Promises of Someday 1/5
By koaladeb
Summary: "Promise me someday."
Disclaimer: They're not mine. Enough said.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Horatio/Calleigh
Spoilers: Big Brother
A/N: I've been working on this one for a while now- the ending keeps eluding me, so I'll warn everyone up front- as much as I would love to pour out all the happy stuff that takes place in this story, the current plan is to post cautiously until the end is finalized. Sorry!
Dedication: This is for all of you who continue to hope and believe in our ship, no matter what TPTB throw at us. What is it Marianne always says? To the last scene of the last ep of the last season... something like that ::grin::
~~~~~~~~~~
Calleigh was in Horatio's office going over a case file when the call came in. She did not know who was on the other end of the phone, only that the caller was having a peculiar effect on her boss and friend. As she watched, his face careened through multiple expressions of confusion, recognition, concern, relief, confusion, and shy pleasure.
She wanted to know what was going on, but she could not piece together the content of Horatio's conversation, as his contribution to it consisted of curt replies of, "Hello? Did something happen? Good. What? When? How long? I would be honored."
When he set down the phone, Calleigh watched as he reached over and made an indecipherable entry in his planner. When he met her gaze, there was nothing in his eyes to give away what had just happened.
Mentally shrugging her shoulders, Calleigh resumed her analysis of different tool marks and impressions of the scene. Horatio never mentioned or explained the phone call.
~~~~~
Two weeks went by, with no additional information to satisfy Calleigh's curiosity. Horatio, always focused like a laser beam on cases, was occasionally discovered to be looking off into space, completely distracted, a wistful smile capping off relaxed features.
Speed and Eric joked about the possibility of a new girlfriend, and every time they made mention of it, Calleigh's stomach tied itself into knots. She wanted to be the one putting a smile on Horatio's face, the person who had him daydreaming at work, not some phantom woman! Whenever the conversation turned to this kind of conjecture, Calleigh excused herself from the room, finding solace in the quiet, controlled realm of ballistics.
Ignorance, however, was hardly blissful, and it was starting to show. Alexx caught her escaping from the break room one day and pulled her aside, calmly inquiring why she seemed to have accumulated all of Horatio's absent stress. The conversation had gone nowhere. Alexx knew too much and Calleigh was willing to discuss far too little.
Before letting her go, however, Alexx had placed a hand on her shoulder and offered an encouraging smile after glancing in the direction of Horatio's office. "It's not what you think," she had stated, firmly but quietly, the words meant for Calleigh alone. "You'll see."
~~~~~~~
Calleigh wondered where the peace of that reassurance went to as she stared at the scene in front of her.
It was a Saturday, and she had decided to walk to a local deli for some lunch, not knowing that simple action could turn her world upside-down.
Her chosen route took her right past a children's park, and the sunny day mixed with the sound of children's laughter had induced her to pause for a moment and take in the scene. A short time after taking a seat on a vacant park bench, she saw them.
The little girl couldn't have been more than four. Her soft cheeks were framed by fiery red hair that streamed out behind her as she was propelled forward on the swing set. Delighted laughter fell across Calleigh like a bucket of ice water, all because of the man pushing the swing. Even from a distance of fifty feet, she knew exactly who he was, and even hidden behind sunglasses, she knew his eyes to be a perfect match of the little girl's.
Calleigh was frozen in place, realizations robbing her of strength and breath. Alexx was right---it was not as she had thought. Horatio had not been thinking about a woman, he had been thinking about a child. His child. Questions surfaced like bubbles in her shocked mind. How had she not known? Where had the child been? Why had he never said anything about having a daughter?
She could not tear her eyes away from the easy interaction they shared, but after a few moments, the tears gathering in her eyes blocked the pair from clear view. Again, she was hit by despondent jealousy. This was the little girl of her dreams, the child she shared with Horatio in a world which consumed her heart but was locked behind her eyelids.
But she existed in the real world, and the little girl was not hers, and that fact hurt more than Calleigh could say. She slid off the bench and quietly made her way back toward the street, thoughts of lunch forgotten.
She was passing through the park gates when something hit her from behind. Instincts kicking in, Calleigh spun around and caught a child, stabilizing the small body before it hit the ground, rolling her shoulder underneath both of them and taking the full force of the impact herself. The weight of the child on her chest combined with the fall knocked the air out of Calleigh's lungs.
She heard footsteps rapidly approaching, but couldn't think about anything other than controlling the instinctual panic that appeared the moment she could no longer inhale. *You've gotten the wind knocked out of you, it will be fine* Calleigh told herself. She waited a few seconds and attempted again, this time with success.
By the time her lungs were greedily absorbing oxygen, the footsteps had stopped and someone was lifting the weight from her chest. She heard a voice begin to scold the child while she took deep, measured breaths. A voice that shocked and expelled newly acquired air back into the fatefully cursed day.
"Maddy, I told you not to run ahead of me. You could have been hurt. If it hadn't been for..."
She saw it coming a mile away. His head turned in slow-motion and the all- too familiar voice trailed off mid-thought. Watching Horatio's jaw drop, Calleigh wondered whether her two seconds of warning made her any more prepared for this moment than him. After careful consideration, she decided it did not.
She was lying on the ground, sunglasses a yard away, squinting up at the pair and cursing fate. Trying to diffuse some of the awkwardness, she forced a smile.
"Fancy meeting you here."
Summary: "Promise me someday."
Disclaimer: They're not mine. Enough said.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Horatio/Calleigh
Spoilers: Big Brother
A/N: I've been working on this one for a while now- the ending keeps eluding me, so I'll warn everyone up front- as much as I would love to pour out all the happy stuff that takes place in this story, the current plan is to post cautiously until the end is finalized. Sorry!
Dedication: This is for all of you who continue to hope and believe in our ship, no matter what TPTB throw at us. What is it Marianne always says? To the last scene of the last ep of the last season... something like that ::grin::
~~~~~~~~~~
Calleigh was in Horatio's office going over a case file when the call came in. She did not know who was on the other end of the phone, only that the caller was having a peculiar effect on her boss and friend. As she watched, his face careened through multiple expressions of confusion, recognition, concern, relief, confusion, and shy pleasure.
She wanted to know what was going on, but she could not piece together the content of Horatio's conversation, as his contribution to it consisted of curt replies of, "Hello? Did something happen? Good. What? When? How long? I would be honored."
When he set down the phone, Calleigh watched as he reached over and made an indecipherable entry in his planner. When he met her gaze, there was nothing in his eyes to give away what had just happened.
Mentally shrugging her shoulders, Calleigh resumed her analysis of different tool marks and impressions of the scene. Horatio never mentioned or explained the phone call.
~~~~~
Two weeks went by, with no additional information to satisfy Calleigh's curiosity. Horatio, always focused like a laser beam on cases, was occasionally discovered to be looking off into space, completely distracted, a wistful smile capping off relaxed features.
Speed and Eric joked about the possibility of a new girlfriend, and every time they made mention of it, Calleigh's stomach tied itself into knots. She wanted to be the one putting a smile on Horatio's face, the person who had him daydreaming at work, not some phantom woman! Whenever the conversation turned to this kind of conjecture, Calleigh excused herself from the room, finding solace in the quiet, controlled realm of ballistics.
Ignorance, however, was hardly blissful, and it was starting to show. Alexx caught her escaping from the break room one day and pulled her aside, calmly inquiring why she seemed to have accumulated all of Horatio's absent stress. The conversation had gone nowhere. Alexx knew too much and Calleigh was willing to discuss far too little.
Before letting her go, however, Alexx had placed a hand on her shoulder and offered an encouraging smile after glancing in the direction of Horatio's office. "It's not what you think," she had stated, firmly but quietly, the words meant for Calleigh alone. "You'll see."
~~~~~~~
Calleigh wondered where the peace of that reassurance went to as she stared at the scene in front of her.
It was a Saturday, and she had decided to walk to a local deli for some lunch, not knowing that simple action could turn her world upside-down.
Her chosen route took her right past a children's park, and the sunny day mixed with the sound of children's laughter had induced her to pause for a moment and take in the scene. A short time after taking a seat on a vacant park bench, she saw them.
The little girl couldn't have been more than four. Her soft cheeks were framed by fiery red hair that streamed out behind her as she was propelled forward on the swing set. Delighted laughter fell across Calleigh like a bucket of ice water, all because of the man pushing the swing. Even from a distance of fifty feet, she knew exactly who he was, and even hidden behind sunglasses, she knew his eyes to be a perfect match of the little girl's.
Calleigh was frozen in place, realizations robbing her of strength and breath. Alexx was right---it was not as she had thought. Horatio had not been thinking about a woman, he had been thinking about a child. His child. Questions surfaced like bubbles in her shocked mind. How had she not known? Where had the child been? Why had he never said anything about having a daughter?
She could not tear her eyes away from the easy interaction they shared, but after a few moments, the tears gathering in her eyes blocked the pair from clear view. Again, she was hit by despondent jealousy. This was the little girl of her dreams, the child she shared with Horatio in a world which consumed her heart but was locked behind her eyelids.
But she existed in the real world, and the little girl was not hers, and that fact hurt more than Calleigh could say. She slid off the bench and quietly made her way back toward the street, thoughts of lunch forgotten.
She was passing through the park gates when something hit her from behind. Instincts kicking in, Calleigh spun around and caught a child, stabilizing the small body before it hit the ground, rolling her shoulder underneath both of them and taking the full force of the impact herself. The weight of the child on her chest combined with the fall knocked the air out of Calleigh's lungs.
She heard footsteps rapidly approaching, but couldn't think about anything other than controlling the instinctual panic that appeared the moment she could no longer inhale. *You've gotten the wind knocked out of you, it will be fine* Calleigh told herself. She waited a few seconds and attempted again, this time with success.
By the time her lungs were greedily absorbing oxygen, the footsteps had stopped and someone was lifting the weight from her chest. She heard a voice begin to scold the child while she took deep, measured breaths. A voice that shocked and expelled newly acquired air back into the fatefully cursed day.
"Maddy, I told you not to run ahead of me. You could have been hurt. If it hadn't been for..."
She saw it coming a mile away. His head turned in slow-motion and the all- too familiar voice trailed off mid-thought. Watching Horatio's jaw drop, Calleigh wondered whether her two seconds of warning made her any more prepared for this moment than him. After careful consideration, she decided it did not.
She was lying on the ground, sunglasses a yard away, squinting up at the pair and cursing fate. Trying to diffuse some of the awkwardness, she forced a smile.
"Fancy meeting you here."