Chapter 6

The world's on fire
It's more than I can handle
Tap into the water, try to bring my share
Try to bring more, more than I can handle
Bring it to the table
Bring what I am able

"World on Fire", Sarah McLachlan

Calleigh sighed as she turned the page to see what else she needed to include in the testimony she was writing. Writing testimony was her least favorite part of the job. She didn't mind giving it on the stand- Lord knew she had enough practice, what with the proliferation of ballistics evidence in this town. But she hated writing it. Despite being the daughter of a lawyer, she'd never quite captured the cadences of courtroom testimony in her writing.

But it had to be done, and it really should have been done yesterday. The DA hadn't managed to catch up with her yesterday because she'd been so busy, but her reprieve had ended this morning with a message that her testimony needed to be in the DA's inbox by the close of business. She'd been tempted to remind him that Miami never closes, but that was Horatio's line, and besides, it wouldn't have made any difference. Thankfully, she was nearly done. Finish this last question, and I can go do something more exciting. Like cataloging bullets, she thought.

Scott was puttering around with some training exercises behind her. She'd almost forgotten he was there when she heard him sneeze. "Bless you. Wash your hands," she said, automatically, not looking up.

"Thanks," he said, but didn't move towards the sink.

"Wash your hands," she said, again, glancing up.

"All right, all right," he muttered, as he went to do so. "You don't have to be so anal about the hand washing. Christ."

She looked at him. "Yes, I do. It's the single best way to keep from spreading infection."

"Yeah, so?" he said, shrugging. "It's not that big of a deal. I don't have the flu or anything."

"It is a big deal. It's a very big deal when you live with someone who's got a compromised immune system," she snapped, harshly.

Scott looked at her in surprise and looked like he was about to say something, when something behind her caught his glance. "I'm sorry, I didn't know," he said and turned towards the sink.

Calleigh didn't look behind her. She had a feeling she knew who was standing there.

"Calleigh," Horatio said calmly. She winced and turned. "Would you come with me a moment?"

She sighed, stood up and followed Horatio out of the room. They walked up the stairs to his office in silence. She tried not to feel like a small child being escorted to the principal's office, but it was difficult. He ushered her into the office and indicated a chair as he closed the door behind them. She didn't even wait for him to sit down before launching into an explanation. "Horatio, I'm sorry, I know, I know, I shouldn't have snapped at Scotty, but it is important. It's really important. Tim's gained two pounds in the three weeks since they got the braces on him and put his jaw into alignment. It's the first net gain he's had since September. The doctor said it may be that he's turned the corner, finally. If he gets sick, those two pounds are gone, just like that, and probably five more with them. And he's not even 90 days post-op yet, and the first 90 days are the most critical for fighting infection, they said, and he's still got almost no reserves to fight with, so if he gets sick now, it'll delay him for weeks, if not months. He's going to get sick this winter, it's almost a guarantee, but if I can keep that from happening for just a few more weeks, he'll be that much stronger when it happens," she said, in a rush. "He just…I just…just a little more time," she sighed.

Horatio just let her run out of words. She wound down and sat there, with him watching her. "When was your last day off?" he asked, finally.

"Oh, I don't know," she sighed. "Last Thursday, maybe? I have Sunday off."

Horatio nodded. "I think you might be working too hard," he said.

"What? Oh, no, I'm fine. There's just a lot going on," she said, waving his concern away.

"You're not fine, Calleigh," Horatio said gently. "You've been going without a break for three months. You're going to wear yourself out, and that's not going to do you or Speed any good at all, because if you get sick, then he's definitely going to get sick. And that's just what you're trying to prevent, isn't it?"

She shook her head. "I can't stop, I don't have the time."

He tilted his head. "I can make the time. In fact, I'm going to make the time for you."

"What do you mean?" she asked, frowning.

"You're going to go down and finish what you were working on. And then you're going to turn everything over to me and go home. And not come back until January 1st," he said, calmly.

"What? Horatio, I have no leave time left, at all!" she exclaimed. "It's the 16th. I can't be gone for two weeks."

"You can if I put you on leave," Horatio said.

"You can't do that," she protested weakly.

"I can. I will. Calleigh, I told Speed the same thing in September. What makes you think I wouldn't do the same for you?" he asked.

She shook her head and slumped back in her chair. "All right," she surrendered.

"Good. Now, the rest will probably help, but I think you ought to consider some other help as well," Horatio said.

"God, not you too," she sighed. "Did Tim put you up to this?"

"He did not, no," Horatio said. "Why?"

"Because he made me a deal about his post traumatic counseling, that he'd go if I went and talked to someone," she said.

"Ah," Horatio said. "It would be a good idea."

"Mmm," she said, closing her eyes. She didn't really want to. She didn't think she was so badly off as all that, first of all, and second of all, there was the whole child of alcoholics issue that tended to come up with these sorts of things. And if she barely had the energy to deal with Eric and John's deaths, she really did not have the energy to deal with her parents. "If I need to talk to someone, and Tim needs to talk to someone, what about you?" she asked, pointedly, opening her eyes to glare at him.

"I did already," he said.

"You did?" she asked, surprised.

He nodded. "You were right, in North Carolina. I was a bit…unsteady."

She snorted. "That's one word for it, I suppose."

"At any rate," he said, raising an eyebrow at her. "When we got back, I decided I should probably do something about that, if I wanted to ever have a chance at getting some control over the chaos going on around here."

"I see," she said. "Humph."

He smiled a bit. "I can recommend some people, if you like. Either departmentally or outside."

She sighed. "All right," she said.

"Good," he said. "I'm only doing this because I care about you. You know that, right?"

"I know," she sighed. "I do, really. Tim said the same thing, more or less."

"Good," he said, again. He turned towards his desk and scribbled something on a piece of paper for a moment. "Here. The first two are through Psych Services here. The third is a friend of a friend," he said, handing her the paper.

She folded it and put it in her pocket. "Thanks."

"Anytime. Go finish up your testimony and get out of here, ok? Call me if you need anything," he said, standing up.

"I will," she promised as she pushed herself up and went back downstairs.

Scott was still in the room where she'd left her papers. She steeled herself for a frosty reception as she walked through the doorway. He glanced up, but didn't say anything. "Scotty, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you," she said, contritely.

"It's all right," he said. "I'm sorry I didn't know better."

"Oh, that's not your fault. Look, here's what happened," she said. "I moved in with Tim Speedle after what happened at the warehouse because he needed someone to stay with him while he's recovering. One of the things that happened was that they had to remove his spleen to stop some internal bleeding when he was hurt. You can live without a spleen just fine, but it makes you more susceptible to infection. The other thing that happened was that because of his other injuries, he couldn't eat real food for more than a month, and even when he could, it was still really difficult. He's lost a lot of weight, and he was a pretty skinny guy to begin with, so it got pretty scary for awhile. So, not only is it easier for him to get sick, but he's not really in good condition to fight anything off or get better if he does get sick."

"Wow. I didn't know. I mean, they told us he'd been really badly hurt, obviously, but not what happened. And none of us wanted to ask, because you all didn't need us being nosy," Scott replied.

She smiled. "It's ok. I'm sorry we made you guys feel out of the loop."

"No, no," he said, shaking his head. "Not at all. Look, Calleigh, you and Horatio and the rest of the lab have been amazingly patient and kind to me and Kiara and Jack, given that we all know that the only reason we're here is because people you cared a lot about aren't."

She blinked back sudden tears. "Thank you," she said, after a moment, when she thought she might have her voice under control. "Thank you for understanding."

"You're welcome. Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked.

She smiled tiredly. "Not really. Thank you for offering. I'm going to finish this up and then call it a day. Horatio's giving me some time off."

"Ok, good. You have a good rest, then, ok?" he said, gathering up his own things.

"I will," she said. "Thanks."

"No problem. And I hope Tim keeps getting better. Will he be back soon, you think?"

She nodded. "We don't know exactly when, yet, but I'm guessing he'll be cleared to work sometime in the next month or two. So not much longer, I hope."

"Good. I'm looking forward to meeting him and I know Jack and Kiara are, too," Scott nodded.

She smiled. "I'll tell him so. I think he'll be pleased."

Scott smiled back. "Ok, then. I'll see you later."

"Later," she said. She closed her eyes a moment before turning back to the papers in front of her. Time to finish this and get out of here.