Miami, Yesterday evening:
"Laura?" Eric questioned as he cut into his steak, "That was the name of his first wife wasn't it?"
"Sure was, kid," Andy replied around a mouthful of food.
"How do you know that?" the older man asked a few moments later.
"Horatio kept mumbling her name when I went to visit him in hospital one day."
Flashback. Miami 9 weeks ago:
Eric entered the hospital with a renewed sense of hope; Calleigh had rung him earlier in the day and updated him on the progress of his brother in law. She had told him, gleefully how Horatio had made it out of his bed and managed to take a short walk around his room with some physical assistance. It was even better news that his short trip had not resulted in another setback as it had done the last time Alexx had attempted to get him up and moving.
He knew first-hand how frustrating it was being confined to a hospital bed, forced to rely on other people to tend to your needs and it had to be all the more galling for a man as strong and independent as Horatio.
He certainly felt sympathy for the man, his colleague's mood had shifted from despair and pity to frustration and anger as his weakened body continued to fail him leaving him in a hole so deep he wasn't sure that he would ever return from it.
He had learnt quickly not to take Horatio's foul mood or fierce glares personally each time he visited him, it was just the other man's way of pushing people away so that he could brood on his own in silence. He took Horatio's anger in his stride as he refused to let the stubborn man push him away when he needed him the most. He knew in the end it would be Horatio's stubbornness and inability to give in that would inevitably see him recover from his horrific ordeal.
"Hey, sugar," a warm voice called from across the hall.
His face lit up with a genuine smile when he saw her standing a few feet away from him.
"Alexx, how are you?"
"I'm good, thanks. Horatio's been keeping me on my toes today," she smiled back as she pulled Eric to her and gave him a hug.
The sentence immediately sent Eric's imagination into overdrive.
"He's ok, isn't he?" he asked concerned.
"He's absolutely fine, honey, don't worry. He's been up and about doing a few laps of his room earlier today."
He smiled at the mental image Alexx's words conjured.
"Yeah, Calleigh told me you got him out of bed today. How'd he handle it?"
"With his usual infuriating stubbornness," the doctor replied tartly.
"I told him he could do a couple of laps round the room but you know what he's like, insisting that he pushes himself harder than his body can handle."
"But that's good, right? At least he's showing a bit more enthusiasm than he has recently."
"It is good, sugar. I just don't want him pushing himself too far and taking a few steps backwards again."
The look between the two friends spoke volumes. The unexpected repercussions of Horatio's last attempt to leave his hospital bed had ended up with him back in the operating room for emergency surgery to rectify the internal bleeding that his movements had caused.
He had been the first person Horatio had seen since he'd regained consciousness from the surgery and the look on his face was one that he was not likely to forget in a hurry. In all of the years that he had known him, he had never seen Horatio look so defeated, as the dulled blue eyes scanned his own body and saw the tubes and wires had returned.
He, along with Calleigh, Kyle and Andy had tried their best to pull him out of the depressed state he had fallen into but to no real avail. Horatio was surly and dismissive at best as they came to visit him regularly and on more than one occasion had shouted at them to get out.
It had taken almost a week but they had finally gotten Horatio strong enough to make another attempt at rising from the bed that had held him prisoner for so long, and this time it seemed to be a positive step forwards.
"I have to warn you, honey, he's probably fast asleep in there. He pushed himself pretty hard earlier and the pain meds are still doing a number on him. He'll likely sleep the rest of the day away."
"Can I go and sit with him anyway, I wanna feel like I'm actually doing something, you know?"
She smiled sweetly at him as she placed a hand on his bicep and gave it a light squeeze.
"You've done a hell of a lot already, Eric. You and Calleigh have been holding everything together these last few weeks. At least Horatio knows that he'll have a lab to go back to."
"You think he'll come back?" Eric asked doubtfully, surprising himself with the question too.
"I don't doubt it for one second. That job is his life; I don't think he'd be happy doing anything else."
Alexx looked at her watch and gave him an apologetic smile.
"Duty calls, sugar. I 'll be around if you need me."
He made his way into Horatio's hospital room and shut the door quietly behind him, letting out a deep breath when he was certain that he had not woken the other man. Sitting down in the chair beside the bed he was content to watch him sleep.
Horatio appeared to be sleeping soundly, the slumbering man's head turned to the left with a somewhat peaceful look on his face. It was a sight that warmed Eric's heart, Horatio had seemed to have a permanent frown etched into his worn and haggard features recently and it pained him that there was nothing he could do to ease the other man's suffering, all he could do was stand back and watch helplessly.
He sat and watched his close friend and colleague sleep for what seemed like hours and he could feel his own eyes becoming heavy, even the bitter-tasting coffee from the hospital vending machine could not perk him up.
His half-closed eyelids shot open as he heard Horatio turn his head from side to side restlessly as he began to mumble incoherently.
He made his way down the steps of the building that housed the NYPD's 15th precinct and looked up at the clear blue skies above him, taking heart from the fact that it appeared to be a pleasant day weather-wise.
He wasn't sure why, but he had the feeling that someone was watching him. He lowered his gaze until his eyes fell upon the woman standing across the street, smiling wolfishly at him.
He breathed her name as he drunk in the sight of her, the passing years doing nothing to dampen his passionate feelings towards her. She had him wrapped around her little finger, anything she asked he would gladly do if it meant that he got to spend time with her, to be close to her and satisfy her every need. He was helpless against her, his love for her blinding him to anything or anyone else.
Suddenly, he was overcome with a need to be near her, to see her, to smell her, to hold her in his arms once more. Their eyes met and he decided there and then to make his way over to her and show the beautiful woman just how much she meant to him.
He frowned as her expression changed from one of delight to one of disappointment, he opened his mouth to call out to her but found that he couldn't.
He tried to move his legs, one in front of the other, but found that he couldn't move either. As his eyes travelled down he could see the chains secured to his ankles, he tried to raise his arms but found that they were bound also.
He had no other option but to watch helplessly as Benny Malucci took the woman he loved by the hand and pulled her away into the distance, he could see the knife he held at her back and knew that the mobster would have no qualms about using it on her.
She gave him one last glance from over her shoulder as she was dragged away.
"Why didn't you save me, Johnny?"
He woke with a start, surprised to find Eric's soulful brown eyes gazing into his own.
"You ok, H?"
He attempted to raise his injured left hand before realising that he couldn't, he lifted his shaky right hand to his head instead as he rubbed roughly at his eyes.
"I'm fine," he said after a long pause, struggling to keep his eyes open for more than a few moments at a time.
"It looked like you were having a bad dream."
He looked at Eric sharply but said nothing in response.
"Who's Lori? You kept calling her name."
"Just someone I knew back in New York," he replied evasively.
Eric could tell by the tension in Horatio's body that the woman he dreamt about must have meant a lot to him.
"She must be special to you," he suggested quietly.
The older man closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"She was very special to me. She was my wife."
Miami. Yesterday evening:
"He wouldn't really tell me much more about her, he just kept shutting me down every time I tried to get him to open up," Eric said sadly as he took a swig of his beer.
"John's a lot more closed off these days, kid. It's not surprising considering all of the shit he went through back then."
Andy raised an eyebrow at Eric's wistful smile.
"Something you wanna say?"
The younger man shook his head as he tried to shake the image from his mind.
"I'm just having a hard time imagining Horatio being a hearts and flowers kind of guy."
Andy snorted derisively as he chewed another mouthful of steak.
"John was young and innocent back then. Just a fool in love."
Flashback. New York 1989:
It had been three weeks since they had closed the Harper case and Andy found it strange that the young female ADA kept finding reasons to drop by the precinct on a regular basis. Had he been more inclined to listen to the department tittle-tattle he would have come to the conclusion much sooner that his partner and the lawyer were an item.
In hindsight he could see how the young man's demeanour had changed subtly, he was even bouncier and perkier than usual and all the more irritating for it. His partner most definitely had the look of a man who was getting laid pretty much every night, of that he had no doubt.
John was no longer keen to stay after shift or come in early now that he had a special woman in his life. He noticed how the guy would often glance to the clock on the wall in the squad room as the end of the shift beckoned.
It just happened to be today that he was confronted with undeniable evidence of his partner's liaison with the young woman. John had volunteered to go over some key pieces of evidence and testimony in preparation for the Harper trial hearing and had shown the ADA to an interview room down the corridor.
Over an hour had passed and he was beginning to get itchy feet at being sat in the stuffy squad room all day. Pulling himself to his feet and using the desk for support, he strolled out of the room intent on finding John to tell him he was going out for some fresh air.
He realised all too late that he should have knocked as the two young lovers were caught in a passionate embrace over the desk in the middle of the room. It was hard to know who was the most shocked out of the three of them, he stood dumfounded for a number of moments as the other two went about rearranging their clothes and smoothing their ruffled hair down.
"Anything come up?" Andy quipped as he arched an eyebrow at the embarrassed pair before shaking his head and walking away.
He could still hear their giggling from the other end of the corridor and felt a pang of regret that the ravages of time had taken their toll on him, chipping away at his own youthful innocence until all that was left was a bitter and twisted alcoholic old man.