Summary: When several people from the mayors office and the captain himself are killed, Horatio is forced to be temporary Captain. It's a stressful job and it doesn't help that Rick Stetler argues with Horatio constantly. The team soon realized that Miami is about to be attacked by a group of terrorists! But when and where will they attack? And how many people are standing in the way for the group to take control of the town?---5th story in my H/C Universe---
Sequel to: Family Time
Warning: Ryan slash!
The twins are now 16 weeks old.
-I-
Saturday, September 12th, 2008, 11:00
Calleigh yawned and rolled over on her back. She was so tired after yesterday night. She and Horatio had spent the whole night looking at old pictures from the twins baptizing. They had had a nice dinner with some wine, and well before they went to bed they shared a very erotic showed together. Both Calleigh and Horatio had noticed the proud and amazed look on Eric's face as he had held Jr in his arms when the priest baptized him. He had never smiled as much as he did that day. Alexx, who had been holding Donovan, had been just as happy, but she was used to babies in another way then Eric. Eric couldn't describe how happy he was to be the twins godfather. Cal and Horatio knew that if anything happened to them, Eric would step in as an amazing father figure in their lives, and Alexx would be an amazing mother figure. They remembered how small the boys had looked at those photos, it had been almost two months since the baptizing, and twins had grown a lot since then. They also seemed to love interrupting their mom and dad's kissing. Even if Cal and Horatio just kissed each other good morning, they boys would immediately whimper and crave attention. The boys could also keep their head up by themselves now and loved lying on their bellies. Frank was the only who said he couldn't see the difference between the boys. He was always amazed as to how everybody else knew exactly which one was Jr and which one was Donovan. Calleigh looked over at her sleeping read headed fiancé. They had planned on getting married in about five months, and she could barely wait for it. Horatio snored slightly. He had a pillow over his head and laid with his back towards Calleigh. She leaned over him and gently kissed his bare chest. Horatio didn't stir.
"You're supposed to wake up when a girl kisses ya." Calleigh chuckled quietly.
Horatio just kept on snoring. His mind and body was too tired to notice anything. Calleigh gently pushed Horatio down on his back and removed the pillow from his face. She straddled him and kissed his lips softly.
"Rise and Shine, Lt." She smiled.
Horatio still didn't wake up. Calleigh snorted and simply slapped his head.
"Time to wake up you stud." She smirked.
Horatio stirred and groaned at the bright sunshine. He grabbed the pillow and put it back over his head.
"Time to get up." Calleigh chuckled.
"I can't. You're sitting on me." Horatio said from under the pillow.
Calleigh chuckled and laid down on his chest. Horatio embraced her, but didn't remove his pillow.
"Remove the pillow and get used to the sunshine." Calleigh said.
"Nah, I kind of like this."
Calleigh chuckled and kissed Horatio's chest, then she got off him and walked towards the bathroom. Horatio soon climbed out of bed and walked into the nursery. Jr and Donovan were already awake and simply looking at their father. Calleigh joined Horatio in the nursery.
"You two are just lying here. Not saying a word." Horatio said, "It's as if you're simply going to wait here for food, without telling us that you're hungry."
"Sounds like someone I know." Calleigh snorted.
"Who?"
"You Lt." Calleigh chuckled, "You never tell anyone if you're hungry either."
Horatio shrugged, "I don't need to eat."
Calleigh sighed and slapped his head again. They had talked about his eating habits before, and so had Alexx. Horatio loved cooking food, but rarely ate it himself. He just wasn't to fond of eating at all. He only did it when his body demanded it. Calleigh had tried changing his eating habits, and even though she made sure he ate more often, he simply chose to eat less during their meals. Calleigh and everybody else worried about his health, he always shrugged their worries off.
"Horatio, I'm warning you. Don't teach our boys not to eat." Calleigh said.
"I won't." Horatio promised and kissed Calleigh, before picking Donovan and Jr up in his arms.
-I-
Molly had, just like Calleigh and Horatio, had a long night. With Frank. Molly was standing in the kitchen making coffee. Frank was still asleep in his bedroom. Yes, that's where they were. In Frank's house. Like so many other times. Molly loved Frank's house. Her apartment was just no cozy enough for them. Tomorrow Molly would officially move in with Frank, and it would become their house, their bedroom and so on. She got along perfectly with his kids too. Sebastian adored her, and she had gone to the movies with him on several occasions. Erin and Lucas liked her too, and she liked them. Though she was not their mother. They had a mother. Sebastian, however, did not get along very well with this mother, that's why he only lived with Frank. They talked on the phone several times though, but Sebastian always said that they would never become tight. She was his birth mother, but he preferred calling her by her first name, Lucy. Nobody knew why Sebastian and Lucy couldn't get along. It had always been that way, of course it had all gotten worse when Frank and Lucy divorced about four years ago. Lucas and Erin got along just fine with both their parents. What Molly didn't know yet was that Sebastian sometimes called her mom in front of Frank. He thought of her as his mom, or at least a mother figure. However, he wasn't sure how she would react if he called her mom to her. She had said from the beginning that she was their father's girlfriend, not their mother.
"Something smells good." Frank said as he wrapped his arms around Molly's waist.
Molly chuckled and leaned back into Frank's warm and strong embrace.
"What do you want to eat?" She asked.
She had made coffee, but they both needed more then just that. Frank sighed and went to the kitchen table. He wasn't the kind of person to eat breakfast. He was happy just eating lunch and dinner.
"You are so much like H." Molly teased.
And it was true. Both Frank and H preferred not eating so much, only H was twice as bad as Frank.
"Hey! I do eat." Frank said.
"Yeah.. Sometimes." Molly teased.
Frank stuck his tongue out at her, Molly grinned and did the same.
"Is that how adults fight now a days?" Sebastian asked from the doorway. He rubbed his tired eyes and yawned.
"It's better then shouting at each other." Frank shrugged and winked at Molly.
Sebastian grinned and sat down next to his father. Everybody loved these little family moments. Molly was an important part of the family now.
"So I guess you'll be needing help tomorrow when we move the rest of Molly's stuff in here?" Sebastian asked.
Molly already had the most necessary things in the house. But there were still some other stuff left in her apartment.
"That would be appreciated, yes." Molly smiled.
She gave herself and Frank coffee in two cups, while Sebastian drank milk.
"Alright, Lucas and I will help ya." Sebastian smiled. Then disappeared back to his room to get some more sleep.
"What do we do today?" Frank asked.
"We rest, and hope that we don't get a case." Molly smiled.
-I-
12:30
Eric muttered to himself as he and Natalia got out of the hummer and walked towards their new crime scene. Molly was already there with Alexx. They both looked surprised at each other when they recognized the victim as the mayor's assistant, Kimmy Larsen.
"Hello guys. Meet Kimmy Larsen." Molly said, "I guess you know who that is?"
"Yeah, the mayor's assistant over the last five years." Natalia said, "Where is everybody else?"
"H and Frank are meeting the captain and the mayor. Ryan is in the lab… and Calleigh, is at home." Molly said.
Calleigh had decided to take six months off with the twins, and then Horatio would take two months off with them. They wanted to spend a lot of time with boys during the days. So therefore Calleigh was not at work, even though she missed her job and her lab. Especially her gun vault.
"I guess this is top priority, and all other victims will simply have to step aside and give Ms. Larsen some space." Natalia muttered.
She hated the fact that some people were important then others when they were dead. It shouldn't be that way. But of course the captain wanted the mayor to like the lab, so he kissed some ass by making sure everyone worked with the same case. Even tough he himself knew that it wasn't fair.
"It sure is." Eric sighed, "What do know Alexx?"
"TOD is at 12:00 this morning. And COD is this piece of glass." Alexx said giving a quite large piece of glass to Eric.
"This little thing killed her?" Eric asked, "How?"
"It penetrated her skull and went through her brain." Alexx said, "Of course I'll know for sure after the autopsey."
Molly nodded for the CSI to look at Ms. Larsen's car. It was completely blown up!
"Oh my god! Only the tires are intact." Natalia said shocked.
"She wasn't too close to the car when it blew up. She has no burn injuries or anything else that says she was close to the bomb. She was simply unlucky that the piece of glass flew right into her skull." Alexx said and loaded the body on a stretcher.
"Let's find out who planted the bomb. This is when we really need H, he is after all the bomb expert." Eric said.
Natalia nodded in agreement and started picking up evidence from the bomb, she hoped to be able to put the bomb back together. Eric helped her off course, while Molly tried to find a witness.
-I-
Frank and Horatio sighed as they sat down in the captain's office. They mayor Nancy Timmons was there as well.
"I think you two gentlemen already understand how important this case is." Nancy said annoyed.
However she wasn't annoyed because her assistant had just died, no, she was annoyed because this gave her bad publicity. And this was after all a Saturday. A Saturday she had preferred spending with her kids, just like so many of the cops working with the case.
"Yes Ma'm, we understand." Horatio said.
"Good. You and your team are the best Lt. I expect the murderer to be caught… soon." Nancy said.
"We'll do our best." Horatio said.
"I need you to do more then that. Work your ass off, I don't care. But this is bad for me." Nancy growled
"With all due respect Ma'm. This is worse for Ms. Larsen's family. We will give them closure. But we can only work as fast as the evidence will allow us." Horatio said.
Frank patted Horatio's shoulder. He could feel him getting angry.
"Lt. This is the most important case right now!" Nancy said, "I don't care about other cases."
"But the families do." Horatio snapped, "We have an obligation to work with all the cases. We can't just throw everyone else aside and forget about them. All victim's families deserve to have closure."
"Look, I had to leave my kids today to come down for this crap!"
"So did I!" Horatio snapped, "You are not the only one with a family."
The captain, Martin, sighed. He should have known that Horatio would protest. The read head sure wasn't afraid of the higher ups.
"Martin, talk some sense into him." Nancy sighed and left the office.
"Horatio." Martin said, "Smart move."
"You disagree with me, sir?" Horatio asked, knowing full well that his boss agreed with him.
"No." Martin said softly, "But please just work with the case. At least every time that she's around."
Horatio nodded, stood up and left. Before Frank could leave Martin nodded for him to stay.
"Keep an eye on him." Martin said.
Frank nodded and left. He had never seen Horatio this angry. But it was probably because Nancy just got on his nerves, and he was much like Natalia, he hated that some victims became more important then others.
-I-
14:00
Eric and Horatio walked into the morgue and were surprised to see a young girl standing by their victim. The young girl was clearly in deep thoughts.
"Miss, are you family?" Horatio asked.
The girl snapped out of her thought and shook her head.
"No, sir. I was just thinking a little bit." She said, "Tara Price." She said and shook hands with Eric and Horatio.
"Ah, I see. Alexx's medical student. I'm Lt. Horatio Caine." Horatio smiled.
Tara nodded. She was a student. Training to become an ME. And she would spend almost two years by Alexx's side. And then hopefully be hired by MDPD. Alexx had so many bodies and it was stressful for her. So after a lot of arguing with the captain, he had agreed to let a student come in and learn how to be an ME, so that in a few years she and Alexx could be working together with the team.
"Yeah, that's me." Tara smiled, "I have two years left of my training and then I hope I will be hired."
"Welcome on board." Eric smiled.
Alexx waked through the doors and smiled.
"I see you two hav met Tara." She smiled.
"Yeah we have. By the way, I'm Eric Delko."
Tara nodded, "And the rest of the team?" She asked.
"You'll meet them shortly. But it's Natalia Boa Vista, Ryan Wolfe, Molly Sanders, Frank Tripp and Calleigh Duquesne. Though Calleigh is on maternity leave." Horatio smiled.
"I heard about all of you." Tara smiled, "Anyway, I guess you are here to see what we got from our victim?"
"We found several pieces of glass from her body." Alexx said and gave Horatio the glass in a plastic bag.
"And?" Horatio asked.
"And she has no injuries that indicates she was close to the bomb." Alexx said, "I figured that out at the crime scene already. But then I thought maybe I was wrong. But we checked twice."
"She was already on the ground when the bomb went off." Tara said.
"That means she was dead before too." Horatio said.
"How can that be, I mean the bomb when off at the same time as her TOD." Eric said.
"Someone killed her just second before the explosion." Horatio said, "Eric, check if the glass is from the car."
Eric nodded and left the morgue.
"Anything else?" Horatio asked.
Tara and Alexx shook their heads. Horatio thanked them and then left.
-I-
18:30
"So the glass that killed Ms. Larsen was from a regular window and not a car window?" Calleigh asked.
Horatio nodded, "Yeah, and Eric found partial fingerprints on the glass."
"So why did the killer blow up the car?"
"Maybe we're dealing with two killers, or he tried to hide how she had really died." Horatio shrugged, "We'll find out soon enough."
Horatio groaned and sat down on couch. Calleigh knew he was tired. She sat down in his lap and kissed his forehead gently.
"The mayor is driving you nuts, itsn't she?" She asked and Horatio chuckled.
"You have no idea."
He groaned again as his phone rang. The caller ID told him it was Ryan.
"It's Ryan. Maybe I should fire my team, so they don't call me." He joked.
Calleigh gasped and slapped his head.
"It was just a joke." Horatio chuckled and then answered the phone, "Caine?"
"H, it's Ryan. We got another crime scene. It's very serious." Ryan said.
"Explain please."
"Well… um, the economy boss at the mayors officer or whatever he does there has just been murdered… um, but that's not all. We have six more victims." Ryan said.
"How?"
"H… the economy boss was murdered in the same way as Ms. Larsen, first with a glass through the skull and then his car blew up. Only this time, the first responders were shot to death." Ryan said.
Horatio recognized the MO right away. Terrorists…
TBC…
AN: Please review! Oh and please vote on my poll on my profile!
