Part 5 – What does he want?
Keith turned around, and looked at the grim faces staring at him. Both the woman and the uninjured man were still standing, unsure of what to do.
The sight of their unmoving friend was disturbing and Alexx wanted to do nothing but move forward to check on Horatio. Speed's hands were clenched, angry lines etched on his face.
"Sit down!" the black haired captor ordered sharply. He waved the RC at the CSI's in a threatening manner, his thumb again on the round red button. With the older man out for the count, he now felt more secure and forced himself to calm down and remain in control of the situation.
"All right, all right," Tim Speedle gave in, slowly raising his hands in resignation. He didn't like it, but saw no other way out of this yet. "We're just going to sit here."
Both he and Alexx slid to the floor, their backs leaning against the desk of the lab. Alexx stared at the unconscious body of her boss, worried about his condition and angry she couldn't go to him. Eric was still seated in a similar position against the other desk and remained quiet.
Calleigh didn't dare to move. She was still seated on the chair, her hands leaning on the arm-rests. Her eyes wide, she followed their attacker, unable to take her gaze away from him and the RC he was holding.
"That's better," Keith snapped. "Now, you, lady," he turned to face Calleigh. "Unless you want to have parts of that lovely body of yours scattered all over the place, I suggest you remain where you are. One wrong move..." like a madman, the attacker rolled his eyes, while he wildly gestured with his hands. "Boom! If you get up.... Boom. Am I clear on that?"
"Perfectly," Calleigh responded with a faint nod. Being seated on a chair with a bunch of explosives taped underneath wasn't on her list of favorite things and she couldn't stop the nervous rushes of adrenaline pumping through her veins. For some reason, Horatio's presence had made her feel safer, but with him unconscious now, she had a hard time controlling her fear. Trying to shake off the feeling of helplessness, she steadied her voice. "What do you want?"
"What I want? What I want?" Keith sneered. "I think I've already told your colleagues what I want. I want all charges against me dropped, and all evidence destroyed. I don't want to be connected to that hotel room, you hear? Also, I want a car, and one of you driving me out of here. Now keep quiet and let me think."
Eric sat quietly, barely listening to the conversation. From where he was seated, he had the best view over the lab and could see his boss and friend lying motionless on the floor. He had to shift a bit to get a better view on Horatio's head and when he did, his suspicions were proven right. There was blood flowing from behind Horatio's left ear. "Alexx," he started, hoping Keith had calmed down enough to allow them to get some help to his boss. "Horatio's bleeding. Can you go and check him out?"
The ME looked at their attacker, her eyes questioning, waiting for permission.
Keith seemed to consider the idea, as he threw a quick glance at the unconscious man on the floor before looking at the woman who had assisted the other injured man a while ago. The urge to deny the request was big, as he couldn't care less about the downed man.
"Look," Alexx tried to reason with him. "The man's unconscious, and head wounds tend to bleed a lot. Do you want him to end up dead? That would most definitely lower your chances of getting out of here."
The perp stared at her, taking her reasoning into account. The woman called Alexx by her colleagues was right, he thought, there was no way they would let him go after he'd killed one of them. "Okay," Keith nodded after a long pause. "One wrong move, however..."
"I know, I know," Alexx hastened to say. She slowly moved to her feet, took a handful of gauze and a new roll of bandages from the med kit she'd left on one of the desks then headed to the other side of the lab. Kneeling next to the prone man, she winced at the sight of the blood matting his red hair, steadily dripping to the floor. "Oh, honey," she muttered. "You're going to have one hell of a headache."
"Alexx?" Calleigh asked, biting her lip from worry. She'd given anything to be able to look for herself how Horatio was doing, but she was afraid to move.
Alexx didn't answer immediately. She silently felt for a pulse, then prodded around the damaged area. Without the proper equipment she couldn't be sure, but she hoped his skull wasn't fractured. Her fingers moved carefully over Horatio's head until she'd reached the area where he'd hit the pole. Finding a lump but no bleeding there, she pressed the gauze to the open head wound.
"We're looking at a wide crack behind Horatio's ear," she informed her anxiously waiting colleagues. "I think I can stop the bleeding and put a bandage on it, but I'm afraid the wound needs stitches."
"And?" Calleigh inquired, needing to know more.
"And he's probably concussed, hopefully nothing more. We won't know until he wakes up." Alexx decided that was all they needed to know right now. Trying to keep the concern from her face, she sat quietly, waiting for the wound to stop bleeding. She wished she could get what she needed from her own kit, but she had to work with what was available.
When the bleeding had stopped, she opened the package of bandages. Placing some gauze underneath to cover the wound, she wrapped the bandage several times around Horatio's head and fastened it with a final knot.
By then, Keith had enough, and urged her to move back to her previous position on the floor next to Speed. She quickly did as she was told, satisfied that her friend at least wouldn't bleed to death.
"Here's what we're going to do," Keith announced. With the gun in his hand he motioned at Alexx on the floor. "You're going to make a call for me. You're going to ask for a van, with a full tank of gas and they're going to park it right outside the front door."
"You'll never get away with that," Speed sneered.
"Yes, I will. You know why?" the perp smiled and motioned with his head towards Calleigh. "Because if I'm not, the pretty one will be … gone."
Alexx bit on her lip. Speed's eyes shifted from the dark haired bomber to his blonde colleague on the chair.
"And you, pretty lady," Keith now looked back at Alexx. "You're going to drive. And to make absolutely sure nobody is going to try anything, we'll take your injured friend with us." He pointed at Eric.
"No," protested Alexx. "He needs medical attention."
"Exactly," Keith agreed. "And the sooner and better you cooperate, the faster he gets it. When we're safely out of town, we'll let him out of the car somewhere."
"You can't do that," Tim objected, not liking this a bit. "I'll go."
"It's okay, Speed," Eric replied softly.
"He goes, and that's final," Keith decided, pointing at Eric. "And you are staying here, reminding everybody that if they try anything…" he acted out pressing down the button with his thumb and rolled his eyes. "Boom! Got it? Now you, lady," he looked back at Alexx. "Make the call."
Just as Alexx shifted to get up, a soft moan drew everybody's attention.
Calleigh's head shot sideward, but she still couldn't see what she so desperately needed to see.
"Arggh," Horatio groaned, completely unaware of the anxious eyes staring in his direction. The crime scene Lieutenant tried to push himself up by placing his hands on the floor. He almost reached a sitting position when his stomach rebelled.
Alexx wanted to rush forward, but sharp looks thrown in her direction made it clear Keith wouldn't allow it. She winced at the sound of retching and exchanged a worried glance with Speed.
Keith moved closer, nervously checking on the person he feared the most. The red-haired man tried to sit up straighter after the heaving ceased, but to Keith's pleasure the man was trembling, weakly sagging sideways against the desk.
"Horatio," Calleigh, who heard the shifting but couldn't see what her boss was doing, spoke gently. "Horatio, you've hurt your head, so I need you to stay down, all right?"
"Calleigh?" a trembling, soft voice that was far from Horatio's usual tone answered. "Where's the cat?"
"What cat?" Calleigh asked in surprise.
"The cat needs food. Roasted nuts are good. Why, the cat is yellow," came the soft incomprehensible answer.
Shaking her head in wonder, Calleigh stared at Eric, who shrugged at her. "I wouldn't worry about the cat right now, Horatio," Calleigh said although she had no idea what he meant. "Just take it easy, okay?"
"The moon shouts in a red haze through the sand," Horatio mumbled.
"Alexx?" Speed demanded, not liking this a bit. "He's not making any sense."
"The poor man has hit his head pretty hard," Alexx softly explained. "He's confused, which is not uncommon with concussions... there might be fluid building up, increasing the pressure..." She saw how her boss struggled to keep his eyes open. Luckily, there was no fresh blood forming under her makeshift bandage. "Look," she now firmly spoke, looking at their attacker. "Head wounds are dangerous and he really needs medical attention. Why don't you let him go?"
"He stays right where he is," Keith barked, still feeling secure with the older man injured and apparently incoherent from the blow to his head.
Horatio responded to Keith's voice, cocking his head a bit as he tried to focus on the silhouette. "Are you our new CSI? I'm sorry, I should give you a tour through the building."
"We'll do that later," Calleigh immediately responded, forcing herself to sound reassuring. "Now stay still and rest a bit, okay?"
"Why are the trees red? There's so many of them, at least one hundred and fifteen," Horatio asked nobody in particular, then let out a long, deep sigh while his eyes drifted shut. "The sky is blue. The day isn't over, but rest... sounds good."