Seven:
Ryan thought that Alana deserved a day of fun. And she happily agreed.
She sped through her morning shower, breakfast, teeth brushing, and getting dressed. What usually took her about an hour and a half to complete, had taken her only thirty minutes. Ryan still was barely awake and was in desperate need of caffeine to deal with a bouncing and bubbly Alana. It was times like these where he really wished Horatio was there to help him out. He always seemed to get her to calm down, even for just a second.
"Daddy, are you ready yet?" Alana questioned.
Ryan stopped for a second, and looked down to his daughter. It was obvious to anyone that he was not ready yet. He was still in a pair of shorts and a shirt that Rick had let him borrow to sleep in the night before. And he held a coffee cup in his hand and was in mid-sip when she asked if he was ready. In short, no Ryan was by no means ready.
"Not yet, Alana." He told her. "Give me an hour please. And then I promise we can do whatever you want."
"But I wanna go now! Why can't we go now?"
"Alana, stop whining. I said we'll go in an hour so we'll go in an hour." Ryan answered.
"Can you hurry?"
Now Ryan was more than annoyed. He had to stop himself from slamming the mug down on the table because one, it was full of hot coffee and two, he didn't want to break Rick's things.
"Alana if you ask me one more time, we're not doing anything. Now go sit down and be quiet."
Ryan told her, his voice raised slightly.
Alana frowned and slowly nodded her head. She turned on her heels and started exiting the room. Ryan didn't like raising his voice at Alana. And frankly, he hardly ever did. It made Alana feel bad, which in return, made him feel bad, too. But sometimes, Alana just annoyed Ryan to no end.
Before Alana could fully leave the kitchen, though, Rick had stopped her.
"Why so down, Alana? Aren't you excited for later?" He asked her. Alana shook her head and looked back to Ryan again before facing Rick.
"No. Daddy's being mean." She said softly, but not soft enough where Ryan couldn't hear it.
Rick nodded as he listened to her. "Really? Does this have anything to do with the conversation you both had just now? I wasn't eavesdropping, I really wasn't." Rick reiterated, looking Ryan in the eyes. Ryan, in returned, rolled his eyes and shook his head while he took another drink from his coffee. "But Alana, you're dad is pretty stressed out right now with work and all that, and he really just wanted to take you out today to do something nice and fun for you. You constantly asking him when you're leaving isn't helping, it's just bugging him. And you don't want to bug him do you? That'll just make your and his time together not as fun."
Alana squinted her eyes at Rick, upset that she wasn't getting her way. "I guess not."
"Good. Now why don't you go see if Jasmine is awake yet?"
"Okay." Alana nodded and was on her way again, leaving Rick and Ryan alone.
Ryan was rubbing his left temple with his index and middle fingers and sighed. "I'm not thanking you."
"I didn't think you would."
"I guess I should thank you for letting Alana and I stay with you last night. And for letting me borrow some clothes to sleep in."
"Don't forget the coffee and my paying for pizza last night." Rick chimed.
Ryan made a sound from the back of his throat. "I didn't ask for either of those things."
"You still got them. Will saying a simple thank you to me really be that bad?"
"To you; Rick Stetler of IAB?" Ryan chuckled. "Of course. I gotta go get ready; Alana will only stay calm for so long. Plus I want to get going early."
"About that, I was thinking. Is it really safe for you to go out alone? Well, I know you're not alone, you'll have Alana with you. But I mean without backup? Do you think it's safe?" Rick asked Ryan, who noticed Rick's speech was fast-paced.
Why is he getting so worked up?
"Was there more to that note than you're telling me?" Ryan questioned. "Did it actually give a specific time and date that planned my or Alana's demise? And is that day today?"
Rick quickly shook his head. "Not at all; I would've told you about that. I'm just saying, we barely have any leads on who these people are that are out to get you and Horatio. Anything could happen at any moment and worst of all, we don't know who it could be. It could be anyone in a crowd next to you. It's dangerous."
"So, what, you want to come with us or something? To be our backup?"
"I was hoping to, yes."
Ryan's left eyebrow raised as he stared at Rick. He only shook his head and shrugged. "Alright, I guess. I don't really care if you tag along or not. Just try not to make this all about work; I really wanted a fun day with Alana."
The corner of Rick's mouth rose slightly. "Good."
"I guess I'll call Dave, too."
"Dave? Why?"
The corners of Ryan's mouth rose, too. But he was laughing. He sat the coffee mug down on the table. "For backup, of course. I know Dave isn't the best to have around. But he certainly makes things more interesting. Be ready in an hour."
Rick nodded and agreed, as Ryan left the room. Rick let out a heavy, deep breath.
"The girls seem to be having a lot of fun." Dave said out loud, to no one in particular.
"Well, girls do like shopping." Rick answered.
"Not all girls like shopping, Rick. That's a stereotype. And sexist." Dave replied.
Rick laughed. "Well, my niece and Alana seem to like it a lot."
Dave and Rick stopped their banter when they noticed that Ryan was no longer walking with them. Dave turned, and saw that Ryan was a ways back. Alana and Rick's niece was way in front of them. "You go catch up with the girls and make sure they're not running off." Dave instructed.
"You don't tell me what to do, Dave."
"Well will you please go catch up with the girls so they won't wander off?"
"Fine." Rick shook his head, and mumbled to himself as he walked off to go after the girls.
Really, they had promised Jasmine that they'd stay a bit behind them as to not 'cramp their style'. But now, they were way too far ahead of them. Dave had said that since everything that's happened, they shouldn't let them be unattended and Ryan agreed. Only now, Ryan had randomly stopped in front of a shop and was seemingly staring inside.
Dave had made his way next to Ryan. Ryan glanced over to Dave and offered him a smile.
"You okay, Ryan?" Dave asked him.
"I'm alright."
"What are you looking at?"
"These ties. Look at them, don't they just scream 'Horatio Caine' to you?" Ryan chuckled. "Definitely his taste, I think. I don't like them so I bet he would. We've always had different style."
Dave nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's true."
"I think I'm going to buy it for him." Ryan announced aloud. He walked passed Dave and into the small store in the mall. The store was very large, and full of suits, all of which Ryan just knew Horatio would love.
Horatio always wore a dark colored suit- always either dark navy blue or pure black. Ryan thought it fitted Horatio perfectly. He looked great in them. Then again, he looked great in everything, Ryan thought. Ryan didn't wear suits or blazers too often, but when he did they were usually light colored tan or beige's. That was just what he liked. If he wore a darker color, it was because it belonged to Horatio or Ryan just found and wore one because it reminded him of Horatio.
Ryan only turned slightly when he heard the rushed footsteps behind him.
"Dave, why are you following me?"
"I'm backup."
"But you don't even own a gun." Ryan answered, mocking Dave from a while before. "Besides, I'm just buying a few ties for Horatio. I can give them to him when he comes back."
Dave nodded, continuing to follow Ryan around. "You say it like he really is on vacation. How are you holding up?"
Ryan picked up a dark and light blue striped tie and eyed it. He ran his fingers across the silk and hummed in response. "I feel completely empty on the inside. But I'm trying not to be down. I mean, we know Horatio. He'll be okay, right? He knows we're coming for him."
"I'm sure he does. Horatio's strong." Dave answered. Ryan had put the tie down and picked up a pure red one. "Hey, what about this tie?"
Ryan looked at the tie in Dave's hand. He immediately shook his head and laughed. "That's horrible. Orange, blue and pink? It's bad, but Horatio would never wear that."
Dave, too, chuckled. "I might be bad at the whole 'formal' thing. I guess I'll leave the tie thing to you. Oh, hey girls."
Ryan looked back just in time to see Alana sneaking up on Ryan from behind. When he had spotted her, she stopped her slow, creep movements and threw her arms up in a huff. "No fair. I wanted to scare you."
"Sorry, little one. Where's Rick? You didn't walk back here alone, did you?" Ryan asked his daughter. She shook her head and turned around, probably expecting to see Rick and his niece there. But to her surprise, he wasn't there. She pouted and looked up to Ryan. "He was behind me. He told me not to run too far ahead of him but I think I did. Sorry daddy."
"It's okay. Just be careful, Alana. Never wander off."
"Are you buying ties?"
"Yeah, for Horatio. Do you think he'd like them? I have this red one and this one that Dave picked out."
Alana looked at Dave with a funny look. "It's ugly."
Dave frowned and looked at the tie again in his hands. Well, I liked it, he thought.
Ryan took the two ties to the cashier to pay for them. He knew for a fact that Horatio would enjoy the red tie very much. But he thought maybe he'd get a laugh out of the tie that Dave had picked out, as well. And if Ryan was lucky, maybe Horatio would wear it for him a few times. It would've been humorous to him.
As Ryan finished up paying, and ignoring the odd look the cashier gave him that said something like 'really, you're buying this ugly thing?' he heard the sound of Rick. And since Rick wasn't inside the store, Ryan automatically knew that Rick was upset and something was wrong.
Dave and Ryan both shared a look with each other, and in an instant, were darting for the doors of the store together. Both men had reached Rick at the same time, to see him on top of a man they'd never seen before. The man was lying flat on his stomach, struggling to get out of Rick's grasp. But Rick wasn't letting up so easy. He had the mans hands behind his back, and Rick was holding onto them tightly, not even given his finger room to wriggle around.
There was a crowd around the two. Of course there was, though, it was quite a site to see- a man tackling another man to the ground and not letting him up. And then both men were yelling loudly at each other. One saying that he needed to be let up and that he was being crushed. The other was saying that there was no way in hell he'd be getting up anytime soon.
"Rick, what the hell are you doing?" Dave asked, completely shocked.
"I found this guy out here staring at Ryan in the store."
"Oh staring! Let's just attack everybody then because we all stare sometimes." Dave answered.
Rick grunted, as he struggled to keep holding down the man that continued to struggle against Rick. "No, idiot." Rick stated. "He's been following us around all day. And now I caught him trying to leave another note."
Ryan quickly ran to Alana, who was standing nearby with wide eyes, watching everything go down. He grabbed her hand and guided Alana back into the store, and towards the back so she wouldn't be able to see what was going on.
"Daddy what's wrong?"
"Nothing. Alana, did you notice that man outside following us?" Ryan questioned her. By now, most people had heard the fiasco and were outside of the store watching the scene unfold. Of course Ryan had no idea what was happening since he wanted to shield Alana from it. A few others were still inside the store; older people, and some parents with children. They had the same idea as Ryan.
Alana initially shook her head. But then she suddenly nodded. "I saw him behind us a few times in the other stores." She answered. "But isn't he just shopping? What's 'following'?"
"So, he's been in every store we have?"
She nodded again.
Of course, it made sense that Alana had no idea what was going on. She probably genuinely thought that the man just had happened to be in the same stores as them. She was only four and it was natural that she didn't think anything bad or dangerous of it.
Alana had slowly made her way closer to Ryan, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything."
"It's okay; you didn't know."
"Is he going to be in big trouble?"
"I don't know yet." Ryan told her.
Alana had glanced behind her dad and saw Dave coming back into the store and toward the two. He put his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "Hey Ryan, can I talk to you?"
"Yeah." Ryan answered, starting to walk away but pointed back to Alana. "Stay here, okay?"
She agreed as Ryan and Dave walked a few feet away from Alana. Ryan kept his eyes on her though, as he didn't want her to try looking out of the large glass window of the shop to see what was going on outside of it. "A security guard called the police, much to Rick's dismay." Dave told him, keeping his voice quiet. "Since the cops are called, no doubt there will be an investigation now."
"But Horatio-."
"And Rick said that he was leaving behind another note. I guess the guy was going to tape it to the window, you know, in public. But Rick saw him and when he confronted him, the guy tried to run off but Rick tackled him. I know you're worried about Horatio, but don't worry, everything will be okay, Ryan." Dave told him.
Now, Ryan was even more worried than he was ever before. Now since the police were involved, there was no doubt something bad was going to happen. The notes specifically said that if they had any investigations, Horatio would have been killed.
Ryan blinked his eyes fast a few times, and looked at Alana again. Jasmine had came into the store as they were talking. Ryan doubted she would tell a 4 year old what was happening.
"Where's Rick?" Ryan asked Dave.
"He had to go with them to give a statement; you know the drill. But," he reached into his pocket and handed Ryan a small key. "He told me to give you this key to his house. I'm supposed to take you all back to his place until he gets back. You have your gun, right? Just in case."
"Well, yeah, but I didn't bring it into the mall with me."
"Good. I'm going to take you guys back to Rick's now, but I'll stay with you if you want until he comes back."
Ryan quickly nodded. "Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks."
Dave smiled. "It's no problem. I know I complain a lot but I'm not completely useless."
"I know, Dave." Ryan gestured for Alana and Rick's niece to come. They both followed and the four of them made their ways out of the stores. In the middle of the mall, there were still some people standing around chatting loudly about what had happened. There was two officers talking to some witnesses to the events. But Ryan just took Alana's hand and guided her through and past the people to get outside to the car.
So much for a day of fun, Ryan thought.
Dave and Ryan sat in the living room with the girls. The girls were sitting on the floor. Jasmine was multitasking between texting on her cellphone, occasionally picking up a crayon to color a page that Alana had given her, and stopping to compliment Alana's coloring whenever she asked her if it was good or not.
Alana was coloring a picture of an outdoors scenery. Her sky was purple, the clouds were pink, the sun was green and the grass was red. It couldn't have gotten more creative than that. "Daddy look!" She held up the picture for Ryan.
"It's beautiful."
"It's for you."
"Really? Thanks, I'll put it on our fridge back home." Ryan told her. Alana beamed with happiness and tore out a new page for herself to color. She had already torn out another page for Rick's niece, but she saw that she hadn't even finished the first picture yet. Alana frowned and nudged the crayon pack closer to her. Jasmine smiled sheepishly as she took a few crayons and sat her phone down on the soft white carpet.
Ryan and Dave were relatively quiet. There really wasn't anything that needed to be said or done. So, they just watched a movie that was on the TV together. They both occasionally laughed when a funny scene came on. They exchanged conversation with the girls. But other than that, it was quiet between them. And Ryan had to admit, though it was quiet, it was comforting.
When the door unlocked two hours later, Ryan looked back to the floor where the girls were. Rick's niece was fast asleep with her cellphone lying on her cheek. Alana was sleeping next to her, crayon still in her hand.
Dave chuckled quietly as he stood along with Ryan. Both of them crept past the girls and to the front door to warn Rick to be quiet.
Rick was just standing there, staring at the now closed door.
"Rick?" Ryan called out to him. Rick turned to face him. "You okay? What happened?"
Rick looked at both of them and sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just, tired, I guess."
"Your niece and Alana are sleeping on the floor." Dave told him.
"I bet. I'll wake them up in a few minutes to go into the bedroom." Rick answered.
The three of them fell silent. Rick stood by the door, twiddling his fingers. Ryan was bursting with wonder and curiosity. While Dave just stood in the middle of them awkwardly. It was so quiet, they could hear the soft snoring from the other room. Dave broke the silence, clearing his throat. "Right, well, I guess I'll see you both at the lab. Call me if anything happens or you need anything, Ryan."
"Well, what if I need something?" Rick asked.
"You're a big boy, Rick. You can handle yourself."
Ryan's face twisted up. "What? I can't handle myself, too?"
Dave laughed again and said goodbye to the two. Rick moved out of his way to clear the way for Dave. He opened the door and left them alone. Rick motioned for Ryan to follow him to the kitchen.
"Okay, you already know I'm anxious. The anticipation is killing me." Ryan told him.
Rick went to the coffee machine and began pouring the grounds into it. He made two cups, one for him and one for Ryan. "I noticed that guy around the same time Jasmine and Alana took off by themselves." He answered. "I thought he was following me for a moment; I thought I recognized him. But when I walked away, he stayed behind so I watched him for a second. He just stood outside that store watching you inside."
"I didn't even see him. I'm a CSI; I'm trained to notice detail. But I didn't notice him."
"You have a lot going on."
"That's no excuse. What if something bad happened?"
"Nothing did."
"Well something happened." Ryan answered. "So, what happened? Did they arrest him?"
The coffee machine made a beeping noise to signify it being done. Rick poured two cups and sat them down at the table. Both of them sat down together. "They questioned him. They took my statement. As far as I know, he isn't talking. They can't just lock him up because, well, they don't know what happened."
Ryan stared at the cup. Then to Rick. "Do you have any marshmallows? Or oranges?"
"With coffee?" Rick grimaced, then relaxed his face. "Oh right. You're with child." He stood and opened his refrigerator and tossed Ryan an orange. He sat back down, so Ryan figured he didn't have any marshmallows.
"How do they not know what happened? You gave a statement, didn't you?"
"I did."
"So, what, did you not tell them what happened?"
Rick took a drink from his coffee. He grew quiet. He didn't even look Ryan in the eyes anymore.
"Rick?" Ryan said his name softly. "Did you lie, or something?"
"Kind of."
"You can tell me."
"I," he paused and sighed. "I'm withholding evidence." Rick announced. Ryan watched as he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Ryan realized that it had to have been the note that the guy was leaving behind. Ryan held out his hand expectantly, waiting for Rick to hand the note over.
Surprisingly, he gave it right to Ryan. Usually, there was some hesitation as Rick didn't want to Ryan to know practically anything about the case. Ryan cautiously took the note. He breathed in and out softly to prepare himself. He unwrapped the paper and read it.
"'Say goodbye'?" He read, in a questioning tone. "There's a phone number."
"I think you're supposed to call it. To, well, say goodbye."
Ryan's eyes widened at what Rick said.
"To Horatio?"
Rick shrugged. "I think you should wait until we go to the lab. That way we can trace the call."
"But what if it's too late?"
Rick didn't say anything after that. Ryan understood. But he had a million thoughts racing through his mind at the moment. He suddenly wasn't very hungry, or thirsty for that matter. He pushed the coffee mug away from himself.
"I told them that he was following me instead of you. If I said you, they'd bring you in for questioning. And I told them that he'd been following me for a while now. But that's not enough to hold him." Rick said quietly. "I couldn't say anything else. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want there to be an investigation. But it was my fault anyways."
Ryan shook his head. "Your fault?"
"I attacked that guy in a crowded mall. I drew attention to us, and now to the investigation."
"But you did what you thought was right."
"And probably at the expense of Horatio."
Rick had stood up so quickly that it had startled Ryan. In return, Ryan stood too.
"I don't like Horatio. Everyone knows that. But the last thing I want is his death." Rick told Ryan. He in return, tried smiling, though he knew it probably looked small and a little forced. "No, Horatio won't die. I just know it. We don't know what's going to happen. Horatio could be hurt. But he won't die. So, don't say things like that, okay? It'll be okay."
Rick stared hard at Ryan, as if what he was saying was completely foolish. But Ryan certainly didn't feel foolishly for saying what he did. He believed it. He knew Horatio would be okay. He knew that Horatio was strong and would never let something take him away from his family.
Rick just stared at Ryan, until finally, he just turned and left the kitchen. Ryan stood there a while longer, until he heard a door slam shut. It was probably Rick's bedroom door shutting. Ryan took it upon himself to empty the coffee cups, put the orange back into the refrigerator and to wake the girls and have them go to the other bedroom to sleep in. Rick's niece went willingly, but Alana clung onto Ryan. Though she was half-asleep, her grip was tight. She didn't even let go when Ryan put her in the bed with him. She held onto him tightly the whole night through.
