A/N: Spoilers for the end of season 3 if you haven't seen that one yet!

Disclaimer: A large amount of this chapter is based on the episodes 'Whacked' and '10-7'.

Straighten up and fly right

He never had wanted them to know. Horatio was now back in Miami. And things were complicated. But some measurements had to be taken. He found himself in Yelina's back yard, after Ray Jr. had called him about a guy named Rick Stetler, who possibly had hurt Yelina. Funny that Ray hadn't mentioned him the last weekend, but perhaps he hadn't wanted to think about it.
"I never really that guy" Ray now told Horatio.
"Well Ray, you've got good judgment" Horatio said. Ray looked at him, a bit confused.
"It's weird." He paused a moment. "I thought when my mom was seeing him, I wouldn't miss my dad so much. But now I miss him more."
Horatio looked at the boy. "I know how you feel."
But it was actually not true. Horatio knew that at least Yelina had the suspicion Ray Sr. was still alive and he had the suspicion too.
"I think about the funeral, and when I saw his casket. I knew it was him, but I was too scared to look."
"We all were"
"I just wanted to see him one last time."
"You know Ray, we all have regrets. And your dad's boss decided we should remember your dad the way he was. You understand?"
Ray nodded. "Yeah" he whispered.
"Okay"

After Horatio had left, Yelina walked up to Ray.
"Ray?"
Ray looked up. "Yeah?"
"I wanna talk with you. Who's that R.C.C. you're chatting with?"

Ray was surprised. How had she found out? Oh, wait. She was the detective.
"None of your business." He mumbled.
"Dios, what is so hard in telling me?"
"Everything!" Ray shouted, before running to his room. She wouldn't understand anyway.

Ray says: Ugh!
R.C.C. says: What is it?
Ray says: Mom. She's curious.
R.C.C. says: She's a detective. It's her job.
Ray says: Still. Doesn't give her automatic permission to go through my conversation history.
R.C.C. says: You save our conversations?
Ray says: Yeah. Why? What's wrong?

R.C.C. is offline.

It had actually taken only a few days for Yelina to figure out what was really going on. And things started to get messy. There was only one person she knew that had the initials R.C.C.

Raymond C. Caine.

And he was still alive, as Horatio just had admitted to her. Only, when it became clear that little Ray jr. was in trouble, she couldn't feel happy.

Horatio walked Yelina and Ray jr. to the jet that was already waiting. They almost looked like a married couple going on a vacation. Almost. They weren't.
He had to let them go. Miami wasn't safe for them anymore. Neither was it for him, but he would survive. He would carry on. But he couldn't, wouldn't take the risk of keeping them here. If there was a possibility for them to be safe, they had to take it.
He stopped walking. Yelina turned around and looked at him, her face asking him so many questions he couldn't answer.
"You're not coming?" she asked him out loud, ignoring all the other questions. Horatio nodded at the entrance of the plane, where Ray sr. appeared. His brother, who was believed to be dead for five years. But in those years, all three, or four, of them had figured out he wasn't dead at all. It had been a long half decade. Five long years in which Horatio had never dared to confess Yelina how much he felt about her.
Yelina hugged him and whispered a soft "Thank you" in his ear.
He had to let her go.
He couldn't.
He had watched over her for all those years, not only the last five but every since they had met.
But she still was his brother's wife and so it was his duty to let her go.
Life wasn't fair.
Indeed, life wasn't. He had to let her go now.
"I don't know what to say" she smiled.
"You'll think of something" he returned her smile. It was so hard to let her go.
He watched her walking to the plane and looked at his brother. He pointed at him, like he wanted to say 'you better make sure to take good care of her from now on'.
Raymond pointed back at him, wanting to say 'you just have to trust me, bro'.
Horatio couldn't trust him. Not after having misled everyone in those five years. Five of the most important years of Horatio's life. Of Raymond's life. Of Yelina's life. But he had to trust him.
Horatio watched the plane take off and turned around. She was gone now. No way back. Or was there?

Straighten up and fly right, wasn't that an old Nat King Cole song? Who cared at this moment? The last five years were now a close chapter in the story of his life. Life goes on. Keeping his emotions to himself in order to stay on the right side of life would be more difficult. But he had been doing that for oh so long. Ever since the day his mother died, all those many years ago. Tens of thousands of days ago. He slipped on his sunglasses. The only thing that helped him hide his feelings. The only thing he dared sharing his feelings with.

The end.