason was still filling him with satisfaction. When he was nearly out the door, the phone rang. Snatching the receiver, he snapped, "Griffin!"

"Seems I have something that belongs to you, Griffin."

The voice was familiar but he couldn't place it. "You too much of a coward to tell me who you are?"

"Okay, man. Why not? It's your old buddy Clarence. Remember me?"

Disjointed events began to snap together. Finally, the threat had a face. "What the hell do you want, Clarence. Your voice is making my phone slimy. Just hate that."

"All right. Down to business. Got that fresh baby girl of yours...right here on my lap. Been here *entertaining* me for hours...." His voice trailed off into a sickening laugh.

Ice ran through his chest. Kermit KNEW that Kat was at the hospital. *Entertaining for hours?* Clarence was pretending. Thought she was dead in that warehouse and was trying to claim possession. Screwing his control into place, Kermit tossed himself into the game. "You touch her and you're dead."

"Sorry, detective. Touchin' her right now. She's so soft and young...just my type." Clarence made the next move. "Okay, here's the deal. Your and the Shaolin skip the Chinatown meeting this afternoon. Get outta the area and get outta my face. Stop interfering with my organization. Let these mice fold up and you'll have her back by tonight."

"And if I don't?"

"Then we'll simply *fall in love* for a few days...and I'll send back the pieces once I'm done."

Choking back the fury rising into his throat, he replied, "Fine. Where is she?"

"Oh, no, Griffin. Let's see if you comply to my satisfaction...then we'll talk." The connection dissolved into a dialtone.

Knowing that Kat was safe for now didn't dispel his rage. Vile pictures of the pain she would have endured filled his mind. Clarence Choi would have tortured her and killed her had it not been for that accident in the warehouse. All because of him....

The flood of anger that he fought to control over the phone thundered through him freely now. Almost unconsciously, he drove his fist into the wall. Into Choi's face. Punching a jagged hole into the sheetrock. Gasping at the release, he went to the car to return to his daughter. Clarence Choi was get his retribution later.

*****

Kermit Griffin quietly passed the guard on his daughter's hospital room door and pulled up a chair beside his wife. Commissioner Simms had sent the guard when the incident was reported. "Karen was here," Savannah explained as she held her sleeping daughter's hand. "You know how she is. Wanted to be sure things were being handled. Where have you been...as if I have to ask."

"Don't worry. He's still breathing," he replied.

"Good. Some left for me." Taking a breath, she told Kermit what the doctor had said. "She'll be fine. Her arm just has a hairline fracture. Being in that damp basement and being hurt on top of it left her with a little cough. Being scared out of her mind by those creeps and those rats left her exhausted." Reaching up to smooth the hair out of her eyes, she concluded, "They gave her something to help her sleep but we can take her home this afternoon."

Looking at Kat sleeping peacefully, Kermit remembered those little round cheeks he couldn't keep his hands off of when she was a baby. Now, she was in that in-between stage. Between little girl and adult. Harder to protect now. But she was safe and sound for the moment.

He looked down at his wife. She was also exhausted. Savannah had been sitting in that same spot for hours. Keeping watch. Just the way she'd done eight years ago. With Paul. He eased over and wrapped his arms around her.

"God, Kermit," she gasped, "She could have DIED. I couldn't live through that again. All I keep thinking about is...." She stopped herself. She hadn't intended to bring it up because she didn't want to pull her husband's pain back to the surface.

"Paul. I know. Me, too." Watching his son die a day at a time was like having his heart ripped out and laid in front of the world. Day after day, they watched him fight to hold on to his tiny life. Suffering and gasping for breath until the end. Kat was the only thing that forced both of them to keep living.

He couldn't save Paul. Nothing he knew. No trick. No skill was enough. But this child, he COULD save. If he had to hold her in his lap, locked inside a vault, he'd do it. No one would be able to use her to get to him. No damn way.

Pulling him out of his thoughts, Savannah spoke. "I want to take her to Memphis. This afternoon. And I want to take KC, if Peter says it's all right. They'll be safe there until this blows over."

"That's a DAMN good idea, Scarlett." Walking up to stroke those same cheeks from long ago, he instructed, "Don't call ahead, though. Not your mother or the airport. We'll go by Peter's on the way home and see about KC." He had known this woman long enough to share his fears. To share the whole truth. "If someone has been watching them, we don't want to tip them off. We'll just get KC and, if there's a tail, I'll shake it on the way to the airport. No luggage. Just buy what you need when you get there." Stealing one more kiss from his daughter, he concluded, "Think she's earned a shopping trip, don't you?"

"Definitely. Now, tell me the rest." Savannah knew how to read this man. Inside and out.

"It's Clarence Choi. Just called and tried to make me believe that he had Kat so that Peter and I would stop trying to convince the people in Chinatown to stand up to him. Wants us to skip that meeting and keep our mouths shut." He stroked Kat's dark hair once more. Knowing what she'd say about backing down to anything....

"Daddy?" Kat stirred under his fingertips. Too groggy to be clear, she asked, "KC? Those men...scared...."

"Don't worry, baby, you're safe. Everything is fine. Go back to sleep, sweetie."

She drifted back to sleep, unable to hold on to consciousness. Savannah, standing beside him, took his hand. "YOU be careful while we're gone."

"Don't worry about me. I haven't lived this long by being stupid." And he planned to go on living. Along with his wife, his daughter, his partner and KC.

*****

Hours later, Katherine Griffin decided that she would never, EVER get hurt again. She was getting just a little bit annoyed at her father's solicitous treatment - he was handling her like she was made of glass, for God's sake! Sure, she had appreciated his babying when she was scared and hurt but now that she was safe and in familiar territory, she was on her way to being the same confident, sassy teenager she'd always been.

She watched from the wheelchair as her father pulled the car up. *Damn hospital rules, anyway,* she thought, glaring at the wheelchair. She felt like everyone was looking at her with pity in this thing.

She began to get up out of it when her mother put a hand on her shoulder to stop her and her father said, "Don't get up yet, Kitty Kat."

She sank back with a sigh as her father came around to open the car door for her. He then approached her with a very familiar movement - he was going to pick her up! "Oh, for GOSH sakes!" Kat exploded, pushing his reaching hands away. "I'm FINE! Just a little headache, that's all, and the last time I looked, I don't walk on my HEAD!"

She leveled herself out of the chair as Kermit glanced at Savannah with a smirk. "Like mother, like dau-"

"DON'T start, Kermit!" Savannah snapped as she wheeled the wheelchair to the waiting orderly as Kat climbed in the Corvair.

"Tight fit here, Daddy," Kat complained.

"Well, baby, you had a hand in wrecking my other car, remember? Gotta pay the consequences...." Kermit didn't mention that the reason he wanted to take the Corvair was that it had much more power should he need to shake the tail he was sure would follow him.

Savannah climbed in the back and then Kermit took his place behind the wheel. Kat instantly saw something was up when it became obvious that her dad was taking her to Uncle Peter's place. The way he'd been treating her, she was sure that she would be confined to bed for a month.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Well, Kitty Kat, you and your mom, and maybe KC, are going to visit your grandparents."

Kat tried not to express her surprise and alarm. She had just been injured, KC was in danger, and it was the middle of the school year. They would never allow a trip like this under normal circumstances. Obviously, they were being removed for safety's sake. She had no idea that things were that bad. Her dad and Uncle Peter would kick butt and take names before allowing them to come home again. She felt a little guilty - she felt she had been the one to start all this trouble. She just hoped that her dad and uncle would be okay.

They got to Uncle Peter's and Kat immediately clambored out and walked in, her parents close behind. "KC? Uncle Peter? Caine?"

Caine came from around the corner. "Katherine," he greeted warmly, bestowing a warm hug to his student.

She hugged back. "THANK you," she whispered, grateful to him for doing what he did with the rats and for healing her. She loved him just as much as if he was her real grandfather and expressed that love so that Caine could sense it.

He smiled, stroking her gently on the cheek. "I am pleased that you are...recovering."

"Me too, tadpole." Peter was behind her now and she gifted him with as bone-crunching a hug as she could muster. The cast she wore didn't make it easy but she managed. "You pick your dates better next time, kiddo," he teased, tweaking her nose.

Kat gave him a mock-irritated glare.

"Don't worry," Kermit said blithely. "ALL future dates will get the spook treatment."

"DADDY!"

"It's either that or you get locked in a safe till you're 30, Kitty Kat." Kermit then looked to Peter. "We came to pick up KC. We thought it'd be wise for the kids to visit Savannah's parents while we take care of the current lowlife."

"Great idea," Peter said. "He went to Wilson Junior High School - he likes the basketball court there."

"Wait a minute - you mean you LET KC go somewhere on his own after what I told you what those goons said???" Kat, hands on hips a la Savannah, was glaring at Peter, who was looking confused.

"All he told me was that they intended to kidnap you...."

"That little WORM! That little, double-crossing, stinky, sneaky sprout of a-!"

"What did they say, Kitty Kat?" Kermit pressed.

"They said they were going to try for the 'other one' tomorrow!" Kat exclaimed.

Peter looked at Kermit in horror. "He didn't tell me-! Oh, God...."

"Savannah, Kat, stay here with Caine," Kermit ordered. "Come on, Peter!"

"Heck with that!" Kat leaped for the door before anyone could grab her. "You need me - no one has as strong a link with him as me!" She climbed in the back of the Corvair, impatiently waiting for her father and uncle to join her.

Kermit shot to the car and yanked open the door. "Get out! Now!"

"NO!"

"I don't have time to argue with you, Katherine! You don't want me to come in there and MAKE you get out."

With all the logic she could muster, she presented her case quickly. "First of all, I know you can't 'come in her and make me get out' because my arm's broken. Second of all, if you did, I'd just follow you since I know exactly where you're going."

Peter had already gotten in the passenger side, well aware of how the argument would end.

Kermit got in behind the wheel, as angry as he'd ever been with his own flesh and blood. "You keep your little behind on that seat, you hear me?! And...you're grounded."

"How long?"

"I'll let you know."

KC glanced nervously up and down the street for what felt like the zillionth time. Sooner or later, his dad was going to come looking for him and that would be that. *How long are these dorks going to take, anyway?* he snorted derisively. He'd thought they would be professionals like Uncle Kermit, the type to REALLY worry about. But he'd been bouncing this stupid ball now for close to two hours and not a nibble.

How obvious did he have to be??? Wilson Junior High School had a cleared lot, no fences, no walls to hide behind. He was less than a mile away from the kwoon so it wasn't that hard to find him. Just a few circles and they would have picked him up easily.

*Come onnnn,* he worried. If Pop found out that he'd set himself up as bait, he would get it - unless he took the bad guys out while he did it. But he HAD to do it. His family's honor was at stake. Not to mention the fact that he was pissed as hell. Not that he'd let anyone else know that, not even Kat. He had come to believe that his anger was a private matter and had taken great pains to hide it from his loved ones.

Looking up and down the streets again, and seeing nothing, he sighed and threw the ball back to its owner at the nearby hot dog stand.

*Maybe if I walk reallllly slow....* he mused. *Hello, hello! What have we here?* He fought to keep from grinning as he saw a black Cadillac round the corner; a car totally out of place in this neighborhood.

Casually, he walked across the cemented lot, making sure he led them to a place that was cleared of innocents.

Two men suddenly rounded the corner in front of him. Playing a good little mouse, he looked at them, shrugged, and walked in another direction. Then, he tried to look surprised at the two men that appeared from that direction. *I should be an actor!* KC thought to himself, secretly pleased by how things were turning out.

*****

Kat, in the back seat of the Corvair, closed her eyes and looked in her mind for that bookmark. *KC?* She could tell, somehow, that he had heard her but was ignoring her. *KC, dammit, you answer me! KC!*

*I'm a little busy, Kat.*

With that, he tossed her out of his mind. *DAMN that little insect!* she thought. *How'd he learn THAT??* She would never be willing to admit that he was better at this Shaolin stuff than she was. The last time he'd rubbed it in, she'd called him a bigot. "Daddy, Uncle Peter, KC's in trouble."

"I know, Kat," Peter responded from the front seat. "He just tossed me out, too."

"Promise to ground him for ten years?"

"You don't even have to ask."

Without further prompting, Kermit pressed the accelerator.

Within three minutes, they saw it. A group of eight. KC surrounded. He was already fighting.

KC, using his small size as an advantage the way he'd been taught, stomped on one thug's knee and hit someone else in the ribs just below the armpit. Another kick to someone else's hip and dodging the gleaming edge of a knife was nearly too much but he managed it.

*Just remember, KC,* he thought, *I set this up. I'm in control....* One guy managed to get past his guard and wrapped his arm around his small frame. KC, using leverage, managed to flip the guy over into another thug. *So far, so go-*

He gasped as something stung him in the chest and was knocked backwards from the force of it. *Where'd that come from?* he wondered, trying to regain his balance. He tried to find his center but he was having a hard time standing....

Peter Caine came out of the shadows and double-kicked two thugs while springing on another. From the corner, two gunshots fired, striking one in the shoulder, guaranteeing orthopedic shirts for the rest of his lifetime, and hitting another square in the chest, puncturing a lung.

By the time Kat managed to squirm out of the Corvair, all opponents were taken care of. "Damn it! You guys didn't save any for me!" She quirked a wicked smile at her father but he was looking very grim, like...like....

Looking over, she saw Uncle Peter, crouching over a prone KC.

She walked over, big grin on her face. "Awww," she teased, "did the widdle Shaolin spwain his ankle?"

Peter was in a healing trance, already performing Qi Gong. He was already sweating with the amount of energy he was pouring into his son's chi.

"KC?" Kat asked. Then she saw the blood all over the pavement. "No...." He was her family. A brother of the spirit. Closer than flesh and blood.

Kermit walked up to her and wrapped an arm around her but she resisted. He wasn't moving. *KC?* she sent. "Dammit, you ANSWER me, you little shit! KC, if you die on me, I'll KILL you!! KC!"

He didn't move.

*****

Peter, despite all of his Shaolin training and experience, still found pacing to be the best catharsis he had for stress. However, he knew he was driving Kat crazy, so, for her benefit, he planted himself in a chair. That didn't help his misery as he worried about his son's fate.

KC was still in surgery, in critical condition. The bullet had hit his sternum and ricocheted, coming very close to the heart. Even if KC did make it, with Qi Gong, he still would have a long and painful recovery.

Kermit had called Savannah's cellular, telling her about KC and asking her to get Caine here as soon as possible. Peter had not neglected his apothecary training during the past fifteen years but it was still an undisputed fact that Caine was better at it.

When they had gotten there, the doctors, knowing Caine's skills, had allowed him inside while Savannah tried to comfort Kat. But Kat was having none of it. The second her mother's comforting arm went around her shoulders, she got up and reclined against the wall.

Kermit sat next to Peter, silently offering his comforting presence and support.

"I never understood," Peter finally mumbled.

"About what?"

"About Paul."

For a moment, Kermit thought he was referring to Paul Blaisdell but then realized that Peter was referring to Paul Griffin. "What didn't you understand?" he asked softly.

"I felt your emotions....I tried to be there for you but...I never...." Peter choked off the rest of his sentence. "God...I feel so *helpless*...!"

Kermit nodded. He understood the feeling all too well. "And you thought I was a pessimist for the fun of it."

Peter tried to smile but failed. The agony was almost overwhelming....He signaled the end of his desire to talk by getting up and pacing some more.

Kermit got up as well. "I'm going to take the ladies out of here," he announced. "You want something?"

Peter shook his head as he stood, watching the door to the operation room.

Kermit led Savannah and a reluctant Kat out of the waiting room. On the way past, Kat suddenly stopped in front of Peter. Looking up with eyes filled with pain, she said, "I'm so sorry, Uncle Peter. I should have *known* he wouldn't tell you that he was in danger. I just wasn't thinking. I'm...I'm...."

Peter looked at the despondent teenager, remembering that, not long ago, she had undergone a fairly traumatic experience herself. Pulling her in a gentle embrace, he comforted, "It's okay, Tadpole. All the blame rests on the bad guys. Now, go with your dad for a while. I'll send for you if anything changes."

Kat let her father wrap his arm around her as they left for the elevator.

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