000

Chapter 8

000

Checking his messages at the reception desk, Horatio caught sight of someone he wished he hadn't seen. He watched him approach from the corner of his eye, as he pretended to look over the sheet of paper in his hands.

Horatio looked calm on the exterior, but he was boiling inside; trying hard not to crumple the piece of paper and knock the hell out of him.

"Lt. Caine," Rick Stetler's voice annoyed him. He swaggered over to where Horatio stood.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in..." Horatio replied tauntingly.

Stetler smiled and leaned on the reception desk, "Frankly, Lieutenant, I thought there were no hard feelings where your sister-in-law and I are concerned."

Horatio smirked bitterly, downcasting his eyes, "There are none." He cleared his throat and looked him in the eye, "Is there a reason for this visit?"

"No actually, I'm just passing through... on my way to see her now."

Horatio placed the sheet of paper down and excused himself from the receptionist.

"May I have a word, Rick?" he grabbed his arm, pulling him away from his casual position.

Stetler, not appreciating being pushed around, yanked his arm from Horatio's grasp and asked, "Is there a reason for this?" as he straightened his pristine suit. He was already starting to get aggravated and Horatio tested him further by stepping into his personal space.

Horatio stood, hands on hips, mouth to his ear, "Yes, Rick, there is."

Trying to keep his cool, he took his anger down a notch saying slowly, "You don't scare me, Rick." But his words stung and forced the IAB guy to play innocent.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the way you treat Yelina... If you wanna take a swing at somebody, you're going to have to start with me." Horatio met his game.

Stelter stared at him almost amused, so Horatio continued, "I know who you are Rick and if I catch you..."

Stetler grinned, cutting him short, "This is very unprofessional of you, Horatio."

"I'm sure Major Dalmare will have the same to say about you," Horatio shot back, shifting his weight from one leg to another.

"I wouldn't be so quick to talk to Major Dalmare, Horatio, I'm sure he knows all he needs to know about you."

Narrowing his eyes, Horatio asked, "What are you talking about?"

"I know about a certain on-going internal investigation..."

"Is that so?"

Stetler didn't care if Horatio had meant it as a question, he just added, "It's amazing how much Yelina is willing to tell me if I ask her hard enough."

Clenching his jaw, Horatio spoke through his teeth, "If you want to soil my reputation, you go ahead and try, but leave her out of this."

"Well, well, the officer who had a lovechild with an informant is telling me what to do..."

Horatio's cell phone rang, cutting off their heated conversation and Horatio had no choice, but to answer it.

"Yeah," he tried hard not to sound angry.

"If you'll excuse me, Lieutenant, I'll be on my way..."

Stetler left swaggering and Horatio bit his lip, thinking to himself this is far from over.

"Hey, H, you okay?"

"Yeah, Eric, go ahead," Horatio sternly stared until he couldn't see the IAB guy any longer.

"Well, I found something interesting. You might want to come down to the evidence lab."

"Okay, Eric, I'll be right over."

000

Calleigh woke up facing the back of her couch, wondering how long she had been sleeping. She shifted and looked at the clock hung on the wall. 7:34 pm.

She remembered muting the television around four.

Stretching and yawning at the same time, she felt almost as tired as she did before sleep. She stayed on the couch and listened to the gentle sounds from outside coming through her open patio door. It was dark out and she could hear the palm tree leaves brushing together, a car driving by, now and again, and people talking in the street. The thought of Horatio crossed her mind and she looked around wondering if he was here. Unfortunately for her, there was no sign of him anywhere.

Pushing the blanket aside, she decided a bath would be relaxing. She did feel much better than this morning; the headache was gone although she still felt frail and sick.
Slowly preparing her bath, the ringing of her phone echoed in her home so she turned the taps off and swiftly went to answer it.

"Hello."

"Hey, how are you feeling?" the husky voice pulled her in and she held the phone near her ear wanting to absorb every word.

"Um, better. Are you back home?"

She went back to the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub.

"Yeah. I'd love to come see you, but I have Ray Jr. with me. I was supposed to see him a few hours after work, but ah, turns out he'll be staying with me for a few days."

"Oh." Calleigh was considerably surprised. Not that Horatio didn't invite his nephew over once in a while, because she knew he did, but that he had done it today when she was sick and wished he was there with her.

"I'm sorry I can't be there with you and make you feel better."

She smiled. The man was reading her mind.

"Don't be silly," she tried convincing herself she didn't need him, "I'll be fine."

"I certainly hope so."

"So, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. I might be later than usual since I'm dropping Ray off at school."

"Horatio - "

He knew something was up, "What is it?"

"I should be coming in to work tomorrow, but my car's at CSI...would you mind picking me up tomorrow morning?"

"Not at all. I'll be there around seven thirty."

"Great. Thank you, Handsome."

"You're very welcome."

"I love you. G'night."

He smiled broadly over the phone. She had said it again... slipped those three words in like there was nothing to it, but it meant the world to him.

"Love you too. Sweet dreams." He hung up and left her wondering if he had any idea how many recurring dreams she had with him in them.

00

That evening, Horatio tried his luck at getting information from Ray about his mom's relationship with Stetler.

As Horatio and him watched Spy Kids 3: Game Over, they had ordered through the TV satellite system, he looked at Horatio and said, "I don't like him. He thinks he's the boss and mom's always telling me to do what he says. I can never have friends over."

Horatio paused the movie thankful that Ray was opening up and asked, "Did he ever shove you or hurt you in any way?"

"Well, there's that one time when he wanted to send me to my room and I didn't want to go so he grabbed my arm and dragged me to my room, locked me in."

"Where was your mom when this happened?"

"She wasn't home. She went to the store to get something."

"Okay, but did you tell her about it?" Horatio tilted his head.

"Yeah, but she keeps seeing him because he's always coming over. It's like she's on his side."

"Ray, trust me, she's on your side. It's just not that simple." He took the boy's shoulder.

"She's always asking me to go to my friend's house or to ride my bike down to the park after school and I don't see her that much." Ray looked at the paused television screen. "I guess she doesn't want me to be around when she's with him."

"That's not true. You know your mother loves you."

Horatio saw how all this was upsetting Ray so he decided not to look into this any further. "I'm here for you and I promise I'll talk to her."

Ray nodded, relieved and Horatio started the movie again.

000

Clad in beige pants and a blue shirt, Calleigh took the elevator down to go wait for Horatio in front of her building. Standing, near the front gate of the parking lot, at the entrance doors, she heard a faint whining sound and wondered where it came from.
She heard the sound again and discovered it was coming from within the parking garage so she reached into her purse for the key to unlock the gate. She quietly walked hoping she would hear it again and get to the bottom of this.

Another whine... more like a cry.

She looked around the parked cars and turning around a large column that held the garage structure up, she heard it again and peeked in the car beside her. Nothing.

Another cry echoed and she realized it wasn't coming from inside the car, but under it. She crouched and looked under the car and found the source of the cries.

A small kitten was sitting under the car frame, licking its paw. Calleigh carefully reached for the little creature as it tried to move away. The poor little thing was limping like his right front paw was broken.
"No, no, don't move... I'm not gonna hurt you..." Calleigh tried to reach for it again and it wasn't until she was very attractively face down on the ground that she could take him by the waist and pull him out from under there.

"Hey there, sweetie," she spoke softly to the kitten.

It wasn't unusual to see cats around the building. In fact, the landlord had put out signs saying not to feed stray cats so they wouldn't wander around here. Still, Calleigh frequently saw people feeding them down the road, placing plates of cat food and scrapes of food by some bushes near the sidewalk. At night, cats came from all over and you could see their eyes shining above the grass.

"You poor thing... what happened to your paw?"

Calleigh tried to touch it and see if it was broken, but the kitten bit her hand in pain.

"Ouch, okay," she just scooped his bottom in her hand and held his back with the other. "Well, I'm not sure, but I think it's broken."

She then remembered Horatio. He had probably arrived and was surely looking for her so she stood and walked back to the front gate. As expected, the CSI-issued Hummer was parked up front, engine still running with Ray Jr. sitting in the back.
The boy's eyes went wide when he saw what Calleigh was holding in her hands and he unbuckled and jumped out of the car.

"Where'd you get him?" Ray asked smiling as he pet the small animal.

"I found him in the parking lot. I think he's injured."

"Huh? Where?" Ray took him in his hands and held him against his chest.

"The front paw, his right one."

At that moment, Horatio, seemingly worried, walked out of the entrance vestibule, putting his shades back on. He had told Ray Jr. to wait in the car while he rang Calleigh.

Immediately, he saw the open car door and looked around for Ray before breaking out into a panic.

Reassurance flowed through him as he caught sight of Ray and Calleigh together a few feet away.
He smiled, removing his sunglasses as he walked over.

"Hey, you gave me quite the scare," he touched Calleigh's arm and kissed her cheek.

"Hi," she lingered in his company.

"I got a little sidetracked," she pointed to the small animal in Ray's care.

"Look Horatio, he's hurt," Ray nuzzled the meowing kitten.

Holding his shades in one hand, Horatio examined the baby cat.

"We have to take him to the vet," Ray explained.

"Yeah, but I'm driving you to school first before you're late - " Horatio decided.

"But, what if he's not okay, maybe we should take him to the vet and then you can take me to school after."

"Ray, the kitten is gonna be just fine and I'm dropping you off at school first and that's final," Horatio hated to argue, but stayed firm.

Ray exhaled loudly and trudged back to the hummer, climbing in with the kitten before shutting the door.
Calleigh watched Ray then looked up at Horatio, "Way to stand your ground, Lieutenant."

"Well, somebody's got to do it," he gave her a look.

"Don't look at me, Horatio, I didn't say anything," Calleigh told him as they made their way to the vehicle.

TBC...