Calleigh silenced the alarm quickly for fear of disturbing the man lying next to her. She needn't have worried, Horatio didn't so much as twitch at the sound of her phone bleeping incessantly at her.
She rolled onto her side and watched him for a while. He was still pretty much in the same position she'd found him in after Alexx had beat a hasty retreat last night. The pills that she'd given him had knocked him out almost instantly.
It seemed as if they were still working their magic this morning and truth be told, perhaps it wasn't only the pain medication that was having an effect. She'd noticed these past couple of days that something had been eating at Horatio, causing him to be restless at night. She had said nothing for fear of pushing him away and retreating even further into himself.
Trying to drag the truth out of him had been hard work and taken its toll on both of them. She had no desire to keep forcing him to be honest with her. It might prove successful in the short term, but it would only cause friction and mistrust between them in the long run.
She'd never seen him look quite so exhausted as he had the night he'd returned from Yelina's with several boxes of Raymond's things. It was obvious that Horatio was not going to stop until he got to the truth of what happened to his brother on the fateful night that he was shot and killed.
As stubborn as Horatio was, there would be no way that he would figure things out if he was running on empty. Perhaps the pills that Alexx had given him had only kick-started the rest that Horatio's body and mind desperately needed.
She kept her eye on him as she set about getting ready for work and leaving the house and still Horatio had barely moved a muscle. Her mind made up, she picked up his cell phone and switched it off. Hopefully, by the time he'd woken and realised what was going on, the day would almost be over.
Calleigh glanced down at her phone, checking for any missed calls or irate messages from Horatio. She was relieved to find that there weren't any, but it was still early in the day. There was still plenty of time for Horatio to wake up and find out what she'd done.
"Hey, Cal," Eric said as she walked into the break room.
"Morning," she replied, although it was clear to Eric that she was distracted. "Where are you and Speed at with the Harrigan case?"
The question must have taken Eric by surprise. "Uh, I was going to give H and update on that this morning."
He scratched his head and looked confused.
Speed entered the room, helping himself to coffee and a donut. "I just spoke to Detective Salas," he began before taking a large gulp of coffee, "Fancy Delancy's alibi fell through, so she's bringing her back in to question her under caution this morning. She said she tried to call H, but he didn't answer."
Eric and Speed looked at each other, both coming to the same conclusion.
"Let's get Tyler to trace his cell phone," Eric began, a look of obvious concern on his face.
Calleigh held her hand up to bring both men to a halt. "There's no need. Horatio's just taking a sick day, that's all."
Never overly animated with his facial expressions, even Speed raised his eyebrows at Calleigh's admission.
"A sick day?" Speed said, his voice rising slightly in shock, "H never takes a sick day."
Eric elbowed Speed in the ribs. "Maybe it's a ruse for something else. Maybe he's playing hooky with that woman."
Calleigh shot her two male colleagues a fierce glare. "What woman?"
Eric held both his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, all I know is that H seems pretty laid back recently. Speed and I think maybe he's met a special lady. Maybe he's spending the day with her."
"You have no idea what you're talking about!"
Eric tried in vain to placate his colleague. "Hey, I'm just putting two and two together and coming up with the obvious…."
Speed had the good grace to look ashamed at least. Crossing her arms over her chest, Calleigh admonished them both.
"Eric, I can understand," she began as she gave him a disappointed look, "but I expected better from you, Tim."
Tim Speedle stood up, ready to defend himself. "Hey, what did I do?"
"Since when has Horatio's private life been your concern?" Calleigh continued, her anger taking full flight.
"Cal," Eric began, taking a step toward her only to be stopped by her fierce glare. "I didn't mean anything by it."
"No, no one ever does, do they?" she spat, turning on her heels, leaving the room and slamming the door behind her.
The two men looked at each other.
"What the hell was that about?" Eric asked his colleague.
Speed shrugged his shoulders. "I get a feeling this is about more than H taking a sick day." Speed scratched the stubble on his chin. "I don't buy it anyway. H still wouldn't take a sick day even if he was missing an arm, a leg and half of his intestines."
Eric couldn't deny the truth of that statement, as extreme as it was. Horatio would never willingly take a sick day, even if his life depended on it. Something much bigger was going on that Calleigh was refusing to divulge to them.
"Something doesn't add up," Eric mused.
Speed finished the last of his coffee and patted his colleague on the shoulder. "Whatever it is, its probably not something we want to get involved in."
Eric nodded his head, knowing Speed was right.
Feeling bad about tearing a strip off of Speed and Eric earlier, Calleigh set about cleaning weapons in her lab with a fervour. The two men would figure out pretty quickly what was going on if she didn't get her act together soon.
It suddenly occurred to her that Horatio had yet to reveal the outcome of his discussion with the Chief regarding their relationship. He'd been due to tell her last night before everything had quickly headed south.
"Hey, I got your message," Frank said as he moved quietly into the gun lab. "Everything ok?"
Putting down the weapon she'd been cleaning, Calleigh turned to look at the tall detective. "Thanks for meeting me down here, I didn't want anyone else overhearing our conversation."
Frank looked slightly uneasy at her admission. "Does Horatio know about this?"
Calleigh shook her head. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Where is he?"
Calleigh took a deep breath before she began. "Horatio had a visit from some federal officers last night. They warned him to stay away from the gangs you've both been looking into."
Frank ran a hand over his balding head. "Those sons of bitches. Is he ok?"
"A few bumps and bruises. Nothing serious."
"Don't tell me he's running around looking for them?"
Calleigh shook her head. "Alexx took care of that." She saw the confused look on Frank's face and clarified, "She dosed him. I don't think he's going to be doing much running around today."
Frank huffed and hiked his pants toward his portly stomach. "He's going to go apeshit when he finds out."
"Someone needs to make him see reason, Frank. He's been like a dog with a bone these past few days. He's obsessed with finding out what happened to his brother."
"Aint that the truth," Frank agreed. "You do realise that he's going to be back at it by tomorrow, don't you?"
Calleigh gave the detective a hopeful look. "That's why I was hoping you could help me out. Keep an eye on him, will you?"
Frank nodded his agreement. "Not to sound blunt about it, but why do you care so much about what Horatio's up to?"
"Because he's my friend," Calleigh shot back a little too quickly.
Frank cocked an eyebrow. "Just a friend?"
The look on Calleigh's face had been all the answer that Frank needed. He grinned at her.
"'Bout time too," he said as he walked away, chuckling to himself.
Raymond Caine sipped on a glass of scotch as he looked over the building schematics once more. He needed to be sure that all possible outcomes were considered and covered before green-lighting the operation.
News had spread that violence had broken out across the city by two rival gangs, both of which had connections to the group he'd infiltrated and become a part of these past few years. Bodies were starting to pile up and the MDPD would be crawling all over the city trying to track down the perpetrators.
His colleague, the one who had gotten him into this mess in the first place, had suggested that there would be no better time to carry out their plans than right now. With the MDPD chasing their tails and tracking down drug-dealing gangbangers, no one would notice or even care what they were up to.
Something didn't sit right with him though. There was something about their planned heist that made him feel uncomfortable. They were supposed to be tracking and shutting down drug rings, not breaking and entering and stealing money.
But this was the way of the world when you were undercover. Suddenly, the lines between good and bad, right and wrong became blurred. He had always justified that the actions he took were just a means to an end - sometimes you had to rob Peter to pay Paul…
"You wanna know what a little bird told me today?"
The man's voice had caught him by surprise. He needed to get his head back into the game and forget about what had happened several weeks ago.
"Not really."
"The lieutenant had a visit from the Feds last night."
Ray stood up quickly, the tumbler of scotch knocked onto its side. "I told you to stay away from him!"
The man held his hands up in mock supplication. "Relax, they weren't too heavy with him. Your brother can take a couple of punches, can't he?"
He knew that Horatio was a strong man and able to look after himself. He'd proven that enough times when Horatio had taken punishments from their old man that were meant for his younger sibling.
Raymond had tried to justify the night of the attack to himself so many times. He told himself that Horatio had taken worse beatings from their father, that he was a sanctimonious hypocrite who deserved to be taken down a rung or two, that he was doing this for the greater good and to protect his undercover status within the drug smuggling ring….
Whichever way he cut it, there was no real justification for what he'd done. Even though it had momentarily felt good to be the brother in control, the brother with all the power, Raymond realised quickly that the victory was hollow.
It had eaten away at him, the fact that he had done nothing to help his brother and had set upon him with the rest of the gang. Once the guilt had set in, it ate at him like a cancer and he finally realised how much he loved Horatio. After years of fighting and arguing, it became clear to him that his brother had only ever loved him and wanted the best for him.
And he'd paid him back by throwing it in his face and almost getting him killed. He might have made mistakes, but Raymond Caine was not a stupid man. He would not make the same mistake twice.
Grabbing him by his jacket, Raymond threw the man into the nearest wall, snarling in his face. "If hear that Horatio has so much as a hair out of place…I swear to God I'm going to blow this whole operation sky high and take you all down with me!"
"That sounds like an empty threat, Caine."
He grabbed the man again and shoved him into the wall even harder. "It's a promise. Tell your bulldogs to back off or I'll really show you what I'm capable of."
The man laughed at him. "Careful, Caine. It's not like you have many friends...apart from me."
No, Raymond thought to himself, but he had family. It would be the one thing that he would focus on from now on. Maybe they would never understand what he'd done or the reasons why, but he would give his life to protect them from whatever might come next.
It was mid afternoon by the time Horatio's call finally came.
"Hi," Calleigh said, sounding chirpy and bright.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?"
She could tell from the tone of his voice that he was less than happy with her. He sounded as if he were still half asleep.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked, ignoring his displeasure.
"I slept like someone slipped me a roofie last night," he sighed.
"You can blame Alexx for that, I had nothing to do with it."
She could hear his humourless huff down the phone line. "Oh trust me, Alexx and I will be having a long discussion regarding her interpretation of the Hippocratic oath when I see her next." He paused for a moment. "I take it you were the one who turned my phone off?"
She held a hand up, even though he couldn't see it. "Guilty as charged."
"Calleigh…" he began, "you shouldn't have done that."
They'd been here before - Horatio obstinately denying to those around him that he didn't need anyone looking out for him or taking care of him.
"Horatio, you haven't been sleeping properly lately. I figured your body and your mind could do with a rest for a while. You won't be able to figure everything out if you're exhausted."
He said nothing for a number of moments and she feared that he had hung up on her. "Maybe you're right…it doesn't mean that I agree with how you went about it though."
"So all is forgiven?" she asked hopefully.
"There's nothing to forgive," he said quickly, trying to put her mind at rest. "I guess I'm just not used to someone playing hardball and being as sneaky as you are."
"Horatio, I'm not trying to undermine you or control your life," she said in all seriousness, "I just want you to talk to me and be honest about what's going on in your head. Its almost like I can see the wheels turning in your mind when you're trying to figure out this whole Raymond thing. I just want to help you."
"I know," he replied softly and she could almost hear the smile that was no doubt creeping across his face as he spoke. "That's why I was going to ask if you wanted to come to mine after work…" his voice trailed off for a moment or two before he spoke again, "I was hoping you'd help me look through Raymond's things."
She caught the hint of uncertainty in his voice and it almost broke her heart at how unsure he sounded. It suddenly hit her that Horatio was making a huge gesture of trust and openness toward her. The two of them had barely spoken about Raymond unless she had as good as forced it out of him.
Horatio was asking her permission to open the Pandora's box of his troubled history with Raymond. For him to take such a huge step spoke volumes of how much trust he was placing in her. Perhaps she was finally making inroads into finding out just what made Horatio Caine tick and had made him the man he was today.
He was opening himself up to her and she jumped at the chance of helping the man she loved find some sort of peace when it came to Raymond.
"There's no need to ask, Horatio. Of course I'll help you…but on one condition."
"Which is?"
"Let me bring dinner by way of apology. I shouldn't have switched your phone off. It wasn't my place to make that decision."
"Hmmm," he said in that way that got her all excited. "As long as you bring some Chinese and a bottle of wine. I'm sure I could find it in myself to forgive you…."