Author's Note: Since you guys have given me so many nice reviews, I've decided to update a day and a half early as thanks to all of you. That's still no reason not to continue to review however. HINT HINT Yes, this is a slightly shorter chapter, but there were so many details in it, I figured I'd make it into its own chapter. That, and I'm lazy.

So he chose the six months, huh? Rodney scoffed. Like he really had a choice in the matter! He shook his head and hit the scroll button a few more times until he saw the results of the intelligence test, which was well into 'genius level,' and the Mensa, in which he had scored in the 99th percentile, the same score as Rodney. The only difference was John had taken it 4 years earlier in life than Rodney had. He decided not to think too much about it and continued scrolling, even though all his original curiosities had been satisfied. He refused to quit after going so far already and learning so much.

He glanced briefly at a certificate of completion for anger management classes and paused at the next document. Adoption papers? He wondered, startled. It hadn't even occurred to him that John was adopted. He delved further into the record to see that he had indeed been adopted by Major Thomas S. Baker, US Marine Corp., immediately following the end of John's term in the JDC. The interviewer for the adoption had handwritten a short note at the bottom saying to the effect that John's biological father had been great friends with Major Baker before he died in the line of duty when John was 5, and that he thought a rigid military role model would be perfect for a still-emotionally-scarred John.

Rodney was dying to know how that arrangement had worked out, but upon scrolling once again, found a copy of a Masters Degree for mathematics from Northwestern University instead. Quickly doing a little math himself, he determined that John had to have been around 21 or 22 when he graduated. He must have tested out of High School and immediately started college. Rodney mused. Just like me.

For reasons not listed in the file, John joined the military barely weeks after having graduated. Curious.

The last of the documents in John's personal record were a death certificate for Major Baker, approximately two years after John enlisted, heart attack, and one for John's mother dated a few months later, cirrhosis of the liver from alcohol poisoning leading to death.

The record stopped at this point with a note saying the rest of the record continued into his military service record, but Rodney had no interest in that, so he turned off the laptop and sat there in the dark for a few minutes, thinking over the hell that had been Sheppard's earlier years. He still didn't know what specifically had happened to compel John to snap and shoot his stepfather, but after looking at he picture he could hazard a pretty accurate guess. The idea that someone could hurt an innocent child sickened him and he found himself wishing he could go back in time just to slug the son of a bitch. And I thought I had a rough childhood! Poor John.