Hanson pulled his Mustang to a stop outside the small white panelled house which for most of his life he had called home. All the lights were on and shining through the windows, which on these cold winter nights made the house look warm and welcoming. In fact Tom couldn't remember a time when this house didn't look comforting and warm. Tonight however he wasn't looking forward to walking through that door. He hated himself for what he had been thinking but he just couldn't banish these suspicions from his mind so he took a deep breath, climbed out of the car and made his way up the driveway.

Usually he would just walk in the door and call out but it didn't seem appropriate tonight for some reason, so he tapped softly on the door and wrapped his coat around him to keep the chill at bay.

A short time after a dark haired woman, who looked about 40 years old, despite being older, with eyes very like her son's opened the door. Her eyes lit up and a surprised smiled appeared on her face as she saw the young man stood on the doorstep.

"Tommy. You never said you were coming round."

"Hi Mom. Sorry, it was kind of a last minute thing."

"Did you forget your key or something?"

"Yeah." Tom lied still trying to decide how to approach this. Margaret Hanson noticed the nervous tension in her son and looked at him with concern.

"Everything alright?" she asked as he followed her through the little hall way.

"Sure."

"How's work?" she said cheerfully while still studying his face.

"Good." He replied uncomfortably. Then let out a deep sigh and raked his hands through his hair as he decided the best way would be to just come out with it. They had reached the small kitchen where Margaret had obviously just been cleaning dishes. As he noticed that there was more than one lot of dishes Tom was completely thrown.

"You got company?" he asked his mother, surprised.

"No." she replied.

"Who was he? Please tell me Bob's not back on the scene."

"Just a friend honey." She said with a small knowing smile on her face at the thought of the tirade she was sure was on its way. Her young son had other things on his mind at that moment and let it slide. He took her hand and led her over to one the chairs that surrounded the little table in the corner.

"Mom, I need to talk to you about something." He said, his face calm and deadly serious as he knelt in front of her.

"Tommy, what's happened?" she asked concern and worry etched in her face.

"Nothing's happened. I just need you to explain this." He said as softly and calmly as he could as he pulled out the photograph of Nikki Stokely and handed it to his worried mother.

"Who's this?" she said looking from her son back to the picture with an extremely confused expression.

"I was hoping you could tell me Mom."

"I don't know. Tommy what is this?"

"The Twilight Zone maybe?" Tom said impatiently as he got to his feet.

"Look sweetheart I…." she began genuinely puzzled as to what was happening before Tom whirled round.

"Were you cheating on Dad?" he demanded.

"What?" Margaret said, her eyes flashing with anger as she glared at her son.

"This girl looks too much like you for this to be coincidence Mom."

"I think you better go home." She said coldly as she stood up.

"I'm not going anywhere until I get some explanation." He said as his irrational fierce temper began to flare. "Everyone who's set eyes on this girl seems to think I have this long lost sister. Now if this girl is anything to do with me I think I deserve to know."

"I thought you were supposed to be a police officer." She said with a bitter laugh.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked icily.

"You come here and accuse me of cheating on your father, the man I loved more than anything on God's green earth, with nothing but a photo of some girl to back it up."

"A girl that just happens to have more than a slight resemblance to both of us, and none whatsoever to Dad."

"I'm not going to discuss this any further. It's ridiculous." She said throwing her hands in the air and walking out of the kitchen towards the front door. Tom followed her.

"That's what I thought at first."

"Oh so you do have some of the sense you were apparently born with." She said as she flung the front door open, gesturing for Tom to walk through it as quickly as possible.

"Mom…"

"Look, Tom. You're my son and I love you, that's not ever going to change but right now I don't think I can stand to look at you. Go."

"Her name's Nikki Stokley, Mom. Who is she?" he asked, calmly looking her in the eye. At hearing this name, Margaret took the photo from Tom's hand walked slowly to the living room and slumped down on the nearest chair, still staring at the girl smiling up at her.

"My God!" she said so softly Tom could barely hear her.

"So you do know who she is?"

"Yes I do" she said looking up at her son. "Tommy, she's your cousin." She said with a small bitter laugh.

"What?" he said, his anger quickly deflated as it was replaced by complete confusion. The look on his face brought another small laugh from Margaret.

"But, you're an only child." He said puzzled.

"No. I have a sister but we had a huge falling out when you were only tiny and I haven't seen or heard from her since. So there you are, you've got your answer. Now if you've finished insulting me I think you should go home."

"Mom…" he began, feeling like he was three inches tall.

"I don't want to hear it Thomas."

"Yikes! Full name. I'm in trouble aren't I?" he said pulling the lost boy expression that had gotten him out of trouble so many times as a child. "Mom, I'm sorry. But you can see how I got the idea, and everyone kept saying how much she looked like me and…"

"I can't believe you would think so little of me."

"I know. I've been an idiot."

"I suppose I should have told you."

"What happened?"

"It doesn't matter. It was a long time ago."

"It matters Mom." He said softly. "Because Nikki's dead."

Margaret's head shot up when she heard this and she looked at her son horrified. Still holding the picture in her hand, she looked down at the niece she never met and now never would.

"How do you know? And where did you get this?" she asked turning watery eyes on Tom.

"The police think she may have been murdered." he said gently. "They turned the case over to Jump Street and Doug and I are investigating."

"They gave the case to you?" she asked horrified. "Do they know who she is?"

"No. But most of them have bets on her being my sister" he said, a small smile twitching at his face. "Please tell me" he asked. Margaret took a deep breath.

"My sister's name is Alison. She's three years younger than me and we were always very close. Your aunt used to follow me everywhere I went when we were kids. Even after I married your father I still saw her all the time. She was always round here telling me about the latest guy she was dating." She smiled at the sick expression on Tom's face.

"She wasn't very good at settling, honey. Anyway when she turned 20 she started acting a bit wild. She'd hang out in night clubs alone, ending up going home with any guy that would pay her attention. Your grandparents were very protective of Alison, as she was the youngest, and I guess she was trying to make up for missing out on being a teenager in a very short space of time. Eventually she met this boy, Jake, and she seemed to calm down. He really made her happy. He seemed like a good guy, friendly, polite, took care of her, he even seemed to be quite fond of you. That's where it started really. You see they used to look after you when your father and I needed time out together. Don't look like that Tommy, how do you think you ever got here?" she said grinning wickedly as she saw her son wince.

"They regularly took you out places and we didn't think anything of it cos you always seemed so happy to see them. Anyway, your grandparents had paid for me and your father to go to Paris for our anniversary. They thought it would be nice as we couldn't afford a honeymoon when we got married. We left you with Alison thinking we could trust her." she said as a small sob escaped her.

"Mom, what happened?" Tom asked softly as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We got back home and there was a message from your Gran saying that you were with her and we had to get over there as soon as possible. So we headed over there sick with worry thinking you were ill or had been hurt. When we got there my mother was in tears and it took us ages to calm her down and make some sense of what she was trying to say. Anyway, it turned out that Alison and her boyfriend had been arrested for selling drugs and they had been in custody for three days. Apparently they had been doing this for the past two years, ever since they got together. I couldn't believe it, my own sister dealing drugs."

"That's why you haven't spoken to your sister in 20 years?"

"No. I was angry of course, but it wasn't until I found out how they were getting them about that I washed my hands of her. They had been hiding drugs in the pushchair when they took you out. Mom found you sat playing with a bag full of what turned out be heroine. When she heard, Alison was so upset and scared of what might have happened that she told my mother everything and called the police. Of course the police thought me and your father must have known about it and suspended him. They found it very hard to believe that someone could be using his son to sell drugs without him knowing. He nearly lost his job. Luckily Alison eventually convinced them that we knew nothing about it and in exchange for them going easy on her told them everything. Your father and I had only been married about five years, you would have been only three years old."

"This guy Nikki's father?"

"No. As far as I know he spent six years in prison and none of us heard from him again. Nikki's dad is some insurance broker. They live pretty well I hear."

"How did you know about Nikki if you haven't seen your sister in all this time?"

"Your Gran always told me how she was getting on. I didn't want to see her Tommy, but I still needed to know she was ok."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I don't know. We just didn't think it was something you needed to know about. Honey, it was so long ago and after your Gran died it just seemed easier to forget." Margaret answered wiping tears away from her eyes.

"You should have told me." He said seriously. Anymore surprises I should be aware of?" Tom said with a wry smile trying to somehow lighten the situation. Margaret gave a small chuckle.

"Only unless they're a surprise to me too."

"20 years is a long time to hold a grudge Mom. She's just lost her daughter. Gran's not here anymore, don't you think she might need you right now?"

"Tom, honey, it's been so long. We don't have anything to give each other."

"How do you know if you don't go find out?"

"She used my baby to sell drugs and she put my family in danger. I'm supposed to just forgive that?"

"She's your sister. You and Dad always taught me that family was the most important thing in life. We're you wrong?" he asked softly as he looked into his mother's tearful face. She smiled and gently patted his cheek.

"When did you get to be so smart?" she said with half a smile.

"I don't know?" Tom said with a mock puzzled expression, "It was a surprise to me too. So you'll think about going to see her."

"I'll think about it." She replied

"Good." he smiled. "And Mom, I am really sorry for what I said"

"It's ok Tommy. I guess you got my tendency to jump to conclusions and your father's bad temper"

"Oh, so it really your fault then."

"Don't push it Thomas!" she smiled. Then a shadow fell on her face. "Did you see her?"

"No. Fuller and Harry are dealing with the family on this one."

"Can you ask them how she was coping?"

"Sure Mom. But I still think it'd be better if you saw for yourself. This is if you change your mind." Tom said as he scribbled an address on the note pad his mother kept by the phone.

"I said I'll think about it."

"Ok. So who was this guy you had round?"

"Tommy!"