Title: Bad Day
Author: innocent choir girl (ff-dot-net), shannyfish (From Out of the Lab/Miami Heat/LJ)
Summary: After a lab accident, Calleigh relies on help from her father, but could it be the last thing she does?
Category: Ship Ahoy! Calleigh/Horatio
Genres: Angst, Drama, Friendship, Hurt Comfort, Pre-Relationship, Suspense
Characters: Calleigh Duquesne, Alexx Woods, Frank Tripp, Kenwall Duquesne (Other Character)
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Chapter: 7 "Family"
Author's Notes: none
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They sat outside the crime lab for a long time, just sitting in the Hummer. Silence was something that had been the soundtrack of that time, but Horatio wasn't sure if Calleigh was really ready. He had something in mind, and he really wasn't sure if Calleigh would go along with it. "Sweetheart," he started quietly as he broke the silence. "We don't have to do this….if you're not ready…"
Calleigh had her head turned away from him, so that he couldn't see her face…so he couldn't see the tears that were streaming down her face. He knew though, he always knew her… Reaching up, she wiped the tears from her face and sucked in breath trying to calm down before responding. "I'm-I'm alright…I just need a minute."
His heart broke hearing her voice. It sounded broken and he knew she was upset and most likely in pain and exhausted. "I told you, Calleigh… No one else has to know about your father." He knew that family wasn't easy; he could even be considered the one who knew it best. His parents were gone, and so was his brother…he had no other family save his sister-in-law and nephew. But protecting family was a full time job that took a strain on life and one's heart… They were already doing a hard job that they worked too many hours and felt for the victims…it was all so much…
"It's not that," she told him turning to look at him and saw his concerned look. "It's…" she sighed as she stared at him and smiled a bit, "You don't want to hear this…" Of course, Horatio was the one person she felt like she could tell everything to…but she hated to be a burden to him… She hated to weight down his own troubles with hers.
He tilted his head and smiled, "I do…Calleigh… Talk to me."
"It's that he's promised me for probably longer than I can remember that he's gonna stop drinkin'… He keeps doing it, and the things he says when he's drunk… I dunno what to do anymore, Horatio… I'm not sure how I'm supposed to help him."
"Maybe he needs to see what he stands to loose," Horatio suggested.
Calleigh frowned, "You'd think he realized that when my parents got divorced…"
Horatio sighed, "Sometimes there are just things that we can't fix, Calleigh. It's hard to accept…but you have to live your life. You're a beautiful, brilliant, dangerous woman."
A bright smile flowered on her face and she let out a small laugh, "Dangerous, huh?"
He smirked, "I've seen you shoot."
"My father…he always brings up that I'm too beautiful to work as hard as I do like it's some sort of compliment…"
"And the next day there's a vase full of tulips on the front desk."
She nodded, "You noticed that?"
"It's our job to see things that others don't."
Looking at Horatio, she gave him a real smile. "I think I'm ready now."
………………………..
Staring into the interrogation room, Calleigh could see Tripp with her father drinking coffee. She balanced her weight on her left leg, and lifted her right a bit and tried to balance on the crutches too. She watched them and observed that her father looked sober…tired even, and she started to wonder if she saw sorrow in his eyes, too… "I wanna talk to him," Calleigh spoke up and looked over at Horatio.
"I was hoping that you'd let me talk to him first…" Horatio spoke up. He pushed his jacket back and planted his hands on his hips looking down as he thought about how to phrase the next part before looking back up at her. "I want him to think that he's lost you, Calleigh… I think that's the only way that he might actually start to sober up…for good."
Shock was the first thing that went through her body at that thought. "Horatio…I don't think he can handle that…the thought of being responsible for my death…even for five minutes," Calleigh said quickly concerned about her father's well being. She had always wondered when she'd finally get the call that he'd gotten himself in the hospital or called to a morgue to identify him. She really hadn't thought that her father would be responsible for her own death…her dying in the line of duty was something that she'd thought would happen over that…
"You said you trusted me."
"I do."
Horatio stared at her for a minute, and when she didn't argue, he nodded and walked past her. Opening the door, he motioned for Tripp and then entered the interrogation room. He let his head fall and he tried to bring up the feelings he'd have if Calleigh had died… He needed to play the part and be believable…and he wanted Kenwall Duquesne to see that Calleigh's death would affect not just him, but others too. He waited for the door to shut, and for Tripp to be on the other side of the mirror before he started. Horatio wanted Frank to be there in case Calleigh started to panic and in case she were to fall.
"H-How's my daughter? How's Calleigh? She's going to be okay, isn't she?" Kenwall asked nervously. "Tripp wouldn't tell me, but Horatio…please…you have to tell me…"
His voice was low and sad, "She's gone," he said looking for a second at the man. Dropping his head again, he turned away from him. "She lost too much blood…and her system started to shut down… They couldn't bring her back…"
Tears welled up in his eyes as he tried to absorb what he'd just been told. His little girl was gone… He'd killed her. His Calleigh…his Lambchop…his baby… "No…no…she was talking in the ambulance…" he muttered as tears fell and his throat started to close up as he tried to speak.
"You know what this means…" Horatio said as he turned and looked down at Kenwall Duquesne, "You're going to go behind bars…for pre-meditated murder…"
From behind the mirror, tears fell down Calleigh's face and she swayed a bit on the crutches, but was saved by Tripp who was standing close to her. "It's enough," Calleigh said as she started to take a step in that direction, but Frank held her in place. She tried to struggle for a minute before giving up; she felt Frank's arms around her steadying her in place.
"Horatio knows what he's doing," Frank tried to assure.
"My dad—"
"Duke can handle this, Calleigh… He needs this reality check," Frank told her. "Give it a couple more minutes…" Frank hated to see Calleigh so upset, but he knew that they were doing this for her…not so much for Duke, but for Calleigh.
She gripped Frank's hand as Horatio kept on her father about her being dead and how he was going to go to jail for it. He went on about how her friends at the lab had been more of a family to her than her own father…it hurt to hear it, but Calleigh knew that it was the truth. You couldn't pick your parents…let alone their actions…
Horatio paced back in forth in front of Kenwall Duquesne as he sobbed and mumbled incoherently. He stopped staring at the floor with his hands placed firmly on his hips. "Most people never get a second chance…you've had years of chances with Calleigh…" He looked directly at the man, "This is your last chance… I suggest you treasure it."
Kenwall stared confused up at the other man as tears continued to fall down his cheeks. "Wha-" he started, but didn't finish it and instead just watched as Horatio Caine walked for the door that had opened. Who came through that door shocked him, and his tears came now doubled. He got to his feet and just stood there in place.
"Easy now," Frank told her as he carefully helped Calleigh into the interrogation room. He had left the crutches in the small closet-like room, and instead was helping her to her father. "Don't want you winding up back in the hospital." He eased her carefully down in the chair across from her father, so she was sitting sideways so that her casted leg wasn't smashed under the table.
"Thank you," Calleigh whispered to Frank as she eased her arm from his neck. She watched as Frank and Horatio left the room and closed the door. Looking over at her father, she just frowned. They weren't alone. Frank and Horatio were behind the mirror…like she had been.
"You're alright," Kenwall finally said after several minutes of silence.
Calleigh nodded, "I lost a lot of blood though, the doctors want me to rest… I wasn't sure Horatio was even going to bring me here…" What she was telling him was true…and she wondered just how much her father was concerned with her well being.
"Lambchop…I'm so sorry," he told her taking her hands before bowing his head to the entwined hands and crying into them.
She hated when he cried… Being a CSI, she had seen a lot of things that had made life so that it wasn't as clichéd and set in specific roles…but she had always expected her father to be the one to protect her and care for her… She couldn't remember the last time he had been that person to her… She had all kinds of thank you gifts that were thanking her for picking him up from bars…but none of it meant anything… Nothing was something that linked a beautiful memory to him. "Dad…you HAVE to stop doing this…" she told him squeezing his hands.
"I will…I have to… In jail they don't have alcohol, maybe that's gonna be a good way for me to sober up," Kenwall reasoned as the tears came slower.
Calleigh let her head drop for a minute before looking back up at him, "You're not gonna be in jail, Dad…" she whispered. Tears fell down her face, "But this is your last chance… Your last chance at this 'get out of jail free' card and your last chance to be a father to me…" She reached out to touch his cheek, "I want you to be able to be at my wedding when I finally find a guy to marry… Who will give me away, Dad, if you've landed yourself in jail? Or if you've drank yourself to death? Who's gonna be here for me?" Her eyes clouded with the tears and she blinked to release them. "You're the only one who's here in Miami… Mom and everyone else is back in Louisiana…"
"I'm sorry...Lambchop…"
"We're risking our careers for you, Dad…for me, too… Horatio, Frank, Alexx… It's all gonna go away…so you need to be smart now…"
"Why are they doing this?" Kenwall asked tilting his head as he studied his daughter.
"Because they're family, Dad…"
…………………………….
TBC…
