Chapter 9. Two more to go.

"When you can't do something, just stand there."

Anonymous, advice for true friends.

(H/C)

Speed entered CSI Monday morning to find Horatio already waiting in Trace. "Speed, I've come up with a few things yesterday for you to check out." He handed over a list, neatly written, and Speed's eyes widened.

"Yesterday was the weekend, H," he noted. He wondered if Horatio had slept at all since pulling Calleigh from the case, and the fierce intensity in his supervisor was really starting to worry him. Yet Horatio's work had been absolutely brilliant Friday, turning up more new leads in an 8-hour shift than Speed, with several days already on the case, had thought possible. Professionally, he was certainly hitting on all cylinders. It must just be his fight with Calleigh that was bothering him. Speed would rather get out of the house than spend the weekend cooped up with a mad Calleigh, too.

"I took half of it," Horatio countered. "Didn't work Saturday. You've processed the house thoroughly, you said. Did you include the outside?"

"I took a walk around, looking for forced entry or anything, but there weren't any signs of it."

"Did you pay attention to the plants or dig around them?"

"What?"

"Bushes. She was mulching bushes last Saturday morning. Nice and easy to bury something in, like a handgun."

"Why would anybody put the handgun under a bush at the house? Safer to take it away with them. Have you found anything in the dumpsters?" He still couldn't believe that he hadn't been assigned to dumpster duty himself.

"No, and after this long, they've probably all been emptied. I just thought of the bushes last night driving home. Say you wanted to have the gun found at the scene but didn't want to make it look obvious that you wanted it to be found. The fresh mulch was right there. It was dark, but we're already convinced the perp – or perps, if a different one had the handgun - knew the neighborhood."

Speed shrugged. "Could be, I guess. No, I didn't dig around the bushes. There wasn't a gun just lying on the ground under any of them. I would have noticed that."

"I'll be at the house. Keep me posted." Horatio left at a fast walk, looking hurried for once instead of his usual smooth stride. Speed looked down at his to-investigate list, sighed, and counted the points. There were 22.

(H/C)

Calleigh opened the door of the autopsy bay. "Are you busy, Alexx?"

Alexx read the tone for herself and instantly assumed the attitude of someone with all the time in the world. "Nothing that won't wait. What's bothering you, honey?"

Calleigh stepped on in and closed the door firmly, glancing up to the empty observation room. Horatio was undoubtedly off somewhere on Winslow's case, but she didn't really want anyone else to overhear this, either.

Alexx followed the look. "Why don't we go down the street to that cafe for a cup of coffee?"

"That would be great, Alexx. I need some advice."

"I was just doing paperwork at the moment, and friends are more important. Come on, I'll treat."

Once they were settled in the cafe over coffee, Alexx sat back in her chair, ready to listen. "Okay, spill it, Calleigh. I've been worried about both of you lately."

"Both of us?" That one hadn't even occurred to her.

Alexx read her expression. "Yes, both of you. The last several days, Horatio looks like he's strained to the breaking point, and you look like you've just had a root canal."

"You know Horatio pulled me off Winslow's case?"

Alexx nodded. "Everybody in CSI knows that. Actually, most people think he was justified, that you were too close to this one. Everybody also knows that you're mad at him for it, which they all expected. But there's more than that going on here, isn't there?"

"That's just it. At first, I thought he was only being jealous of Winslow, but I'm starting to think something's really wrong with him. He absolutely refuses to talk to me, and that's not usual. Not on something that comes between us. Even when we do have a fight, we talk about it and get it out in the open. Then there was this weekend . . . Alexx, he isn't thinking straight at all, and he was actually forgetting things. Important things, I mean." She detailed the last few days, and Alexx's expression was as concerned as hers by the end of it.

"He actually put a block on you even seeing Winslow at the cells?"

"Yes. Can you believe that?"

Alexx shook her head firmly. "No, I can't."

"I confronted him with it, Alexx. He said there was no reason I needed to see him."

"I'm starting to see what you mean about his not acting like himself. His forgetting a promise to Rosalind is just as out of character. I agree, there's more than jealousy here. It sounds like he's absolutely consumed with something, throwing all his attention on it, so much that he's forgetting details from anything else. Doesn't mean that you and Rosalind aren't important, just that he can't possibly deal with everything at the moment because he would hit overload. But it would take more than an old friend of yours turning up to do that to him. He isn't that insecure, honey. Not about you, not any more."

"That's what I thought. That's why it hit me so hard when he went all jealous. But now I'm wondering . . ." Calleigh's voice trailed off.

"What?"

"That's the main thing I wanted to ask you about. When I was a kid, back in Darnell, there was a man who owned a store downtown. He was quite friendly to the kids, but then suddenly, he turned into somebody else at times. It was almost Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Paranoid didn't even start to describe it, but other times, he was just as usual. It turned out he had a brain tumor, and it killed him eventually."

Alexx shook her head. "No. Definitely not. Horatio doesn't have a brain tumor, Calleigh."

"How could you tell without someone running tests?"

"The timetable isn't right. I know it seems like a quick change in retrospect, but I'm sure this man in Darnell started out with brief periods of moodiness, just a few minutes here and there, and they gradually increased in strength and frequency over months. What you're describing with Horatio is an extended change over several days where there was no previous history at all, and there's no alternation back to his baseline along with it. That doesn't fit. People with brain tumors don't jump from normal to that level of change suddenly." Calleigh gave a sigh of relief, and Alexx smiled at her. "No, I think he's just extremely distracted, but I can't tell you by what. I agree, it isn't Winslow Mitchell. He does trust you, Calleigh."

"But what do I do? It's so strange, Alexx, it's like having two different conversations. He'll totally lock up on me, worse than he's ever done, and then he'll look at me like he wants nothing more than to talk about it. But he won't."

Alexx gave her a sympathetic look. "I don't know what to tell you, Calleigh. If you don't know what's bothering him, none of us do. He'd talk to you before anybody else."

Calleigh stared into her almost-empty coffee cup. "I'm just afraid something's really wrong with him. This is tearing us both up, Alexx, and he knows it, and he still won't discuss it." She looked up. "What would you do?"

"If it were Jonathan, I'd stop pushing him to talk, since there's such an obvious block there, and I'd just try to support him the best I could, remind him I was there for him, even when he was acting out of character. And if it went on for any length of time, I'd take stronger measures, but this has only been a few days."

"It seems like a lifetime."

"No. A lifetime is what you have together. This is only a few days. I'm not saying nothing's wrong, something's obviously very wrong, but whatever is eating at him, he's going to have to pick the time to talk. And he will eventually, Calleigh. Believe me, he will, if you just stay there for him. The love you two have can get you through this."

Calleigh smiled at her. "Thanks, Alexx. I needed that."

"Keep your chin up, Calleigh. And anytime you need to talk, I'm here for you. May not know what to do, but I can listen with the best of them." It was Alexx's turn to stare into her coffee. "Not that it's any of my business, but I've had a question I wanted to ask you for the last week."

"Which is?"

"Have you and Horatio been talking about other children?"

Calleigh easily connected the dots. "You thought that since I was acting so moody and snappish with Winslow's case at first, I might be pregnant."

Alexx grinned at her. "Can't help wondering, sweetie."

"No, I'm not. We have talked about it a little since Rosalind was born, but neither one of us is ready. We're just enjoying her at the moment. We won't definitely say she's an only child yet, but really, we're all content that way, unless God has other plans. About last week, I'll admit I was totally biased on the case at first, and Speed saved that whole investigation. But it was just the shock of finding my former best friend involved in a case."

Alexx nodded. "I can understand that. I just wasn't used to seeing you that rattled on the job."

"I'd never had another friend like him until Horatio." Effortlessly, her mind switched back to her chief concern. "You really think he's okay physically, Alexx?"

Alexx considered for a minute. "I'd definitely say he doesn't have a brain tumor. I'd also say what's bothering him isn't originally physical. But I saw him this morning for a few minutes, and he looked awful. If he doesn't slow down or resolve whatever it is soon, he's going to drive himself into collapse."

Calleigh nodded. "I just wish he'd talk to me. I could help, I know it."

"He will eventually, honey. Let's just hope he doesn't pass out on a case first." They both stood and discarded their empty cups. "But I'm absolutely certain of one thing, Calleigh. He does love you, and you and Rosalind are still the most important part of his life."

"Thanks, Alexx." Together, they headed back for CSI. Calleigh's worst fear from yesterday had been proven groundless, but that left her back at the original question. What was wrong with him?