"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God," he began to repeat over and over as his body shook uncontrollably.
Horatio came up beside him and peered down, "Keep calm, Hutchings. We'll get you out of this."
The younger man shook his head violently, "No, you need to get out of here. This thing is going to blow if I move."
"I can't do that, son." Horatio's voice was firm and steady, hoping to imbue some of his strength into the young man in front of him. "Stay exactly where you are, I'm going to see where this wire leads."
He followed the thin trail until he reached the source, his eyes widening as they fell on the intricate looking device hidden snugly behind a large wooden display case. Carefully inching the furniture towards him he peered down to get a closer look and grimaced at what he saw. Wired into the device was a motion sensor, as soon as Hutchings released the pressure on the wire it would take mere seconds for the mercury spirit gauge to tip from its horizontal position and set off a deadly explosion. Whoever had made the bomb had been smart enough to install a fail-safe, when Hutchings had stepped on the wire it had immediately triggered a timer connected to the explosives. One look at the bricks of C4 told Horatio that the blast would likely bring most of the building down around them should it detonate.
"Well, what did you find?" Hutchings asked nervously as perspiration dripped down his forehead and off the tip of his nose.
"Nothing you need to worry about, son. Just keep calm and we'll get you out of here," he lied, to tell his colleague the truth would not do any good. He needed to think clearly without Hutchings' nervy babbling. "Five minutes and counting. Think man, think!"
Suddenly the radio by his hip crackled into life, "Horatio, what's going on in there. Is it all clear?"
"Uh…that would be a negative, sir," he responded distractedly as he wracked his brains trying to figure a way out whilst keeping him and his colleague alive, he checked his watch and saw that he had less than four minutes to figure out a solution.
"What do you mean, give me a sit rep. Now!" Al barked into his radio.
"There was a secondary device, it's been triggered. Trip wire and a timer, they've both been activated. Clear the area outside to at least three hundred feet, the thing is packed with enough C4 to blow the roof off." He let the hand holding the radio drop as he saw Hutchings startled expression.
"Are you compromised?"
"Negative, sir, but Hutchings is." His voice was calm and clear, he needed to keep his head to get his colleague out alive, there would be plenty of time to panic later, if they got out their current predicament in one piece.
"You know the procedure, Horatio. You have to leave. Now" Al's tone brooked no argument.
"Negative, sir."
"Negative?!" Al spluttered with anger, "Get your ass out of there. Now!"
Horatio pressed the receiver on the radio in and out as he spoke in an effort to distort his communication with his boss.
"Could….repeat….last….instruction…over," was all that came through at the other end as the head of the bomb squad threw his radio down in frustration, he knew exactly what the stubborn redhead was up to and prayed that his insolence wouldn't get both him and Hutchings killed.
Horatio dropped the radio on the floor and cast a glance over to Hutchings, raising his eyebrow as Al Humphries sent a string of expletives through the airwaves.
"Ok, I need you to listen carefully to me. Can you do that?"
Hutchings nodded his head quickly, taking no notice of the sweat pouring off his own face. "Ye…..Yes."
"We have less than two minutes left, disturbing the trip wire is not going to make much difference when that timer runs out. I figure we have about ten seconds from the time you move your foot to the explosion. When I tell you to I want you to run as fast as you can towards the end of that corridor. Understand?"
Hutchings nodded again and then gasped when Horatio carefully stepped over the wire so that he was now in front of him. "What are you doing? You should run now and get out of the blast area."
"I can't do that, son. Besides, you're barely 110lbs soaking wet, you're not going to afford me much protection if you're behind me." He adjusted the straps on his flak jacket, "I've got a few years on you, no doubt you can run faster than I can. I'd only slow you down."
The younger man shook his head, "I can't let you do this, you need to leave me here."
"I told you, I can't do that. You're fiancé is pregnant, is she not?"
"Yeah, she's due next month."
"You're starting a family, they're going to need you to be there for them."
"What about you?"
The question took Horatio by surprise; he hadn't honestly thought about himself, all of his attention had been focused on trying to get his colleague out of their dire situation in one piece. When he considered it his actions made even more sense, Hutchings had a partner and a child on the way whereas he had nothing and no one to go home to. Perhaps giving his life so that Hutchings could survive would help even the balance and go some way to repairing the heartache that he caused to his own loved ones all those years ago in New York.
Glancing back down at his watch he decided it was now or never, pushing Hutchings off the wire he screamed at the younger man to run as he took one final look down the corridor before setting off behind him. Time seemed to move in slow motion as he counted down from ten in his mind, he knew trying to outrun the blast would be futile but he had to try. He had reached zero all too soon and soon felt the tendrils of heat rushing towards him, feeling the flames licking at his back as he scurried as far away from the blast as he could. Then he felt the pressure as the air was sucked out of the room, he saw the flash of light before he heard the deafening concussion of the blast and wondered absent-mindedly if they would find his body in one piece before everything went black.
Miami. Present day:
"He should have left me and got out himself but he didn't," Hutchings mused as he sat down on a stool.
"That's Horatio for you," Calleigh responded, she knew it was the actions of the man she had fallen so deeply in love with, selfless and with more regard for others safety than his own.
"When they pulled me out all I wanted to know was if they'd found him. I thought for sure he'd be dead." He ran a hand through his hair, "I was so relieved when they brought him into the room next to me at the hospital. He had a concussion, a few cracked ribs and a broken ankle but apart from that he was ok, I'd never been so happy to see someone in my life." Simon smiled wistfully as he recalled the long-forgotten memory.
"What about you, were you hurt in the blast?"
"I took a knock on the head and had a hell of a lot of cuts and bruises but I was ok. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck though." He gave her a shy smile, "It meant that I was home to see my little boy being born." He pulled out his wallet and showed her the photograph, "We gave him the middle name Caine, silly huh?"
If she had been in any doubt before, Calleigh now knew that she could trust the man in front of her, Hutchings owed his life to Horatio and she hoped that he would now be able to return the favour and help track down the bastards that were after her beloved redhead.