A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I also hope, that you'll like this one. I was very happy to see new faces among my reviewers, that means a lot to me.

So this is the chapter you all have been waiting for some time now I guess…happy reading.

Chapter 16

Horatio felt as nervous as he had felt all those weeks ago. He had no idea of what to expect and this made him a bit unsettled. He was a man who loved planning and who didn't like surprises. But there was no way to plan this meeting. He had botched the whole situation and now he had to do his best to fix the friendship again, if and only if this was still possible.

In his right hand he was holding his sunglasses and in his left a bag of a local Chinese take-out service. He could only hope that she would accept it as a peace offer but if he was honest to himself, he highly doubted that. He had screwed things up big time and it was his fault alone.

He knew that this was her day off and he knew from Eric that she hadn't planned something special, so he had taken his chance to drive to her condo while his lunch break, hence the take out. And now he was standing in front of the door and was torn between ringing the bell and leaving. The latter sounded good, but he also knew that the more he would stall, the more difficult it would get and that was something that he wanted to avoid by all costs, so he pluck up his courage and pressed the bell-button.

Inside, Calleigh was busy cleaning her apartment. It had always been a good stress reliever for her and stress she had enough, thanks to certain Lieutenants in her life. She was happy that this was her day off, so she didn't have to handle his childish behavior and when the bell rang she prayed that it would neither be him nor her dad. She couldn't deal with any of them now.

She carefully put down the picture frame she'd been dusting, adjusted her ponytail and then walked to her door. There she peeked through the peephole, because you could never be sure who was waiting for you on the other side and groaned inwardly when she saw her visitor. "Didn't I ask you that it's not him?" she grumbled and seriously entertained the ides of not opening the door and playing dead. He would leave then, right?

No, he wouldn't. She knew that he was darn stubborn and that he would either wait for her till she came back (which meant that she couldn't use her vacuum, because he would hear that) or he would leave for now, but would most definitely come back later. And what was even worse, she didn't know if anything had happened and he was here to tell her in person.

"Next time, I'll be out of town, that's for sure," she promised herself and opened the door. "Horatio," she greeted him coldly and positioned herself between door and doorframe, so he couldn't get in.

Horatio noticed this tone of course and it made him visibly flinch. Maybe this was a lot harder than he had imagined. "Cal," he replied and shifted from one foot to the other. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

"I'm cleaning my apartment. Did something happen to my father?"

"I…no, I don't think so," he replied confused.

"Then why are you here, Horatio?" she inquired.

"I came here with an olive branch and hoped that we could talk?" he more asked than said and held up his bag to emphasize his actions.

Calleigh just looked at the bag and then at Horatio. She didn't move from her spot, instead she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Talk?" she asked. "You mean you do all the talking and I'm compelled to listen to you like the last time?" she sneered. "No, thank you."

It wasn't surprising that her harsh words were hurting him, but what hurt even more was the fact that she was right. He hadn't given her a chance to say something, he had kept on talking and talking and when he had stopped, he had left her. Ashamed he ducked his head and shook it. "No, I meant talking like in the both of us," he replied softly. "May I come in?"

"I'm not sure about that, Horatio. You know, there's no one else here, so you won't have some barrier between us, like in the lab," she said sarcastically. His behavior towards her had been a complete farce. Every time they'd been in one room, he had either used Ryan or Eric as some kind of barrier, so they wouldn't be in close proximity. She had felt like she had some infectious disease and she knew that the boys had noticed it too. Thank God they'd been polite enough to not to ask.

"Cal, you have every reason to be mad at me. I behaved like a fool and hurt you with my actions. That's why I'm here, to hopefully make up my mistakes, if this is still possible that is and I…I wanted to tell you the real reason, why I've been acting like this," he said and looked into her eyes. "I don't know if we're still friends and if not…if we ever will be again, but you deserve honesty. Something I didn't grant you the last time. So please…let me in?"

Calleigh had two options, either closing the door and with it ending their friendship or letting him in into her apartment and into herself. Weeks ago the former would have never come to her mind, but now she was seriously toying with the idea. But when she looked into his pleading eyes, she couldn't help but opening the door a bit wider so he could slip in. She wasn't sure if he knew what power he had over her, but she hoped that he wouldn't misuse it.

"Thank you," he said relieved and quickly entered her apartment, before she could change her mind. "I hope you haven't had lunch yet," he turned towards her, waiting for her to take the lead. "But if you did, that's fine. You can still heat it up later on," he quickly added.

Calleigh was still wary, because there probably was still something in the wind. "I didn't have lunch yet," she answered him and went into the kitchen. "You can sit down in the living room if you want to," she told him and since she was a good southern girl she also grabbed a soda can for him.

"I will, thank you," he said and did as he was told. Then he packed out the small containers and put them onto her coffee table.

"Mr. Wong?" Calleigh asked when she entered the room and handed him his drink.

"Yes," he nodded. "A little birdie told me, that he's your favorite," he smiled and opened his can.

"Mhm," Calleigh just hummed and curiously opened every container to see what's inside. The smell made her mouth water and she suddenly realized how hungry she was. "Just for me?"

"Uhm," he mumbled and fidget in his chair. Actually it was for both of them, since he hadn't had any lunch yet, but if it would make her happy, he would abdicate his part. "Sure…"

"Ah," Cal acknowledged and picked out her favorite – sweet & sour pork and fried rice. She knew that he was lying, but didn't show it. "That's very nice of you."

"You're more than welcome," he replied and cleared his throat when the wonderful smell hit his senses. How should he be able to concentrate on anything else but the oh so tasty food she was eating, while he felt like starving?

"You alright, Horatio?" she asked and mentally laughed at his antics of trying to act nonchalant. Oh yes she was enjoying that greatly.

"Most definitely, Cal," he answered as sincerely as he was able to and smiled lightly when she casually pushed his container towards him. She knew him too well. He had always had a weakness for shrimp and noodles. Quicker than he wanted, he took hold of it and when he noticed her amused grin, he realized that she'd been playing with him. "Well at least she actually considers you of being worth enough to be played with, so take it as a good sign," he thought to himself and ducked into his meal.

For a few minutes, all you could hear was two people enjoying their lunch and a content hum every now and then. Horatio watched Calleigh eat and hoped that a full stomach would propitiate her, so he would have a better chance to explain motives. He was surprised when it was her, who broke the silence.

"So?" she said and fished for an egg roll from the other container. "You wanted to talk, then talk."

Horatio cleared his throat and took a sip of his soda. Now came the most difficult part of his plan. "Most of all I wanted to apologize for my behavior towards you lately. You don't deserve to be treated like this, because you did nothing wrong. It was me who did wrong."

Calleigh listened carefully while she chewed on her egg roll. "What did you do wrong? Getting drunk and kissing your co-worker?" she asked him and his answer surprised her.

"No." He shook his head. "Well probably yes, it was wrong kissing you when I was drunk, but the real mistake was running away like I did and then acting like a complete fool."

Calleigh raised her eyebrows and put her chopsticks into the rest of her food. "Okay? So why did you do this mistake? Why did you come to me, found one excuse after the other, made me feel like a victim and then rushed out of my apartment?"

Before he replied, he put away his now empty container and took a deep breath. "I was scared," he admitted softly.

"Scared? Scared of what? That I would blackmail you?"

"No never. I was scared of the whole situation I was suddenly in. You know, after Marisol's death, I haven't even looked at another woman and then there was you and we kissed and…you can probably call it cold feet, in fact I literally panicked."

"Excuse me? Horatio Caine panicked?" Now that was something new and Calleigh wasn't sure of how to respond to that. "But…if it just was a kiss, as you said Horatio why did you panic?" She didn't want to mention that it'd been than just a kiss for her; he would probably flee again.

"I felt very bad for kissing you... but not because it was you.. it could have been any woman and I would have felt bad. You know, I actually felt really happy after I left you that night and this went on until I entered my bedroom. I have some photos on my nightstand and well... suddenly Marisol was smiling at me and I felt like I cheated on her," he sighed. "I'm not someone who breaks his promises easily and I promised her to be always faithful and yeah.. at this moment I broke this promise and it made me panic, because to be honest… I'm not sure if this was just a kiss."

Calleigh felt like she needed to pinch herself, because right now she wasn't sure if she was in bed sleeping or if this was real. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well I tried to tell myself, that it was jus a kiss, nothing more. A kiss between two friends who had a good time together, but the more I tried to persuade myself to believe that, the more I realized that this wasn't working. So instead of figuring out my feelings, I locked them up and pushed you away." All the while he was talking he was busy fiddling with his sunglasses. Horatio was never shy off eye contact, except of when it came to his feelings or personal things.

"Wow," was the first thing that came into her mind and in fact she was stunned. She had never heard him talking about his feelings in such honesty and it made her proud that he seemed to trust her enough to share them with her. This was something very special.

"Yeah wow… is this a good or bad one?" he joked lightly, because he didn't know how to react to that.

"To be honest I have never expected something like this. Believe me, I agonized over this again and again, but I never imagined that this is the reason why you pushed me away. I thought that it was probably more like a fling for you and afterwards you were fed up with me."

He shook his head immediately and looked at her. "No, this was never the reason. You…have never been the reason; just me and my bad conscious towards Marisol," he corrected her.

"Good," she replied softly and would have lied if she wasn't somehow relieved by his answer.

"I probably can't ask for your forgiveness, but I do hope that you accept my apology some day and that we can be friends again then," he told her sincerely, because even though he had tried to avoid her presence he had also missed it.

"We've been through a lot together, Horatio and I still want to walk this road with you, but only if you stop avoiding me and actually want me to walk it with you," she replied honestly.

"I do, Cal. I do want that."

"Okay," she sighed relieved and leaned back in her couch. "Since you've been honest to me, I want to be honest with you too," she started and knew that she had his full attention. "The fact why I was so hurt is that…you broke my heart."

Now it was Horatio's time to be stunned. "Yeah? How do you mean that?" he inquired.

Calleigh could have made a bet and win it, because there's no way that he wouldn't have went into it. "Well I missed you and Elena, you know?" she sighed. "Remember our day in the park? Or when you locked me in your house?" she smiled lightly. "I really treasure those memories, because we had a great time together. We were so close and then you turned away from me. It was a pity, that you also avoided me on Elena's birthday party. Of course I know that this day wasn't easy for you since you had to celebrate your daughter's birthday but the same time mourning the loss of your wife, but still…," she shrugged.

"I never thanked you for coming," he ducked his head and understood what she meant. He had felt similar, but had suppressed these feelings.

"I wouldn't have missed that for the world, Horatio. The first birthday is a very special one and I think that Ellie had had a great time." Especially when she had stick her hands in the birthday cake and played with it. The only thing that had made her wonder was that the Delkos had seemed to watch her greatly, but she couldn't think about a reason for it.

"That's true," he chuckled, remembering the same scene. "It was a good thing, that there was also another cake for all the adults." His daughter definitely knew how to keep tasty things all for herself.

"Ryan seemed to be very thankful for it," she giggled. Thanks to his OCD and passion for cleanliness a cake and dirty hands of children didn't go well together.

"I agree," he nodded and felt good like he hadn't felt in a long time. Being in her presence and talking to her made him feel better; that's what he realized again.

"Horatio?"

"Mhm?" he looked questioningly at her.

"What happens now?"

That was a very good question actually and he wasn't sure if he had an answer for it. "To be honest, Cal, I don't know."

She nodded and stayed silent, trying to figure out how to approach the subject, which was obviously hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles. "You remember the situation in the club, when you've been waiting for the drinks and some woman approached you?" she asked hesitantly.

"Uhm, yeah I do. Why do you ask?" he replied.

"I never told anyone," though she suspected that mother Alexx knew without telling, "but when she obviously started flirting with you, I felt…jealous," she admitted and looked down at her hands. "Because she was just your type of woman; she was tall, had dark hair and eyes." It was more than obvious that he liked this type a lot. When she thought of all the women he had dated and been in love with since they knew each other, it had always been this one.

He couldn't deny that his type of woman had been the dark beauty lately, but it hadn't always been like that. Most definitely not. "Yeah," he said softly. "She probably was, but I wasn't interested in her at all. She reminded me too much of what I've lost recently." The fact that Calleigh'd been jealous was however very interesting. "I have also a secret to share," he started and waited till she looked at him. "When she asked me for a dance, she assumed that you were my girlfriend and probably wouldn't like sharing me and to be honest, I never corrected her, but just said yes."

"Yeah?" she asked and wished that this would be true.

"Yeah. We must have been a quite a pair." he nodded and shared a hesitant laugh with her.

When the silence between them became too awkward, he decided that now was the time to be honest to her. "Cal, I can't promise you anything right now. There's a battle inside of me and until now, I don't know who will win. My heart tells me to go for it, while my mind tells me that it's too early and that I'm not supposed to break the promises I made. I just hope that you can probably wait for me," he rather asked then said.

She knew that he was a man who stood to his promises and she could only imagine what was going on inside of him, but yet this didn't make it easier for her. "Mhm," she mumbled and gave him a tight smile.

He looked at his watch and noted much to his dismay that his break's been over for quite some time and that he needed to get back to the lab.

Calleigh had done the same and knew that he needed to get back. Since she had her day off and Horatio was here with her, the boys would have their hands full and Stetler was just waiting for such a situation to use it against Horatio. She stood up from her couch and offered him a hand. "Let me bring you to the door," she told him and just nodded slightly when he thanked her for the gesture.

At her door they said goodbye and she watched him walking to the elevator. When it arrived and the door opened, she plucked up her courage. "Horatio?"

"Yeah?" he turned around, standing in the doorway so the elevator wouldn't close its doors.

"I can't wait forever."

He gave her a soft smile, reading between the lines. She wasn't reluctant to give them a chance, but the ball was in his court now. "I know," he replied and stepped into the elevator, which door immediately closed. Oh boy didn't he know it…

tbc