Title: Find Out Who Your Friends Are (Skin) 10/?
Author: wolfsong98/Amy
Beta(s): Maj. Paul, Beck, and rascalflattsgurl43. All other mistakes are mine.
See Part 1 for Warnings and Notes.
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Ryan's gut told him that he needed to turn around and go back. Since working on Horatio's team, he had come to respect gut instincts. Sure enough, it paid off. He managed to appear behind her just in time to hear the words that she muttered.
"Looking forward to what?" He whispered to himself, staying back, occasionally ducking into the shadows as he followed her to the maintenance office.
Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out the recorder that he had signed out earlier that morning. After lunch, he and Delko were going to interview one of the prime suspects in a robbery case that the two of them were working on. Glancing at his watch, he was relieved to know that he had enough time to get another tape before the scheduled interview.
Moving slowly, so as not to attract any unwanted attention, Ryan hit the record button. As he watched, the young man alternately went from doing his best not to gag or trying to keep himself from bursting out into a fit of laughter. Natalia Boa Vista was practicing her statement using the coat rack as a substitute for one Rick Stetler. He stood outside the doorway, until the walkie talkie crackled to life.
"Maintenance please report to the women's restroom in the lobby. We have reports of someone getting sick all over the floor."
Taking advantage of the distraction, Ryan hightailed it to Horatio's office. Knocking on the door, without bothering to wait for an answer, he slipped inside.
"What can I do for you Mister Wolfe?" Horatio asked. The interruption was a welcome break from the paperwork that he had been staring at since he had returned to his office. Paperwork, although necessary, was boring and the one aspect of the job that the Lieutenant wished that he could do without.
"Actually H, I might have something for you."
The statement earned a quirk of the redhead's eyebrow. "Care to elaborate that for me, Mister Wolfe?"
Ryan was struggling to maintain a straight face as he explained how he had listened to his gut and followed Natalia without her ever noticing him. He barely kept it together as he explained what he saw in the maintenance office.
"Nice work, Ryan. But, do you have any proof? I believe you and I'm sure that for once Stetler would, but without any proof as you know there's nothing that we can do."
"Oops, did I not mention this?" Ryan asked, pulling the tape recorder out of his pocket. Extracting the tape, he handed it to Horatio.
"You got it all on tape?" He asked, arching an eyebrow.
"From the moment she began practicing her 'so called' statement up until she was called to clean the lobby restrooms." Ryan smirked. "Although, I'll be the first to admit, half the time I was doing my best not to gag."
And just what exactly were you doing the other half of the time?"
"I was trying not to burst out laughing. You should have seen her. She was coming onto a coat rack. You'll understand what I'm talking about when you hear the tape. She was calling the coat rack Rick Stetler during her…" Ryan grew silent while he tried to determine the best word to use. "…rehearsal."
Horatio decided to leave that one alone. He was fighting both the urge to growl and the urge to laugh. The first one surprised him. He wasn't sure why the thought of the snake was coming onto Stetler made him want to growl. "Do I even want to know why you had a tape recorder with you?"
"It's nothing, really H. Delko and I have a suspect in the Hart robbery case and we're going to interview him after lunch. I just decided to go ahead and sign out the tape recorder out first thing this morning since I didn't want to risk being caught unprepared."
The older man stood up. "Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Could you please excuse me while I listen to this tape?"
"Not a problem." With that, Wolfe turned and left the office.
Once he was alone, the Lieutenant locked the door to his office. He did not want to be disturbed, nor did he want anyone learning about the tape just yet. Slipping the tape into the player, he returned to his chair and hit play.
When the tape had finished Caine hit stop and grabbed the tape. He quickly stuffed it into his suit pocket and stormed out of his office. At the elevator he hit the up button, but decided that it was taking far too long. Turning on his heels, he headed for the stairwell. On the way he couldn't help but overhear a couple comments.
"Wonder what has him so riled? Normally, nothing ever fazes him."
"Didn't you hear? Not only has Stetler been sniffing around, he's also hijacked a member of Lieutenant Caine's team for a special project of his."
"No wonder he's pissed. Stetler had better keep both of his eyes open."
Horatio somehow managed to keep a straight face until he reached the stairwell. Once alone, he allowed himself to briefly smirk. The redhead quickly put his game face back on and stalked up the steps towards Rick Stetler's office. Caine was confused. He had no idea why he was so furious, but he was more determined than ever to get rid of one Natalia Boa Vista.
Shortly upon arriving, he was stopped by Rick's secretary. "I'm sorry, but you can't go in there. Sergeant Stetler is still with Mrs. Woods."
"Then I'll just wait out here for him to finish."
The secretary just sighed and returned to her desk. Horatio didn't have to wait for very long. He'd only been standing there for a couple of minutes before the door opened. Rick was holding the door open for Alexx, and he gave a small start to see Horatio standing outside his office door.
"Alexx." Horatio acknowledged her with a nod of his head as she walked past. The medical examiner gave him a small smile before she headed for the elevator.
"What are you doing here?" Rick growled out, once he had gotten over the surprise of seeing Horatio standing in his outer office.
Stalking forward, making Rick take a step back unconsciously, H pressed his index finger into the younger man's chest. "We need to talk." He growled, blue eyes staring into brown.
Stetler soon found himself being backed into his office. "Think you could take your hand off of me." He snapped, glaring at the other man, before they disappeared inside. There was a small part that regretted the fact that he had to say the words out loud. Mentally shaking his head, he tried to push all thoughts of kissing Horatio out of his mind.
Once the two of them had disappeared inside the office, the door slammed shut. After which, Horatio locked the door and both men smirked as they visibly relaxed.
"So what's the deal with this impromptu visit?"
"Thanks to Mister Wolfe, I have something that I think you might find useful."
Horatio's statement certainly grabbed his attention and piqued his curiosity. "What is it that you have?" He asked, wincing as his voice sounded a bit too eager.
The light hit Rick's eyes just right and Horatio could have sworn that his eyes had sparkled. It reminded him of a puppy being given a treat for being good. Where on earth did that come from? He thought to himself as he mentally shook his head.
"It seems that Ryan was having second thoughts after the 'incident' and chose to listen to his gut. He circled back around so that he could keep an eye on our problem." Horatio explained with a smile. "From what he told me, she never even suspected that any of us had returned and was observing her. Anyways, he followed her back to the maintenance office…"
Rick raised an eyebrow as Horatio's voice trailed off. "What happened?"
Horatio let out a soft, yet wicked little chuckle. The younger man fought the urge to groan as he tactfully chose to sit down in the chair behind his desk. "It seems that my CSI stumbled across her practicing her so-called statement and using a coat rack as a stand-in for you."
"I'm not even going to ask."
"You won't have to if you listen to the tape." H growled, before shaking his head. "Which is why, I'm giving you the tape that was given to me."
Stetler just stared at Horatio, confusion clearly evident on his face. "Was there any reason for Wolfe to have a tape recorder with him?"
"Honestly, it was just pure luck. He and Delko have an interview later today with a suspect and Ryan was planning on taping it. Not wanting to have to wait until the last minute, he had signed it out early this morning."
Rick closed his eyes and dragged his hand down his face. The redhead was not leaving. It was as if Horatio was just waiting for him to put the tape into the player and hit play.
The intensity of the older man's gaze upon him soon got to be too much and Stetler had to shift in the chair. He tried to hide it, but the movement was caught by Horatio's trained eye. "Is there a problem Rick?"
He wanted to shout out that yes he had a big problem at the moment but, knew that it wouldn't be a good idea. Instead, he chewed on his lip in an attempt to refrain from speaking the thoughts that were running through his head.
When Stetler didn't answer, Horatio began to watch him closely. At first he didn't notice anything different. However, as he kept watching, he noticed that Rick was chewing on his lip. Choosing not to say anything, Horatio just arched an eyebrow and kept watching. It wasn't long before his stare was met by Rick's. Shortly afterwards, Caine pulled the rolling chair up and took a seat in front of the desk.
"Is there a problem Horatio?" Rick asked as a smirk grew on his face.
"Just listen to the damn tape."
"All in due time, all in due time." His smirk got even wider at Horatio's growl. "Okay, okay, take it easy. What's gotten you so grumpy all of a sudden?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Yes, I would." Rick answered truthfully, as he placed the tape into the machine and hit play. The silence was soon broken by Natalia's voice.
As he listened to the voice, Rick found his problem soon disappeared. He let his head slam into his desk as he let out a loud whimper.
"You don't want to do that."
"Why not?
"The reason why not is that I don't need the aggravation of being accused of assaulting an officer."
"Ah, and here I thought that you actually cared."
"Keep thinking that."
"Besides, is there even anyone who would believe that you assaulted me? Now if it was the other way around…"
It was Horatio's turn to smirk. "If the lab techs are any indication, they would believe it. It turns out that we are pretty decent actors." Rick couldn't help but snicker into the desk as Horatio relayed the conversation he had overheard.
* * *
"Hey Cal, are you ready to go?" Ryan asked, poking his head into the office where Calleigh was working. It was time for them to go home and, since he was the only one without a car, Ryan had been volunteered to give Calleigh a ride home. It wasn't that he minded, which he didn't, it was just that he got the feeling he was being watched as he made his way through the lab.
"Almost. Hey Ryan, could you grab that stack of empty folders for me?"
"Sure thing."
"Once this finishes printing, I'll be ready to go."
"Okay." Ryan would have said more, but he was aware of a crowd beginning to gather outside the office all straining to see what was going on inside.
He glared at them and, as if she sensed that was what he was doing, Calleigh called out to him. "That won't work, trust me. I've tried."
"Then what would you suggest?"
The blonde gave him a small smile over her shoulder. "This." With that, she let her hand slowly drop to where her gun rested on her hip. By the time she had unsnapped the holster and turned around, there was not a single lab tech to be seen.
"See?" She smirked as she snapped the holster back around her gun. "That works."
"Do I even want to know how you discovered that?"
"Aw come on Ryan, it's not that bad." Her smile got bigger at his confused look. "It was an accident really. I dropped my pen and, I must not have snapped it good with everything that is going on, and the holster popped open. Once I snapped it shut, I looked up and they were gone."
By the time Calleigh was finished with her explanation, the printer had spit out the last page. After quickly placing it on top of one of the piles, she began to place them in a bag for her to take with them.
Looking between Calleigh, the empty file folders, and the stacks of papers Ryan finally asked the question that he'd been meaning to ask since he first walked in. "What is all of this?"
"Homework."
"Homework?" There was short pause before he actually figured out what she was talking about. "Oh."
"Yeah, that." She replied, as she grabbed her purse. After digging out her keys, she tossed them at Ryan before picking up the bag which was promptly taken out of her hands. "What was that for?"
"I'll take the heavy stuff, you can carry the empty folders." He answered, ignoring the look that she shot him as she grabbed the folders off of the desk. Ryan then followed the limping figure at a safe distance towards the elevator, only venturing inside because he didn't want to have to take the stairs down to the parking garage.
"Yes, I do realize that you're going to get me back for that." He said, holding his arms up as he stepped into the elevator.
"Good. Just so we're on the same page. So, how did the interview go in the Hart case?"
"At first Jason Daley, our suspect, tried to deny it."
"Isn't that what they all do?"
Ryan laughed. "When Eric showed him the evidence that we had against him, he began to sing like a canary spilling everything that he knew. My guess is that he was hoping to get a deal, but we already knew the information that he was trying to sell to us…"
"…there was no deal to be made." Calleigh finished for him as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.
"Exactly."
"They never learn." She commented as she limped over to where she had parked her car. Upon seeing her vehicle she stopped dead in her tracks which caused Ryan to slam right into her back.
"Watch where you're going you big oaf." She snapped, not taking her eyes off of her jeep.
"Sorry Cal, but why did you stop?" He asked, taking a step backwards. When she didn't answer, he followed her line of sight and when he saw her vehicle his mouth dropped open. "What the fuck?"
Someone had keyed Bitch into the passenger side of the Wrangler. Circling around to the other side it was clear that the same person had keyed the word Whore. Pulling out his cell, Ryan hit speed dial. "H, its Wolfe. We have a huge problem. No, we're fine. No one is hurt. We haven't even left the parking garage yet…"
Sighing, Calleigh limped over and took the phone from Ryan. "What he's trying to say is someone keyed my jeep." She explained, her voice was surprisingly calm compared to her partner's.
Snatching the phone back, Ryan shot her a look. "If you're going to tell him what happened, tell him everything okay?" He blinked and stared at the phone. Horatio had hung up on them. "He hung up."
"If I know him, he'll be down here in five minutes or less."
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