Love drives us to do crazy things

Sixteen Weeks Later

Horatio walked up the stairs of his stoop. He stopped at the sight of the note taped to the front door. His heart pounded as he read it. He threw the door open and ran through the house, trying to find her before it was too late. She was in the kitchen, hanging from a beam. Horatio grabbed her and cut the rope. She fell into his arms, but it was too late.

Eric sobbed as he looked at his dead sister's body on the autopsy table. He couldn't believe Marisol had taken her own life. He was grief stricken. He felt his life was also over.

Natalia quietly left Eric and Horatio alone in the morgue to mourn the loss of the woman they loved. She walked down the hall towards the layout room. She found Ryan standing in the break room and stopped to hug him.

"I can't believe it," she whispered. "Why would Marisol commit suicide? I mean she only had a few months left, but why waste them?"

Ryan buried his nose in her hair and felt tears slide down his cheeks. He had seen the note. He had read what she said.

'I can't keep living this way. It's me or him and I see you've made your choice.'

Ryan had ripped it down before anyone else knew of its existence. He couldn't bear letting anyone know what her dying words were.

"I don't know," Ryan whispered. "I wish I knew."

Horatio looked up to see Ryan sitting next to him at the small table in the corner of the bar. He looked away from him as he attempted to hold back the tears.

"Just because my wife's dead doesn't mean I'm going to go running to you," he angrily muttered as he swirled the scotch in his glass.

"I'm not trying to pick you up," Ryan whispered. "You need someone right now. You need a friend."

"I don't need you," Horatio snipped, "I need Marisol."

Ryan gently touched Horatio's hand. Horatio tried to pull away but suddenly the strength was gone from his body. He cried and laid his forehead against Ryan's shoulder. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he allowed Ryan to hold him. Horatio looked into his eyes momentarily before he brought his lips to Ryan's. It was tentative at first but the passion slowly grew between them.

Horatio's entire body seemed to shake as his desire for Ryan grew. Before he knew it he was in the backseat of Ryan's car, Ryan buried deep inside him. Horatio cried as Ryan held him close and gently kissed Horatio's neck.

"Do you want me to stop?" Ryan quietly asked.

"No," Horatio whispered, "I need someone to love me. I just need someone who cares about me right now. I need someone like you."

Horatio walked onto the scene. The car was too familiar for comfort and he wanted to bolt to it, hoping his worse fear wouldn't be confirmed.

Someone had already popped open the trunk and Ryan's dead body was curled up on its side, like he was trying to protect himself from his attacker. His face was mutilated and bashed almost beyond recognition. His arms and legs were covered in lacerations and bruises. He was still dressed in the black jeans and deep blue t-shirt he had been wearing the night before when he found Horatio in the bar. Alexx had pulled up his shirt to make the incision to insert her thermometer to take his liver temp. The word "FAG" was craved deep into the muscles on his torso.

"Poor baby," Alexx whispered, pain filling her voice, "I don't understand what happened."

"Ryan!" Natalia cried as she leapt from her car. "Ryan, no!" Eric caught her before she could cross the yellow tape. She sobbed loudly in his arms as pain flowed through her body at the loss of her fiancé.

Horatio's heart broke. He shouldn't have let Ryan leave alone. He should have protected him.

Horatio managed to make it inside his house before he started sobbing. He clambered into the living room and collapsed on the floor next to the coffee table. He looked at the picture of the team and pain ripped through his body. Ryan was standing next to him, smiling brightly because of a life he had wanted them to have.

Horatio grabbed an envelope from the coffee table and scribbled a note on it. He sobbed loudly as he unclipped his glock from his belt and brought it to his head. He looked at the picture one last time as the tears continued to pour down his face.

"I'll be with you soon Mr. Wolfe," he whispered as he pulled the trigger.

Pain ran through Eric's body as he looked at Horatio's lifeless body, a pool of blood and brains beneath his head. He lifted the envelope from the cable company from where it sat on the coffee table.

'I'm sorry, I did it to be with him again.'

Eric shook his head as tears poured down his cheeks. Natalia walked to his side and gently touched his arm. "I'm sorry Eric," she whispered, "I'm sorry you lost your sister and brother-in-law in the same week."

"He didn't kill himself because of Marisol," Eric whispered. He held the envelope out and Natalia accepted it from him. Tears welled in her eyes as she read the note. "He killed himself because of Ryan," she whispered. She tossed the envelope onto the coffee table as she continued to hold back the tears. "That explains Ryan's injuries."

"Love drives us to do crazy things," Eric quietly said as they stared at Horatio's dead body.

"Yeah, like leave our lives for others," Natalia whispered as tears began to crawl down her face.

"Sixteen weeks isn't a lot of time. In sixteen weeks you can build a house, you can master your backswing in golf, perfect parallel parking a car, pay off a speeding ticket, serve a probation sentence, you can find the truth. Sixteen weeks ago I found you, I found love. Sixteen hours ago I finally accepted that I love you. Six hours ago you were taken from my life forever. Sixteen minutes ago I took my own life. For sixteen seconds I was still alive, knowing you would be on the other side, waiting for me."