She had sat in the passenger seat of his car, watching him as they drove further from the bustling streets of Miami.
"You're not going to push me to open up and tell you what's wrong?" she asked.
A small smile tugged at Horatio's lips. "Would it help if I did?"
Her silence spoke volumes.
"Alexx would have dragged it out of me by now," she mused, continuing to watch him drive.
"Then let's thank God for small mercies that she's on vacation at the moment," Horatio responded, arching an eyebrow knowingly. "However, I'm willing to listen…whenever you're ready."
Nearly an hour later, Horatio stopped the engine of the car and looked at her.
"Where are we?" she asked, not recognising her surroundings.
"Just a little place I know," he said, making his way to the passenger side of the car and offering her a hand.
"It's pretty quiet around here."
"I know," Horatio said quietly. "It's why I like it here" he said, beckoning her to follow. "Trust me?"
He led her down to a secluded part of the beach, and both ended up sitting on the sand with their back against a large rock, watching the sun setting across the ocean.
"This is beautiful," she said, mesmerised by the sounds of water lapping against the shore.
He nodded his head, continuing to look out across the ocean. "I come here when I need to think. Sometimes, I come here when I need to be alone."
He seemed so far away in his thoughts that she said nothing. She continued to watch him, waiting for him to continue.
"I know people mean well, but sometimes… Sometimes talking is overrated, you know?"
She nodded her head. She knew exactly what he meant.
She had plenty of friends, yet there were times when she just didn't have the energy to be the perennially happy go lucky girl that they expected her to be. People assumed that her melodic timbre meant that nothing ever affected her and yet it did, constantly.
Her father could be so sweet and loving at times, yet there were periods where his drunken behaviour caused him to be cruel and thoughtless toward her. For as long as she could remember, it felt as if there were two versions of her father thrust into one body. Those changes had been difficult for her to understand as a child and even harder to accept now that she was an adult.
He was her flesh and blood and no matter how angry he made her, she would never be able to stop loving him. It was exhausting work being the loved one of an addict. Today had just been too much for her.
She had taken a call from a local bar informing her that her father needed a lift back home. Sick of having to drop everything to collect him, she had told her father in no uncertain terms that she would no longer be at his beck and call. She had shouted at him, raging at him to sort his life out before it was too late. She had never been so furious with anyone in her entire life.
It was only when she let herself back into her car that she allowed the tears to flow.
"It's ok to feel angry, Calleigh," Horatio said quietly, shaking her gently from her thoughts. "It doesn't make you a bad person."
"How did you know?" she asked, shocked that he had been able to read her so easily.
He glanced at her briefly before looking away again. "My father was an alcoholic too."
"Does it ever get any easier?" she asked. She could already tell by the look on his face as to what the answer would be.
He lifted his arm and beckoned her closer, pulling her against his chest as she sobbed quietly, his other hand stroking her hair tenderly.
Rick had spent another uncomfortable night on Yelina's couch.
It had been inevitable that the kid would tell his mother about the incident in the car and so Rick had decided to beat the boy to the punch.
The news had gone down as well as he had expected as Yelina's temper ignited.
"He's just a young boy!" she had shouted at him. "What's the matter with you, Rick?"
He'd run a hand through his hair in frustration. "The Chief's been on my back about the department budget, we've got more cases than we can handle, and Horatio's team are closing ranks every time I go near them."
"And that's my son's fault?"
"No," he'd said, trying to be patient with her. "That's not what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?" she'd countered, hands on her hips.
"You have no idea the strain I'm under, Yelina. So, leave it, ok?"
The two of them had said nothing for several moments.
"I'd hoped you'd be different," Yelina had said, her voice no more than a whisper.
Shaking himself from the memory, Rick caught a glimpse of Tim Speedle walking down the corridor.
"Speedle. A moment of your time, please." He called out from his office.
He saw the younger man pause in the corridor momentarily before walking toward him.
"What?" Speed asked bluntly.
"I need you to give me an update on the case."
Speed gave him a blank look. "What case?"
"Horatio's," Rick replied, already losing patience. "I know you're all still working on it."
Speed shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Rick let out a humourless laugh. "Do you think I'm stupid?"
The look on the young CSI's face spoke volumes as to the unanswered question.
"I know a wall of silence when I see one, Speedle. By the way, we're is Officer Duquesne?"
Speedle fidgeted awkwardly at the mention of his colleague's name. "She's taken a couple of sick days."
"I bet she has. Any chance she'll be at the hospital right about now?"
Tim Speedle refused to answer. "Can I go now?"
"I'm watching you. I'm watching you all," Rick called out to the retreating figure.
"I had a feeling I'd find you here," Alexx said, letting herself into Horatio's hospital room.
"What are you doing here?" Calleigh asked, stretching her tired body.
"You've been a no-show at the lab for the last two days. People are asking questions."
Calleigh knew exactly who Alexx was talking about.
"Well, I wasn't exactly lying when I said I'd be taking a few sick days," Calleigh said, motioning to Horatio. "I couldn't leave him on his own like this."
Calleigh watched as Alexx ran a hand tenderly over Horatio's forehead, wincing when she felt the heat radiating from it.
"At least the swelling is starting to go down," Alexx remarked. "He'll be back to his handsome self in no time, won't you, sugar?"
Calleigh arched an eyebrow in amusement but said nothing.
"Honey, you should see the line of nurses out there wanting to give our boy a bed bath. And don't even get me started on the female ones."
The two women shared a smile, knowing that Horatio had something about him that others found magnetic. His charms had no doubt affected those in charge of his medical care too.
Alexx took a good look at Calleigh and noticed just how drawn and tired she looked.
"Go home and get a few hour's rest," Alexx told her, dragging a chair over to Horatio's bed.
"I can't leave him," Calleigh protested. "He's been having nightmares and calling out to people. He sounds so sad, Alexx."
Alexx glanced at the monitors beside the bed. "I'll stay with him until you get back, I promise."
Calleigh found herself being shooed out of the room as Alexx prepared to stand guard over her colleague and friend.
"Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust."
He watched numbly as Ray's coffin was lowered to the ground. He tossed a handful of dirt into the hole as the breath hitched in his throat. Each shot from the honour guard made him flinch, each bullet entering the sky a reminder that he had failed his brother.
He held Ray Jr's hand tightly. The little boy had yet to grasp the finality of the situation. That his father was gone forever and would never be coming back.
After months of wishing that he could have the family his brother had left behind, he suddenly found himself thrust into that very position through a cruel twist of fate.
Yelina had been beside herself these past few weeks. It had been he who had made the funeral arrangements, completed the paperwork for Ray's police pension. It had been he who had held Ray Jr as he cried for a father who would never return.
Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.
A groan from Horatio caught Alexx's attention.
"Where's Calleigh?" he asked, a chill sending a shudder through his tired and aching body.
"Well, hello to you, too," Alexx responded tartly.
His eyes were still glazed with fever. She suddenly felt bad for being short with him.
"She's gone home for a shower and few hour's rest. She's been with you the whole time."
He looked at her blankly.
"You've been running quite the fever the last few days." She took his hand, gently rubbing her thumb over the back of it, mindful of the port still attached to it. "You still are, as it happens."
"I don't remember," he groaned.
"I'm not surprised, sugar."
She suddenly felt him tense, the monitors beside the bed becoming louder as his eyes widened – whether in shock or fear, she couldn't tell.
"He's here," Horatio said, raising a shaky hand to the door.
Alexx turned around quickly but saw nothing.
"Honey, it's the fever making you hallucinate. There's nothing there, I promise you."
"No, he was there," he insisted as his eyes slid closed of their own accord. "I saw him. He was there. You have to believe me."