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nurturing and caring Mother Earth figure was about as likely as him doing it. He turned back to Kyle and Megan, still staring at him like he was the devil, and said, “No, not unless he’s the reason you got a brick through your window. You had any threats recently? Someone found out about you and giving you grief?” He felt a twinge of something deep in his gut when Kyle blinked dazedly at him and said with awkward reassurance, “Look, you know that discriminating against someone because of their gender or sexuality is a hate crime, right? If you’re having trouble all you gotta do is tell us and we can take care of it. We can protect you and your son.”
Megan narrowed her eyes and said slowly, “You think the window got smashed because Kyle’s gay?”
“No,” Lopez finally stepped to Jonah’s side, flicking Kyle a curious look and evidently concluding he was going to be worse than useless for the moment for information gathering purposes. “We think the window got smashed because someone doesn’t like the fact that your buddy here is a Twofe....Ow!” She clutched her side and glared at Jonah as he pulled his elbow away from her ribs and then rolled her eyes. “Sorry. I mean your man here is intersex. A, what do you call it, hermaphrodite.” 
Gaping, Megan looked between the two detectives and then shook her head sharply, saying warily, “That’s it? That’s why you’re here?”
Jonah nodded. He reached out and tapped Kyle lightly on his shoulder, frowning when the smaller man flinched away and said, “We can help, man, just give us a chance.”
“I....” Kyle swallowed heavily and coughed, trying to clear the lump of pure fear in his throat. “It’s not something I broadcast.” He shook his head and tried to smile. “I’m sorry, you caught us off guard.” He straightened slightly, managing to take a little more of his own weight. “Only a few people know about my...circumstances...and barely a handful live in New York. I doubt me being intersex has anything to do with the attack on the store.” A little bit of colour came back into his face and he shot Megan a distracted smile when he loosened his grip on her hand. “Can I ask how you found out? I thought you’d need my permission to access my medical records?”
Jonah shook his head. “It’s marked on your son’s birth certificate.” He shrugged apologetically. “Matter of public record. Sorry.” He jerked a head at Lopez and explained, “After you were acting so screwy the other day over the kid’s picture I figured we might be missing something in your case so we ran a standard check on you.”
“Oh.” Kyle nodded faintly. “Right. Well, I think I should be getting home now.” He looked around himself in distractedly and then at Megan. “I need my keys.”
“I’ll drive you, honey.” Megan shot Jonah and Lopez a poisonous look and said archly, “Unless you want to intimidate us some more?” She blinked and then smirked at Lopez. “Also, you gotta little something on your face.”
Lopez looked confused, swiped her hand over her cheek when Megan gestured and scowled fearsomely when her hand came away streaked with congealed jelly. She returned the poisonous look with interest. “Nah, we’re good.” She nodded at Kyle. “We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions. Sorry for the, ah, upset. Jonah?”
Her partner dragged his eyes away from Kyle’s still shocky expression and nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He looked between Megan and Kyle feeling he was still missing something but for the life of him he couldn’t think what it was. He gave a nod of his own. “Be seeing you.”
And swore to himself as he left and felt Kyle’s stricken eyes boring into his back that one day he was going to leave the other man’s company without feeling like he had directly contributed to a nervous breakdown.
~*~*~*~
That night when Jonah woke gasping and sweating in his bed it wasn’t because he had been reliving his attack and