12.

As time seemed to slow to an infinitesimal crawl, in actuality, the Seattle Police Department was swarming all over the place in a matter of minutes. When the shooting had stopped and when Horatio was certain the shooter had fled, he very carefully tracked the location of the bullets that had entered the studio, before turning and attempting to pinpoint just where the shooter could have been hiding.

Schell remained on the floor, moving only to sit with her legs curled under her and leaned up against the boxes like they were the only support in the world that she had, her left hand flat against them, near her ashen face. As the first responding units arrived, Horatio returned to her side, crouching down next to her. The look of sheer fright on her face, struck him like a hammer and he could see she was shaking uncontrollably.

"Here…" he said gently, shrugging out of his overcoat, feeling a sharp pinch above his right hip. He ignored it, and wrapped the overcoat around her shoulders. "C'mon," he coaxed, helping her to her unsteady feet. "Easy, come on…"

There was a thundering of footsteps on the stairs and he called out over his shoulder. "We're unarmed!" Just as two uniformed policemen, guns drawn, covered the room.

"Are you Caine?" One of them demanded.

"That's me," Horatio said, using himself to shield Schell from them. "You can put the guns up…" he added. "The shots were being fired from across the street." He turned his attention back to Schell, helping her sit down on the couch. "You just sit here, and wait for me, all right?" he asked, his hand stroking her hair. She barely nodded, as he pulled the overcoat around her even more. She clutched it close, and looked up at him uncertainly. "I'm going to be busy for a few minutes, but I'll be right back, okay?" He couldn't tell if her nod was a nod of assent or the shaking that still racked her body.

He turned towards the two policemen, both of whom had lowered their guns, but hadn't holstered them as yet, one was looking cautiously outside the door, the other faced Horatio.

"I'm Horatio Caine, I'm a police officer and a visitor here, a crime scene investigator. This is Schell Demereau, and this is her studio. We were getting ready to leave when shots were fired at us from that direction." Horatio said, pointing with his hand. He turned and pointed into the studio. "I have located about seven rounds but I estimate a good 12 to 13 were actually fired. There's bound to be more." The professional investigator in him took over and he carefully began explaining to the two the sequence of events that had happened and what evidence there was to collect. As he spoke, several more uniforms arrived and before too much longer several detectives and the Captain of the SWAT team arrived as well. Horatio could hear the sounds of an approaching chopper and a glance outside revealed police units all over the parking lot and beyond over into the park.

As for Schell, things changed to a blur. With a horrible sense of disorientation, she stared at the floor, oblivious to the studio filling with cops, before someone ordered them out as it was now a crime scene. Another officer was asking her questions, but she was simply uncomprehending anything they were saying. She was still shivering, trying to make sense of her world suddenly vaporizing before her eyes.

She was never aware of Horatio returning to her until she felt his fingers brush her cheek. She blinked, focusing on him. He was crouched before her, looking at her worriedly.

"Schell?" he was asking again. Seeing her focus on him, he tried giving her a smile of encouragement as he reached down to take her elbow and help her to stand. "We have to go outside now, all right?" he asked, watching her. She clutched his overcoat tighter as they both stood up straight. Her face was tight with fear and incomprehension, the corners of her mouth nearly white in her pale face.

"We really do need to ask her some questions, Lieutenant," one of the officers was saying.

"You will get your questions answered, we need to clear the room first." Horatio said over his shoulder. He gently steered Schell towards the door. "Would somebody make sure that the media is out of the way?"

Schell moaned a little beside him, and he looked down to see the appalled look on her face.

"It's all right," he reassured, moving to shield her from prying eyes as they approached the door. She hesitated and he protectively slipped his arm around her shoulders, still holding her elbow in support as they made their way to the landing. He even went so far as to lean towards her to shield her from the rain.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, a stranger approached Horatio.

"Lieutenant Caine?" he asked, catching Horatio's attention. "Captain Payton, Seattle PD. I believe you've been trying to get a hold of me… and you've got my attention now." He identified himself and looked at Schell in concern.

"We're all right, just shaken a bit." Horatio said, smiling at the candor in the man's voice. "However, I would like to take Miss Demereau over to her boat, its over on that dock there," he nodded in the right direction. "That is if you don't mind. Some help to keep folks away would be very welcome as well."

Payton looked towards the dock, then at the scene crawling with responding units, media and early morning gawkers, then back at Horatio. "I think I can manage that. You won't be going anywhere? Sure you don't need to see one of the medics?"

Schell shook her head no, looking away.

"No, we just need to be somewhere quiet."

"All right, let me get things squared away here and then I'll be down with my questions, I understand you have a few as well?"

"Yes, and you may want to bring Carl Beckman in on this as well."

"Ah yes," Payton said, with a knowing roll of his eyes. "Mr. Personality. All right Caine, just stay put at that boat, we'll be over shortly."

"Thank you Captain," Horatio said as the Seattle police captain turned to a pair of uniformed cops and told them to escort the pair as far as the dock. He watched the two depart, looking a bit disgusted. He'd seen too many victims who had been scared out of their senses and Schell Demereau was one of them.

By the time they reached the stairs leading to the dock, reaction was finally getting the better of Schell. Tears had formed and were silently rolling down her cheeks, causing her to reach up with her fingers to wipe them away. Silently, Horatio just handed her his handkerchief, keeping her close to him as they headed for the boat. He told the two uniforms which one they'd be on and they took up station to keep anyone from approaching the dock.

As they got on board, he asked her for the keys which she got and he let them into the cabin. She looked utterly drained and miserable as she moved into the cabin and stopped, looking around blankly, still clutching his overcoat around her. Shutting the door behind him, he turned to her, blinking, his eyes everywhere but on her for the moment and trying to come up with something to say as he fingered the keys.

"Schell I…" he started, reaching over to set her keys on the nav station table. A sharp twinge above his hip caused him to wince and he frowned, pulling aside his jacket.

His surprise and her inwardly drawn gasp collided at the same time. Starkly visible against the white of his shirt was a growing bright red stain. He looked at his side in astonishment before he looked back up to see her hand sliding over her mouth in horror. Seeing a grey pallor sweep into her face he said calmly and quickly, "Schell, get me your first aid kit."

She couldn't take her eyes off the bloodstain and fresh tears welled in her eyes as he gingerly took off his jacket.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he said. "Go get it for me, please?"

Slowly, she forced herself to take her gaze off the bloodstain, and then dropped his coat on the kitchenette table, moving towards the boat's head, Horatio's voice having cut through the fog that had threatened to send her into a dead faint. She came back moments later as he was carefully pulling his shirt tails out of his pants.

"Do me a favour and get me some wash cloths and maybe some very hot water, all right?" he asked, glancing at her.

"Y-yeah…" she finally said in a cracked whisper, and turned for the galley, setting the first aid kit on the nav table.

His hiss of pain, caused her to snap her head towards him as he tried to examine his hip, but he couldn't see the wound well enough so he began unbuttoning his shirt. "I'm gonna need your help with this," he said as she put a small pot of water on her stove. He watched her swallow nervously before she glanced at him. He pulled aside his shirt, grit his teeth and looked down at his wound.

"All right, all right…" he said to her, "It's just a scratch, and a bloody one, but I'm all right, okay?" He looked at her, "Bring me a wet cloth?"

Soaking one, she handed it to him, as he continued to examine the furrow ploughed in his side. "Have you got any alcohol or hydrogen peroxide?" he asked.

"Yeah, I have both." she said, and turned for the head again.

On her return he looked at her with a wry smile, "This is what I get for not wearing my gun."

She frowned, blinking in confusion as she set the two bottles down on the nav table. "What?" she asked, looking confused.

Horatio began wiping away at the blood. "I can just bet if I had my gun in its normal place, it would have deflected the bullet that caused this," he commented.

"Oh… gawd!" Schell breathed in despair, looking at him cleaning his wound as further realization sank in. She slowly sat in the chair, looking at him. "This is all because of me."

Horatio paused in his cleaning, looking at her. "That's nonsense," he said gently then nodded at the first aid case. "Open that up for me?" She blinked a few times, trying to change gears then turned towards the kit, opening it up as he returned to his task. "I'm going to need you to get at the back of this," he said.

Schell looked up at him briefly, nodded and reached for the cloth in his hand. He smiled encouragement, and turned for her to see the area. As she began cleaning where he couldn't reach, he let out another hiss, clenched his teeth together and caused her to jump.

"I'm so sorry!" she barely whispered, her hands shaking.

"It's okay, this is a good thing," he reassured, "It's a surface wound, Schell, it's gonna sting like a hell for a while, but at least no medic is involved, that would just lead us to a whole other can of worms." He smiled down at her, as she reached back up, "Just wait until I have you put alcohol on it."

"I don't think I can take much more of this…" she said, swallowing down a bit of nausea.

Horatio nodded, smiling at her with infinite understanding. "I know, Schell, believe me, I know." He reached for a dry cloth and held a hand out for the bottle of alcohol. "Don't worry, I'll do it. Can you get out a couple of those pads, and the tape?" She nodded assent and handed him the bottle.

Each time he hissed, or gasped as he disinfected his wound felt like a like an extra lash across Schell's frayed nerves. Yet in a matter of minutes he had it cleaned up and with her help, anointed with antibiotic cream and bandaged. As she cleaned up their mess, he went forward to get another shirt and heard the sounds of approaching footsteps on the dock. There was also the sound of a heated discussion…