CHAPTER 23: A NAME

In less than one hour and a half Flavia went to her brother's house, took a shower, dried only half of her hair, ate a bowl of milk and cereals, then retrieved the USB key in which she kept stored her precious work, along with an apple. When she entered Tim's domain she was chewing on that very same apple, lips pink due to its juice.

Faking an interest at the names on the screen, Tim discretely admired her entrance. She was tall and lean, the light skinny jeans emphasized her long toned legs and accentuated her rounded ass. It looked very… squeezable. He had noticed that she always wore her hair in a braid, braid that right about now looked damp; he wondered how it'd look like free on her shoulders, how it would feel between his fingers… it was her shirt, however, that caught his eyes: green and yellow, with a black tie printed where one would normally wear it. Nice.

-You asked me what my thesis was about. -, she stated, handing him a USB key. –This is it. –

Together they went through the abysmally large file, page after page, until they reached an interesting point, where Flavia had written about her experience at the Lexin Lab. She had enclosed some photographs of the lab where she used to work, of her work station, of a guy in human form then wolf form, of a vampire sleeping during daytime (thermal snapshots), then: -It's him. Look at his neck, it's there. –

Tim stared in awe at all the information stored in that little page: a perfect record, complete with name, height, weight, hair and eyes color and, of course, photographs. Everything both for the human and the wolf form.

-You honestly did not remember all this?-, he asked skeptically.

-I do the work then remove it from my brain if it's not strictly necessary, and remembering this guy's name didn't seem important at the time. The characteristics of his transformation did, though. My professors were impressed. –,the girl replied, hands in the air.

-Is he one of those wolf-at-command freaks?-, Speed wanted to know.

-Unfortunately, yes. It's funny that I have to say that I'm lucky I was bitten by a vampire, or else now I'd be a werewolf. There's something crazy in this sentence, don't you think?-, Flavia sassed, but her humor met deaf ears, for he only deadpanned: -Let's call Horatio. –

*

They had a name, Jake Mallard. They had a face, the typical bad boy face. They had proved that he was responsible for Jose and his brother's transformation and that he had killed Bruno. They had nothing else.

Yelina had dispatched the photographs, Mallard's face appeared several times on the news, on the TV, on the papers, but it seemed as if he had vanished. No sightings, no anonymous calls, nothing.

The case went cold in everything but the team's hearts.

Flavia was officially introduced to all her future colleagues a week after her arrival in Miami and she started studying right away for her qualifying exams: she wanted qualifications as lab tech and C.S.I. level 1, just in case. She had made up a routine: she woke up around five in the morning, took a five mile run along the beach, then showered, ate breakfast, studied for an hour, then went to the Crime Lab to help with the case of the day. Sometimes she went home with her brother, sometimes not. Well, most of the times not. He seemed to spend an awful lot of time at Yelina's lately.

Flavia didn't like being alone in her brother's house; that place still seemed too foreign for her likings, so whenever she could she invited Calleigh, or she went to her place. Calleigh helped her prepare for her exams, they revised together and then the blonde tested the younger woman. A couple of times they even called Eric and Tim over for a game of Cluedo, which ended up in "plan the perfect crime" time. It was hilarious. Calleigh always won.

It was a evening like those, with Flavia sitting cross-legged on Calleigh's sofa, a book in the blonde's hands and question after question after question, when the girl finally snapped.

-Aww, c'mon, Calleigh, I now it by heart! Stop, please, tomorrow I'll be good!-, Flavia moaned, snatching the book from her friend's hands and closing it. She threw it near her large brown leather bag, huffing.

-Hey, the idea was your's, not mine. -, Calleigh replied, smiling. Then, she frowned: Flavia had closed her eyes and was massaging her temples persistently, her feet never still.

-Are you okay? Are you nervous for you exam tomorrow?-, she asked gently, nudging the girl's leg. She opened her eyes, then sat up in order to be eye level with the blonde.

-Oh, please, I spent years in a lab, I know how to move around one. Nah, what's really bugging me is Horatio. -, Flavia confessed, sighing dejectedly.

-Horatio? How so?-, interest immediately piqued, Calleigh prepared for a serious conversation with her friend.

-Well, uhm… it's complicated. Maybe I'm just paranoid or…-, the redhead stalled, obviously at a loss of words.

-Out with it, Miss!-, Calleigh encouraged her with a smile.

-Well, the fact is just this: it's always just you and me. Don't misunderstand me, I love you like a sister, but I have a brother, a real brother, and he just plainly ignores me! He's always with Yelina, it's almost as if he lived with her. And at work is worse, you can't honestly tell me you haven't noticed. –

Calleigh had noticed, oh she had noticed. Her colleagues and her saw less and less of their boss everyday, he was always playing Homicide Detective with his sister- in-law; in fact, Calleigh recollected she hadn't seen him with his kit in a long long time. Even when he accompanied one of them to a scene, it was only to escape a little while later, probably to go playing hero somewhere else. Even if he formally run the Lab, Flavia knew more of it them him, Calleigh suspected. Just like the other day, when the two of them were talking at the reception, while waiting for the receptionist to fish through all the messages for Calleigh's: they had to wait a long time, for the receptionist was busy staring at Horatio's ass, then his chest; when they noticed, the two girls shared a laugh.

-It's good to hear you laugh, Ladies. Any messages for me?-, he had addressed them, then the receptionist. The poor girl turned purple, then retrieved the Lieutenant's messages at light speed. She sighed at his retreating back… and ass. And he's totally oblivious!

And he was. Oblivious, that is, to everything going on around him. Had him noticed Frank still not talking to him? Flavia working so hard as to be physically exhausted? Her having to take an exam the day after?

-Does he know that you have an exam tomorrow?-, Calleigh asked, pained for her friend.

-I told him, of course. I also told him I would spend the evening with you, no matter what. -, Flavia replied, eyes hard, jaw set.

-Meaning?-

-Meaning he asked if I wanted to eat with him, I replied I had a meeting with you, we could have eaten together, he declined and fled the house. I'm not sure he went to Yelina's, though. –, Flavia explained, a thoughtful look on her face.

Now Calleigh was plainly confused. –What makes you say that?-, she asked, brows furrowed.

-He had that pained look on his face, the one he gets when he starts exercising like a madman. He gets like that, sometimes. He's happy with Yelina, but I can tell he's not entirely satisfied. Something's gnawing at him. I think he's in denial. -, she tried again to explain, but again she left Calleigh confused, she could tell by the look on her face. She tried another time: -He's not transformed yet, something's holding him back, and that's not healthy. –

-How can you say he's not transformed yet?-, Calleigh was always very curious about Flavia's knowledge of the supernatural word and often asked her to explain matters like that to her.

-I can feel it. He's a sleeper Alpha, an Alpha male werewolf who's not transformed for the first time yet. They're very rare, and I'll tell you why: first of all, being an Alpha per se is not very common, especially a born Alpha, someone who's Alpha by their birth as werewolves and not thanks to a won duel. Sleeper Alpha are even rarer, because it takes a really strong will to dominate the impulse to transform. –

-And we both know Horatio's got lots of that. -, Calleigh observed with a faint smile.

-Yeah, well, try pig-headedness…-, Flavia muttered, then continued more seriously: -Anyway, my theory is that he's afraid to transform, which is natural, but for him it must be doubly painful, considering the kind of job he's got to do and, well, his character. He's always been under some kind of restrain, always. I've never known him as a happy or spontaneous person, you know?-

Flavia fell silent, while Calleigh digested these information. No, Horatio had indeed never been a happy or spontaneous person. He was always fighting a battle, looking for a criminal, consoling the victims' families, defending one of his coworkers. He never had time to go out socially, it seemed as if he lived in the Lab, for sometimes he didn't even bother go home at night. He was there, always, for anyone, but was there anyone for him? Maybe…

-Maybe he's found a little piece of Heaven with Yelina. She has always liked him, as far as I can tell. -, Calleigh stated. Those words left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she wanted Horatio to find peace above anything else, even if she disliked his current woman. It wasn't as if she were jealous, nope, no way.

-I told him countless of times to get a life, really, but this is not life. You can't spend all of your time, both at work and in your private life, with only one person. It's sick. And he is not nappy, not completely. I think…-, Flavia trailed off. It was only a supposition, after all.

-You think? C'mon, spill!-, Calleigh prompted. She hated being left in the dark.

-I think he misses us, his team. We are his family, Yelina and Ray Jr. were his brother's. I think he may be starting to realize that. –

***CONTINUES***

So here we have Cal and Flavia's musings, but what does Horatio think about the whole situation? We'll find out in the next chapter, I promise! Love, Eli.