Our "Normal"
Thank you for the reviews. To HEHC4EVR, I came up with Delko twins' names as they're the actor's real names. Thought it would be a cute twist! :)
Aimee didn't allow herself to think of how grotesque this and the previous crime scene had been. She shook her head hard to get rid of the thought. She had children to look after and it was dinnertime. Kyle seldom asked where daddy was when Horatio wasn't there in the evening. When he wanted french toast with cinnamon or "breakfast for dinner" as the family called it, his mom was happy to make the simple meal. And Faith could feed herself this when it was cut into narrow strips. Through he didn't ask where his dad was while the family ate dinner, he asked whether dad would be home by the time he went to bed.
"I don't know, honey," Aimee told the boy honestly.
Even if Horatio's phone rang two minutes before he was off-shift, he was assigned the case. On the other end, the moment his shift ended, any case was assigned to another detective.
"We get to go home. huh?" Tim Speedle said.
After resigning from the crime lab after being shot three years ago, even though he had made a full recovery. Now he was ready to resume the the career of a crime scene investigator again. With the support of his girlfriend, Lorelei Rogers, the two moved back from Naples to Miami. Lorelei was a vet technician.
"Yeah," Horatio said. God, he couldn't wait to hug his wife and children.
Although the team was working as hard as humanly possible to find justice for the two murdered families the Bakers and the Copelands, Horatio hoped that the "butcher" as the media dubbed the killer, would take the night off so the team could re-group. As horrific as the scenes had been, Horatio was too exhausted for nightmares, if he had been the type to have them. Despite being off-duty, if a call came in during the night, that looked like the work of the "butcher" since it was their case, he and the team would be called in.
Tim and Lorelei were pet parents of Charlie, a beagle-bulldog mix missing a left ear because an attack by another dog and Chloe a bulldog-lab mix who was missing her right eye because of an infection that went improperly treated because her previous family couldn't afford a vet visit. The eye-removal surgery was necessary because the infection would have spread. Both dogs had been rescued from euthanasia list at the local shelter. Horatio and Aimee often teased their friends about giving their dogs human names after adopting them. Lorelei and Tim had been talked about having children but they hadn't started trying yet, thinking that maybe there was a better time ahead to have them. What were they waiting for? All their friends wanted to know. They had just bought a house. Lorelei had steady employment, as did Tim. And it wasn't as if Tim's hours were going to get any less unpredictable or the job less dangerous. Plus the "perfect" time didn't exist. Eric didn't know details of Tim and Lorelei's finances and frankly knew it was none of his or anyone's business but he told Speed that if everyone waited till they were financially secure and debt-free barely anyone would have children.
Thankfully, the night was uneventful. Cuddles and kisses from his wife and children made the images of crime scenes in Horatio's mind fade for a while. His family had the ability to do this, regardless of what he saw on the job. There was a school of thought that Horatio couldn't possibly be a good father and husband simply because he wasn't home so often. The first person who would vehemently say that was false till she was blue in the face was Aimee. It infuriated her each and every time she heard it.
Horatio was a great father and husband. What mattered was he did with the time he did have with his family. The hours of his job were indeed a hard thing to deal with. However this wasn't new to anyone. Aimee and the children had ways to deal with that. And really it was only Aimee had to learn that. It had been this way for Kyle and Faith's whole lives, it was all they knew. All was still quiet the next morning during breakfast. The front page of newspaper still had the story of murders though. A particular level of information was needed for public knowledge, to attempt to identify the perpetrator and to advise people how to remain safe. However, Horatio loathed how the media gave such criminals nicknames. People like this enjoyed the attention.
How did reporters not realize this? Horatio thought with a sigh before folding the paper and tossing it on top of the microwave. He'd get more updated information at work.
With the exception of if another call came in that looked like the serial killer's 'work," Horatio didn't have to be at the lab until ten. He was going to drive Kyle to Dade Elementary school then he, Aimee and Faith were to going to feed the ducks that made their home in the pound in the backyard. These moments of family time were badly needed.