Tim Speedle stood in his apartment and looked around. He had lived here for the past six years and it still didn't feel like home. Home was Miami. Home was the crime lab. Home was a lifetime ago. He had seen the news. He knew what had happened to his friends, his family, and he knew there wasn't anything he could do about it. He wasn't Tim Speedle any more. He was Jake Spencer, protected witness.

It had all started with one of the first cases he had worked in Miami. He had managed to find enough evidence to bring down a mob boss who had "retired" to Florida. What he didn't know was that the mob boss in question had laid the ground work for his escape when he was sent to prison.

From 1998 to 2004, life had been perfect. He had a job he loved. He had friends that he considered family. He was respected and loved. He hadn't felt this good in a long time. He should have known it wouldn't last.

His nightmare began when he answered his doorbell to find two US Marshalls standing there. He had been told that his life was in danger. His response was that his life was always in danger, he was a cop and a CSI. They wanted him to go with them and be placed in the Witness Protection Program. He had refused. Then they showed him the pictures. Pictures of his family in New York, pictures of Alexx and her kids, pictures of everyone he cared about. They had all been taken by a professional hit man the feds had busted. They knew he wasn't the only one interested in Tim Speedle's contract. A contract on a cop was a hot item.

He was told that the hit man had intimated that the people in the photos were lures to throw Speed off his guard. They arraigned to keep tabs on his cases. They already had someone placed at the jewelry store as part of an undercover operation. That man was the one who fired the "fatal" shot at Speed that day.

He had been told that Alexx had been given his body. He had been sedated to the point where it only appeared that he was dead. She hadn't wanted or needed to perform a full autopsy. The only thing she did was cut the bullet out of his body. After that, the body had disappeared. No one at the crime lab knew that they had buried an empty box.

He had been taken to California. He hated it there. All he wanted to do was go back to Miami. He had kept up with everything that was happening to his friends. He knew that Horatio had married Eric's sister and she had been murdered. He knew that Ray had come back and that Horatio had sent his family to Brazil. He knew that Eric had been shot in the head twice. And he knew that his wallet had been stolen by Tyler. That was the part that pissed him off the most. How dare that guy try to take over his life and give his friends hope that he was alive.

"Screw this," he thought as he went to his bedroom and started packing. He was going home. The mob family he had pissed off had been overtaken. The contract was gone and the boss who had promised vengeance was dead. There was no danger. He was going to take his life back.

Horatio had just had the hardest conversation in his life. He had been forced to tell Eric that he could not come back to CSI. The department's doctor would not clear him for duty. Two bullet wounds to the head were two too many for the doctor. He would still be able to work as an investigator for the State's Attorney's office, but he would never be a CSI again.

Horatio walked into his house and went straight to his bar. He poured himself a drink and sighed. Things hadn't been the same for six years and he knew it. The day Tim Speedle had died in his arms had been the day everything changed. He found himself going through the motions.

He had stopped processing crime scenes. He had stopped doing lab work. He hadn't even cared when the department hired Boa Vista full time while he was in Brazil. Had he been thinking clearly there was no way he would have ever signed off on that. She had betrayed them. She wasn't someone he could trust. Hopefully he wouldn't have to put up with her much longer. Ryan had told him that she was having hearing problems. He hoped that meant she would be given a medical release from his lab. Given the choice he would have rather lost her than Eric, but he couldn't fight the doctor's decision and Eric hadn't wanted him to.

He was starting to put together a good team again. Adding Jesse and Walter had given the lab something it hadn't had in years. They had brought life back into the lab. But the heart was still gone. The heart of the lab had died that day in the jewelry store.

He sighed when he heard the doorbell. He really hoped it wasn't someone from work. He knew he couldn't deal with them now. He finished his drink and walked to the door. The person on the other side was someone he never expected to see again. Someone who's grave he had just placed flowers on before coming home. "Speed?"

"Can I come in?" was all Speed could say.

Horatio was too stunned to do anything but move so Speed could come in. He just watched the man as he walked into the house. He didn't even realize he was following him until he remembered to check and make sure the door was shut. "How?"

"It's a long story," Speed sighed.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Speed nodded and told him everything about the last six years. He explained that he wouldn't have left but they were threatening Alexx. He finished his tale and sank onto the couch. "God, Horatio, I never wanted to leave. I never wanted to put any of you through this. I swear."

Horatio sat beside him. "I know Speed. I know. Look, let me look into a couple of things before we start telling people that you're back among the living. You can stay here. I have a guest room."

Speed nodded. Horatio could tell that he was tired so he sent the younger man upstairs. Then he went to his computer. Something didn't seem right to him. He looked into the events surrounding Speed's entrance into the Witness Protection Program and found some interesting things. He decided to wait until Speed was awake before he said anything to him.

He went to the kitchen and started making dinner. He was grateful that he had been to the store the day before. Otherwise there wouldn't have been any food in the house. He had just set the food on the table when Speed came in. "You hungry?"

"Starving," Speed said as they sat down.

They started to eat and Horatio looked at the younger man. He could see that Speed hadn't changed too terribly. He was still too skinny, as Alexx would say. He still couldn't find his razor. Horatio had to shake his head. He couldn't believe he was actually sitting here having dinner with a man who he had buried six years ago.

"I'm really here H," Speed said as he looked at the older man. "And I'm not going anywhere. I don't care what the feds say."

"About that," Horatio said as he sat back in his chair. "I did some digging while you were asleep. I don't know who the men were that took you to California, but they weren't US Marshalls."

"What?"

"The Marshall Service has no record of them. They have no record of putting you in the program. The hit man they told you about died in 1977. There was no contract on you, ever."

Speed threw down his napkin and stood up. He began to pace. "You mean to tell me that I put all of you through that for nothing? That the past six years of my life were wasted because someone decided to play a head game?"

"It looks like it," Horatio said as he got up and went to his friend. "I'm going to talk to someone I trust with the Marshall Service tomorrow. I'm going to do some more digging. I'll get to the bottom of this, I promise."

Speed nodded and they went back to the table. They finished eating and Speed told Horatio what he had been doing in California. He had become a doctor. He had enrolled in medical school as soon as he arrived. He had just finished his residency in trauma medicine. He told Horatio he hadn't decided if he was going to accept the hospital's offer to become an attending physician.

"It just never felt like home, H," Speed sighed as he drank his beer. "I knew I had to come back here, no matter what the consequences were."

"Once we get this straightened out, would you want to come back to the lab?" Horatio asked.

"I don't know. So much has changed. I don't know if I could ever go back there."

Horatio nodded. "I can understand that." Then he grinned. "Of course, you could always become an attending in Alexx's ER."

Speed laughed. "That would be interesting."

They continued to catch up. Horatio explained what was going on with Eric. He also told him what had happened when Tyler had his wallet. "Delko really thought he had seen me?"

"He was convinced you were in Miami. Tyler's credit card trail didn't help."

"I had heard about the credit cards, but not all of it."

"How did you keep tabs on everything?"

"Took out a subscription to the Miami Hearld," Speed grinned. "And I accessed some of the information from the MDPD."

"Don't tell me you hacked into the MDPD computer."

Speed grinned. "Okay, I won't."