Disclaimer: I do not own Dexter.

Alex sat in the car drumming his fingers on knee nervously. He looked at the man sitting beside him and then went back to looking at the road. "Quit tapping." Doakes snapped. Alex frowned but did as he was told.

"Sorry. I'm just nervous." He said smiling weakly at the driver.

"You should be. You're going into a place with a bunch of psychos. But you're dating one so it should be okay." He muttered grumpily.

"I've never met Jeremy before. Dexter wants us to adopt him when he gets out of jail. It'll be like meeting my son for the first time." Alex said as his stomach did flops inside him.

"Corse that fucking psycho wants to adopt another fucking psycho. Probably kill rats together or something." Doakes grumbled.

"He's never done anything...psychotic that I've seen." Alex mentioned. He felt he should defend his boyfriend.

"Shut up faggot. Get out. We're here." He said pulling to a stop in the lot of the building. Alex cringed. He hated being called a faggot.

"Thank you for bringing me. I didn't think they'd let me in just by myself cause I don't know Jeremy." Alex smiled as he fell instep beside the much larger man. He said nothing and they walked to the entrance.

"Sergeant James Doakes here to see...ah... What was his name again?" Doakes asked turning to Alex.

"Jeremy." Alex smiled sweetly.

"Jeremy what?" Doakes hissed.

"Oh...um...I don't remember his last name. Shouldn't you? You arrested him didn't you?" Alex suddenly felt very nervous.

"We got six Jeremy's." The man said frowning skeptically at the two.

"He's just a boy." Alex said trying to be helpful.

"He killed two people. I think that makes him..." Doakes stopped mid sentence. "Downs. Jeremy Downs." He said turning to the man behind the desk. He nodded and wrote them each a pass.

"So am I talking to him alone or will you be going in with me?" Alex asked.

"You never seen one of those CSI shows? They're bull shit but you get the idea. Face to face through bullet proof glass phone on each side." Doakes said.

"Oh no. I don't watch CSI. I don't like violence. I don't really watch TV in general." Alex said holding up his hands in a kind of defense.

"You're a fucking freak." Doakes mumbled. "If you don't like violence why are you dating a psycho like Morgan? He works for the police." Doakes grumbled. "And why are you adopting a murderer?" Doakes hissed. Alex was about to respond with a good reason when he decided not to. If he upset the man he may not have a ride home and he couldn't call Dexter while he was at work. He looked around nervously.

"If you hate being here so much why did you agree to take me?" Alex asked looking at Doakes who seemed tense.

"I didn't really have a choice did I?" Doakes snapped at him. "You came up to up to me in the parking lot at night and said you were a fucking ninja." Doakes snarled. Alex laughed, remembering the moment.

"And you pulled a gun on me." He grinned.

"And you acted like I wasn't going to fucking shoot you." Doakes huffed.

"Like you didn't even have a gun." Alex said smiling.

"And asked me to take you to jail." Doakes frowned. Alex grinned and nodded.

"But you said yes." He grinned.

"I don't know why. Shut the fuck up. We're here." He grumbled. He stood against the wall with his thick arms folded across his broad chest. Alex sat down tentatively in the blue plastic chair. It looked like the kind of chair that would be in a school. He looked at the boy behind the glass. He was leaning back in his chair with a brooding frown. Alex picked up the phone wondering who else had touched it. He could get a disease or something. He shook his head lightly before turning back to Jeremy just as the boy sat forward and picked up the phone

"Who the fuck are you?" He hissed.

"Hi Jeremy. My name's Alex." Alex said smiling sweetly.

"I'm not talkin with him here." Jeremy said nodding at Doakes. "Guy tackled me and I wasn't even fightin or nothin."

"Oh...ah..." Alex looked at Doakes.

"Tell him I said to shut the fuck up." Doakes hissed.

"He says...hi." Alex said carefully. "And I didn't want to talk about your case or anything like that I just wanted to...talk. I'm dating Dexter, you know Dexter. And we were wondering if you...maybe...wanted to-"

"Dexter..." Jeremy cut in. "So you're that Alex. But if you're Dexter's Alex why are you here with him?" Jeremy asked nodding at Doakes.

"I wanted to come without Dexter I wanted to meet you on my own." Alex said smiling.

"Why?" Jeremy asked.

"Because...well...because Dexter...I don't know if he talked to you about this...but we were thinking you could be our...son. We could adopt you." Alex said sounding about as terrified as he actually was. Dexter had talked about this to Jeremy. He had talked to him about a great many number of things. Dexter had told Jeremy what to do what to say what to look like. Jeremy thought very hard about what Dexter would tell him to do.

"Yes he talked with me about that." Jeremy said.

"And what did you think about it?" Alex asked. Jeremy shrugged

"I guess I'd like that. It means I won't have to sleep with old guys to rent a room." Jeremy said smiling. Dexter had taught him how and when to smile in the first week. Alex faltered.

"No more sleeping with old guys. Period." He said smiling weakly.

"Dexter said you showed your emotions on your face. Like an open book." Jeremy said. Alex laughed and nodded.

"I guess I am pretty much an open book. Anything you want to know?" Alex asked. Jeremy let his eyes wander to Doakes for a moment before flicking back to Alex.

"Any house rules I need to know?" Jeremy asked. Alex thought for a moment.

"Um...I don't know. That depends on if you'd be living with me or Dexter." Alex said smiling. The conversation, he thought, seemed to be going pretty well.

"You're not living together yet?" Jeremy asked. "I guess I just figured you would be." Jeremy shrugged. Alex thought for a moment about the idea.

"Should I ask him? To live with me?" Alex asked.

"I would if I were you. I mean he'd probably still keep his shit hole apartment for like storage and stuff but it'd probably be nicer to have my two dads living in the same house." Jeremy said. Alex nodded. "So...am I gunna have to go to school now or some shit?" He asked. Alex laughed.

"We'll see." He said. "Has Dexter told you about his job?" Alex asked. "He's working now."

"Yeah. Blood something or other. He's told me about it." Jeremy nodded. Alex smiled. This kid seemed nice enough for having killed two people. Maybe not exactly 'son' material but he could definitely get there. Jeremy stared at him, waiting for the next topic.

"Well I should go." Alex said. Jeremy nodded. "It was a pleasure to meet you Jeremy." Alex smiled.

"Yeah." He mumbled as they both hung up their phones. Alex turned to Doakes and smiled warmly and the two headed back to the station.