Six:

Horatio never took his eyes off of Julia.

She sat on the stand, next to the judge. The whole room was quiet. Her long hair was down, per usual, and she wore a black dress. Ryan thought actually she looked really well. But they obviously weren't there for a fashion show. They were there because of something she had co-conspired to do.

The attorney, Derek Powell, was going through some papers he held in his hand. His face was very stern, and the court was quiet. They were all watching him. Just waiting for him to speak. And when he was ready, he adjusted his tie, cleared his throat and walked closer to the stand.

"Would you please state your name for the court, and how you know the Plaintiff?" He questioned.

"Julia Winston. Horatio Caine and I dated briefly and he and I have a son together."

"So you do, in fact, know the plaintiff?"

Julia nodded. "Yes."

Derek nodded along with her. "So then, I would like to direct you attention to the 17th of June; did you see Horatio Caine that day?"

"I did."

"And where did you see him?"

"In the car."

"In whose car, Ms. Winston?" Derek asked her.

"In Dan's car."

Derek shifted to another piece of paper. He started walking around closer toward the area Horatio sat. "And why did you see him that day?"

Julia was quiet. The room looked to her, waiting for her answer. But the whole time, she just stared at Horatio. And Horatio watched her, as well. And Ryan thought, Calleigh was right as she had stated before; she was eerily calm. The judge looked down from his seat to Julia. "Ms. Winston, you do have to answer the question."

Julia looked back to Derek. "Because Dan took him."

"Where did you and Dan take him?"

"To some abandoned house."

"And what were your intentions for Horatio?"

"To kill him."

Derek by then was now next to Horatio. He slapped his hand on the desk, as the people in the room began murmuring. Julia was very frank, and she answered all the questions. Ryan didn't expect her to be so open about it. He thought that she would have denied it, and tried pushing the blame all on Ron. And Ryan was sure Ron was involved but because of reasons, he wasn't being tried.

A man had stood up out of his chair. He looked very upset. "Objection; Julia Winston is on a lot of medications for depression, and bipolar disorder. She is unaware of what she's confessing to right now and she feels pressured."

Derek frowned and shook his head. "I object to that. Ms. Winston seems perfectly fine enough to dress herself, do her hair and makeup, and make it down to the courthouse. She was fine when she hired Dan Cooper and Natalia Boa Vista to do her dirty work. I think she's fine to stand trial today."

The judge had picked up his gavel and banged it four times. The two men stopped talking immediately, with Julia's lawyer sitting down again in his chair. And Derek, Horatio's attorney, just sighed. "I have no more questions for her."

The judge turned back to Julia and told her that she could go back to her seat. Ryan had turned and looked at Ron. He was staring hard at Julia with such a wide smile, it even creeped Ryan out. Julia's face remained stone. She stared at Horatio up until she sat down in her seat. Then, Julia's lawyer stood up and held his hand out. "I would like to question Horatio Caine."

The judge nodded, and told Horatio to take the stand. Suddenly, Ryan felt very nervous. He knew most of the details of what happened. But he definitely didn't want to hear it again. And he definitely didn't want Horatio to have to speak of it again. But it was what had to be done. And Horatio took the stand very stoically. His face never showed fear or anger, or anything like that. He sat down and looked at Julia's lawyer, simply waiting for him to question him.

"Would you state your name for the court?"

"Horatio Caine."

"And what is your occupation?"

"I am a supervisor and lieutenant at the Miami-Dade Crime Lab."

"You claim that on the 17th of June you attended a birthday party for a colleague, you left for a few minutes and while you were gone, Dan Cooper entered your office and kidnapped you at gunpoint." The guy said. Horatio nodded along. "And what were you doing when you left the party?"

"I was going to my office to check for missed calls."

"Who were you expecting a call from?"

"I don't see how that's important." Horatio answered. "But I was just checking. Miami is a very busy city and anything could have happened in the 20 minutes I was attending said party."

Horatio briefly broke eye contact with the lawyer as he had turned around and faced Julia. Leaving Horatio to look at Ryan for a moment. Ryan hoped that his own nervousness wasn't showing. The whole time he was concerned with Horatio and his nerves but now that Horatio was on the stand, Ryan was suddenly very afraid. The lawyer had whispered something to Julia, something that Ryan hadn't heard. Suddenly, the lawyer swiftly turned back to Horatio. "For the court, would you state how many children you have?"

Horatio seemed to frown, his first sign of any emotion. "I have 2."

"What are their names?"

"Kyle and Alana."

The lawyer crossed his arms. "If I'm not mistaken, Kyle's mother is none other than Julia Winston, correct?" Ryan got a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Hospital records show on your daughters birth certificate though, that Ryan Wolfe is listed as the father. Now how is that possible?"

Horatio's eyes darted to the left, where Derek had sat. On cue, Derek stood from his seat. "Objection; we're not here about a paternity test."

"I have a point." He replied.

The judge waved his hand. "Well make your point. Please answer the question, Mr. Caine."

The lawyer looked back to Julia and everyone in the room saw the smug smile he had on his face. Horatio's frown deepened and he had shifted in his seat. "What was the question again?"

"Ryan Wolfe is listed as the father of Alana- how is that possible?"

"Because he is her father."

"I thought you were Alana's father? Do you and Mr. Wolfe have some close relationship where you feel comfortable enough to call her your own daughter?" He asked them.

Ryan had felt Dave nudge him. He glanced at him, and saw that Dave was staring off at someone. Julia. She was staring right at Ryan. Her blank stare seemed to look right into Ryans core. It made him uncomfortable, to say the least. And as he listened, he wondered where the lawyer was going with it.

Horatio shook his head. "I am Alana's father."

"So you and-."

"Ryan and I are both Alana's father's, yes." He replied curtly.

"Which means that you and Ryan Wolfe are in a relationship, right? In the rules of your crime lab, it clearly states that office relationships are prohibited. And yet, you're together anyways, having children with a man who had a gambling addiction and was in debt, he beat up Assistant State Attorney, Josh Avery because of a crush on some girl. He has let information slip to a reporter, causing uproars in the city. My point being he is obviously very untrustworthy." He said. "And you're the lieutenant, who should know better than to get involved with someone like that. If there's trouble, just look in the middle and there's Ryan Wolfe. How are we supposed to believe anything you say when you continuously lie, and why should we believe what he says when he's proven himself not to be credible?"

Horatio's eyes were widened and he just seemed to be in complete disbelief. The lawyer waited a few seconds for him to say something, but he didn't. "You say that your daughter Alana, and your son Kyle's lives were in danger by Julia. Ms. Winston cares about her child and wouldn't do anything to harm him. Unlike you, who had him put in prison for kidnapping a woman. Ms. Winston is a loving, caring woman while you, lieutenant, don't even have control over the people in your crime lab. And you have no control of your children."

Derek stood up again. "Objection, your honor, he is attacking the character of the plaintiff when this case is about Julia Winston admitting to kidnapping him. Dan and Natalia both admitted to it as well."

"They were under duress."

The judge banged his gavel twice to get their attentions. "It's stricken from the record."

The lawyer looked flustered. "Fine. Horatio Caine, you claim that Julia Winston had this whole thing orchestrated. Why should we believe that?"

"Because she admitted to it."

"But there is no evidence pointing to my client. All we have is hearsay from your boyfriend, your friends and Natalia Boa Vista and Dan Cooper, who don't want to be in trouble; they could have done this whole thing themselves. Right?"

"I guess that's possible." Horatio answered, his voice was softer, and Ryan could tell that Horatio was mad. Horatio was never one to raise his voice in a professional setting. But he could tell that he desperately wanted to. Julia's lawyer announced that he had no more questions. Ryan looked at Julia again, who was sitting with her arms crossed, smile on her face. She was talking to someone sitting next to her. Dave had put his arm around Ryan in a comforting way. Rick had turned to Holly and whispered something to her. She had frowned in response.

Horatio had stood and walked over to Derek who immediately started whisper yelling to him. Ryan sighed, knowing that this was going to be a very long process.

Horatio went straight upstairs to take a shower.

Alana and Kyle could both sense that something was wrong.

Ryan entered the house next, he shut the door and put on his best cheerful face to greet them. Both greeted back, and Alana asked what was wrong. But Ryan just shrugged and told her that nothing was wrong.

Kyle took that opportunity to tell him that he and Alana ordered take out, watched a couple of movies and that she had drawn a picture for Horatio. Ryan thanked Kyle for coming over and told him that he would let him know what happened as soon as he could. Now was obviously not the time. Kyle gave Ryan a small hug and went on his way, saying goodbye to the both of them and telling Ryan to say the same to Horatio.

Ryan left Alana downstairs with Domino as she continued to watch TV.

He went into the bedroom and waited patiently for Horatio to get out of the shower. The whole car ride was quiet. Neither of them really knew what to say. The first day of court hadn't gone too well. Ryan was surprised that Julia's lawyer would attack his character like that. And Horatio definitely seemed surprised.

And everyone in the lab knew about Horatio and Ryan. They knew that they had Alana and that Ryan was pregnant with twins. They even knew about office relationships being prohibited. But no one ever commented on it. Everyone knew Calleigh and Eric were in a relationship, as it was fairly obvious. But of course, because they said it in court, Ryan had a feeling something very bad would come from that.

When Horatio got out of the shower he didn't even look at Ryan. He just opened up a drawer and started looking for something, probably to wear.

"Horatio, are you alright? I know things got a little crazy."

"I'm fine."

"You're always fine. Come on, let's talk about this." Ryan said. "What do you think is going on? Ron just showed up and watched everything, and Julia just seems like she has something up her sleeve. What did Ron say to you?"

"He said 'good luck, lieutenant' and then he laughed. I don't know what's going on. I don't want to know, either. I just want Julia to go to prison, along with Natalia and Dan. I'd love if Ron could join them as well but because of Rick…" He trailed off, as he finally decided on a shirt. Ryan couldn't contain the small smile that formed when he noticed that Horatio was holding his shirt. Ryan liked wearing Horatio's shirts and Horatio liked to occasionally wear Ryan's. Since Horatio and Ryan started sleeping in separate bedrooms, neither of them had done so. But seeing Horatio pull it out so nonchalantly made Ryan happy. He decided not to comment on it, though.

"Why do you think Rick wouldn't agree to be questioned? He says he's done nothing wrong, and I believe him, it's just odd."

Horatio shrugged as he continued rummaging through the drawers, probably looking for pants to wear. "He's obviously hiding something."

"You don't think he's working with Holly in some secret alliance, do you?"

"It's crossed my mind." Horatio answered. He pulled out a pair of black shorts, that also belonged to Ryan. He turned to Ryan finally and stopped in his tracks. "What; why are you smiling?"

"Well, it's just those are my clothes." He told him. "You know since everything that happened, neither of us has worn each other's clothes. I don't know, I guess it just makes me happy to see you with mines."

Horatio looked at the items he clutched in his hands. Ryan was worried that he had just said something wrong. He thought that maybe Horatio would decide to put the clothes back and get something else instead. Instead though, Horatio sighed and shook his head. "What do you think is going to happen with us?"

"I don't know. I'd like for us to actually talk to each other so we can at least try to work it out. But it's hard to do when you ignore me. Whatever we're doing, though, we have to get it together before we have these babies." Ryan said.

Horatio nodded. He agreed with Ryan completely. "I was really hurt when I found out what happened with Rick. And I know you said it was 'just a kiss', but to me, there's no such thing. How can you kiss someone you don't have some sort of feelings or attraction for?"

"Well do you believe me when I say that we haven't done anything else? You get upset when I go to his office, which I understand but it's only work-related. It was one kiss, one time. And I absolutely don't want it to happen again." Ryan answered. "How did you find out about it anyways?"

Horatio seemed to hesitate. "I heard a rumor about a bathroom." Of course he had. But that was just a rumor. "From Walter, actually."

Walter? That was surprising. Ryan had considered him and Walter friends. They weren't the best of friends but they were close. Especially after that tornado had came through Miami. Ryan really liked and respected Walter. So he didn't even think he could get mad at Walter. But he was upset that he had told Horatio that. "What? When?"

Horatio shrugged. "At the party Calleigh threw for me. While you were upstairs with Rick."

"What Walter heard wasn't true."

"It wasn't?"

"No, no. Rick pulled me into the bathroom a work for whatever reason. I guess for privacy. And then he tried to kiss me. But I didn't let it happen and then Eric saw us and just assumed."

Horatio furrowed his eyebrows. "Really?"

Ryan slowly nodded his head. "Yeah. He told everyone. I thought it just blew over and people realized it was false but I guess not." He said. "But, at another time I did kiss Rick. We had just came back from Dan's apartment. And I was frustrated that we had no answers about what happened to you. And I guess I was just too caught up in everything and emotional. So when he kissed me, I just let it happen."

"Rick kissed you, and not the other way around?"

"Did you think I kissed him first?"

"I'm just trying to get all the answers. So I got what happened right. I just got the day and location wrong. It's just really devastating to learn that while I was being tortured, you were being comforted by another man." Horatio said. "What are your feelings for Rick; do you want to date him? Just want to sleep with him or kiss him again? You're very jealous of his girlfriend so I think it's very safe to assume."

Jealous. There was that word again that Ryan didn't like. The very word that made his skin crawl and made him cringe. He definitely didn't like to be called jealous. "I'm not sure what my problem with Holly is. I just hate how perfect she is, or how she portrays herself to be. I mean come on, nobody's that perfect!"

Ryan saw Horatio's little smile. It was that Ryan had dubbed his 'sympathetic smile'. It was rare but it existed when Horatio didn't want to outright say that he was concerned or maybe even confused about something. Ryan halted movements for a second and then sighed. "See that's what I mean. I don't know why I get so riled up when I think about her. I'm not jealous that she's dating Rick. I think I might have been in the beginning to be completely honest. But now, something about her just rubs me the wrong way. But I'm really not jealous of her and Rick."

Horatio hummed in response.

"Do you believe me?"

"Of course."

Ryan sighed in relief. "Good. Now what?"

"Now," Horatio said, "We take it day by day; slow. Although I have a confession of my own for you."

Oh no.

"Alana said she found my blazer in a box in a basement today. I put it there the day of my party because I was planning on leaving." Horatio told him. "As soon as I got home, I packed two small boxes of things- my blazer, and a couple of outfits; the necessities. But when you got home, I couldn't leave. Alana would be sad. I would be sad. And you'd be alone while pregnant."

"I kind of expected you to leave. But I'm glad you didn't."

Horatio nodded. "Me too."