CHAPTER 14

As Ryan turned off the water in the shower, he could hear Calleigh talking to somebody in the bedroom. "Is there someone here?" he thought to himself, before he realized that she was talking on the phone. He then heard Calleigh open the bathroom door.

"Hold on, I think he just got out of the shower." Calleigh poked her head into the bathroom. "Ryan?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Ryan pulled open the shower curtain and reached for a towel to dry himself.

"Mr. Johnson is on the phone. He says he needs to talk to you. It's important."

"Hold on for a second." Ryan quickly toweled his head, before reaching out for the phone. "Phil? What's up?"

Calleigh took a step back and eyed Ryan's uncovered body as he cradled the phone underneath his ear and wrapped the towel around his waist. Suddenly, his face turned somber.

"Is she going to be all right? Oh thank god. Yes, of course. I'll call the agency and reschedule. Friday will work. No, it's ok…I know that this is more important. Call me when you get back. I'll leave you a message. Take care." Ryan turned the phone off and gave it back to Calleigh.

"What happened?" She asked as she took the phone.

"Phil's granddaughter was in a car accident last night. He's flying up to Boston to see her."

"Is she ok?"

"From what he told me, she got knocked around pretty bad. She's stable, but he wants to be there for her. He said that he'll be back in few days. Obviously, I have to cancel our meeting for tomorrow."

"Well that's understandable." Calleigh replied.

Ryan looked at the bathroom clock. "I'll call David in a few minutes. Hopefully, he's already up."

Calleigh let out a yawn. "Do you want me to do anything?"

"No. I just need to call David and reschedule. Everything will be fine." Ryan answered as he followed Calleigh back into the bedroom.

Calleigh sat down on the bed as Ryan removed his towel and opened the dresser. "Are you going back to bed?" He asked as he pulled out a pair of boxers. Calleigh had the day off and only got up because of the phone call.

"Yeah…I want to get some more beauty sleep."

"Lucky." Ryan pulled on his boxers and reached for a pair of socks. "I wish that I can have beauty sleep. I barely get the ugly sleep as it is. I'm surprised you want more sleep after the ten hours that you just had."

Calleigh chuckled at his comment. "Hey, you try walking around all the time with a bowling ball strapped to your stomach. You get tired a lot more often."

"I know." Ryan sat down next to his wife and kissed her. "I'll be back around two to pick you up for the appointment."

Calleigh reached up and ran her hand through her husband's still damp hair. "Are you excited?"

"I am." He answered. "I can't wait to find out what we're having. Aren't you?"

"Yes, silly. I don't care what sex the baby is. I just want to make sure that our child is healthy."

"Of course." Ryan stood up and walked over to the closet. "I'm going to get finished with getting dressed. I'll call David in the kitchen so that you can sleep."

"Thank you." Calleigh laid back down onto the bed and pulled the covers back up. After a few minutes, Ryan walked back over and knelt down over the now sleeping Calleigh and gave her another kiss. "See you later," he whispered.

-a few hours later-

"Hey, H…do you have a minute?" Ryan asked as he knocked on the doorframe of Horatio's office.

Horatio looked up from his paperwork. "Sure. What do you want?" Ever since Ryan's marriage to Calleigh, Horatio and Ryan grew closer to each other, evolving into something that was more than a teacher/student relationship. But there were still boundaries between the two of them due to Horatio being the boss. However, Horatio always knew of Ryan's background and took it upon himself to be some sort of father figure for him.

"Please have a seat." Horatio placed his paperwork to the side as Ryan sat down.

"Calleigh and I need to have Friday afternoon off."

"What is this in regards to, Ryan?"

"We need to go see my financial advisor and finalize the deal for the house."

"So you did get the house. Congratulations." Horatio smiled. He had stopped by work Saturday night when Ryan was there and was told the whole story. "I don't see a problem with you taking the afternoon off. By the way, how did Calleigh take the news?"

Ryan looked away from Horatio and let out a little sigh, which caused Horatio to laugh a little. "Sounds like she took it well in her own way, Ryan. You should know by now how she hates surprises."

"I know, H. Everything worked out just fine…actually, I was going to ask you for tomorrow afternoon off to do the paperwork, but a situation came up and therefore we need to do it on Friday instead."

"Something wrong?" Horatio leaned in a little closer to Ryan.

"Oh, no. Nothing on our end. It just has to wait until Friday."

"Good. Glad to see that things will be ok for the two of you." Horatio looked at the time. "You're leaving in an hour, correct?"

"Yeah. I'm taking Calleigh to the doctor. We're going to find out the sex of the baby today."

Horatio reached out with his hand and placed it on Ryan's. "If it's a boy, you'll name it after me, right? That is, if you still want a job," he said in a serious voice.

Ryan studied Horatio's face, wondering if he was kidding or not. Then Horatio grinned and gave Ryan a little wink, causing Ryan to exhale the breath that he was holding in.

"Ryan, you should know by now that I'm not always serious."

"I know, but I can't always tell with you."

"But seriously, name the kid after me or you're fired." Horatio said as he laughed.

Ryan smirked at Horatio. "I hope we have a girl."

"Get out of here and get back to work." Horatio said as reached for his paperwork.

Ryan got up to leave. "Thanks for Friday afternoon, H."

"No problem. Good luck at the doctor's."

It was now the mid-afternoon and Ryan and Calleigh were at the clinic. Ryan sat in a chair by Calleigh as the nurse ran tests and asked Calleigh the usual questions. She then started up the ultrasound.

"Are you two ready?" She asked.

"Yes we are." Calleigh answered.

"I'll get the doctor in here to check your report. Then he'll run your ultrasound."

The nurse left the room as Ryan stood up. He reached down and grabbed Calleigh's hand.

"Are you ready?"

Calleigh was about to answer when the doctor walked in. She took one look at him and realized that it was the doctor who saw her the last time she was pregnant. She felt a chill run through her body.

"Hi, Calleigh! Nice to see you again."

Calleigh quickly composed herself before she spoke. "Dr. Feldman. Nice to see you again, too. Where's Dr. Ericsson?"

"Peter was called into a emergency delivery. Since I knew your background, I was more than happy to fill in." The doctor looked over her paperwork. "Everything looks good. Vitals seem to be strong. Are you two ready to see your baby?" The doctor reached for the ultrasound.

"Yes, yes we are." Said Ryan.

The doctor rubbed the gel onto Calleigh's abdomen and started the procedure. After a few seconds, the picture focused and soon they could see a baby on the screen. "Looks good," the doctor said as he moved the scanner around. "The baby appears healthy. Did you two want to know the baby's sex?"

"Yes." Both said in unison before looking at each other and chuckling.

The scanner moved to a spot and stopped as the doctor looked at the area. "You two are having a boy. Congratulations."

"A boy!" Ryan said excitedly. He leaned down and kissed Calleigh.

The doctor turned off the machine and handed Calleigh a towel to clean herself. "I'll have the nurse come in and finish your paperwork. After that, you'll be ready to go."

"Thank you Dr. Feldman," replied Calleigh.

The doctor wrote some notes down on the clipboard. "You're quite welcome, Calleigh. This time around, everything seems to be fine. No problems."

Calleigh felt Ryan's grip on her hand disappear. She looked up at him, his face full of confusion. "This time around?" He managed to get the words out.

"Wait…you're not the father from the last time?" The doctor asked. He glanced at both of them. "I'm sorry. I thought you were."

"Wh-what is he talking about, Cal? What last time?" Ryan looked at Calleigh. Her face was white as a ghost: she never told him about the baby.

At that moment, the nurse came in as Ryan backed away from Calleigh. Without a word, Ryan turned and headed for the door.

"Ryan? Ryan, wait!" Calleigh said as she got up and ran after Ryan who was now in the hallway.

"Ryan…please let me explain," Calleigh pleaded as she grabbed his arm, only to have him violently pull himself away from her grasp.

"Don't touch me," Ryan responded in a voice that was hollow; void of any emotion. He kept walking down the hall. "Leave me alone."

"But, Ryan-"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Caine." Horatio said as he answered the call. "Calleigh? Calm down. What's wrong. Can you say that again? He found out. Wait…he did what? Hold on, I'll pick you up. What is the address. Ok. Is there someone with you right now? Ok. I'll be right there." Horatio closed his phone.

"Something wrong, H.?" Asked Eric as he walked over.

"A situation came up that I need to take care of." Horatio paused as he looked around at the crime scene that they were at. "I think we have a handle on everything here. Tell Frank to take over. I'll meet you all back at headquarters."

"You got it."

Horatio drove over to the clinic to find Calleigh sitting with a nurse in the waiting room. As he approached her, she got up and hugged him. "Oh, Horatio…"

"Shh. It will be ok." Horatio looked at the nurse. "Is she ok to leave?"

The nurse nodded her head. "Thank you, ma'am." Horatio turned with Calleigh to leave.

"-and he yelled at me to leave him alone and then he just took off." Calleigh tearfully said as she recalled to Horatio the full story as he drove her back to her apartment.

"Cal, can you really blame him? I mean he could have handled the situation better, but still…leaving you there like that."

"I blame myself." Calleigh wiped the tears from her eyes. "I should have told him from the beginning. I kept putting it aside, thinking I could always tell him at the right moment. If only that doctor wasn't there-"

"You really can't say it was the doctor's fault," Horatio interrupted.

"I know, I know." Calleigh answered. "But what am I going to tell him? I don't want him to leave me."

"Calleigh…Ryan wouldn't do that. I would think that he's mature enough not to leave you over this."

Horatio pulled into the apartment parking lot and Calleigh noticed that Ryan's car wasn't there.

"He's not here, Horatio."

"When he took off, he probably knew that I would come and take you home. Have you tried calling him?"

"Of course, Horatio. But he won't answer his phone."

"I'm not surprised. Let me get you inside and we'll go from there."

Horatio went inside with Calleigh and sat with her for a while to make sure that she was ok and to see if Ryan would call. Horatio tried a few times himself to reach Ryan, but it was to no good. Calleigh then gave Horatio a piece of paper and told him that he might be at the address that was written down. It was worth a shot instead of checking every bar in the city, Horatio thought to himself. He then left to find Ryan.

He arrived at the address and sure enough, Ryan's car sat in the driveway. Horatio got out and approached the front door. He knocked. There was no answer. He let himself in.

"Wolfe? Ryan?" He called out but got no answer. He closed the door behind him and walked down the hallway. "Ryan?" He called out again as he turned the corner and saw Ryan sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring out of the living room window. Horatio walked up to Ryan and sat down beside him, looking over his face. Ryan kept staring straight ahead, as if he was in a trance.

Horatio softly placed a hand on Ryan's shoulder. "How long have you been here, son?" To hear someone calling him 'son' was too much for Ryan. He lowered his head and started to cry. Horatio pulled out a kleenex from his jacket and handed it to Ryan.

"Are you ok?"

Ryan wiped his face and looked at Horatio. "She betrayed me, H."

"That's not true."

"I'm her husband and her closest friend. We tell each other everything and she keeps this away from me. Like I wouldn't understand. It's like a slap in the face. This feels no different to me than if I were to walk in on her with another guy."

Horatio slowly nodded at Ryan's words. He couldn't say anything at the moment.

Ryan continued. "It's almost like she has to treat me like a child. We've been though so much together and she thinks that she can't come to me with this. To have to hear this in a room full of strangers…" Ryan stopped talking and winced as he replayed the events inside his mind.

Horatio felt sad to see Ryan in so much agony. He slowly put his arm around him. "I'm sorry that you had to find out about it this way."

Ryan looked at Horatio. "Did you know?"

"Yes, I did. And to my knowledge, I was the only one who did know."

Ryan looked around the room. "I just don't know what to do. I mean, we were going to sign on this place."

Horatio gave Ryan a stern look. "You're not changing your mind, are you?"

"No…I just…I have a lot of mixed emotions inside and I can't figure them all out right now." Ryan paused. "You weren't the father, were you?"

"No, I wasn't. But it's not for me to say who it was. That is up to Calleigh to tell you. All I can say is that when she miscarried-"

"She miscarried?"

Horatio continued. "Yes. And as time went on she looked at life with more and more increasing doubt and no matter what I tried to do, she would keep me at arms length at times. She was in a lot of pain. And then you came along. And over time, I would see the old Calleigh come back more and more."

Horatio gave Ryan a small smile. "Why do you think I told you once that you bring peace and happiness into her life? For a long time, she's kept this inside of her, afraid of what you would do or say if you found out. And you did. And now she's afraid that she's lost you forever. You want to throw it all away because of one mistake?"

Ryan sat quietly for a few seconds. "No…I can't. I love her too much. She all I ever had."

"I didn't think that you would. Now dry your eyes and let me take you back to her. She needs you right now. Now more than ever."

Horatio stood up and extended his hand. "If you're ready, take my hand." Ryan looked down at the floor before looking up at Horatio. Without a word, he reached out for Horatio's hand.

Horatio pulled Ryan up and gave him a hug. "I'm proud of you. You know that, right?"

"Yes I do." Ryan answered.

"Always remember that. Let's go."

The two left the house and Horatio drove them back to the apartment. Upon reaching the door, Horatio stopped. "I'll see you later Ryan."

"Thanks again, H."

"You take care of yourself and each other." And with that, Horatio turned and walked away.

Ryan walked into his apartment and looked into the living room, Calleigh was sitting on the couch, looking off to the side; a pile of tissues surrounded her. As Ryan shut the door, the noise made Calleigh turn and look at Ryan. She got up and approached Ryan, unsure at what he was going to say or do. As Ryan reached out with his arms, Calleigh let out a cry of relief, tears falling down her face as Ryan wrapped his arms around her. They stood there for several minutes quietly before Calleigh broke the silence.

"I need to tell you something," she said.

to be continued…