Hello all! Hope you're liking this twisty, turn-y mystery so far! This chapter is a little different but it fits in with the Espo-questioning theme and we get a little more insight into the newest couple of Adam and Lindsay. Enjoy!

The following morning, refreshed after late-night sexy times with Meredeth, Esposito awoke early with a kiss for his wife and children and was at his desk nearly an hour before he was actually on-duty.

He was working on his second cup of black coffee and thinking of switching to a latte when he saw Adam walk in, fit to be tied as he stomped to his desk and slammed down the travel-thermos, muttering to himself the entire time.

'Adam?' Esposito called over to him, his voice echoing in the nearly-empty space; save for Julien and another uniform, the bullpen was empty. 'Yo, Brennan!'

Adam looked up and the senior detective saw it wasn't anger on his face, it was fury combined with misery. 'Yes, Detective Esposito? Something you need help with?'

'Why are you here? Thought you and Newman were in court today.'

'We are but I wanted to just get out of the house with Lindsay. She's on early shift this morning, and I can't take one more second of being around her parents.'

'Oh, right, her folks are in town.' Rising from his chair, Esposito crossed over to him to offer a friendly ear. 'I take it things aren't going so well with the 'rents?'

'You might say that.' Adam dragged a hand over his face, looked around. 'Think we can grab a coffee?'

Esposito nodded and they headed for the break-room where Esposito brewed up a latte while Adam poured his own black decaf into a mug from his thermos. He sat down across from the young man and nudged the cream towards him. 'What's going on?'

'I don't know what you know about Lindsay's life pre-Alexis, but she's from Seattle where her father's a conservative Baptist minister.'

'Oh boy.'

'He called her a devil-worshiper because she went to university to study medicine. Achan, that's her father, said she was no longer welcome at the church if she was going to blaspheme by believing the godless heathens that pills could control procreation and cure disease, and that if she were truly pure of spirit the Lord would bless her with the true gifts women should love - a husband to care for and many children to raise as followers of Jesus.'

Esposito sipped his coffee, let Adam get it out. 'I take it they aren't big fans of you two living together before marriage, then?'

'Ha!' Adam barked out the laugh. 'I wish it were that simple. When Lindsay was attacked two years ago, her father blamed her.'

'He did what?'

'He blamed her, he told her she must have done something to tempt this boy to make his reaction so strong.' Adam's pleasant voice hardened to steel. 'We can't even sleep together while they're in town. I'm actually living on the sofa while they're maxing Lindsay out and what makes it even worse is our outlet for stress these days is good, sweaty, mind-clearing sex.'

'It's a good one,' Esposito agreed with a grin. 'Wait until she's about fourteen weeks pregnant. You'll be walking sideways because she'll use all your up-and-down.'

'That's a good one,' Adam chuckled, dragged his hand over his head. 'Anyways, that's all prelude to what happened last night. Lindsay's been working long hours and still doing so much learning, working in the ER under one of the trauma surgeons, and you know there's some days when you see a case that just gets to you more than others.'

'For sure.'

'Lindsay had one like that yesterday, and she texted me when she was on her way home that she was ready for a stiff drink and hot sex but it would have to since her parents were visiting. I was in the kitchen, offering to help her mother Mara getting dinner ready but she brushed it off saying it's what she does. I went over to watch a repeat of this week's Saints-Giants game on TV while Mara worked.'

Adam paused, took a bracing slurp of coffee as he fought off the temper rising in his chest. 'Lindsay made it home and she looked just shipwrecked. I could tell she'd been crying to get it out and I asked her if she wanted a nice hot bath since she was clearly exhausted but her father shook his head and told her, you have a job to do Lindsay and why was she so upset over people who weren't her family, there was no need to carry on so childishly.'

'I don't like where this is going,' Esposito murmured, 'not one bit.'

'I asked Achan what he meant, and Lindsay said to him, Daddy I've been on my feet for sixteen hours I need to rest, and he just sniffed and told her good girls listen to their fathers and wives take care of their husbands, that she better practice for when she and I are married. Lindsay started to weep again and her mother came over, gave her a hug so I am thinking, great Mara will say something, but instead of leading her off to bed she guides her to the kitchen counter and says, here, sweetie, you start on the vegetables, I'll finish tenderizing the meat.'

'Her parents made her cook you dinner after you-'

Esposito was cut off when Adam held up his hand, signaling he wasn't finished yet. 'I told Achan I could help with dinner but he just glared at me and said, absolutely not, women take care of men, that's their job and if Lindsay wants to have any hope of being a decent wife and mother she better learn her family should be her priority, not embarrassing herself by having a career outside the house.'

'That's disgusting,' Esposito spluttered, unable to comprehend that Adam wasn't just making up some ghastly soap opera. He knew there were people who were like that in the world, people who believed they were righteous in telling everyone else how bad they were while seeing no flaws within themselves.

'So after Lindsay and Mara clean up, I think maybe she can relax now but no. Mara tells Lindsay to start on the laundry and I can tell Lindsay's ready to collapse, and all her father does is sneer she has work to do, nevermind that she's been awake for nearly twenty-four hours.'

'I hope you put your foot down.'

'I played along, saying Lindsay's my fiancee and will listen to me, so I say, go to our bedroom and wait for me. Achan doesn't even wait for her to leave before telling me I will have my hands full with such a willful woman but like all women, she'll bend under her husband's hand once he breaks her in.'

'Jesus. No wonder you wanted to get away from the house,' Esposito breathed incredulously, then got his next shock of the morning with what Adam said next.

'I closed us in our room and she just fell apart, sobbing into her pillow, so I told her we won't be like her parents, we'll be like Javi and Mere.'

'Like me and Mere?'

Adam nodded. 'Achan and Mara, even Victor and Elaine, that's not a marriage, that's master and slave. You and Mere, you love each other and you're partners in thick and thin. You kick each other's asses, then get all gooey when you make up. That's the kind of marriage I want for me and Lindsay.'

That his marriage was something a young friend and colleague wanted to aspire to when he himself was having such doubts told Esposito that Beckett was absolutely right - he needed to knock off the self-pity. 'Well, having a fiancee you like as a friend as much as you love them as a spouse helps. Maybe Lindsay should give Meredeth a shout soon, when's her next day off?'

'Saturday. I already got her a spa package at Midtown Retreat. Total chick-works.'

'Any chance she might like to make it a girl's day with Mere?'