| Subject: Traumatic Amnesia 150 |
Author:
Nikita507
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Date Posted: Saturday, June 27, 06:51:25pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "Traumatic Amnesia 147+" on Friday, June 26, 03:26:09pm
Birkoff rubbed his sweaty palms together as he looked at Michael as he sat at the table. Birkoff had been putting this off for a couple days now, but he didn’t have a choice now. He had hoped to get through the holidays before finding anything, but Birkoff sometimes was too good at his job.
“Don’t lose your nerve now, Birkoff,” Michael declared as he sat there calmly. It was had always been hard to read Michael and now was no different. Part of Birkoff wondered if that was because Michael always expected almost the worst to happen. However, what Birkoff knew could be thought to be the worst thing to happen and yet, Birkoff doubted Michael would expect this at all.
Pulling out a folder, Birkoff placed it on the table. He had kept the furnishings in the office sparse - a desk with a huge computer station and a table with a few chairs. There was no need for more and Birkoff swallowed hard, wondering if he would be looking for work after this.
“I need you to sign on these papers,” Birkoff spoke and Michael chuckled. “You are worried about having me sign some papers?”
“Michael…” Birkoff spoke and Michael shook his head from side to side. “I sometimes think that you need to get a life, Birkoff.”
“About these papers…”
“No, how about talking about the fact that you never do anything outside of work,” Michael challenged as he picked up a pen and reached for the folder. Michael whisked it away and looked at Birkoff as he leaned over the folder. “Surely you want to get out there and find someone.”
“Ah… some time…” Birkoff swallowed hard as he couldn’t believe that Michael wasn’t looking at the papers yet. “Right now isn’t the right time…”
“There never is a right time,” Michael remarked as he leaned away from the table and smiled. Nikita was in Jurgen’s new office, getting checked up and offering Jurgen a test run of his office before he started to see patients at the beginning of the year. A big happening was planned for the whole building tomorrow, except for the fourth floor. It was going to be holiday themed but it was in essence a grand opening. Michael would have said that he met Nikita at not the best time, but it ended up being the perfect time.
“Michael… the papers,” Birkoff’s voice cracked as he was having a hard time with this as it was. Michael wouldn’t care about his friend Birkoff once he realized what the papers were for in the folder.
Michael rolled his eyes as he couldn’t believe that Birkoff was back to this again. He opened up the folder and flipped the papers and pressed the pen against the line and then stopped. He noticed the language and looked at Birkoff. “This is in French.”
“Yes,” Birkoff nodded his head and Michael flipped back to the front and Birkoff slapped the folder closed. “Michael… I wish I could find out in another way…”
“What did you find out?” Michael calmly questioned as he did not show any outward appearance of being upset about something not being right. Michael was so good at hiding his emotions. It was what made him a great cop when he was doing police work.
“Things didn’t seem right in the files of your parents’ autopsies… I had someone here in the states go through the files…” Birkoff’s voice continued to crack out of nerves. He had never thought that this would happen when he sent the files over to the expert. Birkoff had thought that there would be an explanation but it only made things worse. “Stateside they wanted to compare the tissue samples… to determine things about the samples… so I gave them one of yours… so that they could match your parents as your biological parents.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed and turned stormy gray. Birkoff leaned back in the chair and he looked up at the ceiling. “It didn’t match…”
“I’m not adopted,” Michael steely declared and Birkoff nodded his head up and down. He had seen the pictures of Michael’s mother pregnant and he looked so much like his father it was scary. “I know… which was why I had them find the original samples… and some blood that had been screened and marked from when you are parents donated… god knows why they kept samples of donations back then… but it was there…”
“And?” Michael’s single word hung in the air.
“Those samples showed you to be their biological son… which means the pathology that was in the autopsies wasn’t that off your parents…” Birkoff outlined. He watched Michael for a change in behavior. Aside from a heavy sigh and Michael’s eyes turning darker gray, there was no other reaction. “Is that all?”
“The paper is legal documents needed to exhume your parents’ bodies…” Birkoff explained as his legs started to bounce up and down. “But I had them do something first… and I just want you to know that what we found out… I never expected…”
“Birkoff… you better start speaking now,” Michael warned and that was the first sign that Michael was upset about what he was hearing.
“There is a group outside of Paris that scans the grounds for remains… I don’t know why I contacted them… but I wanted to know something that just seemed to bother me…” Birkoff rambled and then he stopped. He could tell that Michael was growing impatient. “It could be wrong… and they have been wrong a couple times…”
“Birkoff…”
He knew that Michael wanted to get to the end of whatever Birkoff was trying to say right now. There was no easy way to break this kind of news to anyone. “When they scanned the graves of your parents… the coffins are there… but it picked up no bodily remains inside.”
Michael went ash white as he stared at Birkoff. It was eerily silent and Birkoff swallowed as he was nervous about what was going to happen next. Maybe he should have had someone like Mick in here with them when he told Michael this. Just as quickly as Michael had turned pale, Michael flipped to the last page and slashed his signature onto the paper. “Find out.”
Birkoff nodded his head up and down. “I’m doing other searches, Michael… I’m not just doing this.”
Michael nodded his head up and down as he was processing what he was finding out, although he had no idea what it really meant.
“Michael… this is going to bring some attention…”
“In France,” Michael intoned as he hoped that this stayed there. He did not want this interfering with his life here.
“You may have to go there and answer some questions… they have been fine with my answers so far, but this has to go in front of a judge now,” Birkoff explained and warned. Michael’s eyes flickered. “I’m not telling Nikita about this. There is nothing really to tell yet. The scans could have been wrong and the samples could have been mixed up.”
Birkoff nodded his head up and down as he didn’t even really believe his own head movements. “Yeah… they could be wrong.”
“You’ve done a great job, Birkoff,” Michael handed the folder over and Birkoff shook his head back and forth. “What?”
“You are doing an excellent job,” Michael declared again as he stood up. Birkoff was pale and Michael tilted his head to the side. “I didn’t expect you to find everything the way that it should have been, Birkoff. I had a feeling that something wasn’t right. I anticipated something… wrong.”
“Wrong like this?”
“Not this at all,” Michael admitted as he rolled his shoulders back. “Now… maybe you need to get a couch in here…”
“How can you talk about that right now?” Birkoff questioned as he stood up and placed the folder onto his desk. Michael moved to the windows and looked out. “Life goes on, Birkoff. I need to find out the truth, but I also have to live the life that I’m in right now. Getting stuck on the search of what happened back then will give me answers, but it won’t give me a feeling of living.”
Birkoff slowly inhaled and exhaled. It was going right back to Michael asking about Birkoff having a life. He was always so busy searching for the answers for someone else, that Birkoff didn’t take the time to focus on other things. The questions that others had became his questions and he often got entirely obsessed with them.
“And you won’t be hiding up here working tomorrow night…” Michael pointed out and Birkoff nodded his head up and down.
Michael did have a point – and if Michael could live his life in the face of what he had just learned about – Birkoff should at least try to follow Michael’s lead.
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