Chapter 4

Zoë was beginning to feel light-headed but carried on driving and gave up reaching for her phone otherwise she'd cause a crash. 'What's going on?!" She thought to herself. She pulled onto Palm Island and pulled out onto the road that the scene was on. Horatio saw her hummer approaching slowly. She pulled over in the middle of the road about 150 yards from the scene and opened her door. Horatio climbed out of his hummer and began walking over to her hummer while Ryan had begun to photograph evidence. As Zoë stepped out she fell to the ground and Horatio began to run over to her.

"ZOE!" Horatio yelled, running over to her, he studied her as she lay limply on the ground, only moving slightly. Ryan then dropped the camera and began running, he caught up with Horatio, they saw Zoë struggling to get to her feet and using the hummer door as support briefly.

"STAY BACK!" Zoë yelled as they got about 25 yards away from her. Zoë then stumbled as she let go of the hummer.

"Zoë, what's wrong?" Horatio said with a raised voice, they stopped running and began briskly walking over to her. As they got closer they could see Zoë's very pale face, her lips dark, possibly blue and having difficulty breathing – she seemed short of breath. They got to about 15 yards away. She almost fell again, she was clearly very dizzy. She placed her hand over her stomach and retched briefly before she looked back up at Horatio and Ryan as they stepped closer again.

"Stay back, don't hurt her!" Zoë raised her voice.

"Hurt who?" Horatio asked growing concerned, they both took another step closer and Zoë pulled her gun out. They stepped back, completely shocked. She seemed to be struggling for air.

"Don't hurt her please." Zoë said with tears welling up in her eyes.

"We're not going to hurt you Zoë." Horatio said as he took a step forward.

"Don't come any closer! Get away from me! You're not going to hurt her again!" Zoë looked back at the hummer then focused on Horatio and Ryan again.

"Call an ambulance!" Horatio yelled back to the officers watching with their guns drawn.

"Hey! Put your weapons down!" Horatio yelled at them as he glanced back seeing them with their weapons drawn.

"Zoë…" Ryan began to speak but she aimed the gun at him which stopped him in his tracks.

"Ryan, leave it." Horatio said quietly. Zoë was stumbling a lot more.

"Sweetheart, you're hallucinating. Listen to my voice, it's Horatio." Zoë looked at him with her gun still aimed at Ryan. Horatio could see that she was trying her best to process the information and everything going on around her.

"Sweetheart listen to me, it's Horatio. You're hallucinating." Her eyes softened on him.

"Horatio?" She said quietly as Horatio took a few more steps he then noticed that her cheeks had a rosy colour to them.

"You're okay sweetheart." He said as he took a couple more, he could see just how rosy coloured she was, he could see just how weak she was.

"Hora…tio." She said as she exhaled.

"It's okay sweetheart." Horatio said as he took a few more slow steps and placed his hand over the gun and gently took it from her shaking hand. He held it back and pulled Zoë into a hug cupping her head with his left hand.

"It's okay sweetheart." He said gently as Ryan took the gun from his hand. He brought his right hand up and wrapped it around her back, he took a lot of her weight as she clearly needed support.

"It's okay sweetheart." He repeated as he kissed the top of her head. He felt her body relax against his.

"Sweetheart, are you with me?" He asked softly with Zoë's head against his strong chest.

"Sweetheart?" He repeated. He could feel her chest shallowly raising and falling against his. He spread his legs slightly and held Zoë to his body as he gently crouched down bending his knees and placed Zoë on the floor sitting up. He stepped over her so he was crouched on her left and placed his hand behind her head and gently laid her down.

"Where is that ambulance!?" Horatio raised his voice as he began to kneel.

"Sweetheart, can you hear me?" Horatio asked as he brought his face closer to hers.

"Ryan, get the portable gas spectrometer and check out her hummer, I think she's been poisoned." Horatio said still with a raised voice. Horatio planted a hand on the ground on the left side of her head and his right between her right arm and side. He put his head and ear against Zoë's chest to hear her breathe and her heartbeat. He could hear her shallow breathing and fast, uneven heartbeat. Ryan ran to collect the portable gas spectrometer and ran over to Zoë's hummer.

"Keep breathing for me sweetheart." Horatio said to her as he picked his head up and looked down at her face, he could see her becoming redder as he picked up one of her hands and studied her skin.

"Where's that ambulance?!" Horatio yelled beginning to get very frustrated picking his head up to look at the officers – Frank was walking over fast on the radio.

"H, there's about 2,200ppm of Carbon Monoxide here, that's with the door open, the concentration would have been higher while she was driving." Ryan shouted in haste as he turned the engine off. He went around to the boot and opened it.

"Someone's tampered with it, it looks like they've re-directed the exhaust fumes to inside the car, I'll get it back to the lab." Ryan shouted from behind the hummer. Horatio placed his right hand on Zoë's face.

"Sweetheart can you hear me? Just keep breathing; you're doing a good job." Horatio said in a soothing voice as he placed his other hand on her chest and felt her shallow breathing.

"Mmm." Zoë managed to mumble as she shallowly exhaled.

"Sweetheart, I just want to check something, okay?" Horatio asked and she nodded and he brought both hands up and began to undo the top buttons of her shirt. He looked at her skin and then did her shirt back up.

"It's definitely carbon monoxide poisoning!" Horatio yelled over to Ryan.

"Well done sweetheart." Horatio said quietly to her. Ryan ran over to Zoë and dropped the spectrometer gently to the floor as he knelt on her right. Zoë managed to open her eyes and focused on Horatio who was leaning over her. He placed his hand back on her face.

"My… my head, Horatio" she groaned, feeling a searing pain in her head that resembled what felt like a bolt of electricity passing through the right side of her head.

"You're going to be okay sweetheart." Horatio said and then he looked up at Frank.

"Frank, where the hell is this ambulance?!" Horatio asked frustrated still with his hand on Zoë's face.

"H, it's been radioed in, they're on their way. There's a lot of traffic out there." Frank said not sure what to do with himself. Zoë moved her head and turned it to the right and Horatio instantly looked back at her.

"Sweetheart, try not to move." Horatio said gently as she looked over to Ryan.

"You're going to be okay Zoë." Ryan softly said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. Zoë gasped again for more air. Horatio gently moved her head back to try and keep her airways as open as possible.

"I can't…brea…the." Zoë brokenly mumbled looking up into Horatio's light blue eyes.

"I know sweetheart, you're doing really well. Just keep breathing." Horatio said with his head closer to hers. Zoë slowly closed her eyes.

"Stay with me Zoë." Horatio said softly. They could hear the ambulance sirens very quietly in the distance.

"Stay with me Zoë." He repeated a little more forcefully.

"Zoë, stay with us." Ryan said leaning in closer with his hand gently placed on her stomach. Horatio let go of her face and placed his hand between her right arm and side again and leant down and put his ear to her chest. He could hear her heart beating rapidly trying to get whatever oxygen it could around her body, she was still breathing very shallowly, he could also hear a bit of wheezing.

"Stay with me sweetheart." He said a little louder leaning over her. The ambulance was getting closer.

"I'll call out Eric and Gabi." Ryan said as he got up to his feet.