Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter!

-Chapter 36-

"All We Are"

Landon sat in the interrogation room, letting out a sigh as he looked out the glass walls. He been here before, in the same situation. He hoped that no one thought it was a pattern, especially his parents. He also hoped that no one thought the "Delko kids" were out of control, especially since Jayden had spent most of the week here too.

Looking out the glass walls again, his eyes were met with one of the lab techs who shook his head to him. Landon looked away. He already knew his parents were going to be upset him. He was tarnishing their reputation. The officers that brought him in explained that his mom and dad were at a crime scene and that they had been notified. Since Jayden didn't go to school today that only meant that either she was with their grandparents or at the community center.

Landon would never regret what happened today because he warned Jayden what would happen to Tristian if he hurt her. It was Tristian's fault why Jayden was having problems. It wasn't fair. His sister was going through it while Tristian was getting away free. After talking to Jayden last night, he decided to teach Tristian a lesson. Landon thought over the events of the day that led to this moment:

Landon justified his current predicament with what he said about if Tristian ever hurt Jayden he'd have to deal with him and that's exactly what Tristian was going to have to do. Letting his coach know that he wouldn't be able to stick around for the evening practice –being the best on the team had its perks – Landon headed to Jayden's school. Everything should go by without a problem since Jayden didn't come to school and his mom was picking him up from school, after what would be practice.

His plan was working out fine so far. Landon walked in the school's court-way, walking to the door to make sure he got a glimpse of Tristian when he saw him. Then it dawned on him; he didn't know how Tristian looked. He never discussed it with Jayden. Well, that rendered the trip kind of useless right now. He let out a strong sigh, prepared to leave when his name was called. He turned around and was face-to-face with Craig, his older, ex-friend.

"What's up?" Craig said. "I think it's bogus that your parents transferred you."

Landon let out a sigh. "You know that's old news." Landon didn't want to entertain him and decided to shut it down before he was in a deep conversation with the guy. "It doesn't matter anymore, I know they were looking out for me."

"Hmph," Craig expressed. "So you wanted to leave?"

Landon was about to say something, but he heard someone call Tristian's name. He gave Craig a final look and walked away. He had other pressing matters to tend to. He walked to a boy who was just a little taller than himself. "Are you Tristian?"

"Who wants to…," Tristian said, turning around, looking at Landon first, then at Craig. Jocks. They were the last group of people he ever wanted to deal with.

Landon looked at him. "You know Jayden?"

Tristian looked from Landon to Craig again. More of Craig's friends started to come around which made him nervous. He looked at Landon again. "Yeah, I know she's your sister."

"Yeah, but did you know I don't like it when people take advantage of her?" Landon said. Although naturally he had brown eyes, almost hazel, Landon's eyes took on a chocolate, threatening color. "And you took advantage of her."

"Oh that was you?" One of Craig's friends said. He looked at his other friends. "My girlfriend said that Landon's sister got caught making out in the hallway."

Landon turned to the group that had formed behind him. "She didn't," Landon clarified. Jayden had told him what happened and of course he believed her. His sister wasn't like that. She didn't go around doing things like that. He turned his attention back to Tristian. "He took advantage of her."

"I don't know what she told you," Tristian said, "but I didn't take advantage of her. We…both…were…having issues and we worked it out."

"How did you work it out?" Craig said, joining the conversation. He himself had a crush on Jayden since she came to his school, but she was young…only twelve. He was in tenth grade. "Did she want to work it out?"

"Yeah, she did," Tristian said.

"You're lying," Landon said, stepping in Tristian's face. In doing so, all of his ex-friends took a step too. He didn't want anyone else involved with this and wanted to let them know that, but his intent on Tristian was too much. "You took advantage of my sister."

Tristian stepped back, realizing Landon wanted to fight. He didn't want to fight. "I…I'm not talking about this. It's between Jayden and me." He turned around to leave, but felt arms turn him around. It was Craig.

"So you're taking advantage of girls now?" Craig said.

"I didn't," Tristian said, trying to explain himself.

By then, a crowd had formed, prepared to see a fight. Landon looked at Craig, not understanding why he was so involved. This was his sister. Then it dawned on him. Landon's mind thought back to the few months prior when he still attended this school and Craig wanted to know if Jayden would go out with him. He liked her. Still, this was his sister and he wanted to deal with it. Landon moved closer to Tristian, mentally letting Craig know that this was his situation and to take a step back, only the brief moment that Landon was in his thoughts, he didn't notice that Craig had pushed Tristian and Tristian was set to push Craig back, but Landon got pushed. Unprepared, Landon was on the ground in a matter of seconds, but he recovered quickly. With rage in his eyes, Landon pushed Tristian back.

Although Tristian's friends were calling him, he couldn't tear himself away. He was physically strong, he could take care of Landon. It was Landon's friends that he was worried about. If they didn't get involved the fight would be fair. He stepped to Landon and took a swing.

Landon dodged Tristian's fist, but seeing that he wanted to fight, filled him with more rage. Landon saw red and as if this was football, Landon tackled Tristian to the ground as the fight ensued. The next thing Landon knew security was breaking up the fight and he was being dragged into the school's office. From there, everything happened fast; Landon knew Tristian was suspended again and since the school couldn't suspend him because he wasn't a student, they called the police…

Which led him to this point. Landon checked his watch…it was three-thirty in the afternoon. He sat back in the chair and shook his head. He looked at the door when it clicked open. He was slightly relieved that it wasn't his parents. He already knew how they disciplined Jayden when she was here…Landon wasn't ready to take the yelling in front of everybody. Still, it was another familiar face. "Are my parents here?"

Frank looked at Landon. Somewhere along the line, it wasn't working out for the Delko kids. He had one more year before he was set to retire and he'd hoped he would never have to bring in anybody that was in association to anyone he worked with. Frank sucked in his bottom lip and moved his jaw as he thought. He never imagined ever having to interrogate one of the Delko kids because – for the most part – they were considered good kids.

Little could be given to that fact, at least this week for that matter. Rumors spread through the department like a wildfire at Jayden's suspension and now the youngest Delko was sitting across from him with a charge of trespassing and battery lingering over his head. Frank let out a breath and scratched his thumb nail over his eyebrow, "Your parents are in the field but have been paged to come to the station as it's mandatory that I take your statement, but considering that you're a minor, a parent should be present."

Frank didn't know what to do, but he had to be as unbiased as possible. He was there when the arresting officers brought him in. The most he could have done for Eric and Calleigh was to bring Landon to interrogation so that he wouldn't be stuck in holding.

Secretly, he wondered if everything was okay in the Delko household. He remembered his own children's actions and attitudes when he had gotten divorced from his wife. It was a surprise that none of them ended up with an arrest record. Briefly allowing his mind to think about his children, his oldest daughter was now a Pediatrician with a child of her own, his first and only grandchild, Grace. His son had taken his path and became a police officer, and his youngest daughter was finishing up her Bachelor's Degree. Frank came out of his thoughts as Landon moved on the other side of the table.

Landon shook his head. "My parents…they are mad aren't they?"

"I don't know," Frank said. Just at the moment, he looked out the glass walls. Calleigh and Eric were both walking down the hall and if their walking was an indication of their mood, interrogation wasn't going to be nice.

Landon looked out into the lab too, his thoughts mirroring Frank's as he saw his parents. He felt his blood run a little colder as a sick feeling hit his stomach. Landon put his hand to his face and chewed on his nail.

Eric and Calleigh walked into interrogation and sat on either side of Landon. Calleigh briefly looked at Landon before turning her head to Frank, while Eric held his gaze on Landon.

Frank's heart went out to Landon because even though trespassing and battery, both considered a misdemeanor charge, was punishable with maybe a few hours or community service, if that considering Landon was still a minor, a look in Eric and Calleigh's eyes told him that whatever punishment they would give Landon would be much worse than the actual charge. He cleared his throat. "Administration says you're not a student of the school. Why were you there in the first place?"

Landon looked at his parents. He hated to disappoint them and to think he was on a roll, making them proud that he was good enough to play for an all-star team. "It got out of control very fast-"

"Why were you there?" Calleigh asked, half yelling.

Frank looked at Calleigh.

Landon looked at his mom before looking at his dad. "I'm sorry but I had to," Landon started. "Jayden and I talked about what happened. This guy took advantage of her and she's been breaking down because neither one of you believe her. That's why she's having panic attacks. I just wanted to show him that he would not be able to get away with what he did to her."

Frank looked from Eric to Calleigh as he tried to fill in blanks about what may have happened that caused Jayden's suspension. Only rumors circulated around MDPD and he never believed them.

"You should have told us before you took matters into your own hands," Eric said.

"Frank," Calleigh began, "do you have the information you need to make a report?" She had already summed in her mind the situation that they were dealing with. Apparently Landon knew some things that she didn't and she wanted to talk to Jayden again about what happened. She admired the relationship that Landon and Jayden had with each other, but if her own actions brought on Jayden's panic attacks, Calleigh didn't know if she would ever be able to forgive herself.

"I just need a little more information regarding the fight," Frank said. After asking some mandatory questions, Frank left interrogation, promising to give the police report to Calleigh and Eric later. If you'd asked him, justice was served. If everything happened according to Landon's story, he had nothing to worry about. Frank understood that Landon was acting on impulse and usually in cases like that, people who filed the report drop the charges because they are easily contradicted. The school would also have some explaining to do because whatever happened to Jayden, happened on their property.

Eric looked at Landon. "I'm glad that you were looking out for your sister, but you should have come to us. I don't care if the situation is about you or not."

"We tell you guys constantly," Calleigh said, agreeing with Eric.

"Yeah," Landon said, "but Jayden told you what happened and you didn't believe her."

Eric felt slightly guilty. Part of this was his fault but seeing the hickey on Jayden's neck after discovering the naked pictures in her phone during the vacation caused him to draw his own conclusions. To even think that Jayden's boyfriend had taken advantage of her caused his blood to boil. He had to talk to Jayden and possibly her boyfriend too. "We're going to talk to Jayden when we get home."

Calleigh nodded her head in agreement. Looking around the lab she realized that once again they were dealing with personal issues in her workplace. She couldn't take it anymore. Calleigh looked at Eric and then at Landon. Her family needed her. Eric was still experiencing setbacks from his accident, Landon was taking the law into his own hands and she didn't want him to cross that line again and Jayden had a lot going on…things that Jayden depended on her to take care of. Calleigh bit her lip, knowing what she had to do. She looked at Eric. "Let's go home," she said, standing. "Just meet me at the car I need to stop by Horatio's office. I'm putting in a leave of absence."

This was actually one of my favorite chapters to write and I hope you all enjoyed it! Next chapter should be very soon as it's considered a part 2, although it's a stand-alone chapter too. But thank you guys for reading!