Steele Coming Back Part 1
By Sinead

She yanked the brush through her long black hair over and over again, pretending each snarl was a memory of her ex-boyfriend. It was a tip of friend of hers had shown her, and it worked. She quickly ran some gel through it to hold it in place for the day, before putting on her makeup. "Danielle!" Her mother called, although she barely heard anything with her music blaring.

"Coming mom!" She said, pulling her purse off the back of the high-backed white chair that was in front of her desk. She hit stop on her stereo, and waltzed out of her room, full of class as usual. She grabbed a pop-tart out of the box, and stuck in the toaster.

"Danielle, honey, there's the opening of the gallery. I'm probably going to get back late."

"Don't worry mom." She said, jamming on the toaster to get her pop-tart out. "I'll be fine." She said, pulling out the plug, and proceding to jam a chopstick into the toaster to remove her stuck pastery strudel. Finally fishing it out, she grabbed her backpack, and walked to the door.

"Bye sweety." Her mother called after her.

"Bye." Danielle called as she walked out of the house. She found Her neighbor Tim standing outside, waiting for the bus. "Tim, what happened to your car?" She asked, since Tim usually drove her to school.

"In the shop."He replied. Tim never really said much. Most of the time he was too stoned to even say three words. He only went to school for lack of something better to do. Even though he was 23 he still hadn't graduated. But he lived on his own, from all the money that he'd made from selling dope.

"Oh." She said, sitting down on top of her bag on the curb, not wanting to get anything on her black mini-skirt. She finished her breakfast right as the bus pulled up. She got on to the collective respect of most of the people on the bus. Even though she was just a freshman, she had the respect of everyone in the school. The morning passed by as slowly as it usually did, until lunch. Freshmen weren't supposed to go off-campus for lunch, but all the popular kids did anyway. The populars were allowed to do anything. And Danielle was one of the populars. As the whole crowd, mostly of sophmores, with a few juniors, and a decent amount of seniors walked down to the local pizza parlor, her best friend ran up to her.

"hey, Dani, who you taking to the party tonight?" Krista said. Krista and Danielle were so different, but that was probably what made them so good friends.

"I don't know, I'm thinking of going single. After Erick, I don't really feel like going out with anybody."

"I know how that feels. Everyone thought you guys would last for ever." It was true, Dani and her ex-boyfriend Erick had been going out since the
7th grade. But Dani had found out that Erick had been cheating on her with a college student, and promptly dumped him.

"Yeah." Dani said, not wanting to think of it. She hadn't had much luck with the opposite sex. And she didn't even have an older brother to talk about it with. Or even a father. Her father had left her and her mother before she was born. She'd tried to ask her mother about things, but her mother hardly ever said anything. Dani had learned very early on that most things that concerned anything personal would only be talked about if her mother brought them up.

"Are you even going to the party tonight?"

"Yeah, mom and Murph have that gallery opening tonight."

"That's going to go on forever." Krista said, swishing her shrot blonde hair out her face.

"I know, I'm going to have all night." She said grinning. Lunch went on very much the same way it always did. Gossip, rumors, which movie star was cutest, the usual chit-chat. The afternoon seemed to slide by, as she thought of the party. When the bus pulled up in front of her house, she spotted a motorcycle coming through the neighborhood. She wondered who it was, since no one on the cul-de-sac owned a bike. She shrugged and unlocked her front door. It wasn't until the bike stopped in front of her house that she really started to get paranoid. She looked out the window next to the door as she watched the man on the motorcycle pull out a slip of paper and looked at it, before looking at her house. He must have decided it was the right one, because he started walking up the front walk. He waited a moment before knocking on the door. She hesistantly opened it. The man had unzipped his leather jacket and was gently pulling off his helmet.

"It this the Holt residence?" He asked, pulling it off.

"Yeah, why?" She asked, looking at him. He had just taken off his helmet, and her jaw dropped. "You look just like me!" She said at the same time he did. "No way." She said, and slammed the door in his face. White faced, she leaned against the back of the door.

"Um, you dropped something out here." He said through the door. She sighed, and opened the door again. He was holding up a piece of paper, the invitation to the party. She looked down at her watch.

"Shit." She said. The party was going to start in 20 minutes. The bus ride had taken forever. And she had been planing on hitching a ride with Tim.

"What?"

"Nothing" she said, before eyeing his bike. It would have taken her almost an hour to walk halfway across LA, but with a motorcycle.....

"You sure it's nothing?" He asked. At least he was nice enough. Too bad. She thought, as she shoved into him, grabbing his helmet with one hand, the keys with the other.

"Bye loser." She said, hopping on the bike and driving off. One look back showed him sitting stunned, on her front step.

He was still there when Laura Holt came home half an hour later. She had reached halfway to door when she noticed him, running a hand through his shaggy black hair. A shaggy mop that she remembered all to well. "It can't be. Not after all this time." she said, stopping dead. She stood up straight and confident as she walked up to the door. The man finally looked up when she was almost in front of him.

"Hi." He said meekly. It was him, it had to be. But yet, it couldn't be.

"Hi." She said, for lack of something better to say.

"Long time no see." He said, standing up and moving out of her way.

"I'll say." She said curtly. Was she angry? Yes. Upset? Yes. But did she care at this point? No.

"I think it's open" he said, as she fished out her keys.

"How do you know?"

"Because I belive you daughter stormed out and took my motorcycle with her."

"Motorcycle? You?" She said with a bit of a smile, as she opened the door.

"Call it a mid-life crisis." She gave a little bit of a laugh. She let held the door open, and, with a surprised look, he walked in.

"Can I get you something to drink?" She asked.

"Something with a higher alchol content than robotussen." He said, looking around. With a grin, she poured him a glass of Bailey's creme. "You aren't going to be mad at me? Scream at me? Throw something at me? Kick me out?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink.

"I'm too exhausted to do anything. It's harder than it looks to balance a job, a kid, and a social life. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Between how busy I've been at work, and how rebellious Dani's been, I don't have the engery to even scream at you." She said sitting down at the kitchen table, and gestured at him to do the same.

"That's a change from how you used to be." He said, sliding into the chair with the same grace that he always had. But there was something different about him this time. He seemed aged almost. Milder, calmer, but yet, at the same time seemed wilder. His blue eyes had seemed to have lost some of the vibrant spark that they used to have. Instead, they had a calm quality to them. "I suppose you want to know why I'm here." He said, taking another swig of his drink.

"Actually no, but I have the feeling you're going to tell me anyway."

"since when have I listened to you?" He said, with a good natured grin on his face. The same grin that she remembered. The grin that showed off his not-quite dimples and lit up his eyes.

"Good point. So why are you here?"

"Well, I was in the area, and figured I'd see how you were getting along."

"Not that great." She said with a bit of laugh.

"Well, while I'm here, I can help." He said, looking a little concerend at just how tired she was.

"Thanks. You can start with giving me less clients. Even with Murphy I can't keep up."

"Murphy came back?" He asked, setting down his glass a little more sharply than he normally would.

"Yeah, about 6 months after you left. Been a big help, between helping to take care of Dani, and doing all the late-night stuff at the office, I don't think I could have done it with out him Him and Mildred." There was a bit of a pregnant pause. Neither of them could think of something to say. "Can I ask you something?" She said, looking him straight in the eye.

"Anything. At this point, I'm an open book. That mysterious past is no longer a mystery."

"Why did you leave?" She asked, after taking a deep breath.

"It wasn't because of you. Belive me. It was a problem of mine."

"Well what was it?"

"Thanks to our friend Norman Keyes, I was going to be found out by the INS. Or strike a deal with him. Back off, get out of the scene quietly, and pay him off, or he'd expose Remington Steele as a fake."

"But that's blackmail!"

"Face it Laura, if you were faced with having your life shattered or just backing our of things quietly, with just a loss of income, what would you do?"

"But instead of shattering your life you shattered mine." She said her eyes taking a bit of an angry glint.

"It would've been shattered anyway!" He countered. "Think for a second. If people found out that Remington Steele was just a con, what would happen to you? You'd have no career, and your reputation would have been blown to bits."

"But you could've at least said goodbye, left a note or something."

"You'd want to come with me. I know you Laura. And I know you tried to track me down."

"how?"

"You called Daniel. He told me. And when he told you that he didn't know where I was, he was right."

"So you basically dissappeared."

"Yes, sounds about right. didn't come back till about two years ago."

"So you've been in hiding for the past 12 years, and then came back two years ago."

"Yes. Came back here to the US, bought a bike, and have been touring it at my leasure for the past year. When I came to LA, I couldn't resist coming to see you."

"Glutton for punishment." She said. He smiled.

"You could call me that."

"So what did you say happened to your bike?"

"Your daughter took one look at me, grabbed my helmet and keys out of my hands, and drove off."

"Well, if you suddenly opened the door and saw your father, you'd probably freak out too."

"You mean-?" He asked, slightly shocked.

"She looks just like you, doesn't she?"

"Well yes." He said, his jaw ready to hit thr floor. "But-but, how? When?"

"Remember right after Vinnie Dowds?"he smiled.

"Yes,but one time?"

"Just happened to be unlucky."

"Does she know who I am?"

"I think she figure out part of it. But I never really told her. Brought up to many painful memories."He took a deep, ragged breath.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, barely audible.

"For what?"

"Everything. Ruining your life just when things were going great. Leaving you. Screwing up the figure head of Remington Steele. Coming back drudging up memories. Sending your daughter of galavanting to some party."

"WHAT? What party?"

"She dropped the invitation."

"And I was supposed to go to the opening of a gallery that we just did the security for, but Murphy said he'd handle it." He ran a hand over his face as he tried to think.

"Nothings going to happen to her." He said, at Laura's worried look.

"That's what you think."

"No, that's what I know. If she's anything like you, she'll be just fine."

"Look, I have to get my bike back anyway, I'll tell her that you're worried."

"Great, get her to hate me even more."

"She's not going to hate you cause you're worried about her."

"You don't know Danielle."

"Twice as stubborn as either of us?"

"Three times."He smiled.

"How long are you going to be here?" She asked as he got up. He gave a little shrug.

"A week, two, maybe three, who knows? I go wherever I feel like. It's funny. The older I get the younger I act." She laughed a little bit.

"Shame we can't grow younger."

"I know." He said, walking to the door. "Thank you." He said as she opened the door.

"for what?"

"For not being angry at me. For not screaming at me. Not kicking me out. For being yourself." He said with a little smile. She smiled back. He reached down and kissed her hand.

"Maybe we can get together for dinner or something talk about old times." She suggested.

"That would be great."

"Bye." She called as he walked out. He turned and gave a little wave.

"Bye." He hiked across LA, surprised at how much it was the same, yet how, at the same time it was completely different. He walked straight to the street where the party was, and just followed the music to the house. He zipped up his leather jacket, and turned up the collar. He spotted his motorcycle parked in front of the house, the helmet dangling haphazardly off one handlebar. He walked up the door and gave it a couple of sharp raps. A senior, by the looks of him, opened the door, and when he saw that it was an adult in the door, he promptly tried to hide the beer bottle he had in his hand. "I was wondering if Danielle was here." He said, keeping things short.

"Why?"

"I was wondering if I could have the keys to my bike back."

"Oh." The guy said, and went off through the crowd. He came back a few minutes later with Danielle,before dissapearing againg.

"Here." She said, sticking the keyes in his outstreched palm.

"Call you mother, she's worried sick."

"Yeah, and get chewed out."

"Just let her know you got here all right." he said, turning around. "and unless you want to get chewed out, you should shower and change, you reek of beer." He said, before walking out. Danielle stood stunned for a second, until she heard the sound of the motorcycle zooming off into the distance.
To Part 2

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