"That man is absolutely amazing." Samantha replied with a hand held to her heart as though she feared it might give out from the excitement.
Horatio walked quietly beside her fighting the wave of jealousy that bubbled just below the surface. "Yes. He certainly gave a well planned presentation."
"A well planned presentation? That man is one of the reasons I decided to pursue ballistics. He's completely, absolutely, and wonderfully amazing."
"Amazing." Horatio replied softly. Samantha sensed the undercurrent of something in his quiet tone. Stopping in the hotel lobby, she touched his shoulder softly.
"Something wrong?"
Horatio looked up, feeling foolish for the feelings that were brewing inside him. "No." He cleared his throat. "Umm… I was wondering… what your plans are this evening?" He locked eyes with her.
Samantha smiled softly, easily losing herself in his deep blue depths. "I believe I'm free. What did you have in mind?" The husky quality her voice had taken on didn't escape Horatio's attention.
"Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle have graciously invited us to attend an evening performance of The Phantom of the Opera. And, I was wondering if you would like to attend?"
Samantha responding smile was radiant. "Phantom is one of my favorite musicals. Always has been. I couldn't possibly pass up a performance." Horatio nodded and turned his gaze to the floor. "Or an evening with you." His eyes snapped back up to hers. She was slightly pink from her bold statement but she was on a roll and didn't plan to stop there. "Would you like to go for a walk? I know you went earlier but I thought---."
"---I'd love to." He gestured towards the door with a sweep of his hand. "After you."
-----------------------------
"I used to work there." Samantha pointed to a large blue skyscraper that looked a lot like a giant blue Lego. "Campbell-Mithun Tower."
"What job?" Horatio inquired, anxious to find out more about Samantha's past.
"Customer service job." She shuddered. "I hated it. Quit after 8 months."
Horatio chuckled. "Well I'm glad you chose not to stay with a job you didn't enjoy."
Samantha nodded. "It took me a while to realize what I truly wanted to do was to be involved with forensics. I mean… I always watched the TV shows, fact and fiction. Any forensic book I could get my hands on I bought… but it wasn't my first degree actually."
Horatio nodded and glanced at Samantha so she would know he was listening as he walked along side her through downtown Minneapolis. Samantha continued. "I was actually a music major with my first bachelor's degree. B.A. in Vocal Performance at the University of Minnesota."
Horatio smiled. "You sing?"
"No I lip sang my way through college." She grinned. "Yes I sing. But it's been a while so don't ask me to serenade you on the sidewalk."
He smirked. "You went back to school after your music degree?"
"Well, I took about a year off before I finally got the courage to go back to school. I was lucky enough to have my parents pay my way through college the first time out. But I can't say I blame them for not wanting to do it a second time." She laughed. "But I knew it was what I wanted to do. So I went back to school. 6 ½ years, thousands of dollars, and a few billion text books and internships later, here I am!"
"Here you are." Horatio replied quietly.
"Well Sir, you have a portion of my life story. What's yours?"
"My life story? Hmm… not half as interesting I'm sure."
Samantha smiled sweetly. "I'm sure you're wrong." She thought for a moment for something to ask that wouldn't be too personal but would still allow her to get a better glimpse inside the calm and collected persona of Horatio Caine. "Ever been married?" She winced. Too personal.
Horatio noticed her discomfort. While he would be lying saying he didn't feel uncomfortable with the question, he found himself answering her without much hesitation. "I was married once."
"Any children?" As soon as the question had left her lips Samantha wished she could take it back. Not because it was more personal than the first question, but because the look that entered Horatio's eyes was one of such deep anguish Samantha's heart broke at the sight of it.
Horatio took a deep breath, his calm façade returning. But when he spoke, he was unable to keep the anguish from his voice. "No. No children." They had stopped walking now. Samantha reached up and touched Horatio's shoulder.
"I'm really sorry. I… I see my question hurt you somehow and it wasn't my intention to hurt you, Horatio."
Horatio smiled sadly and nodded, placing his left hand over the hand Samantha held on his right shoulder. He squeezed it gently. "I know."
"Do… do you want to talk about it?" Samantha asked softly.
Horatio's first reaction was to say no. He didn't talk about his personal life. Not with anyone. But something compelled him to nod his head and he allowed Samantha to lead him to a nearby bench. Taking a deep breath, Horatio began his story.
"My wife's name was Elizabeth. Liz. She was very young… very beautiful." He paused a moment. "She was a pediatrician at Miami-Dade Memorial." He snorted softly as if something about that fact amused him, though the expression on his face was anything but amused. "You'd think… you'd think someone like me whose profession is spent observing people… you'd think I would have seen the signs."
Samantha edged closer to Horatio on the bench. She stopped short of touching him but could feel the heat of him beside her. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She said softly.
Horatio shook his head, turning slightly and smiling sadly. "No. It's about time I told someone." He sighed. "All I ever wanted besides a loving wife was children. Liz didn't. Thinking back, I realize whenever I brought up the subject, she would either smile and agree with whatever I'd said, or quickly change the subject. It wasn't until after the second miscarriage that I began to get… suspicious." He swallowed hard and pressed on. "I just had this feeling… deep down I knew there was something she wasn't telling me. One afternoon… I came across something." His voice cut off. For a moment Samantha wasn't sure if he would continue. "Liz had left her email open while she stepped out to grab some lunch with her co-workers. It was an email she'd been drafting to her mother. Even with the words printed in front of me… I couldn't believe they were true. I just couldn't believe it." Horatio's eyes glistened with unshed tears. "They weren't miscarriages. They were abortions."
Samantha reached out to Horatio and slipped her hand in his own. He squeezed it comfortingly and held tight as though it was his only lifeline. "I confronted Liz when she came home that afternoon. She knew… she knew how much I wanted children I said. How could she make a decision like that without me? How could she? And you know what she did? She just shrugged and said 'Sorry, Horatio. I deal with brats every day in my line of work. I have no desire to have yours.' I… I just couldn't look at her after that. I was so… angry that she had deprived me of fatherhood. And I was angry at myself for thinking she had ever wanted to bear my children."
Still holding her hand, Horatio turned his eyes back to Samantha as lone tear slid down his face. Samantha reached up and gently wiped the tear away with the pad of her thumb.
Samantha held Horatio's face gently in her hands. "It wasn't your fault. Don't you think it was your fault for a second, Horatio. I won't let you think that."
Horatio closed his eyes, covering one of her hands with his own as she gently cradled his face. Their eyes met. Closing the remaining distance between them, Horatio sealed his lips gently against Samantha's.
The tenderness in which he kissed her left Samantha breathless with desire. Their first kiss had been heated and rushed, but the need she sensed in him as he tenderly explored her mouth was almost more than she could bear. She wanted to sob from the intensity it.
Horatio pulled his lips from hers and pulled her closer, burying his face in her soft red hair.
Sighing, she wrapped her arms around him, delighted at how safe she felt held tightly in his arms.
They held each other like that, neither speaking, both listening to the sound of each other's quiet breathing and enjoying the comfort their nearness brought one another.
Sighing, Horatio opened his mouth to speak. Sensing what he was about to say, Samantha interrupted before he had a chance. "Don't you dare tell me you're sorry." She pulled gently back from him looking into his eyes. The tears had vanished, but deep in their blue depths she saw desire and just under the surface, a hint of regret.
Horatio bowed his head. He was sorry. Not that he had kissed a woman as passionate and beautiful as Samantha, but because he was terrified of how quickly she was breaking down the walls inside him he'd spend years building. After all, he had thought Elizabeth was sweet and beautiful too.
Of course Horatio had dated following his divorce. And he had genuinely cared about some of the women he'd dated. But it always felt... forced somehow. As if he was dating because society told him it was normal for a single man his age to be doing so. It had never felt right. But this… this felt right. And that terrified him.
"I'm afraid." He replied quietly keeping his eyes focused on the ground before him.
Samantha frowned. "Afraid of what?"
Horatio closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he brought them back up to meet Samantha's, she was unable to keep the gasp from leaving her throat. She saw desire. Raw, unbridled, lustful desire.
"Of losing control."
Samantha blushed and Horatio fought the urge to gather her in his arms again and kiss her senseless. She was so beautiful when she blushed. Taking a deep breath of her own, Samantha opened her mouth to speak – only to be cut off by the ring of her cell phone. She apologized quickly and answered the call.
"Samantha Higgins. Dad? Hi!" Samantha's face spread into a wide grin. "What's up? Yeah we're in Minneapolis right now." Her brow creased a moment as she looked around for street signs. "Umm... corner of 8th and Nicholette. Why?"
A honking horn sounded out and was followed promptly by a gold Acura Legend pulling up to the curb. Samantha slapped the phone shut and laughed out loud. She glanced over at Horatio. "You lucky man you...you get to meet my parents!" She got up from the park bench leaving Horatio behind. A middle-aged man with dark grayish brown hair came out from the driver's side of the car and walked around front to envelope his daughter in a tight embrace.
"How's my little sugar pie?" He asked Samantha.
Samantha laughed. "Dad you just saw me five weeks ago before I left for Miami."
He smiled. "I know. But I missed you!"
She kissed him on the cheek. "I missed you too daddy. Where's mom?"
"At the hotel. We stopped by there first to surprise you. No answer at your room but your mother persuaded her way in and she's waiting there. Huge hotel room. You have that all to yourself?"
Samantha shook her head. "No. The hotel screwed up our reservations so I'm sharing it with my boss." She didn't appear remotely embarrassed at telling her father this piece of information, Horatio observed. He convinced himself not to be hurt by being referred to as "her boss." That's what I am he thought somberly. "Speaking of which..." Samantha broke in again. "Here he is." She led her father over to Horatio who stood and shook his hand. "Lieutenant Horatio Caine, this is my father Donald Higgins."
"Call me Don."
"Call me Horatio."
Don smiled. "I can't thank you enough for giving Samantha the job in Miami. She was so excited when she called and told us." He paused a moment. "Weren't you also the person who found her after her accident?"
"Another officer was first on the scene but he phoned me shortly thereafter."
"I can't believe a police officer wouldn't have the common sense to check for a pulse." Don replied honestly.
Horatio nodded. "Unfortunately. It was his second week on the job and he wasn't prepared for what he found. I'm just glad he called me."
Don nodded and sighed. "So am I, Horatio. I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost my daughter."
Samantha laughed. "You guys realize I'm standing right here?" The two men smiled. "Anyway... Officer Bradley, that's the officer who found me, has sent me enough flowers to decorate every home in Miami. Quite frankly it's annoying." She smiled. "But I know he means well."
Horatio smiled at Samantha who quite naturally smiled back at him. Samantha's father quietly watched the subtle interaction.
"Well..." Don spoke up. "I know we're not far from the hotel but you might as hop in since I'll have to pay the ridiculously high valet parking anyway. It just seems somehow more acceptable to have it be for three people in the car instead of one."
"What were you doing out driving around with the car anyway?" Samantha asked.
"Looking for cheaper parking." Don replied with a smile. "I think there's a football game this afternoon. Stupid Vikings. No parking anywhere."
They all laughed and climbed into the car, Samantha taking the passenger seat and Horatio quietly slipping into the back seat behind her.