A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas full of joy.

Chapter 11

When Stella and Kyle stepped on Horatio's floor the next morning, they just knew that Horatio had to be awake. A quietly cursing nurse left his room the moment they turned around the corner and they could only imagine that Horatio was giving the staff a hard time already. Looking at each other, they just shrugged and grinned.

"When the going gets rough, we need to call Alexx," Stella giggled and Kyle could only agree.

"Yeah, what was that about the handcuffs? Maybe he needs a gag too?"

Laughing, Stella shook her head. "I don't hope so, but I think Alexx will find some somewhere," she said and already felt a lot better. If Horatio was fit enough to annoy the nurse, he had to be just fine. "Now let's step into the lion's den."

Horatio put on his best scowling face when he heard the door opening, but this changed into a smile the moment he realized who his visitors were. "Kyle, Stella…you need to get me out of here."

Looking at each other, the two couldn't help but smirk. It was just as Alexx had predicted the night before. "I think I heard someone mumbling about you staying here for at least a week," Kyle couldn't help but tease his dad and the reaction came immediately.

"What?" Horatio sputtered and looked utterly shaken.

"Wasn't it two weeks, Kyle?" Stella played along.

"Yeah I think you're right," Kyle nodded and put down the small travel bag.

Realizing that they were only joking, Horatio glared at them. "Very funny."

"Sometimes it's too easy to tease you, Dad," Kyle smiled at his father and with a few steps he stopped at the bed and sat down on it. "How are you, Dad? Are you hurting? They told us to go home, even though we wanted to stay here and wait until you wake up," he babbled away and it was easy to see that he was still struggling with the situation and that his jokes were nothing more than a façade.

"I'm fine, Kyle. Really", he patted his son's hand. "My shoulder is throbbing a bit and I have a mild headache, but that's all."

"Do you need some painkillers?" Stella asked and claimed the other side of the bed.

"No thanks, they just make me feel groggy," Horatio declined and reached for his cup of coffee, the only edible part of this whole thing they called breakfast. "But if you want to, you could get me some doughnuts," he smiled sweetly at them.

"Ah don't tell me that you don't like this…," Kyle had a quick look at Horatio breakfast, "…slime?"

"It's certainly no comparison to your Louku...you know what I mean," Horatio looked at Stella.

"Loukoumádes; and I'm not sure if this is a compliment," Stella raised one brow.

"I think this means that you have to eat your slime, Dad," Kyle grinned and felt the tension disappearing more and more. His dad was joking around and looked a lot better than yesterday. "I'm sure it's very nutritious."

"But it tastes like pasteboard," Horatio whined.

"Well then it's a good thing that you have enough coffee to wash it down."

"You know, I thought the nurse was heartless, but I may have to change my mind," Horatio huffed. "Did you at least bring me some real clothes?" He was sick and tired of wearing this gown.

"It's your lucky day, yes we did," Stella smiled. "And some toiletries as well."

"Maybe you aren't that heartless after all," he conceded. "And I think I'm more than ready to change into something real."

"Not before we checked your wounds," Alexx' stern voice could be heard, when she entered with a nurse in tow. "And talk about your manners towards the hospital staff."

"Uh oh Dad, you made Momma Bear angry, good luck," Kyle whispered to his dad and got up from the bed.

Stella had the same idea because she didn't want to be on the receiving side of Alexx's anger.

Horatio just murmured something in his beard, which sounded like "..shouldn't give me slime to eat and poke around with needles..", but otherwise he was wise enough to say nothing.

Stella hid a grin and walked to the end of the bed. "I'll unpack your clothes," she announced but before she even had the chance to reach for the bag, she was stopped by Alexx.

"Would you mind having a cup of coffee with me? There's something I wanted to talk about," she said and the tone made it clear that she didn't want to hear any excuses.

Blinking, Stella had no idea what was going on and what Alexx wanted to talk about. Maybe something about Horatio and his wounds? But why wouldn't she talk about that in Horatio's presence? Were his wounds more critical after all? "I...a coffee sounds great.."

"Perfect. Kyle you can help your father with his clothes," Alexx ordered the boy, "and we'll be back soon."

Throwing one last glance at Horatio, who seemed to be as clueless as she was, Stella followed Alexx outside.

"The cafeteria has good coffee so let's go there," Alexx took the lead and five minutes, one floor lower and a few hallways later, they both sat next to a huge window with two steaming cup of coffees in front of them.

Stella was still completely clueless as to what Alexx wanted to talk about and she couldn't help but squirm on her seat. "Is...something wrong with Horatio?" she asked timidly.

"No," Alexx smiled. "As I told you yesterday, he's fine; except of his pig-headedness of course," she snorted.

"Okay…," then she really had no clue what was going on. "He already asked us to get him out of here," she offered, when Alexx stayed silent.

"I'm not surprised he did, but he'll have to stay here until tomorrow at least," Alexx replied easily. "But it's not easy to say no to this eyes of his, huh?" she asked cheekily.

"No," Stella averted her eyes and took a sip of her coffee. "It's not."

"So tell me, what's going on between you two?"

Spluttering, Stella quickly reached for a napkin and wiped her mouth. "Excuse me?"

"Well," Alexx shrugged, "I have two eyes and they're both working fine; I'm also a mother and even though Horatio isn't my own son, he's still one of my babies. So I ask again, what's going on between you and him?"

Oh wonderful! Now she had to explain something she didn't understand herself. "We are friends?" she offered rather lamely and wished to be somewhere else, far away from momma bear.

"I won't deny you are," the doctor stayed calm, "but you are more than that. I mean…he offered you to stay at his house."

"Otherwise I would have had to sleep under a bridge," Stella argued back.

"Horatio knows more hoteliers than I can count and it would have been easy for him to call in a favour," Alexx replied unimpressed. Seeing Stella's wide eyes though, made her smile. "I guess he didn't tell you about this, huh?"

"No." Now this was interesting. Did that mean that he had wanted her to stay at his house anyway? And had just come up with this sci-fi convention? Thinking about it, had she seen any poster for this event?

"I see, well this makes it even more interesting, don't you think?" Alexx asked and enjoyed this immensely. Sometimes people didn't see the forest for the trees. "But anyway, so he offered you to stay with him, which means a lot, since he's a very private person. And yes he'd probably do that for a very good friend, but I'm still not blind."

"What do you mean?" Stella asked confused.

"I saw him looking at you during the party; I also saw him blush when you leaned closer to him," Alexx pointed out. "And I saw your crestfallen look when you entered the ER yesterday." Stella had looked as pale as Horatio had and all this 'being friend's aside, there was more to that and they all knew it. "So I'm just asking you for an honest answer, Stella. I'm not angry or something, no I'd be happy if he has found someone else. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my oldest baby being happy again."

"I have no idea…what we are..," Stella admitted.

"Now you lost me."

"I can't tell you what we are, because I don't know. We never talked about it..," Stella ran her fingers through her hair. "Are we friends? Yes, we are. Are we more? Probably; after...mhm…," she quickly looked around and then ended in a whisper, "…sleeping together."

This time it was Alexx who almost choke on her coffee. "You had sex?"

"Yeah," she gave her a half smile.

This was even more serious than Alexx had realized. "But you're not a couple?"

"I don't think so," Stella shrugged helplessly. "As I said, we never talked about it. It just...happened…and yeah...I actually don't know what to say."

"Then you need to talk to him about this. I mean it, this is too important to just ignore it." She didn't blame Stella for anything, she just knew that Horatio's heart had been broken far too often and she didn't want to see it happen again.

"I know; especially since I'm going to leave on Sunday."

"Sunday? I thought you'd leave tomorrow?"

"I called my boss and asked him for a few more days," Stella smiled shyly.

"That's perfect," Alexx patted her hand. "This will give you two enough time to talk." And they needed to talk. "I'll see that he can leave tomorrow afternoon if his wounds look good, but don't tell him."

"I won't," Stella grinned and emptied her cup. "Are you coming along?"

"No I have some work to do," Alexx shook her head. "And I'm sure that Horatio has already seen enough of me as his doctor," she then added giggling.

"Well he listens to you at least," Stella got up from her chair.

"Years and years of training, Honey. He gave me more grey hairs than my own children," the other woman followed suit and together they left the cafeteria.

Alexx's words were still floating around in her mind, when Stella came closer to Horatio's room. She hadn't lied to the other woman. She really didn't know what they were. They were more than friends. But were they more than friends with benefits? And if they were, then why did they just kiss at home when no one was around? And why was she so shy to give him a kiss in front of others?

She'd been devastated when they'd brought Horatio into the ER and she hadn't known if she'd see him again. But this was normal for a friend, wasn't it? They really needed to talk about this. But first she had to think about it at home.

And since when did she call Horatio's house home?

And since when did this feel completely natural?

"And that was the minute we realized that we could still win the game," Kyle babbled happily, when he filled his father in about his weekend activities.

"And did you win?" Horatio asked.

"Yep," he grinned proudly. "It was close but we made it."

"Very good, Son," Horatio wore a grin on his own and was thoroughly enjoying Kyle's stories. Once the nurse had left them alone again, he'd changed into some jogging pants and a dress shirt. Not a perfect combination, but it was real clothes, so he connived that.

"Thanks, Dad; it'd been a great afternoon. And then we, oh hi Stella," he flashed a grin at the woman. "You look so serious, did Alexx scare you?" he asked in a good mood.

"No she didn't," she smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes completely. "She just gave me a lot to think about."

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Horatio asked worriedly, because he had to agree with his son. She didn't look as happy as when she'd left them.

"I am," she nodded and sat down on the bed. "She just wanted to talk about a few things," she told him and reached for his hand.

"I see," Horatio accepted her explanation and smiled at her. Judging her look correctly, they'd talk about this some time later, when no one else was around. "So you had to tell him about our shopping tour, didn't you?" he changed the subject into something more amusing.

"It just happened," she bashed her eyelashes at him

"If I could only believe that," Horatio huffed in pretence.

"Well you have to I guess," Stella grinned at him innocently and squeezed his hand. "And you enjoyed it as well, just admit it."

"Never. I was just following you from store to store and my arms got longer and longer because of al the bags I had to carry."

"You poor, old man," she drawled and winked at Kyle who couldn't stop laughing.

"Well me being old didn't stop you from treating me as your servant," he pointed out.

"I didn't hear you complain," she shot back.

"If I had had the breath for that, I would have…," he stated seriously, but in the end, couldn't stop himself from joining in the other's laughter. Yes he was doing just fine and he couldn't wait until he was allowed to go home again.

tbc