AN EASY MAN TO LOVE

Chapter 1

Calleigh took the call. "Yes, H?"

Their boss's voice was weak and husky, though recognisable. "I need… you and Eric… process…"

"Are you all right?"

"I've been shot… I've called a bus…"

"Where are you? Is the perp still around? H, talk to me!"

"He's gone… Hispanic male…" He broke off, coughing, and she heard a whispered gasp of "Oh God…". Then he continued, "Green SUV…" He coughed again, and she heard the phone, still switched on, hit the ground.

"What on earth is it?" Eric was by her side.

"H. He's down. Shot. Come on!"

They got the location from ambulance control, who confirmed they had a vehicle on the way, and then tracked Horatio's cell phone. With Eric driving insanely fast, siren screaming, they got there before the ambulance. Calleigh sprinted up the alleyway. Horatio was on the ground, kneeling, slumped against a wall for support. He was conscious, though barely, one hand over a bloodstained patch on his shirt. Calleigh threw herself at his side.

He whispered faintly, "That… was quick…" He broke off, coughing, and she felt his blood spatter her shirt. She realised he was choking on his own blood and that, had he not had the strength to stay partially upright, he would probably be dead by now. There was a trickle of blood from his nose and mouth. Gently lifting his hand away, Calleigh peeled back his shirt, to uncover a single bullet wound, in his left chest, but mercifully lower than his heart. The blood flow was minimal, but she knew how misleading that was. The man was bleeding out.

"H, hang in there…" Eric was also kneeling beside them. "Bus'll be here in a minute."

The voice was a faint gasp. "Can't… breathe…"

"I know, sweetheart." Calleigh slipped one arm round him. "You've got a chest full of blood. Just hang on… a few minutes…" There was nothing she could do now, except to try to keep him conscious.

He slumped into her body, his head resting on her shoulder. She bent and kissed the top of his head, then gently lifted the back of his jacket. Underneath, the shirt was soaked. She looked at Eric and murmured, "Through and through."

She could feel his struggle to draw breath, but she could also feel him going under. She kept her fingers lightly on his carotid pulse. It was uneven and faint, and she was fully prepared to have to do cardiac massage. She wanted to hug him, to physically pull him back from the edge.

"H," she said urgently. "Wake up, stay with me."

In the distance, they heard sirens.

Eric murmured, "About time."

"H, look at me!" Calleigh put her hand under his chin to tilt his head. "Look at me. Keep looking at me."

The dark blue eyes were almost closed, the face bloodless, but, oddly, a faint smile flickered on his mouth. "Always… a… pleasure… ma'am." Then his head fell back onto her shoulder, and she felt the warmth of his blood seeping through her shirt. She was suddenly aware of tears streaming down her face.

At the end of the alleyway, an ambulance screeched to a halt, and two paramedics ran to them. Eric stood up, but Calleigh remained crouched, holding the now unconscious Horatio in her arms.

Eric, his voice shaking, gave them chapter and verse. "Looks like a single gunshot, through and through, lower chest, big internal blood loss. He can hardly breathe but he was just about conscious until a minute ago…"

They took him gently from Calleigh's arms. And saw the badge and ID on his belt.

One said quietly, "Good God…"

"Didn't you know?"

"No, we were just told gunshot, male victim. Not who it was."

"Would it have made a difference?"

"Might have. We'd have had an escort. But we came as quickly as we could."

Calleigh stood up now, her clothes blood splashed, and both watched as they got him quickly, even roughly, onto a stretcher. "Sorry, ma'am, but he's almost gone," and they rushed him to the ambulance.

Eric touched her shoulder. "Go with him. I'll escort. Is it Dade General?"

She got into the ambulance, while Eric watched from the back door, trying to keep out of the way of the paramedics as they worked with a desperate urgency that precluded finesse. They slashed jacket and shirt away, revealing the innocuous-looking wound. One inserted a line into a vein at his elbow, linked up a bag of saline, then connected him to a monitor. He watched the readings settle, shook his head, and immediately carried out the same procedure on the other arm. Then he half lifted him, located the wound in his back, and stuffed gauze packing into it.

Calleigh could read a monitor perfectly well, but all her brain registered was a weak and erratic heartbeat.

The second paramedic meanwhile was siphoning blood from Horatio's throat. It splashed at her feet on the floor of the vehicle, while the paramedic tried to get a tube in. It took him three attempts, but then he hooked up a bag and took over the failing breathing.

"Right, Bill," he said to his partner. "Let's go. As fast as you can."

One man leapt into the driving-seat as Eric slammed the back doors shut. The remaining paramedic looked at Calleigh, who was weeping with shock. "He's not gone yet, ma'am."

"No, I'm sorry."

He looked at the monitor again. "Can you squeeze that fluid in for me?"

"Of course." She stood up as the vehicle moved off, fast. She could hear the Hummer's siren, loud in front of them. She staggered, grabbing a shelf.

The paramedic said quickly, "Whatever you do, don't fall on him. Just squeeze the fluid in… Like kneading dough. Or milking a cow…"

She smiled weakly. "How long…?"

"How long, Bill?" he called to his partner.

"Not more than fifteen minutes. Maybe less. Your partner's got some balls - he's punching through red lights, and he's got a patrol car helping him now. How's the patient?"

"Not good, pal, not good. So fast as you can."

As if to confirm it, the monitor's bleeping faltered, then turned to a steady whine as it flat lined.

The paramedic yelled to his colleague, "Pull over, Bill! We're losing him!"

The ambulance pulled to a grinding halt at the kerb and the driver leapt into the back. They slapped two pads onto Horatio's chest.

"OK, clear." One of them physically held Calleigh away from the body as the other sent a shock through the reluctant heart. "Come on, lieutenant!" he snapped. "You are not dying in my ambulance!"

Eric opened a front door and peered through from the cab. He said nothing.

"OK. Go again. Clear…" Again the shock went through him, lifting him slightly from the bed. The monitor bleeped, hesitated, then settled into a more regular rhythm. "Right, go!"

Both Eric and the driver rushed to their respective seats, and they moved off again, three sets of sirens now splitting the air, and the traffic.

Calleigh let out a sound between a sob and a sort of hysterical laugh. "May I touch him?"

"Yes. Gently. Here, take over the breathing. I'll do the fluids."

They changed places, and Calleigh found she could keep squeezing oxygen into him, while stroking his face and hair with her free hand. She whispered, "Oh, H… hang on… please…"

"Do you have his blood group?"

"On his ID." She leant over and pulled it off his belt. "A positive." She put the ID into her pocket.

The paramedic called to his partner. "Tell them we need A positive blood, lots of it. And tell them who it is."

"They know," he called back.

"Eric." Calleigh smiled. "Will that make a difference?"

"It might. He'll get top priority." The paramedic, balanced against the vehicle's motion, was squeezing the saline in from both bags. "He's got hardly any blood pressure. That's quite a blood loss from a single bullet. You said he was conscious?"

"Yes, and talking. Just. You know he called you himself?"

"Wow. Tough guy."

"He is."

"I think he'll have to be."

"I know it's a bad one. Large calibre, through and through… But it missed his heart, thank God…" She smiled wanly. "I'm his ballistics expert."

"So I imagine the tears aren't from seeing a bullet wound?"

"No. Pretty used to that. Just… not in him." She looked at the paramedic and shrugged slightly. "It's not what you think. I do love him, but not like that. He's just very very special."

"Good boss?"

"Absolutely the best."

They pulled into the hospital, and he was rushed away from her. The paramedic she had been talking to took her hand quickly. "I really hope he makes it."

She nodded her thanks, and went into the hospital to wait. She had barely sat down before Eric joined her. "How is he?"

She shook her head. "It's bad, Eric. He's alive, just. At least we got him here." She felt the tears starting again.

Eric put his arm round her. "Don't, Cal…"

"It's just shock. They've so nearly killed him, Eric."

"'Nearly'," Eric said firmly. "He's as tough as anyone I know."

She numbly sipped the coffee Eric had brought. "You did a good job as escort - we were shifting."

"It was odd," he mused. "I hardly saw the other traffic, just the road ahead, and the ambulance behind me. It was as if there was nothing else. Just Horatio, and where he needed to be."

She nodded. "I suppose we should go and process the scene."

"No. I'll go if you think I should, but one of us has to stay with him."

"I'd rather we both stayed." Calleigh swallowed hard. "If he dies, I don't think I can bear it."

"OK. We'll both stay."

It was two more coffees and nearly three hours later, before a doctor came to find them. He looked so grave that Calleigh's hand flew to her mouth.

"No, not that," he said quickly. "He's still with us."

"Oh, thank God."

"We've got him stabilized at last. We had to put a lot of blood through him before his pressure started to come up. We've got a drain in his lung, and we've patched up a hell of a big hole in his back. He's got a cracked rib, but that's no big deal. In some ways he's been quite lucky. His lung's pretty messed up, and the bullet nicked his liver, but it missed a lot of other vital organs. His heart's clear - it was struggling trying to pump with so little blood, but there's no damage - and his spine's clear."

"He'll be OK?"

"Too early to say that, ma'am. But, for now, I'm cautiously hopeful."

"Can I see him?"

"You can, but there's nothing to see. He's in intensive care, he's on a ventilator, and he's unconscious. I'm going to keep him like that for a few days, and see if the lung will start to heal itself. As long as his blood pressure stays off the floor, we may be OK."

"Just a quick look," Calleigh begged.

The doctor smiled then, and led them through to ICU. He pointed through a window. Calleigh found herself smiling at a glimpse of the unmistakeable auburn hair.

"OK," she said. She caught Eric's hand. "Let's go and catch whoever did this to him." She turned back to the doctor. "Can I take his clothes?"

The doctor went away and returned with a bag. Calleigh opened it briefly. The coppery smell of blood wafted out, but also a faint but recognisable smell of Horatio. She knew he never wore cologne or aftershave, but there was something… Maybe soap or shampoo…

"There wasn't a gun, was there?" she asked.

"No, no gun."

She nodded and refolded the bag, turning back to Eric. "Scene or lab first?"

"I think you should get changed first. And everyone at the lab will have heard. We need to go back there."

"You're right." She plucked the fabric of her shirt away from her shoulder, where his blood had stuck it to her skin.

They entered the lab together. It seemed everyone knew. Even the receptionist stopped to ask how Horatio was. "Hanging on," Eric said briefly. He'd save any details for H's own team.

Calleigh managed to reach the locker room without meeting anyone. She had just removed her blood-soaked shirt when Natalia came in. She picked up the shirt and murmured, "Oh Calleigh…"

Calleigh said nothing as she pulled on another shirt, over the blood stains that still remained on her bra and on her skin. She looked down at her pants, but they were dark, and the blood didn't show. Good enough to face everyone.

Natalia was still holding the shirt. "Is this evidence?"

"No, only of Horatio trying to die in my arms."

"He's not dead?" Natalia's hand flew to her face.

"No, sorry, that was a terrible thing to say. No, we got him to the hospital. He's alive, but very ill. Come on, we'd better see the others."

Eric, Calleigh and Natalia went towards the layout room, collecting the team on the way.

Eric said quietly to Calleigh, "Do you want me to do this?"

"No, I will." Looking round to see that everyone was there, she said, "You've all heard by now that Horatio was shot today. It was a bad wound, in the chest, but he managed to call for help. Eric and I were there first, but the ambulance quickly took over. He'd lost a lot of blood. His heart had to be restarted on the way in." She forced a smile. "Now the better news. We got him to hospital alive, and they've now stabilized him. He's in ICU and very ill, but still with us."

There was a collective release of held breath, and a few smiles and comments.

She added, "He won't be visitable for a while. I'll let you know when he is. I believe I'm nominated as his deputy." No one seemed surprised, since she was the most senior. "Now, Eric and I broke protocol big time by leaving the crime scene unattended, so if anyone feels like reporting that, go ahead. There was no way H was going to ride alone, and Eric did a wonderful job clearing the traffic by providing an escort. We may have lost evidence, but we may just have saved his life." No one disagreed. In fact there was a burst of requests to go to the crime scene now. "Eric and I are going back now. The rest of you get on with your cases here. He'd want you to. I promise I will let you know if there's any news."

Eric whispered, "Well done."

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