Chapter 2
Time for the final bout.
Rows of deserted houses..
All our stable mates are highway bound.
Give us our measly sum:
Getting the air inside my lungs is heavenly.
We're starting out with nothing but crippling doubt.
"Stability," Death Cab for Cutie
Calleigh was logging bullets in the ballistics lab when Horatio walked in. "Hey," she said, glancing up briefly.
"Are you busy?" he asked.
She looked at the pile of evidence envelopes in front of her and the bullet log on her computer screen. "Somewhat. What's up?"
"You remember Ronnie Jackson?" he asked.
"Sure," she said, still typing away. "Why?"
"He sent me something. I think it's The Guy," Horatio said.
Calleigh looked up at him. She could hear the capital letters in his voice. "The Delmarco case?" she asked, knowing she was wrong.
"No. Eric and John and Speed," Horatio said.
She took a deep breath. "How do they know?"
"Well, they don't. I mean, he's not in custody. Ronnie saw someone matching Tim's description," Horatio explained.
Calleigh didn't reply immediately. Tim's description was so vague as to be almost entirely unusable. She knew that. Horatio knew that. Hell, the Mouseketeers knew that, and they were all barely Level 1s. "Horatio," she said, slowly. "Tim's description…"
"I know, I know," Horatio said, waving her objections aside. "But I think there's something there. And it's the best lead we've gotten. He's got to have left Miami, it's the only thing that makes sense. There's too many people here with a vested interest in finding him."
She wondered if he realized how much he sounded like an obsessed Tim right now. She'd always known Horatio could get just as obsessive as Tim did, but he was usually…more subtle about it. "All right," she said. "So it's possible that our guy is somewhere in…South Carolina?" she asked.
"North Carolina, and yes," he nodded.
"Well, I don't exactly see what we're going to do about it, unless they can catch him running a red light or something," she said, turning back to the bullet log.
"We're going to go check it out," Horatio said.
"We are?" she asked, looking up from the keyboard.
"Yes. It's a 16 hour drive, if we leave this afternoon, we'll be there by tomorrow," he replied.
"Horatio…" She stopped before saying this is a wild goose chase. "I don't have any leave time left on the year," she temporized.
"You don't need any. It's work. I'm going to go tell the Captain right now," he said.
"Horatio, this is just barely on this side of sane, and I really…I really don't know that the Captain is going to go for this." she said, finally. "I really don't think this is a good idea."
"Calleigh, I made promises," Horatio said, softly. "I promised Eric's parents. I promised Speed's parents. If I'd ever met them, I'd have promised John's parents. I have to go. I don't have a choice," he said.
She could hear the anguish in his voice, but she had to try to dissuade him one last time. At least to not leave the lab without either of them. "You're going to leave Kara in charge by herself? Valerie's last day is tomorrow, you know."
"Kara will be fine. Manny will help her if she needs it," Horatio said. "I need you, Calleigh. None of the rest of them have the experience for this."
Calleigh sat back and sighed. It was clear that Horatio was going, regardless of any objections she might have. It was also clear that he absolutely should not be going alone. "All right," she acquiesced. "Give me an hour or so to go and pack some things and tell Tim he's on his own a couple of days."
"Meet me at my place by 3," he said, and was gone in an instant. She sighed and saved the bullet log. This was not going to work.
Fifteen minutes later she was in her car heading for Tim's house, dialing Alexx on her cell phone.
"Alexx Woods," Alexx answered.
"Hey, it's me," Calleigh sighed.
"What's wrong, baby?" Alexx said, immediately.
"Horatio has a wild goose chase in his sights and he won't be persuaded. He needs me to go to North Carolina with him. Could you possibly stay over with Tim, or maybe talk him into staying at your place for a few nights?" Calleigh asked. "He's ok during the day, but I don't think he's quite ready to be on his own completely."
"Oh, Lord," Alexx sighed. "I somehow knew this was going to happen with Horatio. This has been eating him up."
"I know. He can't go on his own. He really can't. And there's no one else to go with him, really. I'm the only choice," Calleigh said.
"Yes, you are," Alexx said. "You take care of Horatio, I'll take care of Timmy. No problem."
"Thanks, Alexx. That'll help."
"I'd have done more sooner, if he wasn't so freaked out by the idea of my family right now," Alexx sighed.
"He doesn't want to scare the kids," Calleigh said.
"I know. Oh well, we'll manage. Don't worry. Anything I ought to know?"
"Nothing really new. He's supposed to be back to most solid foods this week after the implants, but he's not really interested in much more than soup right now," she replied.
"Ok. I can work with that. Are you going to tell him where you're going?" Alexx asked.
"Yeah. And why. I don't want to lie to him. I think that would be worse in the long run," she said.
"I agree. Ok, honey, you call me later and let me know what's happening," Alexx ordered.
"Yes ma'am," Calleigh said. "I'll talk to you later," she said as she hung up. She'd reached the house by then.
She opened the door and found Tim curled up on the couch with a cat, playing a video game. "Hey," she said.
He hit pause on the game and looked up at her with concern. "'s early," he said.
"I know. Listen, something's come up," she said, taking a deep breath. He just looked at her, waiting for her to go on. "Horatio got a lead. He needs me to go with him to North Carolina to check it out."
"On what?" he asked.
"On you," she said, softly, watching his face. He looked back towards the television. "It's probably nothing, but he thinks it might be something." He still didn't say anything. "I don't want you to…get your hopes up, is all," she said finally. When he still didn't respond, she sighed. "I have to pack." She stepped over the controller cord and went down the hall to the spare bedroom. Most of her clothes were here now. She threw things into a bag quickly, and then went through the kitchen to the laundry on the breezeway to retrieve some things from the top of the dryer. Tim could move clothes from the washer to the dryer, but he still wasn't allowed to lift the laundry basket to put them away.
She didn't even notice that she never heard the video game music start back up until she walked back into the living room and found Tim sitting on the couch with a duffle bag next to him. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at him. He even had his shoes and jacket on, which simply shocked her. She didn't know how many battles she'd fought over him just putting his shoes on to leave the house. And here he was sitting there ready to voluntarily leave the house for the first time in nearly six weeks, just when she didn't want him to. "What's this?"
He licked his lips and looked up at her. "I want to go with you," he said, enunciating carefully. That gave her pause as well. Tim preferred not to talk right now, and most of the time, when he did talk, he didn't speak clearly. She knew it was because it was difficult for him to do so, since his jaw was still out of alignment, and she'd gotten good at figuring out what he was saying, but it could be a little frustrating. If he was enunciating what he was saying, then it was really, really important.
"Tim," she sighed. "You can't. It's work. You're nowhere close to being cleared to work," she said, trying to be reasonable.
He shook his head. "I want to go with you," he repeated. She made a small frustrated noise and started to repeat that he really couldn't, when he interrupted her. "I don't want to be alone, I want to go with you."
She stopped. Not only was he speaking clearly, he had looked right at her when he'd said he didn't want to be alone. And he had actually said he didn't want to be alone. He'd never said it. She'd known anyway, but he'd never said so in as many words. She closed her eyes. What the hell was she going to do now? "You won't be alone, Alexx will stay over," she said, finally. He shook his head. She sighed. Now what? He kept looking at her. It was unnerving to actually have him do that; she'd gotten so used to him looking past her or away from her. "All right," she sighed, rubbing at the headache forming along her right temple. "You can come with me to Horatio's, at least. We'll ask him. But if he says you can't come, then you really can't. I have to go, there isn't anyone else to do it, ok?"
"Ok," he said.
"Ok," she said. "Do you have all your medication?" she asked, finally.
"Yeah," he nodded. "The protein drinks, too," he added.
"You were serious," she said, surprised. The protein shakes were the only thing keeping his weight even halfway stable, and he hated them. He nodded. "All right, come on, then. I told Horatio I'd be there by 3." She shrugged into her jacket and led them out to her car. This entire enterprise just got better and better, she thought. But…well, maybe this was better, in some ways. She could keep an eye on the both of them, for once. Maybe this could work, after all…