A/N: some background.
Thanks andtototoo and Jocelyn Torrent for beta/advice/other help.

Warning: PG-14 There is a gory/bloody scene in this chap.

Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi or any of it's characters.

Chapter 2

Alex sighed as she turned off her laptop and quickly got off the bed. She headed to her walk-in closet and hastily picked a set of clothing from the neatly hanging racks. She swiftly tied the brown silky hair with a hair-band in a tight ponytail in order to get it away from her face. Grabbing her patent navy blue blazer, a cherished gift from her deceased Dad; she grabbed the keys to her SUV from the table and rushed out of the condo. The two-bedroom, well decorated, luxury condominium was one of the benefits the 'Force' had provided to all its employees along with the BMW SUV, but Alex loved her job enough that even without these little perks, she still would have happily worked at the 'Force'.

As soon as Alex got, off of the highway, she took the north road that led to the industrial end of the city. The late hour of the night insured absolutely no traffic on this road and the only light was that from the moon itself. After driving for a few minutes on a narrow road, she turned onto a deserted unpaved gravel road that led to a large garage door of a warehouse.

Pushing a button with her left foot in the car, Alex watched as the garage door began to rise with the faintest of sounds, giving way to the underground parking lot.

Although the outlook of this building made it look like an old worn-out warehouse, the insides were contrary to the fact. The parking lot itself was equipped with the most modern design: lots of security cameras, and of course, the stainless steel capsule of an elevator. The old barn look was to keep the place hidden from any suspicion or from any uninvited passer-bys who could have come here by accident.

Alex parked her car at her designated parking spot and walked out to the elevator. Once inside, she pressed the button to the fourth floor. The button with the built-in finger print scanner, confirming her identity, started to move as Alex's thoughts started to drift.

There was something majestic about the blonde woman that had sat on the wooden bench outside of the church. She was lost in her own thoughts, unaffected by the frigid October weather. Snow flurries drifted about, carrying with them the faint smell of red maple leaves. She sat in her black dress, encircled by the autumn foliage, utterly claiming everything around her. The entire setting had reminded Alex of a painting she must've seen somewhere and she hadn't been able to erase that image out of her head.

The attraction that Alex felt was not just limited to the woman's beauty. There was something else there; a pull, some sort of a magnetism that was hard for Alex to explain. The way she had stared at Alex, the way her translucent grey eyes captured her mourning for her lost loved one. The way her eyes could reveal every thought she was thinking or emotion she was feeling blew Alex away. In fact, it was all Alex had thought about for the last three days.

Alex felt as if she was supposed to know this woman, as if she was somehow connected to her, linked to her even. Meeting her for the first time had felt like they'd known each other all their lives; and a constant need to see her again, Alex had felt in her heart.

When Gavin had mentioned the name on the knife's inscription, it had taken Alex by a complete surprise. The chances of meeting a stranger for the first time and then hearing the same name again in relation to a case was more than a coincidence and could not be easily ignored by a 'Force' agent.

By the time Alex had gotten out of the elevator, Gavin was already waiting for her.

Alex had first met Gavin Mason during her recruit training. She had already been in the program for three months when he had joined. He was relatively short but with an intimidating thick build. However, Alex knew the heart that lived beneath his burly exterior and she had the Shomak case to thank for it.

Gavin was assigned to be her junior partner for the case and Alex had found him to be an intelligent and committed agent; but what had really brought them closer was him risking his own life to save Alex's. He had taken the bullet that had Alex's name written all over it.

Fred Shomak was no ordinary killer. He was a psychopath who had given a new meaning to the yard thrasher. Not only had they found enough evidence to build a case against him in his house, they had also found all the dismembered body parts of three of his victims in the decomposer in his backyard and some remains in the yard thrasher. The cruelty with which he had killed these innocent people was unimaginable.

Alex had come outside to confirm her findings with the Chief over the phone when Fred had unexpectedly come back home. Alex had her back to him and Fred had aimed and fired at her. If Gavin had not spotted him just in time and if he had not responded promptly, the bullet would have certainly been fatal for Alex.

Unfortunately, Gavin had not had enough time to push Alex out of the way and get out of the way as well. The bullet had pierced just below his right shoulder, damaging the soft tissue of his chest and puncturing his right lung in the process. Gavin's intervention had provided Alex with enough time to shoot back at Fred.

By the time the paramedics had arrived, Gavin had already fainted because of the blood loss and lack of oxygen to his tissues. It had taken him four months to fully recover and return to work. Alex had religiously visited him at the hospital and was grateful to Gavin for saving her life. Therefore, when she was offered to choose an assistant agent, she would have picked agent Gavin Mason with her eyes closed. There was nobody else she trusted more on the 'Force' than him.

"They're waiting in the briefing room," Gavin had informed her.

"What? The Chief's here too?" she asked in surprise. "I thought we were just running a quick scan on the blade?"

Mason just shrugged in reply.

Chief's presence was enough to warn Alex that something more serious was going on here. It was a rare thing for the Chief to attend late night briefings like this and it was only then that they used the formal briefing rooms. Mostly the briefings used to take place in either the evidence room or in Alex's office.

"Did chief say anything?" Alex asked.

"No, but he seemed, umm… a little pre-occupied. I don't know what to make out of it, except that it looks like things are more complicated than what we had initially thought."

"The blood isn't goat's, is it?" Alex asked with a sigh.

He looked at her wide-eyed as if he was not expecting her to ask that.

"No, it's not. It's human blood on the knife. We only thought it was a goat because we'd found a goat in the trashcan nearby but now we have enough evidence to know that the blood is of human origin."

"Interesting, so goat might have nothing to do with this whole thing?" Alex questioned, deep in thought.

"Exactly, but then why would someone just throw a goat in a garbage can? Did they not think we would examine the knife?" He asked in confusion but Alex had her own set of questions to ask.

"Who found the second blade?" she asked as they turned down the corridor.

"Officer Cameron did," he replied.

"How far away was it from the first blade?"

"About thirty, thirty-five meters or so."

"Did we find any finger prints on this one?"

"No," Mason replied. "It would sound careless but it seems like someone had dropped it by mistake; but why would someone throw a knife with human blood on a street and just drop its replica just anywhere? It's ridiculously careless, Alex."

A smile appeared on Alex's face. "He's playing with us." she replied. "Any leads on the blood?"

"Officer Manning is already on it."

She asked the question that constantly flickered in her brain. "And the inscription?"

"I've run a background check on everyone with the name 'Michalchuk'. I was right though, the name's not that popular."

"How many?"

"In Toronto, less than fifty, if I count the women, young and the old; in Ontario, maybe a few more."

"Hmmm" Alex responded distantly.

There was something about Alex's expression this time that had alarmed him.

"Boss, what's wrong?" he asked.

Gavin only referred to her by that name when either he was extremely excited about a finding he had discovered, or if the conversation was of a personal nature.

"It's probably nothing," Alex, who was equally confused, did not want to say anything before she had all the facts.

"Chief," Alex said as they entered the briefing room and nodded first at Chief Simpson, and then at the other two officers.

She walked to the front of the room and threw a quick glance at Chief's face before she took a chair next to him. 'Gavin was right, Chief does look worried', she thought.

Gavin went to sit across from her and nodded at Officer Cameron.

Officer Cameron pressed a button on his computer which made a blue light appear in the middle of the table. The light quickly turned into a holographic image of a switchblade.

A/N: *** check out the pic ... Bloodline; Chapter 2, PICTURE from my profile page ***

"This history of switchblade knives can be traced back to the seventeenth century. They had been mostly of English or French origin and were considered unique; made one piece at a time from wrought iron."

The officer then pressed another button on the keyboard and an inscription that was barely visible with the naked eye magnified in front of them.

"They each used to have a maker's mark or tang stamps to catalog them. Through these markings, they could be traced back to their maker. Our knives are definitely one, or in this case, two of a kind, and are at least three thousand years old. The design on them could be the family's emblem or could represent something of significance to the family," he finished before turning off the hologram.

"What were they used for?" Alex asked Officer Cameron.

"As much as we can tell by examining the quality of iron, they were not supposed to be used as a weapon. It's not pure iron. There's gold mixed with it. We're still running the XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) Analysis on it to figure out the exact consistency of the gold, but my guess would be that the purpose of these knives was merely decoration, collection or they were used as a gift from the family to honor a guest."

"Manning, did you examine the blood?" Agent Mason asked, turning toward the officer.

"It's a type O, Rhesus positive blood. A very common blood type and is nearly impossible to trace until we know who to test. I have run the scan with everyone in our database without any luck, and I have entered the blood report in the system if you want to read it." Manning said.

"Thanks, Officer Manning," Alex replied.

"Agent Mason?" the Chief asked turning towards him.

"The name Michalchuk is of Ukrainian origin and we simply don't have many of them in Canada. Those who are here have mostly migrated from Eastern Europe. If they're listed, they would be easy to track down."

"I want to go through the name list myself, Gavin." Alex interjected.

"My office, Nunez." the Chief suddenly ordered, getting up from his chair. "You too, Mason."

To be continued...
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