by Aiden Bates
Joey shook his head. "There's no way to put a good face on this. Never mind that Oliver is our friend. That's got its own issues. But that baby, that's ours. Part of our family."
Jake nodded, as Sam's heart sank. "I mean, like I said, I don't fault Oliver for the decision. I'm just… Dad, I'm trying real hard not to be confrontational here. I am. But it's hard, you know? Because I'm having a hard time not getting excited about this baby, and I can't get excited about this baby. I know that he loves you, and I know that you feel something for him."
"I love him." Sam interrupted his son without hesitating. "I love him more than I can say, all right? He's a good guy. He's the best. It might be disloyal to say that here, in Chris' house, but I do love him."
Jake pursed his lips. "See, it's not disloyal. It's been a long time, and I only knew Daddy as a little kid knows his dad, you know? But he adored you."
Joey nodded. "He did. I know that your claim was arranged, but it worked well. You guys were happy together, and you loved each other. The thing is, because you loved each other, you'd never want the other one to be unhappy. He'd never want you to be miserable, Dad. And, I have this on good authority, he'd be pissed as hell that you were making another omega unhappy."
Sam turned his face away. "Does no one care about my feelings here?"
Jake stood up. "You're conflicted. It's natural. You've got some issues, and they're all kind of valid for you. The fact is, though, you love him. You love him, but you're letting him do this to himself."
"At this point, I'm not sure that I can stop him." Sam bit his tongue. "I mean, you do realize that I never had any intention of building a life with him?" He shook his head. "I couldn't do that to him, I couldn't do that to you boys."
Joey snorted and thumbed his nose. "There's no 'doing that to us boys.' We want you to."
"He's younger than you are!" Sam dropped his jaw.
"By a couple of months, come on. But we want you to be happy. We think you deserve to be with someone who loves you as much as Dad loved you." Jake stepped toward him, hands out and palms open. "We know you're worth it, Dad."
There was that term again. Jake had picked up on the same thing that Trujillo had, seen through the same BS. How he managed to be that discerning, Sam didn't know. It had to be the detective genes. "He doesn't want me anymore."
"You two were built for each other." Joey stood up now too. "He's always going to want you. You tell me that I should claim him. I would. Honestly, he's a great guy, he's handsome and smart and he smells good. But he's always going to want my father. I'd do it if he needed it, like if he was in omega distress or something, but not otherwise."
Sam buried his face in his hands. "He doesn't want to see me anymore, guys. He says it hurts him." He pulled his hands away. "I honestly don't know what the right thing to do is here. I mean, he said to go away. That's something I have to honor." He sighed. "And I'm not the man I was when I claimed your dad. I don't have anything to offer anymore. I'm old."
"You're forty-nine, Dad." Joey rolled his eyes. "That's hardly old."
"I don't see you making a play for any forty-nine-year-old omegas." Sam glowered at his son. "I've only gotten worse with time. I have no community to offer him, no family besides you two. And you two should be thinking about your own futures, not fussing around about your old man."
"That's a separate issue." Jake snapped his finger. "Stay on task here. Are you seriously willing to just let your youngest child walk out of your life forever, with no hope of ever knowing them?"
"I don't have a choice!" Sam wailed. "I tried to talk him out of it. I did!"
Joey snorted. "Probably with more of that for your own good crap."
Sam sat up straighter. "Someone has to think of what's best for him. An alpha's job is to protect omegas. Even when it's painful, even when it's ugly, even when it makes them cry, we have to keep them safe. Even when it's from us. That's what we're for."
Both of his sons stared at him. "Oh my God, Dad, do they have air conditioning in your cave?" Joey shook his head and turned his back.
Jake sighed. "Yeah. Chivalry is a nice idea, but it's kind of based on this idea of a helpless omega that isn't really justified. You do get that both Oliver and I could kill you and make it look natural, right? Like it wouldn't be a problem."
Sam scowled. "That's not the point. He's being led around by his hormones. Someone has to be the levelheaded one and think rationally. He can do better, and I don't have anything to offer him or this kid."
"He thought that you did, once." Jake stepped in. "You've done your best to make sure he doesn't care what you have to offer. He blames himself, you know? It's on him, for not recognizing that all alphas are basically scum." He shook his head. "I honestly resent you for that. He thought you were some charming, wonderful guy."
"I'm not." Sam turned away so his sons wouldn't see his shoulders shaking.
"You are. That's the thing." Joey spoke from just over Sam's left shoulder. "You are a wonderful guy. You're attentive to the needs of a victim. You're sweet to kids, you're good with traumatized people. He had every reason to believe that you'd be good to him. He never said anything about a claim, but I think he was reasonable to expect more than a quick screw. You gave him every reason to expect it."
"One more person I've let down." Sam hung his head.
"You have the chance to fix it." Jake stepped back, shaking his head. "But you won't. I'm not sure what to say to you right now, Dad. I'll call you later."
Both boys left, and Sam was left to cry in his chair.
Chapter Fourteen
Oliver looked at himself in the mirror. He had a handful of "going to court" suits. None of them were particularly exciting, or expensive. They did the job and were distinctly lacking in chemical stains, but they'd need to be replaced soon enough. Maybe Nina wouldn't want him to go up in front of a jury, though. An omega who was pregnant outside of a proper claim wasn't exactly a credible witness, no matter what his qualifications might be.
Oh well. That didn't matter right now. He wasn't showing yet, and he could still fit into the suit.
He checked his hair. He checked his waistline, even though he couldn't even be six-weeks pregnant yet. Had it only been that long? Did he really have another thirty-four to go?
"You finished primping?" Jake stuck his head into the bathroom. "Everyone's ready to go to the courthouse."
"Primping." Oliver snorted. "Yeah, you know I'm still finding containers of hair gel in the bathroom? How does one man manage to go through so much product in three weeks?"
"Hey. Looking this good doesn't just happen, bro. It takes effort." Jake preened. "Seriously, though. Nina's going to give you a ride."
Oliver followed Jake out into the hallway. "I can drive myself."
"She wants to make sure that you've got some protection, just in case someone tries to give you a hard time. You know." Jake looked away. "I mean, I'm not taking sides or nothing, but I think she's right in this."
Oliver rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. Someone had thrown a wad of bubble gum up there. He looked away. "I can handle being around an alpha. I'm not some kind of orchid. I'm not going to wilt just because someone's yelling at me." He made himself grin. "I'm over that. Trust me."
Jake shook his head. "Her job is to have her people's back. And I think she wants to talk to you about staying with the lab in the long term." He tugged at his collar. "You didn't exactly make a secret about wanting to go."
Oliver made a face, but he didn't rise to the bait. Jake got it, insofar as anyone could. Oliver couldn't put all of his issues onto Jake.
Nina was indeed ready to go. They took her personal car, a Toyota, instead of one of the state vehicles. It was an act of rebellion, and one that gave Oliver pause. How much trouble had Oliver's issues with Sam caused Nina with the higher-ups? The lab was already having issues. He should have been more considerate of her.
The ride up took an hour. Nina waited ten minutes, during which they made s
mall talk about cleaning bones for analysis, before she turned to the subject of the baby. "So," she began. She sat up a little straighter and gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. She kept her gray eyes straight ahead and her mouth tight. "I'm not sure what your decision will be with regards to your baby, and you've got time before you have to really commit to a choice."
"I don't need time." Oliver looked at the carpet. He saw a variety of different hairs, and a broken fingernail. What story would that trace evidence tell, if he were to try to analyze it? "I'm giving it up. I can't raise a kid on my own."
She gripped the wheel a little tighter. "He's not going to stand up?"
Oliver shrank in his seat. "He wants to be some kind of creepy old uncle. He's willing to pay child support, but it takes more than money to raise a kid."
"Damn straight it does. I mean, there are people who can do it, and more power to them, but it's not something that everyone can do." She sighed. "Damn it. Anyway. I've heard you want to leave us after the baby's born."
Oliver closed his eyes. "I don't, actually. I like the lab. I like the area. I just don't think I can cope with the pity."
"Could you cope with it for a raise and a promotion?"
Oliver blinked slowly. "That… that doesn't make sense. I mean, I screwed up. I screwed up a lot, Nina. I couldn't keep control of myself. I got myself pregnant, I got into it with a colleague, and now we're in a cold war with the guy's whole department. I have terrible judgment. I should be demoted, if anything else. I should be busted back to Analyst I."
Nina chuckled. "Okay, you should have used protection, but these things happen. And you didn't get yourself pregnant, unless you've got some very interesting mutations that I never want to hear about ever. Oliver, everyone makes a mistake sometimes. You're no different. You're trying to do the right thing for both you and that baby, making the right decision knowing your own personality and history." She patted his hand. "That shows amazing judgment, frankly."
Oliver licked his lips. He couldn't find it in himself to believe that he'd be rewarded for his monumental lapse. "Why would you promote me?"
"Because, Oliver. You're one of the best in the country, and you're definitely the best in the lab. We need you. We don't just need you doing what you do now. We've lost a lot of people, and we need to replace them." She risked a glance over at Oliver. "If we're going to avoid repeating the mistakes of history, we need to have someone leading the way who can teach the new hires the way to do things right. I need a second-in-command who loves the job, who has a passion for the work, and who wants to be there. I need someone teaching those new hires that it's okay to think outside the box, it's okay to be smart, and it's okay to do the right thing. That's you, a hundred percent."
"I want to say yes." Oliver's stomach twisted. "But I don't know. I mean, everything's already so different, you know? Everyone knows my business now. Everyone. They know how bad I—"
"They know how bad you were treated." Nina's jaw clenched. "And that it wasn't just by Nenci. And they see how high you're holding your head. There might be a little bit of pushback about the adoption. I can't lie. People get more judgmental about choices people make regarding not having children than anything else." She paused. "When it was me, the overt comments lasted for about a year. I mean, I'm not an omega and the father wasn't a co-worker. It did suck, and it was hard, but it wasn't the end of the world."
Oliver choked back a sob. He couldn't go into court with a face like he'd been crying. "Really?"
She gave him a kind smile and shook her head. "It really isn't. It just feels like it when you're going through it." She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "You don't have to make up your mind right now. I just wanted you to know that you don't have to leave the lab, and no one wants you to leave the lab. You're a great scientist and a respected colleague, and we want you to stay."
"Thank you." They felt like weak words to convey the depth of Oliver's feeling, but he couldn't think of anything else. He'd have to let the look on his face and the tone of his voice do the work for him. "Thank you."
"Also I put a mackerel in the back seat of Nenci's car this morning." She put her hand back on the wheel and replaced her kind smile with a nasty smirk. "It's under the floor mat in the back seat. It's July, his car is black—this is going to suck for him."
Oliver threw his head back and laughed. The prank was juvenile and petty, but it gave him exactly the kind of pick-me-up that he needed to get himself together before the ordeal of court.
Nenci and Devlin were in court, of course. The prosecutor sat at the table on the left, and the defense team sat at the table on the right. Bill Coucher sat amongst the spectators in a somber black suit. Isaiah Marsten sat with his lawyers, looking like one of them in an expensive Italian suit. His sons sat in a row behind him.
Oliver looked away. Everything had been for this, and the smirking jackass in the suit still thought he was going to get away with something.
Well, Oliver had done his part. That part hadn't been insignificant. He knew, deep in his heart, that Isaiah Marsten was guilty.
The judge arrived, and opening arguments began. Oliver tuned them out. Legal arguments were of little interest to him. They had their place, of course. Oliver just didn't care about them. He dealt in facts, not in weasel words. Nina's words in the car burned like fire in his heart. He was a scientist. Science didn't care about doubt. It only cared about facts.
Sam testified about how he'd come to look at Marsten as a suspect. He explained that while Coucher had given him the Marsten name right away, he'd been dismissive until he'd looked into the history between the families. He'd still dismissed the thought of a single arsonist for both fires until he'd seen Oliver's re-creation of the fires.
His voice stumbled over Oliver's name, only a little.
When he explained that he'd asked for DNA to rule out Isaiah Marsten, that he hadn't expected the head of the family to be the one to get his hands dirty, Isaiah smirked. His lawyer frowned, though, and looked troubled. "Nothing could have surprised me more," he said, "than when that DNA came back as a match. There are plenty of six-foot-two guys in Massachusetts, but to have that DNA come back knocked me back."
The defense lawyer made a halfhearted attempt to cross-examine him, but Sam was like iron up on that stand. He wouldn't bend, and he wouldn't be swayed. Oliver squirmed a little bit in his seat; all he needed was to have to get up onto the stand with a hard on.
Finally, Sam was allowed to sit down, and the prosecutor called Oliver up to the stand. A screen was brought to the front of the court, so that Oliver was able to show the animations he'd created. He was sworn in, and then the prosecutor asked him about how he'd gone about investigating the crimes on his side of the fence.
Oliver explained that he'd been brought into the case because of his strong background in arson investigation, which he then described. He spoke about his research into the history of the building, and about finding the jewelry on site. "That led Detective Nenci to investigate the family history a little more thoroughly, while I tried to focus on the science." He managed not to stumble on his former lover's name. "I'm better at that."
The prosecutor chuckled. "And what did you find?"
"Well, after so many years, I couldn't go back and re-analyze old samples. I created a program to give me a visual representation of the fire, based on the original data and known information such as building materials and sprinkler information." He showed the animation for the 1967 fire. "Now watch as I show the 1992 fire." He split the screens and ran both animations at the same time. "As you can see, the human factors are identical. Even the pour factor is the same.
"The only differences are here." He paused the program. "Here, in the 1992 fire, we have video of the arsonist at work. Image analysts were able to isolate an image of the killer. It was grainy, but it allowed us to rule some people out. In the evidence from the 1992 fire, we found some DNA evidence that came with someone who had fought with people who were
killed in the fire. That was corroborated in the historical record.
"As you can see, the same person had to have set both fires. The pour pattern is identical, right down to the splashes on this northern wall here and here." He pointed to the wall in question. "We have DNA evidence tying Mr. Marsten to the scene of the crime, and evidence that the victims fought him to get that evidence. We have him on video at the scene. We have motive." He spread his hands wide.
The defense lawyer approached, but he was pale. "You said yourself that the video image was grainy."
"I did. The image analysts who worked on the image were able to get a general description using techniques also used by the FBI, which are detailed on page thirty-seven of the evidentiary report you were given." Oliver gave the lawyer a bland smile. "It's not enough for a positive ID, but it was enough to get a warrant to rule Mr. Marsten out. He wasn't chased down. Detective Nenci expected to exonerate him."