Monday, December 30th, 05:30
Eric yawned and rolled over to his side. He reached out with his hand and felt nothing, but an empty bed. He opened his eyes. He wasn't surprised to find the bed empty. Not at all. Horatio never slept long, usually only five hours a night. Of course sometimes he did sleep through the whole night. Apparently this was one of these days when Horatio had woken up way too early. Eric sighed and sleepily got out of the bed. He yawned again as he walked out to the living room, looking for his lost lover.
"H?" He yawned and rubbed his tired eyes.
Eric and Horatio had to get ready for work soon. Eat breakfast and then head to the lab. This was the day before new years eve. Tomorrow night would be filled with food, friends, family and fun. Calleigh and Ryan were having a party. Ryan's family would be there, Maya and Trish, Horatio and Eric, and everybody else in the team and the lab. Eric wasn't quite sure if there was enough room for everyone in Ryan and Cal's small apartment. They had been talking about getting a bigger one now that they had a baby on the way. Yet the both liked their small cozy home.
"H are you here?" Eric asked, a bit more awake now.
He had checked the kitchen, back porch, guest room, bathroom and even the cellar. No read headed Lt was in sight. Eric had seen the hummer in the driveway, so he knew that H wasn't far away.
The beach, Eric you idiot, he thought to himself.
The beach was Horatio's sanctuary. The one place were he let all his emotions flow free. Horatio hated bringing negative emotions into the house, so if he was angry or sad, he preferred to sit on the beach outside his and Eric's house. Eric walked out on the beach and saw Horatio sitting close to the shore.
"Good morning." Eric smiled as he sat down next to Horatio and gave him a kiss.
"Good morning." Horatio said, though he didn't sound happy at all.
Something was definitely bothering him.
"What's wrong, H?"
"I got a letter from your mother this morning."
Eric raised his eyebrows at Horatio.
"My mother?" He asked.
Horatio nodded. He didn't really like Raquel, how could he? The woman had hired a man to kill Joseph and Eric, only Horatio had taken Eric's bullets instead. That was a few months ago, but Horatio could honestly say that he wanted nothing to do with Raquel.
"Why would she send a letter to you? To our home?" Eric asked.
Horatio could clearly see that Eric was bothered by the letter. He didn't like it at all.
"I don't know. Here." He sighed and gave Eric the letter.
Horatio Caine.
Please come see me at visiting hours.
You and I need to talk about a lot of things.
Especially the family you're currently involved with.
Raquel
"She's trying to break up us, H." Eric growled.
He squeezed the letter and threw it in the ocean. Horatio sighed, stood up and retrieved the letter.
"I'm not going to see her." He said and sat down next to Eric.
"Has she learned nothing?" Eric growled, tears threatened to fall, "She almost killed you and dad! And she still hasn't given up with trying to break us up."
Horatio pulled Eric into his arms. Part of him wanted to go see Raquel, to hear what she had to say, so that maybe Horatio could tell her to stop. Tell her stop breaking her son's heart. She didn't only break Eric's heart, she broke her daughter's hearts too. And she didn't seem to realize it.
"Let's eat some breakfast." Horatio said and stood up, he pulled Eric to his feet.
"Eric, I won't go see her."
Eric nodded. He wanted to see his mother, to tell her to piss off. Yet he couldn't bring himself to make an appointment with her. He was afraid to look into her eyes. He was afraid of what his mother could do.
"Do you think she knows were engaged?" Eric asked.
"No, I don't." Horatio said, "And she's not finding out either."
Eric and Horatio ate their breakfast in silence. Eric was angry, Horatio could see it in his eyes. Horatio decided to leave Eric alone, while he took the dogs for a walk. Waldo and Rascall seemed to notice that H and Eric had a lot on their minds. Eric sat in the kitchen and could hear Horatio out in back, playing with the dogs.
Like most people, Eric wanted both his parents to attend his wedding. But it would never happen. Raquel wasn't welcomed. Horatio would never allow her to attend their wedding, and frankly Eric didn't think he wanted her there either. He wasn't sure if he loved his mother anymore. All the doubt he had had during and after his mother's trial came back to him now. He started doubting if he really loved her, if he had been good son. If he was a sinner, and if he had caused his mother to do a criminal thing. He must have pushed her to it. It was his fault.
If I wasn't gay, none of this would have happened, he thought and went out the front door.
-I-
08:15
Horatio glanced at Eric several times during the team's morning meeting. They discussed the evidence in their current case. Eric looked down at the table, he hadn't said anything. While Horatio had been out with the dogs, Eric had drove off to work, leaving Horatio at home without a car. Horatio had called Frank, who had picked him up. When Frank heard about the letter, he felt like going straight to prison and shoot Raquel. Horatio had asked him not to tell anyone else at the moment. Something was wrong with Eric, other then that he had been upset by the letter. Something else was on his mind and Horatio was determined to find out what.
"I checked the photos that Eric took of the crowd on Friday, outside the morgue. They all have the same facial expression. Shock and fear." Ryan said, "No one stands out."
"Okay, what about the phone calls?" Horatio asked.
"I listened to the first five, then gave them to Natalia." Ryan said.
"It's always the same. He used the same line all the time, to every victim." Natalia said, "Have you picked up your daughter/son yet?, It doesn't matter who I am. And so on."
"He's been practicing." Calleigh said, "Maybe he's nervous and has prepared himself for all sorts of questions. He could even be reading from notes."
"Cooper is trying to get the mans real voice." Natalia said.
"We're not getting anywhere." Frank sighed, "We have phone calls, but we don't have the mans real voice. We can't find any evidence to point us to the arsonist, all we know is that she's a woman."
"We keep on looking, and we hope that one of these culprits makes a mistake." Horatio said, "Check every door around the morgue for prints."
The team nodded and left the room, everyone but Alexx and Horatio.
"What's wrong with Eric?" Alexx asked.
Horatio told her and could see the anger in Alexx's eyes.
"She never gives up." Alexx growled.
"I know, but there is something else on his mind." Horatio said.
Alexx nodded. She had noticed it too. She always knew when one of her babies weren't feeling okay.
Alexx left Horatio alone in the lab. He had trouble focusing on the case. His mind drifted of to Eric all the time. If Horatio tried to talk to him, Eric would just be angry and shut H out. He needed to find a way to talk to Eric without making him angry. Now wasn't the time. Eric was too fragile after reading the letter, the smallest things could piss him off. Once he calmed down a little bit Horatio would talk to him.
The problem with talking to Eric, was that the boss method wouldn't work. Eric knew Horatio from the inside out, and if Horatio tried to act like a boss in a personal matter, Eric would get even more angry.
Horatio sighed and left the small lab, he almost bumped into Valera in the hallway.
"Sorry Maxine." He said, "How are you today?"
"I've been better. The god dam kids are kicking like crazy." Valera sighed, "Do I look fat to you?"
"Absolutely not." Horatio smiled, "Maxine, a pregnant woman is never fat or ugly."
"That's sweet of ya to say, but I still feel like a whale. I eat like a whale, and I move around like a whale. And this is all Jason's fault."
"It takes two you know."
"Yeah, but he seduced me." Valera growled, "And this is what happend to me."
Horatio chuckled as he and Valera parted ways. He sighed as his phone rang. It was Captain Jackson, for the 70th time or so. Horatio was barely able to open the phone and say hello before Jackson told him to come to his office.
-I-
Ryan whistled to himself as he walked into Cooper's lab.
"Hey Coopers, how's it going?" He asked.
Cooper cursed and bumped his head on the table. He was currently under the table, trying to fix some cables.
"Cooper?"
"What?!" He growled.
"What are ya doing?" Ryan asked.
"My computer wouldn't start this morning, apparently some jackass pulled the cables out. I mean some of these cables are useless now." Cooper groaned, "I have to by new ones."
"But no one else is in your lab." Ryan said.
"I know. I thinks it's the cleaning crew." Cooper said.
"But they've never cleaned behind your computer before. Why now?"
"Dammit Wolfe! I don't have the answers to everything." Cooper growled.
"Alright, alright." Ryan said and sat down in Cooper's chair.
Cooper cursed every now and then, and hit his head on the table. Ryan chuckled softly to himself as he watched Cooper, the big computer genius, trying to fix the cables. Cooper knew everything about the internet, and how to deal with evidence on a computer. But when it came to the cables he didn't know anything.
"Maybe you should take a course in how to deal with your computer when the cables are pulled away." Ryan grinned.
"Shut up." Cooper sighed angrily.
-I-
08:30
Horatio sat down in the chair across Jackson's desk. Jackson looked at Horatio, he was not happy. Not one bit.
Horatio knew that he was probably in for a tongue-lashing. He would be told how important it was to solve this case, and how he and his team needed to work faster. Horatio would fight the urge to knock Jackson's teeth out. Instead he would tell him that without enough evidence there is no solved case.
"I have a crazy pedophile on the streets, we can't find the kids he kidnapped. There is an arsonist out in the city who tried to kill my two ME's. She lit the morgue on fire, and killed a janitor." Jackson said, "Now how the hell are you dealing with this?"
"We do the best we can, sir." Horatio said.
"You and your team need to catch these two bastards."
"I know, sir. You've told me that ten times already."
Jackson sighed. He was under pressure from the mayors office, and that led to him putting pressure on the Lt and his team.
"How come you haven't got enough evidence?" Jackson asked.
"Sometimes it's just that way."
"Find more evidence."
"Sir, there is no more. We've searched every crime scene we have, twice." Horatio sighed, "We checked Mary's home. Nothing. We haven't found anything so far, that can tell us who the pedophile and arsonist is. And the pedophile might not even be a pedophile."
"Of course he is."
"He is a kidnapper, sir. A child kidnapped. But we don't know if he's hurt the children in any way."
"Then why would he kidnap the kids?" Jackson asked annoyed.
"Because it's the weakest link for a parent. The victims are single parents, the only have their children. That's why they're kidnapped." Horatio said, "Now of course there is a very big risk that he is a pedophile. I think so too, but we can't prove that he is."
"Well for now, we call him a pedophile." Jackson snapped, "And how many female arsonists could there be in Miami?"
"Several." Horatio sighed, "Sir, our arsonist hasn't left anything but blood on the scene. And she could be anyone. She could be a teacher, who happens to have a secret passion for fire."
"And nobody knows about this?"
"Exactly sir. If you had a passion for something bad, would you tell anyone?"
"No." Jackson said, "You can leave."
Horatio nodded and left.
-I-
08:40
Natalia and Calleigh were checking for prints on every door in the morgue. Calleigh wasn't supposed the be doing field work, but since she was still in the lab, Horatio had allowed her to help Natalia.
"I've been thinking." Natalia said, "We know how the arsonist saw Danielle William's house, that was on TV. But none of the other victims went out on TV."
"So how did she know which houses to burn?" Calleigh asked, "Clever Natalia."
"It can't be a coincidence that all the victims died in a fire."
"Exactly." Calleigh said, "Call Horatio and tell him about this."
Natalia nodded and called Horatio. He answered after a while and Natalia told him. He told her it was clever thinking. Unfortunately everybody understood that it only made the case harder to understand. Nothing else suggested that the pedophile and arsonist were working together. In fact, the pedophile ended every conversation the same way: "Talk to ya tomorrow."
Someone who know the other person would die, would probably not end a call like that. Unless of course they did it on purpose.
After a while Natalia hung up. Then she saw a small girl on the other side of the street, through a window.
--
One the same time as Natalia saw the girl, Ryan was still chuckling at Cooper, who still hadn't fixed the computer problem.
"Could you stop laughing please? Help me out instead." Cooper growled.
"This so much more fun." Ryan teased.
"Thanks a lot. It stinks here." Cooper sighed.
"Stinks what?"
"I don't know, smell it yourself." Cooper snapped.
Ryan shrugged and crouched down next to Cooper. His eyes widened as he smelled something familiar, gasoline.
"Do you have gasoline among your computers?" Ryan asked.
"It's gasoline?"
"Yes."
"Strange, it doesn't belong with a computer." Cooper shrugged.
Ryan grabbed Cooper's shoulder and together they stood up.
"Cooper do you see that?" Ryan asked and pointed at a small container, behind te computer. He hadn't seen it before.
Cooper nodded.
"Run!" Ryan shouted and bolted out the door with Copper close behind.
"It's bomb!" He yelled and threw himself to the ground, as Cooper's lab blew up and glass flew through the air in every direction. People jumped down to the floor.
--
Natalia and Calleigh screamed in fear as they heard the explosion. They had just went to talk to the little girl, when something in the lab blew up.
"Oh my god!" Calleigh exclaimed and ran towards the morgue and then to the elevator.
Natalia picked up the girl and ran after.
"Wait Calleigh, it could be dangerous!" She yelled.
TBC…
AN: No more peace and quiet before the storm, huh? The storm is here, and it only just begun…
Please review!