Chapter Nine

"How's Speed doing?" Valera asked as Horatio walked into the DNA lab after she'd paged him.

"About the same, his fevers dropped down to 103.5 which while that's not good is at least a step in the right direction," the lieutenant informed her.

"That's good to hear. I'll try and come see him later today if I can," she promised.

"I'm sure he'd like that. You have results for me?" Horatio prompted. Turning to grab the sheet that had just printed Valera nodded.

"The blood found on the knife came from two people. One was our victim, but the other was unknown. They weren't in the system," she explained handing him the print out.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Your welcome," Valera answered. Sighing Horatio walked into the hall hoping they'd catch a break soon so he could take a quick trip to the hospital to check on Speed.

"What'd Valera have to say?" Calleigh asked as she walked up to him.

"The blood on the knife was from two donors. One was our vic, but the other one is unknown," he told her.

"Well it was the stab wound to the heart that killed him, according to Alexx. The other stab wounds were shallow as if the killer was just teasing the victim before killing him," Calleigh hypothesized.

"Hmm, that's interesting. How's the processing of the evidence we collected at the scene going?" he asked.

"Slow I haven't found anything yet. Eric's just gotten back from his scene and is in layout room two working on the evidence from his case," Calleigh informed her boss.

"Okay, keep working on the evidence I'm going to call Frank and see if he's gotten anything from witness statements."

"You got it, handsome," Calleigh said flashing him a bright smile as she headed back to the room she was working in.

Lunch time had snuck up on the inhabitants of the Miami Dade Crime lab. It wasn't until his stomach grumbled; demanding food that Eric looked at his watch and realized it was already 12:00. Pushing back from the table where he was looking at crime scene photos he pulled out his phone and dialed Calleigh.

"Duquesne," came her sweet voice.

"Hey, you wanna get some lunch?"

"Sure, meet in five?" she replied.

"

Sounds good to me, see you then."

"Bye," Calleigh said hanging up.

"Any idea where H is? I haven't seen him in a while," Calleigh wondered as she and Eric walked into the diner just down the street from the lab.

"Last time I saw him he was heading out to go talk to a possible witness with Tripp," Eric replied.

Maybe they stopped by the hospital," Calleigh mused.

"Yeah maybe," Eric agreed. They ordered their lunch and were sitting in a companionable silence when Eric's phone rang.

"Delko," he answered.

"Hey Eric, it's me. Frank and I are at the hospital and it looks like Speed's temp is down to 103 even," Horatio said in a monotone voice.

"That's good that his fever's down to 103 but what's wrong, H?" he questioned.

"They only had him on 80% oxygen on the vent he was still able to breathe somewhat on his own. Now he's on 100% oxygen," Horatio explained his voice cracking. Eric's face crumbled and tears filled his eyes. Reaching out Calleigh placed her smaller hand on top of his.

"What's the matter, Eric?"

"Speed's gone from 80% oxygen with the vent and 20% being able to produce his own to being totally dependant on the vent," Eric explained shakily. Calleigh pointed to the phone and Eric nodded in understanding.

"Cal wants to talk to you," he said into the phone.

"Okay," Horatio responded.

"So what does this mean, Horatio? What caused this?"

"They said that his lungs are just working to hard and they can't handle it. The high fever makes it worse. Hopefully they'll be able to ease back on the amount of oxygen he's getting from the vent sooner rather than later. After a while the ventilator can do more harm than good according to the nurse," Horatio explained.

"I see, are you staying with him?" Calleigh wanted to know.

"As much as I want to I need to get back to work. Eric and I will sit with him tonight, though," the redhead answered.

"I thought so; well Eric and I are eating at the diner. What sandwich do you want me to bring back to the lab for you?" asked the blonde.

"Thanks, but I'm not hungry, cal," he answered.

"I didn't ask if you were hungry I asked what sandwich you want me to bring you back to eat?" she repeated firmly. Horatio sighed he knew it was pointless to argue with his ballistics expert when she had her mind set on something.

"A ham and cheese sandwich with mustard, please."

"I'll be happy to get it for you," Calleigh said cheerfully glad she'd won the argument.

"Thank you," Horatio replied.

"Your welcome, well I need to let you go so I can order your food but we'll be back to the lab soon, see you there," she said hanging up the phone and handing it back to Eric. Five minutes later they were on their way back to the lab a bag with a sandwich, chips an apple and a coffee for the lieutenant firmly in Calleigh's hands. Eric had been silent since the phone call from Horatio.

"Tim will be okay, he's to stubborn not to be," Calleigh said softly. Eric chuckled slightly as he nodded.

"Yeah, you're right," he agreed holding open the door to the lab for her.

"Thank you," she said sweetly as she walked through it.

"Your welcome, you want me to take that to H?" Eric asked pointing to the food and drink from the diner.

"Sure if you don't mind I want to go talk to Alexx for a minute," Calleigh answered.

"No not at all," Eric said relieving her of her burden and heading for his boss/lovers office.