We live on front porches and swing life away
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave 'til the end
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand

I'll show you mine if you show me yours first
Let's compare scars I'll tell you whose is worse
Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words

Rise Against, Swing Life Away

"Hello, beautiful." Calleigh smiled happily and slipped her arms around him. "Mmm, you are a breath of fresh air."

"Hello to you, too." Her lips brushed his easily and then she pulled away, reaching for the bag she had set down. "I brought some goodies."

Horatio took in her light weight capris and pink tank top with a grin. God willing they might actually get to spend a full day together without work. He enjoyed the comfort of just being with her and the ease he had at opening up to her. They had decided to keep their budding relationship quiet at work, though they knew their friends would be happy for them. Horatio had wanted to keep Calleigh out of the rumor mill and she didn't want to cause him any discomfort around Eric because of Marisol. They were still taking things slow, getting to know one another more intimately than they had ever done before, something that was hard for both of them. The scars they wore ran deep but as Horatio revealed his past and Calleigh compassionately listened, he could feel the soothing of her healing balm on his very soul.

"Okay, so what did you bring us?"

She smiled mischievously and winked. "You'll just have to see."

"Oh, is it that how this is going to go, Miss Duquesne?" Horatio rested his hands on his hips, looking very much like an interrogator. His head dipped down and she watched him nervously. "We'll just…have to see about that, won't we?"

In an instant, she had been pushed down onto the couch, her bag gently knocked from her hands and was mercilessly being tickled by the ginger headed man sitting gracefully next to her. "Horatio! Ah! This isn't fair! You…have…to…stop!" She giggled uncontrollably as she tried to fight him off and, though she may have matched him in strength and surpassed him in agility, he had the advantage.

"Do you surrender, ma'am? I'm prepared to offer you sanctuary if you give in."

"Surrender? Are…you…kidding? Never!" Calleigh caught him by surprise and flipped him on his back onto the floor. The suddenness of the movement and the impact of the wooden floor pushed the air from his lungs and she quickly sat on top of him, pinning him almost successfully on the ground.

"Alright, alright, I give in. Milady wins this round." She gave him a self-satisfied grin and tried to climb off. "I didn't say you could move. Lay down."

"I whipped you, now get up!"

"I want a losing cuddle." Calleigh looked at him suspiciously and then consented, resting her head gently on the hollow of his chest where her head fit so well. His breathing evened out and she just listened to the comforting beat of his heart in her ear. After waiting so long, Horatio was in her arms and she was in his home and they were in each other's hearts. She sat up quickly, refusing to allow herself to cry and reached for the bag she'd brought in. Horatio sensed her sudden need to distract herself and sat up as well, helping her to move gently from his lap. "So, what did you bring?"

She pulled a bottle of merlot from her bag first and offered it to him for his approval. He chuckled but nodded, signaling for her to continue with her impromptu show and tell. "A hammock, to watch the sunset from and a swimsuit to partake in the beautiful water."

"You want to swim?"

"Well, that would be the idea, handsome. You do swim, don't you?" She teased lightly, but she could feel the change in his demeanor.

"Hmm…well, not in a while, actually."

Calleigh watched him cautiously, trying to deduce what he was hiding. He couldn't be self conscious…he was in great shape for his age. "Are you too shy?" She kept her voice light as she tried to open him up. He tried to laugh it off, but she realized it had something to do with it by his clenched hands at his side. She rested her own small hand on his, gently plying his fingers open. "You don't have to swim, if you don't want. I'll just splash you on the sidelines."

Her smile lit up the room and he finally gave her a true smile back. "If you want to swim, Cal, we can swim. It's why I have a house on the beach after all." She left it at that and both of them went to change into their swimsuits. When she stepped to the back porch, she watched him set up the hammock, covered in a t-shirt and blue trunks. Through the shirt she could see his lightly lined body, boasting of a trim form, so she knew that wasn't what shied him away. Gently she rested a hand on his back, causing him to turn around.

He kept his head tilted down, but he did take in her tan form clad in a black string bikini with an appreciative smile. "Horatio? Whatever it is you feel the need to hide, know that it doesn't bother me." She rested her hand on his arm. "I love every part of you I've learned so far and I don't think there's anything that can change that. I want to know it all, see it all, and have it all."

Horatio still stood like a wounded puppy and all of the sudden, it hit her like a ton of bricks. He acted like her when someone brought up a subject she was self-conscious on. Self-conscious because of things her father had said to her while she was growing up. "Your father," she uttered softly. "Scars? Is that what you're hiding from me?" At his silence, she knew she had deduced correctly.

She closed her eyes tightly for a split second to banish the tears that had filled them suddenly, not wanting him to see how his past pained her. She could just see a small Horatio stepping in front of his father to protect his mother and brother. When she glanced back at him she saw that he had missed her inner turmoil, too lost in his own. Calleigh moved to him quietly, leaving her hand on his arm, as her lips caressed his check, then his lips, settling on his neck. Her arms moved to settle around him, resting lightly on the edge of his hem as her lips wrecked gentle havoc on his system.

Horatio closed his closed eyes and let Calleigh assault him, though he left his hands at his sides. "Cal."

"Shh." Deftly, she raised the shirt up off of his head, depositing it somewhere on the ground beneath them. Without missing a beat, she lay feather soft kisses on the scars she felt littered on his warm skin. She brushed them lightly with her hands, trying with all her might to ease the hurt beneath each one. She followed one around the curve of his hip to his broad back, and continued her task her. Some were small, others were expansive, but all told the same story of abuse at a father's hands who tended to rely on a blade to solve his problems. She pressed a kiss into his shoulder blade and he turned around, almost startling her with his swiftness. He caught her in his own embrace, passion-filled and just slightly dampened by the tears she felt on his cheek.

"God, Calleigh, I love you. I don't know what I did to deserve you." he whispered against her swollen lips. Pulling back slightly, he was lost in her sparkling gaze. "I don't know how I deserve to be looked at like that. Instead of pity, your eyes shine with love and I'm foolish enough to believe that that love is all for me. It's like staring into an emerald when I look at you looking at me. How can I be worthy of that?"

"Beloved, I was born for you. You didn't have to do anything to deserve me. We were given bad lots as children and for that, now we have each other, to help us heal and to show us we deserved more."

Hours later, damp and exhausted, they rested on the hammock on his porch watching the sun set over the Miami coastline. He held her tightly to him, his lips resting in her hair, breathing her in and out. Calleigh lay twined into him, her leg draped over his waist, one hand ruffling his hair, and the other resting right above his heart. Her eyelashes fluttered against his chest, so he knew she was still awake, swept away by the beauty that surrounded them. "I can just see us ending our days here, with the children we've given the world…everything we weren't offered, playing in the water."

Her breath caught in her chest at the casual mention of their future but she smiled into his skin. "With me calling for them to not go too far and to come back in."

"And me, reassuring you and trying to convince you to let them have a few more minutes so we can have a few moments alone." Calleigh sighed happily, hopeful that if they so chose, they could have the happy marriage neither one of them was raised within. "Stay the night, Cal…let me hold you while we sleep."

Gently she pulled herself up, leaning above him. "There's nowhere I'd rather be, handsome." She kissed him and settled back to his side, knowing that together they could face all that life held in store.