There was a moment of silence and everything stood still after the plane had crashed down in the lake. Then all the windows broke and water started to fill it. Horatio looked over to see Calleigh knocked out cold and cursed. He grabbed her and flung her over his shoulder as he started to walk down the aisle. The water was quickly filling the plane and soon Horatio couldn't walk anymore; he had to swim. He let go of Calleigh and instead held her hand as he dove under surface and tried to open the door. It was stuck. He kicked it and pulled at the handle, but it wouldn't open. He tried to swim back over the surface only to find out that the plane was now completely filled with water.
The windows were too small to swim out of and so the only other way than the door had to be the cockpit window. He grabbed Calleigh by her arms and started to swim towards the cockpit. He sadly eyed the two dead pilots before he gently pushed Calleigh out of the plane first and then followed her. He started to get desperate for air and grabbed Calleigh again before he started to swim for the surface. However, he soon had to stop when he noticed that Calleigh was stuck on something. He grabbed her foot and saw a rope stuck around Calleigh's foot and on something in the plane. Horatio could feel his lungs protesting to the lack of air and he suddenly felt very light headed. He had to get Calleigh loose or they would both die soon. It was as if his hands and arms had lost all muscle strength as he pulled at the rope and even tried to pull Calleigh down to get the noose off her.
However, it was too tight. Instead Horatio had no choice but to surface and get some air before going under again. He noticed how cold it was the moment he reached the surface and he panted; took a deep breath and went under again. He followed the rope inside the plane, he didn't know where it came from, but then he saw a piece of broken glass and started to cut the rope. It worked!
He grabbed Calleigh again and this time the both of them reached the surface. Horatio swam to land and dragged Calleigh up on the snow.
"Come on Calleigh, wake up!" He begged and checked for a pulse.
If she had one, he didn't feed it or hear it as he put his head on her chest; she was too cold. He couldn't see if she was breathing either so he started doing chest compressions and giving her breaths of air.
"Calleigh, come on! Don't give up!" He urged.
Fear filled his mind as he realized that his bullet-girl wasn't breathing nor had a pulse. He had to save her!
"Calleigh! Bullet-girl, fight!" He begged.
Calleigh coughed and Horatio turned her head to the side as water ran out of her mouth. She gasped for air and threw up as she sat up on her knees. Horatio sighed in relief and rubbed her back as Calleigh tried to get air into her lungs.
"Thank you." She said with a husky voice.
"You don't have to thank me." Horatio said, "I uh, I didn't bring our luggage with me. It's still the plane. I can go back-"
"No! We can manage without luggage. You're not going back." Calleigh said and started to shiver from being so cold.
Horatio draped his suit jacket over her and she gave him in an appreciative smile. Then he stood up and started to search for some wood; they had to start a fire. Calleigh tried to find some rocks that they could use; none of them carried matches or a lighter.
As he searched for wood Horatio started to think about everything he could have lost. His team and friends, his family; his 9-year-old boy who was waiting for him at home. Kyle had come to Horatio when he was three, after his grandmother had died. The police in Chicago had managed to find out that Horatio was Kyle's father. Horatio hadn't known he existed. He had been undercover in Pensacola and met Julia; she had left one day being pregnant with Kyle; she had gone to Chicago. When the boy had been born she had left him in her mother's care. Horatio had been forced to lie to Julia and say his name was John Walden, but she hadn't had any reason to lie about being pregnant.
Now he had raised Kyle for six years and he loved him very much. Yelina was taking care of him while Horatio was gone; well, now that would be extended. Not that Kyle would mind hanging out with his 8-year-old cousin Ray Jr, but what if he never saw his father again? Horatio shook his head to clear his mind off the terrible thoughts he had. He would get back home to his son.
After twenty minutes Horatio had gathered a lot of wood and Calleigh had found two rocks. They built a fire place and got working on getting the rocks to send sparks flying.
"Come on." Calleigh growled low, "Work, dammit!"
Horatio looked surprised at the blonde; he had never heard her curse before.
"What?" She asked.
"I just never heard you curse before… I think." Horatio said.
Calleigh shrugged and growled when no fire came. She had been trying for fifteen minutes already. She was tired and freezing. She could get sick and getting sick in the middle of nowhere and with no food in sight wasn't very good.
Horatio grabbed the rocks as Calleigh gave up on trying. He had to try for ten minutes before the first sparks came. Calleigh and Horatio got new hope and the red head worked harder this time. Finally, after only a few minutes there was a small fire.
"Yes!" Calleigh grinned and hugged Horatio.
They both pulled apart quickly and blushed; even if he had saved her, Horatio still had to apologize. Calleigh blushed and smiled as the fire grew bigger. Finally they could get somewhat warmer.
"I should really try to go back to the plane and see if I can find something." Horatio said.
"No, it's too dangerous. Going back into that freezing water won't help you get warmer." Calleigh said.
"Maybe I don't have to go back under." Horatio said and he looked out over the lake.
"Horatio, I don't-"
"There is a bag floating on the surface." He interrupted her.
Calleigh stood up and saw the bag. They glanced at each other and then Horatio moved to the water.
"Wait! Uh... be careful." Calleigh said.
"Always." Horatio smiled and started to walk out in the cold, cold water.
He instantly regretted his decision as his limbs froze even more than before, but he had to get that bag. He started swimming and gasped as he started to lose the feelings of his limbs. He finally grabbed the bag and swam back. Calleigh instantly pulled him in for a hug as he got up on land again and Horatio was stunned.
"Body heat will help us both get warm." Calleigh whispered.
"I hadn't thought of that." Horatio said.
He dropped the bag on the ground and embraced the beautiful blonde. The first thing that he felt got warmer was his heart. His heart melted as she tightened her hold of his body. Calleigh closed her eyes and her mind drifted off to la-la-land. She wished she could have stood this close to the red head at home, as they watched Kyle play on the backyard. Calleigh and the team treated Kyle like family of course and Calleigh saw the young boy as her own son too; she just hadn't told anyone that.
"We should uh, look for something to eat." Horatio said.
Calleigh nodded and they pulled apart; both of them instantly regretting it, but they knew they couldn't stand like that forever. Calleigh kept an eye on the fire, while Horatio searched for food. He saw a deer and sneaked back to Calleigh.
"I saw a deer." He grinned, "The problem is how to kill it."
"Spear?" Calleigh suggested.
"I don't have anything to make a spear with."
"The bag!" Calleigh remembered.
She grabbed it and started to look through it.
"Whose bag is this?" She asked.
"Not mine. One of the pilots' maybe?"
"Well, whoever it is apparently thinks that the proper things to pack in a bag are liquor, cigarettes, porn magazines, and a picture of a dog." Calleigh said a she placed all the items on the ground, "And a piece of red yarn, sunscreen, sun hat and… a knife."
Horatio smiled and grabbed the knife. He quickly found a long enough piece of branch and started to cut it into a spear. Calleigh looked at the other things and started to put it back in the bag.
"The liquor we can use as fuel on the fire." She said, "The rest we can just throw away."
"I agree." Horatio said and looked at his spear, "You wanna join me for the hunt?"
Calleigh shook her head, "Better keep an eye on the fire."
Horatio nodded and sneaked away. As he got closer to the deer he saw that it had a fawn. He sighed and decided to walk away; he couldn't kill a mother and child even if it was in the animal world and he was hungry. As he started walking further away he saw a rabbit. He smirked; unfortunately he would have to kill it.
He threw the spear and missed. He cursed silently and started following the rabbit as it ran away. Horatio was fast too and always saw its tail; it would have outrun him if it wasn't already limping on it's left leg. Horatio growled as he started to lose sight of it and decided to throw the spear again. The tragic sound of the animal being hurt made Horatio wince and he ran to it. The rabbit's blood colored the snow red and Horatio picked up the now dead animal.
"Sorry, buddy." He sighed and walked back to Calleigh.
When he came back Calleigh raised her eyebrows at him.
"I thought you said you had seen a deer." She said amused.
"When I came back, there was a fawn there too." Horatio said, "I didn't have the heart to kill it then. But I found a rabbit."
Calleigh wasn't particularly happy about eating the poor rabbit, as was Horatio. However, they didn't have much of a choice if they wanted to live and so Horatio started working on removing the fur and cutting it open with the knife. After a while it was being grilled over the fire and the red head and blonde sat there watching it in silence.
"So uh, any idea where we should go after this?" Calleigh asked.
"We should stay here." Horatio said, "We have a bigger chance of being found here. The police will be able to check where the plane's signal got lost and the first place they will look is either here or the nearby surrounding area."
"Of course. We have to make a tent or something." She said, "What else are we going to sleep under?"
Horatio shrugged.
"Then we make a tent of fir tree branches and leaves." Calleigh said.
"After dinner." Horatio said as the rabbit was now done.
Calleigh watched as he took the first bite and chuckled as he grimaced at the taste.
"We could have used some spice." He said.
"You've never eaten rabbit before?"
"I have, but this one was bad." He grimaced as he took another bite.
Calleigh took a bite too and instantly knew what he was talking about. But, they had no choice but to finish their meal and afterwards they felt a little bit better.
"A tent you said, huh?" Horatio said, "I see a fir tree over there."
He pointed behind Calleigh and both of them approached the tree. Calleigh looked at Horatio and he looked back confused.
"Oh, you want me to climb up the tree and break off some branches?" He asked.
"Yep." Calleigh said and Horatio started climbing.
The reason he had to climb was because the best branches were up there. The tree's lower half was only covered in empty branches, with no leaves on them.
"Couldn't we just find another fir tree?" Horatio asked as kicked on a branch to break it.
Calleigh looked around.
"There are a few trees over there." Calleigh said.
"Great, I am coming down." Horatio said and started climbing down.
Suddenly he lost his grip on the branch over his head and then his balance. He tried to grab onto something, but there was nothing there and he heard Calleigh scream his name as he fell.
Please review!