Chapter Sixteen: It's gotta be you

The next morning Calleigh walked into the break room, happy to see that Delko was the only other person there. He was sitting at the table flipping through the newspaper and enjoying a cup of coffee. They rarely had time for such down moments while they were at work and she knew it was only a matter of moments before he finished his cup, folded up the paper, and went to work his case with Jake. Before that could happen she wanted to have a word with him about what was wrong with Speed. If anyone in the lab knew what was going on with the brooding scientist it would be his best friend. She grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and plopped into a seat across from him. He smiled at her before turning his attention back to the paper. She knew him too well; he wasn't reading any of the printed words on the paper.

"What's going on?" she asked, deciding to get straight to the point. "You and Speed barely say two words to each other in passing. When in the same room you guys don't even sit together, never mind make eye contact. People are starting to notice."

He looked up at her. "By 'people', who do you mean?"

"Frank and Jake are the only two that have expressed their concerns out loud," she said, taking a quick sip of her water. "But I'm sure that if they noticed the others have too."

"Great," he mumbled. He folded the paper. "Look, it's somewhat personal. We're just having…trouble getting back into the groove of things, I guess you could say."

"Oh, you are so lying," she responded.

He sighed. "Fine," he leaned across the table so she mimicked him. "For a while now I've been aware of these…feelings that I have for Speed. And…I told him…"

Calleigh's eyes got wide. She knew that something had been going on between them but this wasn't what she expected. She thought that maybe it was just a tiff between friends, that they were trying to iron out the few wrinkles that had formed in their friendship while Speed was on medical leave. But deep in the back of her mind she realized that the tension between the two had been caused by something more, something deeper. Why hadn't she seen it earlier that Delko was madly in love with Speed? She placed a hand on his. "Your secret is safe with me. But I have to know…how is our brooding boy taking this?"

Delko leaned back in his chair, his hands wrapped around the coffee mug. "Not well. He won't even talk to me anymore."

"I'm sorry," said Calleigh. And she really meant it. The last few months had been so hard on all of them but now it looked like things were getting even worse for Delko. "Maybe he just needs time to think, to sort things out. He did just return to work and there's a lot going on. Give him time," she soothed, "I'm sure he'll come around."

"He doesn't have to come around," Delko told her. "I just want him to say one way or the other so I know what to do. Being in the same room with him is starting to get uncomfortable."

--

Around lunchtime Calleigh found herself with another rare free moment. And instead of using it for lunch she went in search of Speed. She hadn't seen him all morning, not that that was anything new. He could be out working his case with Ryan or, since she'd seen Ryan, he could be holed up in the lab testing evidence. Either way she planned to find him and have a word with him. She wasn't going to bring up what Delko had told her earlier that morning because it really wasn't any of her business, even if it did pain her to see her friends suffering. What she said then still held true now; Speed had to sort things out for himself. As she walked down the hallway she thought about how much things had changed since Speed had been shot. Nobody was who they were before than. They seemed to be almost adrift at sea, struggling to remain in control of themselves. Coming upon the Trace Lab she slowed her pace and peered through the windows. But Tim wasn't there. She frowned. Where else would he be? Then she thought that maybe he was doing something with audio-visual. Before Cooper had been hired Speed spent a lot of time watching surveillance tapes. And if she knew him, habits were hard to break. She headed in the direction.

And found just what she was looking for.

Cooper was nowhere in sight but Speed was busily playing with one of the computers, his focus solely on the monitor. She cleared her throat to get his attention. "So this is where you've been hiding all day. You do know that Cooper gets paid to do things like this."

"I wanted to do it myself," he stated simply.

"Well alright," she drawled, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "What have you got that's so interesting?" She pulled up a chair beside him.

He glanced at her before looking back at the screen. "My dead DJ had a tape on him. There's a lot of background noise that I've been ciphering out little by little." He played the tape for her so she could get an idea of what he was talking about.

"Sounds like two people having a conversation in the world's busiest airport," she joked.

"Let me try this…" he suggested. He hit a few keys and the images on the monitor shifted. He hit play and they both listened in silence. The conversation was clearer than it had been a moment ago but that didn't make either one of them happy. Before either one of them could say anything Calleigh pulled her cell phone out and hit speed dial, calling Horatio to the AV Lab. While they waited neither one of them said anything. Though Calleigh did glance at Speed to see how he was handling the recent development. It might have been her imagination but she thought he might have developed a slight tremor in his right hand.

Five minutes passed before Horatio opened the door. "What have you got?"

Speed quickly explained how he'd come across the tape while working the club scene. Then he told his boss how he had spent the last few hours working on filtering out the background sounds. The message left behind was one that Horatio had to hear. He hit play and the three of them listened in silence to the conversation on the tape. Two distinct male voices, one with what sounded like an Australia accent, were discussing the Miami-Dade police force. Neither voice mentioned the three crimes the lab was currently working on but they did mention something about a hit and the price on someone's head. The Aussie asked about the man. His companion described someone without giving too many details, almost as though they knew that someone was listening to them. The talking ended abruptly as the tape ran out.

Turning to face his boss, Speed said, "They have to be talking about you, H. A highly respected person that's worked for more than one department? Neither voice sounds familiar to me but it sounds like you've pissed someone off. Big time."

Horatio actually smiled. "And that would be different from when?"