Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I don't intend to make any profit with this. CSI:Miami and its characters belong to the geniuses who created the show. Would that were me, though. "Nothing in the World" belongs to Atomic Kitten.
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe
Pairing: H/C
Spoilers: None
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews I received on the last chapters. They are very encouraging and always make my day a little brighter. Here is the sixth chapter and for my standards a very long one. Again, the forensic details are entirely made up. I have no clue if real-life CSIs would actually be able to solve a crime like that. Have fun reading. I am already working on the next chapter.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next morning Calleigh arrived early at CSI, hoping to talk to Horatio before everyone else got in. To her surprise he was not in his office. Usually, Horatio was the first to arrive at work in the morning and the last to leave his office at the end of the shift. When she didn't find him in the break-room or in any of the labs, she figured that maybe he had stayed home to take care of Ray jr.
Wondering whether she should call him, Calleigh walked back into the break- room to make some coffee. While the machine was running, she stared out the window, lost in her thoughts. Today the sky over Miami was grey and overcast; the morning had been foggy and cold. This kind of weather was unusual for a Florida summer and the weather forecast had even predicted a thunderstorm for the early evening. Calleigh hated the cold. She had never been able to understand how people lived in places like Seattle or Portland where it rained constantly. She was by all means a southern girl at heart.
The coffee was finally ready and Calleigh had just poured herself a cup, when Eric walked into the break-room.
"Morning Calleigh! Have you seen Horatio?", he asked while getting a cup of coffee as well.
Compared to Speed, Eric was usually the one who looked a lot more awake in the morning, but without a cup of coffee, there was no talking to either one of them. Apparently, it came with the job that you slowly became a caffeine addict.
"No. I was looking for him myself, but he isn't here yet", Calleigh answered.
"That's a first. Normally he's here before the rest of us gets out of bed."
"And today was probably no exception", Speed announced as he walked in and headed straight for the coffee as well.
Calleigh had to smile when she looked at him. This was the Tim Speedle she knew. He wore a shirt that needed to be ironed, worn-out jeans and his hair was unruly in a way which would be considered totally in style if he were ten years younger. To Calleigh though, these were the things that made Speed the person he was and he was one of the best CSIs she had ever met and an even better friend.
"At least some things never change", she thought.
"It seems there is a new development in the Martin case and Horatio left early to check on it. He called me twenty minutes ago, but didn't say what it was all about. We're supposed to meet him in the conference-room in fifteen minutes" , Speed continued.
With a sigh Calleigh walked out of the break-room, telling Speed and Eric that she needed to pick up some paperwork in the ballistics lab, before this morning's meeting.
Silently she wondered if she would ever get the chance to talk to Horatio. It seemed that each time she tried, there was something that kept them from having this conversation. Still, sooner or later, she would have to talk to him about her plans. Calleigh was tired of playing games of flirting with Horatio, knowing that this way, none of them would ever cross the professional boundaries of their relationship. She needed to move on, be it with him or without him. It was time they both made a decision.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
When Calleigh walked into the conference-room ten minutes later, Horatio, Eric, Tim and Alexx were already seated around the table, going through the results of the trace evidence analysis. Quickly she took the chair next to Alexx and said "Good Morning" to both her and Horatio, who looked up from what he had been reading when he heard the sound of her voice. He seemed to be somewhat tired, Calleigh noticed, but she also saw in his eyes that he was sorry for not having been able to talk to her yesterday. He didn't have to say it, she just knew. Verbal communication was barely necessary between the two of them. She smiled at him and handed over the final ballistic report on the Martin case.
Horatio finished reading the last page, straightened up in his chair and looked at his team.
"This morning, I found Alexx' final autopsy report on Chris and Jamie Martin on my desk", he began. "Jamie Martin was two months pregnant at the time she died."
Horatio let the sentence hang in the air for a moment to let it sink in, but that wasn't necessary. He had everybody's undivided attention.
"It is however impossible that Chris Martin is the father of the baby. His medical records indicate that he has been sterilised. I talked to his doctor this morning who confirmed that the surgery had been performed about two years ago. He said that the Martins never wanted to have kids."
For a few seconds everyone in the room was silent while the first pieces of the puzzle clicked into place.
Then, Speed said out loud what they were all thinking. "This gives us a possible motive for the murder then. Maybe Jamie Martin had an affair, but refused to leave her husband. The guy decides to take matters into his own hands and ends up killing them both. There is the possibility that he didn't even know she was pregnant."
"Exactly", confirmed Horatio, when Speed had finished. "We are going to run a DNA-comparison to see if we can get a match. The chances are slim, but maybe we are lucky this time, since neither trace nor ballistic evidence turned up anything suspicious."
He turned towards Tim and then looked at Calleigh and Eric.
"Speed, you will run the DNA-tests with me here at CSI. Eric, Calleigh. I want you to talk to the neighbors again to find out if they noticed anyone visiting Jamie Martin when her husband was away. Let's find the guy who did this."
Having received their assignments they got up from their chairs and started leaving the room one by one.
Calleigh was almost at the door when Horatio called her back.
Alexx who was the last to leave, quietly closed the door behind her, wondering what it was exactly that Horatio and Calleigh needed to dicuss and whether it had anything to do with the things that so obviously weighed on Calleigh's mind. Alexx had worked long enough with both of them to know that there was something that troubled the two, especially Calleigh. Lately, they had acted very differently around each other. Hoping that they would be able to talk it through, Alexx walked down the hall towards the morgue, leaving the two CSIs to sort out their problems.
In the conference-room Calleigh sat back down on a chair opposite Horatio. She looked at him for a second and then said:
"Horatio, you don't have to be sorry that you weren't able to be here yesterday. It was a family emergency and naturally your first priority. I hope your nephew is doing better."
"He is doing fine and enjoys all the attention he is getting." Horatio said with a smile before he continued, this time more seriously. "It just seemed really important to you. I hope it wasn't a problem."
Horatio met Calleigh's gaze directly and their eyes locked. For a moment neither of them spoke. Then Calleigh cast her eyes down, breaking the connection.
This wasn't the time to talk about such important decisions, she told herself. After all, they were in the middle of a case and had the chance of solving it quickly to bring justice to the victims and closure to their families. Again, personal matters would have to wait. Still, Calleigh made a promise to herself to bring it up as soon as the case was over. Horatio needed to know how important it really was to her.
"Listen", she finally said. "We can talk when the case is over. It's really nothing urgent. Finding out who did this is our first priority".
"Hopefully it will be over qickly", he said.
"Yes, hopefully it will be. I'm going to go find Eric. We'll be back as soon as possible". And with that Calleigh walked out of the conference room.
Horatio watched her leave. When she was out of sight, he finally got up, finding himself looking at the door through which she had disappeared.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Three hours later Calleigh and Eric were on their way back to headquarters. Their pagers had gone off at the same time, citing them back to CSI immediately.
Driving through Miami downtown traffic, Calleigh stared out the window at the city she had called home for so long. She had been happy here all those years and she wasn't sure if she was willing to let it all go. She didn't want to leave Miami, but it seemed that she didn't have a choice.
The weather hadn't changed since the early morning hours. It was still cold and a strong wind swept over the city; a harbinger of the storm that was supposed to hit Miami that evening.
Calleigh and Eric had just entered the CSI reception area when Speed came walking down the hall, waving some papers through the air.
"This is the break-through we have waited for. Horatio's office in five minutes.", he told them.
"Well, I wonder what they've found." Calleigh said to Eric. "Listen. I am going to grab a sweater from my locker. This weather is doing nothing for me. I'll see you in Horatio's office.
"Fine. Don't be late.", he called after her.
"I wouldn't dare to.", she said in mock surprise, smiling, but when she turned around her smile was gone. Calleigh couldn't bear the thought of having to leave Miami and the people at CSI who had grown to be her family. Would she really have to go through with moving to Houston?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A few minutes later, the whole team met in Horatio's office.
Calleigh and Eric were curious to hear about the break-through in the case, but what Speed and Horatio had to tell them about the results of the DNA-comparison, was something that nobody had expected.
"When we compared the DNA of the fetus to other samples we had in the database, we didn't get an exact match at first, but then a partial match turned up: to none other than Chris Martin.", Speed said.
"But we determined that it is impossible for him to be the father of the child.", Eric stated the obvious.
Horatio who had been looking out of the window the entire time turned around and provided the much needed explanation.
"A detailed DNA-test confirmed that Chris Martin really isn't the father, there are too many differences in the genetic make-up. But there are also a few striking similarities." Horatio waited a moment an then continued. "Chris Martin has a younger brother, Dave. He is being brought in for questioning as we speak."
"The only explanation for results like this is that the father is a close relative of Chris Martin.", Speed finished for Horatio.
More puzzle pieces fell into place.
Calleigh could sense that Horatio was determined to solve this case before the day-shift was over. He wouldn't quit tonight before he had tied the suspect to the crime and had proven that he was guilty. The way he spoke and acted was different than usual; he was totally focused on what had to be done and full of determination. Horatio was taken in by the case.
Everyone waited for Horatio to speak. Startled by the sudden silence in the room, he finally turned and walked over to his desk to pick up a sheet of paper and handed it to Calleigh.
"Drive over to Dave Martin's house and look for a gun that you can match to the bullets. Speed, I want consistent proof that this guy is the father of the dead baby. Eric go through the trace evidence one more time. See if we can tie him to the crime scene with fingerprints or fibers. I want this guy behing bars by the end of the shift!"
Without any further discussion they all left Horatio's office and started working on their respective tasks, driven by the knowledge that once they were done, the killer would never to harm anyone again. In some way, they were all idealists, hoping to make the world a slightly safer place and that was why they put their entire energy into their jobs each and every day.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After a few hours Eric knocked on the door of Horatio's office to tell him what he had found out. Dave Martin's fingerprints had turned up on various surfaces in the house, including the doors and the dining room table. They were all relatively fresh, thus proving that Dave Martin had been to his brother's house very recently.
"Excellent work. Thanks Eric. Have you seen Calleigh?" Horatio asked when Eric had finished.
"No, I haven't seen her around and she isn't in ballistics either. Have you tried her cell phone?"
Outside, the wind had picked up force, lightning was flashing in the sky and raindrops were beating hard against the window. The storm had finally reached Miami.
"She isn't answering.", Horatio said sounding worried and avoiding Eric's gaze.
Half an hour later, Calleigh still hadn't returned to CSI.
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe
Pairing: H/C
Spoilers: None
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews I received on the last chapters. They are very encouraging and always make my day a little brighter. Here is the sixth chapter and for my standards a very long one. Again, the forensic details are entirely made up. I have no clue if real-life CSIs would actually be able to solve a crime like that. Have fun reading. I am already working on the next chapter.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next morning Calleigh arrived early at CSI, hoping to talk to Horatio before everyone else got in. To her surprise he was not in his office. Usually, Horatio was the first to arrive at work in the morning and the last to leave his office at the end of the shift. When she didn't find him in the break-room or in any of the labs, she figured that maybe he had stayed home to take care of Ray jr.
Wondering whether she should call him, Calleigh walked back into the break- room to make some coffee. While the machine was running, she stared out the window, lost in her thoughts. Today the sky over Miami was grey and overcast; the morning had been foggy and cold. This kind of weather was unusual for a Florida summer and the weather forecast had even predicted a thunderstorm for the early evening. Calleigh hated the cold. She had never been able to understand how people lived in places like Seattle or Portland where it rained constantly. She was by all means a southern girl at heart.
The coffee was finally ready and Calleigh had just poured herself a cup, when Eric walked into the break-room.
"Morning Calleigh! Have you seen Horatio?", he asked while getting a cup of coffee as well.
Compared to Speed, Eric was usually the one who looked a lot more awake in the morning, but without a cup of coffee, there was no talking to either one of them. Apparently, it came with the job that you slowly became a caffeine addict.
"No. I was looking for him myself, but he isn't here yet", Calleigh answered.
"That's a first. Normally he's here before the rest of us gets out of bed."
"And today was probably no exception", Speed announced as he walked in and headed straight for the coffee as well.
Calleigh had to smile when she looked at him. This was the Tim Speedle she knew. He wore a shirt that needed to be ironed, worn-out jeans and his hair was unruly in a way which would be considered totally in style if he were ten years younger. To Calleigh though, these were the things that made Speed the person he was and he was one of the best CSIs she had ever met and an even better friend.
"At least some things never change", she thought.
"It seems there is a new development in the Martin case and Horatio left early to check on it. He called me twenty minutes ago, but didn't say what it was all about. We're supposed to meet him in the conference-room in fifteen minutes" , Speed continued.
With a sigh Calleigh walked out of the break-room, telling Speed and Eric that she needed to pick up some paperwork in the ballistics lab, before this morning's meeting.
Silently she wondered if she would ever get the chance to talk to Horatio. It seemed that each time she tried, there was something that kept them from having this conversation. Still, sooner or later, she would have to talk to him about her plans. Calleigh was tired of playing games of flirting with Horatio, knowing that this way, none of them would ever cross the professional boundaries of their relationship. She needed to move on, be it with him or without him. It was time they both made a decision.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
When Calleigh walked into the conference-room ten minutes later, Horatio, Eric, Tim and Alexx were already seated around the table, going through the results of the trace evidence analysis. Quickly she took the chair next to Alexx and said "Good Morning" to both her and Horatio, who looked up from what he had been reading when he heard the sound of her voice. He seemed to be somewhat tired, Calleigh noticed, but she also saw in his eyes that he was sorry for not having been able to talk to her yesterday. He didn't have to say it, she just knew. Verbal communication was barely necessary between the two of them. She smiled at him and handed over the final ballistic report on the Martin case.
Horatio finished reading the last page, straightened up in his chair and looked at his team.
"This morning, I found Alexx' final autopsy report on Chris and Jamie Martin on my desk", he began. "Jamie Martin was two months pregnant at the time she died."
Horatio let the sentence hang in the air for a moment to let it sink in, but that wasn't necessary. He had everybody's undivided attention.
"It is however impossible that Chris Martin is the father of the baby. His medical records indicate that he has been sterilised. I talked to his doctor this morning who confirmed that the surgery had been performed about two years ago. He said that the Martins never wanted to have kids."
For a few seconds everyone in the room was silent while the first pieces of the puzzle clicked into place.
Then, Speed said out loud what they were all thinking. "This gives us a possible motive for the murder then. Maybe Jamie Martin had an affair, but refused to leave her husband. The guy decides to take matters into his own hands and ends up killing them both. There is the possibility that he didn't even know she was pregnant."
"Exactly", confirmed Horatio, when Speed had finished. "We are going to run a DNA-comparison to see if we can get a match. The chances are slim, but maybe we are lucky this time, since neither trace nor ballistic evidence turned up anything suspicious."
He turned towards Tim and then looked at Calleigh and Eric.
"Speed, you will run the DNA-tests with me here at CSI. Eric, Calleigh. I want you to talk to the neighbors again to find out if they noticed anyone visiting Jamie Martin when her husband was away. Let's find the guy who did this."
Having received their assignments they got up from their chairs and started leaving the room one by one.
Calleigh was almost at the door when Horatio called her back.
Alexx who was the last to leave, quietly closed the door behind her, wondering what it was exactly that Horatio and Calleigh needed to dicuss and whether it had anything to do with the things that so obviously weighed on Calleigh's mind. Alexx had worked long enough with both of them to know that there was something that troubled the two, especially Calleigh. Lately, they had acted very differently around each other. Hoping that they would be able to talk it through, Alexx walked down the hall towards the morgue, leaving the two CSIs to sort out their problems.
In the conference-room Calleigh sat back down on a chair opposite Horatio. She looked at him for a second and then said:
"Horatio, you don't have to be sorry that you weren't able to be here yesterday. It was a family emergency and naturally your first priority. I hope your nephew is doing better."
"He is doing fine and enjoys all the attention he is getting." Horatio said with a smile before he continued, this time more seriously. "It just seemed really important to you. I hope it wasn't a problem."
Horatio met Calleigh's gaze directly and their eyes locked. For a moment neither of them spoke. Then Calleigh cast her eyes down, breaking the connection.
This wasn't the time to talk about such important decisions, she told herself. After all, they were in the middle of a case and had the chance of solving it quickly to bring justice to the victims and closure to their families. Again, personal matters would have to wait. Still, Calleigh made a promise to herself to bring it up as soon as the case was over. Horatio needed to know how important it really was to her.
"Listen", she finally said. "We can talk when the case is over. It's really nothing urgent. Finding out who did this is our first priority".
"Hopefully it will be over qickly", he said.
"Yes, hopefully it will be. I'm going to go find Eric. We'll be back as soon as possible". And with that Calleigh walked out of the conference room.
Horatio watched her leave. When she was out of sight, he finally got up, finding himself looking at the door through which she had disappeared.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Three hours later Calleigh and Eric were on their way back to headquarters. Their pagers had gone off at the same time, citing them back to CSI immediately.
Driving through Miami downtown traffic, Calleigh stared out the window at the city she had called home for so long. She had been happy here all those years and she wasn't sure if she was willing to let it all go. She didn't want to leave Miami, but it seemed that she didn't have a choice.
The weather hadn't changed since the early morning hours. It was still cold and a strong wind swept over the city; a harbinger of the storm that was supposed to hit Miami that evening.
Calleigh and Eric had just entered the CSI reception area when Speed came walking down the hall, waving some papers through the air.
"This is the break-through we have waited for. Horatio's office in five minutes.", he told them.
"Well, I wonder what they've found." Calleigh said to Eric. "Listen. I am going to grab a sweater from my locker. This weather is doing nothing for me. I'll see you in Horatio's office.
"Fine. Don't be late.", he called after her.
"I wouldn't dare to.", she said in mock surprise, smiling, but when she turned around her smile was gone. Calleigh couldn't bear the thought of having to leave Miami and the people at CSI who had grown to be her family. Would she really have to go through with moving to Houston?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A few minutes later, the whole team met in Horatio's office.
Calleigh and Eric were curious to hear about the break-through in the case, but what Speed and Horatio had to tell them about the results of the DNA-comparison, was something that nobody had expected.
"When we compared the DNA of the fetus to other samples we had in the database, we didn't get an exact match at first, but then a partial match turned up: to none other than Chris Martin.", Speed said.
"But we determined that it is impossible for him to be the father of the child.", Eric stated the obvious.
Horatio who had been looking out of the window the entire time turned around and provided the much needed explanation.
"A detailed DNA-test confirmed that Chris Martin really isn't the father, there are too many differences in the genetic make-up. But there are also a few striking similarities." Horatio waited a moment an then continued. "Chris Martin has a younger brother, Dave. He is being brought in for questioning as we speak."
"The only explanation for results like this is that the father is a close relative of Chris Martin.", Speed finished for Horatio.
More puzzle pieces fell into place.
Calleigh could sense that Horatio was determined to solve this case before the day-shift was over. He wouldn't quit tonight before he had tied the suspect to the crime and had proven that he was guilty. The way he spoke and acted was different than usual; he was totally focused on what had to be done and full of determination. Horatio was taken in by the case.
Everyone waited for Horatio to speak. Startled by the sudden silence in the room, he finally turned and walked over to his desk to pick up a sheet of paper and handed it to Calleigh.
"Drive over to Dave Martin's house and look for a gun that you can match to the bullets. Speed, I want consistent proof that this guy is the father of the dead baby. Eric go through the trace evidence one more time. See if we can tie him to the crime scene with fingerprints or fibers. I want this guy behing bars by the end of the shift!"
Without any further discussion they all left Horatio's office and started working on their respective tasks, driven by the knowledge that once they were done, the killer would never to harm anyone again. In some way, they were all idealists, hoping to make the world a slightly safer place and that was why they put their entire energy into their jobs each and every day.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After a few hours Eric knocked on the door of Horatio's office to tell him what he had found out. Dave Martin's fingerprints had turned up on various surfaces in the house, including the doors and the dining room table. They were all relatively fresh, thus proving that Dave Martin had been to his brother's house very recently.
"Excellent work. Thanks Eric. Have you seen Calleigh?" Horatio asked when Eric had finished.
"No, I haven't seen her around and she isn't in ballistics either. Have you tried her cell phone?"
Outside, the wind had picked up force, lightning was flashing in the sky and raindrops were beating hard against the window. The storm had finally reached Miami.
"She isn't answering.", Horatio said sounding worried and avoiding Eric's gaze.
Half an hour later, Calleigh still hadn't returned to CSI.