Carl Horvath couldn't believe his eyes. He had been waiting for the detectives working on his son's case to get back to him. Now that they had he was more pissed off than before. They said they couldn't find any evidence that Tevye Raymond was guilty of anything.

The final nail in the coffin was Tevye's alibi; he was on a whole different continent. The proof was staring him in the face now. A video of Tevye in a restaurant in Spain the day of Justin's attack, it was gotten by his own attorney to prove his innocence. It was his parents and uncle's way of getting him out of the way. The boy was spending a year in Spain while his uncle ran for Mayor. Money really could by you anything. But as much as he wanted to blame it on the spoiled brat, it was clear he didn't do it. But he had wrecked Justin's apartment, so he wasn't all the way innocent.

They had also crossed Truman Bach off the list. Apparently, he had been too busy kidnapping and imprisoning Daphne.

A lump in his throat formed at the thought. She had been in a madman's hands for months and no one was the wiser. Her parents were overcome with guilt upon finding out; much like he had been when he found out what happened to Justin. Parents were supposed to protect their children. They all had no clue anything was wrong.

As it stood they only had two weak suspects. Vasili Ozerov and Brian Kinney. He regretted ever introducing his son to Ozerov. He had only known the kid for a couple months. Debbie had met him and just drooled over him. When she found out he was gay, she made it her mission to set him up with one of her boys. Michael was out because he was with Ben. Ted wasn't too fond of cops since his arrest. Then there was the tall one, Emmett. She thought about Emmett for a while but dismissed him because he had just lost his boyfriend. She never even considered Kinney. That just left his little boy for her to play matchmaker with. It was taking everything in him not to blame her for her part in it. Really, he was to blame as much as Deb. He liked the idea because he wanted his son away from the "Stud of Liberty Avenue".

He had nightmares of his son in one of those backrooms. There was no way he could have let his little boy be in that environment. That was his only excuse for throwing his son from someone who was going to break his heart to one that seems to have at least been mentally abusive to him. They wouldn't know if it was physical until Justin woke up.

Justin hadn't woken up yet. It had been two weeks since his attack. The doctors said the swelling was gone and he should be waking up, he just wasn't. They didn't seem to be very worried about it but why should they he wasn't their son. They had nothing to lose if he stayed forever asleep.

Kinney was still able to see Justin, it was only because he trusted Debbie. If Debbie said there was no way Brian could hurt Justin he believed her. There was also the fact that Michael was with him the whole time. When they questioned Michael they said there was no way he was lying. The man was too piss-in-his-pants scared. He would lie to protect Kinney but he wouldn't be that good at concealing it.

Then there was Vasili, he was also just a borderline suspect. No one believed it was him. They also had a neighbor saying they saw Vas drop Justin off in front of the apartment building and squeal his tires pulling out. It was only five minutes later or so the same neighbor, who was working on getting his own car to start, saw Brian and Michael pull up. Then the ambulance a few minutes later. The neighbor said he didn't see anyone leaving the building between Justin going in and Kinney arriving.

That meant even though they had two suspects they weren't really. They just couldn't be crossed off officially yet. So that left them with no real suspects or motive. Chief Stockwell had made it clear in no uncertain terms that he was to stay out of the investigation. For the most part he did, but that didn't stop some of his longtime friends telling him what was going on in the investigation.

Shaking his head he closed his laptop. It was late at night and his house was quiet. Molly had gone over to a friend's for the night. He would usually go over to Debbie's but it didn't feel right while Justin was in the hospital. He had to wait until visiting hours to go and see Justin. Now that he was out of danger he was moved to a regular room, he was moved after a week. In that bed he reminded him so much of when he was a little boy. He would lay in bed and beg for another story. It was always 'another', and being his two youngest children he couldn't say no. He usually read until Justin fell asleep. Molly was different, she liked two stories, just two. She would then tell him that she was done with them.

Out of all of his children he always felt closer to Justin. He didn't know why it was but he suspected it was because Justin was the one who needed him the most. C.J. and Vicky were raised by their mother for the most part, he had been at work a lot. They were young teens when she died, by that time they were fairly independent already. Molly was a lot like her oldest brother and sister, she didn't have the abandonment issues Justin did. She had been abandoned just like he was but she didn't remember it.

He was shaken out of his thoughts when his cell phone started ringing.

"Horvath," he answered briskly.

"Hey," a soft, young female voice said.

"Daph?" He looked at the clock, it was well after midnight.

"I hoped you were still awake. I need to talk to you." Her voice sounded a little shaky, his chest tightened.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, panicking.

"I'm outside your house, can I come in?"

"Of course," he said, rushing to the door.

As he opened the door his eyes widened at her pregnant stomach. He had seen her when she was rescued, she had been smaller than she should have been. It looked like her doctors and parents had been making sure she was a healthy weight. He ushered her in and made sure she was comfortable on the couch. He would offer his recliner but worried about her getting out of it.

All the sudden she started to cry, and he saw the little girl she had been once. Never one to be overly emotional she almost never cried. The last time she had in his presence was when she was eleven and broke her leg. Justin and she were playing in the pool at her house. They had been alone, when she fell and hurt herself Justin had called him. She was crying and Justin was beside himself with worry.

"Can you tell me what's wrong?" he asked her.

She wiped her eyes and sniffled some before calming herself.

"I'm going to give the baby up for adoption," she said quietly.

He wasn't expecting that, he also wasn't expecting her to tell him. He cared about her like a part of his family but she had never confided in him.

"If you wanted to keep it I'm sure your parents would help." He didn't have that much in common with her parents. They loved her and would do what was needed to make her life easier after her traumatic experience though.

"I can't be what this baby needs. I'm not sure I can ever be a mother - a real mother. Being in that place for all that time I had a lot of time to think. The baby needs someone who can take care of him. Someone who's together and can give him the love and support that he needs. That's not me, I can't sleep through the night without a nightmare."

Carl had seen some horrible things in his life. What the girl had gone through was horrible. She hadn't told anyone who the father was, she just made sure everyone knew that Truman Bach never touched her like that. Her one true confidant was in a coma. That would explain why she was here pouring her heart out.

"You can see a special doctor that might help. My only advice would be to think on this carefully. Because if you start this and change your mind after the baby is born there will be others hurt deeply by it."

He knew that from experience, his baby sister had been told she couldn't have her own children. They went through the whole process of adoption. Then at the hospital the woman changed her mind. It was her right and it was best for her but it devastated his sister. After that they gave up on the whole thing.

It was just after Justin's fifteenth birthday when he got a call from her. She was crying on the phone. He had thought something terrible had happened. She had gone to the doctor because she believed she was going through the change of life. She had waited longer than her husband thought she should because she was so moody. When she got the doctor and she ran all of her tests they found a late in life surprise. They told her she was around five months pregnant.

When she gave birth to a healthy baby girl he had cried tears of joy for her. It was something she had wanted forever. Every time she called now about the energy of a four-year old he laughed. She always sounded so exhausted but he could tell she was happy. But he also still remembered her tears of agony at losing the baby when the mother changed her mind. He didn't want that to happen to another family if Daphne changed her mind.

"I have thought about it. My reasons are my own. This is how it has to be." She had steel in her voice now.

Walking over to the fireplace he leaned on the mantle. "Why are you here?" It had been worrying him, her turning up at his place late at night, in tears."

"I- uh, the father of the baby. Its- uh," she stammered. "The doctor said that Justin might not be the same when he wakes up. If he wakes up."

The change of subject threw him. "Yes, the doctor doesn't know the extent of the damage until Justin wakes up. There's a chance he might never draw again. The doctor isn't sure if his motor skills were effected. He doesn't believe they were but it's a very close call, he won't know until Justin wakes up. And he will wake up." There were no other options, he couldn't lose his son.

"Justin is the baby's father," she blurted out.

He looked at her, mouth agape. It couldn't be true, no again. They had promised it was never going to happen again. When Justin finally told everyone he was gay he thought it was the last of this. He still had worries about Justin catching something and getting sick, but had thought the days of worrying about teenage pregnancy was over. At least for his son, he still had that worry for his daughter.

"How can that be?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot; he guessed it was a stupid question.

"Why are you really here?" He was very suspicious now.

"I want your blessing."

"I can't give you that, not until I know how Justin feels."

"I understand that, but in the end it's my decision."

"Unless he wants to keep the baby," he pointed out.

She actually smiled at that. "If he does, he does. But it has to be his choice, I don't want anyone making feel guilty, and making him into doing what they think is right. He needs his own life, he deserves that chance, just like I do. Just like this baby does, he'll be someone's whole world."

There was some true in that. Newborn babies were sought after, white, blonde haired, blue eyed babies more, it was the sad truth. But this baby was bi-racial. Instead of bringing that up he kept quiet. He didn't want to be accused of trying to talk her out of it.

After a few more uncomfortable minutes of talk she got up to leave. He didn't tell her that he hoped Justin also wanted to give the baby up. She had been right, Justin needed his own life and raising a baby would take up that, even though fatherhood was the best thing that ever happened to Carl.