14. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CRIME.

"Look who's doing better," Alexx said cheerfully that Friday morning, when she found Horatio, awake and aware, slightly sitting up with the head-rest of the bed raised. Pillows were propping him up, an immobilizer supporting his left arm.

He'd been moved to the regular ward, the monitors were gone, leaving only the nasal cannula to assist his breathing and the IV-line hooked to the back of his right hand. He had a gown on now, and both of his legs were elevated under the sheets.

Horatio smiled at her. "Morning."

Alexx found a chair, sat down and grabbed his hand to take his pulse. "Sorry," she apologized. "Old habits die hard."

"That's all right," he said, the smile still etched on his face.

"So," Alexx said, looking into his eyes to find his pupils less dilated than the day before. "They've cut back the sedatives. How's the pain?"

"It's okay. As long as I keep still," he responded quietly.

"I bet," she nodded in understanding. "Moving with cracked ribs and all those welts and bruises must hurt like hell. You better be careful or you'll pull some stitches."

"Oh, I'm not in for sudden movements, believe me."

Careful for the IV Alexx placed his hand on hers. "Can you move your fingers?"

He tried. It cost him a lot of effort, but some fingers trembled and the thumb actually bent. "I can't," he sighed.

"Give it some time," Alexx said softly, placing his hand back on the bed. "Your circulation has been altered for a long time, and it has affected your muscles and nerves. But there is some movement, which is good. What did the doctor say?"

"The same. That with therapy, I should regain full usage of my arms."

"Good. I'll bring you a tennis ball next time. You can practice your hand by trying to squeeze it. I've heard they're getting a specialist in, to do some skin grafts on your back next week. How are the legs?" She grabbed a glass of water from the night stand and held the straw close to his mouth.

"Sore," Horatio admitted, then paused to sip some water. "Throbbing. The swelling is coming down, though. And the fracture should heal properly. My foot is taped, I hardly feel it at the moment."

"You will, later on, I'm afraid. Right now, you need a lot of rest, start eating properly to regain some strength and allow your body to heal." She placed the glass back and looked over her shoulder as the door opened.

Calleigh, closely followed by Eric and Speed, entered the room and they all looked pleasantly surprised to find their boss and friend awake.

"Well, good morning," Calleigh smiled.

"Hi, H," Eric said.

"Hey, how are you?" asked Speed.

Horatio's gaze went from Calleigh to Eric and from Eric to Speed. "Morning. I'm fine."

Speed rolled his eyes. "Fine? Sure, H."

Eric laughed. "At least he's awake now." Turning his attention back to Horatio, he explained. "We were here last night, but you slept through our entire visit."

"Sorry."

"Oh, don't be," Eric hastened to say. "We're just glad that you're ... fine."

"So, tell me," Horatio's eyes moved until he found Speed's gaze. "Tell me. How did you find me?"

"Well, Cal and Eric traced your cell phone. It was thrown in a dustbin somewhere in Biscayne Boulevard. We found prints on it, from Jenny Connors. She's one of the students of Metzger's class. Meanwhile, Alexx and me had been to your house, then went to Cabrerra University and found the Hummer. Your shades were lying next to it, so we knew something was wrong. What happened?"

"I came out, after my conversation with Dean Hernandez," Horatio started. "This girl, Ginny, was waiting for me. She said she needed to talk to me. Next thing I know she stunned me with her taser and two men jumped in from behind the Hummer. They used chloroform." He lowered his gaze, embarrassed. "I should have seen that coming."

"Oh, no," Calleigh disagreed. "They took you completely by surprise. How could you have known?"

"Come on, man," Eric joined in, shaking his head. "There's no way you could have known they would try something. Especially not something like this."

"Anyway," Speed continued, as Horatio didn't look up yet. "We searched the University, and then went to Metzger's house. We got nothing."

"Frank was trying to locate the students, who hadn't showed up for class that day. He couldn't find them. Me and Cal were doing a background search on them back at the lab," Eric filled in.

"Speed found a checkbook, with transfers to an outdoor shop near Chekika campground," Alexx now also helped to fill the gaps. "We didn't have anything else, so we headed over there."

"That's how I found out one of those students, Ned Sante, his parents had a cabin there," Calleigh added.

Horatio looked up, his eyes distant. "That must have been where they'd dumped me. I remember the smell of oak."

"We arrived there, found Ned crying on the veranda of the cabin. Your shirt and jacket were inside. Then the kid took us into the forest." Speed dropped his head and shivered at the memory.

Alexx continued. "We found you, cut you down... Your heart stopped, and you scared us a bit by stopping breathing, but luckily for me you were too stubborn to die."

"Hmm," he commented, staring down at the sheets. The memory of what had happened still haunted him and he shivered. "Thank you, you all did well. I never doubted that you would find me, I just didn't think..." the words caught in his throat and he refrained from finishing the sentence.

Alexx squeezed his hand.

"Where are they now?" Horatio softly asked after a while.

"We're interrogating them," Eric said. "We're also collecting evidence. The students don't know that we've found you. Frank decided to keep that out of the questioning for now."

A frown appeared on Horatio's face. "What about the evidence?"

"Let us worry about that for now," Alexx cut off the conversation. She'd been keeping a close eye on Horatio and knew he was getting tired. He was quite able to mislead people about his true condition, but he had no sunglasses to hide behind now and even then, Alexx could read him like a book. "I'm going to lower the bed a bit so you can rest, okay?"

He nodded and grimaced as the head-rest was lowered.

"Sleep well, H," Eric bade him, then left. Speed followed, waving gently with his hand. "We'll be back later," Calleigh added before leaving as well.

Alexx stayed behind and repositioned the pillows around him until she thought he was comfortable. "Better?"

"Yes, thank you," he threw her a faint smile. "I guess I'm a little tired."

"Oh, you guess?" she grinned. "You're exhausted, and you need your beauty sleep. We'll catch you later." Confident that he would be asleep before she'd reach the end of the hall, Alexx left.

XXX-XXX-XXX

Calleigh and Speed went to Professor Metzger's house, while Eric and Alexx headed back to the lab. Eric was going to continue interrogating the students with Frank Tripp, while Alexx would have to perform an autopsy on a body from another case.

"So we're looking for a chain and a bull whip, right?" Calleigh asked as they got out of the Hummer and headed to the door.

"Yes. And maybe that wax stuff, although I doubt that proves anything. Unless you're telling me you can match the leather dressing from that piece of kangaroo leather to exactly the right can."

"Hmm, I don't think so. It will probably stop at getting the brand right."

"And how many people in this state alone would be using that particular brand," Speed said. "So that would only be circumstantial."

"We'll see," Calleigh said, and they entered the horror Professor's house again. "I doubt we'll find it, though. I mean, you and Horatio have searched this place, right?"

"Yes," Speedle agreed. "We would have bagged and tagged anything that looked like a whip or a chain."

"Exactly." Heading straight for the utility closet they'd discovered shortly after the Professor's dead body was found, Calleigh opened it. "There's nothing here. Everything is still back at the lab."

Speed researched the office for the umpteenth time. "What we really should do is searching the students' houses. Guess that will have to wait until next week. Will you take the living room?"

"Agreed," Calleigh nodded, and left to go to the other room.

An hour later, both were certain nothing of interest was left at the Professor's house and they headed back to the crime lab.

XXX-XXX-XXX

That afternoon, Calleigh worked on the financial background of the students, in the hope to find something that indicated an order to Australia. She also spent quite some time on the telephone, with the American stores selling kangaroo-hide bull whips.

Speed worked on the DNA samples and fingerprints that Eric and Frank gathered from the students they had interrogated, as well as on the foot prints found at the Larry and Thompson campsite. It was his job to compare these to the evidence collected at the Chekika crime scene.

Eric and Frank managed to interrogate the remaining seven students that day. Their stories were similar and didn't reveal any new useable information.

As always, the team gathered in the break room before the weekend.

"What a week," Eric sighed, exhausted from listening to teenagers that irritated the hell out of him. "When can we book them, Frank?"

"Not yet," Tripp said, throwing his partner of the day a meaningful smile. "Getting impatient, are we?"

"I can't stand them," Eric muttered. "I have this barely controllable urge to wipe those arrogant smiles of their faces."

"We'll get them," Frank spoke self-confidently. "Let's just forget about this for a while and relax. It is weekend after all."

"I'm going to stop by Horatio tonight," Calleigh decided. "Anybody coming?"

"I have other obligations, sweetie," Alexx said, shaking her head. "I'll go first thing in the morning."

"I'll join you," Speedle said, turning to Calleigh. "I've promised a friend of mine to go to a baseball game tomorrow, so tonight suits me better."

"Guess I'll be keeping H company tomorrow afternoon, then. After all, we don't want him to get bored already," Eric joked. "How 'bout you, Frank?"

"Oh, I think I will drop by when I have some time. Unlike you, I'm on shift this weekend."

"Poor baby," Alexx commented grinning.

Tripp pulled a face. "Well, you all have fun and I'll see you back here on Monday."