"No." Horatio stood a little straighter than usual, folded his arms across his chest.
"Pardon me, Mr.…err…Lieutenant Caine?"
"I said, no. She's not dead."
"Sir, the…"
"I want to go see her." He knew better than to think that Calleigh Duquesne would give up her fight that easily.
"Sir…" the nurse sighed, defeated. "Right this way."
He hadn't anticipated what he saw. She looked so tiny under all those wires and monitors. He noticed with some satisfaction that the one to measure her heart activity was still beeping away, however slowly. He sat down in the chair by her bed and gripped her hand. "Calleigh, I know you can hear me," he said. "And I want you to listen. You're not going to just die, okay? You're going to be alive. Think about guns. Okay? Just hang on. Please?"
Calleigh didn't move, but he knew she heard him. He smiled and leaned back in the chair, his hand still clutching to hers.
Every day he went to see her, every day for six months he sat in the chair by her bed, holding her hand and talking to her. The doctors didn't do anything, what could they do? They knew that even if she woke up, she'd probably have severe brain damage, but he wouldn't listen to that. Horatio knew that Calleigh was a fighter, that she would hang on as long as she could. He told her mostly happy things, things that if she could, she would delight in. He told her what Speed and Delko were doing, he told her about how her replacement was nothing compared to her, he even told her exactly how he felt when she was around, how much joy she brought to him, and, most of all, he told her that she had to wake up.
"Horatio?"
Horatio woke up and blinked his eyes blearily, twice. Where was he? In the hospital, of course. His semi-permanent home for the past six months. He looked around sleepily. "Who's there?" he asked.
"Horatio," the voice said again. He felt something squeeze his hand and turned, instinctively, to Calleigh's bedside.
"Calleigh!" For a moment, Horatio's knowledge that you had to be quiet in a hospital was forgotten.
She smiled at him, the sunny 100-watt smile he hadn't realized he missed until it was there again. "Hi," she said sleepily.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded. "I love you, too."
He nearly fell over. "You heard me?"
"Speed started diving, hey?"
"You heard me!"
"Yes."
"They said you couldn't. They said, if you woke up, you'd be brain damaged."
"Horatio?"
"Yes?" he was struggling to keep his voice even.
"What day is it?"
He considered this for a moment, and then checked his watch. "December 23rd," he said finally.
She smiled again. "Just in time for Christmas."
A/N: Just some short H/C fluff. Leave constructive criticism/reviews in the review section, please.