"Miss Boa Vista, so nice of you to join me at last," Sargent Craig smiled as the nervous CSI entered the interview room and sat down warily.
"We're a busy lab; processing evidence is our top priority."
"Indeed. No doubt the task has become more difficult being one team member down for so long."
The IAB officer arched an eyebrow at her as she refused to offer a response.
"I am sure your superior officers have already told you the reason for my being here."
"No, they haven't," she replied coolly.
The smartly-dressed Sargent gave her a disbelieving look which quickly turned into an oily smile.
"I'm here to conduct an investigation into the competency of your colleagues CSI Duquesne and Lieutenant Caine. We need to ascertain whether their actions brought about consequences that could have otherwise been avoided."
"I have complete faith in both of them," Natalia responded as she jutted her chin out defiantly.
"But would you follow them blindly even if you believed their ability to make decisions had become impaired?"
"I'd lay down my life for either of them."
The IAB officer flicked through the notes in front of her
"Yes. I see here that Lieutenant Caine led you straight into an ambush last year that resulted in both of you nearly dying."
"That's not what happened….." she tried to explain before the other woman cut her off mid-way.
"Lieutenant Caine is your superior officer, is he not?"
She narrowed her eyes at the evil woman sitting across from her.
"Tell me, did he secure the area?"
"There was no need; we were going to meet with a man who I thought posed no threat to us. I had no idea that he would be armed."
"But both of you failed to ascertain whether your suspect was carry a weapon."
Natalia let out a frustrated breath.
"What does this have to do with anything?"
"I'm trying to ascertain whether your superior is fit for the role he has been given by the department. It seems to me as if his judgement has been skewed for some time and that the unfortunate incident with the Malucci organisation was an accident waiting to happen."
The suited young woman looked down at her notes once more before regarding her prey coolly.
"It is my understanding that Lieutenant Caine is a widower."
"What of it?"
"How would you describe his behaviour since the death of his wife?"
Natalia flinched noticeably at the question, what could Marisol's death possibly have to do with her investigation?
"It affected him deeply, Eric too."
"In what way?"
The IAB officer was obviously not going to take her vague responses as an answer.
"He loved her and he misses her. As he should."
"Would you say he became quieter, more withdrawn from his team after her death?"
"Horatio has always been a very private man but he's never given less than 100% to this lab and the team."
"So you never noticed him working odd hours?"
She looked at the prim woman sitting across from her blankly.
"What do you mean?"
Sargent Craig looked down at the file in front of her again as she placed a piece of paper in front of Natalia.
"These are the sign in sheets for your department in the six months after the death of Marisol Delko-Caine. As you can see, the Lieutenant spent a vast amount of time here during that time. If you look over all of the logs for the last six and a half years you will see a similar pattern."
"Horatio is dedicated to his job and his team. Why are you trying to make something of this?"
"I'm trying to build an understanding of Lieutenant Caine's temperament at the time of his injury and subsequent abduction. Have you at any time believed his judgement to be impaired?"
"In what way?"
"Alcohol or substance abuse?"
Natalia visibly blanched at the accusation.
"No, never."
"But you and other members of your team expressed your concerns that he had not being coping since the death of his wife, had you not?"
"Who told you that?"
The smarmy smile on Sargent Craig's face told her all she needed to know, she had fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. Her heart sank as she realised that she had given the woman exactly what she wanted as she watched her gleefully write something in her notes.
"Let's move on shall we, Miss Boa Vista. Did you at any point have any concerns over CSI Duquesne's handling of the team whilst Lieutenant Caine was missing?"
It took a few moments for the shame of falling for the IAB officer's ploy to sink in before she answered tiredly.
"No, I did not."
"My sources report that CSI Duquesne had barely ate or slept for the entire duration of Lieutenant Caine's abduction. How long was he missing for?"
"Just over three days," was her monotone response.
For her, and the rest of the team, it had quite possibly been the longest three days she had ever experienced. They were simply all blind with panic and their need to find their fallen leader before the Malucci's had time to exact their brutal sense of justice on Horatio. It sickened her to think that they had failed him so badly.
The team had always prided themselves on being the best in their field, it was part of the reason that Horatio had asked them to work under him at the lab. Yet nearly all of them failed him by making one rookie mistake after another. They had been so busy chasing their tails and consumed with their focus on finding him that they had often neglected to understand what was right in front of them, staring them in the face.
They'd found him eventually but by then the damage had already been done. The team had visited him every single day since his rescue and had stood by his side as the demons from his past haunted even his waking hours. He had become angry and frustrated, mainly at himself, but Natalia knew that it was the team's fault that they had failed him so badly, whether he realised it or not.
Flashback. Miami 8 weeks ago:
Kyle flopped tiredly to the couch beside Calleigh as he nodded gratefully at the mug of steaming coffee she had placed on the table for him. It had been a long and tiring day, not only for them but the injured man they had brought home with them.
"Is he sleeping?" Calleigh asked tiredly as she took a sip of her coffee.
Kyle ran a ragged hand through his hair.
"Yeah, I sat with him for a little while just to make sure but I think all that moving about has tired him out."
He gave Calleigh a wan smile.
"All I got for the last half hour was glares and growls."
"He doesn't mean it, Kyle. He's been through so much and he's still so ill, he loves you so much though. You know that, right?"
He sank back further into the cushions as he let out a deep breath.
"Yeah, I know. He's not at his best right now but it doesn't make it any easier for us to just sit back and watch it."
"He needs to concentrate on himself and getting better, Kyle. In the meantime we've got each other to lean on, ok?"
He gave her a sad smile.
"We do."
Finishing the last of his coffee, Kyle closed his eyes and let the day's events wash over him.
Earlier that day:
He pushed the wheelchair into his father's room as he beamed at the man.
"Check out your wheels, Dad. What do you think?"
The smile faded from his face as he saw the look of righteous indignation that his father shot Alexx's way.
"I'm not getting in that…thing," he said as he pointed at the hospital issue wheelchair.
"It's hospital policy, sugar. You either get in or you don't leave."
Horatio's gaze switched between the chair and the doctor for a number of moments before he finally relented with a dramatic sigh.
"Your word, Alexx, that I only have to sit in that thing until we get outside."
She gave him a toothy grin in response.
"I promise. Now get in the damn chair."
Kyle let out a breath he wasn't aware that he'd been holding as his father shakily pushed himself up from the bed and sat down in the wheelchair with a modicum of assistance from Alexx, who placed his sunglasses over his still-sensitive eyes.
"We've got everything set up at Calleigh's house for you," he told his father excitedly as he pushed him through the hallways that had started to look more like home than anywhere else the last few weeks.
"You're not taking me home?"
Calleigh skipped a couple of paces to keep up with the two men as she joined the conversation.
"Your place is too small for all three of us and besides, you don't have an en-suite, I do."
He could see his father's body tense at Calleigh's words.
"I don't need two nursemaids to look after me," he growled as he kept his head down.
"Well, it's going to take more than one person to run around after you twenty-four hours a day," she shot back without thinking.
Even Kyle and Alexx had stopped walking and turned to look at her in astonishment. She took a deep breath as she tried to backtrack on her careless remark.
"We want to help you, Horatio. Just let us help you get better, please."
He said nothing as he lifted his gaze to her face before twisting his neck as much as his injured body would allow to regard his son.
"Can we go now please?"
"Sure, Dad," the young man responded as he pushed the wheelchair away.
After Alexx had sent them off with a teary goodbye and an admonishment not to return to her ER anytime soon, the three of them set off for Calleigh's house in her department-issued Hummer.
Kyle sat in the back with his father, making sure that the older man was comfortable and had everything he needed for the short trip to the house that they would both call home for the foreseeable future. He kept glancing at his father and noticed the stiff way he held himself and flinched as the vehicle drove over speed bumps or potholes in the road.
Horatio had kept his gaze firmly out of the window until his son's voice shook him from his reverie.
"I stole one of these whilst you were missing," he said quietly, hoping that it would at least shock his father into some sort of meaningful response.
It had the desired effect when the older man turned his head quickly as his eyes widened.
"You did what?"
He looked sheepishly at his father.
"I got fed up sitting on my hands doing nothing, so I decided to commandeer a Hummer and find you myself."
The older man looked crestfallen.
"Kyle, how could have been so reckless? You could have been arrested…..or worse."
"I did it because I wanted to find you, one way or the other. I swear that if you hadn't blown those assholes up I would have killed them myself."
He balled his hands into fists as he thought about how terrible his father had looked when they had finally brought him back to shore, how he had sat by his father's bedside for days, praying that he would wake up.
Their conversation came to a premature end as Calleigh put the Hummer into park and killed the engine, glancing in the rear view mirror and giving her passengers a grin.
"Home, sweet home," she teased as she let herself out of the vehicle and grabbed the bags from the rear.
Kyle opened his door and jumped out before running round the other side to help his father.
"I can manage," the other man growled as he lowered his shaky legs towards the gravel driveway.
"Sure you can," he responded sarcastically as he watched him lose his balance.
Keeping a firm hand on his father's elbow he helped him into the house and gazed at the next obstacle they faced, the stairs.
"Do you need to rest or shall we go straight up?" he asked as he felt the shaking coursing through his father increase the longer they were standing.
"Upstairs, please."
Together they made it, after a few miss-steps and stumbles they found their way into Calleigh's main bedroom.
"This is your room, Dad," he smiled as he helped his weak and injured father sit down on the bed.
"But this is Calleigh's room."
"For now, it's yours. Don't argue, Dad," he added quickly as he saw the other man open his mouth to speak.
Horatio watched as his son placed the holdall down and began unpacking the small selection of clothes that he had brought back from the hospital with him.
"You don't need to do that, son."
"It's no trouble," the younger man replied, "We brought most of your clothes over here the other day; I'm just adding these last few bits. Besides, you need a bath and a change of clothes."
He looked down at his sweat-dampened clothes and realised with a sense of embarrassment that his son was right. Shame washed over him as he realised that he would not be able to make it from the bed without Kyle's assistance.
The young man seemed to understand instantly what his father needed and walked over to him, wordlessly helping him to his feet and towards the bathroom.
Gently lowering his father to the toilet, Kyle allowed the older man to regain control of his breathing and equilibrium. He knew his father felt awkward and embarrassed and being watched like a hawk was doing nothing for his surly demeanour.
He busied himself instead by running the bath and adding the lotion that Alexx had recommended to allow his father's wounds and burns heal more quickly, casting furtive glances to the older man as he hung his head.
It angered Kyle that his father felt so ashamed of himself, as if he brought his ordeal upon himself. Nothing could be further from the truth in the young man's eyes; his father was a hero, both here and in New York. His father had nothing to be ashamed about, he took it upon himself to protect the older man as he recovered and would gladly tend to his every need. It was the least he could do for the man who had saved him and changed his life for the better.
"We need to get these clothes off you, Dad," he said quietly as he turned the taps off.
His father nodded and began awkwardly pulling at his t-shirt, grimacing and growling in frustration as his weak body failed him again.
Kyle said nothing as he pulled the top gently from his father's body and tamped down on the rush of anger he felt at seeing the wounds that littered the other man's body. He bent down silently and went about undoing the laces on his father's shoes and removing his socks, knowing that the man couldn't bend down and accomplish the task for himself.
He held a hand out to his father.
"Stand up and I'll help you take your pants off."
The older man's head shot up quickly.
"No. I can do it," he replied firmly.
"No, you can't. Let me help, Dad."
Between them they managed to get to the bath and he kept his gaze averted as he helped his father sink into the hot water, trying to spare the man's blushes as much as he could. His father was a proud man and did not accept help from others easily; it was important that he showed the older man that he would honour his dignity and make the process as painless as possible.
He grabbed a cloth and gently wiped at the wounds and burns on his father's back as he watched him hang his head. He wasn't sure, but he could have sworn he heard his father's breath hitch as he tried to keep his own emotions under control.
After completing his task he decided to give the other man some privacy and set about selecting suitable clothes for him to wear in bed. He pulled out a thin shirt and a pair of shorts which would make dressing and undressing a much easier task the next day.
Wordlessly, he helped his father stand and climb out of the bath before placing him back on the toilet and grabbing some towels. Neither man uttered a word as he dried the older man off tenderly, being mindful of the bruises and wounds.
He dressed his father and then helped him to stand knowing that talking to him or trying to encourage him to engage would be pointless, the less of a deal he made of helping him, the better.
It was obvious that the short trip to Calleigh's and the bath had tired the older man out considerably as he watched the blue eyes grow heavy. He helped him to lie down in the bed and pulled the sheets up to his shoulders before pulling a chair over and sitting by his father's side.
"You don't have to stay, Kyle," Horatio said flatly as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
He said nothing and continued to watch his father until he had finally drifted off to sleep.
Calleigh and Kyle sat in comfortable silence for some time before they were disturbed by a loud knocking at the door. Both of their gazes shot to the stairs, simultaneously hoping that the noise hadn't woken the slumbering man upstairs.
She made her way to the door quietly and was surprised to find Ryan and Natalia standing on the other side looking eager.
"Hey, Cal. We just wanted to come and see the big man to welcome him home."
Ryan's face fell as he took in Calleigh's expression.
"He's ok isn't he? We thought he was being released today."
She ran a tired hand through her hair.
"He was. Now's not a good time, guys. Today took a lot of out of him; give him a few days, ok?"
The two young CSIs looked disappointed but did as they were asked as Calleigh closed the door quietly. Horatio was barely holding things together; even an idiot could see that. He needed time to come to terms with what had happened and he certainly didn't need an audience to watch him try to do it.
Right now, he was defenceless and vulnerable. Time and help would restore his vital spirit and soothe his troubled soul. At least, she hoped it would.