“Hear anything interesting Dr Woods?”
Alexx’s stomach bottomed out at those words and she started. She was relatively sure that Ryan had been completely unaware of her presence in the locker room. She had hoped that Tony was similarly unaware of her lurking in the shadows.
Alexx was torn she really wanted to follow Ryan. He was very upset when he left but she had a feeling that Agent DiNozzo would not be letting her leave the locker room for a long time. She was also pretty sure he wasn’t any happier about this situation than she was.
“Come and sit down Dr Woods I think we need to talk.”
Alexx moved out of the shadows and glanced at the door making a halfhearted motion with her hands and said, ”But Ryan” She trailed off as Tony interrupted her.
“be fine on his own for a little while, in fact knowing him he would prefer it.”
“Oh really.” Alexx said, she had moved to be nearly standing next to Tony and now had her hands on her hips, looking at him with a challenge in her eyes.
“Yes really, as a child he acquired an ... affinity shall we say for heights. I can almost bet he is on the roof now, thinking things through.” Tony could have given her more information, told her about their other cousin, Ezra and how he had gotten Ryan hooked on the solitude of high places. But to do so would betray more of Ryan’s confidences. He wasn’t sure how much if anything this CSI team knew about Ryan’s family, but it wasn’t Tony’s place to say anything, that was for Ryan to share with them if and when he was ready to.
Alex sat down, but Tony decided to take a position against the lockers remaining standing. He affected a nonchalant pose giving him a deceptively genial air. He would be as polite as possible to Dr. Woods until he wasn’t. That would happen the minute he felt she was a threat to Ryan.
“So,” he began conversationally, “how long were you there? How much did you hear?”
Alexx sighed; she really had not meant to listen in on a private conversation. “I heard you talking about a person named Ezra just caught the tail end of that part of your discussion. Then I heard you talking about Speed’s death. Which reminds me how well did you know Tim exactly? I was the only person who ever called him by his given name.” There was a small taint of almost a jealous tone in the M.E.’s words.
“I knew Tim a long time. Long before he ever even thought of moving to Florida never mind meeting you. Met him while on a trip to NY with the team I was on in college. Some student leader thing that I went on cause I was the team captain. I knew Andrew.” Tony had been studying his hands as he spoke and chanced a glance at Alexx when he mentioned Andrew’s name. He wanted to gauge exactly what Tim had said to the woman he claimed as a mother. “He was destroyed when Andrew died.”
Alexx acknowledged that with a nod. “I know. When he first started in the lab I knew there was something that was bothering him, eventually he told me about Andrew and his death.”
“I guess you realize now at least, that Tim had a relationship with Ryan.” Tony said with a sigh and a rub over his face with his hand. It had been a long rollercoaster of a day and he still had to try and make some headway on the case or Gibbs would skin him alive. Being lovers with the man wouldn’t spare Tony from his older lover’s wrath if he didn’t work to his fullest potential.
Tony tended to be blunt and sometimes even crude when he was tired and boy was he tired right now. “A romantic relationship, a sexual one, I hope you won’t have a problem with that.”
Alexx sat there and actually thought about what Tony said. She wasn’t upset at the thought of either of her babies involved in a relationship with a same sex partner. Her own children were coming of age and she had faced the possibility that one of her own children might follow that path and had come to terms with it. She could do no less for these two grown men that she claimed as if they were her sons.
And yet she still was angry, furious in fact. And hurt and upset. Angry and hurt in turns that she had been kept in the dark, that they did not trust her. Upset at the way she had treated Ryan when he first joined the labs. He must have been, probably still was hurting more than any of the CSIs and he took their abuse and never said a word.
“No I don’t have a problem with it per se. I am more hurt and angry that they kept this from me.” Alexx finally answered Tony. “I am also upset with myself for the way I treated Ryan when he first came to the labs plus I am angry at Speed now and feel guilty about it“
Tony shifted against the locker he was leaning on and checked his watch and winced. He knew he couldn’t put off this conversation just like he couldn’t put off the one he had with Ryan but Gibbs was going to ream him when the Marine finally caught up with him. He rubbed the back of his head already feeling the head slaps he was likely to receive.
“Don’t be too upset with Tim, he wanted to tell you but Ryan wouldn’t let him.” Tony told the ME.
Alexx frowned at that. Why would he want to keep it a secret wasn’t Timmy good enough for Ryan? She opened her mouth to ask just that question and was forestalled by Tony’s next statement.
“Ryan didn’t want any of you to know because he knows what the police mentality is like and that information like this would spread like wildfire throughout the department.”
Alexx absorbed that information, ”But the team would have never let anything happen to Timmy.”
Tony acknowledged that with a nod, “Yeah they would protect Speed, but where was Ryan working all that time Doctor?”
Alexx winced as she realized the point that Tony was trying to make. “Patrol” she said in a small voice and waved him off when he would have provided more information about how dangerous revealing a homosexual relationship would have been to Ryan while he was still in Patrol.
“They still could have come to me.” She muttered. She had lost so much time that she could have used getting to know the young CSI, taking care of him after his lover’s death. She could have been happy for the two of them that they were happy with each other.
“Don’t be too mad with either of them, in a way it was my fault that they didn’t tell you.”
Alexx patted the bench beside her and told Tony to sit down cause that statement needed more of an explanation.
Tony sighed and sat down next to the ME. He had not discussed his beating with anyone after the department psych specialists cleared him. Well he mentioned it in any new employment history but that was just a clinical recitation of the facts on paper.
“When Ryan was in his second year of college. I was hurt very badly at work. I was jumped and beaten nearly to death.” Alexx looked at him quizzically. “Seems my ex-girlfriend had begun telling my coworkers that I played for both teams.” Alexx gasped in horror. “Cops in Peoria don’t take too kindly to that sort of stuff.”
“Oh my God! Why would she do something like that?”
“She was upset that I refused to marry her. Well it was more complicated than that but the just of it was she thought that she would get a free ride marrying the heir to the DiNozzo fortune and I had to dissuade her of that notion. Plus she felt I strung her along under false pretenses when she found out that my father had disowned me.
“That’s beside the point. I had several close friends and family members in law enforcement, pretty much made it an order that if they had any aspect of their life that wouldn’t stand up to the scrutiny of other cops to keep it silent. For the most part that is directed at my gay and bi friends but there are other applications to it too.” Tony said thinking how Mel didn’t listen to him and how she was ultimately hounded out of the NYPD due to her Islamic heritage in the wake of 9/11. Not by the brass but by her fellow officers.
“I digress, my actual point is that I was badly hurt, really badly hurt. It scared Ryan to the point that he wouldn’t even entertain the thought of “coming out” at work. It wasn’t his own safety he was concerned for either. He was afraid that Speed wouldn’t get patrol backup when he needed it if their relationship were known. Heard them fight about it often enough. Speed had pretty much convinced Ryan to at least invite you over or out for drinks or dinner and tell you about them. Then he died. You know what happened after that.”
Tony started gathering everything up. He took his bag and placed it in Ryan’s locker.
“How did they meet?” Alexx asked. She wanted to know all about their relationship but she was leery to ask Ryan about the details.
“They met a few times through me,” Tony said as he gathered up the wet towels and placed them in the hamper.
“But they never spent much time together until Ryan decided to come here after college. I asked Speed to take him in and help him out. They were roommates. I didn’t want Ryan in a city more or less all by himself. I know his uncle Ron lives here but the kid has his own life.”
“I think I remember Tim saying that he was going to have a roommate the brother or something of a friend of his...that must have been Ryan?” The statement turned into a question at the end and Tony nodded in the affirmative.
“That was years ago.” Alexx mused.
“Yeah they had been together for 4 years I think when Speed was killed.”
Tony continued speaking he had to know why Alexx had been hiding out in the locker rooms. “I’m pretty sure that you didn’t mean to be eavesdropping Dr. Woods but what in the world were you in here? I would think the morgue employees would have their own lockers and showers.”
Alexx smiled a little sheepishly, U-ummm--Honestly I was hiding from...”
Tony got a huge grin on his face. “Ducky’s stories getting a bit much for you?”
Alexx hastened to recant the impression she had given. “Dr. Mallard is a wonderful man and a brilliant physician”
“Yeah doc but he can be a little long winded. If he gets to be too much try and redirect him or just tell him later Ducky. Always seems to work with us especially with Gibbs.”
Of that Alexx had no doubt. They started to depart the locker room. When it dawned on Alexx she had no idea how Tony knew she was there.
“How did you know I was there anyway? I thought I was being careful.” She said as she pushed the door to the exit of the lockers.
“I work for a Marine. I am used to someone a lot stealthier than you trying to sneak up on me. Sometimes I even catch him at it too.”
Alexx’s laughter rang through the locker room as the door closed as they made their exit.
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry I had this one done and forgot to post it here.