Horatio's unusual morning was forecasting a similar kind of day. Stopping at a red light on his way to work it struck him that for the first time in, he couldn't remember how long, he woke up and did not think of Yelina Salas, or mourn for his late brother. The red light flicked to green, but his contemplation trapped him, still, inside his own body. This morning he thought of Calleigh. She was dominating his thoughts these days, just the way Yelina used too. He recalled how Yelina used to make him feel, in fact, how she still could make him feel. She had the power to make him feel weak with just one look, or word, or seemingly innocent touch. Calleigh, he found, now had this gift too. Every time they'd spoke alone recently he had felt weak, as though he might have crumbled in her arms. The sudden burst of a car horn, from the driver after him, broke him from his mental connections. With a shake he gathered himself to focus on the driving again.

He saw her early that morning, in the break room before the others had arrived. She looked more worn-out than usual, but she still smiled for him, for everyone, that's just who she was.

"Mornin'." She chimed, her accent shining through.

"Good morning. Coffee?"

"Mmm, I'd love some. Thank you." She sipped it cautiously and closed her eyes. Horatio watched her carefully. There was something different about her today. The make-up around her eyes looked unusually heavy. Thick dark lines drew away from the shimmer of blue-green, they usually bestowed, bright against her complexion like the color of shallow ocean water on a white sand beach. He looked away, into his own cup, when her eyes opened again. Stepping slightly sideways she stood closer, and he felt his nerves build when he assumed his starring had been evident. "How could you have remembered I take cream, and pinch of sugar?"

"Lucky guess." He said, making sure not to flush when she laughed for him.

"So..." She went on, "How're you today?" She didn't want to pry, or open a wound that had only recently started healing, but she wouldn't let go of what they'd done last night. Though whatever that had been she could not define, aside from knowing how sweet it was, how soulfully satisfying.

"Better. Thank you." His modestly positive words brought on her smile and she relished in the idea that he thanked her for this.

"I'm glad to hear that." She sipped her coffee again and leaned, softly against him, shoulder to shoulder, "If you need hug, you know where to find me, handsome." She had, all morning, tried to psyche herself up for that moment. Their first moment together of the day, when she could tell him everything. Her intent was to tell him how she felt about their time together after hours. How she had begun to look forward to it, to having him all to herself for a few spare minutes of their time. And now that chance was over.

By late afternoon the day felt agonizingly long. Particularly, after a visit from Yelina and Stetler had been a perfect reminder, to Horatio, of just how obsolete he had become. He was ready to give and in go home. After one stop he had to make. There was still someone in the office that he needed to see.

Stepping quietly into the shooting range he looked up to see a couple in mid dispute. Calleigh looked livid, arms tightly crossed about her and Hagen stood, his back to the door and Horatio, arguing his point.

"John," she demanded, "Don't start with this again. I refuse to argue about this with you stop bringing it up! Why do you think I've been avoiding you, I knew you'd do this to me."

"I'm not just ignoring it anymore, I'm sick of it Calleigh! You run off to him every time he gets plastered. He's a grown man. It's not your job to baby sit him!"

"What am I supposed to do John just let him drive himself home?! Leave him there all night?! He's my father!"

"He's still a drunk, Cal!"

"Shut up John! Don't you dare judge him!" After struggling through the whole conversation to maintain the level of her voice, it exploded.

H had not intend to stand there for so long, but the surprise of seeing Calleigh go off, stopped him dead in his tracks. He was fixed on her as she stood there, not 10 feet away and crying now. Crying out anger and frustrated pain, within his sight, and there was nothing he could do or say for her. Her breathing shook her slight form, and Horatio felt desperate to hold her, shield her from her trouble, and scold the cause of it. The cause of it being the man who was now trying to calm her. Suddenly his mind returned to him and he swiftly became aware that it was not his business to be where he currently found himself. Turning to make a quiet exit Calleigh caught sight of him first, and in humiliation, wiped at her tears.

"I'm sorry." H said pretending he'd only just walked in. Hagen turned to see him now too. "I didn't know anyone was in here." Horatio's eyes never left Calleigh's and for less than a second neither seemed to know John was still present. After making a quick exit, H stood in the hall with himself. For that fleeting moment, he swore her eyes had tried to ask something of him. He was certain he had felt it. He just didn't know what it was. And before he could decipher it, his time was up, he had to step from the room, and too far away to hear what her eyes were saying.

H headed home that night without getting a chance to see the lady he'd wanted to visit. He had seen her, in all actuality, but he hadn't seen his Calleigh. He shook this idea from mind. There was no such thing as his Calleigh. She wasn't his. If she was anyone's at all, she was Hagen's. They were together, and he had no right to think of her any other way. Which meant his time with her, in the privacy of the empty office, was what? Pity? Cheating? The notion struck Horatio just then, that perhaps his indefinable relationship to Calleigh may have been what began the couple's quarrel. That made him the cause of those tears. Not John. Not John at all. And again he found himself the third wheel.