CHAPTER FIVE - Parents

They found a new case a little sooner than Todd would have liked; he was still able to detect a limp in Dirk's walk although it was less pronounced and he was off the crutches now.

Even though the case was indisputably weird, it was considerably less dramatic than the previous cases had been, much to his relief, and he was glad to hear Dirk describe it as 'run of the mill'. This level of crazy he could handle, although it occurred to him that 6 months ago it would have blown his mind.

Farah was impressed that he and Dirk had managed not to drive each other completely up the wall from living and working together, but somehow it just worked. The fact that Dirk clearly needed him to help sort through the trauma of Blackwing made him feel useful, and filled the void left by Amanda no longer needing him.

Although it was, for reasons unknown, hard work trying to get Dirk to specifically apply himself to a chore (the effort seemed to exhaust them both), as long as he was around he honestly never actually needed anything. As soon as the boiler broke down, Dirk would come back from a coffee run with some stranger who just happened to be a boiler mechanic.

But he just couldn't seem to get the hang of the kitchen. That night, when Dirk guiltily presented a flat black disc that was once a potential pizza, Todd decided they would go out and celebrate the end of the case at a restaurant, so that's what they did.

"What are you doing?" Todd asked as he watched Dirk dissect his food, removing bits of it and putting them on the side.

"I don't like coriander." Dirk said. Todd looked again at the discarded leaves.

"That's cilantro." he said.

"Really Todd I think I know coriander when I see it."

Todd went to object but then put two and two together. "I guess that's the British word for it." He speculated.

"British is not a language. I'm speaking English because I'm from England." Dirk explained as though he were talking to a child, finished meddling with his food and started actually eating it.

"When did you leave England?" Todd asked, realising that he knew very little about Dirk's background beyond the fact that he had been in Blackwing for some part of his childhood.

"I didn't exactly leave, I was more kidnapped. Actually no that's not accurate. I was..." Dirk frowned and put his fork down. "Purchased."

"What do you mean purchased?"

"I don't really want to talk about it." he said, looking down at his plate having apparently lost all appetite.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. It's just... you know quite a lot about my ...my history, and I don't really know much about you."

"That's not true, you know plenty about me" Dirk protested. "You can ask me anything you like about Dirk Gently the holistic detective. Just not about Project Icarus or Svlad Cjelli."

Todd stared at him for a while, wondering if it was really possible for a person to rebrand themselves out of their life, their memories, but certain it wasn't a healthy approach to things.

"Svlad Cjelli doesn't sound very English."

"That's just racist Todd." Dirk berated. "If you must know my parents were from Montenegro, but they moved to England before I was born."

"You have parents?" Todd asked in surprise. Dirk looked at him in utter astonishment, and he quickly amended. "I mean, sorry, of course you have parents. Everyone has parents. You just never mentioned them before"

"Had parents. They died in a car crash when I was 6. "

"Oh. I'm sorry." Todd said inadequately.

"I tried to warn them but they wouldn't listen to me. Just left me with the babysitter and a very strong hunch that they would not be coming back. Did you really think I beamed here from outer space?"

"No of course not... I mean, well I dunno, you never talk about this stuff."

"I am human, Todd." Dirk said quietly, with an edge of seriousness that suggested that although he wasn't angry, on some level he was genuinely hurt.

"I know. I'm sorry." Todd reassured him, feeling guilty.

"Anyway are we done talking about this? I wanted this to be a celebration not a -" he waved his arms about vaguely "- whatever this is."

"Just one more question." Todd asked, reluctant to stop when he'd learned so much more about his friend than he' d known before.

Dirk reluctantly nodded.

"What did you mean when you said you were 'purchased'?"

Dirk's face clouded over, and he glanced at him reluctantly before sighing. "After my parents died I went to this sort of orphanage place. They thought I was a bit of a nuisance because I kept wandering off and getting into trouble...so I think they were rather pleased when some CIA agents turned up one day and offered to take me off their hands in exchange for a donation to the orphanage. Obviously not legal but if there's one thing I've learned is that if you're the CIA you can pretty much do whatever you like."

Todd wasn't sure what to say to that though his expression conveyed his horror and sympathy.

"They paid £5,000 for me." Dirk said, pushing some food around his plate with a fork absent-mindedly. "I'm not sure what the exchange rate was back then so I don't know what that is in dollars, sorry. "

"Jesus Dirk that's ... really fucked up." His heart ached slightly when he considered how devoid of love Dirk's childhood had been, how lonely and terrifying, and the effect it had on him as a person. He thought of how the slightest kindness or act of friendship came as an unexpected surprise to him, and how often he seemed to undervalue himself.

"But thank you for telling me." he said, trying to catch his eyes. He knew it would be hard to regain a celebratory mood, but he couldn't regret finding out a little more about the detective who knew all of his deepest, darkest secrets.

When Dirk did tentatively look up. "Please can we talk about something else now?" he asked.

"Sure." Todd nodded. "You know, you never really explained what it was about the table lamp that made you figure everything out" he said, referring to their last case. As he'd hoped, Dirk leapt at the chance to change the subject and launched into a lengthy and fast-paced explanation.

"I thought you would never ask..."