Who Wants to Steele You?
Part One
Written by Ulrike Gubelt, 1998, 1999, and 2000

Summary: What happened after Danielle´s birth? Are all problems solved or are there new obstacles in their path?

Author's note: This story is the product of an idea I had many years ago, but I was missing a good setting. Then I read Melissa Jones' trilogy, and I knew: that's it! Since then (almost 2 years!) I struggled with the English language to translate my ideas. I hope I succeeded.
I borrowed "Jenna" and "Danielle" from Melissa. Some parts you can't understand without Melissa's story! So read that first- it's brilliant! Thank you, Wolfgang Walter, for your beta reading!

e-mail: gubelt@uni-muenster.de

disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Remington Steele, Laura, Mildred, Murphy. And Jenna and Danielle are products of Melissa Jones.

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Part one

3rd of March 1988, San Francisco Airport, early evening:

"I can't believe it!" Laura Steele glared at the airline clerk at the desk in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Madam, but Mrs. Steele and Mr. Michaels are on board already."

"But we're standing right in front of you. Just a moment..." She opened her purse and took out her passport. "Here... Murphy, show her yours as well!"

Murphy fumbled in his pocket, took out his passport, and handed it over to the bureaucrat.

"Now..." Laura smiled triumphantly, "do you believe us now?" Carefully the woman examined the documents to determine if they were fakes, causing Laura to roll her eyes. After a few seconds Laura asked impatiently, "Well, anything wrong?"

The clerk cleared her throat. "Well, no... I'm terrible sorry... I don't know what went wrong. It has to be a misunderstanding..."

"Alright," Murphy said. "Just get us checked in!"

She smiled nervously. "I'm sorry, I can't."

"You can't?" Laura asked unbelievingly.

"No, the plane is pulling away from the gate... I can't let you in, take those two, who pretend to be you out... This would upset our timetable completely..."

"Just to get it right," Laura asked again, slowly losing her temper, "you'll let those two frauds fly on our seats... and we have to figure out how to get home?"

Again the woman smiled. " Of course you could get on one of our next planes, alright?"

"Alright???" Laura leaned over the desk and almost shouted at her. "Nothing is alright..."

"Laura, calm down!" Murphy tried to soothe her and grabbed her shoulders.

Laura turned and looked at him furiously. When she saw his pleading face she sighed and turned around again. She tried to start again in a more peaceful tone but failed. "Look, I'm a mother, my little baby is at home, she needs her mother! Get those frauds off! Now!" she screamed.

"Mrs. Steele..."

"No... I want my seat...now."

Murphy patted her shoulders once more and asked: "When is the next flight?"

The clerk tipped down something in her computer and looked back at them.

"Next two free seats are on our flight tomorrow morning."

"What? You...!" This time Laura was just about to jump over the desk, and she might have succeeded if Murphy hadn't stopped her.

The shocked clerk backed away.

"Stop it! This doesn't make sense, Laura! Go, call your husband. I'll take care of our problem, okay?"

"But..."

Murphy didn't say a word, just looked at her forcefully.

Laura sighed deeply and finally nodded. "Okay, I'll call Remington!"

Murphy smiled and looked behind her as she left to look for a phone booth. Then he turned around and smiled at the woman, who still was a bit confused of Laura's behavior.

"And the two of us are looking for an earlier flight, aren't we?"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Remington sat on the couch and fed Danielle her bedtime bottle. His thoughts were far away with his wife in San Francisco. Yes, he was afraid! He would have liked to stop her from going to San Francisco to solve the latest case with Murphy. But he knew that this would have been impossible... and a big mistake, too. Being a P.I. means everything to Laura he should never try to keep her away from work! Since Danielle's birth there wasn't a day without her mentioning going to work as soon as possible! Nevertheless he was afraid! Every time he thought of Laura dealing with murderers, thieves, and other kinds of criminals, he was frightened. That wasn't any different when they were just friends, but now they'd become a family, and he couldn't imagine losing Laura! He shook his head to get rid of that last thought.

He looked down at Danny, who sucked peacefully at her bottle. Harry caressed his daughter's cheek and softly whispered: "Murphy will take care of Mommy, don't worry. He promised."

He said that more to himself then to his daughter. Danielle stopped sucking and after a big "burp" she settled down to fall asleep.

Harry's smile showed his affection and he rose to put her to bed upstairs when the telephone started to ring. Danielle woke up and started screaming.

"Damn! Why is there always a phone ringing when I'm about to take a beautiful lady to bed?" He sighed and while picking up the receiver he tried to calm Danielle.

"Ssh, darling. Everything's alright!" but Danny screamed at the top of her lungs. He rocked her in his arms. <Who's that guy on the phone who disturbed this wonderful moment of bringing my daughter to bed?> he wondered angrily.

"Yes, Steele." He finally answered the phone not very welcomingly. When he heard the voice on the other end of the line laughing his anger disappeared.

"Laura?"

"Yeah, it's me. I'm sorry to disturb you!"

"Oh, it's okay, I was just about to take a wonderful young lady to bed and as usual..."

Laura laughed. "I see. So I have to apologize even more."

Finally Danielle calmed again and Remington could hear Laura sigh. "What's up?" he asked. "Problems concerning the case?"

Laura sighed again, bringing Harry's fears back to his mind."No," she finally answered. "The case is solved already. That's not the problem..."

"No?"

"It... It seems as if I can't come back home tonight."

Now it was Harry's turn to sigh.

"I know I promised, but... it's not my fault!"

"What happened?"

"I don't know exactly... but, Murphy and I weren't allowed to board because there were already a Mrs. Steele and a Mr. Michaels on the plane!"

"I don't understand."

"Well, it seems as if two frauds pretended to be Mrs. Steele and Mr. Michaels, and now they're going by our plane to Los Angeles, while we have to wait for the next plane... and it seems as if we've to wait until tomorrow morning."

"Oh, no...!" he answered with a sigh.

"I'm so sorry... I thought of our first anniversary in a different way, too! Are you managing with Danny?"

"Oh, sure... don't worry! And... don't worry about tomorrow. We'll have all of the evening together... and the night! And I'll plan a wonderful celebration!" he promised.
 
Laura laughed and answered, "I'm pretty sure you will! I miss you... both!"

Harry sighed. "We miss you, too!"

"I love you!... So long."

"So long, darling!" He waited until Laura was gone and hung up the receiver and smiled.

"Did you hear that, Danny? She's in love with us!"

Danielle seemed not very impressed, instead she felt asleep again. So he carried her upstairs, not looking away from his beautiful daughter.

Sometimes, in such wonderful moments he asked himself if this wasn't all a dream... He was married to the most wonderful woman, father of a beautiful daughter... No, he wasn't dreaming! <I've got a family! And nothing's going to change that!> He couldn't know that very soon it would be different.

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The tall blonde woman peering carefully through the window had to laugh when she saw the famous investigator Remington Steele sleeping in front of the TV, an empty baby bottle in his hands. Then, for one moment she had doubts. Would he help her? He was married now. No, he's just a man... he would approve of her suggestion...

To be continued...
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