Next of Kin

by Jae

  "You know her?" Evan's mother blurted out, clearly surprised that Dawn would "fraternize with the enemy."

  Evan Whitfield howled with laughter.

  Aiden shot her a murderous glare, but Evan didn't stop.

  "Stop it, Evan," Dawn ordered with an authority Aiden had seldom heard from her gentle partner.

  Evan Whitfield stopped laughing but continued to smirk at Aiden.

  "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Aiden wanted to know what was going on as fast as possible. "Outside." She pointed at the door.

  Dawn followed her out of the room without protest.

  Aiden stopped and turned to Dawn as soon as the door had closed behind them. "What the hell are you doing here? Why are you connected in any way to a person," she spat out the word, "like Evan Whitfield?"

  "She's my client," Dawn answered quietly.

  "What?" Aiden pressed both hands against her temples. She didn't even want to imagine Dawn alone in a room with a rapist. Evan Whitfield might be just a teenager, but she was already taller and heavier than Dawn and could probably overpower her easily. "I don't want you to counsel her any longer!"

  Dawn shook her head. "That's not your decision to make."

  "She's dangerous, Dawn!" It was getting difficult to keep her voice down in the desperate attempt to make Dawn understand the situation.

  "She needs help," Dawn said, "and I'm the one who can give it."

  Aiden roughly massaged the back of her neck. "You can't –"

  "Aiden?" Another voice interrupted them.

  Annoyed with the interruption, Aiden whirled around. "What?"

  Irene Deming, their medical examiner, froze in midmotion. She clutched a thin folder and studied Aiden with a disapproving glance.

  "Sorry," Aiden mumbled. "You have the results?"

  The medical examiner nodded. "Do you have a minute?"

  Aiden glanced at Dawn, then back at Irene Deming before she nodded.

  "Is there somewhere we can talk without being interrupted?" Deming asked.

  Aiden frowned. She didn't plan on having a long conversation with the ME. "You could just give me the results," she suggested. After all the years with the Sexual Assault Detail, she had learned to make sense of DNA results.

  "No, I can't." Deming's dark eyes met Aiden's. There was something in her gaze that made Aiden's stomach churn.

  "All right," Aiden relented. She looked at Dawn. "I'll be back in a minute. Wait here, please?" She managed to make it a request, not an order. When Dawn nodded, she turned and led Deming to the smaller interview room.

  Deming moved to one of the chairs and gestured for Aiden to take the other.

  Aiden didn't move. She didn't want to sit down. She was impatient to get back to Evan Whitfield and, most of all, to Dawn, in order to clear up this weird situation. "Just tell me the results. I have a suspect waiting in the interview room."

  "What I have to tell you has to do with that suspect, but it's going to take more than twenty seconds. Aiden, would you please sit down for a moment?" Deming pleaded.

  Aiden sat. "So?" She gestured impatiently to the file with the DNA results.

  "The swab from Evan Whitfield was a match to the fluids we found on Laurel Matheson's sheets," Deming said, laying a sheet of paper on the table in front of Aiden.

  Aiden picked up the results and stood. "Thanks." It didn't necessarily prove rape, but at least it proved that there had been a sexual contact.

  "That's not all," Deming's voice stopped her before she could reach the door. "Please sit back down."

  Aiden returned to the table but didn't sit. "What's going on, Irene? Why are you so secretive all of a sudden?" Normally, their ME wasn't one to beat around the bush.

  "We also ran her DNA through the system to see if she's connected to any other crime," Deming said.

  "And?" Aiden squinted at the medical examiner.

  Deming leafed through the file for another sheet of paper. "There was a match."

  Aiden nodded with grim satisfaction. "So she's committed other crimes?"

  "No. It was not a hit in CODIS. It was a partial match to a sample in the state system. You know that all law enforcement personnel are put in the database for elimination purposes, right?"

  Aiden nodded. Of course she knew. She had often cursed what Okada called "Murphy's Law of Police Work": the least competent person on the force was always the first to arrive at the crime scene – which meant they often had to eliminate the fingerprints, shoe prints, and DNA evidence their own officers had left behind at the crime scene. "So?" She waited impatiently to see where Deming was going with this.

  "The sample from Evan Whitfield and the DNA in our database have five alleles in common," Deming said seriously.

  "So you're telling me she's related to a cop?" Aiden grimaced. Figures. Her father is a cop, and my girlfriend is her shrink. How much more complicated can this case get?

  Irene Deming nodded, her lips a tight line. She slowly slid the second sheet of paper across the table. "Aiden, she's your sister."

  Aiden stared at her, then at the piece of paper. The graphics and numbers on the page didn't make any sense at the moment. Nothing made sense anymore.

  "I personally ran her DNA through a kinship analysis," Deming said, breaking the deafening silence. "I did it twice, just to make sure. She's your half sister."

  Aiden slowly pushed the chair back under the small table and turned to the door.

  "Aiden..."

  "Not now." Aiden couldn't deal with this revelation and its implications right now. She opened the door and mechanically walked out into the hallway.

  Dawn's soft grip around her wrist pulled her out of her daze. "Hey! What happened?" Dawn stared up at her in alarm.

  Aiden didn't want to talk. She didn't want to say out loud that she might be directly related to not one, but two rapists. She didn't want Dawn to know. "Not now," she repeated, not knowing what else to say.

  But Dawn didn't loosen her grip and continued to look at her with a very concerned gaze.

  Dawn's behavior in the middle of a busy hallway began to draw attention. Okada walked over and looked from Dawn to Aiden. "Everything all right here?"

  "Okada, go and help Ray in the interview room, please." Aiden knew she couldn't face the young woman who was her half sister. She didn't want to be in the same room or even the same building. Somehow she was convinced her colleagues would know as soon as they saw them together. She gently freed herself from Dawn's grip and strode down the hallway, trying to leave everything behind.

  * * *

  Aiden didn't bother to turn on the light. She passed the mirror in the hallway without checking out her reflection. Never even taking off her jacket, she slowly walked through the dark apartment and flopped down on the couch.

  "Hi."

  The unexpected voice from the bedroom made Aiden shoot up from the couch. "Dawn! God! You scared me half to death!"

  Dawn leaned in the doorway, studying her. "Well, you gave me a key, so I thought that meant it's okay for me to be here even if you aren't."

  "It is," Aiden confirmed gruffly. Just not now, she wanted to say but didn't.

  Dawn slowly came closer, her movements almost cautious.

  Is she afraid of me? The depressing thought shot through Aiden's mind. Is she afraid that I'm like Evan... like our father? Like father, like daughter, right? But then she shook her head. Dawn didn't know about her being related to Evan Whitfield, and Aiden didn't know how to tell her – or if she should tell her at all.

  "What's going on with you?" Dawn asked, gently helping Aiden out of her leather jacket.

  Aiden pressed her lips together. She could barely stand the gentle touches.

  "Everyone at the precinct was worried about you," Dawn continued when Aiden didn't answer her question. She touched Aiden's hair, which was still a little damp. "Where have you been? It's not raining, is it?"

  Aiden shrugged. "I don't know." She probably wouldn't have noticed even if tennis
ball-sized hailstones had fallen from the sky.

  "Where did you go after you left the squad room?" Dawn asked again. She leaned in to sniff Aiden's skin and her clothes. "You went to a bar?"

  Aiden nodded slowly. She had downed a whiskey in one big gulp and had raised her hand to order a second shot, but then she had changed her mind. She didn't want to fall into her mother's old habit. It was bad enough that her father's inheritance had reared its ugly head. She didn't need to inherit her mother's alcohol problem too. "I'm not drunk," she said, knowing Dawn wouldn't have liked that.

  "I know." Dawn's fingers slid through the damp hair at Aiden's neck. "It feels more like you bathed in that stuff. Where were you?"

  It was the third time Dawn had asked her that question, and Aiden knew she couldn't withhold an answer any longer. Dawn had patiently tried to teach her to talk about her feelings and problems, and Aiden knew that stubborn silence would destroy all the work each of them had invested into their relationship. "The Portland Police Bureau has an indoor swimming pool," she said, knowing that was no real explanation.

  "You left work to go swimming?" Dawn was clearly confused.

  Aiden hadn't planned to end up in a swimming pool. Her mind was too busy with nagging thoughts and self-doubts to have any room left for making plans. After leaving the bar, she had driven around aimlessly, and when she ended up in front of the PPB training center, she decided to go in. "I was on the swim team in college," she offered another useless explanation. Swimming endless laps had helped her deal with a lot of things in her life back then. The water drowned out the rest of the world until Aiden could think clearly again.

  This time, it hadn't been enough, though.

  "Talk to me," Dawn begged. "Tell me what happened. Why did you leave so abruptly? Was it because of me? I know I should have tried to let you know I was involved in your case before you walked into the interview room, but everything happened so fast and there was just no time to –"

  "No," Aiden stopped her. "This has nothing to do with you. I wasn't overjoyed to find you in that interview room, but I'm not angry with you."

  Dawn bit her lip and let tense shoulders drop. "What is it, then? It has to do with Evan Whitfield, right? I know you're worried about me and don't want me to work with someone who could be dangerous, but I can't believe Evan would hurt me. She's a very troubled teenager with a lot of issues and bottled-up anger, yes, but I don't think she raped that girl. I think she's innocent, Aiden."

  "She is? I mean... did she say anything that makes you believe she is?" Aiden asked, hanging on Dawn's every word.

  "You know I couldn't tell you even if Evan had told me about it. I'm her therapist, so everything she tells me is confidential." Dawn regretfully shook her head.

  More than frustrated with that answer, Aiden ran her hand through her damp hair. How could she tell Dawn that it wasn't the ambitious cop who was asking for that information? How could she tell her it was just a desperate woman, grasping for any information that might indicate that her sister was a decent human being, despite all indications to the contrary?

  With a sigh, she gave up all attempts to get her tumbled thoughts back into order. "Can we talk about this later? I'm exhausted and just want to go to bed." It wasn't a complete lie. She was exhausted, but she knew she wouldn't sleep.

  She lay awake long into the night, gently holding on to Dawn.

  * * *

  Someone was touching her. A hand was gripping her shoulder. Dawn jerked awake.

  "Dawn?" Aiden's familiar voice whispered.

  Dawn took a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She sat up and flicked on the lamp on her side of the bed.

  Aiden was sitting up too. She looked as if she hadn't slept a single minute. "Sorry," she murmured. "I didn't want to startle you."

  "What's wrong?" Dawn reached across the remaining space between them and gently touched one bare arm.

  Aiden blew out a breath. "I need to talk," she said.

  A wave of worry, mixed with relief, hit Dawn. She knew something had troubled Aiden all day, and she was glad Aiden was finally ready to talk about it. She had started to worry that Aiden was pulling away from her until she couldn't reach her any longer. She trailed her hand down Aiden's arm and gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. "Tell me."

  "I don't know how," Aiden said, not meeting Dawn's gaze but entwining her fingers with Dawn's. "Talking to you about this... it's hard."

  Dawn frowned. "Because I'm Evan Whitfield's therapist? This is about the case, right?"

  "Yes. No. I mean... it has to do with Evan Whitfield, but it's not about you being her therapist although it doesn't make it any easier." Aiden sighed.

  "Would it be easier for you to talk about this with someone else?" Dawn wanted Aiden to trust her with whatever troubled her, but what she wanted even more was for Aiden to feel better. If that meant Aiden confiding in someone else, she would accept it.

  Aiden leaned her head back against the backrest. "I could tell Ray, but I don't want to go into details about how this affects our relationship with him."

  "What about Kade?" Dawn asked. A few weeks earlier, she would have avoided anything that might push Aiden in Kade's direction, but now she was starting to get over seeing Kade as competition for Aiden's love.

  "Kade?" Aiden ruefully shook her head. "No, with her niece being the alleged victim, she's too emotionally involved in this. And Kade is even worse at talking about emotional issues than I am."

  Dawn smiled a little. "Yeah, I noticed that. So that leaves only me, huh?"

  "Don't make it sound like you're the best of bad choices. It's not only that I need to talk. I need to tell you. You've got a right to know with whom you're sharing your life and your bed," Aiden said. The old expression of self-recrimination was on her face.

  Dawn crawled closer and possessively hooked her leg over one of Aiden's. "I already know that, and I like that person. In fact, I love her, and nothing you tell me will change that. It won't change the way I see you."

  Aiden idly trailed her fingertips over Dawn's leg. "But it changes the way I see myself," she said.

  "Tell me what it is. What hit you so hard?" Dawn pulled Aiden's hand in her lap and gave it another squeeze. "Tell me. Please."

  Aiden gently disentangled her fingers from Dawn's and rolled out of bed.

  Dawn could only stare at her back as she moved away from her. A lump of emotions formed in her throat, and she had to blink back tears of frustration, hurt, and loss.

  Within a minute, Aiden was back. "Hey, hey." Her steps quickened as she hurried around the bed and knelt in front of Dawn. "What's wrong? Are you crying?"

  "No. I..." Dawn swallowed with difficulty.

  "You thought I was running away again," Aiden said with a sigh. "Not that I blame you for assuming that. I did it before, and I'm sure I'll do it again, but I promise no matter how far I run, I'll always turn back around eventually. That's our deal, right?"

  Dawn quickly wiped her eyes and forced a smile. "I believe our deal also included a caramel cappuccino."

  "Do you want one? I could...?" Aiden pointed at the door.

  "No." Dawn quickly stopped her. Aiden was here and apparently still willing to talk, and she'd never risk that by sending her away. "I'm sorry. I should have had more trust in you, but when you just got up and walked away without another word..."

  Aiden sat down on Dawn's side of the bed. "I was searching for this." She handed Dawn a creased piece of paper. The usually steady hand Dawn loved so much was trembling.

  Dawn took the sheet of paper and carefully unfolded it. She stared down at the numbers and graphs on the page. "It's the results of a DNA test, right?" Why was Aiden showing her this? "Is it Evan's?"

  Aiden nodded. Her jaw clenched and unclenched. "This one is her DNA profile." She pointed at the upper half of the page. "And this one," she indicated the results at the bottom, "is mine."

  "Yours?" Dawn blinked in confusion. Why would the crime lab analyze Aiden'
s DNA? She stared at Aiden. The tousled black hair, the toned body, her defensive stance. "Oh my God," she whispered with sudden insight. "She's your sister!"

  The amber eyes widened. "How...?" Her voice failed her.

  Jesus, it's true! Dawn shook her head to clear it. "How did I guess?" she helped Aiden finish her sentence.

  Aiden nodded numbly.

  "From the moment Evan Whitfield stepped into my office, I couldn't stop thinking she reminded me of a younger Aiden Carlisle," Dawn said with a shaky smile.