It had been two days since Horatio had been found, he was in a coma. The first twelve hours after the surgery had been hard to go through, his body hadn´t responded to any medication and his pulse had been very low, but it was better now.
Eric was on his way towards Horatio´s room, he was going to tell him what he meant for him, even if Horatio wasn´t awake, Eric was sure that deep inside himself he would hear him. In about an hour Eric had to be at the lab so he walked fast down the hallway. He opened the door to Horatio´s room, it always made him sad to see all the tubes connected to Horatio´s body, and especially the tube down his throat, uncomfortable, Eric always thought when he saw it.
He took a chair and sat down on Horatio´s left side, his back towards the small windows in the room.
"Hey H, it's me Eric, I thought I´d come here before my shift starts. He said, I'm here to tell you something important, I know that you´re not awake and maybe the best thing would be to tell you when you´re awake, but... I just have to do it now; I'm sure that deep inside yourself you can hear me." Eric sighed.
"Don't be nervous Eric, it's not like he can answer back and say that he doesn´t feel the same, come on do it, no one is here to disturb you." He thought and shook his head to clear his mind.
"Growing up I´ve always been told to take over my father's business and when I refused to, he and my mother turned their backs on me and refused to talk to me, they still refuse to talk to me, even after so many years... my father was never there for me and I always wished I had another father than him. A few years ago I found that person; I found the man I wished would have been my real father." Eric could feel tears running down his cheeks.
"I'm crying hehe, I always am when I talk about things that are important to me... when I'm talking about my feelings, anyway... you are the father I always wanted and you might not see me as a son, but... I... this is how I feel and I want you to know that, because this isn´t the first time you´ve been seriously injured and probably not the last and I don´t want you to die without knowing this, so now you know... you´re like a dad to me."
Eric wiped the tears away and stood up, he sighed, happy that he had said it.
He left quietly and went to work.
-I-
Ryan had been processing Horatio´s clothes and he had found a picture of Calleigh sleeping in the lab, he walked into ballistics and found Calleigh shooting a gun.
He didn´t want to disturb her so he waited for her to finish, after a while she took off her ear protection and turned around seeing Ryan.
"How long have you been standing there?" She asked with a small smile.
"Not so long, I didn´t want to disturb you so I waited." He said.
"Okay, that's nice of you, so what brings you here?"
"This." He said and showed her the picture.
"Who took this? Where did you find it?" She asked taking the picture.
"I found it in Horatio´s back pocket, I was processing his clothes and it fell out, I figured I´d show it to you, I think he took it." Ryan said and smiled as Calleigh shined up and smiled so much that her face would soon explode.
"Thank you Ryan." She said, "Does it need any processing?"
"No, you can take it." He said and left Calleigh with her thoughts.
"Now maybe she´ll tell him how she feels" He thought and walked back to his lab.
Calleigh couldn´t stop smiling, if he had taken it and kept it in his pocket, it probably meant that he liked her a lot, maybe even loved her.
She grabbed her jacket and decided to take an early lunch at the hospital.
-I-
Calleigh sat down beside Horatio, he didn´t have a tub down his throat anymore, and it had been replaced with tube in his nostrils.
She was holding the photo, she had never liked photos of herself, but she liked this one.
"Hey handsome, Ryan gave me this, it's a photo of me sleeping, and if I'm correct it's from when you found me sleeping in the lab, you took the photo didn´t you handsome." She said and kissed his hand.
"I love you handsome, I´ve never met someone I loved more than you and I know that you can´t hear me right now, but I´ll tell you this again when you wake up, I guess we could call this preparation. If Alex was here right now she´d scream of joy, she always told me to make a move at you, but I'm a little bit of a chicken and I never worked up the courage to tell you how I felt... it's easy doing it now when you´re in a coma, please wake up handsome, let me see those baby blue eyes!" She said kissing his hand once more.
"Why am I kissing his hand, I should be kissing his mouth." She thought and laughed a little.
"Well, I´ll have to work up the courage to tell you this when you´re awake, I´ll always love you handsome, I love you with my hole heart." She said and kissed him on his lips.
She started to walk to the door, when she heard the sweetest voice in the world.
"Now that's the sweetest thing I´ve ever heard anyone say to me." Horatio said with a low voice, but it was enough for Calleigh to hear.
She ran back to him and kissed him hard.
He groaned as she placed her hands on his ribs.
"Oh sorry." She said, she had totally forgotten that he was injured.
"It's okay sweetheart... Calleigh did you mean what you said?" He asked with a shy smile.
"Yes, and I understand if you don´t..." She was cut off by him as he pulled her face down for another kiss.
"I do feel the same, I love you too." He said and they kissed some more.
TBC...