Freedom

It felt as if sixteen tons had been lifted from Horatio's shoulders. The man who had been tagged the "butcher" was now in jail. Baxter Murphy was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. He would be facing the death penalty if found guilty. More importantly, his own family was once again safe. He could tell Andy and his employees their services were no longer needed.

"You guys caught the bad man, daddy?" Kyle asked as the boy saw his uncle and the two other men leave with their luggage in tow.

"We did," Horatio said, smiling for real for the first time in weeks.

"Yay!" Kyle said, jumping up and down. "Can we go out to the park after dinner?"

Even with the bodyguards, Aimee was nervous about Kyle going anywhere but school or soccer. The park was out. The farthest the boy was allowed to be the backyard. Thankfully his friends' parents still felt fine with their kids going at the Caines'. Some parents thought it was the safest place in the neighborhood. Kyle hadn't been to the park in weeks.

"I don't know, partner. It might be too late to go then. How about we go tomorrow? That's Saturday. I think we should go out for dinner."

The family hadn't been out to eat in the same amount of time Kyle hadn't been to the park. One of their favorite places to go was a 50's style diner a short drive away called DJ's Malt Shoppe.

"Okay!" Kyle said.

While Kyle got ready, Horatio went to find his wife and daughter. Aimee was changing Faith's diaper and dressing her in a new outfit, a pair of white fleece shorts and white t-shirt with a pink butterfly on the front when he poked his head in. Faith's red hair was in a ponytail on top of her head.

He thought she looked like Pebbles Flintstone like that.

He smiled. "Hey," he said.

"Oh. Hey, baby," Aimee replied, smiling. "Heard the good news. It's all over the tv."

Horatio walked over and kissed them both.

"Yeah. I thought we'd go out for dinner at DJ's to celebrate."

"Sounds great."

It seemed like forever since the family had laughed so much. Horatio and Aimee were glad that their kids were great sleepers. They locked the door and made love till the late hours of the morning.

Six Months Later...

Horatio and Aimee had just found out they would be having a third child. Why some were surprised that he was so thrilled about it puzzled Horatio. Kyle was excited at the thought of being a big brother again. Faith was too young to absorb the news.

Lorelei Rogers and Tim Speedle conceived in the tense weeks when the butcher was on the loose but had managed to keep it a secret till the city's ordeal was over. While Aimee was eight months away from giving birth, Lorelei was a month—or less away from giving birth to Timothy Jr.. It was a relatively slow day at the lab. Tim walked into the breakroom and fell into the sofa with a sigh.

"What's going on?" Horatio asked. He had just started a late lunch break.

He was pretty sure what topic Tim was going to bring up.

"what is it about pregnancy that makes a woman go insane?"

Horatio and everyone else had heard moody and hormonal Lorelei was. She could cry at the drop of a hat and yell at Tim the next. Fortunately they only heard about it. The mother-to-be reserved her sobbing and yelling for Tim. Both Horatio and Eric had stopped counting the number of times either had told Tim to "suck it up." They had told their friend that they too had complained to their wives about how moody they were while pregnant. It resulted in them being told in detail, exactly what was going on with her body at that very moment. Both swiftly learned to say "yes, my love," give her a hug if she so allowed and then ask if he could get her anything. Each had received this "information"—nobody ever wants to hear, especially a man. They only had to go through it once.

Tim, however was failing to get the message.

But he just might get it now.

Because Alexx Woods had walked in and heard his comment.

"Uh-oh," was all Horatio said.

"Did you just call the woman pregnant with your baby, insane?"

Tim knew he was in for it.

"I— "

"Now you listen here,"she said, dragging him up by the arm and then starting to poke him in the chest as she spoke.

Horatio left the room with his lunch as Tim was told in even more detail about the goings-on in the body of a very pregnant woman.

Would Speed ever learn?

Lorelei was pregnant for a whole two more weeks. She gave birth to Timothy Richard Speedle Junior after being in labor for only five hours.

Tim fainted three times during that time.