This chapter contains some sensitive material...just to warn you!

Two hours later and Harry was standing in the locker room scrubbing up to do the autopsy on little Ralf Fabel. He hadn't performed an autopsy on a child since before Edward and Darius had been born and was a bit apprehensive about doing so. But then he thought about the justice he would bring to the child who's life had been cut short and all apprehensiveness went away. Standing up from the bench he was sitting on, he shut his locker and walked through the two sets of double doors and into the cutting room where the body was laying under a green sheet on a metal gurney. Washing his hands, Harry then pulled on a pair of latex gloves and began the autopsy.

Two hours later and Harry was seething with anger, it was obvious to him that the poor child in front of him had been abused for sometime. He had counted no less than ten broken bones, some more recent than others. Some more had been healed for a while but had not been properly set. There were multiple bruises covering the tiny body in front of Harry, some recent, some a few days old and some nearly healed. It was the same with the cuts that marred the boy's body, there were also scars from old cuts and the boy was only two and a half years old. Sighing slightly Harry pulled the sheet back over the autopsied body and pulled his gloves off and threw them into the bin before washing his hands and walking out of the cutting room slamming the door violently behind him. Sitting himself down on the bench in the locker room Harry leant over and rested his face in his hands and took a deep breath before running one hand through his hand and standing up and motioning to a passing autopsy assistant and telling him to put the body into storage. Harry then changed back into his work clothes and walked back up to the lab on the floor above the cutting room. As he walked up the stairs to the floor the main lab was on, Mays caught up with him.

"We still haven't found the father" he told Harry who nodded and kept on walking "We've put a call out for him. The mother says that she didn't know what was happening to her son"

"Bollocks" Harry snapped as he spun around to face the detective who took a shocked step backwards "That boy has been abused for a long time and there is no way that the mother didn't know what was going on"

"Maybe the boy kept it quiet"

"Not possible" Harry shook his head "A boy that age would run to his mother as soon as they hurt themselves, he had multiple bruises, cuts and broken bones, of course he couldn't have kept it quiet he would have been in so much pain"

"So the father could have threatened him" Mays said quietly, almost to himself

"But I don't see how the mother couldn't know her son was getting abused" Harry told the detective "Nikki knows as soon as one of ours even has a small bump"

"Don't let this get personal" Mays said quickly and Harry shrugged and shook his head

"I'm not"

"It sounds like you are"

"Well I'm not" Harry snapped "There is just no bloody way on earth that the mother would have missed what I saw on that little boy, not if she was taking care of him properly"

Mays was about to open his mouth to retort when his phone rang, without apologising to Harry he took it out of his pocket and answered it before walking off leaving Harry alone. Shaking his head, Harry turned around and walked into the lab seeing Leo in his office on the phone and he saw Sam through the open door in the layout room. Checking his watch Harry saw it had only been less than an hour since he had sent of blood and other things for testing and knew they wouldn't be back so soon. Sitting at his desk he picked up his pen and absentmindedly chewed on the end as he thought about how much pain the little boy in the morgue downstairs must have been in and wondered, if it was the father's fault, how he could have done that to his son, his child. Harry had never, and would never, lay an angry hand on his children and he felt slightly ill even thinking about it. Shaking his head slightly to get rid of the thoughts Harry picked up his mobile and rang his home number, it was picked up after a few rings.

"Hello?"

"Hey beautiful" Harry said down the phone "How are you?"

"I'm fine Harry" Nikki replied down the phone "Not that I'm not happy to hear you but what are you calling for? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Nikki" Harry nodded even though his wife couldn't see "I've just…I've got a hard case and wanted to speak to you. How are our children?"

"They're fine" Nikki told Harry, knowing something was wrong but answering him anyway "Edward is watching something about sharks again, Graham is playing on the carpet and Darius is taking a nap"

"and our other little one?" Harry asked quietly and Nikki chuckled

"Becoming an acrobat" she replied and Harry laughed slightly "Do I even want to know what this case it about?"

"No" Harry sighed and tapped his pen against the desk "No it's horrible" he whispered this last bit "But I have to do it"

"For who?" Nikki asked quietly "You or the victim?"

"Both" Harry replied 'and you and the boys' he added in his head "Leo and Sam are still coming over tomorrow for Edward and Graham's birthday, and next month for Darius'"

"Okay I'll make sure there's food in"

"Okay, I love you and the boys and our little one. Tell them for me will you? And give them a kiss from me"

"Of course" Nikki chuckled "I love you too. See you later"

"See you later" Harry repeated then hung up his phone and placed it on his desk just as Leo walked in from his office.

"How's the case?" he asked as he walked over to Harry who sighed and shrugged

"I've got a little boy downstairs who has been battered to death and a detective who thinks I'm letting it get personal"

"Are you?" Leo enquired

"No" Harry said quickly and shook his head "Mays just doesn't think that the mother had anything to do with the murder, Leo the poor boy was black and blue of course she knew"

"Maybe she was getting threatened"

"That wouldn't stop a mother from trying to get her child, only child, away from the person who is abusing him" Harry said loudly and Leo sighed slightly "Apparently there wasn't a mark on her. Wouldn't a mother at least try and take the beatings for her child?"

Leo didn't say anything but wondered if it was a good idea of his giving Harry this case. He highly doubted it.

Sorry this is late, schools been a bit of a bitch. ;)

xxx