Title: Echoes of the Past
Rating: T
Disclaimer: H and C aren't mine. If they were, I'd still be watching. Rosalind and obvious others are mine. I'm making no money from this story.
Series: This is the 24th in the Fearful Symmetry series. Fearful Symmetry, Can't Fight This Feeling, Gold Medals, Surprises, Honeymoon, Blackout, the Hopes and Fears, Anniversary, Framed, Sight for Sore Eyes, Trials and Tribbulations, Premonition, Do No Harm, the CSI Who Loved Me, Complications, Yet to Be, More Deadly, Photo Finish, the Caine Mutiny, Calleighella, Swan Song, Betrayal, and Morning.
Reminder: This series is based on the original version of Calleigh's background, which CBS created, then decided on a whim to totally change. They made it. I'm sticking to it.
(H/C)
"History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history."
Clarence Darrow, famous defense attorney
(H/C)
The killer stepped back carefully for perspective, two steps, no more, no less. Precision was important. Details were important. He liked to think of himself as an artist, carefully adding each layer, building the whole for the world to admire. Some great talents worked in paints and clay; he worked in lives. He studied his latest canvas, looking for anything lacking.
Beneath a tree, the bodies of a man and a woman lay side by side, face up. The man's right arm was stretched out, and the woman's head rested on it. The woman's face and head were covered by a brown scarf. The killer nodded once and stepped forward. He took the man's glasses from his pocket and carefully placed them on the body, pushing them to the bridge of the nose. He gave one final check of the glasses, making sure they were secured around each ear, then carefully placed a hat over the man's face. He stepped back again for one more inspection. Satisfied, he returned to his nearby car for a briefcase and took out several notes. These he scattered like confetti around the bodies, some actually landing on the couple. His final touch was a card, which he propped up carefully in the grass at the man's feet, arranging it so that it stood at the perfect angle to be read. His signature. He wanted full credit for his work.
Finally, he stepped back again, two steps beyond their feet. Was there anything else? No. It was perfect, one of the best he had ever created. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly in a thin smile that never reached his cold, metallic eyes. It was a masterpiece.
(H/C)
Calleigh was better known for her action and enthusiasm than her stillness, but at the moment, she was motionless. She stood in her kitchen looking at the closed cabinets with an unfocused softness to her eyes. All of her attention was behind her. Sounds drifted into the living room through the open glass doors from the deck. Gentle conversation. Horatio's velour tones giving her an auditory massage at a distance. Rosalind's occasional higher-pitched comments, not as irrelevant to the topics as one might have expected of a 2-year-old. The other couple. The gentle lullaby of the ocean underlying everything. Relatives enjoying each other's company. Perfect harmony. Calleigh was not lost in contrast with the past but in sudden, unspeakable gratitude for the present.
"Hey, need any help in here?"
She turned with a smile. "Not really. I was just . . ."
"Thinking. I could tell." Becky smiled at her. "Penny for your thoughts."
Calleigh returned the smile. "They're worth a lot more."
Her new sister-in-law nodded. "You still get caught up in the wonder of it all, don't you? I hope Peter and I are still like that in a few years."
"I'm sure you will be." Calleigh almost hadn't recognized her brother. The change in him since the wedding two months ago was so staggering that the only resemblance to the old was physical, and even that was limited. "I've never seen Peter look so happy in my life."
"Me, either. It took him long enough to come around, though. I'd been waiting for him for over a year before he finally started to open up."
"I beat you," Calleigh noted. "It was over two years before Horatio started to let me in."
Becky gave her a conspiratorial grin. "They should've listened to us earlier." She looked past Calleigh to the counter. "Not that I mind talking, but the men will send in another search party in a minute."
"Right." Calleigh instantly settled into brisk efficiency, taking out a platter. Becky helped her arrange three different varieties of cookies on it, and they headed out together to the deck.
Horatio saluted Calleigh with his lemonade glass as they emerged. "We were beginning to get worried." Nothing about him looked in the least worried. He was lounging in a deck chair wearing a set of shorts and a T-shirt, and his long, lean body was perfectly at ease. Rosalind was sitting on his lap, but she hopped off and scampered over to Calleigh as her mother emerged from the house.
"Let me help." The short arms reached up for the platter, and Calleigh let her hold one end of it, keeping a firm grip herself to prevent disaster. Together, mother and daughter crab-stepped to the table with the platter between them and carefully set it down.
"Dessert is served," Calleigh announced with a flourish. "The end to a perfect family barbecue."
Becky had sat back down in the chair next to Peter, and they both unconsciously slid the chairs a few inches closer. Horatio's eyes met Calleigh's, and they were sparkling with meaning, but neither of them commented. Horatio was enjoying getting to know the new, married version of Peter as much as she was. Peter took a cookie, bit off half, and gave the other half to his wife.
Rosalind grabbed a double handful from the platter, and Calleigh was about to tell her not to be greedy when she realized the purpose. Rosalind trotted back to her father. "Here you are."
Horatio took them from her. "Thank you, Angel. But I can't eat all of these. Why don't you keep a few of them?"
Rosalind actually hesitated, then finally took one back. She settled again on his lap and began munching, and Calleigh sat down next to Horatio.
Peter nodded at Rosalind. "She's amazing."
"We know," Horatio and Calleigh replied in perfect unison, then laughed at each other.
"What time are you leaving in the morning?" Calleigh asked.
"Around 10:00. That should give us time to check in. Our ship leaves at noon." Peter and Becky smiled at each other, anticipating their second honeymoon. They had had a first honeymoon, a weekend getaway just after the wedding, but the week-long cruise was a sort of official one. They had come down two days early to spend some time with the Caines.
Becky took another cookie and divided it. "Where did you go on your honeymoon, Calleigh?"
"Niagara Falls." She and Horatio smiled at each other, reminiscing. "And I got kidnapped. Hope yours goes a little more smoothly."
Peter's arm tightened around his bride. "Just let them try."
Calleigh grinned. "Horatio probably will have to go on into work first thing in the morning, but Rosalind and I will see you off."
Horatio looked down. "It's not that I wouldn't like to, but I've been out of the lab all weekend. Who knows what's happened?"
"Nothing important enough to call you, and they would have if they needed to," Calleigh pointed out. She gave him a smile of perfect understanding. "It's okay, Horatio. You've been relaxing a whole weekend for once. Rosalind and I can do the honors tomorrow."
Horatio put one hand on his daughter's arm. "Make sure you see the ship, Rosalind, and you can describe it for me so I won't miss anything."
She perked up with 2-year-old responsibility. "Okay."
Becky settled back against her husband's arm. "It has been a wonderful weekend. So peaceful. To listen to Peter, you two lead pretty exciting lives most of the time."
Horatio leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping a bit in sincerity. "Blame the criminals, not us. I'm glad nothing disrupted this weekend, though. We don't get many chances to see each other."
"We'll have to get more from now on," Becky said firmly, and Calleigh nodded.
The doorbell rang.
"You spoke too soon, Horatio," Calleigh said. It looked like the weekend was going to be disrupted after all.
Horatio was already getting to his feet, shifting Rosalind to her mother's lap. "Don't get up, Cal. Can't be work; they would have called. Probably some salesman. I'll get rid of him." He headed into the house, and Calleigh, Peter, and Becky all stayed in their chairs but followed him with their eyes as he crossed the living room to the front door.
One second after it was opened, they had all hit their feet, including Rosalind.
Jean bustled in. "Hello, Horatio. How's everything? Where's Rosalind? Where's Calleigh?"
Rosalind looked longingly toward the beach. She had not met her grandmother many times, but she certainly remembered her. Calleigh caught her daughter's hand, although she briefly considered running away along with her. No, that would leave poor Horatio to be the martyr. Peter and Becky both fought a similar temptation, and then they all gave a mutual sigh, including Rosalind, and headed inside.
Horatio had closed the door, resisting the urge to go through it first. Jean hadn't yet run out of breath in her waterfall of questions when she spotted the others. "Calleigh, Rosalind. How are you? Peter?" She stared at her son, obviously having a bit of difficulty recognizing him herself. "What are you doing here? And, um, . . ." Her voice ran down as she scrambled for Becky's name.
"Becky," she supplied.
"Oh, yes, Betty, that's right. Of course, I remember from the wedding." She turned away from Peter and Becky, dismissing them, and captured Rosalind in a painfully tight hug. "Rosalind! How's my little baby?"
"Down!" Rosalind insisted.
Jean gave her granddaughter another squeeze, still holding her far above the floor. "Isn't she adorable?"
Horatio reached around her, and Rosalind scrambled from Jean's arms into his like a monkey. Once there, she forgot all about wanting down and flattened herself against her father, only her face still turned to watch events. "Jean, nice to see you," he lied smoothly. "We weren't expecting you. You should have let us know."
"I wanted to make it a surprise," Jean insisted. "What are you doing here, Peter? Don't you and Betty live in New Jersey?"
"Her name is Becky, and it's Virginia." Peter was tensing up again, looking more like his old self. "We're on vacation, and we stopped by to see Horatio and Calleigh for a few days before we leave on a cruise."
"And they called us first," Calleigh muttered, almost inaudibly.
"A cruise, how nice. Your father and I once took a cruise. I remember . . ." Off she went into a detailed fantasy as Calleigh and Peter exchanged a look. Their mother had never been on a cruise in her life and certainly not with their father.
Horatio cut smoothly across her flight of fancy, somehow making it a courteous interruption. "Jean, how long are you visiting Miami?"
She turned to face him, instantly diverted. "Oh, I'm not visiting, Horatio. That's the wonderful surprise I have for you." She reached out to hug both him and Rosalind, not even looking at Calleigh. "I've decided to move to Miami!"