Sequel to It's Time to Choose Horatio. If you have not read the previous story you may not totally understand this story.

Chapter 1

It had been 2 weeks since Ryan had left the hospital. He had spent the last 2 weeks recovering from his ordeal with the 'Triangle Killer' and tomorrow was supposed to be his first day back to work.

He was told to take his time in coming back and that is exactly what he had done, but it was time to go back to what he knew, or what he thought he knew.

Ever since his time with the killer, things had changed. Before he was abducted along with Horatio and Eric he knew exactly where he fit in at work, but now he wasn't so sure. The last 2 weeks had been filled with people asking him how he was doing and bringing him food to make sure he was eating enough. Before all this happened, most of those same people acted as if he had never even existed.

It was all very confusing to him. He would often just sit there with these people and wonder if they were there to visit him because they were genuinely concerned for his welfare or if they just felt guilty. He tended to think it was the guilt that made them want to spend time with him, but he hoped it wasn't true. He really tried to believe they were there because they were his friends.

The Triangle Killer had left him with some very powerful suggestions that he was just a joke at work and that he was expendable. He could still hear the killer's words as he described how the others felt about him and at the time he truly believed every word. It had almost been like the killer was reading his mind and had pulled out the parts that he knew would hurt him the most.

Ryan knew he was good at his job, but he was never good with the relationships that formed around his job. All of that had changed and it was something he didn't know if he was ready to deal with.

The one person that he had the hardest time with, and the one he respected the most was Horatio. And it was Horatio that had changed the most out of anyone he worked with.

Over the last 2 weeks Horatio had become a natural part of his life. He had been the one to bring him home from the hospital and even stayed with him on the first night. After that he was over every evening making sure he didn't need anything.

Ryan had wondered how Horatio was doing. After all he was just as much a part of the whole ordeal as he had been. But Horatio refused to discuss the Triangle Killer. They talked about everything else, but anytime he mentioned the case he would immediately change the subject.

Ryan had finally come to the conclusion that Horatio was feeling guilty and this was his way of making amends.

Tomorrow he would be going back to work and he really hoped that everyone would eventually just forget everything that had happened. If they forgot about it, they wouldn't talk about it and he could then get back to the life he was use to. But it would never be the same. He wasn't the same anymore so how could he expect anyone else to be. Tomorrow would be a new beginning and maybe a chance to finally have what he longed for. After all it was something he always wanted, but he just didn't want it this way. He didn't want his newly found friends to be something made from tragedy. He wanted their feelings to be genuine.

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