Grissom checked his watch as he stepped into his office. It was the end of a long shift. He wanted to try Horatio again and, seeing the time, he hoped he might catch Horatio before he went to work. It rung three times before the deep voice told Grissom it was in fact Horatio he had reached but that he needed to leave a message. Closing his phone and letting his hand drop to his side, Grissom raised his eyes to the ceiling before closing them tightly and moving his head in a circle, trying to unkink tight muscles.
He had to quickly step aside as a knock came on his door before it opened. He found himself facing Sara, her face pre-arranged to smile. He knew that was fake however and he frowned at her.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked.
Grissom tilted his head and raised his eyebrow, "of course."
He seemed distracted but then again, that was exactly what she had come to talk to him about. Grissom sat behind his desk and pulled his chair close to it so he could rest his elbows on it's surface. He laced his fingers and looked at Sara over them. She sat across from him, feeling uncomfortable under that gaze. His eyes on her always sent a shiver down her spine nowadays but not when he had that look in them: Focused and yet far away.
She swallowed before starting. "I...just wanted to see how you were doing." She rallied and turned his inscrutable look back on him.
This threw Grissom somewhat and his face softened, "uh...yeah, I'm fine Sara." He said dismissively.
"Really," she raised an eyebrow at him. Grissom didn't respond and a silence hung in the air before she continued. "You just...seem preoccupied lately." Trying to make the words sound concerned yet casual was killing her. She thought their relationship was deepening, that they were moving forwards but in the weeks following the Renfrew case it had all come to a standstill.
Pursing his lips and looking at his desk, Grissom let out a sigh. "Sara, I-"
Yet another knock came on his door and both CSI's looked up. Sandy from the mail room peeked her head in and beamed the bright smile of someone just coming on shift. "Delivery," she said perkily. She practically floated over to Grissom's desk and placed a square parcel wrapped in brown paper on it. It was about 10 inches square and drew both Grissom and Sara's attention.
"Thank you Sandy," Grissom said distractedly as he picked up the box carefully, noting it's 'fragile' label.
Sara watched Sandy exit the room before returning her eyes to Grissom. Sadly, she noticed his focus was taken up with the box.
She stood, pushing the chair back. Grissom looked up at her as though being awakened from an inappropriate day dream. At least he looked guilty, she thought.
"We can talk about this next shift, it's been a long one, hey?" She looked away from him quickly. She wasn't crying but she certainly didn't feel strong.
"Sara-" Grissom called after her.
"Next shift, okay?" She gave him that fake smile then disappeared through the door, closing it behind her.
Grissom sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, lifting his glasses to do so. He was feeling guilty. Sara felt something was happening between them and maybe he had too. But that was before. That was before...
He replaced his glasses and frowned at the package. Searching out the postmark, he found 'Florida' under the wavy post office stamp. Slowly, his mouth twisted into a grin that reached his eyes. Taking his pocket knife out, he carefully cut the paper wrapping off to expose a clear plastic container with a clear, red plastic lid. The spider inside took his breath away and his eyes widened in wonder as he delicately turned the container about in his hands.
She was a Golden Silk Orb-Weaver, striped in a stunning hue of yellow and black with five glorious inches of leg span. When he was done, initially at least, marvelling at her Grissom searched through the paper but found no card, no note. This made him sit back and frown, a sinking feeling in his chest.
It had been weeks since he had heard from Horatio, not since a brief phone call after his plane had touched down in Miami after the Renfrew case. Trying to be casual about it, Grissom had waited a week before phoning but left no message when he got Horatio's answering machine. Another week and the same thing happened. He had meant to leave a message this last time but suddenly, listening to Horatio's voice recording, didn't know quite what to say. He was beginning to wonder if he had dreamed the whole affair because it was only in his dreams he had seen Horatio recently. And the dreams came often, vivid and excruciating to rouse from in the mornings.
He was looking forlornly at the spider on his desk when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He didn't check the call display before he flipped it open. "Grissom." The distraction in his voice was palpable.
It gave Horatio pause before saying, "Gil."
Grissom was glad he had been sitting when he felt his own name caress his ear, spoken with that tone that set him thrashing in his sleep. It felt as though his entire abdomen had turned to icy liquid.
Some time passing after he first spoke, Horatio smiled and decided to continue. "Did you receive a package today?" Still garnering no response, he carried on. "I hope she got to you safely. She'll need to eat soon, of course-"
"I've got some crickets here for my 'roaches," was all Grissom managed. He swallowed. He wanted to tell Horatio how it made him feel to hear the other man's voice but found he couldn't.
"Have I caught you at a bad time?" Horatio asked when the silence persisted. He was used to being the quieter one.
"No," Grissom said, "I've just...been trying to...to reach you the last little while and I wasn't sure...what you were...if you were..." Grissom screwed up his face in frustration at his inability to form a coherent sentence. Horatio could do this to him and he disliked it, especially now when it left him feeling vulnerable after so much time apart and so little contact.
Horatio exhaled. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "That's my fault and I...I meant to call you and I meant to," he breathed a small laugh at his own discomfort, "meant to call you back but every time I thought about it, it was so late where you are."
Grissom swallowed and held the phone closer. He sensed that Horatio was upset. He also heard in his voice the tenderness that, moments ago, he had been wondering if he had dreamed.
"It's Kyle." Came the rough voice after a moment.
"Is he okay?" Grissom asked quickly, his frown deepening to outright concern.
"Yeah, he's-" Horatio stopped short as Grissom caught uncharacteristic emotion in his tone, like his voice had been about to crack with grief.
Horatio moved the receiver away from his mouth as he cleared his throat in an attempt to quell his distress. After neglecting to call Grissom for two and a half weeks, he certainly hadn't meant to offload all of his problems on him on their first call.
Both men were thinking the same thing in the silence that hung between them.
'I miss you'
But neither said it. Eventually Horatio spoke, his tone composed again.
"Let me um, let me talk about that with you later, okay?"
Grissom nodded before remembering that this was a phone and responding, "okay."
"Where did you get her?" He asked, because he truly was curious and because he desperately wanted to move to steadier ground in their conversation.
"She was evidence in a murder investigation." Horatio said with some relief.
"A murder investigation?" Grissom peered into the container again.
"Yeah, this guy who runs an," Horatio shook his head, not quite sure what to call it, "exotic animal menagerie for photo shoots and movies had her. She was in this pathetically small container."
"So you rescued her?" Grissom's grin returned as the spider moved across the container on gentle footsteps.
Horatio smiled on the other end. "I figured if anyone would know how to treat a lady of her calibre, it would be you Doctor Grissom. You are, after all, 'The Bug Guy.'" Horatio's tone turned serious. "She needs a lot of space to build her web."
"I'm the bug guy, I know that," Grissom quipped. "I've got a 40 gallon terrarium somewhere I can dig out for her."
The silence that followed this was more comfortable, both men thinking of each other.
"Horatio?" Grissom enjoyed his name on many levels.
"Mmm?"
"Thank you."
"I'm...I'm not in the habit of sending gifts to my lovers after I've neglected them." It was a promise of sorts.
"Good," Grissom replied. "What's going on with Kyle?"
The story of Julia's dramatic return and the events surrounding it were taken in and carefully thought over by Grissom. When the story was finished, he knew exactly what it was that was bothering Horatio. "I'm sorry he didn't choose to live with you but...he's 16 Horatio. You know you have a long time to get to know him."
"That's true," Horatio replied. He rarely thought in terms of 'tomorrow' and appreciated this about Grissom. Their minds worked differently.
"Is there anything on your mind?" Horatio said after a moment.
Grissom shook his head to himself, thinking of just how many things there were that he'd like to speak with Horatio about. Smiling, he remembered how matter of fact Horatio was, how he would cut to the chase and shrug off unnecessary details. "I feel I have so much to talk to you about, I don't know where to begin."
Horatio leaned back in the high backed office chair in front of his desk, "why don't you start with what's bothering you and move on to the good stuff from there. That way...that way we can end the conversation on a good note."
Grissom chuckled. "You've got an answer for everything, don't you?"
"For you? For you...I would like to." Horatio rumbled softly.
Grissom smiled at that, then let it fade as he thought about the moments before their phone call.
"You remember Sara?" He began.
The business with Kyle relatively settled, their phone calls become more common place, Horatio making just as much of an effort to initiate them as Grissom did. Topics ranged from family and childhood to cases, new forensic techniques and journal articles one or the other had found interesting. More often than not, they filled the time that stretched in the line between them with talk of little things. A lot of talk, and sometimes playful arguments, were had with regard to baseball and basketball. Scores, trades, stats and averages. It was something they connected over that had nothing to do with work.
The words 'I love you' had not been spoken yet but they seemed just around the corner.
As Grissom had thought it would, his conversation with Sara got put off by both of them, sometimes for legitimate reasons, sometimes not. Uncharacteristically he decided, finally, to make the first move. When he invited her to coffee mid-shift, he tried to make it as clear as possible that this was just to talk. She readily accepted, her heart starting to race. She knew that with Gil Grissom, that tone and look could prelude something good just as easily as it could mean something bad.
Grissom sat stirring his coffee, looking into the creamy swirls and trying to decide how he was going to do this. In conversing with Horatio over the last few months, he had the opportunity to mull over various options and scenarios. At first, Horatio had seemed somewhat quiet with regards to Sara, perhaps sensing in her legitimate competition. But as they talked about it more it became clear that Grissom had put his foot into it a little and was looking for as clean a way as possible to extract it.
Horatio had told him to consider what he did want from Sara and be direct. He seemed to be able to do that where the Lieutenant was concerned. Grissom looked up from his coffee and had the sudden realization that maybe he had been forthright with Horatio because his subconscious knew how vital it was. Maybe he knew on some level that not taking a chance on Horatio that night would impact the rest of his life and not for the better.
Grissom cleared his throat, trying to clear his mind. Sara looked at him steadily. Smiling genuinely at her, he realized how much better she had been doing lately. After almost loosing everything when she was caught driving with just shy of an illegal limit of alcohol in her system, she had bounced back. Grissom had done his best to offer her whatever support she needed and they had shared moments and information that were deeply intimate. But he knew now that what he wanted from her was her friendship more than anything. Now, he just needed to tell her that.
"Sara, I wanted to let you know how much of a change I've noticed in you. Your emotions are more level and your work has improved significantly over the past months."
She smiled at him, even though this wasn't quite where she'd hoped this conversation would go, a compliment from Grissom about work was still a compliment.
"And let me say that your work was pretty fine before that." Added Grissom.
"I know what you're talking about Grissom and...I appreciate it, I do." She ended softly.
Grissom worked his jaw muscles and inhaled deeply. "What I wanted to tell you...before I told anyone else was that there has been a development in my life." The words weren't perfect but he charged on, ripping off the bandage.
Sara looked at him with undisguised curiosity.
"You let me in to a part of you life that you have never shared with anyone before and I have felt closer to you in the last few months than ever before." Grissom said earnestly.
"I've felt closer to you too," she said, her tone still quiet.
"So I wanted to tell you..." Grissom was shaking. He was nervous on many levels, so many he couldn't counter them all with rational thinking.
Sara put her hand on his arm. "Is everything okay?"
Letting out a nervous chuckle, he said, "Yeah, everything is great."
Sara felt the tremors through his jacket and looked at him directly. "Grissom, tell me."
"I've been seeing someone." It tumbled out of him.
Sara raised her eyebrows in shock but did not remove her hand. "After the Renfrew case, right?" she said after a moment.
Grissom looked at her and she saw that the grey of his eyes was the lightest she had ever seen it. She read in his face his desire to not harm her even though they both knew what those words would do to her. Feeling him shake, seeing the uncertainty in his face, Sara knew most of it was showing because he cared about her.
"You don't...you don't owe me anything Grissom." She said, frowning in an effort to quell the sadness that was washing over her.
"That's not true. If I want your friendship, it must be earned and I have been neglecting that, Sara. I've been neglecting you." He reached a hand up to her face and brushed a single tear away with his thumb.
Sara hiccuped and Grissom retrieved a handkerchief from his jacket, offering it to her. She smiled her thanks and dried her eyes.
"I'm not done." Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried desperately to compose himself for the delivery of the rest.
Sara looked at him, unsure what else there could be.
"The person I've been seeing...it's Horatio Caine."
Sara went from sad to stunned in a second, eyes wide in disbelief. "Th...the head of the Miami crime lab?" Memories of the mostly silent Lieutenant Caine came back to her. They hadn't really had the chance to talk, both being so wrapped up in the case.
Realization dawned on her. "That's why you took time off after the Renfew case. I thought..." she raised an eyebrow to herself, "I thought you were burnt out."
"Well, I was," Grissom admitted. "That just wasn't the whole reason."
Silence descended upon their small table as both sipped their coffee.
Casting an affectionate look at Grissom tinted just a little with upset, she said, "I've never seen you so happy." Grissom looked at her over his glasses. "The last few months, you look five years younger."
Grissom smiled briefly. "I've, uh, been taking boxing lessons at the gym."
This caused Sara to grin. "Really? Why?" She wasn't a fan of the violent sport but knew that Grissom had a certain grim fascination with it.
"To get into shape, I'm not sparring, just getting some cardio." Grissom's jitters were subsiding. This was it, this was what he wanted from her, to share things and keep their undeniably strong bond alive.
Sara raised an eyebrow at him. "You're getting into shape for him, for Horatio." Her smile faded as she said his name and silence returned. She finished her coffee, set the mug down and quickly turned to grab her jacket off the back of the chair. "Thanks for Coffee Griss, let's get back, shall we?"
Somewhat stunned by her speed, Grissom drained his mug and pushed back his chair. Before they were about to part ways to go to different sides of the Denali, Sara turned and stopped Grissom with her hand on his. She levelled her gaze at him for a minute.
"If I don't bounce back right away from this, I don't want you to worry. I just...need some time."
Grissom was hit with such a deep sense of caring for her as she spoke that he felt the sting of tears himself. "Don't stop talking to me." He managed to get out.
Sara wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek softly. She started to cry again, knowing this was as close to him as she would likely ever get. When she could trust her voice, she whispered, "I'm happy for you."
Grissom put his arms around her and squeezed tightly, a hint of moisture in the laugh lines around his tightly shut eyes. They stood hugging for some time in the circle of light cast by a street lamp, saying nothing.
Upon return to his office, Grissom absent-mindedly opened his e-mail as he prepared to leave. When he glanced at it, coat slung over his arm, he noticed an interesting subject line and set his coat on the desk before sitting down to read it. There was going to be a series of entomology conferences held in Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Francisco. As he read on, Grissom became excited both at the names and topics involved but also at the prospect of having two good reasons to visit Miami. He grinned.
Grissom had been wondering when he might next be able to see Horatio but their discussions on the matter hadn't born any fruit. Yet.
Flipping open his phone, he pressed the button that automatically dialled Horatio's cell and pressed the phone to his ear. When he got the voice-mail, he hung up and scrolled through his list of contacts until the Miami Crime Lab's number came up and hit send.
"Miami Dade police department, how can I help you?"
"Hi, is Lieutenant Caine available?" Grissom asked, pulling up the conference dates. There was a longer than normal pause from the other end of the line. "Hello?"
"I'm sorry sir," the woman's voice seemed troubled and reluctant, "may I ask who I'm speaking with?"
"This is Gil Grissom from the Las Vegas crime lab." He answered automatically, figuring Horatio must be out on a case and that she needed to take a message.
"Mr. Grissom I'm sorry but we just received word that Lieutenant Caine was shot," the woman managed haltingly.
Grissom sat back from the laptop screen. He stopped breathing for a solid minute. "What's his condition?" He asked, keeping his voice as neutral as he could manage.
He could tell she was crying as she said, "he...he died, he's dead."
Some instinctual part of Grissom's brain must have told the woman he was sorry to hear and hung up the phone, not that he could remember later. All he could think of was 'he's dead' and how he was supposed to make this simple statement line up with his vision of Horatio, hands on hips and feet planted wide, smiling in the sunshine. This series of thoughts ran through his mind again and again, his body numb.
Catherine, walking by, saw him through the window and stopped short. She knew Grissom but she didn't know that look. "Gil?" She asked as she opened his door and looked at him.
He took several moments to notice her and when he did he just stared at her with that same vacant look.
Catherine moved quickly into the room and placed her hands on Grissom's shoulders so she could look at his face better. "Gil, what's wrong?"
Grissom opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, so he closed it again. He just looked at her and Catherine began to feel uneasy. She had never seen her friend and supervisor like this before. She pulled up a chair and sat opposite of him before holding the back of her hand to his forehead. Pushing up his sleeve, she felt for his pulse and looked at her watch.
"He's dead Catherine." Grissom whispered.
She looked up from her watch. "Who Gil?" She asked softly, patiently. Her mind ran through the list of names: Nick, Warrick, Jim, Greg, Dave, Doc Robbins. She had seen them all today.
"Horatio." The name came out in a pained whisper as Grissom put his head in his hands.
Catherine looked down at him in confusion. "Horatio...Caine? From Miami?"
It was the only Horatio that, to her knowledge, both of them knew. As Catherine figured this out she put a hand on Grissom's back and rubbed it. "He was a good criminalist, I'm really sorry to hear that." She was. She had liked Horatio a lot. He was passionate but controlled, two very appealing things in a man.
As she rubbed Grissom's back and received no response, Catherine began to wonder why he was so upset. They barely knew the man. "Grissom, are you okay?"
He hauled himself to his feet abruptly, "I've gotta go to Florida." Red eyed and shaky he looked down at Catherine. "Can you take care of the lab for a few days?"
"Gil-" Catherine was thoroughly perplexed. "What's going on?"
Grissom shook his head and looked away from her. "I can't, I can't, I can't."
Standing, Catherine caught him in a hug. "Okay, okay. Just breathe Gil."
"I need to go Catherine," he whispered into her shoulder.
"Okay, I'll take care of everything here." She didn't know what else to say. He was obviously in shock. She stroked the nape of his neck at his hairline, trying to calm him down.
He pushed away from her after a few minutes and tried to give her a level look. "I'll explain later. I just need to get to the airport."
All Catherine said was, "I'm driving you," and Grissom didn't argue. She waited with him at the gate and pressed a carry on with his toiletries and the change of clothes from his locker in it into his hands. Then she hugged him as his flight was announced.
"Call me," she whispered.
"I will."
Horatio stood up on the dock beside the now merely smoking wreckage. He smiled in the Miami sunlight that was just starting to loose it's intensity in the early evening. They hadn't found Ron Saris' Body but they had given him a run for his money if he had in fact managed to escape. No home, no money and every pair of police eyes in Miami looking for him.
Most importantly, Saris and Kyle would no longer share a roof and that was worth all the trauma of this very long day. He fingered the bruise left on his chest by the shot and thought of Grissom.
His phone rang and suddenly Stetler was in his ear, barking that Horatio needed to get back to the office immediately and tie up the loose ends on this case. Sighing as he climbed into the Hummer, Horatio wished he had checked the number before answering. He headed towards the lab anyway, promising himself that his reward would be a phone call to Grissom later, at home.
It was this reward that Horatio was thinking of as he stood in the lobby of CSI, speaking with Calleigh about some minor case details. She was the last person he needed to speak with before he could go. Still listening to Calleigh, he glanced up out of habit when the elevator doors opened and thought the stress must be getting to him.
Grissom stood in the elevator, hands in his pockets. He looked up a second after the doors opened and met Horatio's eyes.
Sufficiently certain that he wasn't hallucinating, Horatio broke out into a smile at Grissom and, saying 'excuse me' to Calleigh, took a step towards the elevator. He felt suddenly light as air, like a prayer had somehow been answered. Calleigh looked from Horatio to see who it was he was so clearly excited to see. She saw a very haggard looking Gil Grissom whom she knew to be the supervisor of the Las Vegas crime lab. She had attended a lecture of his at a forensics conference years ago.
Grissom's breathing became pained and halting and, his eyes filling with tears, he slammed a fist onto the button for the first floor. He looked away from Horatio as the doors shut.
The smile fell from Horatio's face upon seeing Grissom's look but he couldn't reach the elevator before the doors closed. His mind connected the dots in a split second and he ran for the stairs. Taking them two at a time, in a fashion that was still second nature from running up and down the stairs of tenement buildings in New York, he reached the ground floor as Grissom walked out of the front doors and collapsed on to a bench.
Grissom put his head in his hands and tried to steady himself. He felt like the victim of the cruellest joke. He had been wondering what he would do when he reached the lab, how he would react, what he would say. Running into Horatio just hadn't even entered his mind.
Horatio kneeled in front of Grissom and waited for the other man to look up. His eyes raced over Grissom's body, the hunched, destroyed look of it.
"Gil," he whispered urgently, taking Grissom's hand. Grissom gripped it fiercely but did not speak immediately.
When he did, his voice was hoarse and quiet. "They said you'd been shot. They said you were dead, Horatio."
Horatio dropped his head and closed his eyes. "Gil, I'm sorry...I...I didn't think you'd phone the lab. I didn't think you'd have to hear about this until after it was all finished."
Grissom slowly raised his head and looked at Horatio. His eyes were cold and dark as they narrowed at him. "You planned this?" He whispered in disbelief, barely audible.
"I needed to," his eyes looked pleadingly at Grissom, "There was no time-"
"No time to tell me?" Grissom said threateningly and as he said it, Horatio knew the magnitude of his mistake. Grissom stood and brushed past him.
"Let me make it real easy for you, Horatio." Grissom ripped open the door of his rental car, then looked over it, back at Horatio. "I'll give you all the time in the world to do whatever the hell it is you need to do." He sat in the drivers seat and slammed the door. A second later, his blue rental was just a spec in the distance.
Horatio stood and looked after the car until it disappeared, a stricken look on his face. His stomach felt like lead and he stood, watching the space where Grissom had been.
Calleigh watched Horatio slowly walk from the elevator. Taking careful, deliberate steps, he entered his office and sat in the chair behind his desk, turning away from the glass that looked out into the rest of the lab. She scribbled a last signature on a lab report and walked towards the office.
"Hey handsome," she said she poked her head inside, giving Horatio that southern bell smile. "Everything okay?"
Horatio looked over at her and she saw in him a look that took her back years, to the days and weeks following Speed's death. He had worn that same look, mostly when no one was watching, in that time. It spoke of a loss so deep and profound it would scar.
"Um," he began, looking away from her a moment, "I've just made...a very big mistake."
Calleigh turned and closed the door behind her before taking a seat in front of Horatio's desk and moving it closer to him. She knew that getting the full truth out of Horatio, if and when possible, required finesse. Normally she didn't pry, he was a very private man and, thinking of their fathers, she completely understood why. But she had coaxed it out of him after Speedle died and she thought she at least ought to try now.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on with Gil Grissom?" She thought it must have something to do with the Renfrew case. As far she knew, that was the only contact the two men had had. When he came back from Nevada, there was a change in him that only Calleigh seemed to notice even if she couldn't quite discern why.
Horatio didn't answer her right away and she was afraid he was going to stonewall her. He smiled a smile that had nothing to do with being pleased. Calleigh recognised it as his 'uncomfortable' smile which she did not often see. There was not a great deal on God's green earth that she knew of that could make Horatio Caine uncomfortable.
Still not looking at her as he spoke, knowing he desperately needed someone's advice and understanding that there was no one better suited than Calleigh, he spoke. "When I went to Vegas, Calleigh," he paused, formulating his sentence, "something happened between Grissom and I." He looked over at her briefly.
Her expression had not changed from friendly concern and he knew she wasn't comprehending the full meaning of his words.
"That makes sense," she said, "working on an emotionally charged case like the Renfew's often brings officers closer."
Horatio cleared his throat. "It certainly can Calleigh." He looked her in the eye. "In fact...I was beginning to think I'd never felt so close to anyone before."
Calleigh frowned as Horatio continued, slightly confused.
"We've spoken at least twice a week for the past four months and I..." He inhaled shakily. Forcing out these last words was excruciatingly difficult for him, she could tell. "...am falling...in love with him." Horatio gritted his teeth and put his face in his hand, elbow on the arm rest of his high backed office chair. He admitted to himself that he was afraid of Calleigh's expression and did not want to see it. His confidence in her ability to look past anything, of her place among the most caring people in his life was waning with his confidence in himself. Because as he spoke those words to her, he realized that what he had done could cost him his relationship with Grissom.
Calleigh sat stunned and didn't speak for a moment. When she recovered enough to see that Horatio was deeply upset, she put a hand on his forearm. "Horatio..." She waited for him to regain some semblance of composure and look at her. After a while, she gently spun his chair around so her was facing her and put her arms around his shoulders. He wasn't crying, she noted, but he was uncannily still and quiet. "Honey, that's fantastic. Why are you so upset?"
In his silence she drew upon all of her memories of Gil Grissom from the conference. He presented a well rounded, modified theory on the use of insect activity as an indicator of time of death. She remembered thinking that he was handsome in the way that intellectual, slightly older men could be. Expressing excitement for his topic without being so consumed as to be overbearing, Grissom spoke well and gave a good lecture. She couldn't quite see, with her limited knowledge of the man, what it was that Horatio would see in him. However, friends of hers had gushed about new boyfriends in ways Calleigh couldn't understand before she'd had the chance to really know them. She wanted to get to know Grissom now.
Horatio relaxed into Calleigh's embrace, staying there a few moments before withdrawing himself slightly to look at her. She left a hand on his knee and stared intently at him, offering all her strength up to him if need be.
"He phoned the lab this morning." Horatio whispered coarsely.
Calleigh's brow furrowed as she tried to discern the importance of this before it dawned on her. "Oh my God, they told him you were dead."
Her eyes widened on him as Horatio let his head fall again, shoulders hunched. "I didn't tell him about the plan...I was so concerned with Saris and there...there just didn't seem to be time..."
Calleigh rubbed his knee.
"He won't answer his phone, Calleigh, I..." He wanted so badly to go back and just make one simple phone call. The look on Grissom's face before he had driven off was tearing him up inside.
She gave him a moment before speaking in as confident a tone as she could manage. "Horatio, you said you were falling in love with him, right?"
He nodded without looking up. She lifted his face with both her hands cupping his jaw, their blue eyes meeting. "Why are you sitting in this office? Go out and find him or you'll never forgive yourself." She told him sternly.
"His phone-" He began.
"The airport. Start there." She interrupted.
Like a match sparking fuel, she found the part of his brain adept at problem solving and kick-started it. She saw his eyes loose focus as he thought.
"Go. Now. Call MIA while you drive." They both stood.
He strode towards the door, stopping just long enough to say "Thank you Calleigh," before he jogged to the elevator.
Calleigh looked out into the lab only to find several sets of eyes on her. She cocked an eyebrow, crossed her arms and stared them all down until they ducked back into their respective labs. Then she let her mind drift to thoughts of Horatio, hoping he found his boy. She was a sucker for a love story, after all.
A call to Miami International Airport yielded no sign of Grissom, he wasn't booked on any out going flights. Yet.
Horatio stayed on the main road he was on as he thought about where Grissom would go. He didn't have any family or friends in the area, he would have mentioned that. He liked to go on long walks around the city, Horatio knew, but that didn't help at all. He hated the Marlins, believing they sullied the good name of baseball with too much violence on the field. There were no noteworthy roller-coasters nearby, something Grissom considered to be a major shortcoming of Miami's.
Horatio rubbed his face as he watched someone merge in front of him. Then it hit him. He opened his phone, still in his hand from calling the airport, and dialled Calleigh.
"Calleigh, are you near a computer?"