She called out to him as she saw his tall form walk past her office door.

"Eric, have you got a sec?" she said loudly as she shuffled a handful of papers and placed them to one side.

Her colleague, and one-time lover, ambled back towards the open door and popped his head round. "Hey, Cal. How's it going?"

She let out an exaggerated breath as she blew hair back from her forehead. "It's been a long day. I just wanted to know if Sargent Craig has been to see you yet."

Judging by the sour look on Eric's face it was obvious that the fastidious Internal Affairs officer had subjected him to the third degree too. "Yeah, she came looking for me. I told her where to get off….why do you ask?"

Eric shut the door behind him and sat in the chair in front of the desk as Calleigh motioned him to move closer.

"She came by looking for Horatio earlier," she began.

"How long ago was that? Have you seen him since?" Eric spluttered as he tried to fight the rising sense of alarm that he felt, he knew Horatio was likely to have fallen on his sword in order to protect his team at any cost.

"Eric, calm down…I sent an old friend to sit in with him, I'm hoping that he made sure Horatio didn't say something that you or I would end up regretting."

"Who?" he asked, curious as to the identity of the person Horatio would have let accompany him into an interview with IAB.

"And old friend of from his bomb squad days, Simon Hutchings, do you know him?"

Eric shrugged his shoulders. "Only in passing. I guess he was the one I saw Horatio leaving with about an hour ago, he didn't look that happy either."

"Who, Horatio or Simon?" she asked humourlessly.

He replied with a frown of his own. "Who do you think?"

The two of them shared a knowing look; Horatio hated asking for help or even admitting that he needed it. Eric was well aware that being accompanied to an interview by someone else was something that his brother in law would not have readily agreed to and had likely been forced into accepting the other man's help.

"Have you seen him come back yet?" Calleigh asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

Eric shook his head. "Nope, you tried ringing him?"

She gave her colleague a pained look. "I'm not exactly in his good books at the moment; I get the feeling that he's deliberately ignoring me."

He gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Give him time, Cal. You know what H is like, he's a proud man."

"How's the Simpson case going?" Calleigh asked after a moment's pause, glad to change the subject and think of something else rather than how she was going to make things up with Horatio.

"We haven't been able to match the prints and DNA we found to anyone in the databases, uniformed officers are still keeping tabs on Fernandez but they haven't been able to give us anything in the way of new suspects yet."

"Keep trying, Eric. We need to catch a break on the case soon; we've got others piling up around us that need our attention too."

"Will do, Calleigh…..any idea on when H is gonna be back out in the field with us?" he asked after a moment's pause.

"Hopefully when this pointless IAB investigation has finished, things will settle down. Look….I know it hasn't been easy for any of us recently, I'm sorry if I've come across as harsh to you…It's just….this job isn't easy, you know."

"Makes you wonder how H did it all these years, huh?"

The two of them exchanged another meaningful look before Eric spoke again. "If you ever need to talk, Cal, you know where you can find me, ok?"

She gave him a grateful smile as he stood up and left the room. "Thanks, Eric."

The office was almost deserted by the time Hillary Craig had made it back to her desk, it had been another long and uncomfortable afternoon, and her interviews had proved futile. It was time to face facts, there was simply no case to be answered for, and she had found no sufficient proof to implicate CSI Duquesne or Lieutenant Caine in doing anything untoward. From a personal perspective, she would probably have considered some of their choices unwise but they had not committed any kind of error that could lead to disciplinary action.

As Sargent Hutchings had echoed, if there were indeed a personal relationship between the CSI and her superior it was not a matter that she herself could pass judgement on. She would write her suspicions up in her report though; she'd heard many rumours around the Department about the two of them and their living arrangements.

Part of her wanted to find something incriminating on them, she knew it was jealousy she felt when she saw the Crime Lab team and the close bond its members shared. Internal Affairs was not the type of department where people made friends easily and many of her fellow officers chose to keep to themselves, the only time many of them came in contact with each other was at the weekly staff meetings that were held so that pertinent information could be pooled, it was all business and no time for pleasantries.

How many times had she left her desk at the end of another long shift downhearted and depressed? Police officers were rude to her on a daily basis, it came as part of the job yet it didn't make their words or actions towards her hurt any less. There were days when she would have loved nothing more than to unwind after a hard shift with a glass of wine and the good company of a trusted colleague, something that she had been constantly deprived of for years now. Was her isolation causing her to become bitter and twisted?

It was with a small sense of satisfaction then, that she had managed to cause a few waves to crash over the family unit of the Crime Lab. Her questions had been harsh and designed to cause a rift between the team and it seemed as if she had managed to achieve her objective to some point. She'd had her ear to the ground and had heard that there had been quiet rumblings of discontent within the team that she'd been investigating. Gone were the smug smiles from the faces of the officers she interviewed as they were replaced with scowls and downright hostility. The harsh answers that she had received from some of her questions led her to believe that not all was well with the team, hence her intention to keep the Crime Lab firmly in her sights.

As she sat typing up her report, a melancholy feeling washed over her. Perhaps it was time to accept the olive branch that Ryan had been trying to hold out to her. She had a sense that something had been bothering her old academy buddy and had ached to ask him what was troubling him. They were both proud people though and his cruel words to her had stung, how dare he lecture her about loyalty?

Where was he when she became singled out for what she perceived as only doing her job?

Nobody wanted to be associated with a grass, friendships cultivated through the training academy be damned. To be ostracised from your colleagues when you had done nothing wrong was a damn bitter pill to swallow. She could sense that Ryan was hurting too but then so had she, was it wrong that she wanted someone else to know how it felt to be hurt too?

Her attention was diverted from her computer screen as her phone vibrated loudly on her desk, not a text message this time but a call, it seemed as if Ryan was taking more direct action now. She wanted to ignore it, her mind screamed at her to do so, yet her need to see a friendly and understanding face won out in the end as she picked it up and answered the call.

"Hil, it's Ryan. We need to talk."

It had been at least three hours since Horatio's meeting with Internal Affairs and she had seen no trace of him since that time, she'd tried ringing him but he had continued to ignore her. Well, enough was enough, she thought to herself as she stalked through the labs in search of him aware that their shift had finished barely ten minutes ago.

She looked in each area in turn and finally found herself in the locker room; she caught his red hair as he walked out of the bathroom, fiddling with the support brace on his left arm. Her unexpected presence in the room made him jump.

"Calleigh," he finally looked up at her as he regained his composure, his voice even and devoid of emotion.

She flinched at the tone of his voice and was left in no doubt that he was still mad with her. "Horatio, I've been looking for you everywhere. Why didn't you answer your phone?" she asked, much firmer than she had originally intended.

"I've been busy…..I needed time to think," he replied as he glanced at her only briefly, playing his cards close to his chest.

His dismissal of her hurt but she knew it was no less than she deserved, her only hope was that he would eventually understand that she had done it for the right reasons. "I just thought you should know that IAB have dropped the investigation against us."

"Good," he replied succinctly.

"I got a call from the Chief though; he wants to meet with the both of us tomorrow morning. Is that ok?"

"He wants to see us together?"

"Yes, apparently there is a matter that he needs to discuss with both of us."

Neither of them were blind or naïve, it was obvious that Sargent Craig had noted her suspicions about their relationship in her report, a report that had been placed straight in the hands of the Department Chief, the man would want answers to certain questions that neither of them would find comfortable answering.

"I think perhaps we need to talk first," Calleigh suggested as her lover refused to look at her.

"Indeed we do," he replied cryptically as he looked up at her briefly, still using that cold tone of voice.

"Horatio, please don't be like this. I know I hurt you and I'm sorry, can we just go home and talk this over?"

He walked towards her, taking her gently by the arms and placing a gentle kiss on her cheek. "Later, Sweetheart. I have something I need to do first."

"Where are you going?" she asked as she watched him walk towards the door.

"There are some things at my house…..I need to collect them."

"You're coming home though, right?" she asked uncertainly as the panic began to set in. Was he that mad with her that he didn't even want to be in the same house as her anymore?

He smiled sadly and looked at her briefly. "I am."

Opening the door to his house in South Beach, he had to admit that he'd missed the place. Not that there was anything wrong with Calleigh's home, it just felt as if he were a guest there sometimes and not a permanent resident. She and Kyle had brought many of his clothes and personal items to her house shortly before he'd been released from hospital but there were some things that he just missed having around, sometimes a man just needed his own space, a kingdom that he could call his own.

It seemed silly to keep paying the bills for a home that he no longer lived in, yet he was reluctant to rent it to anyone else. He was an intensely private man, his house was stamped with his own unique mark and he didn't feel particularly inclined to just offer it up to anyone. His team had been here, he was aware of that. They had visited when his home had been a crime scene, he'd seen the photos that had been taken of the carnage that the Malucci's had wreaked but had been spared seeing the brutal evidence first hand. The clean-up crew had done a good job, had he not known about the incident that occurred he would likely never have guessed that anything untoward had happened here at all.

Another reason that he had kept the house was due to his uncertainty over his relationship with Calleigh. His period of convalescence had been hard on all concerned and there were times during those dark days when he wondered whether she allowed him to stay out of a sense of pity. He'd been unable to function like any other healthy male and had last night not happened he feared that he might not have been able to have any kind of relationship with Calleigh at all.

Flashback. Miami 4 weeks ago:

"Come on, Horatio," Calleigh said firmly as she walked into the bedroom that they had fallen into sharing since his release from hospital, walking towards the window and pulling the blinds up.

She was rewarded with a fierce scowl from the slumbering man as he rubbed at his face with his good hand and squinted at the brightness of the room which momentarily caused pain to his still-sensitive eyes. "What time is it?" he asked with a groan.

"It's time to get up," she replied as she pulled back the thin cotton sheet that covered him and held out a hand to help him up.

"I'm tired," he responded grumpily as he closed his eyes, hoping that Calleigh would leave him alone.

It was hardly lying when he told her he was tired, the nightmares had certainly become more horrific since Kyle had left three days ago. He'd woken countless times during the night, shivering and shaking as his beautiful guardian angel tried to soothe him back into some sort of restful sleep.

The nights of little rest took their toll on him and he'd spent most of the last few days staying in bed, trying to regain a little of the lost sleep but to no avail. He certainly wasn't hungry either, his fear for his son's safety had caused him to lose his appetite completely and even when Calleigh had forced him to eat something he soon felt nauseous afterwards.

He was physically exhausted and emotionally drained, why couldn't she just leave him to wallow in his own misery?

"I don't care; you're getting out of this Goddamn bed today even if I have to drag you from it. Besides, I have to take you to your hospital appointment this morning."

He looked at her blankly; his mind had solely been focused on thoughts of Kyle and his safety now that he was out of arm's reach.

"They're taking the cast off today," she said patiently as she pointed down to his broken arm.

He took hold of her hand and allowed her to help raise him from the bed, "What time?" he asked as he scratched the back of his head and winced when it came in contact with the stitches that were still in place from his previous injury.

"A couple of hours…Grab a shower and I'll make you breakfast."

Thirty minutes later, Horatio made his way into the kitchen and smiled his thanks at Calleigh for the large mug of coffee she had placed at the table for him but frowned when he saw the pile of toast she had also put down.

"Calleigh, I'm not hungry…."

She cut him off. "I don't care, you've hardly eaten for days. Alexx will have my hide if we go in there and you faint on her."

He looked affronted at her remark but chose to keep his mouth shut and acquiesce to her demands. "I haven't…nor will I ever faint, Calleigh," he mumbled quietly as he nibbled at the toast in front of him.

"Shut up and eat," she replied with a teasing smile, feeling a small sense of hope that he had made the effort to engage in some kind of conversation, something that he hadn't done since Kyle's return to his unit.

The days had been long and the nights harrowing as Horatio battled the demons in his mind. Both of them knew that his fear for Kyle's safety was irrational but she could understand why he felt that way after learning what the cruel and sadistic Malucci's had made him believe.

Horatio was still weak and vulnerable and more than a little emotionally needy, without his physical strength to hide behind it made it all the more obvious that he was struggling to come to terms with what had happened to him, his emotional reactions far more extreme than any of those around him were used to.

She could feel his nervousness as they sat waiting in a private room at the hospital; Alexx had obviously left strict instructions for her staff to ensure the privacy and dignity of one of her most beloved patients. The sunglasses were still a permanent fixture on his gaunt and drawn face, still not used to the fierce midday Miami sunshine. They also served to hide the skittish way his eyes shot to every corner of the room as he heard the every-day clanging and banging of hospital life around him.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" a warm caramel voice purred as she walked up to her reluctant patient and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek.

Horatio stood to greet his friend and gave her as firm an embrace as his battered body would allow.

"How you doing, Sugar?" she asked as she looked him up and down.

"Getting there," he replied as he gave Calleigh a brief glance. "Can I get this thing off now?" he said as he pointed to the cumbersome cast on his left arm.

"Once we've done some x-rays….if I'm happy with how it's looking we'll take it off and start your physical rehabilitation."

He balked at the idea of having some well-meaning physio cajoling him into doing repetitive exercise all the while patronising him with their jolly and upbeat attitude. "I don't need that, Alexx."

"Don't frown at me, Horatio," she chided with a little more intensity than she had intended. "You'll be lucky if you can even move that arm at all after what happened to you."

She couldn't fail to notice the dark look that crossed his face and suddenly felt guilty for snapping at him.

After consulting with an orthopaedic specialist, Alexx finally agreed to remove the cast from her dear friend's arm, smiling as he winced slightly as the final piece of plaster was removed and he had his first good look at the countless hours of surgery that had gone into fixing his arm.

"The swelling and redness will go down in time, I'd say it's looking pretty good, all things considering."

He gave her a humourless look, "When can I start using it again?" he asked impatiently.

"Not for a while yet, Sugar. The x-rays showed that the bones have healed well around the plates but we need to work on building the muscle strength up again. I'm gonna give you some exercises to do before your first physical therapy session next week."

He gave her another sour look and grumbled under his breath, hating the fact that he would still be reliant on other people to a certain extent. He gave her a fake smile as she handed him a printed sheet of instructions and a small rubber ball.

"Squeeze that throughout the day, working your way up to five minutes at a time," she instructed him as she watched him take the innocent-looking object.

"Only five minutes?" he asked arrogantly as he began the process of closing his fist around the soft and yielding rubber only to find himself unable to. He was rewarded for his cockiness with an arched eyebrow from Alexx who was satisfied that she had made her point.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, he had suffered her good intentions as she systematically checked his injuries over and gave a nod of approval as she finished.

"Step on the scales," she instructed as she pointed to an ancient-looking contraption in the corner of the room.

"I really don't think that's necessary," he began only to find himself silenced by both women giving him a stern look.

Alexx tutted at him as he stepped off the scales, alarmed to find that he weighed less than when he'd been discharged from her care. "You need to eat more."

He shrugged his shoulders, "I've not exactly been hungry," he grumbled as he sat back down in the chair, glad to rest his weakened body for a few moments.

"You have to," she commanded, her tone would brook no insolence from him. "How have you been sleeping?"

He fidgeted awkwardly as he refused to meet her gaze.

"He hasn't," Calleigh answered before he'd really had a chance to draw breath let alone open his mouth to speak.

"I can set you up with an appointment with one of my colleagues…."

"No."

"Please, Horatio. Just think about it."

"I'm fine; I don't need to talk to anyone." His voice was firm as he directed his attention to Calleigh. "Unless there's anything else, Alexx, I'd like to go home now. Would you mind, Calleigh?"

He bolted from the chair and made it to the door in as quick a fashion as he could, cursing himself as he stumbled slightly in his haste. The two women shared a look as Calleigh shrugged her shoulders and followed him down the hall.

Present day. Miami:

He hadn't realised that he'd got lost in his thoughts until an insistent knocking at the front door brought him back to his senses. He walked into the hallway expecting Calleigh to be waiting on the other side, suddenly his paranoia set in as his subconscious barked at him that it might be an associate of the Malucci's sent to finish him off.

He disregarded that thought as soon as it entered his head, yet he couldn't discount the fact that it might be another person who had less than honourable intentions in coming to visit him. The taunting he'd received from the gang members outside Jesus Fernandez house was still fresh in his mind. Word had got out that perhaps he wasn't the man he used to be, the man that most criminals in Miami feared.

He instinctively reached his hand to his right hip and was thankful that he had the presence of mind to still carry his gun even though he was not active in the field. He popped the leather holster and silently drew his weapon as he inched closer to the door. His breath was coming in short gasps and he willed himself to get a grip as his hand shook slightly. Opening the door gradually with his left hand and using the bulky wooden frame as a shield he poked his head round slowly, gripping his gun tighter in his right hand. He opened the door fully and was momentarily floored by who was standing on the other side.