X

Peace and quiet. You really learn to appreciate it when you know what it's like to try to sleep in a house with two teenagers and a toddler. The quiet hum of the centrifuge separating blood platelets from plasma, the silent dripping of solutions being diluted, and the smell of antiseptic formula. The silence, it's almost deafening. And yet so relaxing. The office sure feels like home right now.

Astor and Cody had decided to pay me a visit, apparently having Harrison over for a week wasn't long enough. They planned to stay the week at my house. They had sure scared the hell out of Deb that night though...

"Who the fucks out there?"

She had leaned on her elbows to hear the kids and Jamie coming. Once our intruders were identified she had stormed off the bed like a mini tornado, picking up and throwing clothes on.

"Stop staring and move asshole, get up!" At least that hadn't changed.

"Sorry we showed up unannounced Dexter, Harrison was just getting a little fussy. I though he might be missing you so we came home, Astor and Cody thought maybe they could come along too." Jamie handed me Harrison, who jumped into my arms and hugged me.

"Hey little guy, did you miss daddy? That's fine Jamie it's no problem"

Deb walked out of the room and awkwardly waved towards everyone. The only one who felt that way was her though, everyone else was too busy to realize how tense she was. I set Harrison down and he ran right at her and held on to her leg.

"Hi buddy! I missed you." She picked him up and kissed him a couple of times. She tickled and smiled at him forgetting all about the situation we were dealing with.

"Dexter, Dexter! Harrison can catch a ball now! It's so cool, look! watch!"

Cody moved towards Harrison and showed him the ball. He is a lot taller now. Rita wasn't that tall so he must get that from Paul, I hope height is all he'll inherit from him though. And Astor, Astor looks so grown up, she probably has boys after her now. I guess I should start paying more attention to the company she keeps.

"Shit Cody watch where you throw that damn ball." I laugh. She might have picked that up from Deb, she was around seventeen too when her potty mouth was born.

"Hey, watch the language Astor!" Jamie chimed in while she moved around fixing things in the kitchen.

"Hey aunt Deb are you staying for dinner?" Astor asked. Deb fidgeted. Reality settling back in her. Would she regret what had just happened?

"I don't think so, I have to go um do work, do some work. Sorry kiddo."

She'd kissed and hugged Harrison a couple more times before she said goodbye to everyone and left, her eyes never meeting mine. Oh boy, this was going to be strange.

I hadn't heard from her since then. I hadn't though of calling her, what's the protocol state you should do when you sleep with your foster sister?

I looked towards her office to try to meet her eyes like usually happens when there is stuff between us but she was reading something. Trying to read something. She finally gave it up and threw the pen on the desk before she sat back and massaged her temples. She seems just as confused as I am. There are no more rules, nothing to go on. Deb and I have always had a system. I'm her support, she would come to me for advice, to vent. Why hasn't she come? Maybe she was waiting on me.

I could do that. Make the next move. I made and attempt to walk towards her office but before I could get there Angel interrupted.

"Hey Dex, murder on south west 24th terrace. Female, Lisa Perkins. Age 13. There's blood man, come on get your kit."

Great. I guess Deb would have to wait.

It's not that I don't want to talk to Deb, this new dynamic in our relationship intrigues me, that she could love all of me. Be in love with me. I feel like I've always loved... at least cared for her. I can't really say that I know what love is, the idea of making someone your 'one and only' may be the only thing in the world that scares me. If I've learned anything at all is that people like me are incapable of love, and the ones that get to love me end up hurt, or dead. Look at what happened to Rita, to Hannah. I can't love Deb, but why do I genuinely feel the need to?

I pulled up on the driveway and walked passed all the officers, the neighborhood seems nice. Calm, friendly neighbors, picket fences. Where a respectable family would live.

The parents standing by the door are weeping. Comforting each other in their moment of loss. I usually don't take pleasure in the pain of mourning parents, but I appreciate the distraction.

"She was such a sweet child! Why would anyone do this? Why! She'd never hurt anyone. God! My Lisa! My sweet baby" The grieving mother held on to her husband.

Down the hall is the room where they'd watched their daughter grow, and where they had found her murdered. The room is organized. Nothing seems out of place, there are posters and pictures on the walls. Nothing looks disturbed, not even the child. Her hands angelically positioned by her head laying in bed surrounded by stuffed animal. She looked peaceful, laying there in a pool of her own blood.

"So what do we have?"

"Mmm, some type of sedative was used. Maybe chloroform or injection, but there seems to be no point of entry to be seen, so most likely chloroform. She would have had to have been unconscious in order for the murderer to have positioned her." At least he was considerate, she hadn't suffer. "He stabbed her twice forming an X shape, in the skull. Right in the back, between her occipital and parietal bones. Died of blood loss."

Her skin was pale, her blond hair drenched in viscous coagulated blood on her right side, where she had been laying all night, poor Lisa. Whoever did this, had wanted to preserve her innocence. He had made her look angelic, her small hands holding a small stuffed toy.

"Search for prints, anything. The sick demented fuck who did this wont get away with it." Debs voice came in behind me, she was upset. The scene of the girl too hard to bare. She walked out, but I had felt her eyes on my back. She had directed that at me. I guess I've become something like the lieutenants new hit man.

As I walked out of the scene a boy down the hallway knocking the back of his head repeatedly onto the wall grabbed my attention. I was drawn to him.

"Hey, hey stop that. What's wrong?" He's older than Lisa. Maybe sixteen. Blond. He's her brother.

"I should have saved her. She shouldn't have died. She didn't deserve this. It's all my fault!" His head bashed the wall as he chanted, then he alternated the back of his head for his fist, once this one began to bleed his physical pain stopped him and he sat on the floor. "She didn't deserve this." He repeated.

"Who could have wanted this? Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Li..

"If I knew he'd be dead now! He'd be dead do you hear." I hear.

He's distraught.

"Hey Dextrose, get over here!" Masuka calls me back to the crime scene before I can finish questioning the boy. I can only imagine what he is feeling. Many times before the thought of loosing Deb had kept me up at night, as a brother my job has always been to protect her. I understand his anger, his need to kill whoever did this. The need for justice.

"Look at this, 'X marks the spot.' What do you think it means?" A small scrap of paper had been rolled up and stuffed into the stuffed animal. It was written in blood, Lisa's blood.

"I, I don't know. It could be something she knew? Or maybe he put something in her head. We should check for that in the autopsy." 'X marks the spot' but what treasure was he looking to find?

I continued to search the room but kept coming empty. Eventually the crime scene began emptying out. On my way out a picture on the mantel caught my attention. The kids and their father on a fishing trip. I had my own fond memories of fishing trips, but what attracted me was the fathers knife collection.

"Lisa liked to fish." Speak of the devil. The head of the Perkins family sat down on the living room couch with a scotch, his eyes looking past the living room and into his memories, where his daughter still lived. "She had such a great heart" He took a sip of his drink and choked back some tears. "And Michael loved her so much." He pointed at the boy in the picture holding his sisters catch of the day up for her, proudly smiling. A happy boy, nothing like the Michael that sat in the hallway now looking into his sisters empty room.

"She was such a blessing you know? Michael is pretty hard to handle, teenage boys tend to be like that, but she just made him better. He really tried to make her proud of him, always" All I could do was nod. He looks shattered, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have killed his daughter.

"I'm sorry for your loss mister Perkins." He nods as I let myself out of the house. Some people have it harder than others I guess. Michael would get his justice, as would Lisa. If the father was the killer I'd find out. I suppose If I really thought about it, I'll probably take him out myself. There is no need to feed the darkness in this boy. If he is as much trouble as Mr. Perkins says he is, it might not be good to tempt him. but now I need to see Debra. I want to let her know my suspicions on the father. That, and to hold her. You never know when you are going to loose your guiding light, and I just want to be near her.

As I got into the car my cell vibrated. "Come to my house after work, please. -Deb."

She'd read my mind. "I'm on my way."

This is going to be a full on season! :) lets call it my season 8. I've got my big bad and everything. Enjoy!