Chapter 5: The Explanation

A/N: Sorry it took so long; school is a lot more work than I remember. In this chapter, you'll find out about Randy's brother. On another note, where I'm going with that fingerprint thing, I kind of stole from The Bourne Supremacy, so please don't sue me! Also, I upped the rating, there are a few curses and a little bit of fighting. Not major stuff, but better safe than sorry.

It was Friday morning at the station and the Captain and Randy were once again talking about the case. Even with Monk, it still seemed impossible. As they were talking the phone next to them rang and out of habit Randy reached over and answered it, "Disher," he said emotionless. "Well if that's how you're going to be I'll just hang up," he heard Sharona say. This caused him to smile. "I'm sorry. Please don't hang up," he told her. "All right, but only because this was important. Instead of going out tonight, could we stay in and watch a movie on TV?" she asked him. "Sure, that's fine. What did you want to watch?" he asked her questioningly.

"'Runaway Bride' is on and 'You've Got Mail' is on right after it," she answered excitedly. At the station, the Captain noticed that Randy paled a bit at whatever the person on the other line had said. "Randy," he said, "You okay?" Randy was startled out of his reverie at that, "Oh, yeah. I'm fine," he said. Then he said to Sharona, "That would be great honey," he pronounced slowly. "Whose house and what time?" he asked. "Come to my house a little before 7," she replied. "All right, I'll see you tonight," he told her. As he hung up, the Captain looked at him questioningly, "Honey?" he asked. "Uh, yeah," Randy replied, "That was my girlfriend." The Captain looked at him for a second before going back to his work.

Later that night at Sharona's house, they were just settling in to watch the first movie when all of a sudden there was a big flash of lightning, a boom, and the power went out. Sharona quickly found candles and a flashlight and came back into the living room where Randy was sitting on the couch. "Well," she said, "I guess we won't be watching any movies tonight." He smiled and told her, "That's alright. I wasn't really too excited about the movies anyway." She smiled at him and after she lit the candles moved up on the couch to sit with him. As she sat down he shyly put his arm around her and smiled to himself when she leaned into him.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Sharona asked, "So what do you want to do?" "I'm fine just doing this, did you have any ideas?" he replied. "I don't know, we could play cards," she half told him, half asked him. "Cards is fine by me, do you think you can find them?" he asked her. "I in fact, happen to know exactly where they are...me and Benjy played cards yesterday." She admitted sheepishly. "That's nice, do you know where anything else is?" he asked her jokingly. "Actually, now that you mention it...no," she told him in a serious manner that made them both start to laugh. As Sharona finally found the cards and started to shuffle, she asked Randy, "What do you want to play for?" Randy looked thoughtful for a second before asking, "What are we playing?" Now it was Sharona's turn to look puzzled, then she questioned, "Gin Rummy?" "All right," Randy said, "But it's your house, you can pick what you want to play for." Sharona seemed to get an evil gleam in her eye at his words. She could see Randy visibly gulp when he saw the look. Then she threw him a curveball and told him, "We'll play for the remote if the power ever comes back on." She could see him let out the breath was holding. "All right, you're on," he told her.

As the game progressed Sharona asked Randy a question that had been bugging her since the day at the jewelers. "Randy," she started, "I don't want to pry, but I was wondering," she was cut off by him. "About my brother," he finished for her. "I don't like to talk about him, that's why none of you had heard of him before the other day," he told her. "Okay," she said, "forget I asked." After a minute, he told her quietly, "No, wait. I'll tell you about him." He was silent for a few minutes, apparently arranging his thoughts or something of the sort.

Finally he started to speak, "I told you that Steve is 3 years older than me, right?" Sharona nodded and said, "Yes." Randy started again, "I guess that's kind of the root of everything. (–A/N: I know Randy's mom was in an episode, but I don't remember anything being said about his childhood, so go with me on this one—) Once I was born my dad started to hang around less and less. Then, when I was, I think 5, he left. I think Steve always blamed me for that, and to tell you the truth I don't really blame him. About 4 years later, my Mom got remarried. Steve was 12, and I was 9. The guy my Mom got married to was a real jerk, Jack. He never touched me because my Mom was always watching me since I was younger. Steve wasn't so lucky though, the guy used to hit him when mom wasn't home for kicks. He tried to tell Mom about it but she didn't believe him. I tried to tell her the truth, but she would always interrupt me and tell me about how it couldn't possibly be true. That always made me feel guilty, since she seemed so happy with him, and I wouldn't say anything. When Steve turned 18, my Mom let him have a birthday party. It was a great day, all of Steve's friends came over, and he even let me stay and hang out with them. He was so happy; I think he forgot completely about Jack, who wasn't there. Mom went out with her friends to play bingo that night. Jack got home a few minutes after she left and he was really drunk. I remember it like it was yesterday. Me and Steve were playing cards in the living room because Mom said he had to wait until Jack got home to leave. Jack came stumbling into the living room and I just knew something was going to happen. He looked alright for a second, but then he just got this look on his face like someone just punched him in the face. He was pissed off. Steve turned to me and told me to go up to my room, but he wasn't quick enough. Just as he was finished talking, Jack punched him right in the gut. It was different this time though. Usually, Steve would take a punch or two then run away and hide because he didn't want to get in trouble. This time, in stead of running, he took Jack on. The next swing he tried to take, Steve dodged it and punched him right in the face. After Jack fell over, Steve started to kick him in the ribs. After Jack had stopped fighting him, Steve left. He didn't say a word, he just left. I remember being so scared, I ran to my room and locked the door. When Mom got home I heard some yelling so I went to see what was going on. Jack told her that Steve beat him up for no reason then left. I told my Mom it was bullshit and that Jack had come home drunk and started hitting Steve, but he had already called the police. By the time the cops got to the house, Jack was sobered up and told them his side of the story. I told them what really happened, but they took his word over mine, and my Mom wasn't there so she couldn't stick up for him. They tracked Steve down and put him in jail. After he got out, he got together with some old friends of his and they decided to rob a bank. It was too bad they didn't hide their faces and a camera caught them. He's been in jail ever since then; I didn't even know he had gotten out." Randy finally finished his story. Sharona didn't say anything as he finished, she just walked over to him and sat down beside him. He looked very tired as he leaned on her, silently thanking her for her silence.

After he finished, the power came back on. They had been playing cards throughout the time he was talking and Randy had won, so he now had control of the remote. "What channel were those movies on?" he asked. "You didn't sound very excited to watch them earlier," Sharona told him. "Yeah," he answered, "but you seemed real excited about them." With those words Sharona changed the channel and sat down beside Randy on the couch. After the second movie ended (they had missed the first one), Randy noticed Sharona had fallen asleep and was now lying with her head in his lap. He carefully picked her up and carried her upstairs. He tucked her in and kissed her forehead, and just as he was about to say, "Sweet dreams." she grabbed his arm. "Stay with me," she told him. With those words, Randy crawled in behind her and they both quickly fell asleep.

A/N: All right, there's chapter 5. You know the drill...tell me what you think!