EquestrianBabe - I think your question will be answered in this chapter : )
"And then he kissed you?"
"Yeah."
"Square on the mouth?"
Cathrine couldn´t quite tell Dana what had happened, even though it was still freshly engraved in her memory. It had come totally unexpected.
She still heard him draw his breath, just seconds before he bend low and kissed her lips. The force exerted on her body nearly made her fall backwards. Her tupperweare was taken out of her hands and put aside on the little table where the phone stood. He broke away from her lips, just to cover them again with his within miliseconds. This time they were slightly open. Sensations rolled over her that she hadn´t felt in years as he wraped his arms around her waist and took a step forward to minimize the space between them. One of Horatios hands moved a little lower, and in response Cathrine parted her lips and gave in. He groaned into her mouth when she ran her fingers throu his hair and pressed him closer against her body. His lips were really warm, and tasted...like...Cathrine...
"Cathrine!"
"What!"
"Square on the mouth!"
"Dana! That´s none of your business."
"Ah, becoming protective. Are we?"
"No. It´s not like he´s my boyfriend or anything."
"No, not at all. It´s just that you had like 4 dates so far...and...he kissed you, square on the mouth."
"Well. Yeah, but...ach, I don´t know."
"You liked it, didn´t you?"
"Yes."
"So?"
"I just have the feeling that there´s something still between us."
"After you shared that kiss!" Cathrine looked at her, surprised that Dana knew how passionate their kiss had been. "Don´t look at me like that. I can see it in your eyes that you are still quite surprised about him taking that step, and how much you liked it, and...well...I can see it...May be it´s just the job."
"I don´t know."
"Then how about you go visit him at the Station?"
"I think he hasen´t got any time now. And neither have I."
"Well, you finish at 6, right?"
"Yeah."
"And when does he go home?"
"His shift is over at 7."
"You could go when you´re finished, and then go out for dinner or something when he´s ready."
"You know what. I might even do that."
"Thank God I got her take matters into her own hands."
"Dana!"
"Sorry, sarcasm is my nature."
It was exactly 6 o´clock when Cathrine left the café. She didn´t go directly to the Lab, but went home instead to freshen up a little before she would finally meet Horatio´s co-workers. And she would go there by car as well. She didn´t use it often, because she thought that walking to and from work every day would keep her more healthy than workout at a fitness center, which were the trend these days. But today she didn´t feel like walking all the way to the Station, or taking the bus wither. She felt more comfortable going by car, more independant, more secure and ready to face the people Horatio worked with every day.
When Cathrine got out of the car, there was no one else on the parking-lot, and she wondered if it was an exceptionally quiet day today. She walked up to the man behind the counter in the Entrance Hall.
"Hi, I´d like to see Lieutenant Caine please."
"And your name?"
"Cathrine Deven."
"Okay, Ms. Deven. Take the elevator up to the 3rd Floor, then walk all the way down the corridor and then to your right. There are some seats. He´ll meet you there."
"Thank you, Officer."
Timothy Speedle was on his way to the Breakroom, when he walked past the waiting room and noticed a woman with jet-black hair sitting on the bench. Waiting. She looked nervous and was constantly wraping a lock of hair around her index finger.
"Can I help you Miss...?"
"Deven. Cathrine Deven. Oh, no. I´m fine. I´m here to see Lieutenant Caine."
When she looked up at him, he immediately noticed her pirceing green eyes. "Horatio? I think that´ll take a while. He´s processing a DNA sample. Ehm, can I get you anything? I´m on my way to the Breakroom. Sorry, I´m Tim Speedle by the way." They shook hands.
"Oh, no. Thank you."
"Sure? I won´t tell."
"It´s okay, I´m fine."
"Okay. I guess he´ll be coming in about 20 minutes."
"Aha."
Tim continued his way to the Breakroom, eyebrows raised and a smile playing around his lips.
Horatio came around half-an-hour later, wearing his turquoiseish lab coat and a look of surprise on his face.
"Cathrine! What are you doing here?"
"Well, I thought it´d be nice to come and visit you. See where you work all day, use that smart brain of yours."
"Ehm, about yesterday night. I´m sorry. I didn´t mean to be so...harsh."
After they had finally broken away from eachother Cathrine left without another word. She had just taken her tupperweare and gone to the car. Horatio worried about it all day long, but had he seen Cathrine´s huge smile and facial expressions when she walked back to her Pontiac, he would have slept absolutely peaceful that night.
"I must confess that I really liked what happened last night." She took a step closer to him, so that they were barely an inch away from eachother. He couldn´t believe the power this woman had over him as he felt his knees becoming weak.
"I did too." He said.
"Yeah?"
"Aha." She smiled up at him and nudged his left arm. "How about we go into my office?"
"Sure."
They walked to the otherside of the room, down another corridor, through a door into a lab that housed a lot of microscopes and other equipment Cathrine figured the CSIs used to analyze their findings. But there wasen´t that much time to inspect the place too closely, because Horatio took a flight of stairs directly on their left. And when they arrived at the top, he walked through a door on the right that lead into a room of which one wall was one complete window from which you could look down into the lab they had just walked through. They were just covered with blinds. On the wall with the door leaned an old green sofa. Opposite that was Horatio´s desk, behind it a chair that didn´t look too comfortable. All in all, the room looked like Cathrine´s brother´s room when he hadn´t cleaned it up for a while.
"Don´t worry, I don´t spend a lot of my time here. Just to look over reports and sign them, usually at the end of the day. So, what do you want to do today? Where do you want to go?"
"Well, I hoped to get a little tour through the place."
"A tour?" He put his hands on his hips and tilted his head to the side.
"I love it when you do that."
"Do what?"
"That hip thing." He looked down on himself and let his arms fall to his sides. "Aw..." Cathrine pouted her lips. "I guess you don´t wan to give me a tour."
"I do, but may be not today. Is that okay?"
"But why? Dou you have to get yourslef emotionally ready first?"
"Emotionally ready?"
"Yeah. Like guys do before they ask the girl out they liked for so many years."
"Cathrine, sometimes I have the feeling that your creativity runs amock with you."
"No, not at all. It rather amuses me, and I like that."
"Good. Because I don´t think I can change it."
Suddenly someone knocked on the door. "Yes." It was Yelina Salas.
"Horatio...Oh. I didn´t know you had a visitor."
"Well, yeah. Cathrine, this is Detective Yelina Salas."
"Right. You are Horatio´s siter-in-law."
"Yah, that´s me." She gave Cathrine a smile and offered her her hand. Yelina could immediately sense that there was something going on between the two, and even though she had an interest in Horatio herself, she was happy that he had found someone to take his mind off the job sometimes.
Cathrine liked Yelina immediately, but she saw that Horatio was a little uneasy, and wondered if he had feelings for his deceased brother´s wife. She had seen his eyes lit up when Yelina entered the room, and was a little hurt that he hadn´t told her about those feelings. It hadn´t been his responsibility to tell her of them since they were starting to developing a love relationship, but she also felt connected to him in a different way, a more brother-sisterly way. And now, as they were standing together in his office, she was surprised to have not noticed that other face of her relationship with Horatio before.
"What is it Yelina?" Horatio felt trapped between the two, and even though he saw that they were looking at eachother with a friendly eye, he himself was so confused at the intensity of uneasiness he expierenced during Yelina´s and Cathrine´s first meeting. Here they were, the two women he adored, wondering how he would get out of this trinagle without hurting one or the other.
"We got another witness saying he saw a guy that fits to the description our Mrs. Parker gave us."
"May be he could identify him from the survaillance tapes."
"Called him already. He´ll be here in about 20 minutes."
He stemed his hands on his hips and gave her a one of his weak smiles that could illuminate the whole room. Cathrine shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, and Yelina looked at the other woman that was a few inches smaller than herself.
And then Speedle came in through the doorway. "Horatio! We spotted him on the tapes!" With just one glance Tim saw that Horatio was greatful for an interruption at this point. After Ms. Deven had told Tim that she was there to see Horatio, he figured that she had been the reasons for all the turndowns he had gotten from Horatio over the past few weeks, every time he had asked him out for a beer after they had finished work for that day. And now as he saw all three of them together in one room; it was common knowledge at the Station that there was some attraction between Horatio and Yelina; he knew that what started now, was a very complicated and inevitable time for his superior.
"You got a break!"
"Yeah!"
"Good job, Speed."
"Should I tell our Witness that he won´t have to come anymore?" Yelina asked.
"No, he can just reassure us that this is our guy."
"Okay." Yelina left the room to check if Mr. Cortez had already arrived. She took one last look at Cathrine, and as much as she felt that she would really like this woman, she was a little taken aback that second by the fact that Horatio was getting interested in other women, after she had just told herself that she was happy that someone was making him think of other things. It wasen´t like Horatio was hers, but they had come a little closer to eachother in the last months, and she had started to like the idea of having him around more often and to may be even start seeing him. It had taken her a lot of time to get over Ray´s early and untimely death, but Horatio had been there. He´d been there through it all, had suffered the same loss she had. He knew how she looked inside, how hurt she was to find out about Ray´s addiction to drugs, hurt about the way people were talking about him behind her back.
"Here!" Eric pointed out a man on the screen of the TV they were watching the tape on. "He comes on at 13:25, and leaves again five minutes later."
"Half-an-hour before the threat came in." Horatio stated.
"Just a normal transaction. So this is the first tape. Then Speedle and me looked at the second tape together," he took out the first and then put in the second assett, "And I noticed the same guy doing a transaction again. Showed the other tape to Speedle, he confirmed."
"Well done Eric." Horatio got his cell phone out of his pocket and diealed a speed number. "Yeah, Yelina? Is your witness there yet...aha...good. Yeah...yes... okay. Thanx." He let his cell phone ends snap together. "Okay, Eric. You get those tapes ready, and I´ll come back with a witness, that can identify a suspect him and Mrs. Parker saw at both scenes."
"Sure H."
Horatio left the A/V lab to go get the witness from the crossexamination room.
´So that was Horatio´s siter-in-law.´ Cathrine thought to herself. She was a beautiful woman. Long curly hair, dark skin, a lucious mouth and amazing eyes. Cathrine had the feeling that she would loose against her. She had seen the attraction that existed between the two, and she could sense that it was equally strong on both sides. She had watched the unconciencous giving and taking of protection, understanding and love during the few seconds of seeing them together. She felt she didn´t have the right abilities to stand up against that woman. In looks and personality. It seemed Horatio and her had a much deeper, much closer connection than they had. But may be she just felt that way now, after an unexpected meeting like that.
Cathrine had been looking forward to the dinner she had planned for tonight, but now all she wanted was a little time for herslef. To reflect on what had just happened, and to get the fellings that where creeping into her heart into an order that made sense, and that made it possible for her not to expierience any sudden attacks of jealousy. If there was one feeling in the world she hated most, it was jealousy.
Horatio, Yelina, Eric and Tim were all sitting in the A/V lab, waiting for thier witness to identify the possible suspect. They let him watch a few minutes before the guy appeared on the tape, and when he finally did, Mr. Cortez gave a little cry and pointed figorously at the screen. Eric let the other tape run as well, and Cortez confirmed that it was the same guy on both vidoes.
"Thank you, Mr. Cortez. We really appriciate your help and cooperation."
"No problem Lieutenant. I´ll do anything to help you get the guy that shot the little kid."
Mr. Cortez was accompanied out the door by Yelina, who took a last glance at Horatio and decided to aks him if he wanted to come over and have dinner with her and Ray Jr., later.
"So, I guess you know that that means a lot of work for you two."
"We´ll start right on it H."
Horatio left the lab and went to meet Cathrine halfway way down the corridor that lead to the elevator.
"Cathrine."
She stopped in her stride and turned around to face him. He immediately noticed her sunken face. "Yeah?"
"Will I see you tonight?"
"I don´t know. I´m a little tired today."
Horatio could sense immediately that something was not right, but he didn´t want to talk about that now, not here. So he gave her one of those sad smiles with furrowed eyebrows. "Well, then tomorow."
"Sure. I´d like that."
"Good. See you tomorrow then. Should I come over to your place?"
"That´d be great."
"Okay." He hoped, but at the same time didn´t hope, that she would give him a kiss. But it did not come, and he wondered if he had done something wrong.
