About twice a year, his father would take a vacation, the child observed a 2 years after the series of murders, a situation that hadn't cropped up again thankfully, for just about a week long. Carl didn't know what exactly his father did during this vacation time, because he clearly didn't believe Rick's excuse of 'resting,' and, honestly, he didn't care. His father always seemed happier during the vacation, even though the man had a slight limp that wasn't there when he went to bed the night before the first day of vacation. Sometimes, he observed, the man would wince a little when the man made a sudden move. Carl was curious, like every child who was just turning 8, but as long as his father was happy, he supposed he was too.

His mother, on the other hand, Carl noted on the second vacation his father took, didn't seem to notice his father's strange behavior, which Carl found weird. Then again, he thought with a hum, maybe it was because she was the reasoning?

At least, that's what he thought until one night, while his mom was away on business; Carl crawled out of bed to go down stairs for a drink of water. His mother didn't like him bringing food and drinks to his room, which he thought was unfair because he got thirsty at night and the house was big, and, sometimes, scary at night. Carl thought it was cruel to make a child get up and fumble around in the dark, especially on the stairs, just to get a glass of water. Unfortunately, neither he nor his dad could convince her to let him even have a small water bottle.

Carl had just stepped into the hallway, when he heard the stairs creak. Damn near jumped out of his skin from the unexpected noise too. Carl's head whipped around to the stairs, hand still on the door, one foot in the air like he was about to step forward, maybe it was backwards, at this point even he didn't know. It was a bit of a surprise to see the small child like figure standing against the light, something he couldn't quite make out in hand.

"Uh," Carl started, not quite sure how to finish the statement. He wasn't sure if he was scared or just plain confused. "Hello?" the kid finished lamely, reaching up to scratch his cheek in embarrassment.

A deep grunt was thrown his way, as the man, because there was no way a child had that deep of a voice, moved forward down the hall and away from the stairs. Carl watched him walk into his parents room, cup in hand.

"Okay," Carl whispered to himself out loud, "that was weird." Stranger still, he wasn't as scared as he thought he should be with a stranger in his home. Carl shrugged. Oh well, he supposed. The guy clearly didn't mean him any harm or he would have been dead by now.

The next morning, the stranger was gone by the time Carl went to wake his dad up to make him breakfast. The boy noticed from the door way, that his dad was on the wrong side of the bed. His mother usually slept away from the door, claiming it was his father's job as a man to protect her, thus she slept on the furthest from the door. It was strange to Carl, but his dad had said it was traditional. Men slept closest to the door so if a an intruder came in, the man could fight them off giving the woman time to run and hide. Stupid reasoning if he ever heard one, but adults were weird and Carl just accepted it.

His dad's side, though, was rumpled up, blankets thrown back like someone had slept there, then threw the blanket back as they got up. Not really a detail Carl would have normally find unusual, until last night. His dad had a habit of getting up multiple times a night. If the man happened to be hugging a pillow on his mom side of the bed while she was gone when the kid walked in, Carl would have chalked it up, on any other day, to his father missing his mother. Now, though, Carl noticed the pillow was one of his dads own pillow. The child suspected that his father had reached out in his sleep to hug the person sleeping next to him and got a pillow instead.

Honestly, Carl didn't even want to know what happened last night. Didn't even want to think about why a stranger would be going into his parent's room while his mom was away. He did the same thing he did when he caught his mom and Shane sleeping in the bed in the wee early morning when his father was away. Carl turned on his heel, shutting the door quietly behind him.

"I'm just going to get make cereal."

Because, in lay man's terms, "fuck that."

Rick had just sat at his desk, mug of horrid black coffee in hand, when his cell went off. He set the mug down the nest of napkins in the corner of the desk furthest from the CPU tower, where he normally set it just in case it got knocked over, and tried to dig out his cell phone at the same time he was digging through the folders on the desk trying to find that half finish report he started before his vacation. Pulling the phone out, he flipped it open. "Hello, Rick speaking. Ah ha!" Found it.

"Your son knows," the dark voice on the other end said, and the phone and report was slipping from his suddenly numb fingers. What? His mind blanked out. How?

"Hey, Rick. Welcome back," Shane yawned out as he walked by his partners desk to get to his. The dark haired man collapsed into his rolling chair, all the while trying not to spill a drop of his coffee. Only once he had set the mug down and readjusted his chair, did Shane realize he hadn't gotten a greeting back. The man blinked and turned to his partner. "Rick?" His partner blinked at him, as if he had just noticed Shane sitting in front of him.

"Oh. Good morning," Rick greeted in a dazed kind of way.

Shane took a moment to really look at Rick. "You okay? You look a little pale. Did something happen?" Shane asked, his eyes shifting to take in the dropped phone and the report hanging off the side of the desk.

Rick cleared his throat and swallowed the lump that was sitting there. "Yes," he said reaching out to grab the phone. The man checked to see if Ace was still on the line. He wasn't. Not a surprise there. Rick noticed Ace was a man of few words and very little patience. The moment he heard the thunk of the phone dropping, Ace had probably already ended the call. Rick snapped the phone shut and slipped it back into his pocket as he pulled the report closer to the middle of the desk. Rick wondered how Carl knew about Ace and when exactly the boy had the time to meet the man.

"Are you sure? You know, if you're having issues with Lori again, I can try to talk to her," Shane offered as he leaned on the desk.

If only it was Lori, Rick mentally complained. "No. It's fine," Rick insisted, "Everything is fine between me and Lori."

Shane eyed Rick in suspension for a minute, then shrugged and turned away. "Well, the offer is still on the table if you change your mind."

Ace, or Aiden, whoever you wanted to call the small man, grunted in annoyance as a thunk rang out in his ear. Fuck that. Aiden hit the end button quickly after that flipping the phone close angrily.

Aiden turned to stare at the child across from him in the dinner. He had no idea why or how the kid had found him. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Aiden wasn't trying to be mean to the poor fella, but his voice still came out in an angry rumble like a bear ready to strike.

The boy eyed the child size man across from him, eyes occasionally cutting over to the blonde and brunette men sitting at the table next to the booth Aiden and He sat in. "Yes," he finally answered a few minutes later. "Are you in a gang?" Carl asked, deciding on playing 50 questions, as he eyed the matching patches on the jackets or in Jefferson's case t-shirt.

Aiden eyed the boy. "Yes," he answered in dark amusement, "but that's not what the patches are for." Certainly, the patches do look like they could be a symbol of a gang, but they weren't. They were more personal than that.

"Then what are they for?" the boy asked, head tilting like a curious bird.

Aiden didn't say anything, instead chose to wait for the waitress he could see walking towards their tables.

"What can I get cha?" the woman asked, her eyes shifting from Carl, the boy, and Aiden then over to the other two the short man was with originally when he sat down. Aiden could see the confusion rolling around in the woman's eyes as they settled on him.

"Those two idiots," Aiden growled out as he idly pointed to Jefferson and Terry at the other table, "aren't with me, but they will be paying this table as well." He told the woman, which increased her confusion. He inwardly laughed at her, as she bobbed her head as if she understood what Aiden was trying to say. Another words, don't give him the check.

"Aw, come on~" the brunette whined. "Seriously, I'm gonna go broke."

"You mean, I am going to go broke," the blonde corrected the man. Jefferson never used his own card for anything if he could help it. He was always swiping Terry's card out of Terry's wallet, and, for the life of him, Terry can't figure out how. He has even gone as far as to stick the wallet in his socks.

"Shut up," Aiden growled at them, "it's the price you pay for making me put up with you assholes."

"I thought you weren't together?" the waitress jokingly commented.

"You," Aiden's angry eyes landed on the poor woman, "Shut the hell up. I already told you we aren't together. I don't know these assholes."

Despite the fact that they had all three sat at the same booth until the kid walked in, the waitress thought sarcastically, even though she just smiled on the outside. "Fine. Fine," she said cheerfully, "So…" she raised her note pad and pen, "what can I get'cha."

"Coffee," Aiden grunted, "A water. The fucking 3 egg – over hard – plate with ham." Then, he turned to the boy. "What do you want child?" he didn't know the kids name. He thought Rick had told him once, but Aiden had other things on his mind at the time and clearly wasn't listening as he nipped at the man's neck from where he laid behind the man, acting as the big spoon.

"Doctor Pepper, please," the kid grinned up at the waitress, "And I want the country boy breakfast. Eggs scrambled, preferably easy but not runny, more like in-between," the kid rambled on with his unnecessarily long winded order. Aiden found it annoying. "and an orange Juice."

"You already ordered a damn drink," Aiden pointed out with a scowl.

"So?" the kid chirped back at him, raising an eyebrow as if to challenge him.

Aiden snarled at the boy but didn't say anything more.

"So…" the waitress started but left it hanging as she looked at Aiden for direction.

"SO, get the boy his Orange Juice, damn it. For fucks sakes."

Carl eyed the man across the way from him, warily. "You're a very angry person, aren't you?"

"No shit, Sherlock, and this bitch is really pissing me off."

Terry took that moment to pull the waitress away from their table like some gallant knight. "Sorry about him, beautiful…"

Aiden glared at the woman until she was fully absorbed in taking the two idiots orders as they laughed and joked back and forth. It'll probably be another hour before their order even makes it to the kitchen at this rate. "We're never going to get our order now," Aiden grunted to the kid as he turned away from them. "Anyway, what do you want, Kid?"

"My names Carl, not kid or child," the boy corrected the man.

"So?" Aiden snorted, "What's that got to do with what you want or why you're here and not at school like the good child your dad says you are?"

Carl couldn't stop the snort that left him if he tried. Him? Good? "Yeah right."

Aiden eyed the kid sitting in front of him. "You're a strange, strange little man."

"Thanks," he mulled out, "I think…" Carl stared at the man across from him. The man he was about 98% sure was having sex with his dad, a very married father. A man who quite clearly had some issues, was part of a gang, and was having sex with a sheriff, who arrested people like him for a living. "Does my father know you're in a gang?" Carl asked suddenly.

Aiden blinked, a little taken back by the question. The man adopted a thinking face as he scratched behind his ear, an ear that Carl noticed was pierced with a small dangling cross and had a row of near invisible holes going around the cartilage. "No," the man finally rumbled out after a moment of thought, "no, I don't think he does. Might suspect it, though. But, seeing as I don't do business in this town usually, and he hasn't asked out right, there isn't any reason for him to know for sure."

"Then," Carl asked, hesitantly, "why tell me. I mean, I'm his son. I could tell him. Have you arrested."

Aiden stared at the boy, Carl, for a moment, just taking in the boy's features, the expression on his face, for a moment. "Because you asked, and I don't lie, kid. Never have, can't see myself having a reason ever to lie."

Carl paused for a moment, just staring at the child size man across from him. "You know…" Carl paused in thought, bringing his thumb up to chew on the nail, " Your kind of strange too."

Aiden nodded, humming in agreement. Drinks were finally served after that, and Aiden chose to ignore his lover's child's presence at his table while he drank his coffee. It didn't escape his notice that the kid, Carl, he reminded himself, hadn't answered any of his questions. That was fine. At least the kid hadn't lied.

"Well," Jefferson started to say as they watched the kid go into the house, "that was awkward."

And it was. They ended up dragging the kid around with them as they waited for his school to let out. They hadn't really done much in reality. Mostly just spoiled the kid by taking him shopping out of boredom. Then when the kid got bored with that, they took him to see some boring action movie that was playing in the theater. There wasn't a lot you could do with an 8 year old child following you around. It was already bad enough they had to strap him in on the back of one of their bikes to take him from destination to destination.

"Shut up," Aiden grunted at Jefferson. He reached up to hit the Bluetooth call button on his helmet. "Call Pet."

"Calling Pet," the automated voice confirmed as Aiden turned his bike around. Ring… Ring…

"Hello, Rick speaking."

"He skipped school," Aiden said to the man on the other side, "I just dropped him off."

The man on the other side sighed in his ear. "Thank you," Rick's voice sounded genuine.

Aiden hummed, choosing not to comment on the statement, turning onto right onto one of the main roads leading out. "He didn't say why or how."

"No, I suppose he wouldn't. He is a smart kid. Probably thought you would rat him out."

"Snitches," Aiden growled, "get more then stitches these days." It was the reason Aiden had met Rick after all.

"Do they?" Rick sounded amused, as if he thought Aiden was joking.

"Yes. If you're lucky, they will find the body." Aiden was being completely serious.

Rick let out a bark of laughter. "You sound like you have experience."

Then there was silence.

"Ace?"

Aiden hummed, mostly to just make aa noise for the man and confirm his existence on the line.

"You are joking, right?" The man sounded anxious to Aiden. Not that many would be able to tell, he was sure. Aiden himself only noticed because of the slight tilt in speech patterns and pitch.

"Do not ask questions you know you don't want the answer to," Aiden ordered harshly down the line.

Rick's breath hitched, whether in surprise or lust, Aiden couldn't tell over the phone. "Yes, Sir," the man whispered quietly, answering to Aiden's order while, also, letting the man know Rick wasn't alone on the other end.

"Good." Aiden was turning onto the freeway now, it was about to get too windy to be able to hold a proper conversation. "Listen, Pet," and the man's breath hitched again, this time Aiden knew it was from lust, "I'm about to turn on the freeway. I will see you soon. Be a good boy for me while I'm gone and I'll be sure to reward you for it. However you want." Which isn't an offer he makes often. Usually, only when he needs to leave.

A quiet whine on the other side answered his words.

"Now, Now, Pet. Get back to work and keep an eye on that, far too curious child of yours."

"Yes, Sir," Rick practically whimpered out.

Aiden's dark laughter was heard for a few seconds but cut off midway by the line going dead. Rick fought the edge to pout at the phone, snapping it shut.

"What was that about?" Shane asked finally, unable to hold it in any longer.

"Nothing really," Rick told him as he slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Just an acquaintance calling to tell me Carl skipped school. He was worried something may have happened at home to cause the behavior."

"What? Carl? The Carl skipped school?" Shane asked swerving his rolling chair around so he was facing Rick. "Does Lori know?"

"Does Lori know what?" the nosey female officer, the one who was complaining about her sex life with them that one day, Tammy, he thought her name was.

Shane turned to the woman. "Carl skipped school today," his partner told her with a shit eating grin on his face. "He seems to be a chip off the old block."

Tammy looked surprised by what she was hearing. "What? Carl skipped school?" The woman blinked as if her mind was trying to wrap itself around the idea.

Rick sighed. It wouldn't surprise him if the whole building knew by the time it was time to leave. "Shane, it really isn't that big of a deal. My acquaintance found him and took him home." He wasn't doing to tell his partner who either. Shane still thought Ace, the man on the bike, was the real murder of the serial case a while back.

"What if he got into trouble, thought?" Tammy asked, "Just because his dad's cop, doesn't mean he can just go around breaking the laws. It starts by skipping school then it escalates into something bigger, like robbery."

Rick rubbed his forehead, trying to stop the incoming headache. Somehow he just knows this is going to be a reoccurring thing today. "Tammy, my son isn't a thief, and I'm sure he was just doing it to get our attention. Lori and I have been…" he paused. How did he explain how his marriage was now? "Distant lately. I'm sure he just needs some mom and dad time to reassure himself that we aren't going anywhere."

Rick says that, but he knew his son was curious.

"That's probably a good idea, chief," Tammy agreed whole heartedly, "Getting a little family bonding time in is always good for the soul. We have a mandatory family movie and popcorn night in my home. We use the time to catch up with each other and relax. Just soak up each other's presence, you know?"

"How does that work?" Shane could help but ask the woman, "our job is so…" he paused, trying to come up with how to phrase it, "unreasonable." He decided. "Sometimes we are here until late at night, sometimes we never get an off days. Hell, most of the time, we don't even step through the door and they are already calling us back. No offense, Rick, but you suck sometimes."

Rick smiled apologetically. "None taken. It's just because we don't have the staff, note the budget to train more people. I did find out though, that if you put in for vacation and no one else has the same days already, we have to approve it."

"Is that how you've been getting your vacations lately?" the random guy from three desks down, Johnny, asked out of the blue.

"Yep," Shape answered for his partner, popping the P. "lucky son of a bitch. I'm saving mine." Shane leaned forward rubbing his hands together as if he had an evil plan already set in motion. "I'm gonna get a big pay out at the end of the year." Shane's expression was a little to wickedly excited about the idea of money to be healthy for a normal human being.

"You know, Shane," Johnny said, looking a little wary, "you," he pointed at the man, "worry me."

"What? Why?"

Tammy spoke up from her desk, her features arranged in a way that clearly displayed her reservation, "if you weren't a cop, I would have thought you were a criminal with that kind of look."

"What did I do?" Shane's tone took on a whining quality to it. "I'm just saying…"

"Yeah, well," Johnny laughed, "try 'just saying' without looking like you just stole some child's lollies and got away with it."

Shane pouted at them as they all laughed at his expense. For a little while, Carl's issue of skipping school was forgotten. Just for a little while. It was back just before coffee break.