Ralph didn't mind his job, in fact he was grateful for it, to even have one. He considered himself blessed to be employed and was eternally grateful for the hospital administration for employing him as one of the janitors for the emergency department. He had been laid off from his previous job where he had worked for over a decade and was out of work for nearly six months when by some miracle he found this opportunity. He had been employed at the hospital now for just over two months and he vowed to work as hard as he could, he had a family to support after all.
It was just after four when one of the doctors from the ER approached him, he loved the staff there, they treated him like one of there own.
"Ralph, I'm sorry to bother you, but the woman's restroom is out of paper towels. Do you mind?" Dr. Jenson asked him, smiling sweetly.
He shook his head. "No, ma'am, not at all, just give me a few moments and I'll refill it for ya'll." He nodded and went off towards the closest supply closet. He took out his keys and stepped inside only to discover that the closet had no paper towels, he would have to restock the closet as well as the restroom.
The only other place he could think of where paper towels were kept was where the physical therapy unit was in the hospital, just down the hall from the emergency department. The PT area housed a hydrotherapy pool and in that area was another small closet full of supplies. Ralph was sure that closet had paper towels.
He headed that way as was actually surprised to find the PT department empty, it seemed as though the entire office was gone for the day. He shrugged, it wasn't any of his business, it just seemed unusual, he would just have to go the long way around to get access to the pool. When he arrived, though he found the door unlocked. Figuring the therapists just had the rest of the day off and wanted to get out of there early and forgot to lock up, he pushed in to the pool area.
The floor, he noticed immediately, was still wet, so someone had been there recently. And one of the toys that the therapists often used to aide the children in therapy was still in the pool.
"Oh come on." He muttered and went over to retrieve the floating toy. But it was not the toy that held his attention, that scared him, rather what was at the bottom of the pool. He stared at whatever it was for half second before realizing it was a person and diving in after them.
This person was at the very bottom, and thankfully Ralph was a good swimmer, he reached them in no time and was able to pull them up to the surface rather quickly. She was light, even soaking wet Ralph figured she couldn't weigh more then a hundred and ten pounds.
"Ma'am, c'mon!" He pressed his fingers to her neck, desperately searching for a pulse. "Oh God." He couldn't find one. He raced to the in house emergency phone and dialed the emergency department.
--
Horatio shook his head as he looked down at the body of a young man left lying in the middle of the beach, a hole in the middle of his head told them what had killed the kid. Yet, they still had to wait for confirmation from Alexx.
"Who found him?" Horatio asked Frank as other man walked up to Horatio's side.
"Lifeguard walking, called it in."
"Way to start the week."
Horatio only nodded as he watched Alexx work, he was about to ask if she had found anything else when his cell phone began to vibrate. He didn't recognize the number. "Caine." He answered, and Alexx looked up at him, sensing the difference in tone in his voice. Had it been a member of his team, his tone would have been much more relaxed then it was now.
"Lieutenant Caine?" A female voice came over the phone.
"Speaking."
"Lieutenant Caine, this is Dr. Emily Jenson from Miami General." Horatio immediately felt his heart rate pick up. "We have a patient here, a Calleigh Duquesne. We have you down as her emergency contact."
"How is she?" Horatio asked, wondering what could have happened, he was already on his way to his Hummer.
There was pause. "Lieutenant, it's best if you get down here."
--
Horatio's mind was racing as he drove to the ER. What could have happened to Calleigh? She had been at work earlier, she said she needed to take off to run an errand. Car-accident? He didn't think it was anything work related, but he wasn't sure. He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't turn off his mind, he couldn't stop.
He approached the desk at the ER and flashed his badge and was immediately ushered back to a family room, he was the only one in the small, private room. He didn't take that as a good sign. Moment's later, Alexx joined him.
"Have they told you anything?" She asked him, taking the seat next to him.
Horatio shook his head as he gripped his sunglasses. "No. The clerk went to go and find the doctor."
He looked up at his trusted friend, a doctor herself. "It's not reassuring if we are taken back to a private room is it?" He knew the answer, but he wasn't sure he wanted to trust himself.
Alexx smiled and reached over to take his hand. "Let's just wait and see what the doctor has to say."
Five minutes later, a women in green scrubs and white lab coat entered the room. She saw them as soon as she walked in and headed over. "Lieutenant Caine?"
Horatio stood "Yes, this is Dr. Alexx Woods." He introduced Alexx quickly. "How is Calleigh?"
"I'm Dr. Jenson, I treated Calleigh in the ER." She gestured for the three of them to sit down, all while trying to figure out how to tell the lieutenant and Dr. Woods the condition of their friend. She figured it was best just to begin. "One of our janitors found her in the hospital's hydrotherapy pool. He pulled her out and began CPR until our trauma team was able to take over. We were unable to find a pulse for about six minutes, we don't know how long she was in the pool. We intubated and as of right now she is on a respirator."
Alexx shook her head, already near tears as she listened to what the experienced doctor was telling them. Six minutes without a pulse? Brain damage began to occur after three minutes without oxygen. "I don't understand, what was Calleigh doing in the pool?"
Dr. Jenson took a deep breath, this is where it was going to get hard. "We believe she was assaulted there-- or near there. There's a small storage area and our security team found her police identification and her clothes there. She has multiple injuries, and is in critical condition and this point.."
"What injuries?" Horatio spoke up, his heart sinking lower and lower into his stomach. Jenson had mentioned that security had found Calleigh's clothes, that meant… no, he couldn't think about it. Not yet, he had to pay attention to what the doctor was saying right now.
"She was beaten pretty severally, I'm just going to work my way down the list here, please stop me if you have any questions, alright?" She hated to say it, to describe her patient as having a list of injuries, but with this patient, she did. "Once we got her stabilized we were able to get a good look at her and begin to examine her, we discovered multiple broken ribs, some fractured some broken. Her left wrist is broken as is her left femur. Her right shoulder was dislocated and right ulna is fractured. She is covered in bruises and scrapes. I couldn't give you a number, but they covered the majority of her body."
"She fought.." Horatio couldn't help it, he was sick at the thought of someone hurting Calleigh, but with those injuries, she had to have fought back.
"Yeah, she did." Jenson smiled. "She fought hard lieutenant. She still is, she's fighting for all she's worth."
"What else?" Alexx could tell, she knew from her own experience as a doctor, that Jenson was holding something back.
"We haven't had time to do a sexual assault kit, but from what we have seen and observed, it looks like she was sexually assaulted."
"Let's get the kit done." Horatio felt his blood boiling, and the sooner he had the evidence from that kit, the sooner her had the possibility of finding who had done this to Calleigh.
"Lieutenant, I'm sorry, right now, it can't happen. We took Calleigh for a x-rays, CT scan and an MRI, all of which showed unusual results." Another pause. "I've contacted a neurosurgeon who will be in shortly to take her upstairs."
"What are you saying, Dr. Jenson?" What else could Calleigh have suffered?
Jenson looked briefly down at the floor. "Lieutenant, your detective has a subdural hematoma, a large bleed on her brain. On top of that…" Here came another hard part, the part she had been dreading. "I'm sorry, lieutenant, the MRI showed us that Calleigh has suffered a spinal cord injury."
--
Emily Jenson watched as the lieutenant and his friend stood over their critically injured friend, security stood at the entrance to the trauma room. Whoever had attacked this poor woman wanted to make sure she didn't survive, they left before their job was finished and Ralph had fished her out of the pool.
The guilt she was feeling was unimaginable, she was in charge of the department, and even though she had never seen Calleigh Duqusene in her life, she felt responsible for her assault. Security had already determined it had happened in the physical therapy department and Jenson's area had no association with it, but still… why did she feel so damn guilty? Possibly because she knew the chances of Calleigh ever waking up again, she knew what she had done by intubating, and putting her on that ventilator? She knew Calleigh was probably brain dead. The only reason they had decided to work on the poor woman was because Ralph had felt so proud, had thought he had honestly saved her life when he had pulled her out of that damn pool, when he had started CPR. He should have just let her go-- she should have just let Calleigh go.
"Em?" She hadn't heard her husband walk in, the man that would be Calleigh's neurosurgeon.
"Hey, let's go talk outside." She whispered to him and grabbed Calleigh's chart, handing it to him.
"Sure." He smiled at her and followed her out.
"Thanks for coming in." He didn't have to, it was his day off after all, but he was the chief of neurosurgery, the best there was, and this patient desperately needed him.
"Of course, Em." He replied and kept reading the document. It took nearly five minutes before she heard him sigh. "Emily--."
"I know. But Ralph found her in the pool.." She heard her own voice cracking and soon found herself in his arms. "She's a cop Mitch, someone beat the hell out of her in this hospital, and tried to drown her. When I got to her, her wrists were still bound, she had the ankle weights they use for therapy around her."
She heard him take in a deep breath. "Emily, is that the family in there with her?"
"No, they're all I could find. That's her boss, Lieutenant Caine and a coworker of hers, Dr. Alexx Woods, she's the M.E."
"They'll have to sign the consent forms. Have you talked to them about her chances, Em?" He whispered as he put his hands on her stomach, their daughter was due in three months.
"I mentioned she had about a fifty-fifty shot at this point."
He rubbed his chin. "I doubt she'll make it though surgery, Em. Let me go and talk to them, do you want to come?" She nodded and followed her husband in.
"Excuse me?" He spoke with confidence, but also he wanted to let both of them know he was aware that he didn't want them to think he didn't care about his patient. "I'm Dr. Jenson, I'll be Calleigh's neurosurgeon." He pulled up a stool for his wife, and then for himself. "I need to discuss the risks of the surgery with you before we precede."
--
The surgery was not without risks, Mitch had explained that, he had explained that, right?
"Another amp of epi, Tammy." He ordered the scrub nurse as he heard the monitor declare they had lost Calleigh's heartbeat for the fourth time since they had started the surgery just over six hours ago.
Tammy nodded and quickly pushed the medication, for a moment all twelve staff members stood still and watched and prayed that somehow Calleigh could keep fighting. If she would keep fighting, they would keep fighting for her.
"Mitch.." He looked up to see Dr. Reynolds staring at him, Reynolds, another neurosurgeon was shaking his head, telling him it was over, that this was torture, not just for the staff, but for the patient.
"Two more minutes, Robert, that's all I'm asking. Two more and then we'll call it."
"One more, if she doesn't respond, we can't keep this going."
"Thank-you." Mitch was the chief of the department, but that didn't mean he just ordered his coworkers around, he respected their opinions and he understood where they were coming from. Reynolds was right, Calleigh had been down for a while, and two more minutes would be pushing it.
--
The entire pool entrance was wrapped with crime scene tape, it was obvious that something horrendous had happened there. But just by looking in, nobody would think anything had happened, the pool looked like it always did, clean, it was the storage closet that held the secrets.
Horatio bowed his head as he stood at the closet's entrance. It was a small storage area, but Calleigh was small and he could see how someone could drag her inside. Blood coated the walls, her clothes were bundled up in the corner, next to them he saw her ID badge, her bag, everything that identified her as Calleigh. Except… her gun, her gun was missing.
He saw a knife and immediately images of Calleigh struggling entered his mind, and he couldn't clear them. He knew she had been bound at the wrists and ankles and as he looked around the closet he found rope, he found the weights that had been strapped around her ankles.
He had to step over shelves that had been knocked over and he began to wonder how the hell nobody heard any of this. Things had to have been crashing down, shelves were literally pulled off the wall and then he saw it. One particularly heavy one was on the floor, it had one weight still on it. He couldn't help but wonder that falling shelf had been the one to break Calleigh's neck. Neither Emily nor Mitch had been able to tell them exactly how she had sustained the spinal cord injury.
Emily had hypothesized that when Calleigh went into the pool, she had hit her head on the concrete, Mitch thought that something might have fallen on her. There was always the possibility that whoever had assaulted her had hit her over the head with something. They did not know. Yet. But Horatio now thought he had the answer. Calleigh barely weighed a hundred and ten pounds, the shelf with the combined weights probably weighed about that. He didn't know how many were missing, if they are all there when the shelf had fallen on top of her, but he was determined to find out.
--
Alexx sat in the surgical waiting room when she felt someone approach her, she looked up to see the doctor from downstairs staring down at her.
"Dr. Woods, mind if I sit with you?" Emily asked. Her shift had ended hours ago, but she couldn't bring herself to go home.
"Not at all." Alexx moved her jacket out of the way so Emily could take the seat next to her.
"Where is Lieutenant Caine?" Emily questioned when she noticed his absence.
"He went to go and update the other members of the team. Calleigh's partner, her father, others." Alexx and Horatio had decided it was best inform everyone else of Calleigh's condition after she had been taken to surgery. When they had all arrived at the hospital, Horatio had informed them to immediately begin processing the storage unit.
Now, they were all at the lab, processing what evidence they had. They were determined to get this guy, the guy who had hurt the life of their team as soon as they could.
"Her father?" Emily looked at Alexx, confused. Why wasn't she notified of this. "Does he live here?"
Alexx nodded. "Yes, but he's out of town, New Orleans. Horatio's keeping him updated, he's trying to get out here."
The two women sat talking for awhile longer, they were eventually joined by Horatio.
"Have you updated the team?" Alexx asked Horatio, wondering why nobody had shown up on the surgical floor yet.
"I want this guy Alexx, if everyone is up here, we can't catch him." He answered, sitting down. Never had she heard him answer like that. When Eric had been shot, the team had been allowed to check on him in the ER, Horatio was making sure they stayed away and worked now. Yet she seriously doubted that if one of them showed up, Horatio would ask them to leave.
An hour later, Mitch emerged from the OR, his scrubs splattered with blood. Calleigh's blood, and once again, everyone's heart dropped to their stomachs.
--
Abby hated this aspect of her job, hated when innocent people were assaulted, and hated collecting sexual assault kits. She had to go to the surgical intensive care unit, room 116, a Calleigh Duqusene. When she got there she saw security at the door and flashed her hospital identification before she entered the room.
"Hi, hon." She greeted the unconscious woman. The respirator, the intracranial pressure monitor, all of the wires, and tubes, everything was second nature to her. As she set the kit down and slipped her gloves on, her eyes traveled over Calleigh's body. "Oh baby, what did they do to you?" Abby whispered.
"Hi Abby." She recognized that voice, Mitch had somehow snuck in behind her, his wife behind him.
"Emily, Mitch. I was just about to collect the kit." The doctors nodded. "Is this the detective Ralph found in the pool?" Abby asked as she grabbed a stool.
"Yes. Please, be gentle with her, she's been through a lot, Abby." Mitch urged as he tenderly lifted each of Calleigh's eyelids and shined his penlight in them, checking her pupil response.
"You know I always am."
--
Ten hours after Calleigh had been assaulted, the sexual assaulted kit was at the lab. It was confirmed, their friend, their rock-solid Calleigh, Horatio's second in command had been raped. And the rage, the anger, the tension in the lab was palpable. Even the convicts that had nothing to do with Calleigh's injuries knew not to speak, not to act up, they knew to cooperate with whatever was asked.
Security camera's at the hospital had captured nothing, they had nothing. All they knew was that Calleigh was at the hospital was because she had to drop something off. Nobody knew what that something was. After she did that, nobody knew what happened until she was found.
The day shift refused to go home, not when their colleague was fighting for her every breath. No, not when she couldn't even take a breath on her own. When night shift came in and heard what happen, all of their cases took to the back burner, everyone wanted the bastard who had done this to Calleigh.
Eric was the one who got the hit. The sexual assault kit linked the DNA to a Robert Maddox, he had a prior for rape. He had been released just two weeks ago after serving six years. Speed and Horatio had been the CSI's on his case the first time around. As Eric grabbed his gun he vowed Robert Maddox would never hurt another women again. Robert would never touch their Calleigh again.
--
Robert Maddox was making an omelet when the doors to his one bedroom apartment crashed down. He didn't have time to leave the kitchen before the SWAT team had him on the ground, on his stomach.
He felt his arms being ripped behind him and cuffed and seconds later he was back on his feet. He didn't have to ask what it was about, he knew.
He found himself facing Horatio and Eric. "Well, long time no see." Robert said with a smirk. "But honestly, did we need all the guests?" He nodded behind him to the members of the SWAT team.
"We did, Mr. Maddox." Horatio replied, somehow he was able to restrain his anger. "You're under arrest for the sexual assault and attempted murder of Calleigh Duqusene."
"She wanted it, Lieutenant. Just ask her." He smiled. "Or is she not talking?" Eric was the first to lunge at him, but one of the SWAT officers beat him to it and threw Maddox up against the wall hard enough that the man's nose began to bleed. "Fucking bitch deserved what she got."
"Get him out of here." Horatio was disgusted at the man, everything about him. Robert Maddox was a good six feet three inches tall, probably two hundred fifty pounds. Calleigh was nowhere near that. She didn't stand a chance once he had her gun. And Horatio saw it just sitting on Maddox's counter, he recognized it immediately.
He picked up his cell and dialed Alexx who he knew was sitting with Calleigh. "Alexx, tell her we got him." He knew Calleigh wasn't conscious, but still, someone could tell her. Besides, maybe she could hear them.
--
Maddox sat in the holding cell, unable to shake the feeling that every person that walked by seemed to want to hurt-- no not hurt-- murder him. The last girl he had had his way with, he had forgotten her name, had said something about her being a cop and now he suddenly understood why they wanted to kill him. She was one of them.
They had said her name when he was being lead of out his house, but he wasn't listening, he was trying to figure out who the hell to call to get him out of this, who had the bail money. But as he sat in the holding cell, a thought dawned on him, if that girl he tried to kill was a cop, there was no way he was getting bail.
Finally, after an hour of sitting there, the door opened and Horatio walked in, Eric behind him.
"Man, what the hell, I've been here for over an hour!"
"Sit down, Mr. Maddox, you're not going anywhere." Horatio said.
"Look if this is about that girl--"
"That girl is one of my CSI's. "The color drained from Maddox's face. "We've already connected you to the crime, we know you raped her. Start talking. Don't make me wait" By the tone in Horatio's voice, Maddox knew he'd better not screw with the lieutenant, not right now. He remembered what happened last time he met the lieutenant six years ago, he wasn't about to let that happen again.
"I didn't know she was one of yours, I swear it. I work in the psychiatric unit, one of the nurses left the drug cabinet open and I got access to some of the sedatives. Droperidol I believe. I was off and was leaving when I saw her coming out of the restroom. The hallway was empty and I knew all of the physical therapy department was gone, I walked up behind her and stuck the needle in her arm. She was out in less then ten seconds."
Eric made a fist ready to pound the man but he knew it was only about to get worse. "Then what?"
"I carried her back into the storage closet, it was unlocked. I found her gun and her badge, took the gun from her and hid it so she couldn't get to it. She started to wake up so I found some rope and bound her wrists." He shrugged. "Can I get something to drink?"
"No. Keep going."
Maddox was sweating. "She woke up then, started yelling and struggling, fighting me and she got away, she managed to get away. But she slipped and fell and hit her head on the concrete and I grabbed her again and pulled her back in the shed. She told me she was dizzy, she was nauseated, she started throwing up."
"She had a subdural hematoma, Mr. Maddox." Horatio commented. "She had a massive bleed on her brain."
Maddox closed his eyes. "Look, I know what I did.."
"Don't start that." Eric growled. "Tell what happened so I can throw your ass in a cell and not have to deal with you again."
"After she threw up, I took off her clothes and.." He looked away as he admitted to what he had done. He shrugged, unable to speak the words. "Held her down, told her if she screamed I'd kill her.."
"She has injuries that include a broken leg, ribs, where did these come from?" Eric asked, knowing that Maddox had just admitted to raping his best friend, the love of his life, his partner, his Calleigh. He had admitted to it without speaking the words.
"She was struggling, like I told you. At one point, she got up again. She began talking to someone.. Someone named Eric. Almost as if he was there." Eric turned around at this point. Calleigh had called for him? She thought he had been there? His already broken heart broke again at the thought of her talking to him when he wasn't there, that's how severe her head injury had been. "To her it seemed as though whoever Eric was, he was there. I couldn't get her to shut up. She was almost yelling. I found a bat and began hitting her with it. It worked, she finally stopped."
For a moment, Horatio, Eric and Maddox were quite. "Mr. Maddox, her neck is also broken. We have yet to figure out how this was done. Why don't you enlighten me?" Horatio suggested now within inches of the man's face.
"She was unconscious for a little bit and I had to leave, I couldn't carry a bleeding woman out. I found some ankle weights and attached them to her ankles and carried her to the pool. There are some stairs and as I was about to dump her in, she began to wake up, she began to fight again and she slipped out of my arms, she went in head first, her head hit the bottom step. I heard it hit." Maddox paused. "But she's going to be okay right? I'll go to jail for what another ten years?"
"No, not this time Mr. Maddox, this is attempted murder of a police officer, sexual assault of a police officer. And your second offense. You're not walking out again." Horatio stopped and considered the man's words. "And she's not going to be okay. If she lives, she's more then likely paralyzed. But her chances of survival at this point are less then forty percent." Another pause. "And if she dies, I will make sure you get the death penalty. You will not wait for twenty years, you will go straight to the front of the line. Murderers of police officers tend to go first." A beat. "You're a rapist, Maddox, I will also make sure everyone knows what your in for. Rapists don't tend to live long in prison. I'm surprised you made it out your first time."
Maddox shook his head as the officer came up behind him and grabbed his arms. "I didn't want to kill her.."
"Really? Then what did you want to do?"
Maddox didn't have an answer for that as he was lead out of the holding cell.
--
Alexx sat in Calleigh's room, looking at the images in front of her. Emily had the day off and she and Alexx had quickly become close friends. Right now, Emily was sitting with her.
"Mitch determined the injury to be at C6." Emily said softly as Alexx glanced at the detailed photo. "He started her immediately on methylprednisolone." She saw the alarm on Alexx's face. "Don't worry, it was within the first eight hours of injury. With this treatment, it helps her to have a chance of regaining functioning by up to 75."
Alexx nodded and set the chart down before glancing back at Calleigh. "Emily, tell me the truth." She whispered after awhile. Alexx was a doctor and she knew the signs.
"It hasn't even been two days Alexx."
"She's not breathing over that ventilator. If she was going to recover she would have started triggering it." Alexx said not noticing Horatio at the door. She hated it, but she had to face the medical facts and it was all pointing them in the direction that Calleigh was not there anymore.
"Mitch is planning on running on an EEG later today, he's going to see if there is any brain activity."
It was time to see how much brain damage Calleigh had suffered, the extent of it-- to see if Calleigh was brain dead.
--
Mitch had asked everyone to leave the room when he ran the EEG. Emily stayed.
"You doing okay?" He asked her as Abby helped him set up the equipment.
"They caught the guy this morning, he confessed." Emily smiled as she felt her daughter kick.
"That's great, Em. They've got him. Why don't you head home, or get Alexx and Lieutenant Caine to go get something to eat while I handle this?"
"You don't think she'll make it?" Emily asked her husband.
He reached over and hugged her. "Emily-- I'll call you when I get the results."
--
With a lot of luck, Emily managed to get Alexx and Horatio out of the hospital, she also met the rest of the team. They had all been up to visit Calleigh, she had just missed them, now they were finally meeting each other.
"Emily, boy or girl?" Alexx asked the question as their dinner arrived.
"Girl, its our first."
"Do you have a name yet?" Natalia asked as she bit into her salad.
"No." Emily shook her head but she had an idea. It all depended on Calleigh's survival.
--
"Cal?" Eric spoke softly to his partner as he sat by her beside. Every time he did this ritual, he wondered if this was goodbye. "Cal, we're here for you." He whispered as Horatio stood in the doorway, Mitch at his side.
The neurosurgeon had just delivered the ultimate blow. The results of the EEG were in and while Mitch was still going to run one more test, the EEG had basically given them the news they didn't want to hear. It had painted the picture.
"Horatio, the EEG showed nothing beyond rudimentary brain function." Mitch had informed Horatio as soon as he had arrived to check on Calleigh. "We're going to run one more test in a few hours to make sure but.."
They had run the first EEG three days before and it had shown the exact same results, but Mitch had made the mistake of allowing himself to be called away on an emergency case and had allowed one of his interns to run the EEG. Run and read the results.
Three days later, today, he had run another EEG. The results were exactly as he had been expecting, the same devastating results.
Horatio could only look in at Calleigh and Eric. "What test?"
"It's called an Apnea test. We use it to confirm whether or not someone is brain-dead. We'll disconnect her from the ventilator for ten minutes and watch for any changes in her respiration. After that ten minutes, we'll know."
They stood outside Calleigh's room for another moment before Horatio spoke again. "I don't want her to be alone, Mitch."
He nodded,. "Of course. Normally we wouldn't allow it."
"Thank you." Now he had to figure out how to tell Eric.
--
Horatio stepped back into Calleigh's room at four o'clock that afternoon. Mitch was already there along with Abby.
"Sweetheart." He greeted Calleigh as he always did. As he glanced over her, the casts, the gauze, and what little skin he could see that wasn't covered by a cast, a tube, a wire, or a drain, a thought crossed his mind. He knew Calleigh, he knew his Calleigh and he knew she'd hate to live like this, in a hospital bed, kept alive by machines, a machine literally breathing for her.
But he wondered how she would take life in a wheelchair. She'd be depressed, despondent, unhappy about everything, but she wouldn't let anyone help her. She'd tell everyone she was fine until she exploded. He wondered if she'd be mad at them for choosing to let her live, for signing the papers to let Mitch do the surgery.
Then again, was that Calleigh? Or would she be grateful that she had survived such a brutal attack? She wouldn't be able to shoot anymore, couldn't hold a gun without assistance. Calleigh would probably feel dependent on someone but with a hell of a lot of encouragement, eventually she'd learn to understand that accepting help was okay. That sounded more like Calleigh, happy, joyous, sunny, loving, their everything.. Calleigh. Calleigh who would preserve with faith, courage regardless if she was in a wheelchair or not.
Mitch had warned Horatio about what to expect if Calleigh survived. He explained that with Calleigh's injury, at the C6 level in her spine, certain things needed to be explained, as to where she could move. There was potential for her to regain sensation, but she would probably never walk again.
But right now, Horatio couldn't worry abut Calleigh never walking if she couldn't even breathe on her own. He couldn't worry about her never holding a gun when the thought of Mitch about to determine if his second in command was brain dead was weighing on his mind.
Horatio took Calleigh's hand in his own, the hard casts had been removed. She wasn't moving, there was no risk of the bone being displaced. Instead, it was supported with a soft brace, her friends were warned to be extremely gentle when touching her. For the first time in a long while, he didn't know what to say to her. He knew a few things, he knew she wouldn't respond, he knew everyone had told her that the man who had done this had been caught and had been denied bail.
"Calleigh." He stroked her hand. "You hang in there." He told her as Mitch approached.
"Alright, it'll be noisy in here for a minute." Mitch reached over and disconnected the ventilator from the tube that was going down Calleigh's throat. Immediately, the alarms began going off.
Abby quickly silenced them and watched as Mitch suctioned out the tube in Calleigh's throat. For the next ten minutes, Abby and Mitch paid close attention to the monitors, watching for any fluctuations in respiration. Horatio just hoped that Calleigh would draw a breath on her own, or at least make an attempt to.
--
Alexx looked over the results of everything that had been done, as she sat in Mitch's office with Horatio and Duke. The MRI, CAT scan, the EEG and results of the Apnea test were right there in front of her. Horatio trusted Mitch as did Duke, it just always helped to have a second opinion, especially when it came to this.
"Mr. Duqusene." He had finally arrived, five days after Calleigh had been attacked. He didn't offer any explanation, and nobody wanted to hear one at that moment. "The spinal cord injury isn't what's…"
"No, I don't understand why it hasn't been fixed, if that's what's keeping her unconscious…" They could all smell the alcohol on his breath.
"The injury to her spinal cord isn't life threatening."
"You're telling me she's brain-dead!" He shouted, standing up. "She broke her damn neck."
"That injury alone isn't what lead to brain death, Mr. Duqusene." Mitch remained calm, he was use to dealing with angry parents. "The level at which her neck was broken is perfectly sustainable with life."
Duke sank back into his chair. "Then why the hell are you asking me to take her off of life support?"
Alexx couldn't help the tears when she saw the older man. "She's been deprived of oxygen. Her heart has stopped to many times. Each time that happens it does more and more damage. Brain damage begins to occur when it's been deprived of oxygen for three minutes." She took in a deep breath. "When Calleigh first got to the ER, they couldn't get a pulse for six minutes, we think she was in that pool for three minutes for that. She coded four times during her surgery, each time she was down for at least two minutes. In the past five days, her heart has stopped eight times, Mr. Duqusene. Her brain has lost close to an hour of oxygen."
Duke stared at Alexx at what she was saying. "She won't wake up. We want her too, baby, we want her to so badly, but it can't happen. Right now, she's suffering. Dr. Jenson performed a test earlier and it was determined that Calleigh is unable to breathe on her own anymore." She explained it as simply as she could and hoped it would suffice. "Do you think this is what Calleigh would want? To live like this?"
Duke took the pen from Mitch and glanced at the papers that were being offered to him, the ones that asked him for his permission to take his daughter, his baby girl, his only baby girl off of life support. To end her life. He brought his shaky hand down to the dotted line, then stopped and looked up at Horatio. "You got him, Lieutenant?"
Horatio, even though he was angry, upset, heartbroken at the fact that he knew he was about to lose Calleigh, that it had taken Duke five days to arrive at his daughter's bedside, again somehow restrained his anger. In the past five days he had gotten good at that. "We got him."
--
One by one they said their goodbyes to Calleigh, nobody from the team could be with her when her time of death was called. Duke had been convinced to go ahead and allow her organs to be donated, it was after all what they thought Calleigh would have wanted. A final act from Calleigh.
She had saved so many lives before, doing this was just helping so many more people before she left them. That's how the team thought of it.
"I'll sit in the OR with her." Mitch promised as he stood outside the ICU room with Horatio, the team was filtering in and out, saying their goodbyes. "The transplant team is preparing the OR, I'll stay with her the whole time."
"Thank-you." Horatio thanked the neurosurgeon who in five short days had become a good friend. As he thought about the last trip Calleigh would make, he remembered a magnet he had once seen inside a house. Something about organ donation. It was a green ribbon, and it simply stated: Touched by a hero, support organ donation. As he peered inside that ICU room, he was looking at someone's hero.
It was the team's tragedy, but in their tragedy, Calleigh's decision to donate her organ's was saving ten other people lives, she was their hero.
Pink was the color for breast cancer awareness, green was the color for organ donation awareness. Today he realized green was his new favorite color. Green, suddenly took on an entire new meaning. Awareness, and the color of her eyes that would never open again.
He watched as Ryan, Natalia, Frank, Alexx and eventually Eric filtered their way into the ICU room. Horatio walked in with Eric and put his hand on the younger man's shoulder. Neither spoke.
"She was the best thing that ever happened to me." Eric confessed. "I never told her."
"I don't think you had to, I think she felt the same way about you, Eric."
"Maddox said he didn't know she was a CSI, a police officer. I found her badge on her clothes in the storage closet. It was still clipped to her belt. He had to have seen it.."
"Eric, I don't know if he targeted her because she had any association to law enforcement or to us, but tomorrow I will find out." Tomorrow, Maddox's charges would be upgrades to first degree murder of a police officer.
"Just do me a favor Horatio, tell me where he is being held?" Horatio had done it on purpose, as much as he trusted Eric, he had put Maddox somewhere where nobody knew where he was, except Horatio.
Horatio nodded. "Tomorrow, you can come with me, alright?"
--
Horatio opened the blinds as wide as they would go, it was a beautiful sunset and it was Calleigh's last.
"There you go Sweetheart." He said. The team had left, everyone had said their goodbyes and he heard Mitch's voice coming down the hall talking to someone, this was it. "Calleigh-- I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, but you hung in there." He thanked her for everything, her friendship, her service, her loyalty. And then he apologized again.
"Horatio, are you ready?" Mitch asked as a new team flooded the room and began disconnecting monitors from his fallen team member. It was the last time he would see her breathing. Horatio simply observed as the nurses gently unhooked the ventilator and connected her to a bag where they manually forced air into her lungs, they were still so careful of her broken body as they transferred her onto the new gurney they had brought into the room.
He smiled when one of the surgeons reached for a sheet and gently covered her up and tucked it around her body, so mindful of the injuries she had sustained. One more time, Horatio bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Thank you for everything Calleigh." And then his Calleigh was gone with the transplant team, Mitch promising as always, to take care of her, one last time.
--
Three months later, Horatio walked into his office and was surprised to see a letter on his desk with just his first name written on it. At first he was suspicious of it, the ink was green and instantly he knew who it was from, he recognized the handwriting as Mitch's.
Both he and Emily had attended Calleigh's funeral and the Jenson's had stayed in touch with Horatio and the team for the last three months. Horatio wondered though, what the card was for. He sat down after a long shift and opened it. It was a baby announcement, their daughter had been born the day before.
"Come meet her." Was all that was written inside. Horatio smiled and shook his head and went to find Alexx knowing she would want to see the new arrival. As he stood, the picture on the corner of his desk caught his eye, the picture of Calleigh.
Her sweet smile, her voice, everything about her, the lab just was not the same without her. They hadn't been able to move on. Her killer had been caught, his trial was due to start in the next week, but they didn't have closure. The picture had been taken the week before she had been attacked, she looked so happy, she and Eric had been at a crime scene, she was smiling. She was Calleigh and nobody knew that in twelve days everything was to end. That in twelve days, Calleigh would be gone.
When Horatio realized what he was thinking, that even he couldn't get this past this, he knew what he had to do, but not right then he had a baby to go and visit. When he got back, the entire team was going to sit down with the department's therapist, they were going to work this out.
--
Emily held her day old daughter in her arms, Mitch was at her side when she heard the knock at the door.
"Horatio, Alexx." She smiled at them and gestured for them to walk in.
"How are you feeling?" Horatio asked, seeing the baby in Emily's arms, wrapped in a pink blanket.
"Fine, actually. You want to hold her?" She offered the baby to Horatio and he smiled putting down the flowers and pink teddy bear he had found.
"Okay." As soon as the little girl was in his arms, he smiled, the first time he had actually truly smiled since Calleigh's death. Even thought she had just been born, the baby had a full head of hair, blond hair .
"What's her name?" Alexx asked.
Mitch stood up and walked over. "We named her after your friend." Both Alexx and Horatio's heads shot up to look at the two doctors. "Her name is Calleigh. Calleigh Grace."
Horatio didn't say anything, he couldn't right then. He just looked back down at the baby and noticed that she had opened her eyes and was staring back up at him. Her eyes were green. Just like Calleigh's had been.
--