A/N: Many thanks to reviewers.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Something really weird was going on. Ray Jr. had snuck up on his mother not once, or twice, but three times. Yelina wasn't the type of person that could be snuck up on, especially by him. Usually she could feel Ray Jr. presence and squash any chance of a surprise.

She seemed distracted and Ray had a feeling it had something to do with Horatio. He knew his mother was an early riser and Horatio hadn't left until lunchtime. Whatever happened in those few hours had changed something.

And Ray Jr. wanted to find out exactly what that change was. Easier said than done of course but he figured he'd work his way into it and start with casual conversation.

"You okay mom?"

Yelina had been folding clothes, a mindless task, but for some reason she hadn't heard him.

"Mom." He said louder.

"Hm? What?"

He rolled his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine." She answered a bit too quickly. "Why?"

"Just asking. How's Uncle Horatio?"

Yelina then did something Ray Jr. had never seen her do, she blushed. "He's great."

"Great huh?"

Yelina bit back a smile and nodded. "Mm hm. How was your tournament?"

Ray Jr. wasn't stupid, he knew what she was trying to do. His mother was the master of deflection. But he had mastered deflecting her deflection.

"It was kinda boring."

"Boring?"

"Yup. I was going to come home earlier but I changed my mind." He said slowly.

Yelina stopped folding but didn't look at him. "You were going to come back home in the middle of the night?"

"I was actually talking about this morning."

Just by looking at him, Yelina knew he knew something. But what exactly did he know?

"Why didn't you come back?"

Ray rolled his eyes. He knew she was catching on and he was tired of beating around the bush. "It's kinda hard to miss a Hummer in front of the house, Mom."

Busted. "Ray…we-"

"I get it." Ray assured her. "It's okay." He kissed his mother's cheek and headed to the kitchen. But not without mumbling "It's about time."

Alexx knew she would find him here on the beach. She'd barely seen him at all today, which was weird. Horatio was, usually the first to respond to a crime scene and would almost always attend the autopsy. But not today and Alexx got the feeling that he was avoiding her. Her gut was hardly ever wrong.

Standing next to him, Alexx watched the waves recede in and out of the ocean.

"You've been expecting me." She said casually.

Horatio grinned. "Nothing gets past you, does it Alexx?"

"You've been avoiding me too."

"Not necessarily."

Alexx gave him a look. "Not necessarily? What the hells does-" she stopped. Something was different about him. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

Horatio glanced at her and his grin widened at her expression.

"You did something, didn't you?" Alexx didn't know why she was asking. It was obvious to her that he had. "No kiss and tell?"

His non-response was confirmation enough.

Returning her gaze to the ocean, Alexx smiled and said "It's about time."

THE END