DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI: Miami or anything else that belongs to CBS, more's the pity. I'm just having a little fun and promise to put everyone back where I found them with no harm done. I no own, you no sue, okay?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This story is set in an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. This means that the faces and features may differ slightly from Canon. It does NOT mean that they will act out of character, so if you want to see Horatio dress in drag and do the hula, you're out of luck. This story is set post Season 4… hence the AU. It will contain SPOILERS for all seasons, including season 4 and the finale. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DON'T READ.

SLASH WARNING: This story will contain SLASH in later chapters. This is the description and/or discussion of m/m sex. If this offends you, DON'T READ.

FEEDBACK: I crave it. I need it. Please be kind and leave a review! Like it, hate it, tell me why!

DEDICATIONS: How could I have forgotten this before? Dedicated to Evendim, who first gave me the courage to post my serious writing; to Eddie (AJ) who keeps me sane and helps me fight off the hysteria when the words won't come; River, who beta's my work and keeps me honest, and is endlessly patient with my rants and insecurity. Likewise for Melissa… you have been a blessed saint for listening to my rants of late. You guys are my lifeline, and you just ROCK. Hugs for being there for me.

Part Ten

"You have got to be kidding me." Calleigh stepped out of the Hummer with a groan. "This place looks like a war zone, Frank, what happened? Armed robbery doesn't usually leave car parts all over the street."

"Yeah, well, armed robbery with a twist." Frank's face was seamed with angry lines. "No shots fired, no one hurt, not even a bruise. Add in the surveillance video and the eyewitnesses and we've got a solid ID at least on the leader." He looked like he had swallowed something sour as he handed over the description and one of the stills already taken from the camera.

Calleigh took them with a nod and her face hardened perceptibly. "There's no way we can keep this under wraps, not now," she said slowly. "Guys!" she called to Eric and Ryan. "We need to pay extra attention to Trace evidence. If Horatio is trying to tell us something, he'll have left another clue." She turned back to Frank. "It may not be what it seems, Frank," she said softly. "Horatio set the explosives at the Dispo hit this morning; we've got proof. We've also got his fingerprints all over the van. You and I both know he's too good to leave evidence unless that's what he intends to do." She kept her voice low --- she had seen Rick arrive. "He also left us a casing, stripped and unfired, with a clear print. He's trying to tell us something."

"Yeah, well, you better find it fast, Calleigh, that's all I got to say. These guys are busy loadin' for bear." He indicated the uniforms with a nod of his head. "Find it quick, because he just started a war." He stalked off to avoid Stetler who was moving to intercept them.

"Calleigh," Rick greeted her as she turned to face him. "I need an update." His expression told her it wasn't a request.

"The investigation is ongoing, Rick, I can't give you any new information yet," Calleigh replied with a headshake. "I'll let you know when I can."

He drew her aside. "I'm trying to help you," he said simply. "Word's already come down to oversee your team's movements. The brass thinks that if one's crossed the line, the rest might." He held her gaze for a moment. "Give me something to tell them, to take the heat off of you. Anything."

She regarded him steadily, judging his sincerity, and then nodded. "I appreciate that, Rick, I really do. I just don't have anything to tell you yet." She turned to head inside and he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Then how about I tell you. Horatio has crossed the line, Calleigh, and IAB thinks you guys are helping him." His expression was intense. "Don't let him take you down with him. Give me something I can use. I know he was here, I know he was running the operation. Give me something to prove you're not helping him."

"If I could, I would." Calleigh didn't hesitate. "Let it go. I can't tell you what I don't know. Was Horatio at the scene this morning? Yes. Was he here now? Yes. Anything else would be pure speculation on my part, and I do not speculate. I collect the evidence, I analyze the evidence, and then I pass along those findings." She gave him a veiled glance, assessing him again. "There's something you're not telling me, Rick," she said slowly after a long pause. "If you've got information relating to this investigation, I need to know it." She softened her voice slightly. "If someone is tipping off IAB, then it's possible that someone knows exactly what Horatio is up to. Tell me what you know, and maybe we can work something out."

"I don't know anything." Rick held up his hands when she started to protest. "IAB got an anonymous tip earlier, told us to look closer at Horatio. And the higher-ups think that means your team, too."

Calleigh blinked. "That's quite an incentive to look at Horatio, but why us?" she murmured. "Because we're so close to him. That's what makes us the best to investigate this." She held his eyes once more. "We know him the way no one else does. If he's leaving clues, we'll find them where no one else would. Let me clear this scene, Rick, and we'll talk." It had already become painfully evident that things weren't as they seemed. Horatio was simply too skilled to leave evidence the way he had, and Rick Stetler knew it. Calleigh wasn't above using what he knew to further her own investigation. "I'll page you. Right now, the evidence is waiting."

Eric glanced over at Ryan with concern in his big dark eyes. "This isn't right," he said softly as he tweezed up a piece of what appeared to be the explosive device. "H going after cops, it doesn't wash. It doesn't fit."

Ryan glanced around where he was working. "No, it doesn't. I don't care how bad he's gone --- if he has --- you're right, it doesn't fit. And neither does this." He held up a casing. "Same as what you found this morning, I think. Only… didn't Calleigh say that one was right out of the box, no guts? This one's got the charge still in it." He bagged it carefully.

Eric nodded. "Come on, Wolfe," he chided. "You saw the tape, you worked that scene. H is too damned good at his job to have left evidence he didn't intend us to find."

"You're the one who said he was getting weird after Park talked to him. That he was just… I think you said there wasn't anything left of him in his eyes." Ryan swiveled to face Eric, his own face carefully shuttered. "What changed your mind?"

Eric just kept working. "A little thought and a lot of calming down." He tweezed up another piece of plastic and regarded it steadily, then bagged it. "H is intense, sometimes scary intense. When they blocked our visas --- I thought he was going to go postal right there in the airport. Then he just got really, really quiet and told me to go home and wait. I remember thinking I was glad he wasn't giving me that look." He found another speck and bagged it, too. "He disappeared the next morning. I thought maybe he'd found a way to go to Brazil without me. I was beyond pissed, man."

Ryan ran his trained eye over his quadrant of the street. "You missed a spot," he said with half a smile as he picked it up and bagged it. "You still haven't said what changed your mind."

"Once I calmed down, I had time to think. And then I saw that tape. He knew we'd be processing, Wolfe. We're his team. He made sure we'd know he was at the scene even without the prints." Eric shook his head. "It's confusing, even to me. But I saw that, and I knew. I knew he was leaving us hints. He's too damned good a CSI to leave anything he doesn't want to."

Ryan nodded. "That's what I thought, too. And the clerks here said he was going out of his way to make sure nobody got hurt." Another piece of plastic, another bag; he thought they were getting quite a pile of the stuff. "Another thing I noticed. These explosives, they weren't high end. And they didn't pack too much of a kick, just enough to knock the cruisers off-course. Neither of the uniforms was seriously hurt."

"Yeah, I got that too. Clerks said they were only after the rifles, high-powered sniper weapons." Eric looked thoughtful as he looked something over carefully. "Hey, I got a piece of what looks like the detonator, here," he said as he picked it up carefully with gloved fingers. "Receiver of some kind. I'll run it at the lab, see if I can get a make on it. There's part of a serial number on what's left of it."

"Uh, Eric?" Ryan was watching the uniforms at the shop. They were milling about, obviously angry, and were taking on the aspect of a lynch mob. "I don't think they're going to wait for official word before trying to hunt Horatio down. We're running out of time."

Horatio tipped his beer in salute. "Well done," he said simply. The other men returned his gaze evenly; even Alejandro was silent. "No death, no shots fired… and the police have no idea where to find us. We've got the guns… now we train."

He saluted them again and stepped away, leaving them to party while he went elsewhere. He needed time to think. To brood. The Dispo driver, Givens, had died while they were at the gun shop. Another death on his hands.

He paced along the balcony overlooking the pool area, surreptitiously watching the Nuevas. Raucous, rowdy; not at all his speed. He preferred it quiet. So he leaned on the banister, content to observe rather than participate. Alone once more. Alone with his thoughts… and his guilt.

Guilt about the blood on his hands, guilt about what he had become. Guilt at putting his team through hell; he knew they would be devastated by what they had found, evidence that only confirmed his guilt.

Marisol's face danced before him and he closed his eyes against the pain. She had understood him perhaps better than anyone, even in the brief time they'd been together. She had understood their marriage hadn't been for love of her. It had been an attempt to bring some joy back to her life, at giving her a chance for a normal life… and to bring the same joy back to Eric.

Eric. When Marisol had been diagnosed with the cancer, it hit him hard. He'd stood by his sister through everything, had helped her to get what she needed, even when it wasn't quite legal. He had been overjoyed when she went into remission; and pissed as hell when Horatio had announced his intentions to marry her.

Horatio still wasn't quite certain what had brought it on, but Eric hadn't spoken to him for several days. He'd thought at first it was simple shock at the suddenness of the decision --- but he had quickly realized that the silence held anger. A lot of anger. More than could be explained by the simple fact of the engagement, he thought. But when Eric refused to attend the wedding, it had come to a head.

Horatio had left him alone, reasoning that Eric would make his own choices and live with the consequences. Others had intervened… and Eric had given up the fight with good grace, not only attending the wedding but having the courage to wish them well. But still, there had been something bothering the man; Horatio's trained eye had seen it, and he had said nothing.

He had said nothing, and Marisol had been killed. He had watched the light go from Eric's eyes, had watched harsh reality set in, had watched as rage overtook the Eric he knew… and in that moment, he realized what he had known all along. He hadn't done anything for Marisol's sake.

It had been for Eric.

Just as all this had been done to protect Eric. He had seen the hate in the other man's eyes, had seen in him the willingness to cross the line, just as he had been. And he had vowed to himself that he would not, would not, be responsible for the damage such a thing would have done to Eric's nature. Eric simply wasn't a killer, and Horatio wouldn't allow him to become one. He had lost sight of that for a few moments --- but when it came down to it, he hadn't been able to carry through. He had been furious when the visas had been blocked, until it occurred to him that it was a way to protect Eric.

So he had made the deal.

Noise from the party interrupted his thoughts and he brought himself back to the present. Eric was lost to him now, as were the others. There could be no forgiveness for his actions, no redemption for his sins. He would see this through to the end.

And with the decision reached, he went to his room and lay down on the bed… but it was a long time before he slept.

TBC