A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and for adding the story to your alert list. It means a lot to me.
Chapter 02
"So what about dinner?" Horatio asked when he and Stella emerged from the conference hall. Gil Grissom hadn't been the only one who had given a lecture and now time for dinner was rapidly approaching.
"Dinner?" Stella asked incredulously. "After all those bugs, spiders, leeches and insects he had shown us? This was disgusting and definitely the best way to start and keep up with a diet, that's for sure."
"Not to forget that some people actually eat those insects," Horatio upped the ante and only laughed when Stella shot him a death glare. "Come on, Stella. It had been a long day for both of us and I'm sure the restaurant here will serve something different than bugs," he gave her his best charming smile and pointed towards the restaurant.
Of course she was hungry, very much so, but she didn't want to admit it and therefore let him win. "I really wonder how you can still think about eating after this lecture," she shook her head, but followed him nevertheless.
"There's more or less nothing that can spoil my appetite and don't deny it, it's the same with you." In actual fact, this worked for every CSI, or they all would have died of starvation already.
"I'm only doing this for you," she huffed playfully. "Since I know that it's frustrating to sit alone and eat."
"That's all I'm asking for, Ma'am," he grinned and gestured to a small table near the big windows on the opposite side of the room. Helping her to sit down when they arrived, he took a seat himself across from her and sighed. "Let's hope that at least the food is good here, since you don't like their special…appetizers."
"Funny, Mr. Caine," she growled and thanked the waiter when he handed her the menu. "So let's see..," she talked to herself and let her eyes roam over the different dishes. It was definitely a good thing that they had board and lodging, so she could order whatever she wanted.
"Did something already catch your eye?" Horatio asked, after he hadn't heard anything from her for a few moments. He himself would take a good steak for the main course.
"Mhm…probably yes," she nodded and had another look at the dish. "Yes, I think I'll take the fish."
"Sounds good to me," Horatio replied and motioned the waiter that they were ready to order.
A few minutes later they were alone again and drinking a good glass of wine. "So," Horatio started, "what's new in New York?" he asked curiously, since he and Mac hadn't had the time to talk for a while.
"Oh," she grinned, "especially you should know that there's always something new in this city. But since I believe that you don't mean if there's a new tree in the Central Park, but what's new in the crime lab… well there definitely are some things you might not know yet."
"And that would be?" he asked intrigued and leaned back in his chair.
"Oh well, starting with the fact, that we now have a married couple in our midst..," she started and was immediately interrupted by Horatio.
"Married?" he asked and looked at her ring finger, which resulted into a "Not me, Silly" comment from Stella. Smiling, he winked at her and became more serious again. "Okay, so who's married?"
"Do you still remember Danny Messer and Lindsay Monroe?"
"Hmm, I think I do. Doesn't he always call her Montana?" Horatio thought out loud.
"Exactly. Though I'm sure that he's too afraid now of doing so, because his wife wouldn't be amused about it…," she joked.
"Well if my conclusion is right and that Lindsay is his wife…then I'd totally agree with that," Horatio chuckled and shook his head. "So these two? That's wonderful. Already felt some connection between them when I was in New York last time, but oh well…never thought that this could be something so…official, if you know what I mean."
"I do and in a way, they didn't have any other chance but make it that official," Stella asked cryptically.
"Stella, stop doing this, I'm an old man and too much excitement is not good for me," he chided her playfully and sipped from his wine.
"I'll pretend that I didn't hear that, Lieutenant," she rolled her eyes, but revealed the secret nevertheless. "Well, let's say there were unforeseen events that brought them…even closer and made Danny think about their whole relationship."
Raising an eyebrow, Horatio repeated her words in his head until realization struck him. "A pregnancy?"
"The candidate get 100 points," she laughed. "Yes, Lindsay was pregnant at that time and after she'd said no to his first proposal…he had tricked her into saying yes a few weeks later, with me and Mac as their witnesses."
"The baby is already born?" Horatio asked surprised. "Wow, they really are quick and Mac is really slow in keeping me up to date," he joked.
"I'll tell him once I'm back," she smiled. "But yes, the baby is already there. A little girl called Lucy. Such a cutie, the whole lab is head over heels for her, no matter if man or woman."
"I bet," Horatio chuckled and could only imagine what it would be like in his lab if one of his colleagues would become a mother or a father. "That's wonderful news, Stella. Please tell them my congratulations when you see them back home, will you?"
"Of course," she replied and found it endearing that he was so happy for some people he barely knew. "But then again, I need to congratulate you as well," she continued and immediately noticed that his expressions changed from happy to..well..sad in a way. "I'm sorry if I overstepped some line here."
"No," Horatio shook his head and looked at her reassuringly. "It's fine and okay, I don't mind."
Stella wasn't so sure about it, so she decided to change the subject a bit. "I still need to find a Christmas present for Lucy, not that she would notice if she doesn't get one, but I so want to give her something. I just didn't have the time for doing so back home."
"Oh I'm sure that you can find something nice here. Boston is far up north, but I'm confident that they have baby clothing stores here as well," he teased her and was glad that she had changed the subject.
"I'm not sure if you should have any more wine," she groaned, but didn't say anything more, because their meals arrived. After thanking their waiter, they both concentrated on their food, until Stella broke the silence. "So, what has happened in Miami?"
"Oh…a lot of things I'd say and most of them.. not as happy as the marriage and pregnancy I'm afraid," he sighed and took a bite of his steak.
"You want to talk about it? We don't have to, it's okay if-"
"No, it's fine. I just wanted to warn you in case you've been expecting something similar positive," he interrupted her gently. "We almost lost Eric Delko due to a very bad head injury caused by a bullet. It was a very close thing and to be honest, for a long moment, I had feared that our team would be losing another member." And he another relative in his life.
"That's never easy," she nodded in sympathy, because she knew what she was talking about. With Aiden Burn they had not only lost a member of their team, but also a very good friend.
"No it's not," he agreed, "but thankfully, Eric survived and even though there were a couple things that he had forgotten…he's making progress every day. He's already working in the lab again and sometimes it's like nothing had happened at all. But then, there are times, which are very frustrating, especially for him of course, but we do our best to help him. I think in a way, this injury and close call also achieved something in his friendship with Calleigh. I'm not aware of it officially of course, but I do believe that they're more than friends and as long as they're happy…I'm happy for them."
"So maybe you can also tell me about a marriage and a baby in the near future," she commented and was happy that the man was doing better. Sure, she didn't know him personally, but he was a police officer as well and in a way, they were all a big family.
"Oh.. I don't know. You know we have this IAB Agent in Miami, who always sticks his nose into other people's business and officially, relationships with a fellow officer are forbidden. Especially when they're in the same team. That's why I have no idea about it officially, I just see their glances," he shrugged. "And I certainly won't ask them about it. Once they trust me enough and their relationship, they will fill me in." He was sure about that. He knew that his friends trusted him, just as he trusted them.
"That's sad," Stella shook her head. "As if there aren't other…more important things for them to do," she continued in disgust.
"Well, it's his personal vendetta against me and he wants to make my team suffer to get them on his side. Too bad for him, that this won't happen in a million years," he rolled his eyes at Stetler's antics. "Well this was the one big thing that happened in the last months…the other big thing was our ME Alexx Woods, leaving the lab. This was and still is really hard for us. She was the mother of the team and if you had a problem you either went to her freely or she made you talk," he chuckled. "In a way the team is still struggling with this loss, even though she's still alive, still lives in Miami as well… it's not the same any longer."
"I can understand that, the team...is more like a family and if one member suddenly disappears, the rest is struggling with this particular loss."
"Right, but I can understand her choice. It was for the best actually and now she has a good job in the hospital and I think she likes that a lot."
"And that's all what counts in the end, doesn't it?" Stella asked and patted his hand.
"It does," he agreed wholeheartedly and gave her a small smile. Of course, the other huge loss in his life, was his wife, but…he didn't want to talk about Marisol right now. It had been over two years that he had lost her, but talking about it, still wasn't one of his fortes.
"And in fact you can still visit her. Just because she works somewhere else, doesn't mean that you can't see her."
"That's true and to be honest, I've been very bad in visiting her for the last months, I definitely need to improve that."
"You better do that, Mister. Even a close friendship needs some effort to keep it alive and you don't want to lose this friendship, do you?"
"God forbid!" he exclaimed jokingly, but meant it nevertheless. Alexx had become a very important part of his life, had become his confident on more than one occasion and he certainly didn't want to lose that. "Seriously, I'll call her once I'm back home and wish her a merry Christmas; which is funny actually since we always had a small party at her house in the past and we never had to call someone to wish them a merry Christmas. But.. I guess..time is full of changes."
"Sure, but why not keeping up with this great idea? You're still friends, still family… you can still have a small party. No one says that you have to work together to do that."
"But she probably wants to spend it now rather with her family, than with us," he pointed out.
"Believe me when I say, that this woman doesn't sound like she would forget her friends…her family just like that, Horatio. She's probably just waiting for some sign of life from all of you and the party can get started," Stella laughed. "You definitely have to call her, or she'll call you and give you some tongue lashing for not calling her."
"That sounds like our Alexx," Horatio joined in her laughing. "And what a tongue lashing it would be, I wouldn't even need my phone to hear it."
"See? And we don't want that, do we? So the first call you'll make once you're back, is Alexx. I'll hold you to that, Mr. Caine," she threatened.
"And what if I don't do that?" he challenged.
"Do you really want to know?" she countered and gave him a stare that would even make the toughest guy as meek as a lamb.
"Probably not," he replied cheekily and ate the last bite of his meal.
"Good answer, Lieutenant," she nodded contently. She was a Greek-Italian woman after all and knew her way around men. Something, Horatio had seemingly learned by now.
"I won't say anything without my lawyer," he bantered, but before she could say something, he changed the subject completely. "Can I interest you in a dessert?"
"Normally, my answer would be yes, but to be honest, I can already feel my eyes getting heavier by every moment passing by."
"I hope that's not because of my presence," he said in mockingly, but actually felt the same way.
"Of course it is," she grinned and laughed when he put his hand over his heart with a pained expression. "No, this time it's not you. It's rather due to the fact that I had a case the night before the flight, so I only had an hour or two before I needed to get up again to get ready for the flight. And right now, after this nice meal, this is catching up on me."
"Well then I'd say, that it's time for us to leave, don't you think?"
"You don't have to leave, Horatio. I'm sure that there's a nice bar here where you can stumble into some interesting conversations. Maybe you can also meet Mr. Grissom, since you're obviously so much into all those bugs," she teased, but meant it. "Just because I'm tired doesn't mean that you have to get to bed yourself."
"I know that, but to be honest, I'm tired too. I'm an old man, remember and I do need my sleep of which I didn't have that much either today. Taking the first flight is never a good idea, especially when it means getting up at 5 o'clock after a long shift," he shook his head and stood up. "I'm sure I can also meet Mr. Grissom at breakfast tomorrow and then I'll let him tell us about all the different insects that you can meet in nature."
"Oh, what a wonderful idea you got there, Horatio. It seems like I need to keep a great distance between you and me, because I definitely don't want to hear anything about those creatures ever again," she pulled a face and accepted his hand, when he helped her to get up.
"I don't really see your problem with them," Horatio continued when they walked out of the restaurant. "They're very important for a case, as he said."
"Sure, but I guess I would always let someone else find out what they are, what they eat and what their sex life looks like," she shuddered.
"Yes, that was indeed the most interesting…or should I say...weirdest part of his lecture…," Horatio shuddered as well.
"I hope I won't have nightmares tonight because of this," Stella commented and reached for her key card when they stepped out on their floor.
"Maybe you can sue him, who knows," Horatio joked and stopped at his room door. "Thanks for keeping me company tonight during dinner, even though you weren't hungry at all," he smiled.
"As I said, I just did it for you, Horatio," she played along.
"And I feel honored for that," he chuckled and opened his door. "Have a nice evening and in case you got nightmares, I think his room number is 619, so you can confront him."
"That's very thoughtful of you, thank you," she shook her head and patted his shoulder. "Have a nice night, Horatio."
"You too, Stella. And if something is wrong, don't hesitate to give me a call."
"I'll keep that in mind, but I hope that there won't be any giant bugs in my room," she smirked and walked to her room. There, she turned around and gave him a last wave, before she finally entered the room and closed the door behind her.
"I'll hope that too," Horatio said to himself and shuddered at that thought. Entomology would never be one of his favorite subjects within the CSI world.
Tbc
Can you hear the green button calling? I can^^
