Chapter 7

"How?" He asked her with his face growing concerned.

"It's stupid!" She said as he put her head in her hands and brought her knees up to rest her elbows on.

"Just explain it to me." He said gently.

"Horatio, I... it's stupid. "

"It's okay; just describe it all to me." He said placing a gentle hand on her arm. Zoë took a breath and looked up to him; she dropped her legs back down to the bed.

"Is Ryan fully asleep?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes." Horatio said looking over to Ryan as the door opened and Nathan walked back in.

"Nathan, can you give us a minute please?" Horatio asked softly.

"Of course, come and get me when you're ready." Nathan said as he turned around and walked out.

"Are you sure Ryan's asleep?" Zoë said

"Yes I'm certain." Horatio said as he looked at her with caring eyes. She wasn't sure how he was going to react. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

"Eric had helped me get Ryan into the passenger seat; he had a fever and was delirious and obviously confused." Zoë took another deep breath and looked up to him. He urged her to go on. "We were driving and he was becoming more delirious by the second, you rang me and I kept my concentration on the road." She looked at him with tears almost in her eyes and then sat forward and bowed her head into her hands. "We could have died." She mumbled, upset with herself.

Horatio gently rubbed her back. "You're doing well sweetheart, it's okay." He reassured her as she took a few deep breaths.

"You're doing really, really well sweetheart." Horatio said very softly still rubbing her back.

"It's stupid Horatio, please just forget it." She said as she looked up at him with a single tear rolling down her cheek. He gently wiped the tear away from her cheek with his thumb.

"Sweetheart, I'm not going to make you tell me if you really don't want to." Horatio said as he lowered his head to her level to meet her watery eyes with this caring blues. She gave him a small smile and a nod as she exhaled, calming herself down. Horatio pulled the safety bar down and sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her with caring eyes, giving her a sense of security. She took another breath as she looked into his eyes and they seemed to calm her down.

"I was…" She began and took another breath and exhaled looking down. She met his gaze once more. "I was concentrating on the road and… and Ryan was obviously not himself at all…" Zoë broke the sentence again and looked at Horatio more intensely.

He placed his hand over hers saying "you're doing so well sweetheart" as he looked at her with his crystal blue eyes.

She took another deep breath and exhaled. "I.."

Shall try and get the next chapter up today as this was only a very short one.

Thank you.