Chapter Two

The lab was quiet, quieter than Speed ever remembered it being. His memories and feeling about this place were mixed at best. There had been so many good moments and bad times here. At the end of the day this was his home, no matter where he'd been this would always be.

It was too late to wish he had never left Miami, to wish that he had never taken it upon himself to testify against the Russian mafia. It was his duty as a cop to do the right thing, and that strong sense of honor was embedded into him. He thought at the very least Kate would understand, he'd been in Witness Protection not running around trying to get himself killed undercover.

Yet he understood her reluctance to do so. He'd left her when he promised he wouldn't. She'd had to live through things he couldn't help but think he could have prevented. She'd cared for his son as if he were her own. She'd been forced to make a life without him and she had worked at it. He saw that in her life, or what glimpses he caught of her life.

Kate was not in a forgiving mood. She'd literally sprinted away from him at the beach, and every single time he tried to explain she blocked him out. She wouldn't answer his calls, when he showed up at the house to pick Daniel up Kate basically handed him over without so much as two words.

The atmosphere between them was tense to say the least.

They worked separate shifts in the lab, Kate staying as far away as possible from Speed as she could. Although she wasn't in the labs as much as she used to be. Delko had mentioned something about another job, Tim wasn't sure what. He didn't blame her for her distance, he only wished that she could understand his actions.

"Kate still not talking to you?" Delko queried from besides Speed.

The two of them had been working on a case trying to figure out whether a woman had been pushed in front of a bus or not. Of all the people who'd greeted Speed upon his return, Delko had been the only one who had asked no questions. Calleigh had thrown his arms around her neck excitedly, after a few minutes of staring at him in shock. Alexx... Alexx had thought she'd seen a ghost.

Alexx hadn't been able to preform the autopsy upon Tim's body, although it had been a close call.

Speed had had to rush forward to catch her as her knees buckled. He had been her favorite, the member of the team that was practically her first born and when he had 'died' a part of her had too. She clutched him as he held her, murmuring "Timmy" over and over again until she managed to regain control of herself and started smacking the hell out of him.

"I think she's a ten on the Richter Scale." Speed informed the other man, frowning at the Crime Scene pictures as he set each one of them out.

"Does that mean the Kate Volcano has the potential to blow, or that you are still actually dead to her?" Eric asked with genuine interest.

"Her anger knows no bounds, I thought she was going to bury me alive next to the rose bushes when I picked up Daniel the other night. It was either that or run me down in the SUV, I got the sense she'd enjoy that more." Speed grumbled, organizing the evidence bags from the box beside him onto the table in neat piles.

"You know what they say about a woman scorned." Delko commented raising his eyebrows without looking up.

Speed paused, suddenly taking a second to register Eric's implication.

"I didn't cheat on her." Speed informed Eric, his head bowed as he read the labels on the brown bags.

Eric shrugged.

"Technically you were dead, so technically it wouldn't have been cheating." Delko pointed out, reminding Speed exactly of the kind of man he was.

Eric didn't judge, he hadn't when Speed had returned form the grave and he wouldn't now. He sighed, rubbing at tired eyes as he spoke.

"There was one person, there was one girl I screwed when I was away. I was lonely I missed Kate." Speed ran his hands through his hair remembering the solitude and he despair that had haunted him during those dark days.

Delko cleared his throat and looked away. Speed narrowed his eyes as guilt flashed across Delko's face before the other man could hide it. Speed felt the rage erupt through him as he stared at Delko, nostrils flaring, a growl beginning low in his throat.

"How long was I dead before you started screwing around with her?" Speed snarled, feeling his anger peak and his right fist clench.

The image of Kate and Delko came back to taunt him, his memory of the two of them years ago leaving to go to a club, Delko's hand on her back as he led her down he steps from the Crime Lab. Tim had watched them then, he knew there wasn't chance in hell he would watch Delko do that to him again.

Eric stared at him momentarily horrified at the idea.

"I wouldn't fuck my best friend's widow, you should know that!" Eric snapped.

Speed detected the hurt in his voice as the other man continued, his frustration mounting at the accusations.

"I was the one that stopped her from killing herself out on the beach, I was the one that kept her sober. I took Daniel to school when she was too depressed to get out of bed."

Delko was panting now, his hands pressed against the table, his jaw hurting from clenching it shut.

"I took on your responsibilities man. I was there." Delko finished quietly.

"I'm sorry man."

The words weren't easy for Tim, they never had been. He rarely admitted fault, but Delko's outburst had left him humbled. The younger man was right, Tim should have trusted him.

"I look after my friends." Eric snarked putting out his own evidence along side Speed's. "It's not my fault your brother couldn't keep his hand off her."

Speed's recoiled at the words, his mouth dropped open, his eyes instantly narrowed as his brain quickly processed the sentence. Delko bit his bottom lip, his eyes raised skyward as it dawned on him what he had said.

"They had some fucked up thing after your funeral..." Delko trailed off, reading the expression on Tim's face. "She ended it after he went back to Syracuse but he keeps popping back up here and well... he didn't do it while you were alive, if you know what I'm saying."

Delko was correct in that assumption. His brother had him had barely spoken before his 'death', like hi and his mother the two of them did simply not get on.

Speed was stunned.

How could Matt do that?

How could he fuck his dead brother's lover?

He was hit by a sudden rush of memories. Things that he had long forgotten or buried. Clues that he was only now piecing together , because now it made sense.

"It was the night of the funeral when it started." Speed recounted. "I remember I was leaving..."

He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, feeling sick.

"I went back for the ring, she didn't know I kept it. It was the only safe thing I could take. I was at the end of the street and I saw him. I saw him knocking on the door, with that bastard flag in his hands. I thought he was giving her the flag, I didn't think he was going there to fuck her." Speed uttered, his fingers knotted together as he dropped down onto a vacant stool.

"I'm going to kill him..." he said, turning his eyes to Delko, his body vibrating with fury. "I am going to god damn kill him."

"He's coming down this weekend." Delko informed him cautiously. "He's taking her out to some Italian place near the beach."

"How often does this happen?" Speed asked, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"Whenever he has the time for her. Kate didn't date after you. She never put herself out there and she didn't want anything else because it broke her. This... for her this is just about working off frustration she could not otherwise lose." Delko tried to explain.

"It's a long way for a fuck." Speed commented dryly, his arms crossed over his chest as he sat upright on the stool.

Delko recognized this as his thinking pose. He pursed his lips together before bending over to peer at the pictures, so that he didn't have to see the wrought tension in Speed's muscled frame.

"It's not really about a fuck for him, he's pretty serious about her." Delko informed him, grabbing the magnifying glass to get a closer look at a smudge on the vic's back.

"How serious are we talking here? Like cuddling up in front of the fire serious or 'Hey, we're getting married' serious?" Speed asked, already dreading the answer.

Eric sighed, setting the magnifying glass down. There was no easy way to get out of this line of questioning and if he was honest he didn't want to. He was glad his friend was back. Speed was still able to make him laugh with that biting wit and cynicism. He knew his friend had given up a lot for the cause he believed in and it was only fair that Delko helped get his life back in order. Hell, even if it was just to see Kate smile the way she used to.

"I'm telling you this because I want Kate to be happy and I really don't think she'd going to be happy with your dickwad brother." Eric took a deep breath as Speed stayed silent, listening carefully. "He wants her to move in with him, he wants to take her and Daniel to Syracuse. Your parents think its an excellent idea because they want your grandson close."

"My parents also thought disowning me was good idea and then I went and died on them as my mother puts it. What does Kate think?" Speed asked frowning.

He wasn't sure that he really wanted to know the answer. The news of Kate and his brother made him sick to his stomach, hearing that she felt the same for Mathew would destroy him. He may as well have not come back.

"Kate..." Eric began before continuing thoughtfully. "Kate needs stability, she needs the companionship. It's hard raising a kid on your own. Your brother's offering her a way out and I think she'll take it. She can't do it by herself anymore."

"You think she loves him?" Speed asked troubled.

"I don't think it's relevant." Delko responded. "He was there, you weren't."

"So she's going for it, she's going to take my son and live with him in Syracuse like some big happy family?" Speed snapped, running his hands through his hair exasperated.

"That's what he wants them to be. I'm telling you man, it makes me sick watching him." Eric's eyes met Speed's and he could see the honesty there in the other man's mannerisms and expression.

"It's like she loses her personality when she's with him. Like she's not really there. There's no spark anymore in her. I'm telling you, you coming back...." Delko shook his head, a smirk spreading across his features at the thought of Kate's rant about Speed."This is the fiery Kate we used to hang out with. This is the tough, hot tempered cop we loved."

"All of this is about escape." Delko explained "Its about getting away from everything so she doesn't have to deal with it. Your brother is offering her a way out and she will take it."

There was silence between the two of them, Speed didn't move from his position on the stool as Delko busied himself with the evidence. Speed's eyebrows were furrowed, his features scrunched up in concentration as he surveyed the problem.

"What time does his flight get in?" Speed asked deliberately.

Delko puzzled over the information for a second, trying to recall a time that Kate had mentioned.

"At some point in the late after noon he's meeting Kate at eight." Delko said without thinking before quickly grasping the meaning behind Speed's tone.

"Why what are you planning to do?" Delko exclaimed, slightly alarmed.

"I think me and Matty need to have talk." Speed said flipping open his cell phone and dialing a familiar number. "Dad, it's Tim... Can you tell me which hotel Matt is staying at?"

"This is going to end badly." Eric warned Speed, already aware of the impact his statement would have on the other man.

Speed, clasped his cellphone to his chest, muffling the receiver as he stared Eric straight in the eyes..

"Only for Matt."