Alright, basically, I was livid when they killed off Speedle so here is a possible future plot that could happen. I don't own any of the characters except my OC's, warnings for violence and language.
I know its long so bear with me, Read and Review please!
Calleigh Duquene pushed the door of her apartment closed with her butt and leaned her back against it, closing her eyes just for a second to let her mind switch from work mode to home mode. She took a long, deep breath and froze mid breath, smelling something familiar but impossible in the air. She opened her eyes and looked around, feeling the heat of tears in her eyes.
The smell was of cologne, of Tim Speedle's cologne, something made impossible by the fact that he was dead, had died over a year previously in a shoot out at a crime scene. The cologne, as it always had been, was mixed with the scent of motor oil, a smell Calleigh had always adored. Speedle had always ridden motorcycles, and always smelled like petrol gas and that cologne he liked. It had been a smell Calleigh had come to associate with the stoic, sarcastic CSI, with a level headed, jaded, surly outlook on life.
The year that followed Speedle's had been difficult for Calleigh, more than just in her mourning her friend. Speedle's 'replacement' Ryan Wolfe had been sweet enough but his presence had simple served as a constant reminder of Speedle's absence. Then there was Eric Delko. Eric had taken Speedle's death particularly hard and had spiralled into a self destructive cycle that had threatened his career, and still may if he couldn't get his life in order.
More recently Detective John Hagen, Calleigh's former boyfriend and ex partner of Raymond Caine, Horatio Caine's younger brother, had killed himself in the ballistics lab while Calleigh was preparing a gun to test fire. He had shot himself in the head and the emotional fall out had driven Calleigh out of her favoured lab.
Recently, she had ventured back in to the lab, begun taking her space back. After everything that had happened, including the revelation that Raymond Caine, long thought dead was in fact alive having been deep undercover for the federal government, Calleigh had felt for a while as if she was wrapped in cotton wool and was only now beginning to feel normal again. She wiped at her eyes, frustrated that she had gotten upset after being okay for so long. "Oh, Tim" she muttered out loud, thinking in her head that they needed him around.
Aside from the things caused by his death, there where other things that had happened that Speedle could have helped with, all the chaos around Ray Caine, Hagens suicide, Calleigh needed Speedle's calming presence, his cool head to anchor her, to feed her own calm.
"Yeah?" an impossible voice replied.
Calleigh looked into her kitchen, where the voice had come from, dropping to her knee and drawing her gun simultaneously.
"You're scarily good with that thing Calleigh, I never forgot how good you are" the voice Tim's voice sounded, wonderfully, impossibly familiar.
Calleigh didn't respond, wondering if she called for help would anyone arrive in time to help her.
"Please don't call anybody, not just yet" Speedle asked, or the person impersonating Speedle asked. "Look I know you're probably thinking that it's not me, or that it's someone faking to be me, but I swear to god it's me and I need your help"
"prove it" Calleigh stated.
"On the Dispo Day when I got shot, you got dosed with cocaine in a tile factory that was a front for a cocaine dealer" Speedle, in his normal lethargic drawl began to say, "You where buzzed when you had to go and do the lie detector test for the IA investigation and you told them that your dads nick name for you was lamb chop. When you where analyzing my gun you found out it misfired because I didn't clean it and you waited to tell Horatio to make sure that your analysis was as accurate as possible because you didn't want to get me into trouble if you didn't have to" Speedle said, truthfully. "You have a phobia of ants" he added.
"Tell me something about Tim, something he said or did that only I would know" Calleigh demanded, her voice quavering.
There was a pause during which Calleigh did some quick working out in her head and figured the Tim impersonator was low, possibly crouching, near the fridge at the farthest end of the kitchen. "I lied about the soda" the intruder said "We had a case with a woman who shot a guy for hitting on her at the out door cinema. She went through about a dozen cans of soda over the duration of the case and when we had her in for an interview, she asked for a soda and I told her we where fresh out. You called me a liar, in fact your exact words where 'You lied, we do so have soda' and I said that she had lied to us so it was even" the intruder told her and Calleigh let go of her gun with one hand and covered her mouth, stifling the sob that rose in her throat.
There was silence and when the voice came again it was strained "Cal, please, I'm…I'm hurt" and there was something in it, some note that Calleigh recognised and she stood, reaching for the light switch on the wall.
The lights flicked on and she held her gun out, stepping around the island in the centre of the kitchen. Speedle was sitting with his back to the fridge, those long legs of his stretched out on front of him. He wore his atypical jeans, biker boots and an oversized, thin sweater. He was pale, his skin pasty, a layer of sweat covering his face, and his curly black hair was grown longer than she had ever seen it, curling around his dark brown eyes, tangled and messy. He was pressing one hand to his right side, to a bloody wound there, his other hand holding a gun. There was a pool of blood beside him, spreading slowly over the linoleum floor, soaking into Speedle's jeans.
"Hi Calleigh" he said, grinning that lob sided grin of his.
"Oh my god" Calleigh breathed, immediately putting her gun on the ground and running to his side "You died, I saw your body, what's going on!" she asked, tears, confusion and emotion making her voice thick.
"It's a really long story, and I swear I'll fill you in later but right now I kinda need some help" he stated.
Calleigh nodded and immediately went to his injured side, making him move his hand. He fought her but she looked him in the eye and he moved his hand reluctantly. The wound, just above his hip, looked like it had come from a knife, and it was deep, hospital deep. "Oh honey" she breathed, "This needs a doctor to take a look" she told him.
"No, I shouldn't have even come here, I cant go to a hospital" Speedle shook his head.
"Well if not a doctor, somebody, Tim this is deep, you're bleeding out" Calleigh said.
"So get a band aid Cal" Speed gasped as Calleigh pressed her hands around the edges of the wound.
Calleigh shot him a dirty look and grabbed a clean tea towel from the drawer near the sink, holding it to the wound and pressing hard on it. Speedle gasped again and shuddered bodily. Calleigh realised he was shaking all over but had been fighting to hide it from her. His teeth where chattering as if he was cold and he was fighting to stay awake. "Come to my bedroom" Calleigh reached for his hand to pull him to his feet.
Speedle grinned wickedly "Jeez Cal, shouldn't we go for dinner first at least" he managed a hoarse laugh.
Calleigh rolled her eyes, shock alone keeping her from just freaking out "Well it's not how I normally do things but I'll make an exception just this once" Calleigh managed to joke even though her stomach was fluttering with fear.
She made Speedle hold the tea towel against the wound in his side, then moved around to his other side and lifted his arm over her head to drape across her shoulders. When she helped him stand, her knees almost buckled and she had two thoughts- one, she had forgotten how much bigger than her he was, and two, she was supporting almost all of his weight.
"You wanna tell me how this happened?" She asked, noticing that he was dragging his right leg.
"Nope" he panted.
"You wanna tell me how you're not dead?" She tried.
"Not yet" he seemed to putting more weight on her with every step they took.
They reached her room and Speedle managed to snicker as he saw the girlie theme she had going. It was a lot of pink but at the same time, she had art pictures of war scenes, weapons, and one of a sad clown. "Calleigh have I ever been in here before?" he asked as they moved toward the bed.
"No, and since you owe me a zillion explanations, you don't get to pass comment" Calleigh huffed.
Speedle was skinny, always had been, but he was becoming a dead weight. They made the bed and Speedle basically dropped onto the duvet, gasping for breath. "You just lay here, I'll go see if I can find my first aid kit" she told him.
Speedle was still clutching his gun and waved it vaguely as an answer.
Calleigh ran across the hall to her bathroom and closed the door behind her. She ran the taps, washing the blood from her hands quickly. She pulled her cell phone from the clip on her belt, dialling Alexx Woods as she opened her medicine cupboard and found her larger than average first aid kit.
The ME picked up after just a few rings, her voice as smooth as ever. "Calleigh baby this better be an emergency" the woman said, but her voice was pleasant.
"It is" Calleigh rooted through her first aid kit one handed and found a box of sterilised needles and medical suture thread "I need you to come over here and bring what ever medical stuff you might have" Calleigh said hurriedly.
"What's the matter baby?" Alexx's voice hardened with concern.
"I cant explain it, I don't even know enough to be able too, just please, come over right now Alexx, you know I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important" Calleigh noticed that her hand was shaking.
"Sure baby, I'll leave right now" Alexx promised.
Calleigh put her phone back on her belt and picked up the whole kit and a handful of fresh towels, carrying them back into the room. She set it down beside the bed then ran to the kitchen, grabbing her gun from where she had left it on the counter. With the gun in its holster she headed back to her room, back to Speedle.
He was laying on his left side, his right hand still pressed against the wound, but he seemed barely conscious.
"Tim?" Calleigh asked, her voice breaking again. She wasn't sure what she would do if he died, not now. She had already mourned him once, she couldn't do it again. "Tim, are you…" she reached out and touched his shoulder.
He stirred "I'm okay" he muttered groggily.
Calleigh let out a shaky breath and reached for the tea towel, moving Speed's hand away. She moved the blood soaked tea towel and raised Speedle's shirt and sweater. She picked up one of the towels she had brought in and used it to wipe at the wound. She noticed how Speedle's hip was jutting out against his skin "You been eating right?" She asked him, hoping to just keep him conscious until Alexx arrived.
"Nope" Speedle told her, his teeth gritted.
"You hurt anywhere else?" She asked.
"Yeah, I got the shit kicked out of me, but this is the bad one" Speedle opened his dark brown eyes, watching Calleighs hands.
Calleigh halted wiping at the wound and looked at him. "Tim…you where dead" she stated.
"Stories of my death have been greatly exaggerated" he joked.
"What about your dead body lying on the floor of a crime scene, Alexx performing an autopsy on you…you know she couldn't do it, she couldn't…cut you"? Calleigh decided that she was going need a lot of therapy after this.
"Yeah, we kind of…we counted on that" Speedle finally admitted some thing.
"What!" Calleigh snapped.
"I thinks its pretty obvious I didn't die Cal, there was a lot of…a lot of faking" Speedle told her.
"Well frigging duh!" she shot him a dirty look.
"It was…" his voice was fading again "It was for a good cause" he murmured.
"Tim, stay with me, stay awake sweetie" Calleigh panicked slightly as he seemed to lose consciousness.
He stirred just enough but he seemed to be beyond speaking. "You wanna know what you missed?" she asked him.
"Sure" he mumbled.
"Well, the guy who replaced you after you…after you left, Ryan, he's kinda cool but Delko doesn't like him at all, I think he's sweet though, really young and enthusiastic. He's not you though, not at all, and its screamingly obvious" she said conversationally "Oh and as it turns out, Raymond Caine was never actually dead, he faked his death and was under really deep cover…"She trailed off.
"I know about Ray" Speedle told her.
"Oh, well do you know about Hagen? He put a gun to my head at a crime scene but I didn't know it was him until I heard him cock that same gun in the ballistics lab and then shoot himself in the head right in front of me. Yeah, that was a shit day Tim and in honesty, it would have been easier to deal with if you had been there but you wheren't. Lets see what else has gone wrong since you left…Delko, is on a downward spiral, because he cant deal with what happened to you but I bet you never thought of what would happen to us did you!" her voice was high, almost hysterical and she was pressing on his wound to the point where he was making pained noises.
"Sorry" she snapped.
"No problem" Speedle grimaced.
Calleigh pressed the towel to the wound, wishing it would stop bleeding. Speedle was growing visibly paler as she watched. Once again he seemed to be dropping off and as Calleigh moved to shake his arm, her doorbell rang.
Speedle stirred "Who is that?" he asked, his voice faint but cautious. "Don't answer it" he warned her.
"It's fine, wait here" she soothed him as he tried to raise his gun.
"Calleigh don't let anybody in, please, its not safe" his voice faded again and his eyes fluttered closed.
Calleigh un-holstered her own weapon and made her way to the door, stepping to the side in case any one through the door.
"Calleigh its me" Alexx called through the door "One of your neighbours let me in"
Calleigh peeked out through the spyhole and let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding at the sight of Alexx Woods standing in the corridor, holding an old fashioned doctors case.
Calleigh let her in and dead bolted the door locked the door behind her.
"You better have a good explanation Calleigh, I almost killed myself getting here so fast" Alexx stated.
She spotted the blood on Calleigh's hands and shirt and immediately grew concerned "What happened, are you hurt?" she asked, grabbing Calleigh's arm and pulling her gently but firmly into the lit kitchen.
"Its not me" Calleigh said at the same time that Alexx saw the pool of blood on the floor by the fridge.
"Whats goin on baby" Alexx turned to stare at Calleigh.
"Some body was in my kitchen when I got in tonight" Calleigh told her.
"Honey if you hurt somebody you should call Horatio" Alexx, still checking Calleigh for injury.
"I didn't hurt anybody, they where hurt when I got here" Calleigh said "Look you're gonna want to sit down to hear this" she warned.
Alexx gave Calleigh a look but sat down on one of the high stools.
"When I got in…somebody was on the floor of my kitchen, he was bleeding, from a knife wound in his side…I moved him to my bedroom and I've been using towels to try and stem the bleeding ever since" Calleigh told her.
Alexx raised an eyebrow and looked at Calleigh as if to say 'carry on'.
"Alexx…it's Tim" Calleigh looked the beautiful ME in the eye.
"What about him?" Alexx frowned, unamused. She had been particularly close to Speedle.
"The man, in my bedroom, with a knife wound…its Tim" Calleigh told her.
Alexx stared at her, her mouth pursing slowly. She stood, picking up her case and marching past Calleigh toward the bedroom.
Calleigh followed her, halting behind her as Alexx stopped dead in her tracks. Alexx looked over her shoulder at Calleigh, as if seeking confirmation of what she was seeing.
"Timmy?" she said softly and Calleigh thought her heart would break at the sadness in her friends voice.
Alexx walked into the room and Calleigh followed. "What happened to him?" Alexx asked, spotting the wound and all but running to Speedle's side.
"He wont tell me and he wouldn't let me take him to a hospital. He doesn't even know I called you" Calleigh confessed.
"Well sugar you know I sort of specialise in the deceased" Alexx reminded her.
"Well then I guess its okay because technically, he is dead" Calleigh pointed out. "Besides, you sew up cadavers all the time…it's the same principal"
Alexx gave her a half smile and turned back to Speedle. "Timmy?" She said again, stroking the side of his face gently "Timmy baby its Alexx, can you open your eyes for me?" she cooed.
Speedle stirred but didn't wake and Alexx moved instead to the wound, moving the towel aside. She hissed between her teeth but looked up at Calleigh "Alright, I'll start cleanin him up, I'll sew this but I want you to call Horatio, get him over here right now" Alexx demanded.
"We don't know for sure what's happening here Alexx, I don't know who else I should bring in" Calleigh told her.
"I think of any body, we can bring Horatio in sweetie. Call him"
MIAMI MIAMI MIAMI
Half an hour later Alexx had finished stitching the knife wound and was sitting on the bed, running her hands over Speedles body to check for any other serious injury.
She made notes every time she found a new injury, most of which seemed to be broken ribs or bruises. "Some body wanted to hurt you didn't they baby" she spoke to Speedle even though he was still unconscious, her habit of speaking to those who couldn't respond apparently applying to the unconscious as well as to the dead.
"He's in here" Calleighs voice sounded and Alexx looked up as Horatio Caine walked into the room and looked at Speedle, his face oddly blank.
"You don't seem surprised to see him" Alexx commented.
"Well I knew he was under…I didn't expect to see him quite so soon though" Caine put his hands on his hips, his signature and default stance.
Alexx looked at him, back at Speedle, then at Caine again. "How deep was he going?" she asked, her voice barely concealing her anger.
"Deep enough to warrant faking his death" Caine couldn't look at her. Normally he avoided looking at people because the people where suspects and he was looking around to spot evidence. But this was pure shame, pure guilt.
"So you watched us all suffer through that, knowing he was alive? What about Delko! What about Timmy's parents?" Alexx rose from her seat on the bed.
Caine stared at a spot on the floor "It was necessary" he said quietly.
Speedle opened his eyes and saw Alexx. "Hi" he said, smiling slightly.
Alexx's face softened and she sat right back down, her lower lip quivering as she looked at him "Hi Timmy" she smiled, tears flowing down her cheeks "I missed you" she told him.
"I'm sorry" Speedle told her "Calleigh you too, I'm sorry" he looked over at her, his voice faint but still full of emotion.
"Baby, who hurt you?" Alexx asked him maternally, still smiling, reaching out to sweep a black curl off his forehead.
"I cant tell you Alexx" he whispered.
"You need to rest, let your body start to heal…we'll leave you to sleep" Alexx smiled down at him "But we wont be far away, I'm gonna need to keep you close, if I can see you I can believe this aint a dream" Alex told him.
She stood and gathered her bag together, walking out of the room and pulling Caine with her. She all but dragged him toward the kitchen and Calleigh stood in her door way for a minute. "You really are here?" she asked.
"Yes" Speedle told her.
"Good" she whispered, pulling the door closed and following the others to the kitchen.
"How long did you know?" Alexx was asking.
"Only since Ray came back" Horatio told her " WhenI found out Ray wasnt dead even after it seemed like he couldnt poaaibly have lived, I just had to ask,I had to know.The scene at the jewellery store last year was set up, totally set up. Don't ask me the logistics of it, the people who do this are experts at faking these kids of thing. I mean shit, I watched him die, or thought I did, but…it was it was all set up. That wasn't Speedle you saw in the morgue, it wasn't Speedle in the coffin…" Caine filled them in as Calleigh began to make coffee.
"His parents sat and wept for their only son Horatio" Alexx reminded him.
"Don't you think I know that?" Caine looked at her for the first time "When I was told, I wanted to call his parents there and then, I wanted to tell all of you…but he is deeply involved in a federal case…its something to do with the year he was AWOL, before he came to Miami. From what little I was told, when he was drifting around in that year he met some people, bad people. In the time since he left their company they have become bad people who are a threat to public safety, maybe even national security. Speedle was one of the only people they ever let join their company and it was recently discovered that they didn't know he's a cop" Caine explained "He was sent back"
They sat in silence for at least twenty minutes, each trying to think of something appropriate to say.
"Why?" Calleigh asked "Why did he do it?" She took out a mop and bucket and began to fill the bucket with water and cleaning fluid.
"That's not…not clear to me yet. From what happened with Ray, I would say its possible that they had something on him, something they could hold over him" Caine stood and went to help Calleigh, pouring the coffees while she began to mop at the blood pool.
"If he's here now, something went wrong…are you gonna tell the feds?" Alexx asked.
"Hell no" Caine stated "They told me there was a system in place so that he had people to go to if something went wrong…if he's here then that system has been disrupted and it means something serious has gone wrong, and that there may be people hurt out there" Caine explained.
Even as he spoke, his beeper sounded and he jumped. Alexx and Calleigh both stared at their superior, never having seen him nervous before. Horatio looked at the read out "DB at the Shady Palms Motel" he told them "I don't know for sure but I'm willing to bet this isn't a coincidence" he raised his eyebrows at the women.
"Look, Calleigh you stay here with him, I'm gonna see what I can find out- I'll file the paper work so you can stay off've work until this gets straight-Alexx you should come into work as normal, but don't even suggest to anyone that anything is different" Horatio explained "Lets not bring anyone else into this until we have a better idea of what's going on" the red haired CSI told them.
Calleigh saw them both out and headed back to the bedroom. Speedle was awake again, and was staring at the ceiling.
"I remember you saying once that pink was your favourite colour. I really thought you where kidding" he told her.
Calleigh walked over to the double bed and climbed up beside Speedle. She kicked off her shoes and curled her feet up under her butt, looking down at Speedle. He looked back at her. "I wasn't" she stated.
"Tim why did you do it?" She asked.
"I don't want to talk about that just yet Cal, please?" Speedle gave her puppy eyes.
Calleigh sighed and nodded. "So…god I still cant believe it-you're here" she whispered.
Speedle gave a half smile "You wont be so happy if everything hits the fan the way I think it's going to" he told her "I shouldn't have come here, I wasn't thinking clearly. I've put you all in danger" he shook his head, clearly firustrated with himself but too weak to physically express it.
Calleigh couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face.
"What?" Speedle frowned at her.
Calleigh moved so that she was laying down and looking Speedle in the eye "I just want to say that I don't mind being in danger if after wards you are going to be back with us where you belong" she told him.
Speedle stared at her for a beat then broke into a goofy smile. "Aw Cal….you're makin me blush" he joked, but his eyes where sincere.
Calleigh smiled again and reached over, running a hand through his hair.
"This is terrible" she tugged on a curl "Your hair is a mess" she stated.
"Uh, yeah, so?" Speedle asked.
"So I cant have that nasty hair on my pillow" Calleigh shrugged "Look I have my kit with me, and I have some of your clothes, let me process you, then you can take a shower, sort this icky mess out, and I'll make you some dinner, southern cookin, how's that sound?" she suggested.
Speedle stared at her again then nodded slowly "Fine. Fine, but tell me why you have some of my clothes?" he asked her.
Calleigh hesitated "Look don't make a big thing of it but…after you…after the shooting, your parents where here and they where packing up all your belongings, in your apartment, in you locker…I realised that once they where done they where gonna go back to New York and after that, apart from photo's, I would lose every trace I had of you…you had about a weeks worth of clothes in your locker, as usual, so I…sort of…took some. Just a t shirt and a pair of jeans. I don't know what I thought I was gonna do with em, I just keep em folded in a drawer. But they're yours" she was looking at her nails, avoiding eye contact with Speedle.
"That's sweet. A little creepy, but sweet" he told her.
"And I still have those boots and socks you left here a few weeks before the shooting happened, I meant to give them back but…remember, it was when you came off your bike and your ankle swelled up. How did you make it here again?" she frowned at him.
"Slowly" Speedle grinned at her.
"So I'll be back in a second" Calleigh ran out to her car and retrieved her kit. Speedle had pulled himself to a sitting position on the edge of the bed as Calleigh walked around and laid a sheet pf paper in front of him. She worked quickly but carefully, scraping under his nails, combing out his hair using tweezers to pluck hairs from his clothes, swabbing the dirt from his face and hands. When she had gathered all the physical evidence she could get to she picked up her camera.
She helped Speedle to pull his sweater and T-shirt over his head carefully. He looked worse than she thought. He had always been in good shape and still was but he was now skinny enough to be called emaciated. His ribs where visible under his skin and his jeans where just barely hanging onto his hips.
His chest, body and back where covered in bruises that where a testament to the beating he had taken. More than a few of the welts where clear boot prints and Calleigh took photo's of these from various angles. The knife wound looked awful against his pale skin, and Calleigh had to pause more than once in her photographing to compose herself. "How did this happen? Was it the people you where trying to get?" She asked.
"No" Speedle reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a crushed pack of cigarettes and a lighter "Well yes…it was one of them…he doesn't trust me and he might have figured out who I was, I don't know yet" Speedle shook his head as Calleigh made him sit down and began to un tie his shoe laces, helping him out of his boots.
He lit a cigarette, taking a long drag. "Since when do you smoke!" Calleigh stared up at him.
Speedle answered her with the cigarette clutched between his teeth "Actually since I was seventeen, but I quit when I met Megan…I didn't even realise I had started again" he shrugged.
"Will you put it out?" Calleigh asked.
"Um…no" Speedle gave her that look she that had always driven her nuts, the one where he would squint in a way that just said 'life's tough'.
He held the cigarette between his fore and middle finger, but the way he moved his hand, tapped ash into the palm of his other hand was totally natural, he clearly wasn't having to think about his actions. Calleigh frowned "It's weird, that should look weird but it doesn't…Tim smokes, it fits" she told him.
Speedle frowned but he smiled and took another drag "I know it's a nasty habit but this last year…I like to think I've earned it" he snickered.
"Well it's the last one you're smoking in here" Calleigh stated "Now go take a shower, I'll leave your stuff outside the door. Yell if you need me at all, if not, I'll be in the kitchen" she told him "There's some men's toiletries and general spare stuff, soap, toothbrush, the usual in the cupboard near the window, including that cologne you always wore…wear. I took that out of your locker too"
He nodded and stood, shuffling to the bathroom.
An hour later when he shuffled barefoot into the kitchen, holding his shirt in one hand, Calleigh had made enough food to feed a small army. "Cal, I'm not ever gonna be that hungry" he told her, staring at the laden table.
She turned and regarded him, examining him almost. Cleaned up, he didn't look great but he looked better. The bruises had risen even more and where a deep ugly purple but the skin around them, and the knife wound, where clean now. There was a more natural, healthy pallor to Speedle's skin, and he even seemed slightly more relaxed. His hair was damp and tangled, but clean, and as always, he had a five o'clock shadow adorning the lower half of his face. "Much better" Calleigh smiled.
She walked toward him and helped him with his shirt, grinning widely as she realised that even after a year the shirt still held the scent of motor oil, and Speedle was wearing his old cologne. She breathed in the smell and savoured the fact that Speedle was standing in front of her, he wasn't buried in a coffin up at the graveyard.
"Whats the matter?" Speedle asked her from inches away.
"I still can't believe that you're here, that you're okay" she admitted.
She looked into his eyes and smiled, genuinely happy for the first time in a long while.
Speedle smiled back and pulled her into a watered down version of his usual bear hug. She returned it, laying her head against his chest and listening to his heart beat, telling her self that it was Speedle's heart beat and smiling.
"Damn your bones are hurtin me, lets get you fed" She pulled away from the hug, grabbing his hand and leading him over to the table.
She sat him down and put an empty plate in front of him then proceeded to load his plate with a sample of everything she had cooked, which was mainly meat. Chicken in spicy sauces, barbecue ribs, rice, fries, onion rings, a frozen pizza she had found in the back of her freezer, baked potatoes and a couple of steaks where some of the samples on offer.
"Wow Calleigh" Speedle eyed the food even as Calleigh took a box of cookies out of the cupboard and set those down too.
"Shut up" she grinned.
"How do you stay so teeny?" he asked " I mean no offence but damn" he reached for an onion ring and nibbled at it unenthusiastically.
"Tim, you insult my cookin like that. You insult my cookin, you insult my woman hood!" She raised an eye brow at him.
"That's insulting" Speedle told her, reaching for the cigarette box he had laid on the table.
Calleigh leaned forward and slid the box away from his hand smoothly and grinned "Not if I'm a woman" she stated.
Speedle smiled, then coughed all of a sudden, a dry, painful sounding cough that wracked his whole body. He grimaced as the motions caused by coughing caused him ever more pain but fought to hide it, Calleigh could see, his face, his eyes brimming with tears of pain.
"Fuuuuuuck" he growled, long and low, gripping the edge of the table "Son of a bitch mother fucker ass cock shit FUCK" He let the curse words spew out of his month to vent through his pain.
Calleigh was kneeling at his side, holding a glass of water, rubbing his back, talking him through it. Eventually, the coughs subsided and Speed took deep breaths, reaching for the water with a shaking hand. Calleigh helped him to take small sips.
"Tim, please go to a hospital, we can tell the doctors they have to be discreet" Calleigh begged.
"No, they'll be watching the hospitals" Speedle gasped raggedly.
"Who! And they cant possibly watching all the hospitals in Miami Tim!" Calleigh snapped.
"No, not all of them, but some of them and I don't know which ones so I'm not gonna chance it Calleigh!" Speed told her.
She glared at him, pursing her lips, then shook her head. "Fine. But damn it you better eat, or I'm gonna kick your ass my self" she spun away from him, crossing her arms over her chest.
Speedle stared at her back, then 'ahemed' as he reached for a slice of pizza. She spared him a glance as he began to eat the slice slowly, finally cracking a smile when he struggled with the melted cheese.
She handed him a paper towel and sat down opposite him, loading her own plate with chicken pieces and onion rings.
They ate in near silence for a while "Well…." Calleigh said, her voice barely holding in a giggle "This is nice" she smiled.
There was a knock at the door and they jumped in unison, Calleigh reaching for the gun she had laid on the counter beside her plate, Speed wincing and reaching for the gun he had concealed under his shirt, tucked into the waist band of his jeans.
"Calleigh" he said, his voice low, carrying a warning.
"I know" she whispered back, a tone in her voice almost calling him silly.
She stepped to the side of the door, out if the line of sight, hearing a rustle behind her as Speedle slid off his stool and, she glanced back to confirm it, moved into a position to take out anyone who might try to come through the door. Calleigh noticed that Speedle settled into a pretty secure looking shooting stance, admittedly a little shaky given his injuries but he looked relaxed. Speedle had never been a bad shooter, just a reluctant one but now he looked more than ready to shoot to kill. He had a determined, steely look in his eyes as he sighted down the muzzle of the gun, fjerking his head slightly to flick a curl out of his eyes, and Calleigh found herself frowning, wondering if Speedle had ever really been a reluctant gun man, or if he had been acting. She was already beginning to wonder if any of what she thought she knew about him was true.
The knock came again, more urgently this time, and Calleigh leaned across, slowly and steadily, making almost no sound, peering out of the spy hole.
Horatio was standing there, his won gun drawn, his eyes filling with anger and fear. He raised his hand to knock again, opening his mouth as if to yell and Calleigh hissed "Horatio, it's okay, we're here"
Horatio's hand dropped and the fear drained out of his face like water from a broken damn. Calleigh opened the door and Horatio stepped in, holstering his gun.
He looked at Speedle "Much better" he said with a tight grin, "you can put your gun down" he raised his eyebrows at the weapon Speedle still held.
Speedle cracked a brief, ghost of a smile and lowered the gun. "The scenes?" he asked.
"Fed bodies on the ground" Horatio confirmed "Some one tried to make it look like a home invasion –I'm guessing the agents where operating out of a house on Palmview, rented under an alias" he looked questioningly at Speedle who nodded.
"Yeah, it was easier than me havin to go into an office building, I would 'visit my house bound aunt', the guys I was dealing with would leave it alone, they're uh, they're really family oriented. It'd weird" he shrugged "Wait…shit, Halloran and Keane, they would have been on tonight…how?" he asked quietly.
"They uh, they where stabbed…Halloran, he bled out, Keane made it to the hospital but they called it after half an hour…I'm sorry" Horatio told him, putting his hands on his hips and taking up his customary stance.
"Halloran had kids, twin baby girls…you have to make sure they're okay…I know what I just said about there guys, that they're all about family but…you still need to be sure" Speedle spoke faster than he ever had before, his usual lethargy replaced with genuine panic.
"Speedle, it's alright, the feds are all over this, they've moved the families to a safe location, round the clock guard, the works, you don't need to worry about that but I did manage to talk to Mcarthy" Horatio gave the name weight and Speedle gave the tiniest nod of his head to indicate that he knew what that meant.
"Mcarthy thinks that since your cover is blown…we should bring you out. You're coming back to the lab Speedle, this isn't over, its just getting started and you need to be somewhere safe. I think we can all agree that the only place secure, and familiar enough is the lab" Horatio, softly spoken as ever raised a questioning eye brow.
"Alright. The lab it is" Speedle stuck the gun back into the jeans waistband, nodding his head slowly.
He suddenly looked much younger than he was and Calleigh found herself dreading the next few days. She felt something bad was coming, something serious. She looked over at Speedle, taking in how different he looked. His hair framed his eyes, it was that long. His eyes in turn where darker, the surrounding socket a bruised reddish colour, the way people looked after loosing a lot of blood.. His cheekbones, which she had always known where high and defined, where pressing through the skin now, hollowing his cheeks making him look gaunt. He still looked pale but after his shower it was closer to his natural, Irish colouring than the sickly greyish whit he had been when she first saw him. He stood hunched slightly in pain. Speedle had always worn shirts that where too big, his height combined with narrow shoulders and a lanky frame making it difficult for him to find an ideal fit, but now, even though the t shirt almost billowed around his skinny frame, it some how emphasised how much thinner he was, without making him look weak. Calleigh had noted, as Alexx worked on Speedle earlier that Speedle was still in good shape, half his own body weight maybe but toned with it. His arms beneath the short sleeves of the t shirt where corded with wiry muscle and he seemed to hum with that energy that comes from being in good shape. Calleigh met his eyes and saw beyond any doubt that Speedle was a changed man, that he had seen things that would haunt him forever. He was a shadow of himself and it was not his fault and the sight of him so broken enraged Calleigh. All of a sudden her bad year seemed petty and all Calleigh wanted to do was get to the lab and start processing the evidence to find out who was responsible. She stalked back into the kitchen and retrieved her kit which held the evidence she had collected from Speedle earlier. Horatio helped her with some of the bags, then directed them to where his car was parked just outside the door.
"Keep your heads down, get straight in the hummer, get as low as you can on the seats" Horatio told the, firmly as they made their way swiftly to the huge vehicle.
Calleigh and Speedle climbed in back while Horatio got behind the wheel, keying the ignition and pulling out before any body who may have wanted to try some thing could have even though about it.
Hunched uncomfortably low in the back seat, Calleigh looked once again into Speedle's eyes, noticing for the first time how long his lashes where. "Hey Tim?" she asked.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"Welcome back"