She held Kyle as he cried for the loss of his father and the future that both men deserved to share together. She held him as his sobs slowly died out and turned into hiccupping breaths. She was loathe to let him go but the cell phone in her pants pocket had other ideas as it chirped continuously at her. She released Kyle with a sigh and answered it with a heavy heart, not bothering to check the caller ID.
"Duquesne," she answered in a defeated tone.
"CSI Duquesne, I've been trying to reach you. I have some news for you."
Her ears pricked up at the sound of the captain of the Coast Guard. "What's happened, I thought you weren't going out again until first light?"
"We received a distress signal from a Mexican trawler boat; they say that they found a body floating in the water. It matches Lieutenant Caine's description."
Her heart sank what little hope that remained of finding Horatio alive had all been flickered out at the captain's news. All that remained now would be to bring the redhead back home to his final resting place.
"Ok, thanks Mark. I know that you did everything you could, where will you take the body?"
"My men and I are just about to head back down to Coral Springs, we'll meet the fishing boat halfway. We'll be taking the Lieutenant to Dade General."
She frowned at captain's response to her question, wondering why they would be taking Horatio's body to a hospital. His place was here in the department's morgue where Tom could treat his body with the proper respect, the respect that Horatio had earned and deserved.
"We'd prefer it if you would transfer his body to our morgue, we like to take care of our own."
"That might prove to be a little difficult; the trawler men say that the man they found in the water is alive. We're heading straight out there to bring him back ashore as quickly as we can, hopefully we'll be able to get him to the hospital in time."
It took a few moments for the information to filter through her tired brain. Kyle turned to face her with a questioning look as he heard her half of the conversation.
"Horatio's alive?" She said it with such uncertainty, not sure whether she was dreaming or this in fact was reality.
"That's what they've told us. The fishermen say that he looks pretty badly injured, I just hope he can hold on until we get there."
"How long will it take you?"
"The storm has calmed considerably but the winds are still high, we're hoping to reach the trawler within an hour."
"Can't you send a helicopter out, wouldn't that be quicker?"
"The wind is still too strong; we can't risk sending a chopper out in this weather. Look, the Lieutenant is strong, he's survived this far. Hopefully he can hang on a little while longer 'til we get there."
"Meet as Coral Springs, we've got a couple of guys trained as EMT's on board. Arrange for a bus to meet us back at the harbour. We'll bring him back as fast as we can."
She thanked God that Eric had decided to return to the harbour earlier and prayed that he was still in the area.
"Eric's down there already, can you pick him up before you head out to meet the boat. I want to have someone there when you find Horatio."
"As long as he's fit and ready to go as soon as we get there, we've got no time to waste on this one."
The call from Calleigh had come as somewhat of a surprise, but not an unwelcomed one. He'd had to ask her to repeat the news several times before it had begun to register in his mind.
He'd returned to the harbour an hour or so previously with no idea as to why he had come or what his visit would achieve. He sat in his Hummer as he watched the storm slowly abate, looking on as the waves crashed ever more sedately to the shore once more. The impromptu wake at the lab had been awkward and uncomfortable for all involved and he couldn't face sitting around wallowing with his colleagues and so he'd left. Picking up his keys, he exited the break room and headed for the parking lot with no idea where he might go.
He'd driven aimlessly for a while and somehow found himself back at Coral Springs, a place that would forever more signify one of the worst days of his life. The day that he had lost his brother-in-law and close friend, a day that Horatio had needed his team to be there for him, it was a day that they had all failed him.
He shook those thoughts from his mind as he stood on the deck of the Coast Guard ship as he gazed once more through his binoculars, looking for any sign of the trawler boat. A few stray pieces of debris floated over the water, more than likely from the vessel that Horatio had been held on, along with various disembodied human remains.
Good, serves those punks right, Eric mused as he watched a crewman hook another limb from the water. He was glad that no other survivors had been found, the Malucci's had ended up being the victims of their own particular brand of justice. At least the team could now concentrate on bringing Horatio home and to support him to move on with what was left of his shattered life.
Broken bones could be fixed, the complex relationships of the redhead's past were another matter entirely. Horatio had been forced into doing things that no good man should ever have had to do; he'd been made to leave behind his friends and family in order to protect them even though it made them hate him. He had sacrificed his life and happiness so that others would be spared their own and he had done it without breathing a word to another living soul.
He found it hard to imagine what his brother-in-law had been through back in those dark days in New York, to be forced to turn his back on everything he knew and loved and to start all over again in Miami. He couldn't believe that Horatio would for one minute ever think that he and the rest of the team would turn their backs on him once they knew the truth about his past. In fact, it made the team admire their stoic leader all the more, that he would willingly sacrifice himself for others and the greater good.
Of course, every member of the team already knew the kind of man their leader was. They could all reel off a number of examples when Horatio had risked his own life to help save those of his colleagues. Day after day, the redhead had run head-first into dangerous situations with little or no thought to his own personal safety and for the most part remained relatively unscathed. Until now.
The Coast Guard vessel finally reached the meeting point with the fishing trawler; Eric grabbed a lifejacket and jumped down onto the rickety wooden boat along with the EMT crewmen. He ignored the looks and hushed conversations of the trawler's crew as he followed the EMT's towards what looked like a bundle of blankets at the far end of the boat.
He felt his mouth go dry as he saw Horatio lying lifelessly on the floor, watching as one of the EMT's removed the blankets and did a quick cursory inspection of his patient. Eric winced as he saw the bruised and battered body of the redhead and gulped deeply when he saw the cuts and burns marring the man's face, arms and chest.
The EMT crouched beside Horatio looked up to his colleague and frowned.
"Tony, we need to get him on the stretcher ASAP and back on ship."
The other man nodded and began helping his partner lift and cover the injured man onto the stretcher.
"Is there anything I can do?" Eric asked as he ran a hand through his cropped hair. He felt useless, just standing back and watching. He wanted to do something, he wanted to help.
One of the EMT's took pity on him and through him their pack of medical equipment as he caught it in both hands.
"Carry the bag back; we're going to have our hands full with your colleague here."
It took precious moments, but finally Horatio had been transferred back onto the Coast Guard vessel and was now in the relatively dry and warm surroundings in the bowels of the boat as the two EMT's began working quickly on the silent redhead.
He watched on in shock as they cut Horatio's clothes away and rolled him to one side to remove the last vestiges of fabric from his body. Eric couldn't help the small gasp that escaped his lips as he saw the raw, bleeding and burnt skin of the other man's back.
"Won't he be cold like that?" he asked as he watched the two men go about their job.
"He's hypothermic already and the soaking wet clothes aren't helping. We're going to wrap him in thermal blankets as soon as we can get a couple of lines in and get some IVs going."
"He'll be ok though, won't he?"
One of the men looked up as his partner tried several times to find a suitable vein to get a line of fluids going.
"I won't lie to you; it's not looking great at the moment. He's barely breathing and it sounds as though he's aspirated a fair amount of water. On top of that, he seems to be severely dehydrated which is why Tony's having so much trouble trying to get a line in. The best we can do is try to keep him stable until we get back to shore.
It turned out to be one of the longest journeys of Eric's life as he watched the Coast Guard crewmen do everything they could to help Horatio survive until they reached Coral Springs. One look at the unmoving man in front of him told him that his brother-in-law's chances of survival were less than guaranteed.
The man was barely breathing and every time he heard the ailing man take a breath he could hear the rattle of fluid in his overworked lungs. Horatio's face was ashen, his lips and extremities taking on a bluish tinge as he lay lifeless on the stretcher.
Eric had never been so glad to see the team and the waiting bus as the boat finally rested at the harbour. There was a flurry of activity as paramedics and the Coast Guard EMTs began relaying information back and forth as they hurriedly removed Horatio from the boat and into the back of a waiting ambulance.
He ignored the concerned questions of his colleagues as he climbed in the back of the ambulance with the redhead, determined to stay with him until he was certain that his close friend would survive.