A big thanks to Gooniegirl3333 for beta-reading and a tip of the hat to CSIMiamiFAN, NickTonyK, BlueDiamondStar, and 0weallfalldown0 for commenting on the previous chapter. Sadly, I only own the errors in the text. None of these characters are mine, except the other patrons and employees of Delgado's Pharmacy.


Horatio Caine stood in line at Delgado's Pharmacy and studied the people before him. The balding older man had a deep, dry cough. A lifelong smoker, Horatio thought, noting the man's nicotine-stained fingernails. At the head of the line stood a young mother with unkempt blonde hair clutching the arm of a tiny girl with wide brown eyes. Horatio caught the girl's gaze, held it, and nodded. Children had always been drawn to him, even before he had become a patrol cop. Maybe it was the fiery hair, perhaps it was the intense blue gaze. Or maybe, the lieutenant pondered, it's because they sense a kindred spirit.

Uncharacteristically, Horatio sighed. Young Ryan Wolfe had sensed that, too, and had seen the man behind the mask despite Horatio's best efforts to conceal himself. Calling Ryan "Mr. Wolfe" for so many years has likely done more harm than good, but really, what choice do I have? Horatio wondered. He felt he had to add some distance between them or he couldn't work with the man. Alexx had accused him of seeing too much of himself in Ryan, but that wasn't the real reason Horatio struggled with his young protégé, alternately favoring and distancing him.

Ryan reminds me so much of Ray. Good cops, but magnets for trouble. Ryan had his gambling addiction; Ray had chosen narcotics. Their names were so similar, Horatio was afraid he might slip up at work one day and call Ryan by his brother's name. And how would that look? Horatio Caine wasn't supposed to feel anything; he was the face of the MDPD Crime Lab, impassive, calculating, and not - decidedly not - emotional.

And yet, when Ryan had been caught in that tornado a few months ago, all Horatio could think was that he had to find the young man and protect him. He had driven Eric and himself straight into the eye of a twister. What in the hell was I thinking? he wondered now. Seeing Ryan bloodied, battered, and barely breathing in the aftermath had brought back horrible memories of finding Ray on the brink of death in Brazil, strung up by Antonio Riaz. Once Ryan had been claimed by the paramedics, Horatio had allowed himself one deep, shuddering breath before turning his attention back to his crime scene. He doubted that anyone else had witnessed that huge lapse of control, and for this, Horatio Caine was deeply grateful. How could he possibly explain that his tough love approach to Ryan was a desperate attempt to make amends for failing his brother Ray?

When his turn came, Horatio recited Ryan's full name and birthdate for the pharmacy tech, a quirky girl barely into her twenties with braces, purple hair, and a wide smile. She handed over Ryan's prescription eye drops with a bob of her head. "Tell Ryan I said hi, okay?" Horatio simply studied the girl, committing her face to memory. Not getting a response from the older man, the young woman rambled on, "We missed seeing him yesterday. Ryan comes in at the same time every week. I hope he's not feeling too bad."

This time, Horatio politely dipped his head. "I'll tell him. Thank you, ma'am."


When his knock upon the third floor apartment door wasn't immediately answered, Horatio Caine reached for his key ring. Stetler had accused him more than once of being overly protective of his subordinates, and Horatio mused that the man might have had a point. In addition to Ryan's spare house key, he had ones for Eric, Calleigh, Jesse, and Frank. But Frank's didn't really count - they weren't even in the same chain-of-command. As for Jesse ... Horatio hadn't remembered to turn his key over to anyone at the time of the man's death, and now, it seemed disloyal to remove it from his key ring. Eric and Calleigh's spare keys he'd had for years. There had been a time when he had thought something might come of his relationship with his feisty blond second-in-command, but the timing had never quite worked out and now it looked as though it never would. Once Eric had shown how deeply he cared for the ballistics expert, Horatio had backed off. One day soon, he thought, Eric and Calleigh will only need one key.

Slipping into the dimly lit apartment, Horatio was reminded that Ryan's eyes were sensitive to light. He smelled antiseptic mixed with coffee; an odd combination, but not an unpleasant one. His eyes were drawn to a figure bundled on the sofa with a compress over his eyes: Ryan. The young man appeared to be asleep and Horatio released a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. The sound of women's laughter caught his attention and he moved toward the kitchen.

"And then, the man said -" Alexx broke off mid-sentence and rewarded him with a smile. "Horatio, honey, I didn't hear you come in."

Natalia sputtered over her coffee. "H! I ... I didn't expect to see you here." The guilty look on her face amused Horatio, not that he would ever tell her that.

"Alexx." He tipped his head at the doctor before turning to his CSI. "Ms. Boa Vista. I trust that you're feeling better?" He pretended to study the floor as he hid the smile.

"I ... I was ... Ryan -"

He met her eyes. "I understand. But I need you back at the crime lab. There's quite a backlog and I expect to be out for the rest of the day, possibly tomorrow as well."

Natalia's gaze flicked in the direction of the living room, and Horatio read an interesting mix of emotions in her eyes before she responded, a touch of defiance coloring her tone. "Ryan needs someone to stay with him, Horatio. I can't leave him here alone."

He gave her a half smile. "I never said you had to, Natalia. I took the day off to stay with Mr. Wolfe."

Natalia nodded. "Oh. Okay." She hugged Alexx before ducking into Ryan's living room, and he heard her saying goodbye to the young man on the sofa. There was no response, so presumably Ryan was still asleep.

Alexx flashed Horatio a smile as soon as the front door had closed behind Natalia, and handed him a notebook. "We need to talk about Ryan's medication schedule."


After Natalia left, Ryan lay quietly with his eyes closed and listened to Alexx in the kitchen discussing his medical status with Horatio in cold, clinical terms. He shuddered. They all had to be able to turn off their emotions when they needed to, but Ryan found it hard when the case they were discussing was his own.

"These are the warning signs, Horatio. An increase in fever, a prolonged inability to keep any food down ..."

Ryan's stomach lurched unhappily as he listened to Alexx rattle off a lengthy list of potential pitfalls. His mind was still poring over every possible bad outcome when he felt the doctor lift the compress from his eyes.

She had a drop in the corner of his right eye before he could even register what she was doing. "Open your eye for me, Ryan." He complied, hissing from the pain as the drop slid in. He could barely open the lid; it felt like his right eye had a weight on top of it. "Now keep it open. I'm going to put the ointment in too." A smear entered the little vision he had and Ryan fought to remain in control as all input from that eye went completely white.

"I need to get a dab of this in your good eye, too, honey." Alexx patted him gently on the shoulder as she dosed his other eye. "Okay, that wasn't too bad, was it?" She proceeded to tell Horatio to be careful not to cross-contaminate his eyes with the ointment; the tip should never touch his eyes lest the infection spread to the other eye. Right now, she explained, they were treating his left eye as a precautionary measure.

Ryan closed both eyes and fought to control his breathing. His mind was lurching back and forth from one disastrous future scenario to another. He could visualize himself, completely blind, relying upon a drooling, shedding, seeing eye dog. Partially blind, restricted to the lab, trying desperately not to break the glassware or ruin the samples as he struggled to complete the most basic of tasks. Completely recovered, but waiting for the next infection to take him down. He hadn't realized that Alexx had said goodbye until she left with a slam of the door, leaving a ringing stillness in her wake.