"Dee?" he called, touching one shoulder, and immediately noticed the tension in the muscles. "Dee?"
Green eyes met his inquisitive gaze and Ryo was slightly shocked by the emotional upheaval in there. Magic slithered around the man like a creature with a life of its own and Ryo reacted almost automatically, the shield enveloping his partner and soothing the energy he emitted. No one saw it, it wasn't spiking enough to register, but the instinct was still the same.
"What's wrong?" he wanted to know.
"Barclay's a world class asshole!" Latener spat.
Ryo blinked. O-kay…? What had happened now? Spying the small park not far from the precinct, he gently coaxed his lover into the peaceful oasis, making him sit on one of the sunlit benches.
"What happened?" he asked.
Dee reached into his jacket and pulled out a rather crumbled piece of paper. He held it out to Ryo and the other smoothed it before reading.
Lab results? he thought, confused.
There was one table labeled 'donor' and another 'comparative sample'. The bottom line said '50 % match' at the end of a long list of chemical and biological gibberish.
"Dee?"
"It's my blood or whatever. My DNA!"
"And the other is…?"
"Barclay himself. He probably thinks it's funny!" Dee snarled.
"Dee… it looks official."
"Yeah, and I'm Santa Claus."
"No, look. That's Sheila's signature down in the labs. I know her. She wouldn't go along with a joke when it comes to falsifying her work," Ryo argued.
"So you believe this? Do you even know what it says?" Dee demanded.
"Yes. It means you and Barclay share 50 % of the same genetic material. You're related." Even as the words left his mouth, Ryo felt the surprise settle in.
Related?!
"He snooped around my files! He went to the orphanage and got into the archives!" Dee whispered harshly. "He spied on me and now he throws that into my face! He tells me his parents were paranormals! That I'm the missing son everyone has been looking for. How much more crap can he spout?"
Ryo gazed at the crumbled paper. His mind wandered back to the time he had been so confused as to why Barclay reminded him of someone. The older man had made him nervous, had confused him, and he had tried to get into Ryo's pants. Not for long, sure, but he had tried. It hadn't taken Ryo long to see that Barclay wasn't unlike Dee. They were so much alike, except for their hair and eye color…
"You could verify this, you know," he said softly.
"How?"
"Sheila. She did the test. I could go and ask her…"
Dee huffed and Ryo took his hand, squeezing it.
"Dee? Barclay is an ally. As an ally myself… or rather, a former ally, I can tell you that he wouldn't joke about something like this. It's easy to check on his family background. I still have contacts and allies are known. If his parents were such powerful paranormals, his story could be true. It's rare that two such individuals have a child, let alone several, but it could explain a few things about you and your powers …"
Dee let his head fall back, staring at the sky through the canopy of leaves above him. The sun twinkled through the green leaves, bathing them in dappled light.
"I don't believe this…" he murmured.
"Let me check things, okay? Maybe I should talk to Barclay…"
"No!"
"Dee!" Ryo chastised, voice sharper than normal. "He's an ally and… if he really is your brother…"
"He isn't!"
The green eyes burned into him and Ryo evenly met the outraged gaze. After a moment, Dee dropped his eyes, breathing deeply.
"Sorry," he murmured. "God, this is too much…"
"I'll talk to Sheila, okay? Go home, Dee. I'll meet you there later."
"Promise?"
It sounded so soft, so weak… so needy, Ryo smiled slightly and squeezed his lover's hand again.
"I promise."
Sheila Clark was still in the labs that took up the basement of the
27th precinct and Ryo was glad that he found her alone. A large cup of
coffee stood next to her work station as the blonde woman waited for something
or other to finish. Music played in the background, an instrumental piece
that gave a heavy, powerful beat, and Ryo found himself liking it.
"Sheila?" he called.
She raised her head and a smile went over her features. "Randy! Long
time no see! What brings you into the deep dark dungeon of the basement
labs?"
Ryo chuckled and held up the crumpled piece of paper with the test
results.
"Oh, that. Barclay's anonymous DNA comparison, hm?"
"Yes."
"It came as a surprise when Barclay asked me to run the samples, telling
me it was confidential, but hey, we all work highly sensitive cases, so
I just did what the boss said."
Sheila had been with the lab unit of the precinct for a long, long
time. She was in her late forties, mother of two, happily married, and
worked very odd hours sometimes. She loved her job, was efficient, and
kept a tight rein on her staff of ten lab assistants and specialists. Ryo
had taken an immediate liking to her when they had met over a case of two
bodies of homeless people, and since then he had cultivated that contact.
"So it's real? No joke?"
"Luv, I don't joke with my work. I don't know whose DNA I compared,
but what I do, I do professionally."
"I know that. Sheila, could you run me through the process? Explain
it to me? I mean, I know the case is confidential, but how a lab analysis
works isn't, right?"
She smiled. "No, it isn't, luv. Well, what we have here is called a
pure blood relationship among scientists. Same parents, no doubt about
it."
He nodded.
"As you know, DNA is the genetic material in the cells. Every cell
is made up of 46 chromosomes, half of which come from the sperm cell of
the father and the other half from the egg of the mother. Thus, a person
receives half of his/her DNA from the biological mother and the other half
from the biological father. Normally you need blood for the test, but hair
or skin cells are fine, too. DNA is an extremely stable biological compound
and is resistant to great stress. The samples don't biodegrade "
She gestured at her apparatus and testing equipment.
"Barclay brought me some hair and skin cells. Don't ask me where he
got them. What I do here is magnify the DNA in the samples several million
times, making them large enough to reveal hereditary information. By comparing
samples, it can be determined, based on certain hereditary principles,
if a blood relationship exists between the samples. The blood relationship
can be absolutely excluded if two or more probes don't match. The accuracy
of such a testing in our laboratory is about 99.95 per cent."
"And in this case…?"
"There were no samples to exclude. The match was perfect, right down
to a few anomalies."
"Anomalies?"
"Nothing I'd call a defect, luv. The donor is fine, just like the comparison
donor. It's a little glitch that happens to many of us. It has no effect
on his health."
No, only on his powers. Sheila had probably caught on to the paranormal
gene, which meant Ryo had to remove that little glitch from the data base.
Or Barclay had to. It was proof and it had to disappear.
"Thanks, Sheila."
"No problem. Say hello to that gorgeous man of yours."
Ryo smiled. "I will. See you, Sheila."
She waved at him, then got back to her work as McLane left the lab.
So it was true. Ross Barclay was Dee's brother. He suspected there
was a lot more behind that simple fact. A whole lot more.
And he had thought things couldn't get even more complicated.
Dee had gone straight home, thoughts whirling, trying to make sense
of it all. He had walked into his apartment like on automatic, dropping
his jacket, his keys, putting his gun away. Then he had gone straight into
the bedroom and the shelves that contained his clothes and shoes. There
were several boxes on top of them and he took down one, staring at the
simple, gray container with dread. Finally he opened it.
There were only a few items inside, most of them old photos, some newspaper
articles, a dried rose, and on the bottom a cream colored blanket into
which something had been wrapped. He carefully took it out, stroking over
the worn fabric. It was old, but he had never thrown it away. It was the
blanket that belonged to him.
One corner of the blanket had been stitched with a letter. A capital
'D'. It was green. It wasn't the work of a master, but it showed that it
had been home made by someone young. Someone who had still taken great
care.
…a blanket my sister Bethany had made for him with the help from our
grandmother. It was a cream colored blanket in which she had painstakingly
stitched the initial 'D' in a dark green color.
He bit his lower lip as he recalled Barclay's words. The commissioner
had looked into his old files, his orphanage files, and he had probably
seen the pictures taken by the social services people when he had been
delivered to Mother.
Dee unwrapped what was hidden in the blanket and a small, brown teddy
bear fell into his hands. It was truly old and had seen better days. One
of its ears looked chewed on. Baby teeth. Hands and feet were worn, his
lighter belly smudged. The black button eyes had dulled a little. Red thread
peeked out from the left eye as he pushed the button aside. He touched
it reverently, then turned it onto the back. There, underneath the curly,
artificial fur, was a thick scar. Someone had inexpertly sewed a seam shut
again.
Maybe the pictures had shown the red thread…? But how had he known
about the damage on the back?
I gave it to him when he was born because I was too old for it, because
he needed it more than me. Something to protect him, something he could
hold onto.
Mother always loved to tell him how he clung to that bear, how he would
ignore other toys and only sleep with his teddy. She had kept it when Dee
had outgrown the need for a plush toy, and even today he felt it held sentimental
memories. He had no idea why.
This was all wrong, he thought. All so wrong. Ross Barclay wasn't his
brother! All the DNA tests in the world couldn't make them related!
"Dee?"
The voice startled him a little and he looked up, surprised. How long
had he sat here, on the floor, staring at the teddy?
Ryo's head poked into the bedroom and a smile crossed his lover's handsome
face. "There you are." His eyes fell on the box. "What's that?"
"Memories," Dee answered softly.
Ryo crossed the distance and rested his hands on Dee's shoulders, squeezing
lightly as he sank down behind him. Dee fell back into the easily offered
embrace, needing the contact.
"He knew about the blanket, Ryo. About the initial… that it had been
done by a child, apparently. I mean, he could have gotten that from the
files… But he knew about the bear. About the repaired eye and the broken
seam on the back…"
Dee screwed his eyes shut and wrapped his arms around himself, hugging
the bear. Ryo in turn embraced him, resting his head on one shoulder.
"He can't be my brother," Dee whispered. It sounded like a prayer.
Ryo was silent. Finally he murmured, "I talked to Sheila."
"And?"
"It's no joke. She ran the tests… the match is true. It's real."
Dee drew a shaky breath. "No…" It was close to a moan.
Ryo held him silently until the other man drew away, visibly pulling
himself together.
"I can't deal with this," he murmured.
"You will have to soon. Barclay's not going away."
"I'm not going to play little brother to that prick!"
Ryo chuckled. "I doubt he has any big brother feelings, Dee. Just let
it happen, wait what comes… and try not to piss him off too much."
Dee made a non-committal noise.
"We'll handle this together, Dee," Ryo promised and hugged him tightly.
Dee turned in the embrace and kissed him. It was a questioning, tender
kiss, probing, searching, and finding the response he was looking for.
Ryo dropped all pretense and responded with the need he had for his lover.
They made it to the bed some time.