Hello everyone and welcome to my second story! I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this story. I have a general idea, just not all the details yet. So any suggestions are welcome, although I can't promise they will end up in the story, because they might just won't fit in.

Summary: When Ryan goes back to work, he tries his best to act like nothing has happened so he can keep his secrets save. At the same time, his colleagues try their best to make it clear to him that they are not happy with him, at all. But when someone finally asks, is Ryan really willing to share his secrets?

Important! Please note that this story is a sequel to my previous story, They never ask. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend you to read that story first. Besides that, I will mention it again, note that English is not my first language. If you can't handle all my (probably) terrible grammar mistakes, don't read this! However, you are always welcome to point out my mistakes, so I can do something about it and learn from it! :)

Enjoy!

When Ryan arrived at the crime scene that morning, there seemed nothing wrong. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the people just went on with their lives. Except for the deceased man in the middle of the street. His life was cruelly stopped. And within the hour, so would be the lives of his family, because they would then get the phone call, that was everybody's nightmare.

The man had three bullet holes in his chest, just like the last few victims, for the last few weeks.

Ryan grimaced, the bile crept up in his esophagus and was now burning in his throat. Maybe it hadn't be a good idea to start working so soon after the surgery, Ryan thought to himself. But he couldn't go back now.

'Hi sweetie,' Alex said. She frowned. 'You look horrible. Are you okay? You look very pale.'

'Yeah, I'm fine,' Ryan lied. 'What do you have here, Alexx?'

'Meet Jason park. 38. COD most likely those three bullet holes in his chest. TOD around midnight, but I can tell you more after the autopsy, this afternoon.'

'All right, Thank you Alexx.'

'Are you sure you are feeling okay?' Alexx asked worried.

'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.' Ryan walked towards Calleigh reluctantly.

'Ah, look who we have here,' Calleigh said. 'Mr. The-world-turns-around-me.'

Ryan decided to ignore that remark. 'So, what can I do for you?'

'You can start over there,' Calleigh pointed. There are some tire tracks that still need to be processed. And the further you are away from me, the better.'

'Fine, whatever.' Ryan walked towards the appointed place.

'And don't give me an attitude like that!' Calleigh yelled after him.

Ryan sighed. This was going to be a long day. He could just go and tell Calleigh why he wasn't there yesterday. But she didn't really bothered to ask. And Ryan actually didn't want to tell her anyway. Especially not after how she had treated him the last couple of days. So, Ryan decided to focus on his work and stayed away from his colleagues as much as possible.

After all the evidence was collected, Ryan and Calleigh drove, in different cars, towards the crime lab. To process all the evidence.

When he arrived Ryan walked into the man he had hoped not to see today.

'Ah, Mr. Wolfe, just the man I needed,' Horatio said.

'H, I… I… I'm sorry,' Ryan stammered.

'I expect to see you in my office, at the end of your workday, Mr. Wolfe. We will speak about it then. And I sure do hope you have a damn good explanation for all this.'

Ryan nodded and walked on. He locked himself with the evidence and went to work. Ryan didn't take a break, so he could process as much evidence as possible and he wouldn't walk into his colleagues. But nevertheless the processing didn't go very quick. Standing a whole day after a surgery was harder than Ryan had expected. The pain in his stomach was getting worse and worse so Ryan decided to take the chance and walk to his locker, where he kept some painkillers.

Ryan crept down the hallway towards the locker room and saw no colleagues to his delight. But his joy was short-lived when he saw Eric standing in the locker room. Ryan walked to his own locker without saying anything and hoping Eric would neither. But apparently Eric thought different about that. Because when Ryan had take his pain killers and slammed his locker shut, Eric stood close behind him. It startled Ryan.

'Hey Wolfe, bad conscience?' Eric asked.

Ryan ignored that remark and wanted to walk away, but Eric held him back.

'Oh no, you are not just walking away from this, Wolfe. You are going to explain to me why you called in sick yesterday. You owe us that much.'

'It is none of your business, Delko!' Ryan said fuming. While asking himself if their relationship really was that bad again.

'Oh, you bet it is my business! Because of you we had to work longer. Again!'

'Well, I'm sorry about that, Delko. But I can't change that anymore now, can I?'

'No, you can't indeed, Wolfe. You got that right. But you could at least act like you care!'

'By doing what, Delko? I've worked enough extra hours the last couple of days!

'You could resign!'

Ryan pushed Eric away. 'The hell I am. Forget it. You resign if you want to get rid of me!'

Eric pushed Ryan into the lockers. 'You wanna fight about it?' He asked fuming.

'Fine,' Ryan answered just as angry. And before he could control himself he had hit Eric in the face. But Eric responded quickly and used that same moment to hit Ryan in the stomach. Ryan screamed in pain and dropped down along the lockers. The world started spinning for a second and Ryan felt his head hit the cold ground. Eric had hit him right in the surgery wound and that really didn't help with his already painful stomach.

Eric snorted. 'Be a man, Wolfe,' he said. And then he walked away.

'DAMNIT!' Ryan yelled whilst kicking against the lockers. He needed a few minutes before the pain in his stomach subsided. Only then he dared to try to stand up again. He walked back to his evidence, groggily. While labrats were staring at him bewildered. He wanted to yell at them what they were looking at, but he just couldn't. He felt to weak. He thought to himself that he could better have stayed with his evidence, because the pain in his stomach had only increased since Eric had hit him. And then nobody would stare at him now. People were always staring at him, but they never came to him to ask if they could help, or what was wrong. Well, Eric had asked why he wasn't there yesterday, but it had been in an aggressive way. He hadn't been worried about Ryan, he just wanted him to resign. And off course this morning Alexx had asked, but he couldn't possibly tell her. She would've called an ambulance immediately and he definitely didn't want that!

When he finally arrived back at his evidence, Ryan did his best to concentrate on his work. But it was getting harder and harder, as his surgery wound started to throb more and more painfully. Ryan took a chair and sat down on it. He wondered how he could ever came through the rest of the day without making it look like he didn't do almost anything. He could off course go to Horatio and just tell him why he wasn't there yesterday and why he didn't feel good today. But he just couldn't, he just didn't dare. Ryan was scared that if he told him, Horatio would wanted to know why Ryan needed surgery. And that was something Ryan rather kept for himself. His colleagues had only met Rowan a few days ago and he didn't want them to know all his family secrets.

Ryan stared at his watch. It was almost 3 o'clock and that meant he had an appointment with Alexx in the morgue, so she could tell him more about the body from this morning. Ryan stood up and groaned when a stabbing pain shot through his stomach. The world started turning once more and Ryan grabbed for the table, but his hands missed. The pain got only worse and it became black in front of his eyes. He fell and for the second time this day, he felt his head hit the cold ground.

Little cliffy, so you will keep coming back :P Please tell me what you think about this first chapter!