Here's a slightly longer chapter for you seeing as I ran out of time to post anything yesterday, I hope you enjoy:

"Was it worth it, John?" Andy asked as he narrowed his eyes at his old partner.

"Was what worth it?" he replied, confused by the line of questioning.

"How much money did it take to turn you?"

His mouth dropped open in surprise; Eric would have laughed at the sight of Horatio speechless had the situation not been so dire. "It wasn't about the money; I did it to protect you all."

Andy laughed bitterly, "Hang on, let me get this straight," he placed a hand on his chin as if lost in thought. "You joined the Malucci's payroll to protect me? I'm sorry; I don't see how distributing drugs on the streets and murdering people counts as protecting the people you were supposed to care about."

He began to get increasingly frustrated, why didn't Andy understand? All he had were vague bits and pieces of memories, he needed his partner to help make sense of them all. "I dreamt," he began until he saw the look on the other man's face, "I remember the night I was attacked, it was the Malucci's. They wanted me to work for them; they threatened to go after my friends and family if I didn't."

"Why didn't you come to me, we could have worked it out together." Andy's gruff tone softened slightly.

"I didn't know what to do, I didn't have a choice. I remember Robin coming to visit me; she told me that she thought she was being watched. I realised that I couldn't be everywhere at once, the only way to protect you all was to do what they wanted. They had people everywhere, Andy."

"I don't believe it; you took the money and couldn't give a shit about the rest of us!" Andy shouted, furious at himself for almost believing the lying piece of crap in front of him. "You sure didn't care about my safety the last time I saw you, you had your Goddamn gun in my face!"

Flashback. New York 1995:

Andy and Bobby stood outside an abandoned building in the Bronx, graffiti covered almost every square inch of the neighbourhood. It wasn't a welcoming sight; it was no wonder the place was deserted. Drug trafficking and violent crimes were rife in this area and it was easy to see why, boarded up shops lined the streets as well as the burnt out shells of abandoned cars. "A perfect spot for the Malucci's to hide their drugs," Andy thought to himself, "No one in their right mind would come within 10 feet of this block unless they had to." Checking the ammunition in his police-issued revolver he turned to his partner who was busy organising the troop of uniformed officers they had brought with them. "Ready to go, Bobby?"

His partner nodded as he withdrew his service weapon and instructed the other officers to follow him. "We'll take the top two floors, Andy you and the others search the ground level and the basement."

Adjusting his bullet-proof vest and making sure his badge was on show Andy and his team of uniformed officers began sweeping the ground floor room by room. After ten minutes of searching he was becoming increasingly frustrated at finding nothing but empty cardboard boxes, he kicked at one in frustration. "Damn you, Kelly!" he shouted as the box flew across the room. As the box landed and the dust he had disturbed settled he saw movement out the corner of his eye. Turning his head in that direction he saw the silhouette of a figure moving across the large room, "Freeze, NYPD!" he hollered as he ran after the suspect. Realising that running was not his strong suit he was somewhat relieved when he found he had cornered the shadowy figure, he raised his gun higher and took aim. "Give it up, there's nowhere to go."

The dark figure looked around the room furiously, searching for an escape route until his eyes landed on the broken window behind him. "You don't want to do that," Andy said as he walked closer to his prey, "Come out with your hands up and we can talk about this."

He relaxed a little as he saw the suspect hang his head in defeat, Andy lowered his gun slightly and took his eyes off of him only for a second but that was all the other man needed. He quickly lunged forward at the burly detective, knocking him to the ground. From his position he could finally see the face of the person he had been chasing; standing over him stood John Kelly. Looking worn and haggard the red head stood over his former partner, gun pointed at his head. "This is it," thought Andy, "I never imagined I'd go out like this, dead at the hands of a man I thought I knew." He closed his eyes and waited for the kill shot, "Just make it quick, between the eyes. You owe me that much at least."

Time seemed to drag as he waited for John to put an end his life, he lay with his eyes closed, making peace with himself and the people he had wronged during his colourful past. He opened his eyes as he heard Bobby shouting to him across the room, "Andy, where are you? Are you alright?" Clearing the room of any threats first, the Hispanic man ran up to his partner and stood over him, holding his hand out to pull Andy up as he re-holstered his weapon. "What happened?"

With Bobby's help he hauled himself to his feet and dusted his suit pants off with his hands, "I had a suspect cornered; he threw himself at me and knocked me to the ground."

"Where did he go?" Bobby asked as he looked around the room with his flashlight, looking for any trace of Andy's assailant.

"My best guess, out the window." He bent down and picked his gun up from the floor.

Bobby peered out the broken window and noticed the disturbed ground below, it had to have been a drop of at least 6 feet, he surmised. "Did you get a look at his face?"

He huffed at that, "You could say that, it was Kelly."

Present day. Miami:

He shook his damaged head as much as his injuries would allow, "No, I would never do that to you, Andy." The monitors attached to his chest began to beep with increasing frequency as confusion and panic began to overwhelm him, his fever not helping his muddled state of mind.

A nurse came bustling in to the room, "What on earth is going on here?" she asked as she walked towards the monitors by the bed, noting the elevated readings. Seeing the look of distress on her patient's face she turned to his visitors, "You two need to leave. Now." The nurse gave them such a stern look that would have made lesser men cower.

Eric looked back at his friend who was breath was coming in short gasps as the nurse tried to fit an oxygen mask over his face. His eyes began to droop as the lack of oxygen took hold and sapped what little strength he had. "Andy," he called out in one last desperate attempt to reason with him, "You need to speak… to Collins….he'll tell you why." His words slurred as his eyes finally closed.

"I don't suppose you know who this Collins guy is?" Eric asked as he sat down in the waiting area and rubbed a weary hand over his face.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets Andy answered, "Nope. Don't know and I don't care," at the other man's look he added, "I need some time to get my head around all of this."

Eric smiled, "I know what you mean," he regarded the other man, seeing the uncertainty on his face. "You're having doubts, aren't you?"

He did his best to look affronted at that, "I was so sure about what happened back then. We were partners for all those years, I trusted him and he lied to me and betrayed me."

"And now?"

"And now I have no idea if he's still lying to me or telling the truth." He shook his head sadly as he left the waiting area and made his way out of the hospital.

Eric glanced up as he heard the door to Horatio's room open, the nurse shot him a withering glare before returning to her station. Deciding that it was best not to re-enter the room just yet he pulled out his phone and called Calleigh.

"Hey Eric." She answered sweetly, "How's it going over there?"

He let out a deep sigh, "We got kicked out of H's room by the nurse."

"Why? What happened?"

"His old partner dropped by for a visit, he's still pretty much convinced that Horatio did the dirty on all of them back in New York." He changed the subject, "How are things back at the lab?"

"Good, I checked in with Walter and Ryan, whoever broke into Horatio's house didn't leave many clues. The only prints they found were Horatio's although I think it's pretty obvious who's behind it."

"Any luck tracing the emails?"

It was her turn to let out a long sigh, "No, but I did do some digging on a name I heard Horatio mumble in his sleep. I don't suppose the name Collins means anything to you?" A pregnant pause filled the air, "Eric, are you still there?"

"Yeah…uh, what was that name again?"

"Collins. He kept saying it; he was getting pretty agitated about it too."

"I know that name. The last thing H said before the nurse threw us out was, 'Speak to Collins, he'll tell you why.'"

"Eric, I think we might be getting somewhere." She said excitedly, "I did a search of all government agency databases and narrowed it down to one solid candidate, Special Agent Richard Collins, FBI."

"Calleigh, that's great news. Have you tracked him down yet?"

"I've got Frank working on it as we speak; he's going to let me know as soon as he's got anything."

Eric felt a sense of renewed hope, "Maybe this is the lucky break we needed. Keep at it, Calleigh, let me know what you find out." He snapped his phone shut and walked over to Horatio's room feeling better than he had in days.