Chapter 5


AN: If you're confused about who Marianne is, exactly, you'll find out more in a previous story called "Abandoned Children"
The hardest part is waiting here
Waiting to collide

-"Burn Away", Foo Fighters


Calleigh was sitting alone in the surgical waiting room staring at the television without seeing it. Horatio was still at the lab, presumably, and Alexx had gone downstairs to find some food and call home. She was left there to wait. And think, or not think, as the case might be. Her mind had gone mostly blank by this point. Too much pain to process. Some small corner of her mind felt guilty that she had been in court all day. If she'd been at the warehouse, how would things be different? She was easily a better shot than either Tim or Eric, and probably even better than John. Would that have made a difference? Would it have prevented even a small bit of tragedy?

"…and I'm here for a Tim Speedle?" A voice she didn't recognize penetrated through the fog of her thoughts and she looked up, blinking. There was a woman standing at the volunteer desk. She had missed the woman's name, but Tim's name had brought her back to herself. She watched as the volunteer apologized for being unable to give any information about a patient unless the person was on the approved list.

"Right, of course," the woman said, sounding resigned. Calleigh watched as she turned to walk towards the water cooler that was next to the television. She was about average height, and thin, with dark curly hair that looked like it had been done up at the beginning of the day, but by now was unruly and scattered. The expression on her face was a combination of anxiety and resignation that Calleigh found oddly familiar.

"Excuse me," Calleigh said, coming to a conclusion. The woman turned, eyebrows raised, and Calleigh became even more certain. "You wouldn't happen to be Marianne, would you?"

The woman blinked, surprised. "Yes, I would, can I ask…?" she said, hesitantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Calleigh Duquesne," Calleigh said, rising to hold out her hand.

"Of course you are," Marianne said smiling slightly. "Tim's told me quite a bit about you."

"He has?" Calleigh asked, slightly incredulous.

"Well, a lot by Tim's standards. So, no, not really very much," Marianne admitted. "But yes, I'm Marianne Reiner. I'm Tim's aunt."

Calleigh shook her head without thinking. "No, you're not. You're his mother."

Marianne sat down on the couch across from where Calleigh had been sitting. "He…Tim told you that?" she asked.

"Yes, he did. It sort of came up," Calleigh said, sitting back down. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't presume…"

"No, no, it's fine, really. I just…I didn't know Tim had really ever told anyone about me, exactly. When he was small, it was just easier to say I was his aunt. I mean, he always knew the difference, but, well, it was less confusing for other people, and meant he didn't have to explain. He…doesn't like to explain," she said, smiling slightly.

"No, he doesn't," Calleigh agreed.

Marianne chuckled, but grew serious. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be…but do you know what's going on? I know next to nothing…"

"Oh, of course, I'm so sorry!" Calleigh exclaimed. "Tim's in surgery. His jaw is very badly broken and there was some internal bleeding. Not much, and the trauma surgeon didn't seem very concerned about it, since he was fairly stable. They told us that it was basically going to be two surgeries- the trauma surgeon would take care of the bleeding and then the oral surgeon would take care of his jaw. They said that when the first surgery was over, they'd come update us, but that it was likely he'd be in surgery most of the night. His jaw is going to need some pretty extensive work, and it's going to take awhile."

"Is he going to be all right? Have they said anything?" Marianne asked.

"They're being cautious. The emergency department doctor told me that he wasn't out of the woods yet, but things didn't necessarily look bad, either," she explained.

"Well, that's something, at least. What happened, do we even know yet? Danny- that's Tim's dad- just told me that there'd been an incident and Tim was badly hurt. I don't know if he knew more or not," Marianne said.

"I know a little bit, but not very much," Calleigh admitted. "We're waiting on updates right now. But apparently, Tim, along with two other detectives, went out to an abandoned warehouse to check on a lead, and they were attacked. That's really all I know for certain. I'm hoping that when our boss, Horatio, comes back from the lab, he'll know more."

"What happened to the two other detectives?" Marianne asked.

Calleigh took a deep breath to steady herself before answering. "They…neither of them survived."

Marianne's eyes widened, slightly. "I'm so sorry," she said, quickly. "They were friends?"

"Yes. One of them, Eric, is…was…a CSI. He and Tim were friends, and he was one of my closest friends. The other was a Homicide detective who was also a good friend of mine." The words felt awkward and odd in Calleigh's mouth. It was so hard to think of Eric and John in the past tense.

"I'm so sorry," Marianne said again. "Eric and Tim were friends?" she asked to confirm.

Calleigh nodded. "We're all…the team, Horatio, Tim, Alexx, Eric and I…we're all fairly close."

"Oh my boy, you were just destined to always come full circle, weren't you," Marianne said softly, looking up at the ceiling.

Calleigh looked at her quizzically. "I'm sorry?"

"No, it's nothing really," Marianne said, shaking her head.

"Ok," Calleigh said. "You mentioned Tim's dad, is he coming?"

"Yes, he and Tim's mom, Melissa are both coming. They called me because I'm in Atlanta and I could get here faster. When I talked to them last, right before I boarded the plane, they were still trying to find the fastest way of getting here. There weren't any direct flights from Syracuse, so they were trying to find one with the shortest layover time, and get things settled for Tim's younger brother, Matt, because he can't really come. He's got the SATs or the ACTs or something like that this weekend, and there's something else going on, team training or something, I don't know," she said.

"Ah," Calleigh said, nodding. "I didn't know you were in Atlanta…actually, I didn't know for sure if anyone was coming, or anything, or I'd have put your names down on the approved list, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's fine. I don't expect Tim's told you much at all, so it's reasonable to expect that you wouldn't necessarily know. It's a lucky thing I was in Atlanta- I was in a short breather between trips. I just got back from Singapore on Saturday, and I'm scheduled to go to New York next week, but I told them we might have to postpone it. And it's lucky that Danny caught me while I was still at work, because I could just call the travel department and tell them I needed to be on a plane to Miami and they could make the arrangements and get me to the airport. Sometime it helps to work for a multi-national financial company," she said, wryly.

"I can imagine," Calleigh said. "I wonder where Alexx is?" she added, after a moment.

"I'm right here, baby," Alexx said, coming up behind them. "It's good to see you, Marianne. I'm sorry I didn't call, but I didn't know if you were in the States or not," she said.

"You know each other?" Calleigh asked, confused.

"We met a long time ago," Marianne said, with a small smile. "Anyway, it's fine, Alexx. Tim can't keep my schedule in his head, so I wouldn't expect anyone else to. I'm always getting calls from him at 3AM because he thinks I'm in Singapore or the Philippines, when I'm really in Atlanta or New York. I think he decided that 3AM was just the best time to call me because it's a good time if I am overseas, so he just always calls then."

"He does these sorts of things," Alexx agreed.

"Yeah. I don't mind, really, because it's never for no reason, even if he says he's just calling to call," she sighed. Calleigh agreed, inwardly.

"Oh, I know," Alexx said. "Anyway, here," she said, handing sandwiches to both Marianne and Calleigh. "Eat."

"What about you?" Calleigh asked.

"I ate while I was talking to the kids," she said. "I only brought two sandwiches up because I thought Horatio might be here by now."

Calleigh shook her head. "I don't know where he is. I'm hoping he's not here because Frank called him or something."

Alexx nodded. "Me too. He'll come as soon as he can," she said, soothingly.

"I know," Calleigh said. "I just…I'd just rather we were all here." The waiting was becoming painful. And she was worried about Horatio.

"I'm sure we'll all be here by the time Tim wakes up," Marianne said. "It's going to be awhile, you said."

"Oh, I know," Calleigh said. "I just want this all to be over," she admitted.

"We all do, baby," Alexx said. "We all do."