Police cars and the Bomb Squad truck were pulling up at an Every-Mart were a lot of civilians were already lining the sidewalks, and confused and paniced shoppers were spilling out of the Mart. Horatio´s Hummer came to a shrieking stop not far away from where the bomb squad was assembling, leaving behind a nice set of tire-tracks that would give easy play for a CSI to track him down. It was another bobmb threat, and Horatio could see on the faces of the Policemen and Detectives that they were getting tired of it. But it was their job to check out all possible threaths that could endanger the people of thier city, so they appeared at the scenes every time. Horatio walked over to where Tripp and Hagan were watching from a save distance away, close to the victims of the threat that were crowding the sidewalk opposite the Mart. He could see all kinds of people in the crowd, from elderly folk, to mothers with children, to teenagers smoking cigarettes to calm themselfs down.
"I guess the same as with all the other threats."
"Yes." Tripp said, looking down at the floor, feeling helpless because he couldn´t know what would happen next.
Bam...whizz...thud... it happened within seconds. Horatio saw it in the corner of his eye. The Grandfather standing at his right side fell backwards and landed on the floor. He turned to face him, trying to do something for the man that was lying on the floor next to him, dying. He crouched onto his knees, checking for the man´s pulse, bending over his mouth to check the breathing, starting feverishly to perform CPR on him.
"Get Rescue!" he shouted at the other men, while the people around them realized what was happening and started to panic and crouch down on the floor as well. And then it happened again...bam...whizz...thud...Horatio saw another man fall to the floor a few meters away from them. He got up to check out the situation on the other victim.
"Caine! Get down! The bomb might erupt any second!" Tripp screamed at him, but Horatio took a step forward. "Horatio!"
"Frank! There won´t be any bomb exploding!" Horatio had already traced the flight of the two bullets with his photographic mind, and knew that they must have come from a building somewhere on the right of the Every Mart. And he knew that the killer wouldn´t risk blowing himself up. There wasen´t any bomb in the Mart.
"Horatio! DONT MOVE!"
"Frank! We need to help him, we need Rescue!"
"Horatio! DOWN, NOW!" and Horatio did what Tripp ordered him to do, regretting it just a moment later, when he was reassured that no bomb was going to explode; there was absolute silence; and Tripp began to see that as well.
Ring Ring...Cathrine´s phone was ringing while she was taking a shower, accompanying the song that was playing softly in the background.
"...I knew you needed some blue skies. You need some laugter again, till magic returns to your blue eyes. You´re left in a cricle of pain. Where´s it all going? Each day is the same, where are you going?...Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone. Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone..."
When she turned off the water the ringing had stopped, and Cathrine never knew someone had tried to reach her, there was no message on the answering machine. But then, when she was already lying in bed, half asleep, someone knocked on the door of her apartment.
´Hu!´ Cathrine was startled out of her sleep, her heart racing in her ribcage. There was a second knock, so she got up, put on her bathrobe, walked over to the door and opened it. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her.
Horatio looked as if he hadn´t slept at all the past night. Yesterday at the lab he had looked his old self, but now he seemed to have grown 20 years older over night. His shoulders were slumped more than usual, his eyes showed a constant state of guilt and despair and were rimmed red. She was surprised, didn´t know he could be like that, and neither had he.
"Horatio?" He tried to manage a smile, but all he could give her was a lopsided grin. "Are you okay? Oh my God, you look terrible. What happened?" she took him by the hand and led him over to her couch. Then she went back to the door and closed it. After taking a seat opposite Horatio, she still felt a little uncomfortable in his presence after what had happened yesterday, she pulled her knees up to her chest and got ready to listen to whatever he had to say.
"Eric and Speed had a break through in our case yesterday. There was man on both survaillance tapes that stood across the two crime scenes, and two witnesses that had seen him enter the beauty parlour just a half hour before it exploded where able to identify him." Cathrine eyed him with a questioning look, wondering what this was going to be about. "There was another bomb threat at an Every-Mart today. None erupted, but a sniper took up the job of killing instead."
"Oh my God!"
"Our man from the survaillance tapes was hit."
"What!"
"I don´t understand it either."
"But, if he worked together with the killer...I mean..uh..."
"Cathrine?"
"Yes, Horatio?"
"Hold me."
Cathrine´s eyes suddenly started to tear uncontrolably and she started to cry. She could feel the pain of all what had appened today was causing him, and there was more than he would tell behind it all. But she didn´t want to push him. Instead she got up, crossed the little distance that was between them, sat down beside his shrunken frame, and took him into her open arms. He collapsed into her embrace and started sobbing, staining her velvet nightgown with his hot tears.
Cathrine rocked him back and forth...back and forth...back and forth..."Shhhhh. Shhhhh." Back and forth, back and forth. "It´s okay Horatio. It´s okay. Shhhhh..." His arms wrapped around her, making it harder for her to breathe. But she didn´t notice. She didn´t notice how she herself was sobbing. How her arms moved in tighter around his shoulders, didn´t hear herself singing softly into his ear..." I knew you needed a friend. I knew you needed some blue skies. You need some laugter again, till magic returns to your blue eyes. You´re left in a cricle of pain. Where´s it all going? Each day is the same, where are you going?...Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone. Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone...You´re never alone."
Horatio looked up into her green eyes, his stare wandering down to her mouth which was still wispering those words, over and over again. ´You´re never alone. You´re never alone. You´re never alone...´ His fingertips touched those lips, causing her to stop in mid-sentence. She moved her hands over his red hair to behind his head, pulling his face closer towards hers. She forgot about her feelings of yesterday, those feelings of jealousy and disappointment at the adoring looks Horatio shot at Yelina. She wanted to make this pain inside of him go away, even if it was for only a couple of hours. He looked her deep in the eye, asking for permission to press her lips against his own. She didn´t say a word, just parted her lips slightly. ´Yes´, the gesture told him. ´Yes.´ He kissed her hard and frantically, shocked at how much he had needed this right now. He pressed his torso harder against hers, pushing her into the upholstery of the couch behind her, forcing Cathrine to lie down with him on top of her. He broke the kiss, only to continue with it traveling down her neck onto her collarbone. One of her hands got hold of his hair, while the other moved to her mouth where one of the fingers was softly bitten down on. Horatio´s hands were untieing her bathrobe and slowly tracing the curve of her waist. He paused for a moment and looked at her, and she looked back, begging him not to stop. It had been a long time since any man had made her feel like this. But he knew that if he continued now, there would be no turning back. Cathrine sure wanted it, but she didn´t want him to follow through with it just for her. She wanted him to make the decision and therefore got up and went to her bedroom, leaving the door ajar, letting him follow her if he wanted to.
And he did.
