Chapter 1: Acting Strange

06:28am

Calleigh Duquesne's House

Calleigh awoke to the sound of her alarm, drilling into her fitful sleep. She jerked into daylight, her eyes fluttering open and remaining wide. She sat straight up, staring frantically around her. There were her clothes she wore yesterday and her belt lying on her chair, fully equipped with badge and gun. She sighed and put her head in her hands. Suddenly she recoiled, a sharp pain bursting angrily in her hand. She gasped as she look upon a deep wound, about a ½ inch in and the skin around it blue and purple. Then it all came back to her, it a series of flashbacks that made her heart race.

She had been walking toward her house from the car when she remembered that she had it unlocked. With a sigh she turned round and was suddenly confronted by a tall man, dressed in black and wearing a balaclava over what seemed to be a blunt face. In his hand he had a small knife which was raised over his head and he was yelling. Calleigh fell back trying to scream but was over taken by shock. He grabbed her arm and tried to drive the knife into his heart, but she had raised her hand up. The knife penetrated her skin and blood began to flow down her arm. She finally managed to scream. The man immediately got off her and ran flat out down the street. Calleigh was too, running, into her house, fumbling with the keys as blood began to drip down onto the ground. The door opened and Calleigh rushed inside, straight to the bathroom where she instantly put her hand under water. Tears were already sweeping down her face and blood was steadily slipping down the drain.

Calleigh let out a small sob and she sat in her bed, scared to do anything, even leave the bed. But she had to be at work in under an hour. She toyed with ringing in and saying that she was sick, but she knew instantly that they would get suspicious. Hell, they were the CSI team, they would probably figure out something. Then Calleigh thought of ringing Horatio. But for her, that would make matters even more worse. Calleigh made her mind up. She'd have to go to work, be careful with her hand, make sure no one saw it and then come back home… And wait. Calleigh got out bed steadily, for her legs were shaking badly and walked over to the bathroom, where she saw the blood still there on the sink. But she held back her tears, grabbed some make up wipes and cleaned it away.

07:11

Calleigh grabbed her keys for the car off the side and took a deep breath in. He wounded hand had a single plaster over it, but she knew that she'd have to see a doctor at some point to get it sorted out. She looked at the back of the hand and saw that the cream she had used was working well to cover up the purple bruise that was there. Keeping last night's incident at the back of her mind, she briskly walked outside, locked her front door and walked toward her car. She silently thanked the rain last night, for it had washed away the blood from the ground. She looked around and saw her neighbour coming towards her. She put on her sunglasses and a fake smile.

"Morning, Mrs. Gelding." She said brightly.

"Morning dear. I say, did you hear all of that screaming and yelling last night?" The old lady asked, having to look slightly upward at Calleigh because she was much shorter than her.

"No, I didn't." Calleigh lied, quickly slipping her hand behind her back.

"Well, you were better off without it. Kept me up all night." Mrs. Gelding said, in a hushed voice.

"Oh, poor you." Calleigh rushed, feeling tears scratching at the back of her eyes. "I must be going Mrs. Gelding. I hope you have a better night tonight."

"Have a good day, dear." Mrs. Gelding replied and she shuffled away. Calleigh swept into the parked Hummer. Gripping the wheel tightly with her right hand, she carefully moving the left wounded hand to turn the key. The engine burst into life and Calleigh drove it out of the drive.

07:45

Miami CSI Building

Horatio looked over the current case files, a slight frown on his face. There was a knock at the door and he looked up over the folder.

"Come in." He said, returning to the file as Delko came in, carrying a small envelope.

"Here are the bullets from the crime scene, H." He said, holding up the envelope. Horatio lowered the file.

"Have you done any blood comparisons on them?" He asked.

"Yeah, they all have the same 3 bloods on them, 1 of which is the vic's blood. The other two still haven't been matched, but DNA is on it." Delko replied.

"Ok, I'll take them down to Calleigh. Thanks Eric." Horatio said, standing up and taking the envelope off Delko. Eric went off to DNA, while Horatio went down to Ballistics.

07:54

Calleigh was glaring at the plaster on her hand, thinking of really telling Horatio. But, she didn't want the fuss, the instant investigation she knew that would come straight after she told him. She sighed and put on her white coat and gloves. She heard the door open and jumped slightly. She looked over and saw Horatio come in, carrying the envelope of bullets. She saw him frown instantly at her strange behaviour and smiled quickly.

"Hey, handsome, what have you got for me?" She said, putting on a confident voice. Horatio now had his hands on his hips, staring right at Calleigh.

"Calleigh, why did you just jump like that?" He asked, his eyes boring into Calleigh.

"I don't usually get people down here this early, that's all." She lied, staring right back at him.

"Calleigh, you know you can tell me when there is something wrong. You've always known that." He said in a low voice. At that moment, Calleigh's mind tore in two. One half was screaming at her to tell him, while the other was scared of what might happen if she did. She hated lying to Horatio or to anyone she knew, but this was a lie that might be keeping him safe.

"Horatio, it's nothing. Really, I'm fine. I…I just didn't get enough sleep last night." She said, her eyes not daring to rip themselves away from Horatio's. He still looked persistent, still searching for some sort of answer. Calleigh's hand was tucked behind the desk. She knew that somehow he would find out, but not now, not here. Horatio looked concerned but yet he stopped asking questions and handed Calleigh the envelope, which she took from her free hand.

"These bullets from the scene?" Calleigh asked, daring to change the subject.

"The only three that we could receive." Horatio replied, playing along with Calleigh's lie. With that he turned and walked away, feeling Calleigh's eyes watching him every step of the way.


Yay! New story. Sorry, I had to delete my sequel to Broken, seeing as it went wrong at the beginning, so I am working on it. I'd just like to wish everyone reading this to have a Happy New Year and best wishes for the new year as well. Ok, well, I have got the 2nd chapter written, so I'll put that up soon. Thanks for reading and please review, becuase it does give me a lot of confidence in writing the story.

2006-Happy New Year -2006

From TheNextTitan