Sorry it's been so long but internet problems and writers block have been conspiring against me.

Early the next morning Adam Fuller was sat quietly in his office going over the reports that seemed to have suddenly materialised after days of harassing his various officers for them. A soft tap on the door disturbed his peace and quiet.

"Yeah?" he said impatiently wondering who would be getting in this early.

"Have you got a minute, Coach?" Tom Hanson's voice asked cutting through Fuller's thoughts.

"Sure." He said looking up at the young officer who was looking decidedly nervous. "Sit down. I didn't recognise you without the wig Hanson". This was met by a small sarcastic smile from the young man stood before his desk.

"It's about this Nikki Stokely thing." Tom said uncomfortably.

"I thought you were over trying to get out of this thing?"

"It's not that Coach." he said before taking a deep breath. "She was my cousin."

Fuller raised startled eyes to Hanson before the familiar look of anger and irritation spread across his face.

"Do you guy's get together and decide who's turn it is to raise my blood pressure or do you all live inside some soap opera? How long have you known this Hanson?"

"Oh, let me think……about ten hours." Tom replied angrily.

"Do you want to explain?"

"Everyone saying Nikki looked so much like me started to freak me out. All this stuff starting going through my mind, trying to remember stuff from when I was a kid that could've hinted at my parents having another child. It was driving me crazy. So I took the photograph and asked my mother about it. Well, asked I suppose isn't the right word. I kinda flat out accused my own mother of cheating on her dead husband." Hanson said as he sat down heavily in the chair across from Fuller and raking his hands distractedly through his hair.

"Nice move."

"Well it turned out you all weren't far off."

"What happened?"

"Well she shouted a lot, told me how disappointed she was in me, made me feel about an inch tall and then told me. I showed her the picture, told her Nikki's name and she told me Nikki was my cousin."

"All this time and you never knew." Fuller asked, somewhere between shocked and concerned.

"They had this huge bust up years ago, before Nikki was born, and haven't spoken to each other since."

"What happened?" Hanson hesitated while he debated with himself whether to tell Fuller or not. This wasn't lost on his commanding officer however.

"I don't know. She was pretty angry and she didn't wanna talk about it."

"So the woman me and Ioki questioned the other day was…"

"My aunt, yeah." Tom said wearily. "Coach, did you know?"

"No. I promise you if I did I would have said something, or at least not put you on this case."

"You mean if I'd have known Nikki was my cousin, I would've been able to weasel out of this." He said smiling slightly. Then he grew more serious. "So what do you want me to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well this isn't just another case, Captain. This girl was my family. Do you want to pull me out?"

"How do you think you're gonna deal with this?"

"I don't know. Last week this girl didn't exist. A few days ago she was just a case, a really irritating one. Now, she's family."

"How do you feel about it?"

"I don't know. It's weird. She was just my cousin Coach. I never even met her." he said suddenly standing up. "Maybe I should feel angry that this was kept a secret from me, I don't know. But when I think about it my Mom really hasn't done anything wrong. But this kid was still family, and so are her parents. I don't have a lot of family Captain." Fuller looked at Tom and nodded his head slightly.

"Do you feel angry?" he asked

"No. I don't really feel anything. I feel sad, sure. It's always sad when someone so young is taken away. But I didn't even know her Coach. Is that cold?" he said softly.

"No it's not. As you said you don't know this girl." Fuller watched as a thoughtful frown distorted his officer's youthful face.

"I feel cheated. For the past 7 years I've looked out for my mom, taken care of her. When my dad died there was so much pressure on me to sort everything out, there was the funeral to deal with, all the people I had to notify. My mom couldn't do it, she was a wreck and there was nobody else. I had to grow up so quick Coach. There was no one to share any of that with. Now I find out that there was this whole other side of the family that could have taken some of the pressure off. People that could've been there for me and helped me. I suppose I'm just wondering what could've been you know." Tom said looking directly at his commanding officer. "And not just for me Coach. From what I get Nikki didn't get a lot of support form her parents. If we'd have known about each other she could've come to me for help. If she'd had someone she felt she could go to maybe she'd still be here."

"Maybe she wouldn't have wanted your help. You can't think like that Hanson. None of this was ever in your hands. But, funny as it seems, you can help by finding out who's responsible and giving her parents some peace."

"What do I do about Kelly?"

"Are you sure you're not just imagining things?"

"No Captain. She saw me hiding yesterday, and she is definitely suspicious of me."

"If she is, just tell her the truth."

"That I'm a guy and a cop?" Tom said, his eyebrows disappearing into his long bangs.

"That you're Nikki's cousin, and you want to know what happened to her."

"Okey dokey." Hanson said as he got to his feet. He stopped halfway to the door and turned back to his captain. "Can I ask you something Coach?"

"Sure."

"Did you see Nikki's mom?"

"Yeah."

"How was she? My mom really needs to know."

"As well as she can be right now." Hanson simply nodded. "Look Tom, I want you to stay on this case. I trust you."

"Thanks Coach." Tom said as he turned to leave.

"Maybe you'll trust me enough one day to be able to tell me the bits you're missing out."

"I do trust you Captain. It's just not my story to tell." he said with a sad smile. Fuller smiled back and nodded in acceptance. "I gotta go Coach. Judy's waiting to torture me again."

"You can't do that by yourself yet?"

"Probably. But I think she enjoys making me suffer and I wouldn't want to deprive her of her fun. Anyway, I don't think I wanna be the guy that can put on his own make up." Tom said, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"Off you go then" Fuller said chuckling. "Hanson?" he called out as Tom opened the door to leave. "How's Penhall in the boyfriend department? Treating my little girl right I hope."

"Dorothy's a lucky girl" Tom said with a smile before closing the door behind him.

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"She's your cousin?" Penhall blurted out as he and Hanson made their way to Doug's bike parked outside the Chapel.

"Yeah. Turns out my mom's got a sister I never knew about."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Look it's no big deal. I never even knew the girl."

"So how come you never met them?"

"My mom and her sister had a huge bust up when I was a kid. They haven't seen each other since."

"Must have been some fight to not speak to someone for over 18 years."

"20." Tom said flatly. "I was 3."

"That's some grudge. What did she do?"

"My aunt and her boyfriend were using me to pedal drugs." Tom said, his tone matter of fact as he looked directly at his partner. Doug looked back in shock.

"What happened?"

"Dad was suspended and nearly lost his job cos the cops were convinced my parents were involved. My aunt felt so guilty that she went to the cops and told them everything. They went easy on her and this Jake guy got to spend some quality time in a cell."

"But Nikki's mother told Fuller and Ioki that she knew nothing about drugs."

"Yeah, well I guess she kinda lied about that one." Tom said irritated.

"I know I'm gonna regret asking this but, have you told Fuller about this?" The silence from Hanson and his guilty look spoke volumes. "Oh god! Not again. Why do you do this to me?"

"Cos you're my friend." Tom said with a wry smile. "Look, the last thing Nikki's mom needs is for all this to be dredged up again. He knows we're related and if it becomes absolutely necessary, I'll tell Fuller everything I promise. But I don't want to put this woman or my mom through anymore ok." Penhall let out a deep sigh and looked down at his best friend.

"I don't know why I'm always so good to you" he said smiling slyly.

"Because you love me!" Tom replied with a grin and fluttering his heavily mascara covered eyelashes.

"Of course I do beautiful. Let's get going or we're gonna be late and Father Micheals'll have me kicked out. I think I wound him up since day one"

"Always know how to make a good impression don't you Douggie." Tom said chuckling.

"It's what makes me special!"

"You're definitely that Penhall."

"Are you sure you're gonna be ok with this?"

"Yes!"

"Don't just say it like that. Think about it."

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know. Swear on the god of bowling or something."

"You think there's a god of bowling?"

"Isn't there?"

"No!"

"Figures." Doug said shrugging his shoulders. "It is a sport invented by the devil himself."

"Are you done?"

"Yep."

"Can we go then?"

"Yeah" Doug replied sheepishly as he climbed on to his bike.

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Fuller let out an exasperated sigh as he heard yet another knock on the door.

"If this is more problems save them for later" he yelled. The door opened and a remorseful looking Harry Ioki peered round the door.

"Is this a bad time, Captain?"

"No Harry. Come in."

"I pulled the information you wanted on Father Sean Mackenzie."

"And?"

"Well, it turns out that three different girls have made complaints about him harassing them while they were attending St Mary's."

"Are any of them still there?"

"Yep. A girl called Emily Carter. She's one of the group of girls Hanson's in with."

"How long ago was this?"

"Last year. It was dismissed by the school board because, and I quote, "We are unwilling to jeopardise the career of an exceptional public servant on the word of a hysterical and insecure teenager looking for attention.'"

"Harsh! What happened with the other two?"

"Basically the same thing. The girls' families couldn't prove anything and it was their word against his. It looks like this guy has been getting away with this for years."

"Well now we've got him for making a move on Hanson."

"We can bust him for that?"

"No. But he doesn't know who Hanson actually is. We can use this to question him at least and give us some leverage against him."

"Well there's something else too Captain."

"Go on."

"About two weeks ago he withdrew $10,000 from his savings account. The same Nikki Stokely used $8000 to open one of her own."

"$2000 missing. Just how much do you think they charge for 5 rocks these days?" Fuller said.

"Maybe it's completely unconnected"

"I think it's time we go say a proper hello to Hanson's aunt." Fuller said as he picked up his jacket from the back of his chair.

"What?" Harry asked looking confused.

"I'll explain on the way."

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"Hey, I need to talk to you!" Doug shouted out as he spotted Sam Taylor across the parking lot.

"Doug. What's up man?" Sam replied smiling.

"You've been holding out on me."

"What are you talking about?"

"A little birdie told me that you've been suspended for having drugs in school."

"So? What, like you've never done it?"

"Hey, I got no problem with you scoring, I'd just like to know where you got them."

"Sorry man. No can do."

"Why not?"

"Because my source is very picky about who I introduce him to. If you wanna score man, tell me what you want give me the cash and I'll sort it for you."

"Did you introduce him to Nikki?"

"Once or twice."

"How come she never got caught out?"

"What?"

"She was on the swim team. She must have had to take drug tests."

"Look, Doug I like you and I don't wanna fall out with you but let me get one thing straight. If you drag Nikki's name through the dirt I will teach you a lesson you won't forget. She wasn't a user. This guy was my friend, she was my girl. You've never introduced your Tammy to your buddies?"

"Nah. They always hit on her." He said trying to keep a straight face.

"I'll bet."

"Sam was Nikki in any kinda trouble?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked defensively.

"Well Tammy heard from some girl at school that she'd quit the team, kept being late for class, skipping gym and spending a lot of time bringing her guts up."

"Well that's normal when…." Sam suddenly stopped mid sentence.

"When what?" Doug asked urgently. "Sam was Nikki pregnant? Were you the father?"

"No I wasn't. Ok." he shouted angrily.

"Then who was?"

"I don't know." Sam replied obviously lying.

"You don't want to tell me?"

"Not really your business is it?"

"I'm sorry."

"How do you know all this anyway" Sam asked, seeming very nervous.

"Well, don't get me wrong I love her to death, but god Tammy can be a horrible gossip. Sorry if I upset you man."

"Ok. It's just hard you know. I really cared about her and then I find out that…." His voice trailed of as he stared thoughtfully into the distance.

"Come on" Doug said putting a comforting arm around Sam's shoulder. "I think you need to talk".

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Later that day during lunch Hanson spotted Kelly sat alone on the steps to the school entrance. She was sitting perfectly still staring off into the distance. Her dark blue eyes were tinged with red as if she had spent most of the morning in tears. The hallways were practically deserted, there was nowhere they had to be for the next 45 minutes and Tom sure as hell wasn't going to force down anymore of the slop they tried to pass off as food. So he thought this was as good a time as any to try talking to her again. He plastered his most charming smile on his face and made his way over.

"What you doing?" Tom asked in a cheerful falsetto as he bounced down the stairs and took a seat beside Kelly.

"Trying to get some peace and quite so I can think." she snapped.

"I don't think that's going to happen" Tom told her lowering his voice as if he were confiding a huge secret. "It's a dangerous habit too you know"

"Why are you always hassling me?" she asked rounding on him, her eyes like cold steel staring back at him.

"Am I?" he replied, a puzzled and wounded look on his face. Kelly let out an exasperated sigh before getting to her feet and stomping away in the direction of the parking lot. Undeterred, Hanson sprung to his feet and hurried after her.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Kelly wailed. "You've been hassling me for days. You followed me last night didn't you?"

"No" Hanson replied innocently.

"Don't lie. I saw you. You and that ape you hang round with."

"Apes a good word for Douggie!" he said flashing his melting smile.

"I know who's got you tailing me. Just drop the act and go back and tell him I didn't tell the cops anything and I won't ok. Just leave me alone."

"I really don't know what you're talking about. No one's sent me to hassle you."

"Why were you following me?"

"Look," he began. "I'm really sorry if I upset you. You just seem kinda down and I thought I could help."

"Kinda down! Of course I am. My best friend has just died." she yelled as she spun round and glared at him.

"I know what you're….."

"Don't you dare. You have no idea what I'm going through."

"Don't I?" Tom replied, his recently irrational temper beginning to boil and only just barley able to keep from slipping back into his normal voice. "I've dealt with loss more often than you can imagine." Kelly's face suddenly softened and she looked both uncomfortable and guilty.

"I'm sorry. I forgot about your parents." she said softly. "But what the hell were you doing there last night?" Tom took a deep breath and rolled his eyes, not believing what he was about to do, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. "Here goes nothing" he thought to himself.

"Ok Kelly. The truth is, I'm Nikki's cousin." Kelly looked at him, frozen to the spot trying to process this information.

"You're Nikki's cousin?" she said, disbelief still written all over her face.

"Yes."

"You're lying to me. Nikki never mentioned having a cousin and I've known her for 14 years."

"Yeah. My parents had a huge bust up with hers years before she was born, and they haven't spoken since." Kelly still looked at him, obvious sceptism in her gaze.

"Are you being serious?" Tom sighed deeply while raising his eyes to the sky.

"Of course I am."

"But that means Nikki's aunt and uncle are…."

"My mom and dad."

"Who are…."

"Both no longer with us. Look, I followed you last night because I thought you knew something about her death." Kelly looked back at him, a panicked stricken look on her face. "What did you tell the police?" Tom asked softly.

"Nothing. I didn't go in. You saw I didn't!" she said angrily

"Ok. What did Sam tell them?"

"I don't know. I wasn't with him".

"You looked pretty close, you must have some idea what he was going there to tell them."

"We're not and I don't" she snapped. "I wasn't even with her the night she died. My mom and dad told me the next day."

"Hey, I just want to know what happened to my cousin" he said raising his hands in a defensive gesture. He hid them again quite quickly when he noticed Kelly studying them with a strange look on her face. He coughed nervously and asked "Was Nikki in any kind of trouble?" When Kelly offered no answer and simply looked away, Tom put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said gently, "Don't you think her parents deserve to know what happened?" Kelly gave an almost unnoticeable nod of her head as her eyes began to tear up.

"Tell me please." Tom pleaded.

"She was pregnant. She begged me not to tell anyone, made me promise."

"Was it Sam's baby?"

"No." she said flatly.

"Do you know whose baby it was?"

"I can't tell you I'm sorry."

"I might be able to help"

"What can you do!" she said helplessly. "I'm sorry I need to go." Kelly sobbed as she turned and ran back towards the school. Hanson stood and watched after her as she raced away. As she reached the top of the stairs he saw her run smack into the unmistakable figure of Father MacKenzie. Even from the distance he was stood he could see the awkward and uncomfortable glances they gave each other before heading their separate ways. Tom sighed sadly and hoped that the guys back at the Chapel had come up with the goods on this guy. This case was starting to give him a headache.

"There you are!" came the familiar voice from behind him.

"Oh great", he thought, "It's now a migraine" before turning round with the seemingly permanent false smile plastered on his face. "Hi Helen."

"Where have you been, I've been looking all over for you."

"Around" 'she' said non commitally.

"Come on, I've got hockey practice and we're short a player, you can try out." Helen said excitedly. "I'm on the girls' basket ball team too" she said smiling. As she studied her new 'friend' her smile faded. "Shame, you're probably a bit small for the basketball team. You'll be great at hockey though, come on" she said gabbing 'Tammy's' wrist and all but dragging 'her' away.

"But I've got next period free and I have some stuff I've gotta do." Tom said desperately trying to get out this latest humiliation.

"Like what?" Helen asked brightly. Hanson desperately searched his mind for some plausible excuse, but not able to come up with anything even remotely convincing he settled on the first thing that came to mind.

"Nothing you want to get involved in" he said lamely.

"Is it something to do with that thing in your file you didn't want them to see?" she asked excitedly.

"Exactly!" Tom replied, gratefully jumping on the easy explanation.

"I'm sure that can wait" she said as she began pulling him away. She was surprisingly strong for a young girl.

"No really, I gotta…"

"Oh come on, it'll be fun."

"I should get danger money for this job" he thought to himself as he allowed Helen to lead him away.

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"Come in officers" Alison Stokely said as she held the door open for the now familiar faces of Adam Fuller and Harry Ioki. "Is there any news?" she asked her eyes staring pleadingly at the tall black captain.

"I'm afraid not Mrs Stokely. There are a few more questions we need to ask you. Is that ok?"

"Sure, but I don't know what more I can tell you."

"Is your husband home?" Fuller asked

"No. He'll be back in an hour."

"Maybe we should wait till he gets back."

"No it's fine. Go ahead."

Harry shot a questioning look at his commanding officer before going on.

"Maybe you should sit down." Harry said gently as he offered the older woman his hand.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly.

"Mrs Stokely, did you know Nikki was pregnant?"

"Don't be ridiculous" Alison laughed. "She was barely 18"

"She was also 3 months pregnant Mrs Stokely" said Fullers authoritative voice.

"You're serious aren't you?"

"I'm afraid so."

"I knew that Taylor boy was bad for her" she said as she dissolved into tears, "My poor baby girl"

"I know this must be difficult for you Mrs Stokely, but we need to search Nikki's room."

"Why?" she said startled

"$8000 dollars was paid into Nikki's savings account. Do you know where that might have come from?"

"She didn't have a savings account, just a trust fund we set up for her when she was born. But she didn't even know about that."

"Did she have a job?"

"No, she was too busy with her swimming, well until that boy came along. Besides she didn't need money, we gave her everything she needed. Where would an 18 year old get $8000? What was my baby involved in?" she said, her sobbing nearly uncontrollable.

"That's what we're trying to find out Mrs Stokely." He said trying to comfort her. "Is it ok if we take a look at your daughter's room?" She nodded her head.

"Harry." he said quietly to his young officer "I want you to go upstairs, see if you can find any receipts, bank statements, names, phone numbers, anything unusual."

"Sure Captain." Harry said before heading for the stairs.

"Mrs Stokely, did Nikki ever talk to you about a man called Sean Mackenzie?"

"The school principle? Not much, why?"

"She never mentioned going to his bible meetings?"

"Nikki wasn't really into religion."

"Some of her friends have informed us that she attended these meetings quite regularly. They also said they spent alot of time together recently"

"What are you saying? That he was the baby's father?"

"It's a possibility."

"Did he do this to her?" she asked her voice rising

"We don't have enough evidence either way, but we're working on it."

"I can't believe this. It's all too much".

"I'm truly sorry Mrs Stokely" he said as he watched the heartbroken woman, "We will find who did this"

"We're not bad parents really" she sobbed, "It's just I've been ill recently and Greg's always so busy with work. We couldn't watch her all the time, she was 18."

"No ones blaming you Mrs Stokely."

"Then why do I feel so guilty?"

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After searching fruitlessly for what seemed like hours, defeated, Harry returned downstairs.

"Well?" Fuller asked

"Nothing much. She opened the account with cash so there's no paper trail" Harry replied dully.

"Damn!" Fuller said under his breath. This was followed by a shrill ringing from the brick like cell phone Fuller had recently aquired."Fuller" he answered. After a slight pause Harry heard him quietly ask, "Where are you holding him?...Right, I'll be there as soon as I can." He hung up and turned to Alison, "We'll leave you in peace. If you think of something or find anything at all please get in touch with us."

"Sure, thank you Captain Fuller". The two officers smiled politely and headed for the door.

"Ok, we'll pull Tom and Doug and head straight downtown." Fuller said decisively as they headed for the car.

"What for?"

"We now know what Sam Taylor told Dorian."

"Ha! The Penhall Charm works every time!" Harry laughed. "So what did he tell them?"

"Where Nikki got the drugs"