Chapter 21

After Shift

Work did distract him for most of the day, but a lot of thoughts occasionally went through his mind, particularly how was he going to tell Calleigh the news. He already promised himself that he would never hurt her again, but now, here he is again hurting her feelings, bringing news that he was sure would break her and even if he wanted to hide it, there was no way he could.

But he wouldn't have wanted to go down that route anyways, because they've been spending all of this time working on their trust in one another and he didn't want to blow it up just when things were becoming better with them.

After he dismissed the team, which they all thought he was acting a little different and they hoped it wasn't anything like last time, he went to his office and locked up before driving home.

When he pulled in the driveway to the house, he sighed as he took the keys out of the ignition, tonight was suppose be a celebration, and in other circumstances he could see having a baby a reason to celebrate, but this wasn't exactly how he wanted it, and he could only imagine how Calleigh will see it.

He mentally shook his head, and after another sigh, he gets out of his vehicle and started walking toward the house, knowing he couldn't put this off forever.

When he opened the front door, Calleigh was just coming in from the deck with a smile. "Hey, I thought we could eat out..." She trails off when she saw an unreadable expression on his face, so she lost the smile and asked. "What's going on? Are you ok?"

He remained silent, so Calleigh asked him again "Did you have a hard case at work?"

Horatio cleared his throat and replied. "I... I have to talk to you about something."

As she walked toward the couch, she nodded. "sure, what is it?" sounding chirpy

"Why do you look so serious Horatio? Is it that bad?" Calleigh asked jokingly

He watches her sit down, then a second later he walked closer to the couch and coffee table, and instead of sitting on the couch next to her, he elected to sit in front of her on the coffee table, which made Calleigh a little more nervous on what he had to say.

After he sat down, they looked into each other's eyes, then he spoke. "We promised... each other that when we got back together, that we would be completely honest with one another, so... I want to honor that commitment."

"Ok." Then she placed her hands on top of his as she continued. "What is it?"

He looked down at her hands before looking in her eyes, he couldn't be a coward about this, he took a deep breath, then he cleared his throat and told her. "Sarah... came to the lab before shift." He felt her tense a little as he continued. "And... she told me that... she was seven weeks pregnant."

She gasped as she removed her hands from his, then asked, very shocked. "You slept with her?"

She knew that he had gotten close to the woman, but a part of her thought that he wouldn't have crossed that line, that his heart had remained hers through their separation.

Horatio looked down and nodded. Then he looked at her "One night, Calleigh, I swear. It was a moment of weakness, and after it happened we agreed that it wouldn't happen again until we were ready." Calleigh nodded as she looked down at her hands as a tear came out of her eyes.

He scooted forward on the coffee table, placed his hand on her chin to lift her head back up, then he cupped her cheek as he wiped a tear away with his thumb before looking into her sad green eyes and continued. "Sweetheart, I swear to you that nothing will change between us, I love you, I've always loved you and I always will. Nothing is going to take me away from you. But I need to take responsibility for my actions. This baby didn't ask for it to be this way, I can't let it down."

Calleigh nodded in understanding as he brings her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her.

She wraps her arms around him, and as she placed her chin on his shoulder, she couldn't help but wonder if things were going to be that simple, she had a feeling it wouldn't, but she was going to try and be supportive because that's what you do when you love someone unconditionally, you go through the ups and downs that life throws at you, together.