A Life On The Edge

Detective Swan

I walked into the loft with Kathy not too far behind. Dylan was making River breakfast. He smiled when he saw the both us.

"Kathy right?" he said nodding towards her.

"Blondie." She smiled. "I never did catch your name. I know you work at my husband's bar though."

"Yeah." He said sticking out his hand. "My name is Dylan and I'm currently late for a shift at said bar so if you don't mind I'm going to head out. Blake said hi Riley." He noted as he gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. "What's the box for?" he asked.

"Oh, Ryder is adopted and I've been appointed head detective." I smirked.

"Are you okay?" he scrunched his brow in concern. "You look like you've been crying."

"I was."

"What happened?"

"I was sexually assaulted by Ryder's brother Atticus over this folder, so I went to the local church to cuss out Jesus." I explained.

"Oh...what do you mean sexually assaulted?"

"He tried to rape me."

"Are you okay?"

"No..."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"You're late," I laughed. "Go to work before you get fired or something."

"This is more important." He frowned.

"I'll be okay. I'm a big girl. Besides, this should keep me occupied." I said nudging the box.

"Okay," he said. "This Atticus kid...do you want me to take care of him? Because you know I will."

"Um...I don't know. Let me think about it."

"Okay," he sighed. "I love you."

"You're not supposed to say that out loud." I whispered. He frowned at me.

"I was just hoping you'd say it back for once." He chuckled. I didn't say anything, I just kept quiet. He nodded understanding exactly what I had to say without really saying anything. He gave me another kiss on the forehead and left for work.

"He likes you an awful lot." Kathy teased.

"We had a special kind of connection." I explained placing the box down. "We've been through similar things. Things no one else can really relate to." I mumbled shuffling through a few things in Ryder's baby box.

"Dywan is my Mr. Daddy." River said.

"Oh is he?" Kathy smiled down at him.

"Yeah he's the nicest daddy I've ever had."

"Isn't he your only one?"

"NO he's."

"River stop talking." I shouted into the kitchen. Kathy gave me a strange look.

"Strange kid." She said taking a seat next to me.

"You know what's strange? The first picture they ever have with Ryder isn't in a hospital. It's in a parking lot next to a red jeep." I said handing the picture to Kathy.

"We'll he's adopted. It's not all that strange."

"You're right, but Ryder must have looked at the picture a million and one times. It would have had to raise a red flag at least once right?" I asked. Kathy chuckled.

"You have a very generalized idea of families." She mumbled.

"What does that mean?"

"It means not everyone takes pictures at the hospital. Some take them in the parking lot when they get to take their healthy baby boy home for the first time." She said handing me the picture. "If I was this kid, I wouldn't think anything of it. My parents don't have any pictures of me in the hospital and I know I'm not adopted." I frowned staring down at the picture. Maybe she's right. I don't know a whole lot about families to be completely honest. Maybe I should wait for someone to come home and help me with this. "Who's that kid?" she asked pointing at the picture. I looked at her finger to see a little boy with a breathing tube in his nose sitting in a wheel chair. He was holding up a peace sign accompanied by a fake weak smile.