Chapter 17
Not long after Horatio placed his hand on top hers, Calleigh started to groan and her hand started to twitch in his. He squeezed her hand and started speaking softly. "Calleigh, sweetheart, come on, open your eyes."
After coaxing her for a few more seconds, her eyes were finally open, and when she saw him sitting in front of her, she saw so many emotions in his eyes, which she was showing them right back in her eyes.
He cleared his throat and said. "Hi, how are you feeling?"
She moved but winced a little and replied. "My shoulder is a little sore and I could use some water, but other than that I'm ok."
He gets up from his chair as carefully as possible before walking to the table that had a pitcher of water and a glass on it, then after poring it and grabbing a straw, he walked back over to the bed and held out the glass toward her. After she takes a few sips, he pulls it back and sets it on the table next to the bed while she said. "Thank you."
He sits back down in the chair and replied. "You're welcome."
As they continued to look into each other's eyes again, she asked. "Are you ok?"
He gives her a little smile and replied. "Now that I know that you are, I am."
Despite the bruised face that smile still affected her if she had let it, so she cleared her throat before it could and continued. "I'm serious, are you, really?"
Horatio nodded as he placed his hand on top of hers. "Yes, I'll be fine."
Tears started to come into Calleigh's eyes as she replied. "Good, I was so worried." She took a second to pause before continuing. "Horatio I'm..."
But Horatio cuts her off with a shake of his head. "You have nothing to apologize for, you did nothing wrong. Everything that happened with Jake is my fault. I take the blame for it." Calleigh's tears started to come down her cheek more as he moved forward slowly and spoke with tears in his eyes and emotion in his voice. "Calleigh, I am so sorry that I didn't trust your word when you said you knew nothing about those pictures, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life, you have believe to me."
Calleigh nodded, she really did, but she had to ask. "Why did you believe that I could really do something like that?"
He shook his head. "All I have is that he played with one of my worst insecurity, making me think that this young, beautiful woman that I love with everything that I had would eventually get tired of me and leave me for a younger man." Tears started to come down his cheek as he continued. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."
Calleigh's heart was breaking at the sight of the man that she still loved as she moved her hand out from under his, then she cupped his cheek and used her thumb up and down to wipe his tears away. He looked shocked at first but didn't move away, and when he stopped shedding the tears, she still kept her hand cupped to his cheek. They looked deeply into each other's eyes before they moved forward and closed them as their foreheads touched, then breathed each other's sent not ready to move from this spot at the moment.
While they were in the embrace they didn't see Sarah Parker standing in front of the window watching the scene for a few minutes before turning and walking away.
Horatio and Calleigh didn't know what was next or how they were going to get back to the way they were, but if one of them gave the other an inch to work with, they'll try their hardest to get it back.