I know what he did to you because I was there.

That night, alone in his room, the pale light of the city bathing him he couldn't sleep. The echo of Rebecca's words deafening him. That didn't make sense how could she have known, or been there and old enough to have a memory? He didn't remember much before he was nine, the year Rebecca was born and he'd had the scars then.

Hadn't he?

He lay on the bare mattress, sheets and blanket kicked to the floor, fingers idly tracing the familiar weals of scar tissue on his torso and tried, really tried, for the first time in years to remember the scars.

A flash of blood and bandages…then…the scars were sensitive at first, he had to be careful about what he wore…a shirt he had received from a friend's mother was his favorite for a long time. It was well worn and buttery soft on his skin.

The shirt…

"Tommy." He whispered in the dark.

Tommy had been one of his few actual friends. Tommy's mother did her best to help Norman and had made sure to reserve the best of Tommy's cast offs – Tommy was taller and bigger boy than little slim Norman – for Jayden. He hadn't met Tommy until …middle school...he had been what, twelve? Thirteen? He felt cold and nauseated. Rebecca might actually be telling the truth.

His first instinct was to call her but he stifled it. He needed to get some sleep, get his head straight and then maybe contact her. She might be right about this one thing she was still a poisonous person. He didn't dare make any irrevocable choices without thinking things through. With some part of the puzzle laid to rest he closed his eyes, breathed evenly, and eventually slept.

Tommy was dead, Thomas Slatzky had died a year before Norman had even heard of the Origami Killer. Jayden felt a pang of stale grief quickly overridden by frustration. He ran a hand through his hair, reminding himself to get it trimmed sooner rather than later, and let out a breath. He stared at the obituary page on Madison's computer and let out a sigh.

"You're going to need to buy hairbands if you don't get that mop top seen to." Madison said padding out of her shared bedroom with Ethan. Jayden looked up at her and smiled tiredly.

"I didn't think you'd mind, I overslept today and the library was closed-"

"It's fine, what are you looking for? I might be able to help, investigative report don't'cha know." She teased.

His instinct was to shut her out and down. Keep up his façade but that was the old him. She trusted him so it was time he trusted her. "Uh well yeah maybe you can."

"Spill, I'll make coffee." It was late Jayden had slept through most of his day off. Shaun and Ethan were staying overnight with Shaun's mom and would be back in the morning.

"Does it bother you that Ethan sleeps at Grace's when Shaun is there?" Jayden blurted.

"Nope. Grace drinks. She has a handle on it now but I feel better knowing Ethan is there just in case."

"You don't get jealous?"

"Nope, if Ethan wants to have sex with someone else that's between him and them. As long as he uses protection and is straight with me I don't care."

"Seriously?"

"Never heard of an open relationship?"

"Sure I just never –"

"Relax Norman." She laughed. "We're brutally honest with each other. After…after I lied to him it was the only way forward."

"Has he…or you…?"

"Once, weekend fling with a photographer. So what or who are you looking for?" she asked and started making lattes.

"Uhh.." Jayden struggled to keep his head on track. An open relationship? A photographer?

"Sorry." She laughed and put two mugs on the kitchen island and sat down, "That wasn't a fair topic change."

"No, I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked in the first place –"

"It's fine Norman. I had the fling. Ethan…well, he's welcome to but he's just not interested in anyone else so far."

"You never get jealous?"

"Of course I do I just deal with it. I love and trust Ethan, that means I trust him to love and respect me back. So far so good."

"That's…healthy."

"It takes work and a lot of communication." She sipped her coffee while Jayden sat and held his for a moment.

"You know about my scars, Ethan told you?"

She looked away for a moment then met his eyes and nodded firmly.

"I uh, I don't remember how I got them. I met with my sister, you know about that...It didn't go very well. Her parting shot…she said she was there when my father did something to me. I didn't think she could mean them." he shifted on the stool and looked down at his coffee but kept talking, "...but I realized that she was old enough to possibly remember it after all. I was trying to locate a friend from childhood, I thought there was a good chance he might be able to help me pin down the timeline."

"Trying?"

"He's dead. Look, you did some research on me right?"

"Well, yes but only from the point you enrolled at Oxford on. I wasn't sure how you'd feel about me digging in to your childhood."

He licked his dry lips and drank the latte hardly tasting it. "Dig Madison, I've been running away from whatever this is my whole life, I need to know."

"Okay Jayden but I need you to know that I'm going to find everything I can but Tommy is dead and so many years have passed we may never find out what really happened. This isn't TV there are almost never neat concise reasons for what we do or who we are. Will you be able to live with that?"

"If I still had ARI I could do this myself in a day Madison, but I don't so I need you –"

"I'm going to help you Jayden but you haven't answered my question." She said firmly.

She put a hand on his, still clutching the coffee cup. Her skin was warm and soft and she smelled like fresh air and fresh from the dryer clothes. He closed his eyes and thought about her question.

"I don't know Madison, I know I don't want to live with the fragments I have now. Maybe if we dig and come up empty that will be enough. I think if I know there's nothing else to be found I can live with that. I just need…due diligence."

"Who else might be able to help fill in the blanks?"

"My sister, Rebecca. She's… a wreck. She lies, steals, uses people, she's fundamentally selfish and toxic as hell but she claimed to know what happened. I can't trust her though so we'll need to try to corroborate what she says. Tommy's mother may know something, they were close, if she's still alive. I'm not sure who else really. Maybe property and school records will help."

"Okay, let's divide and conquer okay? You ring your FBI pals and see what you can shake out of them. Then sit down and write up all the addresses, phone numbers, names, dates, schools, clubs, and everything else you can remember. We'll sift it and parse and see what we have, okay?"

"You're good."

"Pfft obviously."

Ethan and Shaun arrived just after lunchtime to find Jayden and Madison hard at work. Piles of fresh print outs, sticky notes, highlighters, pens, and well-worn cell phones scattered around them.

"Lovell, you and I both know a deep background had to be run to approve me –" Jayden scowled at the phone and the pad of paper in front of him. "I understand, now listen to me okay? You've examined me head to toe probably a dozen times, during those exams not once did you ask me –" More scowling.

"That's my point, you didn't ask and I don't fucking know Lovell, so unless you want me to go to the press and explain that you knowingly cleared me without doing your damn homework you're going to give me all the information you have. Yes right now. I … I'm not blackmailing you or trying to ruin you, this is more graymail – right. Thank you." Jayden's hand shook slightly as he hung up.

"Working on the book?" Ethan asked. Shaun stared around with wide curious eyes. He always seemed subdued when he returned from a visit with his mother.

"In a way, how was Grace?" Madison asked then kissed Ethan hungrily.

"Gross get a room." Jayden and Shaun chorused. Madison flipped Jayden the bird then released Ethan. Shaun ran to his room to change and clean it up.

"Can I help?" Ethan asked around a yawn.

Jayden was making more coffee preoccupied with his phone call. Lovell had hinted that the FBI might have had more information on his scars than was on the official record. He hadn't needed much of a push to agree to look for more information, Jayden felt like the threat to go to the press was a formality.

"Yeah actually you can have a seat loverboy and prepare for our presentation of known facts." Madison said solemnly.