Title: His Last Case

Disclaimer: Violence. Slash.

POV: Horatio

Chapter Nine: News
Wednesday night- 7:32pm

I stand in the hallway gazing through the glass. My co-workers, my family, sit in the room. Usually they joke and smile. But this evening is different.

Alexx pops an aspirin and chases it down with water. The hit her head had been worse than originally accessed. She now has two stitches.

Calleigh is busy writing. What she's writing, I don't know.

Hagen sits across from her. I notice he's looking anywhere but in her direction. Trouble in paradise?

Delko isn't sitting at the table. He's standing in the back of the room. His eyes are hollow. My heart goes out to him. The one he loves is gone.

"Are you going in?"

I turn to Yelina. "Just waiting for you."

I follow her into the room. As we enter all eyes turn to me. The tension in the room rises.

"Horatio, why are we here?" Hagen asks.

"I," I stop. How do I bring this up?

"H?" Calleigh pushes.

"Earlier today Delko brought in a shirt. The shirt Speed was wearing when he was kidnapped. It was covered in blood."

The silence is deafening to me. Calleigh glances at Delko. This is harder than telling a parent their child was murdered.

"We tested three points of the shirt. All came back positive to Speed. It's his blood. Without a doubt."

Yelina and Calleigh comfort each other. Hagen comforts Alexx. Their tears pull at my heart. But what bugs me most is Delko. He shows no emotion. Just keeps staring off into space.

"Guys, I'm sorry, but there's more."

They all look to me. Again.

"An hour ago a call was placed to the local authorities. A large amount of blood was found at the docks. Now, they used standard police dogs in hopes of finding something. Anything. But the dogs found nothing. So now they are bringing in the cadaver dogs."

"Have you tested the blood?" Alexx asks.

"We tried our best. Car oil and other components fucked with the DNA. But we did figure it to be male. No positive ID can be made though."

A door slams. We all look to see Delko has left.

"What's with him?" Hagen asks.

I ignore him and start after Delko. It takes me fifteen minutes to find him. He's sitting on the curb in the parking lot. It's evident that he had been sick.

"Tell me the truth, H, is Speed dead?"

I sit down beside him. "To be honest, I really don't know."

"With the amount of blood on that shirt, and possibly the blood at the docks; could he still be alive?"

I look at Delko. I hesitate in answering, for I know Delko doesn't want to hear it and I don't want to say it. I sigh. "No, there's no chance."