Home Is Where The Heart Is
"No! Please, no!" Rae's voice screamed into Jesse's own dream and jolted him awake.
The sleep was gone in an instant, and he turned to see his wife caught in the throes of a nightmare, the like of which, he thought they had seen the last of long before Anneya was born.
"Please … don't …" Rae could see him, the face of the man she thought was dead, but he wasn't, she had a gun in her hand and she had shot him with it, he had fallen to the floor, but another Levington had walked through a door and replaced him… Now, Rae was in the room, and it was full of computers. She could see herself on every screen, and then he was there again in front of her. "No … no more … I deleted you … you're dead…"
"Rae, Honey, wake up, it's all right. Baby, it's just a dream." Jesse heard Anneya begin to cry in the nursery down the hall, and he was torn between his wife and his child. Rae seemed to be quiet for the moment, although he had never seen her get rid of her demons without waking up. But if he didn't go to Anneya she would wake the whole house, already he could hear her cries getting louder, more insistent. With a sigh he knew that he would have to leave Rae, get his little girl, and then he could come back and help his wife as much as possible.
This decision made, Jesse got out of bed and moved towards the door.
"Jesse … help me … help …" Rae started to turn the computers off. Shutting down all the filth on the screens, but Levington followed her, turning them back on. Rae looked round, helplessly and saw her husband in the doorway. If he turned some off too they would beat him. She begged him, but he turned away and left her. "Jesse … no, don't go …no … not again, NO!" Rae's body arched up in the bed, and then she collapsed onto the mattress, her eyes open and her body shaking as she did so.
Jesse, all thoughts of his daughter instantly forgotten, rushed to her. "Rae. Oh, God, Rae, Honey are you awake?." Jesse placed his hand on the side of her throat, not knowing what it would do to her, but needing desperately to feel a strong steady pulse under his fingertips.
Rae's whole body stiffened as she felt his touch and the scream that left her lips chilled him to the bone. He didn't know what else to do and so he pulled her into his arms and just sat on the bed rocking her back and forth, comforting himself as well as her.
Steve had woken to the sound of crying, and knew, from the night he and Jo had looked after the infant alone, that it was Anneya. She was so different from her sister, that it was hard to believe that they were related. They looked very alike, Eliana was dark where Anneya was fair, but it was obvious they were sisters, their personalities though were completely different. Pulling himself out of bed, Steve carried on his thoughts as he made his way sleepily towards the nursery. Hoping that he would get there before the little girl realised that she wasn't crying quite loud enough and she really needed to put in a little more effort!
Eliana was a happy sunny child, even when she wasn't chattering away she was normally smiling and content. Anneya on the other hand was either crying or just looking at the world through big blue eyes taking it all in, but giving nothing out in return. Steve loved them both dearly, but he had a feeling that with Anneya the love wouldn't be returned in the same open and unconditional way that it was with her sister. She would go through life keeping everything very close to her chest. Not that that was the case right now. She was definitely giving her all to the current bout of night-time wailing because now it was a definite wail.
Steve had just picked her up out of her crib and begun to walk up and down in the dark with her little warm cheek resting on his shoulder when he heard Rae scream. He felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck and he knew that he had to check on her. Carefully putting the pacifier into his little charge's mouth, Steve left Eliana fast asleep in her own crib and moved down the hallway towards where Jesse and Rae were staying. As he did so Jo came out of their room, a look of worry on her face, and Michael, Daniel, and Mark, who had stayed the night, joined them.
"Jo, Sweetheart, just knock on the door and make sure that Jesse's ok with Rae. Everybody else move out of sight. We look like we want to pay an entrance fee and watch."
Steve's instructions were obeyed without murmur, and then the low knocking could be heard on the wood.
"Come in." Jesse knew that it would be either Steve or Jo, and to be honest he would be glad of some company. Rae was calmer now, but she was holding on to Jesse so tightly that couldn't pull himself away. Not that he wanted to, but he needed to get to Anneya.
"Jesse, what happened? We heard a scream."
"I … I'm sorry. I could see him, everywhere, I killed him, but he just kept coming back … the computer copied him again and again." Rae shuddered. She hadn't moved from her position in her husband's arms, and her voice was muffled and broken.
"Jo, I need to go get Anneya could you …" Jesse's voice trailed off as he saw his friend shake her head.
"No, you don't. She is restin' on the shoulder of her deeply besotted Uncle Steve, an' I don't think he will give her up lightly."
"Thank you." The relief in Jesse's voice was considerable, and Jo saw him relax a little.
The rest of the night was uneventful although Steve and Jo kept Anneya with them until morning, and Rae spent the entire time in the arms of her husband, not wanting him to move away from her, too scared to shut her eyes in case the nightmare came back to her once more.
As the sun began to shine in through the window to the room Rae and Jesse were sharing she took a deep breath and pulled herself out of his grasp. "Jesse, thank you, thank you, so much." Rae found his lips with her own and began to kiss him, running her hands through his hair, and moving closer to him so that she could feel his skin against her own once more.
Jesse felt his passion rising, but knew that he couldn't act on it. Now would be the wrong time. Instead be began to respond just to the kiss, running his fingers across Rae's back for a moment before feeling himself being pushed back down onto the bed.
Gradually Rae moved until she was lying with her head resting on his chest, then, after laying one hand on his shoulder, she began to speak. "I thought that they were over, that I was free of him. How can we stay in a hotel if there is a chance of that happening again?"
Jesse smiled a contented smile; he would be able to solve that problem for Rae straight away. "We don't have to stay in a hotel. I spoke with Jo and …"
"Jesse, I told you we wouldn't be staying here. It isn't fair." Jesse felt her whole body tense up, and he moved his hand so that he could rub gentle circles on her back.
"If you will let me finish I will explain. Jo has a house, just down the street, that she was gonna sell, but she said we could have it to rent instead. I said that we would love to have it. We can move in today."
"You did what?" Rae was standing up in an instant. The gentleness in her voice forgotten as she stood, staring in disbelief at her husband. "You agreed to rent a house in Beverley Hills, from my best friend, and you didn't even consult with me first?"
"I … No, I … didn't think …"
"Yeah, well, that's your trouble, Jesse Travis, you don't think, not about me, or the children, you just think about yourself. Well, thank you very much, Jesse, thank you very much indeed!" Rae opened the closet, grabbed some clothes from inside it and then disappeared into the bathroom. Jesse sat there, a look of stunned disbelief at the words he had just heard on his face. Then with a shake of his head, as if to clear away the unfairness of it all, he lay back down; to try and work out what just happened.
Rae had a quick shower, and pulled on the jogging bottoms and t-shirt that she had grabbed, without looking, from the small pile of clothes that Texas had lent her. Then she walked back into the bedroom, and without looking at Jesse, out into the hallway and down the stairs.
Rae made her way to the gym that Steve had installed in one of the rooms that they hadn't ever used. Rae knew that he and Texas often worked out there together, but she hoped that they would still be asleep, that way she could eliminate some of her anger before she had to start work. She pushed open the door and saw Steve lying back on one of the benches pulling a lever down, which resulted in way more weights that she could ever lift being raised behind his head.
She tried to duck back out without being seen, but it was a small room, and straight away she heard her partner call to her.
"Hey, Rae, come and join me." Steve let the weights fall with a heavy clang and then sat up. He took a towel off the floor and wiped it across his face and then patted down his arms, removing the sheen of sweat as he did so. It was clear that Steve had been in the gym for a while. His grey vest top was wet from the exertion he had put in, and there was an almost empty water bottle on the windowsill just above his head.
"I'm sorry, Steve, I won't interrupt you." Rae turned and opened the door, but suddenly felt his hand on her arm and the black mood that had brought her this far evaporated and she turned to him. Steve's arms went round her and she leant into her friend and partner, desperate for the reassurance and love she knew she would find there.
"Come on, it's over, nothing can be as bad as what we saw yesterday, it's all downhill from here." Steve kept perfectly still, he knew that she needed his comfort, but he didn't want to scare her away.
Slowly Rae looked up at him. She felt so incredibly safe in his arms that she hadn't wanted to move at all, but she knew that she had no choice. "It was a cop. A cop did that, cut up another cop, and a woman, I can't … how could you hate someone enough to do that?"
For a minute Steve thought over what he was going to say, and then, after quietly moving Rae over so that she could sit down on the bench he had been working on just a few minutes before, he began to speak. "Remember we talked about how those two girls could have felt so desperate that they would commit suicide like that? About how, thank God, we couldn't understand because we had never felt that desperate, that alone, that unloved?" Steve stopped and saw Rae nod her head slightly. "Well, this is the same. You said that you wanted Levington dead, but I know that you couldn't have done that to him." Again Steve stopped, this time because he felt Rae shake her head in affirmation of what he had said. "You have to keep that humanity alive, because if you don't, gradually, because of the work that we do, and the things we see, we'll be eaten away at until we can feel that type of hate and that would be a terrible thing to happen. You can't understand because you don't have a hateful bone in your body. You couldn't do that because you are mentally incapable of feeling that way."
Rae's eyes hadn't left his face the entire time he was speaking, but now she lowered them so she was looking at the floor. "But I wanted him to suffer, I wanted him to die, and then he did, I saw him die in front of me. You were there, you know what happened."
"I know, but you wouldn't have done what this guy did to Crosier. Rae, you have to let it go again. You had moved on from this, you have to do it once more. You may have to keep doing it, but you need to do it right now, because we have a job to do, and our caseload just got way too heavy for us."
Rae nodded. "Well, I guess you had better show me the best way round this gym so that I can cope with a day working with you."
The quip was a little false, but it was a start, and with a gentle kiss on the top of her head Steve moved across to the mat in the corner of the room. "Ma'am, would you like to warm up?" Rae gave a bow and followed him over.
Rae and Steve had arrived at breakfast enervated and ready for a busy day. Michael had helped Jo to get Eliana and Anneya up, washed and dressed, and although Rae had apologised she could tell that they had enjoyed it, and she didn't feel too guilty. Daniel had been very quiet and although they had asked whether there was something wrong he hadn't admitted to anything. Mark was on an early shift and so had left just after they had met in the hallway. Jesse hadn't come down to breakfast at all, and when Rae had returned to their room to get dressed for work she had found him fast asleep, and so obviously in need of the rest that he hadn't even stirred when she had kissed him gently on the cheek before leaving the room.
Both Steve and Rae had messages on their cell phones from Amanda and so they headed straight to Community General. They took a detour through the ER and seeing Mark and Alex talking together went over to see them.
"Hey, guys, how's it going? Mark, it's good to see you back where you belong." Rae kissed her friend on the cheek, and then did the same to Alex. "And you, Alex, how are you today?"
"I'm fine thanks and …" Alex made a very theatrical show of looking around to see if anyone was listening, "Don't tell anyone, but it's been quite quiet."
"Good, are you still coming to the ball on Saturday night?" Rae hadn't been able to help Texas very much since she had returned to work, but she was still looking forward to it and felt a huge amount of responsibility for its perceived success or failure.
"Of course, I have to use the tux at least twice a year to feel I'm getting my money's worth. And if I backed out now Shannon would kill me. She's never been to anything like it in her life before. Mind you, neither have I. Do sneakers go with a tux?"
"Oh, funny." Rae looked round to see that Steve and Mark had moved away a little from where she was standing and she looked back at Alex with a puzzled frown on her face.
"Honey, come in here with me, just for a minute, ok?" Alex put his arm round Rae's back, and she nodded, following her doctor into a vacant trauma suite. "Rae, I hope you don't mind, but Mark told me about your dream, and what you found yesterday. I'm worried about you; you shouldn't still be having dreams."
"Alex, I promise you, I'm not. I haven't had a nightmare since before Anneya was born, and this one was different, it was related to what happened yesterday. I don't think I'll get it again, but I have a lunch time appointment with Lauren."
"Well, as long as you're sure, I worry about you, Rae, the job you do, and everything that has happened to you… I'm sorry." Alex's words tailed off. Suddenly he felt stupid and very young. He could see, just by looking at her, that Rae was fine again, but he'd had to find out for himself. To his surprise Rae leant over and kissed him gently on the cheek.
"Thank you, Alex. Don't apologise, I don't mean to make you worry about me, I guess it goes with the job, but I really am fine, and I'll make sure I stay that way. I have no intention of going back to how I was. But I'd better get back to Steve, unless you want to start a rumour about a young doctor and a slightly, and I emphasise the slightly, older cop."
"Oh, God, no. Shannon'll lynch me for sure." To his embarrassment Alex felt himself blush and he looked at Rae, trying to salvage some of the situation. "Of course, it might do your reputation the world of good!"
"Why you cheeky … get out of here, before I tell your momma!" Rae stuck her tongue out at Alex and then pretended to rush him, the both arrived back in the hallway at the same time, laughing and giggling about the end of the conversation, both heartened by the reactions of the other.
"Detective, if you could just leave the young doctors alone for a minute… What, what did I say?" Steve, his sarcastic tone replaced by puzzlement as Rae and Alex began laughing again, tried to regain control of the conversation. "Rae, we need to get down to Amanda."
Rae became serious again instantly, "Sorry, Steve, ok, I'm ready now." A small laugh escaped her, and she winked at Alex, "See you Saturday, Sweetie!" A full blown laugh resulted from that as she made Alex blush again, and then, without another word or sound, Rae headed for the elevator, leaving the three men standing watching her exit.
Amanda was sitting at her desk, papers everywhere, when they arrived. Rae and Steve were both surprised to see the mess, she was normally so efficient that they were instantly worried about her.
"Amanda, are you ok?" It was Steve who spoke first.
"Mmm, what? Oh yeah, I've lost something, I'll find it in a moment."
"You've lost something? Wow." Rae looked at Steve as she spoke.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Amanda's eyes were full of emotion as she spoke, and Rae moved straight over to her, noticing with concern that Amanda turned her gaze away from her.
"Amanda, what's the matter?"
"Nothing, it's just that … well, I've never had to autopsy just a head before, I don't know why but it just really got to me last night, and then … and then this happened." Amanda looked up again and this time there were tears in her eyes.
"What, what happened, Amanda, do you need me to get Dad?" Steve had moved over too, and he slipped his arms around his friend. They had known each other a long time, but he didn't think he had seen her like this before, not at work anyway.
"This is what happened." Amanda held up her left hand and there sparkling on her finger was a beautiful diamond engagement ring.
"Oh, Honey, I am just so pleased for you… Amanda?" This time Steve was more than concerned he was really worried as she leant into him and began to cry. He looked at Rae and mouthed two words, Get Dad and then watched with relief as she nodded and headed off on her errand.
"… I just think you should come see her that's all. She's upset, I guess we all are, but it is really affecting her, and, well, she has other news too. Maybe everything together is too much for her."
Steve heard Rae's voice as the elevator doors opened, and then he saw the welcome, but worried, face of his father.
"Amanda, Honey, whatever is the matter?"
"Mark? Oh, Mark, I'm so sorry, I just got a bit … a bit emotional … You needn't have come down."
"Want me to go then?" Mark tried a little joke, and was heartened when she responded to it.
"No, you might as well stay, now you are here." She gently moved away from Steve, and then stood up and brushed her clothes down. "Guys, I'm sorry, let's go for a coffee, Steve; I can fill you in on what I found in about ten minutes or so, will that be all right?"
"Of course, you are far more important than any report, take your time."
Together the four friends, walked up to the doctor's lounge, which was thankfully empty. "Are you the only doctors who use this room? Only we hardly ever have to share." Rae was always surprised to find that they could have privacy so easily in such a public place.
"I think they run when they see Dad coming. It's his personal private domain."
Mark just looked at Steve, then they all sat down round the table, and Rae made them each a drink. As they let their coffee and teas cool the three of them waited for Amanda to begin talking.
"You know, when I saw the … the head in the freezer, I was fine, I had my coroner's hat on, so to speak. I knew that Ron was going to pick up the boys for me, but by the time I got home I was feeling a little … fragile, I guess." Amanda stopped speaking for a moment and took a mouthful of her coffee. "All I planned to do was help with homework, have a bath and then crash out on the bed until morning." She stopped talking again as the recollection of what had met her eyes filled her mind and when she began to speak again it was as if all four of them were there, reliving her memory with her.
Amanda had heard CJ and Dion long before she saw them. "She's home, mommy's home."
"Shhh, she'll hear you and then you'll spoil it." Dion's slightly older voice cut through the air.
"Boys." Ron had only needed to say the one word and they had fallen into silence. Amanda had smiled as she locked up the car and some of her fatigue left her. She wondered what surprise they had concocted this time. Since Ron had moved to LA she had come home to a Mexican evening, complete with sombrero's and tequila, an indoor barbeque which had taken forever to get out of the carpet, and an all-you-can-eat fish dinner, as long as you liked fish fingers that was. This time though it was different.
Dion and CJ were standing just inside the door; wearing the suits they had been bought for Steve and Jo's wedding. Dion took his mom's purse and coat, and CJ, with a look of deep concentration on his face, had begun to speak.
"If, Mom would …"
"Madam, not Mom, you idiot." Dion's voice had been hard and Amanda had seen her youngest son's face fall. She had placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. It seemed to do the trick and he had started to speak again.
"If, Madam, would like to follow me." With a big smile, because he had got it right, CJ led his mom into the dining room and she had let out a gasp of surprise.
The room was lit only by candles, and there must have been a hundred of them flickering on every surface. The table was set with all the best silverware and crockery, and a bottle of champagne was chilling in the ice bucket, its stand next to where she knew Ron would sit.
Strung across from corner to corner all around the room were garlands of pink and white balloons, and in the middle, above the table there was one helium balloon, resting gently against the ceiling with a small package hanging down from its string.
As she stood there taking the scene in she felt two large, safe and strong hands cover her eyes, and she placed her own hands over them. "Shhh, don't say anything, just let me guide you." Ron's voice was huskily seductive in her ear and she did just as she was told.
Amanda had felt the hands over her eyes move slightly and then they were replaced by the soft and small hands of one of her children. Closing her eyes, so that she wouldn't be able to see through the fingers and spoil the surprise, Amanda crouched slightly and waited for what was going to happen next. Ron's hand took hold of hers and the darkness was replaced by light as Dion, for it was he standing behind her, moved into her eye line.
Amanda had looked down in surprise to find Ron on one knee in front of her, with her sons directly behind him, an expression of immense happiness on his face. "Honey, the boys and I have been talking, and we think that I have been here long enough to know that this is for ever. I spoke with them and they have given me their permission to ask you this. Amanda, I love you and your family with all my heart, please, Baby, will you marry me?"
Amanda had seen CJ start to giggle when Ron had called her 'baby' and Dion's elbow as it had made contact with his ribs, but all this was secondary to what she was really looking at, which was the face of the man she loved and, unable to speak for fear of breaking down, she just nodded, but then words had come, words, tears and laughter all at once.
"Oh, yes! Ron, Yes! Yes! Yes! Tomorrow, I will marry you tomorrow, if you want. Honey, I love you too, so much I didn't think it was possible to love someone as much as I do you."
There had been no more words then as Ron had stood and swept her up into his arms in one movement, and they had kissed and kissed, oblivious of the world outside, of even the boys, who were now both giggling and making faces, until in the end she had just relaxed into his embrace and known, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was where she wanted to spend the rest of her life.
"The meal was … different … Ron had wanted to include the boys all the way, so that they didn't feel that me marrying him would change their place in the family, he had let them choose their favourites. We had chicken nuggets, curly fries, chocolate ice cream and donuts. We did have champagne, and we let them have a mouthful each which they hated, and then they drank soda." Amanda smiled at the memory of the meal. She had expected something romantic, maybe salmon and strawberries, rather than chicken dippers and brown sauce, but then, she guessed, she was a mom not a supermodel.
"And the ring, when did he give you the ring… Um, if you don't mind sharing." Rae suddenly realised that maybe Amanda had left that bit out for a reason.
"No, I don't mind sharing." Amanda had smiled gratefully at Rae, knowing instantly what she was getting at.
Dion and CJ had 'offered' to clear the table, and once they had put everything onto the trolley and were wheeling it out into the kitchen with instructions on how to load the dishwasher still ringing in their ears, Ron had reached up and pulled at the string of the balloon still hugging the ceiling. He had turned to her and smiled once again.
"Amanda, you are the most wonderful, sexy, beautiful, woman I have ever known in my life. I can't believe that you love me even half as much as I love you, and I know I still have a lot to learn about this family business, but together I know we can make a go of it. We can have a strong happy family unit, because you have made such a great start. Honey, I am just so honoured that you said yes to me. Will you wear this to show everybody that we are together?"
The tears had rushed to Amanda's eyes; she knew just how much he had learnt, how much he had relaxed and opened up, and how much he had tried to get to grips with, not only a relationship with her, but a ready made family that needed time and attention lavished on it. The fact that he had succeeded so well just proved to her that he really was the man for her. She had watched in silence as Ron had gently taken her left hand and then tenderly slid on to it a solitaire diamond engagement ring. Then he had taken her into his arms once again, and neither fire nor flood would have separated them.
"Sweetie, I just can't tell you how pleased I am for you. He is a very lucky man."
"Oh, I know that, Mark, I know that." Ron's voice cut into the friendly gathering, but so vivid had the imagery been that none of them were surprised to see him there. Amanda stood up and moved over to him and was soon all but enveloped in a huge bear hug.
"Hey, you." Her voice was back to its normal calm tones now, but the three other friends, knew just how much the previous evening had meant to her.
"Hey, yourself. Miss me?"
"Not as much as you, apparently, since you're the one who came visiting." Amanda had smiled at him, and he kissed her once more on the lips before shaking his head.
"Ah, actually, no. I need to speak with Steve and Rae."
"There, replaced all ready. My mother was right. Never trust a fed." Amanda smiled, and then she leant over and whispered in Rae's ear, just loud enough for her fiancé to hear. "Be gentle with him, he had a busy night!"
"Amanda!" Ron's voice was shocked, and they all laughed. Then Rae moved across and took him by the hand.
"Come with me, Agent Wagner, I'll get you a coffee, and you can sit and realise just what you have let yourself in for."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jesse had come down the stairs, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes just after eleven. The first person he saw was Daniel. "Hey, Daniel, aren't you supposed to be in school?"
"Yeah, but Michael and Jo let me stay home today." Daniel wouldn't meet Jesse's eyes, and, concerned, Jesse moved closer to him.
"Are you feeling unwell? I can give you a check over."
"No, no, it's nothing like that. I … I don't want to talk about it."
Jesse looked at the young man again, and could see that whatever it was, was causing him great embarrassment. "Ok, but any time I can help, just let me know."
"Yeah, whatever." Daniel, delighted that the unwanted conversation was over bolted for his room, and Jesse, confused, but knowing that there was nothing he could do, made his way to the morning room.
"Da ddy." Eliana was sitting on the floor, a simple jigsaw in front of her, which was instantly forgotten as she saw Jesse walk towards her. Jesse picked her up, noticing for the first time, that the clothes she had on were a little small for her.
"I guess Mommy and I need to go shopping for clothes, huh?" Jesse looked over at Jo as he spoke, but his daughter prevented him from speaking again.
"Mommy …" Eliana looked round and then back at her daddy. "Gone." A big tear slid down her cheek. "M … mommy."
Oh, way to go, Jess, There was no doubt that Eliana loved her daddy, but she was a mommy's girl, and would happily spend every minute of every day with her if she was able. Jesse put her back on the carpet, picked up a jigsaw piece and hid it behind his back. The tear was replaced by a smile and she scooted round to try and get it. Jesse moved as well, and soon they were laughing and rolling around the floor together, and Rae was, for the moment, forgotten.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The pathology lab at Community General was a little crowded. There were two doctors, two cops and an FBI Agent all sitting discussing body parts, and what information they had available to them.
"I don't really understand DNA, but I know that it is pretty decisive. It was explained to me, years ago, in London, but I guess things have changed since then. I had a refresher course here just after I arrived, but it was just so dull. I do remember some of it though. Using DNA you can tell that all the parts, the male parts that is, are all from the same guy right?" Rae looked across at her friend; she didn't need to shut her eyes to be able to see the head in the freezer. Her anger of the previous day had dissipated and now she just felt revulsion at what she had seen.
"Yes, that's right, I can give you a crash course; you know what it stands for, right?"
"De … something, something, nucleic acid … I tell you what, remind me." Rae smiled at her friend, she couldn't remember exactly what it stood for, and she knew that everybody now realised it.
"Almost, it's deoxyribonucleic acid."
"I do know that it is the centre of every cell, and it gives you your hair colour, eye colour, even determines what diseases you can get… Sorry, I'll shut up." Rae made herself comfortable, or as comfortable as she could on the corner of Amanda's now slightly tidier desk. The missing letter was back where it should have been, and everybody was ready to listen.
"That's ok, you're right. It looks like a long, narrow piece of string, under a microscope that is, because it is obviously not visible to the naked eye. If you had a foot long strand of DNA you could get it into a cube which would be one-millionth of an inch per side!" Mark looked at the three law officers as he finished speaking and smiled, he loved the scientifics of forensic medicine, it never ceased to amaze him, nor it would seem the rest of the people in the room. "Sorry, Amanda, I guess I kinda butted in there."
Amanda smiled as she began to speak. "It's not a problem. Like Mark said DNA is a long molecule, it's wound in a double helix, and found in the chromosomes. It's vital to cellular reproduction because, without it, your body can't produce proteins or enzymes. It also can produce an exact copy of itself."
"And, if I remember rightly, each cell has a complete DNA sample in it, yes? Which is why you can get it from blood, hair, semen … eyes … any part of the body." Steve looked at Amanda as he spoke, but it was his dad who replied.
"Yeah, and every cell's DNA is identical, no matter which part of the body you got it from it would be the same as everywhere else."
"So, if you were to simplify it for us poor lowly detectives, how would you go about working out one of those slides I've seen on TV, with the lines going across it?" Rae was feeling decidedly thick, Amanda and Mark obviously knew way more than she did, Ron wasn't saying anything, but she had a feeling that was only because he knew it all already, and even Steve seemed to have a better understanding of it than her.
"DNA is described as a strand which is made up of building blocks. Just four of them actually." Amanda stopped; she could already see a question forming in Rae's mind.
"But if there are only four of them how can they be so different that nobody is the same?"
"They have letters, well actually they have names but everybody uses the letters. A, T, G and C." Amanda waited, but Rae said nothing more, so she continued. "They are long molecules remember, so the letters can just go on and on, you can have any combination, ad infinitum.
Rae smiled, as she began to grasp the uniqueness of this science. "I wish you had done the course I went on; I would have understood it all."
"Thank you, now, just to confuse things a little, the letters aren't called letters, they're called bases. And if I knew someone's DNA I could synthesize it, with, guess what? A DNA synthesizer!"
"Stop, stop, you are making my brain hurt. Go back to the basics!" Rae ran her hands through her hair. She had always been useless at science, and it was definitely something that hadn't improved with age.
Mark looked at Amanda and then receiving a nod took over the discussion. "As DNA varies from person to person, unless you are an identical twin, you can use these differences to tell one person from another. So, if we had two male feet we would be able to test the DNA to tell whether they came from the same body." Mark's eyes were twinkling, as he spoke, he was enjoying himself no end. "And I guess you would like us to tell you how that is done?"
"Yes, Dad, that is why we're here, or one of the reasons." Steve shook his head; you couldn't do anything quickly when his father and science were involved.
"I'll let Amanda tell you then, because I haven't done any DNA testing, and she is a recognised expert." He beamed at his friend, and saw her blush and turn away for a second.
"In this case I cut the DNA into fragments with a chemical called a restriction enzyme, and then I sort them into size by putting them through a slab of gelatine using an electric current. Because of the gel the small fragments move quicker than the larger ones. Once that is done, a replica of the gel is made and it traps the DNA in the positions that they ended up in. So you have the large fragments one end and the small ones the other. This is also called a blot, and another part of the DNA called a probe is used to treat the blot." Amanda paused for a moment. "Are you still with me?"
The three detectives all nodded, and so she carried on.
"The probe binds to the blot in a place where a similar piece of DNA is already situated. This is called a target sequence and it only occurs at specific loci … sorry positions on the string. Ok, I'm almost done." Amanda had a glass of water on her desk and she leant over and picked it up, had a drink and then began to speak again. "The target DNA that has been recognised by the probe will be measured. These fragments come from places in the DNA where there is something called lengthpolymorphism, which means that the length varies from person to person. If the lengths are different then the DNA comes from different people, if it is the same, well, we would say that it is a coincidence that two people have the same length fragments, but in reality it is the same person."
"But we only have the DNA of one person, well two, but both are victims, he hasn't made any mistakes yet, so how are we gonna catch him using DNA?" Steve shook his head, all this was doing so far was showing that all the parts came from the same guy. He looked a little confused. Amanda had explained it to him in layman's terms when he had been pretending to be a doctor at Community General, but it was a long time ago. He had been on courses too, but it had always been explained in an assailant and victim scenario, such as rape when there was DNA on the injured party left by the attacker.
"It depends. There are many possible scenarios where we might very well be able to nail him this way."
"How, if all we have are the victims DNA?"
"Like this maybe." Amanda leant forward and delicately picked up a hair from Steve's shoulder with a pair of tweezers. "People lose their hair at a rate of about 100 a day. I haven't found any yet, but that doesn't mean that I won't. You don't know when you lose a single hair; hopefully he won't be smart enough to think of it."
"We think he's a cop." Rae eased herself off the desk and came a little closer to her friends. "Let's hope he's as ignorant of the facts of DNA as I was, or at least confused by them. Amanda, I know that you said it's almost impossible for someone to have the same DNA as another person, but how do you tell that what you have is a match?"
"Ok. You get your DNA from your mom and dad. The size of a DNA fragment is determined by the number of copies of VNTR, or variable number tandem repeats, there are in that fragment. The size difference is what I was talking about just now. For evidence purposes the important thing to remember is that the number of tandem repeats varies from person to person, and they also vary from place to place on your chromosomes. So for any given VNTR loci in your DNA you will have repeats."
"So the DNA you have will be the same as your mom and your dad, but the way it is laid out is unique to you?" Steve was sure he had it, but he was reassured when he saw both his dad and Amanda nod.
"Yeah. Most of what you have is the same as everybody else. But, and this is where even my mind boggles a bit, there are about 3 million base pairs of DNA which vary from person to person. The way DNA evidence is used is by comparing any DNA left at a crime scene with the DNA of a suspect, and like I said, if it is the same you have your man." Amanda smiled, the rest of the room seemed to be with her now.
"But couldn't a suspect say that he could have similar DNA to someone else?" Rae still wasn't totally convinced that she had it yet.
"He could, but as those 3 million base pairs, which only he has, remember, are just 0.10 percent of his entire genome, the argument doesn't have much chance of succeeding."
"Wow." Rae just nodded after that. The figures were staggering, and she guessed that if someone's DNA matched a semen sample or blood sample then there was no chance it could be anyone else. Rae needed that reassurance because she didn't think she could cope with the guy they were chasing being missed because of a clerical error.