Lost in Blue

𝕾𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖘: Kindred

Wandering from office to office was not what Dorn had in mind when he made the decision to become a policeman at the young age of sixteen, but here he was, against his will, having come from Eckert's to arrive at Schneider's bureau at the clinic.

"Hallo, Schneider." He tried to keep it as formal as possible.

"Henning!"

The pathologist wanted to drag him into a hug Dorn skillfully dodged. He hated how friendly she acted, how she purposefully called him by his first name in public, even though they neither were never nor ever would be friends. They had a history, yes, as much as he'd like to deny it, but it wasn't a romantic or sexual, but rather a tragic one that tied her to him, in a way.

Traditionally German, he just shook her hand. Even displaying common courtesy felt too well-intended for her and all of a sudden the two cups of black coffee he had consumed beforehand to endure her presence felt like they were not enough.

"Please, let's get to the point for what I'm here for in the first place." Only a few seconds into the conversation and he was already annoyed.

"Me?" Chocolate brown irises sparkled hopefully as she opened the door for him. A hope he instantly had to crush.

"Nein." Going past her, his 'no' came out harsher than intended, but it fulfilled its role in shutting down Schneider's teasing comments immediately to attend to the important matters. He had no regrets being rude, otherwise she would just misinterpret his good manners for making advances, like she usually did. By twisting his words she always found a way to make him feel awkward.

"Fine, fine." Melanie tried to keep it cool, but he could tell his crassness offended her.

He smirked. Dorn: 1 point. Schneider: 0 points.

She closed the door and instructed him to sit down, which he did, legs crossed.

"The results are here."

"And?" Dorn watched how Melanie took a seat on the office chair behind her desk.

"Well, it's certainly interesting." The pathologist ran her fingers through her low ponytail she flicked across her shoulder.

He rolled his eyes and snarled passive aggressively. "The next time you keep yourself so short to stall for time, I'm going to head right out of your office."

Dorn knew her well enough to tell she played dumb intentionally. Obtaining information felt like he had to squeeze every piece of it out of her. Why did she always have to test his patience?

Melanie threw up her hands in defense like a criminal, who claimed to be innocent, but obviously wasn't. To top it off, she still had the audacity to flash a crooked smile. "Calm down. You know I just like toying with you."

He just snorted at her remark as she pulled out a thick file from the top drawer to her left. Paper hit the wooden desk with an oomph, but he noticed none of the sheets spilled out. It seemed they were neatly perforated and stacked inside – probably the work of one of her assistant's.

"Marvel at my research! I have spent the last six weeks documenting everything about that beauty and the little goner." Visibly proud, she pushed the document with her index finger towards him as she leaned across the desk.

So that's why it had taken so long for the results to come. He had surmised that there was a lot Schneider had to check, but he didn't anticipate it to be so much that the folder was about to burst open.

"I analyzed everything I could. DNA, blood, fingerprints, genealogy. Everything you could possibly think of." Excited, Melanie drummed her fingers on the file.

Dorn had to admit, he didn't expect her to work so thorough. If only she wasn't so arrogant and disturbingly invested about it, he could actually bring himself to praise her labor, just this once. He continued to listen.

"And I actually found something she and the boy have in common." Her eyes narrowed to slits and in one swift motion, she opened the record.

"They are not related in any way, but the odd thing is, they both share the same trait in one of their genes." Melanie pointed at the report. Her finger stopped at the words 'mutation'. "As far as I could conclude, it has no effects on their health or appearance. It's just there and I have absolutely no idea what it does."

Dorn thought about the way Fräulein had held the boy in her arms when they were salvaged from the Rhine nearly two months ago. Her limbs had slung around his frame, in a tight embrace, as if in an act to protect one whom you dearly loved. At first glance, due to their similar golden curls, he had assumed them to be a mother and her child.

He found it hard to picture them not being related in any way. Maybe they weren't tied by blood, but he was certain there was some other connection between the two of them he still had to figure out. Otherwise Fräulein's strong emotional reaction at the morgue would not make sense.

He blinked a few times as he processed her contradiction. "You're telling me you don't know what it does. And you still claim it's harmless," he concluded after a while.

Dorn picked up the dossier and gave it a quick look. As he flipped through, he could see several images of the boy's corpse, detailed descriptions of the mutation in which segment of the gene the mutation could be found, vague theories what it could mean and so on.

"I assume so, yeah. It's a mutation neither I nor my colleagues have encountered before."

Upon hearing her answer, he pinched his nasal bridge and rubbed his eyes. Assuming and being certain were two different pair of shoes, but it was behavior so typical of Schneider he simply should have known she would not see the problem in her statement.

What he was going to do with this particular piece of information, as of right now, he wasn't certainly sure, but it was pretty obvious this was out of his league. He came to the impromptu decision it would require Eckert's expertise and therefore, planning on how to investigate from now on was his superior's problem – it always was.

Desperate to change the topic, Dorn directed the conversation into what he hoped would provide more useful intel.

"I hope you have anything else to show me. And it better be good news," he warned with a glare.

"Actually, I do. I don't want to keep shocking you, but there is more," Melanie stated, "I could track the little one's distant relatives down."

For the first time in his life, Dorn saw her expression filled with worry – so unusual for the epitome of lunacy.

He bent his brows. Those were excellent news. Why was she so anxious? "That's good! We should contact them immediately."

She leaned back in the chair, arms crossed, her expression hard to interpret. "I already did."

"Why haven't you told Eckert as soon as you did? It's our job from here on to investigate." He grew suspicious. Doubt slowly crept its way into his mind.

"You don't understand, Henning," Schneider shook her head and inhaled deeply. Few seconds passed as she looked around, trying to find the right words. "This little boy – you're related by blood. He is your ancestor. You're the distant relative."

Rendered speechless, he only managed to blink a few times. Henning was right. Two cups of black coffee beforehand were definitely not enough before coming here.

Only a faint 'Was zur Hölle' – what the hell – managed to cross his mind.