Eric sat with his head in his hands as he mulled over the incident earlier in the day, unwilling to admit to himself that it had shook him more than he thought possible. In all of the years that he had known Horatio he had simply never had even the slightest of reasons to question the man's courage or commitment to his job.
Now, he wasn't so sure.
He had seen with his own eyes how his brother in law had stood frozen on the spot as he stared down the barrel of a 9mm Berretta handgun. Horatio had the best aim of any cop he'd known and was not a man who would hesitate to shoot should the need arise, and yet he had. The perp had almost got a shot off and had it not been for Ryan's decisive action they could very well have ended up back at the hospital, the place that Horatio had worked so hard to escape from only a few short months ago.
He had told Andy himself last night how he questioned whether something was missing with Horatio but even now he didn't want to believe that it was true. Andy had tried to lift his spirits with an adventurous story about his old partner, creating the fanciful image of a heroic police officer who had gone above and beyond the call of duty on more than one occasion.
Flashback. Last night:
Andy chewed on another piece of steak, washing it down with a mouthful of soda and not caring about the other diners who were frowning in disgust at his eating habits.
"John's got a hell of a reputation in this city," he observed as he swallowed the mouthful of chewed food.
"The papers were full of it after he was found. People think a lot of him, don't they?"
Eric gave him a warm smile.
"Pretty much everyone apart from the criminals, yeah."
"He was like that back in New York. Always prepared to go that extra mile if it meant helping someone…..always putting others first."
"That's Horatio for you," the younger man responded.
"Did you ever look at him and just think, 'You got a death wish or something?'"
"All the time, man."
"Gah, it used to drive me up the wall. The way he'd run headlong into situation without giving a thought to his own safety…..He was like the cat with nine lives, I tell ya."
Deep down, Eric was glad that he wasn't the only one who fretted over Horatio's complete lack of concern for his own safety and well-being. He was well aware that the Lieutenant's tendency to place himself in harm's way had been exacerbated by Marisol's death and he often questioned if Horatio was doing it deliberately in order to be able to return to the woman he loved so dearly.
"It drove me and his wife nuts," Andy added after chewing another mouthful of steak and potato.
Flashback. New York 1990:
John Kelly thumped at the alarm clock on the bedside cabinet heavily as he rubbed a weary pair of hands over his tired face, wincing as he heard the woman lying next to him groan sleepily.
"What time is it?" she asked croakily.
"Just after six. Go back to sleep."
He pulled the covers back and reached down to the floor for his boxer shorts before pulling them on and sitting on the side of the bed he shared with his girlfriend of just over a year.
"But it's a Saturday, Johnny. Where are you going?"
He leant over and kissed her gently on the lips before standing up.
"Back to the precinct. I need to find this kid, Lori."
She let out a frustrated sigh as she rolled onto her back, her mind casting back to the fraught conversation they had shared the night before.
She had launched into a tirade as soon as he had dragged his weary frame through the front door of the apartment that they shared, demanding to know why he was so late coming home again for the third night in a row.
She had ignored his attempts to convince her of the importance of the work he was doing as he and his colleagues attempted to trace the whereabouts of a seven year old boy who had gone missing several days ago. The deeper the detectives delved into the case the more obvious it was becoming that the boy had most likely been taken by his father, a man who was struggling to cope with the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of his only son.
It wasn't that she didn't care about what happened to the boy, of course she did, but all she could see was the toll it was taking on the man she loved. The past few days had drained him of the vitality that she admired so much about him, so wrapped up as he was in his obsessive need to find the child.
Her pleading for him to take a step back from the case fell on deaf ears as he continued to push himself beyond his limits to find the boy as both of them became frustrated at the other's inability to see things from their partner's point of view.
She knew that he cared about his job and the public that he served to protect but it was beginning to become a thorny issue between the two of them. His passion was one of the reasons she fell in love with him but it also became one of the biggest sources of frustration about him.
Tired from another exhausting day, he had finally lost patience with her as she continued to follow him through the apartment, berating him for doing his job until he couldn't take it anymore. He felt his frayed temper snap completely as he turned on her and snarled.
"Leave it, Lori," he warned as she took another step closer to him.
She ignored his command as she felt her anger take over any semblance of rational thought that she had left, slapping him firmly across the cheek and attempting to do so again before his right hand shot out and grabbed at her wrist painfully.
They had both stood there, panting as they shot daggers at each other with their eyes until he leant forward and kissed her roughly.
The passion, anger and emotions spilled from both of them as they ripped at each other's clothes, stumbling towards the bedroom as they kissed each other hungrily. Neither of them conscious of anything except their need for one another as they stood naked before coming together once more, dissolving into one passionate embrace after another.
She came back to the present as he pulled his pants on and made his way over to her side of the bed and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
"I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise."
"You'd better," she replied as she opened an eye, feigning sleep.
He pulled the department-issued sedan up outside the precinct and sent a quick prayer up to the Heavens that today would be the day that they would finally find the boy and be able to bring him home to his distraught mother.
All of the cases he worked were difficult, one way or another, but there was something so much more distressing when they involved innocent children. He had always prided himself on being able to keep his temper in check, even in the most trying of circumstances, yet there was something about cases involving children that made him want to tear suspects limb from limb in order to get the answers he needed.
He stamped down on his feeling of frustration as he climbed the stairs to the squad room and found his partner of two and a half years nursing a bottle of aspirin and a cup of water. Knowing better than to question what Andy had got up to the night before, he sat down quietly at his desk, opposite his colleague.
"Shouldn't you be at home with your lady friend?" the older man groused as he leant his head on his left hand.
"This is more important, Lori understands," he lied as he fiddled with the pencil on his desk.
"If I had a broad like that waiting for me at home I wouldn't be sitting here with my finger up my ass chasing shadows."
He ignored Andy's crude language as he ran his eyes over the case file for the umpteenth time, hoping to find some shred of evidence that he might have missed the day before.
"Anything new come up?" he asked his partner evenly.
Andy let out a bitter snort as he gave his young colleague a withering look.
"Nothing since the last time you asked, kid."
He kept a watchful eye on Andy over the next few hours as he made call after call, chasing up on witnesses in the unlikely event that they had seen or remembered something new and pertinent to the whereabouts of the missing boy.
Throughout the whole time his partner sat at his desk, griping and grousing at everyone and everything that had the misfortune to come within a 50 yard radius of him. He began to feel a simmering resentment towards Andy as he found himself increasingly carrying the load for his disinclined colleague.
The noise of his chair scraping across the linoleum floor caused several sets of eyes to fall on him; he shook his head angrily before making his way to the break room as he searched for a steaming cup of coffee to calm his frazzled nerves.
Pouring himself a large mug he leant his head against the wall as he swallowed a mouthful of the scalding liquid, hissing as the bitter taste hit the back of his throat. The injection of caffeine into his body felt good, he could feel its energising effects course through his veins as the deep, rich liquid hit the bottom of his empty stomach.
He had forgone breakfast and lunch, his mind centred on one thing, finding the missing boy. He was well aware that his need to locate the missing boy had long since strayed into the territory of becoming an obsession to him and yet he wasn't really sure why.
He needed some peace and quiet in order to get his thoughts straight, the hustle and bustle of the squad room was no longer conducive to productive thought processes. Happy that he had found some solitude, he became unreasonably angered when he heard a knock at the door.
"Uh….John, there's a call for you on line one…the…uh…the lady says it's important," Greg Medavoy stuttered as he poked his head nervously round the door.
Taking another pointless phone call from another crackpot who'd rung the NYPD tip line was the last thing he needed right now. He'd just about had his fill of madmen and time-wasters who had sent him and his colleagues on numerous wild goose chases over the past few days.
He tipped back the rest of his coffee and swallowed it down heavily as he followed his colleague grudgingly back into the squad room.
He picked up the phone on his desk with little hope that the caller would have any useful information.
"Kelly," he answered half-heartedly as he leant his head to one side, cradling the ear piece between his head and shoulder.
"Detective, Billy called," the missing boy's mother sobbed down the line.
"He says he's at the Brooklyn Bridge and that he has Timmy. You have to help him," she pleaded.
He scribbled the details down quickly as he reassured the tearful woman.
"We're on our way there right now, Mrs Bridges. We'll bring Timmy back safely, I promise."
Grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair as words spread around the room, he signalled for Andy to follow him through the gate and downstairs towards his car.