Deciding that the old adage, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer," applied to this situation Peter rushed back to his desk to start digging into Hardy's past.

The problem was someone had locked down his personnel file. Peter had used his boyish charms on the head of HR when he first got assigned to Kendal and had been given the master password to all of the files.

It worked on his own, he noted, and everyone else's, but the minute he tried to access Hardy's file he got locked out.

The urge to slam his fists into the monitor and swear profusely made him almost sweat with the effort of holding back. Finally he decided that a coffee, doughnuts, with pink icing of course and some flattery would be best applied in person.

He pictured Sybil Whitney, the head of HR, her uniform stretched tight over her generous figure and the way her processed hair always looked just shy of breaking off at the roots. She would give him what he needed, he grinned.

Hardy watched as the warning messages flashed across his computer's screen. Carlisle was so predictable, he shook his head ruefully.

Did he really think that he would be able to hack into his personnel file? He smiled as he typed in his access code to reset the password once again. He had seen Carlisle get up from his desk and knew instinctively that he was going to try to chat up Whitney in HR.

She had been given strict orders to not give Carlisle anything, but she also seemed to be very smitten with the DI, and would probably fold like a cheap tent in a stiff wind.

He, however, had everything he needed to know about Carlisle, already downloaded and printed out.

Or...he rubbed his hands over his face, most of what he needed to know. The fact that he had been adopted as infant, and seemed to share too many qualities in common, made Hardy concerned.

Was this irritating man, this self-absorbed, ego on legs related? His brother? His birth certificate mentioned nothing about there being a twin, but it was also dated a good 5 months later. It was possible that when Carlisle was adopted out was when the certificate had been created?

And what, if anything, did this possible genetic link mean to him? He wasn't looking for family, he had one already. His daughter was his world, even more so now that they had been reunited.

He didn't need a brother, especially not a jumped up prick like Carlisle.

He hoped that Carlisle wouldn't expect, if all this were true, that he would go easy on him just because they shared DNA. He didn't like Carlisle, he had so very little in common with him aside from appearances, and he couldn't imagine even being friends with him, let alone family.

He sat back in his chair, and stared up at the ceiling.

Was he being a bit too hard on Carlisle because he was worried about himself? Was he being unnecessarily harsh towards the man?

Then he recalled Carlisle's whinging about 'piddly cases' and regular good old fashioned police work being somehow beneath him and his doubts flew out the window.

Carlisle had spent way too much time using his charms to get what he wanted, Hardy was not a swooning old maid and he was not sustainable to wide eyes or smiles being used as a weapon.

He would be firm but fair, Carlisle was nothing special, and he would soon find out that he needed to work just as hard as anyone under his supervision or he'd be out on his bony arse.

Speaking of, Hardy realised he had been sitting for far too long. Time to take a stroll up to HR he decided with a crooked smile and interrupt the little love fest that was sure to be in progress.