Chapter 15

"Vengeance Vs. Justice"

Debra appears in the living room. She swaggers out with a quirky smile on her face. She says, "Hey Dexs. Whad up? Whad ya bring me?" She claps her hands and rubs them together. She's anticipating the gift her brother has brought her.

Dexter presents her the game. He says, "I got 'Scramble.'"

Debra says, "Neat."

Dexter says, "Lets get it started." They walk over to the dining room table. Dexter sets up the game.

Jacob says, "I'll bring you two some refreshments." He goes to kitchen. He brings back a tray of lemonade and cupcakes.

Dexter and Debra play the game for a while. They finish up their second session of "Scramble." The refreshments are gone. Ice cubes now melt in the glasses. The cakes are reduced to crumbs. In the games they run through a gambit of words. They now make the last words in the last game.

The last word Debra makes is "Justice."

The last word for Dexter is "Vengeance."

The words crossed each other at the end

Dexter adds up the words points. His final word beats out Debra's, giving him the winning score. He looks over his math and says, "Well look at that Debs. You win again."

Debra pumps her fisted arm down and cheers, "Yes, I won."

Dexter puts the note pad face down on the table and gestures with the pencil. He says, "You're always so good these games. You should let me win more often."

Debra waves her hand down, dismissively, and says, "Nah, you win when you earn it."

Dexter asks, "I wanna ask you. Do you miss your old job? Being a cop?"

Debra shrugs and says, "I've told you before. I dunno. I don't remember my old job."

Dexter asks, "But you remember some things right?"

Debra says, "I remember you, Mom, Dad, soccer... "

Dexter asks, "Mr. Smith?"

Debra says, "Yah my old science teacher." She gets a suspicious look on her face. She asks, "What makes you ask about him? Did you hear anything of interest about him? Were there rumors around about him... about me?" Her suspicious look turns to a worried expression.

Dexter shakes his head and says, "Oh no. It's just that I had Mr. Smith too for science class. He was always my favorite teacher. You know I love science, being in forensics and all. He really inspired me."

Debra nods and says, "He really inspired me too. Mr. Smith was always very attentive to the students. I think he really took a special interest in us."

Dexter raises his eyebrows and nods. He quotes, "'attentive to the students,' 'took a special interest,' yah could says that about him." He looks off to the side of the room, at the wall paper.

Debra asks, "Talking about high school, I was wondering about Mindy Taylor. Whatever happened to her? She told me back in high school she wanted to open up a unisexual clothing store. Did she end up doing that?"

Dexter says, "Yah, I remember your good friend Mindy. I saw her at my high school reunion. You set me up with her to go to the school's spring formal. Yes she did open up that unisexual clothing store. Mindy made certain revelations about herself in college. Her and her wife Heather run the store now. She said I was the last man she ever dated."

Debra laughs and says, "You're kidding. That's funny. Mindy always was such a tomboy. We had that in common at least. We had a great rivalry going on in soccer."

Dexter says, "At the reunion Mindy asked about you too. She said she had quite a thing for back in the day."

Debra nods and raises her eyebrows. She says, "Really? Huh."

From another room, a girl calls out, "Debra have to seen my baton?"

Debra turns her head and calls back to her, "It's in the hall closet."

When Debra turns her head away, she combs her hair over her ear. This reveals a scar on the outside edge of her cheek. The scar is a faint straight line that runs from her temple to her jaw. You probably wouldn't notice it if you didn't know where to look. The scar on her neck, from the knife, is also quite faint. Both scars are on the same side.

An eleven year old girl walks out to hallway. She starts rummaging through the hall closet.

Debra points to bottom of the closet. She says, "It's in that bag down there."

The girl fishes out the baton and says, "Thanks Deb." The girl waves the baton as a greeting at Dexter. She smiles at her uncle and says, "Hi Dexter."

Dexter waves back at the baton wave. He greets her, "Good to see yah Bridget."

Debra points to the baton and says, "I'll show you and Sarah some moves later."

Bridget nods and says, "Can't wait. See ya." She bounces out the back door while twirling the baton."

Dexter nods and says, "It's great you're showing them the baton. I remember you were good at that."

Debra grabs her own wrist and twists it over. She says, "The wrists are bit rusty but it's coming back to me."

Debra turns her head back to face him. Her hair again falls back to hiding her scars. Dexter's the only one who knows it's really a bullet track up the side of her face. He thinks back to the moment he handed her Harry's loaded gun. He says, "What I was asking you before, about your old job. What I wanted to know is... Are you happy now, doing what you do now? As oppose to what you did before the accident? Do you wish you were still a cop?"

Debra mulls it over, teetering from side to side in her seat. She shrugs and says, "I was told my old job was very stressful. I'm not sure it made me happy at all."

Dexter explains, "But you were really good at it. You were really proud of your work. You got a lot of people to walk the line of justice. Sometimes I don't walk that line as well as myself."

Confused, Debra asks, "How's that? What do you mean?"

Dexter looks at the extra game pieces in the box. He searches for words in the alphabet of letters. He says, "I mean... there are legal loopholes, botched forensics. Justice doesn't always get done."

Again Debra's confused. She knits her eyebrows together, shakes her head.

Dexter knows the detective's mind, that was once hers, is no longer there. He rephrases, "Sometimes the bad guys get away. Sometimes good guys are catch in their place."

Debra asks, "You mean like when criminals are wrongly accused."

Dexter says, "Ya, something like that."

Debra says, "Dexter, I know you try. It's all you can do."

Dexter says, "Perhaps sometimes I do the wrong things for unjust reasons."

Debra asks, "But why would you do that?"

He looks at the last word he made in the game. Dexter replies, "That's okay Debra. You don't have to worry about all of that anymore." He starts to pick apart the words they made.

Debra shrugs and shakes her head.

Letter in hand, Dexter sadly smiles and looks away.

It's several months earlier. Dexter is out on his boat on a starry night. It's fairly windy. The waves rock the boat. The motion of the boat wakes up Dexter's passenger. It's Quinn. Quinn opens his eyes and looks at Dexter. Dexter's sitting across from Quinn on the boat's deck.

Quinn says, "What the f... " He tries to move but he can't. He's all tied up in plastic wrap.

Quinn gawks at Dexter. He sees Dexter in his rubber apron. He looks around himself. Plastic, plastic, plastic, covering the whole boat. Quinn stares at Dexter in disbelief and says, "LaGuerta was right. You are the Bab Harbor Butcher.'"

Dexter says, "Yes, LaGuerta was right. Unfortunately for her." He shrugs and looks out into the water.

Quinn says, "But why are you killing me? I'm not a killer. I didn't find out your secret."

Dexter explains, "You put a bullet in my sister's head."

Quinn says, "But she put three bullets in you. If I didn't shoot her you'd be dead."

Dexter gestures to Quinn's wrapped up body. He then gestures around to the whole wrapped up boat. He says, "Well Quinn, as you can see Debra had just cause to kill me."

Quinn says, "But Debra's not dead. The doctors says she'll be fine. She'll live a normal life span."

Dexter scoffs and says, "Yah, with brain damage. Her career's over forever. She can't catch bad guys anymore." Dexter gestures to himself while referring to the bad guys. He says, "Anyway Quinn, I'm curious. Why did you shoot Debra? She was your live in girlfriend for a year. You proposed to her. You were never a fan of mine."

Quinn lets out a painful laughs and says, "Believe me, I'm no fan of you right now. And I'm very much regretting saving your life right at this moment."

Dexter asks, "So why did you shoot Debra?"

Quinn explains, "Well I didn't know about all this sh** of course. And over in your office I heard a gunshot and a ruckus, the shelf falling. I ran over with my gun in my hand. I was prepared for anything. I saw you lying on the floor, unarmed. I saw Debra there. She kept shooting you. She put three bullets in you. You were bleeding to death on the floor. I'm a cop. It's my duty to help. My instinct to help. If I had only thought about it for a second. About what I was seeing. About what I was doing. But I just reacted to the situation like I normally would." Quinn looks distraught and shakes his head.

Dexter says, "By the way Quinn, good detective work. Actually you were right. I am Kyle Butler. It was an alias I used to get close to Trinity. Then, unfortunately, Trinity got to Rita." He shakes his head. Again he looks out into the water.

Quinn says, "But Dexter, don't you see? It's not my fault Debra got shot. It was my duty as a cop. It's you, you and all your craziness. You got Rita killed. It's your fault Debra has brain damage. You're the problem here, not me. You should just kill yourself, or disappear, to save your family from you."

Dexter says, "But me being dead, or gone, won't undo Debra's brain damage. It won't bring Rita back to life either."

Quinn says, "Neither will killing me. I'm a cop. I'm one of the good guys, like Debra. Like you said before. You're the bad guy here. You're the one who should be caught and killed, not the other way around."

Dexter says, "I know what you're saying Quinn. But I just gotta get rid of you anyway. Because of what you did to Debra. No matter how well intended you were. No matter that you saved my own wicked life. And I gotta stick around to make sure Debra's okay. I gotta make sure my kids are well taken care of."

Quinn says, "But you'll get them all killed. You put all your loved ones in danger just by doing what you do."

Dexter says, "No. I just ran into problems before because other people kept finding out my secret. But now I take more precautions. And these precautions will keep my secret safe."

Quinn asks, "What precautions?"

Dexter answers, "I no longer do kill rooms where someone could walk in on me. I go straight to the boat to depatch my victims. I now dump their bodies in the gulf stream. The stream carries them to the North Atlantic Ocean. No one will find them there. I don't keep blood slides anymore. There won't be any evidence being left behind for anyone to find. All bearers of my secret must either vanish from my life, vanish from the planet, or lose their memory. I'll kill my victims the second I get the chance to. That is, I'll kill them when I'm sure I'll get away with it. I won't take cases from the police. I won't botch my own blood work to get access to killers. There'll be nothing left behind to draw suspicion to me. And I'll only kill killers."

Quinn says, "But I'm not a killer."

Dexter says, "You're collateral damage from my previous mistakes. The need to break the code will die with you."

Confused, Quinn asks, "What's 'The code?' What are you talking about?"

Dexter says, "I live by a code where I only kill killers."

Quinn says, "But you're killing a non-killer right now. And you've killed the innocent before, like LaGuerta. Right?"

Dexter confesses, "That's true. I've ended up killing other non-killers, innocents... "

Quinn says, "You killed LaGuerta. You killed Doakes. They found out your secret so you killed them both. Didn't you?"

Dexter says, "Well... lets just say they're dead because of me."

Quinn says, "LaGuerta and Doakes found out your secret. That's why you killed them. But I didn't find out your secret. You couldda just let me live. You couldda just let me be. Where was the harm in that? Why didn't you? You see. There will always be an excuse for you to break this 'Code' of yours. Your 'Code-Breaking' won't end with my life here on this boat."

Dexter says, "It's true. My lack of secret keeping wasn't the only thing causing me to break the code. I also started putting my emotions into my kills."

Confused, Quinn asks, "You're saying your 'emotions' made you break the code, and therefore, kill the innocent. Why would that be the case? I'd think if you were a caring human being you'd respect human life, especially innocent lives."

Dexter explains, "You'd think that'd be the case. But it isn't. Not with me. Actually, my emotions were causing me to fly out of control, to kill haphazardly. I became overly protective of my family. I started killing anyone who hurt, or even threatened, my family. I even bludgeoned to death a total stranger out of grief over Rita's murder."

Quinn says, "But you're killing me right now because of your emotions. You're still being overly protective of your family and you always will be. My death will bring an end to nothing. Nothing gonna change after I'm gone. You're still just gonna be some f***ing freak looking for an excuse to kill."

Dexter says, "No. You're wrong. And things have changed already. I don't need to protect my family. At least, not as I have been. With the end of Debra's career, she's now out of harms way. Cassie's a very stable influence and she can better protect the kids as a nurse. There's no more abusive ex-husbands, or troublesome family members, around anymore. All my problems are solved."

Quinn says, "Someone in your family could always get too close to you and pay the price, just like Rita, just like Debra."

Dexter says, "That won't happen, not anymore. With all of my loved ones, Cassie, Debra, Harrison and Laura, I have finally struck a balance. Cassie respects my privacy. Debra's an eternal child. And I'll guide Harrison and Laura as I need them to be. Everything's finally under my control. I am the puppet master."

Quinn says, "Or so you think. Hopefully one day you'll get caught or killed. You'll be stopped. Just like all your victims."

Dexter shakes his head and says, "No one can stop me. I'm too good at what I do. And I'm getting better and better."

Quinn says, "I became suspicious of you. So did Doakes. So did LaGuerta. The heap dead cops is mounting up around you. Hell, your own sister tried to kill you."

Dexter says, "This is Miami. People get killed here. People go crazy here. There's a twenty percent murder solve rate in this city. And being a cop is a dangerous and stressful job."

Quinn says, "Still, that's whole mess of dead cops at your feet. Surely someone will see a pattern forming."

Dexter says, "No one will see a pattern forming. All the major players are exiting one way or another. There's hardly anyone left around, from the beginning, to see that pattern."

Quinn scoffs and says, "'the major players are exiting' They're mostly existing feet first. Who wouldn't become suspicious?"

Dexter says, "To the police it doesn't look like Doakes, or LaGuerta, died at the hands of the Butcher. And you're just gonna disappear. Like you said, you don't even fit my victim profile. And who'd suspect I'd kill the man that saved my life."

Quinn says, "But you can't kill everyone. Bastista, Mathews, Masuka, they're all still there. They've all been along for the ride the whole time, witnessing all the mounting suspicions surrounding you. Anyone of them could still find out the truth."

Dexter says, "Possibly, but unlike you, they all see me through rose colored glasses. Both Bastista, and Masuka, consider me a dear friend. And Mathews is a friend of the family. He's known me my entire life."

Quinn says, "They may look at you through rose colored glasses, but they're not blind. They're detectives. And Masuka's been examining all your obscured evidence right along with you."

Dexter says, "Bastista's retired and Mathews is soon to join him. And Masuka's forensics skills pale in comparison to my own."

Quinn says, "In your job you'll always be surrounded by detectives. Even with all the old detectives gone, new ones with replace them. Someone will 'detect' something wrong with you."

Dexter says, "For every new face in the department they'll only see some innocent lab geek, providing them with all the evidence. They'll have no memory of old suspicions and fallen cops."

Quinn says, "No. New talent will come along. Like an insightful new detective."

Dexter says, "New talent coming along? I don't think so. Even Doakes was a bit of red herring.

Hirings are all based on who you know and who you blow."

Quinn says, "No. Mike was good. He came with an excellent solve rate. If he had live, given time, he may even of solved the puzzle of Dexter Morgan."

Dexter says, "Mike came to town thanks to Debra. The lieutenant fought for that transfer from Chicago. LaGuerta pressured Debra to hire the son of judge instead. But now Debra's retired as well. In the future, like with LaGuerta, now you'll only see corruption and politics. Not good detective work like Mike's, or like Debra's. Debra herself came close to stopping me. But now that possibility is gone forever."

Quinn says, "If Debra knew you were killing me, she'd hate you for it."

Dexter says, "Debra will never know I killed you. She'll never know I was the Bay Harbor Butcher. And that's because of you, because of what you did to her. I guess I should thank you if I didn't grieve the loss of her mind."

Quinn cries and says, "If only I showed up to your office a second later. If only I hadn't shot Debra and stopped her from killing you. If only that fourth bullet had been her own instead of mine. You'd be dead. And your death would finally bring an end to your endless murders."

Dexter says, "That's an interesting thought Quinn. Thank you. I've enjoyed our talk. My victims are now back to being the only people I'll ever be honest with. And you were in the circle of things long before hand."

Quinn asks, "What have I done? What have I unleashed on humanity?"

Dexter says, "Don't worry Quinn. I'll do a lot good. I'll kill a lot killers. A lot of innocents will be spared. The world will be a safer place because of me."

Dexter stabs Quinn in the heart.

It's a few hours later. It's 3:00 am at Dexter's apartment. Dexter comes home from his late night excursion with Quinn. He still owns, and lives in, his double sized apartment. He now shares it with his wife Cassie and his two kids Harrison and Laura. Jaime's now nanny to both kids. Dexter has his own private office in the apartment. It has a lock on the door and no one but him ever goes in there. Cassie's very independent and is a big believer in boundaries. There's never been an issue of time, or space, infiltration with his new wife.

Dexter puts away the tools of his trade. The trunk's out of the closet. The day Dexter was "outed" by Debra she tossed his apartment. When she ransacked his home, the first thing she did, was make a B-line for the trunk in the closet. She mangled the lock on the trunk with a crowbar. She did it to unearth the truth of his long hidden secrets. Initially she fought her way through the lock only find their father's shotgun. Soon after that she discovered the real treasures that were keep inside.

Dexter had long since replaced the trunk. It has a new unmangled lock on it. The new model has a false bottom just like the old one. This secret compartment's now open and ready to receive goods. Decker puts away his roll of knives. One of Debra's striped shirts is in there.

Their last trip to cabin had resulted in a knife fight between himself and Debra. During the struggle Debra cut herself with the kitchen knife. Blood from the cut streamed down onto her clothing. Her striped shirt saw the worst of it. This is a souvenir from that event. The shirt's still red with blood. Red liquid stains the collar. Dry blood cakes the inside of it. The bright dye of the crimson color had seeped through to the front. He takes the shirt out of the trunk and looks at it. The material's crusty with dry red flakes.

Harry appears in the room. He's sitting in Dexter's chair, behind the desk. Harry swivels the seat so that he faces Dexter. Harry asks, "Why do you still keep Debra's shirt with your kill tools? What's the point?"

Dexter says, "It's a reminder. So I'll never forget."

Harry says, "A reminder of what? Your carelessness?"

Dexter says, "It's a reminder to never again let history repeat itself."

Harry says, "Do you really need a constant reminder? How can you forget?"

Dexter says, "Yes I need a reminder. I caused Rita's death by stalling on killing Trinity. I swore to Debra that I'll never let anything like that happen again. And then I had Hannah on my table. I had her wrapped and ready to go. And what did I do? After that Hannah almost killed Debra. And I still kept inviting Hannah back into my life. I didn't learn my lesson."

Harry says, "But you were in love with Hannah. She gave you Laura."

Dexter says, "And then I had to kill her. Just like my brother Brian. Now I have to live with killing the mother of my own child."

Harry says, "At least Cassie will be a good mother for the kids."

Dexter says, "I love Cassie like I loved Rita. But I was only in love with Hannah. Hannah was the only one who saw the real me, all of me, and excepted me for what I truly am."

Harry asks, "But you will never have that with Cassie?"

Dexter says, "Cassie respects having one's own time and space. She'll help me with compartmentalization. That way I can lock my heart back up in box where it belongs."

Harry says, "But now you realize you care for your loved ones."

Dexter explains, "But I'll never be honest with them and I'll never be in love. And I get to live the rest of my life without Hannah. With Laura reminding me of that everyday."

Dexter puts away the shirt back in the trunk.

Harry says, "It's funny how Debra always wore striped shirts. It's like the stripes represent prison bars. And how it was her life's mission to always put criminals behind them. The bars are like her superhero emblem for justice."

Dexter says, "Well now Debra's superhero costume is retired, permanently."

Harry says, "There's no one left to hold you accountable to the code, not me, not Debra."

Dexter says, "I have still have my promise to Debra to refine the code. And I have her presence in my life to remind me of that. That'll be enough to keep my on track."

Harry says, "Will it be enough? It didn't save Quinn from you."

Dexter says, "Well Quinn hurt Deb."

Harry says, "You weren't rescuing Deb from Quinn. He wouldn't of hurt her again."

Dexter says, "No one will ever hurt Debra again. Before the shooting, many factors put Debra endanger. But all those factors are now gone. Never again will she be a cop, know my secret, or even hold gun."

Harry says, "So why did you kill Quinn? He may of saved Debra's life by disabling her like that."

Dexter says, "Quinn wasn't doing Debra a favor by shooting her. She didn't want to live the rest of her life with brain damage. Hell she wanted me dead. Quinn robbed Deb of her victory over me. And he nearly killed her in the process?"

Harry says, "But he didn't kill her."

Dexter says, "Well it came too close for my liking. And I just couldn't let go what he did to her."

Harry says, "You couldn't let it go? Like Quinn told you. Your secret was safe from him. And Debra's now safe from harm. You didn't have to kill Quinn. You shouldn't of killed Quinn."

Dexter says, "He was just one last loose end I needed to take care of. Now I can return to the code."

Harry says, "One last loose end? Who are you kidding? There's always some new excuse for you to break the code."

Dexter says, "No. I had a good reason to indulge that one last time. But that'll be it forever. I swear."

Harry says, "So you keep saying that. You sound like your typical addict. Will you really stay clean for good this time? Rehab's only effective three percent of the time."

Dexter says, "I guess only time will tell. Like I learned in recovery, I just need to take things one day at a time."

He seals up the trunk's false bottom and puts the trunk back in the closet.

The End.

Dark, tragic, ironic, I thought that is exactly how Dexter should end. I think of the story Dexter as a game of opposites. It does the opposite of a lot of cliche stories out there. Like why should justice win out. Bad guys the star. Bad guy does not redeem himself. Instead he gets worse. And even the love story, between Dexter and Debra, concludes in platonic love. When do ever see that? How refreshing.

If you enjoyed the story I'd love to hear a review from you. Of course it's always great to hear back from readers. But also I found that getting feed back can be helpful in both in terms of how I write, and how I present, my stories.

I got into fan fiction just so I could write the story, "Debra's Rapist Gets the Ax." While watching TV show Dexter I came to believe that there was a hidden-back story in the show. And that this story was going to be revealed late into the last season. Of course this didn't happen but I still visioned that this story might go something like this: As kids Dexter kills Debra's rapist with an ax. And somehow one or both kids are made to forget this event.

I then expanded on this story and wrote "The Morgan Family Cabin." "Debra's Rapist Gets the Ax" became this longer story's second chapter.

I pulled six excerpts from the long story and titled them as shorter stories. The titles of the other shorter stories are: "Dexter Moser meets Debra Morgan"(1k+), "Dexter Kidnaps Debra"(16k+), "Debra's Dream"(2k+), "Don't Jump the Fence"(1/2k), "Quality Family Time"(4k+), and "Debra's Rapist Gets the Ax"(5k+). I figured a lot of excerpts worked well as stand alone stories. Also while I breezing through other authors's fan fiction, I found smaller snippets of stories give you a better idea if you'd enjoy a larger story along the same lines.