Chapter 25

Four weeks later a tall, muscular man entered SRU headquarters. It was the first time he had been to the SRU, but he knew a few people who worked there; two were family. The man looked around until he saw a police officer at the front desk. Her identification tag identified her as Winnie. The man looked Winnie over, and if he wasn't in such a hurry to see a certain someone, the man would have chatted Winnie up and would have asked for her phone number. But today was not one of those days, and the man was completely focussed on getting results.

When the man approached Winnie, she gave him a welcoming smile.

"I want to speak to Greg Parker," the man said. He felt bad about being so abrupt, but he really wanted to speak with Parker.

"Sure. First I just need you to give me your name and then I'll see what I can do."

"Listen, I know you're just doing your job, just be a good woman and get the man out here now! That's what I need. That's what I want."

Ed and Sam had just come around the corner when they heard the man speaking to Winnie.

Sam made a move to defend Winnie, but Ed held him back.

Ed had heard enough. He knew the man was a hot head and that it would be best to diffuse the situation as soon as possible.

"Hey buddy, what's going on?" Ed asked as casually as he could. Ed's body language screamed that he was ready to take on trouble if the man wanted to go down that route.

"Ed. Hi." The man seemed to relax a little in Ed's presence.

"Stopping in for a visit?" Ed asked.

"No. Ed, you got help me. I need to speak with Parker."

"Okay. I hear you. Anything wrong?"

"Stupid cop…," the man said as he lowered his voice, "Parker. I need to speak with him. It's important or I wouldn't be down here in this kind of place." With that, the man waved his hand indicating a police station.

Ed wasn't sure what was going on. "Follow me. Sam?"

"On it, boss."

Ed took the man down the hall and straight to the briefing room. The entire walk was done in silence, but that didn't mean that Ed wasn't watching the man to his left.

When Ed and the man got to the briefing room, Ed turned to the man. "Gwen okay?"

"Yes." The man paused. "No."

"Which is it buddy? Cause I'm having problems following you."

Parker entered the briefing room and looked at the man.

"Shane," Parker nodded his head in acknowledgment, "what can I do for you?"

"You can help by getting my sister to stop crying over you, for starters."

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Parker calmly asked.

"We found her crying in the pool."

"We? Who we?" Ed asked.

"Emmett and I. She didn't know we were coming over. It was just luck that both of us went there. Al said Gwen was swimming. We didn't go to the pool straight away, but when we did, we saw her facing the corner. Gwen wasn't swimming. At first we didn't know what she was doing."

Shane seemed to have stopped talking.

"Okay," Ed said, indicating that Shane should continue.

"Then she started swimming laps. At first I didn't think anything about it, but then she started to get tired and cold and she didn't want come out."

Parker's mind was racing, but his exterior was calm.

"Is she okay?"

"Yes. She's fine. I sort of yelled at her to get out of the pool."

Parker simply raised an eyebrow. He didn't have to look at Ed to know that Ed's facial expression would be tight and angered. Shane never 'sort of yelled'; he would have full out started berating Gwen, and all of them knew it.

"Parker, the whole time Gwen had been crying."

"Did she say what she was crying about?"

"Yeah. When she came out the pool, she ran at Emmett and held on. We couldn't make out what she was trying to say at first. And then, well, it didn't make any sense."

"And?" Parker pressed.

Shane sighed. "You're a cop and you're supposed to think clearly and calmly. So don't get all defensive and overreact."

"Okay."

"Gwen thinks…she's thinks she had an affair."

Ed chuckled until he saw that Shane was serious.

Parker was sure his mouth had dropped open.

"That's ridiculous. Gwen wouldn't cheat on Greg. End of story," Ed said.

"I know that, you know that, hell, even Parker knows that, but Gwen thinks she's having an affair. Had an affair."

"Why would she think that?" Parker asked.

"I don't know. She says she remembers loving some douche."

"She remembers?" Parker said.

"Sort of."

"Shane, start from beginning." Parker said.

"I'm not even sure there was a beginning!"

"Shane," Parker began, "what exactly did Gwen say."

"All she keeps saying is she loves Scarlatti."

"She said that?" Ed asked.

"Yeah. Then she says she can't love him."

"Shane, where is Gwendolyn now?" Parker asked.

"She's still at home. Emmett is with her. Parker, who is Scarlatti?"

Parker glanced at Ed and then back at Shane. "It's Spike. Scarlatti is Spike."

"Spike?" Shane said.

Ed nodded his head.

"Spike? The nerdy one of you guys?" Shane clarified again.

Parker raised his eyebrows in Spike's defence.

"There's no way she had an affair Parker. And with that guy? No way. She wouldn't do that," Shane said.

"I know that Shane," Parker said.

Shane eyed Parker and gave him a quick up and down glance. "You're not just being all girly and holding your emotions in, right? You do know that she's all stressed and confused, and she - "

Parker held up his hand. "Shane. Stop. Look, I'm almost finished my shift. I'm going to talk to her."

Shane saw Spike out of the corner of his eyes, and he took off.

Ed saw Spike and less than a second later he was off after Shane, with Parker trailing behind.

"Hey Spike!"

Spike smiled when he saw Shane. "Hey man, what's up?"

"You having an affair with my sister?"

Spike's eyes nearly increased to twice their normal size. He looked at Shane, then at Ed, and lastly at Parker before answering honestly.