Matthew "Kermit" Griffin sat behind his desk at the 101st precinct, furiously rubbing at the headache that had taken up permanent residence behind the bridge of his nose. This task was not as simple as it sounded, as he refused to remove his sunglasses first. Even under normal circumstances, the ex-mercenary was loath to allow his eyes to be visible to the world, and these were far from normal circumstances. Fact was, for the first time in a long while, Kermit just did not know what to feel. His world had just been turned upside down and he was, for once, unsure of what his next move should be. Dr. Sabourin had taken the DNA samples and promised to call as soon as the results of the paternity test were back. Unfortunately, even with the doctor pushing for a rush return, the time frame was somewhere around a week at the earliest. And so Kermit was left with no options but to wait. He *hated* waiting.
***The previous night***
Kermit and Matthew emerged from the office to find Peter and Kwai Chang waiting patiently. At first, no one said a word. The silence was deafening. Finally, Peter cleared his throat.
"So, what did she say?"
"Results won't be back for at least a week, kid. I..." Kermit trailed off, the magnanimity of the situation just beginning to set it. "I gotta get out of here."
Peter turned to follow his friend but was stopped by a firm hand on his arm. Matthew Caine looked his grandson in the eye and shook his head.
Kermit headed back over to his favorite sanctuary, his office. The relative silence of the precinct late at night lent itself well to introspection. It wasn't that he had anything against Matthew Caine. Hell, he didn't even know the man. Nor was he particularly upset at the idea of Mark not being his biological father, although this newest revelation, if true, did place the man in a more positive light. After all, according to his mother's letter to Matthew, Mark had to have known that Kermit was not his blood son from the beginning but had not treated the boy any worse than any of the other Griffin brood.
No, what bothered him had more to do with his basic distrust of the unknown. He'd been lied to all of his life by the one person he'd trusted above all others: his mother. Other people had lied to him, the experience was far from being a new one, but he had never trusted any of the others to the extent he'd believed in and trusted his mother. As loudly as his mind protested that she had only wanted to do what was best for him, his heart still ached with the weight of the betrayal.
He stared intently at the dark screen in front of him. He slowly removed his sunglasses and scrutinized the reflection staring back at him, searching for any possible resemblance between himself and Matthew Caine. He sighed and wished, not for the first time that night, that he was off somewhere overrunning a third world country, or participating in a political power struggle instead of having to deal with the current situation. 'It would be so much easier,' he thought as he placed the green lenses back over his eyes and flipped the switch to power up his dearest acquaintance.
***Present***
He was still sitting in front of his computer at the precinct, blindly staring at the screen, when Captain Karen Simms walked in early the next morning. She noted the dark circles under the darker frames and immediately detoured to his office.
"Kermit?"
The detective looked up from the screen, surprised to find her standing there.
"Captain? I thought you'd left for the night?"
Karen suppressed a sigh. "Detective, it's morning."
Kermit flinched, almost imperceptibly, and glanced at the clock to his right. Sure enough, it was 7:28. He looked up at his Captain and wondered, briefly, if he had unconsciously chosen not to close the door to his office when he'd come back last night.
"Oh, so it is."
"Kermit, what is it? You took off yesterday with Peter and his family, looking like hell, and now I find you've been here all night. Please, talk to me."
For a brief moment he debated not dropping his latest bombshell. He was not used to letting people in, hadn't even wanted to in the longest time. But now, with her, something compelled him to at least allow a small crack in his shields. Besides, the arrival of dawn meant the imminent arrival of Peter. And he knew his potential nephew well enough to know that keeping the information a secret would be next to impossible, especially as excited as Peter had seemed at the prospect of their new relationship. He wanted, no, *needed*, to be the one to tell Karen at least the basics of the story. He nodded toward the door, which she immediately shut, and motioned for her to sit.
"Last night I found out something about my parents, something that I would never have imagined, and it has actually managed to throw me."
His half-laugh, half-sigh did not go unnoticed. Karen started to get concerned. She had never known the ex-mercenary to be shaken by anything, and was almost afraid to find out what it was that could manage such a feat.
"There is a possibility, a good one, that Mark Griffin was not my biological father."
Karen started. That was about the last thing she would have ever expected to hear. "What? How...who...?"
"Believe it or not, it actually looks like Matthew Caine may have that dubious honor."
Her eyes widened. Matthew Caine? Kermit's *father*? No wonder her favorite detective looked like he'd just had the rug pulled from under him. Apparently, he *had*.
"Matthew Caine?" she echoed her own thoughts.
Kermit nodded. "The blood test didn't rule him out, that's where I went yesterday afternoon, by the way. Dr. Sabourin ran a DNA paternity test for us, but the results won't be back for about a week. I *hate* waiting," he growled.
Karen shook her head and waited. She doubted that he would reveal any more information, that wasn't his way, but she was determined to be there for him if he needed her.
Kermit looked into the eyes of his lover, friend, confidant, and Captain, and decided that he had said enough. Even this woman, this bright light in his too-dark life, could only break down his self-imposed walls to a limited extent. He loved her, certainly, but he was not yet prepared to trust his gut feeling and let her completely in. He growled again as the headache intensified. He needed to blow off some steam, and fast.
End Part 5
