Disclaimer: I don't own the CSI stuff #sings# Just cos singing makes it more interesting.

I'm not as far ahead as I'd like to be, I haven't had much writing time this week. But I decided as I've made everyone wait over a week for a chapter I should post.

Chapter Three.

The silence was eerie. The only sound was the clicking of their shoes upon the hard floors. They took the stairs as the elevators were still out of service. They didn't speak. When they reached their destination; the locker room, they stopped to take stock of themselves. The memories of the day before came flooding back to each of them. All of them having very different recollections of what happened and how. But every single one of them could recall seeing Horatio lying prone in the middle of that floor. The bomb squad had just finished up. The guy who seemed to be in charge had already taken off his body armour and he approached them slowly.

"Hi. You guys the CSIs?" He asked them

They nodded silently, still in awe of the damage that the bomb had done to the small room.

"Okay, well this is the last room. It's all clear. The bomb must have been very concentrated because of the containment of the damage. I knew Horatio Caine..."

Before he could finish Natalia jumped in, "you know Horatio Caine. He's still alive." She said quite aggressively.

"I know; I was going to say I knew him when he was in the bomb squad." He looked at her; she looked slightly apologetic but didn't say anything. "And I was going to continue to say, that I imagine he closed the door to help contain any blast that could have occurred. He did well. The structure of the room is sound. No more of the ceiling should fall in and the floor is fine."

Eric nodded, "Okay, thank you. So we can take over the scene now?" He asked.

The Bomb guy nodded and he turned to leave, his team followed closely behind him. His parting words chilled them, "this guy was good, and he could strike again."

-oOo-

Ryan was staring out of the window. He hadn't really listened to any of the conversation. That was why he noticed Frank Tripp when he appeared outside. He was now arguing with the patrol officer that was guarding the perimeter.

"Hey guys, Frank's here. I'm gonna go help him get inside."

Ryan headed off. He greeted Frank at the tape. Even though the patrol officer wasn't happy about the situation he let Frank pass underneath.

"So I land at the airport, pick up a newspaper and the first thing I read is that there was an explosion at the lab!" Frank tells Ryan, "then as I read on they say there was only one severe casualty, and that it was Horatio. So I called the hospital and you know what they told me?" He looked wide eyed at Ryan. "Nothing. They told me nothing. Fill me in Wolfe, what's going on?"

"There was a bomb. Horatio noticed something was wrong in the locker room and made Delko evacuate the building. The bomb exploded. When Delko called the hospital this morning the doctor said there was no change. Horatio is in a drug induced coma and is on a ventilator," Ryan sighed before continuing, "he has other injuries, they're not sure how he'll recover."

Frank listened intently, not interrupting; allowing Ryan to finish his piece. "You guys are on the case?" Frank asked, surprised.

"Yeah, let's just say we weren't the first choice. So, are you going to join us?" He asked the tall Sergeant.

"Hell yeah, I wanna see anyone try and stop me." He finished the sentence just as they met up with the others. He stopped shocked at his first sight of the locker room. "Horatio was in there?"

Eric stopped and turned, "hey Frank, and yeah he was."

Taking in the total devastation took Frank a while. The others had already seen it the day before; even if it had been hectic it wasn't something they were going to forget for a long while. The image was pretty much etched into their minds. It was what was going to drive them forward, what was going to keep them focused. That and knowing that they were hunting someone who had seriously injured one of their own.

"What do you want me to do?" Ryan asked, the others had already sectioned off the room and were searching for bomb components.

Calleigh pointed to the surveillance camera in the corner of the room. "Do you think we'll get anything off that?" She asked him.

"It looks pretty badly damaged, but that doesn't mean we can't get any images from it. Especially images from before the explosion." He stopped abruptly, knowing that if he watched the footage that quite possibly he'd see the moment the bomb went off, and see Horatio acquire the injuries that he sustained. He wasn't sure he wanted to see that.

Frank placed his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "How about I come with you and see what we can find?" He offered kindly.

Ryan nodded and they headed off.

-oOo-

Calleigh, Natalia and Eric continued to sift through the wreckage looking for anything that could have been part of the bomb. Their gloved hands worked deftly and soon they had quite a pile of pieces they thought were the workings of the bomb. Without the air conditioning the room was hot and getting hotter by the minute. The sweat was starting to freely flow and they were all starting to get a little uncomfortable. No one wanted to be the first to mention discomfort as this job was so significant, more important than any little irritation they were suffering. Eric wiped his forearm across his forehead. He noticed Natalia had dirty black smudges all over her cheeks and Calleigh's hair was all ruffled and she was rosy red in her cheeks.

"You want me to get some soda?" He asked them, knowing that if they all agreed no one would see the break as a weakness. "I'm really hot, so I know you both must be too."

Natalia and Calleigh stopped relieved. They both agreed to a soda, and followed Eric out of the room. They sat on the floor in the hall and leant their backs against the wall while they waited for him to return with their drinks.

"I wonder how Ryan and Frank are getting on." Natalia speculated aloud.

-oOo-

Ryan and Frank were sat in a/v. Ryan had set up the surveillance footage; he'd found the recordings of the locker room from the previous day. The camera was only of the locker area, not the changing area or the showers. That would just be unethical. Ryan hoped that the camera had caught enough, but not everything. He really didn't want to see Horatio get hurt. The video started to play. They saw people come and go; nothing unusual.

"Stick it on fast forward Ryan, we don't have all day!"

Ryan jumped at Frank's voice. He'd forgotten he was even there. He clicked on a button and the footage sped up. They watched people go to their lockers, leave things, get things, lock up and leave. Nothing out of the ordinary until the camera moved. It no longer showed the lockers. Ryan paused it. He looked at Frank. He rewound it and they watched it at the proper speed.

"Someone moved the camera!" Ryan exclaimed.

He yelled out again after continuing to watch the video at its proper speed, "they moved it back. When they were done they moved it back!" He glanced at Frank. His lips were pursed and he was deep in thought.

"Someone had to know the camera was there and would catch them in the act." He said thoughtfully to Ryan. "Maybe you could get prints from the camera?" He asked Ryan.

"Delko's good with printing. But they're working on the bomb components." Ryan exhaled noisily as Eric appeared on the camera not ten minutes after the camera had been straightened up.

"What did you see?"

He rewound it again and showed Frank, "Eric went into the locker room right after whoever left. Maybe he passed them in the hall."

They kept watching. Delko disappeared; he re-emerged a few moments later with a towel wrapped around his waist. Then he went off camera again and came back fully clothed. It was just then that Horatio came into sight. Frank and Ryan both drew breath as they watched the silent conversation pan out. The smiles between Horatio and Eric made them both feel sad in their guts, knowing Horatio was right at this moment relying on a machine to do his breathing for him. Then they saw the smiles turn to concern, they watched as Horatio pointed towards the door, almost pushing Eric out, his face stern and concentrating.

"I'm gonna turn it off." Ryan broke the tension ridden silence.

"You can't, what if there are clues?" Frank choked out.

Ryan continued to watch, his eyes starting to blur with the threat of tears. He tried not to look away even though his head was screaming for him to do just that. He kept his eyes on the screen as after closing the door, Horatio stepped deftly across the locker room. He placed his ear to quite a few lockers before stopping at one. He listened carefully, looked around, then he checked his watch. He seemed to be content that people had had enough time to get far enough away to be relatively safe if something did go wrong. He took hold of the locker handle with one hand, took a deep breath and pulled the door open. The blast was instant. A sob escaped from Ryan's mouth, there was no way he could stop it. He watched with his mouth wide open and with tears running silently down his cheeks as Horatio was blown across the room in the wave of the explosion. Then the camera went fuzzy. White lines scrolled across it. Ryan reached down and pressed the button to stop it and the screen went black. He turned to Frank, who just nodded at the younger man and turned and left the room.

A/N: I hope I can keep your interest. All of a sudden my writers block seems to be returning. I hope it doesn't make me unable to write... more soon though. Please review...it helps to know what you guys think.
Sarry xx