Chapter 15

"Sean? I'm assuming you have a daughter. The young lady that answered the phone last time I called?" Warrick questioned. It had taken a while but everyone had finally left in order to nap before his or her next shift. Warrick knew he should be sleeping too, but he knew he wouldn't if he tried.

"I have three daughters." Sean told him, sounding surprised at Warrick's curiosity.

"You're married then?" There was so much he didn't know, if this man was his brother, he felt he should know these things.

"My wife died several years back." Sean admitted, his voice sounding stilted and pained. "Cancer."

"I'm sorry." Warrick felt like an ass, he didn't know what to say to that. What did one say that wasn't patronizing? He decided changing the subject might be his best bet. "How old are your children?"

"Lonnetta, the one that you spoke with is fifteen. Patricia is twelve and my youngest, Julianna, is nine." Sean automatically sounded proud. "They are all really interested in learning about you. Could you possibly email some pictures of your family? That way they can put faces to the names?"

"Yeah, I can do that." Warrick agreed eagerly. "And you'll do the same? I'd like to see what you're daughters look like. I truthfully never considered the fact that you could have children. What about your sister? Does she have children?"

"She's married and has two boys. They're ten and seven."

"Have you spoken with her about me yet?" Warrick questioned. He was met with a long pause. It was so quiet that he thought they'd suddenly lost connection. "Sean? You still there?"

"She's not speaking to me about you. She's not speaking with me about anything right now. After the reading of the will and our letters, she gave me an ultimatum; I could have her for a sister or you for a brother." Sean admitted, his voice rough with emotion.

"And you chose me over your sister?" Warrick was beyond shocked. Besides Grams and Gemma, no one had ever put him before others without wanting something in return. His old suspicions raised their ugly heads. "Why?"

"My little sister is a stubborn woman. It's a family trait actually." Sean gave a quiet snort. "I kind of decided that I wanted to find you, get to know you and she'd most likely come around eventually."

"So…..she doesn't know about me?" Warrick let out a rough laugh, thinking that the woman was going to be in for a shock when she finds out about him. "What's she like? Does she look like you?"

"She's quite pretty, which, I'm not." Sean gave a derisive chuckle. "Stubborn, smart, dedicated. She'll come around. I think she'll enjoy having a baby brother eventually."

"You're both older than me?" Warrick questioned, realizing that he really didn't know anything about his so-called siblings.

"Yes, I was nine when you were born, that made Lillian six or seven. You are definitely the baby of the family."

Warrick couldn't handle taking in any more new information. When learning about your 'secret' identity, a little went a long way, he decided, changing the subject. "Have any of your children ever had to have….an operation of any sort?"

"Lonnie had her tonsils out. Patti has had numerous broken bones." Sean replied easily. "Are you concerned about this procedure they want to have?"

"Scared shitless, if you'll excuse my language." Warrick admitted with a little sigh.

"I admit, I've never heard of this tongue tie thing." Sean took a moment to move his tongue around in his mouth, intentionally paying attention to the flap under his tongue. "I have never really paid much attention to my tongue unless I've burnt or bitten it."

Warrick laughed. "None of us have, but now it's quite the conversation piece for us." Everyone had become interested in the movements of their tongues. It had been quite comical to see everyone wallowing theirs tongues around in his or her mouths.

Greg had taken it upon himself to examine everyone's tongue himself. He had gone around the room, ordering people to stick their tongues out and move it this way or that. After a snide remark from David Hodges, Greg had spitefully tried to yank the sharp tongue out of the man's mouth. A scuffle had ensued until Archie and Sara had separated the pair. Sara had had to lead the young man out of the room by his ear. He'd complained later about the loss of feeling in his right ear for the next hour.

"Are you more frightened about the procedure or the idea of not doing it?" Sean's question sent the images away.

"She's only five." Warrick admitted. "I never thought her speech was that bad. I know she has a problem, but most kids just outgrow it with a little work, right?"

"It is rather hard to understand her. I had trouble getting directions from her when I was trying to get her to you. From what she told me, I thought you caused crime scenes. She said that you instigated them."

"I instigated the scenes, huh?" Warrick chuckled.

"I admit it made me very curious about careers in America." Sean joined him with a soft laugh of his own. "What does Gemma say?"

"She's nervous about it, but she's nervous about leaving Jess with a speech impediment. She's looking for me for the answers. I just don't know what the answers are."

"Since I've never even heard of it, I couldn't begin to give you an opinion, much less advice." Sean apologized.

"Hey, big brothers are supposed to be eager to give advice." Warrick quipped, causing Sean to chuckle.

"I'm new at this. How about I just beat up a neighborhood bully or something?" Sean offered gallantly.

"I'll keep that in mind." Warrick agreed with another laugh but grew serious as he added. "I could have used you a year ago."

"Why?" Sean could hear something in Warrick's voice that he couldn't quite describe but knew it wasn't good.

"A case we were working on got a little too close to home." Warrick muttered, swallowing roughly. He'd never told anyone about it and he didn't know how to go about it. "The woman wanted to get us to stop the investigation, so she hired a man to attack Gemma as a message to me."

"Oh! I realize that she is okay, but….did he hurt her?"

Sean felt a sense of dread run through him. Here was the reason for the weird feeling he was getting from Warrick.

"Yes. She was pregnant at the time. She lost the baby." Warrick wheezed painfully.

"Bleedin' Bastards!" Sean spat out. "Point them out. I'll annihilate the filthy Wankers!"

"Thanks for the offer, but we got them all. They're in prison." Warrick relaxed, he felt better having told Sean about it.

"That's good to hear." Sean accepted reluctantly, thinking of the Gemma he'd met. Harming the pretty blond and simply going to prison didn't seem harsh enough.

"That very same case was how Nick and Lucy met." Warrick added. "And how they got their girls. You haven't met the girls or Lucy yet, but their part of my family. If you plan to stick around, you'll hear a lot about them."

"I'm sticking around as long as you'll let me." Sean vowed. "These people you work with….they seem to be a good bunch of people, from what I've seen. You people stick together like a real family. Better then most blood related people I know."

"Do you think your sister will come around to speaking again?" Warrick felt bad, for somehow being the cause of friction between the siblings, even though he hadn't been a part of any of it.

"Right now, she's mad at Da. She's mad at me for not being mad at Da." Sean explained quietly. "I find it hard to remain angry for something that happened nearly forty years ago. Besides, everyone that was actually involved is no longer alive." He paused quietly before adding. "I hope, for my daughters' sake, that she comes around. They need a woman in their lives. Your wife is a little far away to fill in that place for them."

"But she'll try, trust me." Warrick grinned, knowing his wife as he did. "She'll want to meet them."

"The girls will be having Holiday soon. Would it be inappropriate if we came to visit then?" Sean questioned nervously, hoping that he wasn't pushing too hard. Warrick hadn't quite accepted the fact that they were most likely related. He seemed willing enough to offer friendship, but not much more.

"Sure, that sounds like a great idea. Let me know when and I'll try to swing a couple of days off to hang out with you." Warrick agreed eagerly. "We can have a party. You can meet the rest of my friends, and my Grams."

"Your Grams?"

"My grandmother. She's eager to meet with you." Warrick educated him. "Nick and Lucy are getting married in two weeks. I guess that'd be too soon for you to come?"

"I'll have to look into it. I'd like to meet your grandmum." Sean agreed, eager to be included in anything that Warrick was willing to share. "I can bring the letters from my father. Perhaps, with your detective mind, you can learn things that I haven't been able to."

"That sounds good." Warrick tried to fight back a loud yawn, but failed.

"Sounds like I should let you go, Little Brother." Sean smiled as he used the term, wondering how Warrick would react.

"Yeah, I should get some sleep before shift." Warrick agreed, trying to ignore the nervous quickening him his pulse. He wasn't ready for family terminology, but he wasn't going to hurt the man by denying it. "Good Night Sean."

"churar." Sean said before the line clicked dead. Warrick frowned into the phone, mentally adding the word to his growing list of British words to find the meaning of.