Chapter 9.2

Downstairs, Calleigh was busy scurrying through the kitchen to find some tea bags while she brought the water to the boil. Looking outside the window, she admitted to herself that Horatio was indeed right about not letting her drive through this storm. The sky was getting darker and darker and it looked that there was a lot more to come. Besides, spending time with Horatio and Elena was always a plus and this time it had been him to ask her to stay. She hadn't invited herself and this felt really good. Now she just needed to call Lisa, because she neither wanted her to worry about her whereabouts nor did she wanted her to wait for nothing.

After Horatio had changed he grabbed the sweatpants and left his room. He opened the door to the nursery cautiously and peeked inside, noticing with a pleased nod that Elena was still sleeping peacefully. "Nothing can disturb your beauty sleep, right Sweetness?" he whispered and should have known better than to say it out loud. Suddenly a loud clap of thunder roared right above the house and even Horatio couldn't help but being concerned. He wasn't afraid of thunder; he just didn't like them right above his roof. "Silly weather," he mumbled to himself and was about to leave the door ajar again when Elena started to cry.

"Hey Lisa, it's me. Listen, I won't make it on time, if I ever make it at all," Calleigh held her cell to her left ear while she opened a cupboard with her right hand.

' Cal, please don't tell me that you're in your car right now?!'

"No, I'm most definitely not," Cal smiled at the concerned voice of her friend. "I'm safe and secure, don't worry about me," she continued and shrieked when a loud clap of thunder shook the house.

'You ain't better be lying to me Duquesne, or I'll have your head," Lisa threatened her which made Calleigh laugh. 'And we both know that this would be a shame, since it's such a nice and clever head, right?'

"Scouts honor," Cal grinned in response "I just wanted to let you know that I have to postpone our meeting and," she was interrupted by Horatio and Elena, who was still crying her lungs out.

Horatio stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed the cell in her hand and mouthed a silent Sorry before he quickly left the room; not wanting to disturb her phone call any longer.

'Calleigh Marie Duquesne, am I imagining things or do I hear a baby's crying??'

"No you aren't, there's indeed a baby crying here," Calleigh sighed.

'So, is there something you want to tell me? Tell Priest Lisa all your sins and they'll be forgiven.'

"What? I..no!!" Calleigh answered confused and rolled her eyes when she heard Lisa laughing on the other side of the line. "It's not my baby. It's Horatio's…it's Elena…"

'Ah..Horatio..hm? You mean this hunk of a guy you call your boss and-'

"Yes," Calleigh hissed quickly before Lisa could continue her teasing.

'My Cal, don't be so sensitive. I won't tell him your dirty little secret..,' Lisa giggled.

"You ain't better do that, or I will have to invite you to my refuge you know…trying out some new weapons," Cal threatened her, knowing that her so called dirty little secret was safe with Lisa. She was indeed the only one who knew about it, since she didn't work in the lab and so she had an objective view on the subject.

'Okay, I'll promise, but now I don't want to steal your precious time with your boss. Oh and Cal.. I want ALL the juicy details later one," she laughed and quickly hung up before Calleigh could mutter a reply.

Cal just groaned in frustration. "Who needs enemies when you've got friends like these?" she rolled her eyes at her friend's antics and stuffed her cell back into her purse just the same moment when the tea pot started to whistle.

With two steaming cups of tea she emerged in the living room and watched Horatio walking around with Elena, who still seemed to be very upset. "Did she wake up from the thunder?" she asked and put down the cups onto the coffee table.

Horatio turned around to face her and nodded. "Yeah, I think she got scared by the sound and well…since the thunderstorm isn't over it's hard to calm her," he explained. "Sorry for interrupting your phone call by the way."

"Oh, that's fine," she put him off. "No need to be sorry. I just called Lisa, so she wouldn't get worried."

Horatio nodded in understanding and pointed with his chin towards the sweatpants he had draped over the couch's armrest earlier. "I thought that you might need something dry to wear and since my jeans will most definitely not fit you," he shrugged.

Confused, Calleigh followed his gaze and noticed the piece of clothing that was lying there all so innocently. "Uh…," she stuttered and prayed that her cheeks weren't as red as they felt.

Sensing her embarrassment, thinking it was because of him being her boss, Horatio quickly tried to reassure her. "I haven't worn them for years, guess I uhm…outgrew them," he laughed softly. "I just don't want you to catch a cold or something worse because of the A.C., okay?"

Smiling at his remark Calleigh nodded and pulled herself together. "Okay, thanks. I'll be back in a few," she said and fetched the clothes. Wearing Horatio's clothes, in Horatio's house…that's what people called torture. A sweet one, but torture nevertheless.

True to her word, she entered the living room a few minutes later again and was greeted by a (in her eyes) very cute scene. Horatio was sitting on the couch, slumped in the corner and Elena had her tiny arms wrapped around his neck, showing Calleigh her back. "Is she okay again?" she asked softly in case of the child being asleep again.

"Yeah," he nodded and grinned when he let his eyes wander to her, well actually his sweatpants. "Hmm, I certainly outgrew them, but you could still grow into them," he chuckled.

Looking down, Cal shot him a glare and couldn't help but smile at her attire. Thanks to the elastic ribbon she had been able to adjust it around her waist; the trouser legs though were a world too long. "You surely know how to give a girl a compliment, Mr. Caine," she chided him and sat down next to her host, which made Elena look up. "Hey there, did the stupid thunder scare you?" she cooed and turned a bit so she could face the others.

Elena snuffled and watched Calleigh with her big blue puffy eyes.

"Yeah, thunder is anything but nice, right Princess?" Horatio joined in and pressed a kiss onto his daughter's forehead. "But now there's no need to be scared, right? The thunder can't hurt you," he continued in his soothing voice and ran a hand through her silky hair. "And see what the thunder brought us, aunt Calleigh," he announced cheerfully and chuckled when Elena produced a small smile. He wasn't sure if this was because of mentioning Calleigh's name, or the fact that he was talking to her, but he decided to just run with it and be happy that Elena seemed to overcome her shock.

"It was more your Daddy not allowing me to leave the house than the storm as such," Calleigh corrected him subtly, "but it's pointless to argue about it, since we're all here now," she stated and reached for her cup to take a small sip of her nicely cooled down tea.

"Stop brainwashing my daughter," Horatio teased and put Elena down next to him, so she was sitting between him and Calleigh.

Calleigh couldn't help but ran a finger over Elena's cheek and wiping away the last remains of the tears that had been shed a few minutes ago. "She won't go back to sleep, right?" she asked curiously.

"No, sadly but no," Horatio sighed and grabbed his cup. "I hope she won't get cranky later on, but there's no way to put her back to bed now that she knows that you're here," he winked at Ellie and just as she'd understood him, the girl laughed. "See?"

"You're both charmers, that's for sure," Calleigh replied amused. "So what do you have in store for this rainy day?"

***

Calleigh sat in front of the TV cupboard and rummaged through Horatio's huge DVD collection. She had never picked him for being a movie nut, but she definitely had to reconsider it. His collection was widely spread and so it wasn't an easy task to find the right movie, while Horatio was upstairs putting Elena to bed.

The three of them had – in Cal's humble opinion - spend a wonderful afternoon together. They had played with Elena, so she would be distracted from the storm going on outside and they had succeeded. Elena owned this nice little box where you could put in different shape types of items and Calleigh was amazed of how clever this little girl already was. Certainly, Horatio Caine was her father, but it amazed Calleigh nevertheless and her heart had melted every time when Ellie had succeeded in her task and had clapped enthusiastically. My, this girl had more charm in her pinkie than others in their whole body.

Afterwards they had prepared a light dinner together, or better said the adults did, while Elena had stayed in her playpen. Of course, Calleigh had asked Horatio why the girl had to stay there and when he had awkwardly told her the story of her last attempt to redecorate the house, Cal had definitely understood his reasoning. Though she had to admit that she'd give a lot of money to see a flustered Horatio, cleaning his walls in panic, while his daughter would sulk the same time, because he was destroying her paintings. Maybe she would get the chance again, when Ellie found her first pen on the floor, but until then she just had to use her imagination.

Dinner had been a very nice affair, even though Elena hadn't actually agreed with Horatio's choice of food for her. Something Calleigh couldn't understand, since it had been special baby semolina porridge for the night. He had probably made the mistake in showing her the chocolate version at first and then giving her the vanilla one, but Calleigh wasn't so sure if Elena could actually made out a difference by just seeing the glass. But when it came to a Caine, you never knew. The fact that Horatio had to change after dinner for a second time this day underpinned her idea though. But just like Horatio had declared so nicely, the two girls had had their fun.

And now she was getting lost in the huge amount of movies, unconsciously comparing them with her own collection at home and was very pleased by the fact, that they had more in common than she'd thought. One movie in particular caught her interest and so she got it out.

Horatio grabbed the baby monitor and assured himself a second time that Elena was fast asleep. It was a little too early tonight, but since she didn't have a long nap this afternoon, it was only natural that she'd been deadly tired after dinner. Thankfully, the storm had decreased a lot and there was only a mild wind left and the thunderstorm had moved on during the afternoon.

He couldn't exactly say why he and Calleigh had agreed on a movie night, but the lonely feeling that had threatened to consume him after dinner had made him ask her to stay a little longer. He enjoyed spending time with her and the fact that she had came around today had rescued him in more than one way.

Leaving the door ajar, he made his way downstairs into the living room, where Cal seemingly tried to memorize every movie that he owned. Now that was a task that could take some time, especially since Horatio didn't know how many movies he actually owned. Smiling he put down the baby monitor onto the coffee table and was greeted by a huge smile.

"You know," Calleigh started and watched him closely. "It's already a surprise that you own so many movies, but I would have never picked you for the Titanic type of guy," she grinned and held up the DVD for him to see. The moment she saw the pain flickering across his face, she knew she'd done a huge mistake.

Horatio felt the dull pang in his heart immediately, though it wasn't as bad as he had imagined. He wasn't sure if this was a good sign or not, but right now he didn't have the time to analyze it. Looking down at his shoes, he shook his head and sighed. "Actually, it's not mine. It's…it was Marisol's," he said softly. "It was her favorite movie."

"I'm so sorry, Horatio," Calleigh replied in earnest. "I didn't know..I.."

"No, its okay," he interrupted her calmly. "But I'd really appreciate it, if we could watch a different movie, okay?"

"Of course," Calleigh answered quickly. "Do you have one in mind?" She didn't want to make another mistake.

"Not really. Just pick one you like, I'll like it anyway," he tried to lighten up the mood a bit. He didn't blame Calleigh for asking him about Titanic. It was rather a typical chick flick; he knew that all too well. But it held memories that he didn't want to think of right now. "I'm gonna make us some popcorn, how does that sound?"

"Like heaven," she drawled and watched him leaving. "Great Calleigh. You're so perceptive sometimes, that being a CSI is the perfect job for you," she berated herself. "You really put your foot in it! Damn!" She wanted to help him forget and get over his grief and now she reminded him of his late wife. "You stupid girl." And now she had to find another movie. One that was definitely his and not Marisol's, because if she made the same mistake again, she could never ever meet his eyes again.

"Okay, Cal…use your common sense. What is more after his liking than hers?" Not that she'd known Marisol that good, but that didn't matter right now. "No chick flick, that's too risky..hmm…" She slowly let her eyes roam over the DVD covers, when it suddenly leapt into her eye. "Perfect."

Tbc

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews. I'm glad that you enjoyed the story so far. Let me know what you think.