LOST SON OF AVALON
by Shadewynde
Chapter Eight: The Trail of Madness
"The more I see, the less I know for sure."
― John Lennon
While Valera turned her attention to the nearly-melted rosary, Eric and Ryan met with Frank.
To be more accurate, they almost pounced on the detective the moment he stepped from the elevator.
"We found some fibers we think are from a priest's robe, and Father Andozza looks awfully guilty to me." Ryan said, aware of the harsh tension of his Cuban friend.
"I don't know that it'll get us a warrant." Frank said, shaking his head when Eric seemed ready to explode. "I've got every patrol I can muster looking for Horatio, nada."
"We're spinning our wheels, here." Eric said, frustrated.
"Yeah, and for all we know, H could be running out of time."
Jason peered around the hospital corner.
Clad in green scrubs and a doctor's white coat, he looked quite inconspicuous. That fact helped him slide from station to station without being noticed.
Looking down at his watch, he counted down the seconds until the rotation changed.
Slipping into the crowded hall, he followed a tall doctor until he could duck into the nurse's station.
He kept shifting people, all the way to an unattended supply cart, where he gathered up saline, IV bags, and a small stash of useful implements, stashing them in his coat and smoothing them down.
Jason counted ten, glanced once over his shoulder, and stepped back and away.
Sauntering casually past security, he trotted down the stairs, and followed a small group of nurses and residents into the parking lot.
Whistling to himself, he made his way to the edge of the lot, and ducked behind a series of trashbins.
Speed was still there, waiting with Jason's backpack dangling from one hand.
"That was quick."
"Yeah, well, it's not like Fort Knox." Jason grinned slightly, taking the backpack and shoving the medical supplies into it. "Of course, between yours truly and Fort Knox - my money ain't on the Fort."
"Ye-ah." Speed smiled faintly in reply.
Jason smacked him on the arm, in a friendly way. "C'mon, let's get back before Ian pops a blood vessel." His grin was mischievous.
"Son?" Calleigh looked at Ian as though he had suddenly grown a second head. "That's impossible."
"Why?" The enigmatic, dark-haired man met her gaze, eyebrow raised.
"What?"
"Why is that impossible?" The voice was calm and even.
"Well...for one thing, Horatio's parents are dead." Calleigh was scowling.
In the background, Alexx was carefully checking the still form, murmuring reassuringly as she did so.
Ian almost winced. "Horatio's mother is dead. I am not." he said, softly.
"But you don't look that much older than him." Calleigh suddenly wasn't sure. The man didn't register as crazy. But this was...
What? she asked herself. What if he's telling the truth? What if he isn't crazy?
Jason and Speed came hurrying in as Calleigh studied Ian's face.
There was something very vaguely similar to Horatio in his features. Not something that was easy to put a finger on, just...something.
Maybe I'm going crazy. she thought wryly.
Ian half-turned to regard the two returning men, and waited.
"Got everything. Always knew spendin' some time as a medic would come in handy." Jason grinned irrepressibly.
Alexx stood up. "I need that saline. Narcan is tough on the body, and I'm not risking any more stress on his system." she said, firmly.
Jason pulled out cold gel-packs from his backpack and started passing the doctor a variety of items.
The black woman gave the younger man a sharp look, then knelt back down to tend to her friend and now, patient.
When she rolled up Horatio's left sleeve, Calleigh had just turned around, and and her eyes widened and she stifled a gasp.
The fair skin was marked with old, old scars.
Deep ones, old ones.
Painful ones.
Sara was almost ready to explode.
She stood still for a moment, aware of Greg and Nick watching her, then forced out, "Gil knew Caine. His last e-mail was to him."
Nick was startled. "He knew a kidnap victim? Okay, that's just too big a coincidence for me."
"Wait, Grissom knew this guy? What's going on?" Greg was shaking his head.
"Gil never made it back to work. Twenty-four hours ago." Sara stared at the screen, not really seeing the words. "And one man from that hospital vanished around the same time."
"It says here that the missing man had two visitors from about an hour before the patient is listed as checking out." Greg noted, eyes scanning over the notes.
"So the guy disappears, this Caine disappears around the same time, after Grissom leaves Caine an email?" Nick shook his head. "Something is going on."
Sara's heart suddenly clenched as her mind focused on one, frightening scenerio. "Gil...I think he's been kidnapped." She was on her feet before she could think. "I'm going out there. They have to know something."
Greg's voice stopped her. "We need to contact Miami first. We can co-operate, get help..."
Sara turned back, hesitated.
"I'll make the call." Nick offered, his own concern raised. "We'll find him, Sara. We'll find him."
Eric took several deep breaths, struggling to control his roiling emotions.
He faced one thing squarely: he hadn't lost Calleigh. He knew that. You couldn't lose a heart that already belonged to someone else.
And he knew that his sister would have blessed the bond between Horatio and Calleigh, as he did.
Did he feel a sense of sadness? Yes.
Anger? No.
In fact, what he did feel was a sense of hope.
And worry, now.
The man he considered a father - and a brother - was missing.
The clues led one way, and the law led another.
He hated the feeling of helplessness.
Ryan came hurrying around the corner, and would have run into his friend had he not backpedaled fast.
Eric looked over at him, a question in his eyes.
"Frank has cars looking, but I don't think the judge is going to give us that warrant." The frustration in his voice was clear.
"I hope Calleigh has found something..." He stopped, a terrible thought occurred to him. "Ryan, have you seen her?"
"Calleigh? No, not since she left to search H's condo..." His own thoughts turned the same direction as Eric's. "Oh, man, you don't think...?"
"She's missing too. God, someone may be gunning for both of them!" The Cuban could only clench his teeth. Jerking his cell phone from his pocket, Eric quickly dialed Calleigh's number, scowled, then said almost angrily, "Nothing. She could be in a dead zone." The two CSIs eyes met, then the dark-skinned young man continued, "We better get over there."
"Let's go."
Alexx had set up a makeshift IV, and was listening to Horatio's heart again. She frowned, and looked over at Speed and Jason, who were crouched down next to and across from her respectively. "His blood pressure's too low, and heart rhythm is still off. I don't like this at all. I'm afraid he still might slip into shock."
Jason looked up, rose quickly, and trotted toward the back of the structure, looked around for a few seconds, then returned with an old, battered blanket.
Wordlessly, he passed it to Alexx, who tucked it around Horatio's body.
Calleigh was still watching Ian, trying to get a sense of the man who claimed to be unconscious CSI's father.
Speed was frowning as Alexx looked over at the dark-haired man standing next to Calleigh.
"Timmy, who are these people?" she asked, softly.
The former CSI looked at Jason, who shrugged silently, then back at the doctor. "Friends?" he tried, hopefully.
Alexx leveled a stern gaze at Speed.
Jason came to his rescue. "It's complicated." His ever-ready smile was back. "Just out to help Horatio here."
The black woman looked back and forth between the two men.
Calleigh heard the conversation and turned her own gaze onto Ian. "I'm going to go out on a limb and just agree you're telling the truth." she said, green eyes never wavering. "He almost died...and you knew he was in danger..." She tried to keep accusation out of her voice.
For a split second, honest anguish flickered in Ian's emerald eyes. "I suspected. And you are correct, I should have acted more quickly. If I could take back many things, I would. If I could have been there for him long ago, I would. Regrets dog my steps, I fear. I cannot change what was, only what is. And hopefully will be."
"You still haven't explained what is going on, or how..." Calliegh glanced back at Horatio again, then looked at Ian.
"How I lifted two men twenty-seven feet without touching them?"
"Ummm...well, yes..."
"I'm afraid you will not believe the truth."
"Try me."
Ian's expression was rueful. "Magic."
Passing by the Trace Lab on the way out, a phone rang, and without really thinking, Eric stepped in, picked it up, and said, "Delko."
The voice on the other end said, "This is Nick Stokes, Las Vegas Crime Lab."
A little surprised, Eric's expression didn't change. "Eric Delko. How can I help you?" he asked, mind on his search.
"We think a former CSI was kidnapped right after he left an email to your Lab's lead." Nick explained. "There's a few hours lapse, but he was taken at around the same time Caine was."
"Another CSI?" Eric was really worried now. Ryan looked up at him, questioningly, from the Lab's door.
"Yeah." The Cuban looked over at his friend, and continued, "We're working on finding H - Lieutenant Caine. We think another CSI may have been taken a couple of hours ago."
There was a pause, before their Las Vegas colleague said, "We're going to send a couple of ours down there, since your site is the most recent abduction. Sara Grissom and Greg Sanders. They'll be there in about fourty-five minutes."
Eric fought down his own desire to solve this, to get out there and just find Horatio. "We'll meet them." he said, reluctantly, and motioned to Ryan.
"Thanks." Nick said, as Eric just nodded, not really thinking that the other man couldn't see the gesture, and both hung up. Picking up the phone again, he dialed Dispatch. "This is Eric Delko, CSI. I need two officers at 3330 Northeast 190th Street, Aventura Marina II. Observation only." Once he had confirmation, he hung up and paused a moment.
"What's up?" Ryan asked, stepping to Eric's side.
"You're not going to believe this..."
Calleigh looked skeptically at Ian. "Magic?" Her voice was laced with disbelief.
"I suppose that is the best way to put in English."
"And how else would you describe it?" Maybe the man really was crazy...
"Draíochta." Ian's voice took on a lilting timbre.
"Dra-what?"
"Technically, Irish for magic."
Calleigh was confused now. "Irish?"
Ian's dark eyebrow lifted. "Would you prefer it from another source? I assure you, that is about as close to the word as I can speak."
"So you're telling me you can use magic." Calliegh was still not sure of the tall man's sanity.
"Think of magic less as waving arms around and chanting and more as using a force that has always been there." Ian suggested. "It is a talent to be nurtured, like any other."
The CSI's eyes were still skeptical.
"Unfortunately, the gift is also exceedingly rare. Even among my own kind..."
"Kind?"
"Not really important at the moment. Magic is a force, and while a few manifestations exist in the physical sense, the true ability to use it is close to dead." The emerald eyes flickered with a moment of sadness. "I thought I was the last. I thought that it would end with me." A shake of his head. "I was wrong."
Calleigh simply stared at him. The explanation didn't really convince her.
"I don't expect blind belief." Ian extended his right hand, palm up, and moved his fingers slightly. A flicker of flame danced there suddenly, glowing with heat and light. "A simple spell. Tine. Fire. More specifically, tine beag. Little fire."
"Stage magicians can do that." Calleigh was doubtful, but it shook her stubborn disbelief a little.
"I am neither on a stage nor playing a prank." said Ian, with a faint sigh. A swift flick of his hand, and the tiny flame disappeared. He looked over at Alexx, who was hanging a saline bag on the improvised IV rack Jason had rigged.
Calleigh's gaze traveled to the bag, down to Horatio's arm, which Alexx was wiping with an alcohol swab. With practiced ease, she used hypodermic to inject the Narcan. The IV was attached to the other arm, steadily dripping saline. Though there was no reaction from the redhead laying still on the floor, Alexx examined him again and blew out a sharp breath. "He's breathing, heart seems stable, but he's running on willpower more than anything else." she said, looking over at the younger woman with maternal concern. "We really need more support for him."
"How well is he responding, Doctor?" Ian's voice was soft, but there was a tinge of urgency there.
"Well, considering he's been dosed, beaten, and probably hasn't eaten in a couple of days or so, he's doing better than I had hoped."
"Beaten?" Calleigh asked, startled.
"His arm is covered with bruises, and I have a feeling they're all over him." Alexx's eyes flashed. "Does someone want to tell me what is going on?"
"I'm afraid Horatio has just become the target of a group who would like to not only see him dead, but in considerable pain beforehand." Ian's eyes flashed with lightning. "This time, they have awoken a fury that will be their doom. They have hurt him," his voice dropped, becoming cold and almost sinister. "And I shall have them beg for Hell before their miserable lives are done."
