Horatio, Explosives and Drugs Don't Mix
Chapter 1
Horatio and Eric were busy interviewing a suspect in one of the police crime lab interrogation rooms. The suspect was arrested without incident on a laundry list of charges including; drug possession, drug dealing, one count of murder in the first degree, two counts of murder in the second degree, five counts of attempted murder, ten counts of attempted murder of law enforcement officers in the commission of doing their jobs, and the final count was suspected drug manufacturing.
Getting the confession from the suspect was easier than the two police officers were used to. The only thing that Horatio had to do was place an empty drug baggie on the table and tell the suspect the evidence that the team had against him. The crime lab found his fingerprints on the outside and the inside of the baggie that was found inside the suspect's pocket. The suspect's D.N.A. was also found on the inside of the baggie. Finally, the chemical composition of the drug inside the baggie was identical to the composition of the drugs at the scene of the alleged crime. When the suspect heard the evidence against him, he confessed to it all. To secure a confession, Horatio offered the suspect leniency on the murder of the two innocent neighbors who were killed when he blew up the drug lab.
The suspect had no idea that the neighbor and her little girl were home when he blew up the house that he was using as a drug lab. Blowing up the lab was only supposed to destroy the body and maybe kill some police officers but he did not intend to kill his neighbor and her daughter. He really like them since the two of them were very nice to him.
After Horatio placed the empty drug baggie on the table in the interrogation room, he slowly backed up to lean against the wall of the room allowing Eric to continue with the interview and get the confession from the suspect. When the suspect confessed, Eric placed a blank notepad for the suspect to write the confession down and signed it. The suspect is led out of the room in handcuffs by the arresting officer and Sergeant Frank Tripp the teams Homicide Detective.
Eric walks Tripp, the arresting officer and the suspect to the door of the interrogation room, closing the door behind them. Telling Tripp, "Make sure that the suspect very uncomfortable and miserable since he killed a child." To which Tripp nodded in understanding.
Before he has a chance to turn around, Eric hears the sound of something hitting the tile floor. H's pair of sunglasses slide across the floor and between Eric's legs to rest at Eric's feet. When Eric looks down at what had just hit his feet he instantly recognises what it was so he twists around, and his blood right in front of his Horatio is down and convulsing on the floor. Eric rushes over to be by H's side as he skids to a stop. Horatio is the only family Eric had left since Horatio married Eric's sister Marisol. She was killed by a drug dealer right after she married Horatio. By the time Eric got to H's side, the convulsions had stopped. Eric had noticed that Horatio had some slight foaming at the mouth which is a telltale sign of overdosing, but overdosing on what? H, must have been exposed to some kind of drug from that baggy since that was the last thing that he had touched. That was not what was important right now. What was important was saving H's life. Horatio had saved Eric's life more then he would like to admit. Eric felt that he owed H more than he could ever repay.
Reaching over Horatio chest, Eric searches for a carotid pulse and breathing a sigh of relief when he feels a faint pulse. Horatio was still fighting to stay in the land of the living. Eric begged his brother in law to keep fighting, realizing how easy it must be for H to just give up and go be with Eric's sister Marisol.
"Please H, I'm not ready to do this on my own. I know how much you want to be with Marisol, but please stay with me. I can't do this on my own without you", Eric pleads with Horatio.
Eric's relief was very short-lived when he rechecks Horatio for a pulse, and Eric finds none. When he loses H's pulse, Eric screams for a medic all while starting to do chest compressions on his boss trying to restart Horatio's heart manually. The walls of the interview room walls were soundproof, and the door was shut, so no one heard Eric's screams until Frank Tripp by chance walks back in to check on how his friends were doing after Tripp walked the suspect and arresting officer into booking.
Tripp was just standing there staring blankly at Eric over Horatio doing C.P.R. Eric's continued screams snapped Tripp back into the reality of Horatio being in real trouble. Eric's pleading, "Help, Tripp get me a medic, Horatio's heart stopped. Please get them here now."
Hearing the fear in Eric's voice Tripp reaches over with his right hand to grab his police radio on his left front shoulder. Tripp needs to make the one call that no officer ever wants to make or hear over the police radio. "This is Sergeant Frank Tripp and I have a 10-00 at the crime lab, I repeat a 10-00 at the crime lab. Police officer down and requesting medics at the crime lab. Lieutenant Horatio Caine is overdosing." Horatio had been a Sergeant with Miami-Dade Police Department before he accepted a promotion and command of the newly formed Crime Scene Investigation Unit. Tripp really didn't think that he was overdoing the call since as far as Tripp was concerned once a police officer always a police officer.
For about five minutes Tripp was preforming mouth to mouth resuscitation while Eric did chest compressions. The two of them weren't willing to give up on H. They were going to fight for their friend's life with everything that they had. The two of them continued until the medics got to the crime lab. Not only did the paramedics get to the crime lab but the entire M.D.P.D. force.
When the paramedics got to the scene they saw a very shocking mental picture. They could clearly see two grown police officers begging another officer to live. The medics have to push the attending officers away from their friend. The medics need to have room in order to try to restart Horatio's heart.
Frank could hear Eric pleading with Horatio and with God. "Oh, God no, this can't be happening. Not H... Not this way... H, come on fight, stay with me." Frank just stood there listening to his friend begging their mutual friend to live. Frank would never admit it but he really loved Horatio like a brother since they have worked together since 1995 which would have been almost twenty five years before.
Everyone at the scene were desperate to get Horatio's heart beating. Eric was struggling to stay with H, but the medics have to attempt to get a pulse before they get Horatio into the ambulance. As the medics wheel Horatio into the ambulance, Eric slides inside with his brother.
The paramedics don't have a whole lot at their disposal when it comes to restarting a heart. They do not have access to the drugs that a hospital will use to get a heart beating on its own again. Charging the defibrillator to 200 joules, they shock Horatio's heart. After H's body jerked with the electricity running through his body, the medics check his heart again for a pulse. Feeling nothing, they increase the joules to 250 they try again to get a pulse. "Lieutenant Caine stay with us." The paramedics say to him. "His name is Horatio," Eric informs them. The paramedics were able to get H's heart beating again finally when they increased the joules to 360 and shock Horatio's heart twice. The only thing that the paramedics could do was to keep Horatio alive until they go to the hospital. He's back, but his heartbeat was so weak it is barely registering on the monitor.
Tripp races down to central booking and grabs the drug dealer by the collar of his shirt. "What drug was in that baggy. If my friend dies, I swear I'll kill you" The drug dealer whispered his response, "It was Fentanyl." The drug that was inside was Heroin that was cut with Fentanyl. Some of the Fentanyl must have gotten on the outside of the bag. Fentanyl is fifty times more potent than Heroin and eight to one hundred times stronger than Morphine.
As the ambulance pulls into the emergency room trauma bay they are meet by a very familiar face to Eric and Horatio. Alexx Woods the teams old Medical Examiner who left the ME field to spend more time with the living. Eric trusted Alexx implicitly, and he knew that Horatio felt the same way. When Alexx stopped Eric from going into the trauma room, Eric obeyed without saying a word.
Eric could just stand there and watch what was happening inside through a tiny window in the door before he walks into the waiting room. Eric just paced back and forth the length to the waiting room, driving the nurses insane with unending pacing. It took ten minutes of his pacing for the rest of the team to get to the hospital. When Eric saw Calleigh, Ryan, Natalia, and Walter walking through the revolving door of the hospital, he did feel relieved.
"What happened? How is he? I just heard that Horatio was in trouble after he was exposed to something" Calleigh begs Eric for more information.
"I don't know how he is; he was barely alive when we got here. H overdosed on something that we don't know. Tripp was going to find out what kind of drug was in that empty drug baggie we found on the suspect", Eric informs his girlfriend and Co-worker. "I have not heard from Tripp what the drug was. I turned my back to H for just a few seconds but I turn back around and H was convulsing on the floor. His heart was still beating but I lost his pulse when I rechecked for a pulse," Eric finished explaining what happened to Calleigh.
Alexx was still working on her friend, but the drug did a number on his body. Shortly after Horatio had been wheeled into the trauma room, he went into cardiac arrest again. Alexx and her team were trying everything they had to get Horatio's heart beating again, but nothing was working.
Charging the defibrillator to 250 joules, they start at a lower number since they want to restart Horatio's heart with as little of power running through his body as possible. The heart monitor continued to flatline, so they increased the power to 300 and tried again to restart his heart. The continuous monotone of the heart monitor just proved that it did not work. Alexx and her team give Horatio a dose of Epinephrin in an attempt to jump-start his heart chemically into the I.V. in his hand but nothing in regards to a response. The next drug that they try on him was Atropine, but that did not work either. Alexx and her team were running out of options.
The last option was intracardiac adrenaline, when Alexx stabbed Horatio's heart with this drug Horatio sat bolt upright, and his heart raced, but no sooner than he hit the bed again, his heart stopped again. Alexx was forced to make perhaps the most difficult call of her life. "Time of Death 5:37 p.m," Alexx says to a room of silent medical staff. Now she had to go into the waiting room and tell the team that Horatio was gone. She had lost him. Alexx had known
Horatio for a very long time. In fact, her two children thought of Horatio as their uncle Horatio since he would come over for dinner with her family all of the time.
Neither Alexx or the rest of the trauma team ever wanted to be forced to call Time Of Death on a Lew Enforcement Officer let alone someone like Horatio who the whole hospital knew and loved.
Tripp was still trying to call the hospital to let them know the drug so they can counteract the drug, but no one was answering. When he finally gets through to someone, he learns that they got to the hospital too late and that Horatio had died from an overdose.
When Alexx walks into the room where the team was waiting, everyone jumped to their feet.
"He's gonna be fine right. Tell me he's okay Alexx", Calleigh pleads. When Calleigh saw the look on Alexx's face he knew that something was very wrong.
"I'm so sorry baby but I couldn't. He's gone" Alexx manages to say before she broke down crying.
Ryan rushed over to comfort the motherly figure of Alexx since the whole team saw Alexx like a mom. Ryan knew how much Horatio meant to Alexx so he knew how much she was hurting at this time.
"Oh God no, this can't be happening," Calleigh screams as she begins to fall to her knees. Eric jumps towards his girlfriend to catch her before she hit the ground.
"No, Horatio can't be dead," Ryan says what the remainder of the team was thinking.
However, Horatio was dead, and that fact could not be denied. Within the next half, an hour Alexx had Horatio moved to the Morgue. She just couldn't leave her friend lying there on some table for the world to see. Alexx did, however, allow the team to say their final goodbyes to their boss, friend, and brother.
Ryan was the first to do it. He was one of the team members that Horatio had hand-picked since Speedle's death. Ryan has O.C.D. and thought that he had blown it when Horatio checked his gun.
Horatio was obsessed with gun maintenance since Speed was killed because he didn't clean his weapon correctly. "Oh man, I was never able to say this but thanks for picking me for your team." Ryan was finally able to say those words to his boss. "I really want to tell you just how glad I am that you gave me a second chance after I really screwed up when I let that suspected killer off since I owed a bookie money. You gave me a second chance and I never let you down".
Calleigh was the next to say goodbye. She really loved Horatio like a big brother. "I don't know if I can keep doing this, first Speed, then John, now you. I can't lose another friend to the job", she told her boss. Leaning over her boss she gently kissed his forehead. Calleigh walked out of the room with her face in her hands as she just sobbed and sobbed.
Eric had the hardest time saying goodbye. Horatio was the reason he became a cop. Horatio told him in 1997 to go get your badge then find me. I'll give you a job with my team. "I never believed anyone else when they said I'd be here, but I trusted you, and you never let me down. I just feel like I failed you when you needed me most. I'm so very sorry brother." He whispered to H before he left the room.
When Frank heard of Horatio's death, he used his radio to tell the other officers on the force, "Lieutenant Horatio Caine has been killed when he was exposed to Fentanyl at a drug dealer's home. Let's make sure the dealer is charged with the felony murder of a law enforcement officer in the process of doing his job. Hopefully, the District Attorney will ask for the death penalty". This call also ended up telling the media since they listen to the police radio to get their news stories.
Frank Tripp was not able to get it to the hospital, so he had to sneak into the Morgue to see for himself that his friend was in fact, dead. He was busy threatening the drug dealer. He had struck the drug dealer several times before another cop pulled him back. When the dealer said that Tripp had hit him, all the police said in unison, "We didn't see anything." According to the law the suspect needed a witness to testify that they saw the assault happen and since none of the officers were on the suspects side he would not get any charges filed against Tripp.
When Tripp left the station he was bombarded with questions from the media about what had happened to Lieutenant Caine. To say he was pissed would be the understatement of the century. The single thing that he could say was "No comment," as he gets into his squad car. Once the car door was shut, Frank said what he really wanted to say.
"I just lost a good friend now leave me alone you vultures." On the way to the Morgue, Tripp had to make the hardest phone call of his life. No police officer ever gets used to making death notifications, but this one was particularly painful since he had known Horatio since they were both beat cops in 1995.
Now he had to call Horatio's son Kyle to tell him that the father he never really got to know had died, from an overdose of all things. Pulling into the morgue parking lot he gets through to the kids C.O. in Afghanistan. He couldn't get himself to say those words so instead, he had the Commanding Officer do that unpleasant job.
When Tripp pulled back the white sheet, he sees the telltale red hair of his friend. It was at this time, Dr. Tom Loman the M.E. walks in. Frank notices something very odd and asks Dr. Loman, do you cry when you're dead. "No, why?" Tom says to Tripp. Tom walks up to the table to see what Tripp was talking about.
There on the corner of his left eye was a single tear. Tom grabs his stethoscope and searches for a pulse. When he checks for a carotid pulse, he feels what he thinks is a flutter.
"Do you feel that?" he asks Tripp to feel for himself just to verify.
"Yes, does that mean what I think it means," Tripp asks Tom.
At this moment, Horatio opens his eyes for a few moments. He locks eyes with Tripp. His ocean blue eyes meet Tripp's eyes.
Horatio loses consciousness shortly afterward. Slipping into a coma H was back but would he ever wake up.
Now Frank had a tough determination to make. Does he call Kyle back and say never mind or should he just let Kyle see for himself when he gets to Miami? Frank decided on the latter course of action.
He didn't want to get Kyle's hopes up since Horatio could really die before Kyle gets back.
Tripp gathers up Horatio in his arms. Placing his friend's body in the back of his squad car. Tom slides inside to hold Horatio's head in his lap. Tom wants to be able to monitor Horatio's heart rate. Tripp jumps inside the car and turns on the sirens. Tripp has to call Alexx and tell her what has happened as he races to the hospital. He needs her to be at the ambulance bay to make sure that H stays with them this time. While Tripp was calling Alexx, Tom was calling the team. He had to get the team to the hospital without telling them why. He didn't want to give them hope only to take it away. H's team had not left the hospital yet. They were having a hard time processing their leader's death. He told them to stay there because there is a new development with Horatio's case.
When they pull up to the ambulance bay at the hospital, Alexx was waiting with a gurney. Eric had seen Alexx take off and decided to follow her. He sees Tripp's squad car and had seen Tom place someone on a stretcher in front of Alexx. He still couldn't determine who it was. Alexx steps to the side half a step and Eric sees a very familiar flash of red hair.
"What the hell is going on," Eric yells over the noise of the emergency room.
"He woke up in the Morgue, he's alive, but he lost consciousness right after. We didn't want to give anyone hope only to take it away since he was without oxygen for so long he might not ever wake up and if he does he might not ever be the way he was before the overdose." Alexx tells him.
Eric was a little angry at Alexx for not telling him, but he understood why she did it. Immediately he had to decide whether or not to tell the rest of the team. Fortunately, he didn't have time to decide since Calleigh and Ryan were right behind him, and they saw what he had seen. Calleigh was crying all over again. Her boss was back but for how long.
Kyle arrives the next day and hears the story about his father being alive. When Kyle heard that his father was alive he was thrilled but understandably worried. He was afraid for his father's life. Horatio had saved Kyle's life more than once. Kyle found out that Horatio was his father when Horatio saved Kyle's life when he was grabbed and thrown into the sewer tunnels below the prison that Kyle was in for kidnapping a woman. Horatio had tried to protect Kyle since he found out the Kyle was his son. He loves his dad and understands why Horatio was not a part of his life until that time. He knew that if Horatio had known that he had a son Kyle would have never been in the foster care system.
Horatio's coma lasted for almost two months. Eric and Kyle had not left H's side, but the others took turns staying with Eric and Kyle, so they weren't alone. Even Alexx and Tom had spent time with Eric, Kyle, and Horatio. As Eric was watching his boss sleep, he had a flashback to the last case the team was working on. The one that ended with Horatio fighting for his life.
-FLASHBACK-
Horatio and his team were called by their homicide detective Frank Tripp to investigate a drug-related killing. To say it was a bloody scene would be a gross understatement. The victim was a twenty-something Hispanic male, who weighed 196 pounds, was found lying face down in a pool of his own blood. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds to both shoulders and to the gut by a small caliber handgun. The victim's kneecaps were shot out so he couldn't escape. Both the M.E. Dr. Tom Loman and Calleigh Duquesne the team's firearms expert thought that it was probably a .22 of some type.
Those gunshot wounds weren't the kill shots. The victim was executed by two shots to the back of the head with a .50 A.E. fired from a Desert Eagle. "This is definitely first-degree murder since he was tortured before execution," Horatio casually told Frank at the scene. The house was obviously a methamphetamine lab since all the right chemicals and equipment that would be needed for production were present and accounted for. Horatio got the feeling that the victim was the meth cook.
When the team was about to move the body, they heard a loud continuous clicking, like an egg timer. Horatio being the team's explosives and arson expert knew what it was. He managed to get everyone out of the house right as the massive explosion occurred. The sheer concussive force of the blast was enough to blow out the windows of the house directly behind the victim's home as well as the windows of the neighboring houses on both sides.
The explosive force took out the victims house and the houses on both sided. What started out as a small crime scene has now five times larger.
While looking for the explosive devices "brains," Horatio came across the remains of the neighbors on one side of the house. The neighbor's seven-year-old daughter was at home sick, and both she and her single mother were killed in the explosion. Both victims were found together laying down in what was left of the girl's bed.
Eric and Calleigh were sifting through debris when Calleigh stopped in her tracks. "Did you hear that?" she asked Eric.
Following the noise, she and Eric find a tiny injured Chihuahua in the neighbor's house. The neighbors who were killed in the explosion.
When they get to the backyard of the same house, Ryan finds another dog that managed to survive the explosion. The second dog was a young chocolate lab. The lab was still swimming in the pool.
The only thing that Calleigh could think about was how the hell did the two dogs survive. Horatio told her that the Chihuahuas size is probably the reason why she survived. The other reason why the Chihuahua survived was the fact that she was on the opposite side of the house. The child and mother were in the little girl's bedroom that was closest to the blast, and Calleigh found the Chihuahua in the master bedroom at the other side of the house. The entire house did not explode, but rather fifty feet from the explosive was the blast radius. Everything within fifty feet was obliterated. The concussive force of the explosion went out an additional fifty feet. The Chihuahua was injured by debris that was thrown from the explosive power and pushed with the concussive force through the rest of the house.
Ryan was the one to check the Labrador for injuries and for trace evidence of the explosion. It was at this time that Ryan noticed a go pro type of camera attached to the dog's collar. Ryan was very curious as to what the camera was doing on the dog's collar, so he rushed it to the Audio and Video analyst Dave Benton to check out. What Dave saw was nothing short of incredible. He was the little girl attach the camera with her mom's help. She sends the dog out to the pool with the command "go swim." The dog obediently obeyed. When the dog was out by the pool, the girl tells her to pick up the diving ring on the side of the pool. Again the dog obeyed. The next three commands were what was incredible. The child then tells the dog to "go out," labs being obedient dogs went out to the edge of the diving board. Drop it, the girl said. The dog dropped it down into the pool. The last thing that the girl said was, "go get it." The dog then jumped into the pool with a huge splash. Diving down to the depth of the pool, the dog swam. As the dog was coming up, the camera caught a flash of red light. Dave could only assume that the flash was the explosion. When the dog reached the surface, debris was still falling from the blast. When Dave showed Ryan, even Ryan was surprised by what he saw.
The team was able to gather all the pieces of the explosive device. Testing revealed that the explosive used was TATP or Triacetone Triperoxide. Explosives people affectionately refer to is as "mother of satan" due to its volatility and the ease of making it. I mean a sneeze could set it off, and you can get the supplies at a hardware and drug store.
The TATP bomb created a fireball with a fifty-foot radius. Despite Horatio getting his team about sixty feet from the house, they still were knocked down by the concussive force of the explosion. He assumed that the bomb was made of C4 which has a smaller explosive and concussive effect than TATP. Most scanners can't detect TATP.
When Tom moved the body, it triggered a 2-minute egg timer. Horatio heard the egg timer clicking away and just knew in his gut that it was a bomb. He barely managed to get his entire team out of the house and out of what he thought was the blast radius. Horatio miscalculated the concussive force radius, and the team was knocked off their feet.
Loman was able to remove the bullets from the first victim. With bullets and casings inside evidence bags, Calleigh headed straight to ballistics to find out what type of gun fired to bullets and therefore find the shooter. When Calleigh was not able to link the bullet or casings to a known gun, she checked for D.N.A. or fingerprints from the bullets in the victim and on casings found at the scene. When Ryan ran the fingerprints that were found on the bullet casings at the scene through AFIS, he got a hit, so Natalia ran the D.N.A. to confirm the results. As soon as C.O.D.I.S. came out with the identification of the same person Eric and Horatio went to apprehend the suspect, calling Tripp to meet them at the scene. The suspect drew his weapon on Horatio, which is never a good idea. Horatio shot the suspect in the shoulder. It was obviously an attempt at officer assisted suicide. Horatio was not going to play along with that. Horatio only uses deadly force when absolutely necessary.
Much to the dismay of the suspect, he was brought in without any further incidents. Getting the suspect to confess was easy. Horatio just places a drug baggy that they had found on the suspect on the table and tells him that the drug in the bag matched the drugs found at the scene along with the fact that they found the suspect's D.N.A. and fingerprints on the bullet casings and his skin under the nails of the first victim. The main reason why the suspect was so easy to get to confess was the fact that Horatio placed a photo of the innocent mother and child who were killed in the explosion that the dealer had rigged inside the drug house.
Eric was still in a trance like state when Calleigh quietly knocked on the wall of the hospital room while Eric and Kyle sat thinking about things only known to them.
With all police-involved incidents, IAB will investigate. The IAB agent sent was trained by the disgraced Rick Stetler. Stetler had a thing against Horatio since Horatio got the Lieutenant title that Stetler felt was his. The current IAB investigating Horatio's overdose was convinced that Horatio took the drugs intentionally so he brought in Horatio's team to question them individually all while trying to make them implicate their boss as a drug user. Eric was the first, but Eric made IAB go to the hospital to question him since he was not going to leave his brother.
"Horatio and I were in the process of getting a confession from a drug dealer we suspected was involved in the bombing and murder that the team was investigating at the time. Horatio got the suspect to confess to it all when he dropped the dealer's drug baggie on the table stating that the drug inside the baggie matched the drugs found at the scene. After Tripp left with the arresting officer and the suspect I walked them out before I could turn around I hear a loud noise behind me and see Horatio's sunglasses slide across the floor to stop at my feet. I look up as I turn around to find Horatio collapsed and convulsing on the floor. Horatio was with me the entire time and never had the time alone to take any drugs intentionally. I rush over and start chest compressions on him since his heart stopped. I try to get someone's attention but with the door closed nobody could hear me. If Tripp hadn't come back in when he did Horatio would have died right there on the floor of the interview room," Eric was finished with his interview.
The only other person, the IAB agent, could interview was Tripp since he was there leaving only moments before Horatio collapsed. Most police officers hate all IAB agents, and Tripp was no exception. Tripp didn't want to talk to IAB, but he knew what Horatio would tell him. He could just hear Horatio telling him, "Just talk to IAB, tell the truth, and just trust the evidence." Tripp tells the agent, "I had just stepped out to assist the arresting officer, and I was gone less than 5 minutes. I walk back in the room to find Eric on the floor doing chest compressions on Horatio. Horatio was never alone, and Eric wasn't turned away from him long enough for Horatio to take drugs. There was no way that it was an intentional drug usage." That completely ruined the IAB's attempt to frame Horatio as a drug user. The IAB agent was forced to file the incident as an accidental overdose and not what he wanted. He really wanted to disgrace Horatio and file the incident as intentional drug use but Horatio's officers didn't give him what he wanted.
When H finally opened his eyes, Eric and Kyle were the first people he saw. He smiled at his brother and his son.
The first thing that Horatio said to the two of them was, "Hey, what happened? Where am I?" to which Eric answered both questions.
"You are in the hospital since you overdosed on Fentanyl during an interview. You have been in a coma for two months. You were declared dead for a while we lost you."
He turned to face his son. Smiling he says, " I so sorry that I scared you like that. I know you were here the whole time. You came home, I am so glad you came home just wish it was under different circumstances."
Kyle lovingly answered his father with a smile and a hug.
It took a few minutes for Eric to finally push the nurse call button. When the nurse walked in, she just smiled and softly said: "I'll get Dr. Woods."
The only thing that the nurse was able to say was, "Lieutenant Caine is..." Alexx's heart sank; she just knew that Horatio had died.
Alexx runs to the room to find that Horatio was actually awake and sitting up. "Thank God, I was positive that you died," she says to her friend.
Horatio just gave his old friend a warm smile.
Eric stepped out to call the rest of the team while Alexx checked Horatio's vitals. Kyle was not going to leave his fathers' side, so Alexx just worked around him.
"Horatio's awake," Eric could be heard telling Calleigh. Eric had to pull the phone away from his ears. Calleigh was screaming so loudly. Ryan walks into ballistics at this time. "What's going on Calleigh." "Horatio is awake," she tells her co-worker and friend. Calleigh and Ryan were at the lab processing their new case.
However, when they heard the news, they dropped what they were doing and rushed back to the hospital.
Eric's next calls were to Tripp and Tom. They both stopped what they were doing and rushed to the hospital to see for themselves.
Tom was just about to begin the autopsy on their new case when he heard the news.
Tripp radioed the news in to dispatch since he knew that the media listened to the police radio. The report run with the story.
Headlining "Local Police Officer dies from an overdose of Fentanyl only to wake up in the Morgue. He slid into a coma two months ago and only now regains consciousness. It's a miracle." Finishing it with, "According to the doctor, he is expected to make a full recovery."
Horatio did make a full recovery with the support of his team, his family by choice. His son Kyle had to be shipped back to his unit in Afghanistan. Kyle was there for the most important part of the ordeal that his father had gone through. Kyle never left his dad's side the whole time that he was not conscious. Horatio knew that Kyle and Eric were both at his side. However, he didn't know just what watching your father and brother laying on a hospital bed would do to someone. Eric and Kyle could only watch while Horatio was in a coma and not knowing when and if the person who meant the most to them would ever wake up. Eric and Kyle were totally helpless because they could not force his awake. They make him come out of that coma.
Horatio was back to normal fairly quickly and he was on his way into work for the first time when he heard a emergency call sent by children about a friend who was shot. That call was not too far from Horatio's house.
