Horatio began to feel stress creep into the case they were working on. Not only did the crime lab have to workon the bomb-sniper case, but also concentrate on all the other crimes that were committed none the less. Now that a sniper had joined the game of bomb-no bomb, he and his team had to work faster than time allowed and willed. Today was the day they had to find out where exactly the sniper had shot from and find any traces of him that he unconsiously had left behind.
Horatio found Calleigh in the ballistics lab, packing the laser that they needed to trace the flight of the bullet she had found a few feet away from where the little boy had been shot. Unfortunately Horatio couldn´t go back to the crime scene himself and therefore ordered Eric to go with Calleigh instead, while Speed was comparing the survaillance tapes they had of the ATMs outside the Beauty Parlor and the Bank. Yesterday Yelina and him had started to interrogate the witnesses, which they had plenty of, and he knew that he would spend today doing the same. Now he was just waiting for Yelina to arrive. It was going to be a long and tough day. Not only would he need the patience to sit through all those questionings, but also a thick skin for the funeral he had to attend later in the day.
Horatio strongly felt that the killers were playing a bad version of cats and dogs with the MDPD, and for once he had the urge to do more than just collect the evidence the killers left around, in order to bring those people to justice.
Cathrine had arrived at Dana´s Birthday Party at 5 pm, and now it was close to 8 o´clock and she wanted to get home and make herself ready before Horatio would come and pick her up. She felt bad about going so early and was hesitating to walk over to Dana and tell her. But Dana must have felt that Cathrine wanted to go early and so went over to her instead and told her to go...
"...and get ready! Otherwise he´ll take someone else out to dinner."
"Alright, alright. Thank you Dana."
"For what! I just want you to go and have a great evening. I´m not going to be the one that keeps you from a good shagg."
"Dana!"
"Just kidding. I should thank you for coming at all. And for the necklace and earings, they´re beautiful."
"My pleasure. I´ll see you tomorrow then?"
"Of course. I have to ask you all about it, don´t I?"
"Good night darlin´...I love you. I hope you know that."
"Love you too. Good night." She gave Cathrine a bear hug and pushed her out the door.
Cathrine was just putting on her lipgloss as the doorbell rang. She hurried over to her door and opened it in one quick motion. Horatio was standing in front of her, one had rested on the door frame, the other was hidden behind his back. He was wearing a beige silk suit with a black shirt underneath. His sunglasses hung close around his neck.
"Hi." She said a little hesitant. He had this sly grin on his face.
"I´ve made a change in plans." Cathrine eyed him questioningly. "I thought that, instead of going out for dinner," he pulled a brown shopping back from behind." We could make some ourselfs and eat here."
"Quite spontanious for someone who has to have everything under control."
"You´re right."
"I like spontaneity."
"I´ll take that as a yes."
He came in and Cathirne closed the door behind him.
He went to put the bag into the kitchen. "How about you put on that song that you were singing the other day."
"Oh! Don´t remind me of that." She walked over to her stereo, turned it on and pressed play. Then she went into the kitchen and leaned against the counter looking into the brown paper bag. "So what have we got to work with?"
"I thought that you might like to eat some pasta with pomodoro sauce?"
"And I thought you had a problem with our original plans tonight, but here you are...letting me choose what we´ll have for dinner."
"I didn´t know you could be so sarcastic."
"Well, you see I can."
They got started on the cooking, and while Cathrine cut the onions for the sauce, Horatio waited patiently for the water to boil. ´He seems a little quiet today´ Cathrine thought and eyed him from the side. Horatio was looking down at the floor, his forehead in creases, obviously deep in thought.
"What´s wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. It´s just the job."
"Just becuase you feel you don´t want to bother be by talking about it, doesn´t mean I don´t want to hear it."
"No, it´s okay. It´s nothing."
"Fine, if you don´t want me to hear how good you are at your job, that´s okay with me. It´s not like I won´t hear about it on TV, but...outch!" A little blood wa trickling down her index finger.
"Did you cut yourself?"
"No, it´s okay. It´s nothing." Cathrine put the knife aside and started to suck on her finger. Horatio was absentmindedliy watching her struggles to continue cooking, while occasionally sucking on her index. Horatio felt these heatflashes again, she looked so sexy sucking on that finger, and had to hold himself back to not intently stare at her.
"You still helping me out or not!"
20 minutes later Cathrine took out one of the spagetti and threw it agianst the wall behind the stove.
"What are you doing!" Horatio thought he wasen´t seeing right.
"What! You never learned that when you throw the spagetti against a tiled wall and it stays put, they´re ready to eat?"
"No."
"Well...I did. Can you put the siv that´s in the drawer under the fridge into the sink?"
After Cathrine had poured away the water, she set up the table while he served the food. They sat down.
"Ready to taste my seasoning?" Horatio asked.
"If you´d know how spicy I make my sauce. I think I´m ready for an adventure."
They ate a little while in silence, until Horatio put down his fork and spoon and looked at Cathrine intently.
She was just sucking a spagetti into her mouth and nearly chocked on it as she realized he was staring at her. "Wha...What is it!" Cough, chough...chough.
He hit her on the back to ease the discomfort. "I want to thank you."
"For what?"
"I know we´ve just gone out three times so far, if we add tonight, but...I´ve told you about my past and...I hardly do anything else besides live for my job. I haven´t gone out for years, nor danced the past 15. I...I forgot how life could be. I´m always on the job, making sure that the people of this city get their gratification for what has been done to their sons or daughters, husbands or wifes, lovers, friends, brothers or sisters." He gave her a quircky smile and tilted his head to the side. "I don´t often get in touch with the other side of life anymore...I just want to thank you for showing it to me gain. Eventhough it has only been a few times. So far...I hope."
"No problem. My pleasure. You know...I don´t know anyone as truthful as you are. I mean...I wouldn´t have told you what you told me just now if I´d feel like that. Don´t misunderstand me, but...I don´t really know you yet."
"No offence taken. I don´t usually tell these things to anyone. May be it´s because I don´t know you so well, that I can tell you all of this. I talk about the job most of the time, but you´re not a cop. I guess I feel I should talk about other things with you, for your sake."
She gave a hearty laugh and a wide smile. "Horatio..."
"Hmmm?"
"A character in Shakespeare´s Hamlet was called Horatio, you know. He was the first CSI, if you can call him that. He told the world why Hamlet died."
"I know." Cathrine raised her eyebrows in question. "Someone told me the same thing recently. She died a few weeks ago." This time it was her turn to tilt her head to the side. "Her name was Belle King. She was poisened by her secret admierer."
"Poisened? Isn´t that a bit old fashioned."
"Not when you do it with Iodine 131."
"Isn´t that radioactive?"
"Yes."
"Oh my God...I told you your job is depressing!"
Cathrine was escorting Horatio down to his Hummer after they had ended up talking for another three hours after they had finished their dinner. After he got in, he opened the window to let Cathrine lean into the car.
"Wow, that´s quite a spacious car."
"We´ve got a lot of equippment to store away in here."
"That´s right. Well, it was nice having you over for dinner tonight."
"It was nice of you to still let me in after I changed our palns."
"I guess that means that I still got a joker up my sleeve."
He gave her one of those heart-warming smiles, and Cathrine had to use all her self-control not to forcefully take his face into her hands and press her lips against his.
"Good night, Cathrine."
"Good night, Horatio." She stepped away from the car as he started the engine, and waved him as he slowly drove away.
