***Thanks for the review viperfang164. I finished this chapter for you; I was going to write other things today. If you didn't see my 1 chapter Dexter story Rude Awakenings, check it out. I think it might be my best work ever, I completely nailed it. You're right, I was about to give up on this story. 35 chapters and only 11 reviews make me wonder if it's worth finishing at all, but the fact that you never usually review means so much more. Thanks again…

Chapter 35

Odds and Ends

Wednesday Early AM October 31th 2012

The city streets

SWAT was actually able to arrive before the men De Marco was watching decided to bolt. The building was surrounded and a sniper set up in the same window the De Marco had filmed the men through. The sniper was careful to wedge into the very corner of the window to minimize his profile. As De Marco had expected when SWAT rolled up the doors and stormed in one of the men reached for the girl and the other ran for the car. The sniper dropped the man reaching for the girl and the SWAT commander drop the other; both were shots to the legs and under the orders of De Marco only those two officers were to fire unless fired upon. It was important to avoid the appearance of an execution against men who had attacked the home of an officer and may be responsible for the deaths of other law enforcement officers or civilians during the various chases.

Astor was more or less unharmed but was in a viciously ill mood. Once they cut her free she stomped in the front teeth of her captors before anyone could stop her, which was impressive considering she wasn't wearing any shoes.

Joey Quinn was pulled from the mangled remains of his car and was initially thought to be dead, but had faint vitals. Manzon rode with him in the ambulance and was horrified when they asked if he was an organ donor. The men, in the SUV they were chasing, were hit by the faster train and there weren't a whole lot of sold remains to collect, nor clues. The Batista barbeque resulted in no arrests either.

Between the two accident scenes and scores injured civilians and several fatalities including the driver of the semi tanker, the media was in a complete and total frenzy and now Debra Morgan understood why LaGuerta went herself to find Dexter; it was to avoid the press. She deflected the attacks using Astor and the fact that the assailants were willing to break into the home of a Metro Homicide Detective to kill or kidnap his entire family, which illustrated that they were willing to go to and length to achieve their objective.

It wasn't long of course before Dexter's name got out and someone asked if they were blood related, "No, no blood relation." Someone else caught on and asked if they were married, "No, we aren't married either, any other questions?" She figured this would stall them for a while especially since Dexter wasn't even really on the books yet, they would have difficulty locating information on him.

She told them that she had to go and check on the status of the subjects that had been apprehended and write reports. Luckily Chief Mathews arrived before the news of Astor's recovery had been confirmed and she intuitively spun that into some sympathy from him.

The Chief was an old school war horse that didn't take kindly to thugs coming into the home of one of his boys and snatching children, "Serves those bastards right. Are you still with Quinn?"

"No, sir" she said as her phone rang. "Morgan! ….Outstanding work Agent De Marco, see you at the ER. Is she there… put her on a second… Hey, Astor shut your mouth until I get there. You don't have to answer any questions without a parent there. See you at the hospital."

"It was Astor," she said excitedly. "De Marco took the two suspects alive, but they are wounded."

"Well get to the hospital and check on Quinn and your niece and nephew. Get someone competent to question them the suspects. If you have a report in my hands by seven AM, I will try to do some damage control."

That was the last thing she expected, "Sir, thank you sir. Just as a warning the jackals asked if Dex and I were related by blood, or married and I told them no. I also doubt this has anything to do with the Báthory killer."

"Way to go Lieutenant, you're learning,"

"Just what you taught me sir, 'if they ask you if you know what time it is the answer is: Yes. Make the bastards ask you for the time." He laughed and slapped her on the shoulder and he spun on his heel and left.

The fallout was large enough for IA to take over the secondary crime scenes, which was a blessing and a curse. A curse in that she was going to IA up her ass twenty-four seven, but a blessing because she got her team back.

Debra detoured over to the hospital for an hour or two and left Vince and Louis to finish up at Dexter's apartment. "Damn Cody, you're lucky… it looked worse…" she clutched his hand as the Doctor, Dr. Sara Reynolds, stitched him up.

"Ma'am, this really is quite serious. Where are his parents?"

Before Deb could answer Cody snapped, "Dead. They are both dead. Our adopted father is raising three of us and paying for a live in caregiver," he nodded to Jamie who was sitting on the floor in the corner with a sleeping Harrison on her lap. "He was adopted himself, this is his adopted sister. He knows what we are going through better than anyone else ever could, so don't even come at me with your 'child and family services' sly ass canned questions. Stick to what you know and stitch my feet and stay the hell out of other people's business. I need to get home; I have an Algebra exam tomorrow."

The Doctor turned red in the face and she started to object before Deb snatched her by the arm and drug her from the room and down the hall, ignoring her objections the whole way. "Look, their father, my brother is missing. Armed men broke into the house to kidnap or kill them all. He is probably dead in a ditch somewhere. We just rescued his daughter and she is on her way here now. Now unless you want to be the one to tell him his parent is dead for the third time you better stitch him up so I can get them the hell out of here. Do not even think about dicking around with these kids, I am the closest thing to a mother they have and I will defend them like it." The woman started to say something but the resolute look on Debs face changed her mind.

The doctor was finishing with Cody when they brought Astor in. A patrolman was escorting her and actually made Deb give him her ID before releasing her and leaving, "Sorry Lieutenant. Detective Anderson ordered me to physically see your laminated ID."

Deb shook her head, "No, that was smart. Thanks, I appreciate it."

Astor looked remarkably calm until he walked away at which point she totally lost control, she started pacing and talking in a shrieking voice at a mile a minute as well as crying and the sniveling. Debs linguistic skills of the 'teenage girl' dialect were a tad rusty and she made out very little of it. She was barefoot and wearing a large police windbreaker and jeans. Deb knew some of it was shock, but the cop in her took over, she grabbed Astor and felt her head. She was burning up and her pupils were wide open.

"Did they give you anything?"

"No, I just got here…"

"No Astor, the idiots that grabbed you?"

"Uh… I don't know. I was knocked out."

The Doctor came out and Deb nodded to Astor, "Doctor this is my Niece Astor. We just got her back from those creeps. Do you think you can take a quick look?"

The Doctor looked at her knowingly, "Sure. Miss if you can step in that room for a moment…" Deb started to follow and this time the Doctor grabbed her arm, "Usually they are more open if family members aren't present, but of course I can't prevent you…"
"No, you're right. That's fine. I think they gave her something, Ecstasy probably. Look I'm sorry about before…"

The Doctor gave her best flippant shrug, "Whatever. You know what we see every day. It's my job to ask."

Deb stuck her head in the door, "You okay Astor, or you want me to come in?"

"If she's going where I think she's going, then I'd rather not put on a show…"

"Okay, I'll wait here."

It didn't take long; the Doctor said she was 'still intact' which actually took Deb a moment to grasp what she meant and that she drew blood for a tox screen, but she could go for now.

"Come on, let's collect Cody and roll…"

"Oh, he's here? Is he in the waiting room?"

Deb didn't realize that she didn't know he was hurt. "O M G, Cody!" she ran over and hugged him.

He looked at her oddly after the hug, "Are you wearing body armor?" to which she shot him a 'shut up' look. He shook his head, "Forget I asked, I think I'd rather not know. Here you go loser, don't say I never gave you anything…" he handed her a pair of his sneakers that he brought with him, knowing she had lost hers. His feet were too swollen and heavily bandaged to fit.

Deb stared at them hugging and holding hands and they looked so much like her and Dex at that age. Kids grow up so fast. Jamie was wake and collecting Harrison. "Here Jamie here's a key to my place. They all have spare clothes there. I'll go by Dex's and grab some things and see if he's turned up yet. Angel's outside and is going to make sure it's okay there. Don't take them back home until I tell you that it's safe…"

"Sure thing Deb, see you soon…"

They exited the building to find Agent Demarco, Angel Batista and Mike Anderson catching up in the patient loading area. "Oh, Angel… on the Josef BLT case the guy at the Pawn Shop was cooperative. He said that Josef came in and pawned a gold coin and it matched a request that they had posted from a buyer. Someone was looking to pay 10% more than the cost of the coin for it. The guy gave him something extra to drop dime on Josef. I got the number the guy used to dial the buyer and a description of the coin."

"Was it a rare coin or something Mike?" Angel asked.

"Yes and no. It was a..." he looked at his notes, "...Bahar Azadi Coin. It's a gold coin from Iran which is blacklisted in the US. So, it's rare here but not everywhere. We banned it after 9/11 due to its use in money laundering and illicit trade. The good part is that he was only looking for coins from '08."

"So, the guy pawns the coin, pawn broker dials the number, phone guy buys the coin and the info on the seller, goes to Josef and tortures him to get him to spill the beans. So, we are thinking a terrorism beef here? What nationality was Josef?"

Deb spoke up, "Russian. His INTERPOL sheet came through right before I left the office. It was mostly clean. A couple of minor things like simple possession, trespassing, etc. They were all from when he was a teenager in the eighties."

"So, you thinking that we should dial the number claiming to be pawn brokers?" asked Angel.

Mike smiled and nodded, "That's exactly what I was thinking."