BETA READ by LA Calleigh

February 14th, and Calleigh Duquesne woke up alone in her double bed. She turned herself on her side, and looked at the flashy green digits of her clock radio: 03.05 am. She closed her eyes and tried to get some more sleep, but when it got to be 5:29 am, she decided to just get up and slowly make herself ready to go to the lab. She hadn't gotten any more sleep, and had just stared at the ceiling or the digits. She pushed herself up in a sitting position, tossing the covers aside in one swift movement, and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

'This is gonna be a very long day,' Calleigh said to herself, making her way over to the bathroom to get showered.

An hour later, Calleigh walked into the break room to pore herself a cup of sweet coffee. She wasn't all too surprised to find it empty, since she had arrived two hours before her shift would start. "Good morning, sweetheart," a low, velvet-like rumble came from behind her. She turned around at the sound. The sound she could, and would, never ever get tired of hearing. She realized she had been wrong. The break room had been almost empty.

"Hi, handsome," Calleigh replied, her soft voice slightly giving away the lack of sleep.

Putting his own pale blue mug down, Horatio pored another cup of caffeine into the bright pink mug, then added a huge quantity of sugar before handing it to his ballistics expert and taking his own black coffee again. She gratefully took the mug from his hands, taking a sip from its volume and tasting the sugar. A smile spread over her face and enlightened her pure green eyes even more beautifully.

"Thanks."

"No problem," the red haired police officer replied, giving the southern belle one of his rare smiles. "Hey, are you looking for something?" he asked, frowning, as he noticed her bright, light eyes searching the couch and the carpet.

"Yeah..." she admitted. "Last night, I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed out anything on the Vanbruane assault case, so I brought the file here to read through the list of evidence again, but, apparently, I fell asleep on the couch and–" "You lost the case file?"

"No," Calleigh replied, sighing. "My bracelet. I'm sure I still had it when I left Ballistics..." She swallowed. "That bracelet was my mother's."

"We're going to find it," Horatio assured her, as the two of them lowered themselves on the carpet and started moving about slowly on hands and knees in the midst of an un-yielding search for the bracelet Calleigh had lost somewhere in the vicinity of the break room.

Suddenly spotting something silver glinting in the light shining down from the window, Horatio reached over to its source. Picking the small silver band up in his hand, he slowly got up again smiling and asked, "Is this what you're looking for?"

"My bracelet," Calleigh whispered.

As Horatio handed her the bracelet, she briefly felt a light caress across her hand. That touch, that gentle caress that Calleigh had felt flutter across the back of her hand as Horatio handed her her bracelet was anything but an accident. He wanted nothing more than to be able to smile at her, touch every inch of her creamy white, and silky soft skin.

"Thanks, handsome," Calleigh whispered, taking her bracelet from him and carefully closing it around her small wrist again. He smiled, helping her up from the floor, like any gentleman would do. As soon as she came to stand on her feet again, she moved over to kiss Horatio's left cheek.

"You're more than welcome, sweetheart..."

"If you don't mind," she said with one of her electrifying smiles, briefly looking up at the dial of her watch indicating her shift would start in a minute, "I've got a job to do." She picked up her mug of coffee and headed to Firearms, leaving Horatio alone in the break room. On her way to Ballistics, she crossed Eric. Detective Delko's smile faded as he saw her practically skipping down the corridor. Maybe she had solved things with Jake.

"You do..." Horatio whispered more to himself, watching her leave before he had the chance to say anything, more or less. Taking his mug in hand, Horatio Caine left for his office, as ready as one could make themselves to sink into one of the many piles of paperwork surely waiting for him.

As Calleigh entered Ballistics, she immediately noticed a new evidence bag lying there waiting for her. She gently took her white lab coat off the peg and put it on over her bright red top with V-neck. She suddenly realized Horatio had probably seen her bra when helping her up, and she lightly blushed.

She un-tucked her long, straight blond hair and when she moved into the direction of her table, she briefly noticed 'AUTOPSY' on the bag of evidence, most likely containing more bullets Alexx had retrieved.

Calleigh happily took two new gloves from the box on her table and slid them on. She picked up the evidence bag and noticed 'AW' on the red evidence tape. She cautiously opened the little bag, tilted it to one side, and a quite mushroomed twenty-eight caliber landed into her right hand. She didn't actually remember any twenty-eight calibers in the case. Calleigh turned around and put the bullet under the microscope. She consequently noticed two sets of striations. 'Silencer,' she concluded almost without thinking.

The blond CSI turned around again and noticed the case file lying onto her table, just like she had left it there the day before. She vaguely remembered six bullets and eight casings and one of those casings hadn't been a nine millimeter, like the others had been. Maybe it had been a twenty-eight? She decided to check it out and undid her right glove, because it wasn't so easy to turn pages over with gloves on.

The CSI picked up the case file and quickly leafed through it, but by moving so quickly, she accidentally cut her right middle finger on the edge of the page. "Oww," she voiced, as blood almost immediately appeared on the surface of her skin. Calleigh really didn't want to compromise the evidence, like she had done when she had ended up into the canal. It hadn't been her fault, but it had really felt like that.

She put the bleeding middle finger into her mouth and opened the drawer of her table with her left hand. She picked up the tissue box and put it onto the table, taking one tissue from the box and wrapping it around her finger. With her beautiful white teeth, she removed her other glove and then rummaged into the depths of her drawer, searching for a band aid.

When she finally found one, she removed the strips with her teeth. Then, Calleigh undid the tissue with the middle finger and little finger of her other hand and covered the bleeding little gash with the strip.

She removed the few little drops of blood with the tissue and then, threw it into the bin beside her table. When she went to put the tissue box back into the drawer, she noticed a birthday card, which she only vaguely recognized. The CSI put the tissues down onto the table again and picked up the little card.

It had been a birthday card from the team, on occasion of her thirty-third birthday. It had been a normal Tuesday, until ten minutes before lunch break. She had been comparing bullet striations when she had suddenly heard six voices singing 'Happy Birthday' from behind her. She had been happily surprised to see the other team members standing there, not having forgotten about their southern belle.

'Happy Birthday, Calleigh!', the card said, and under that were the seven names of respectively Horatio, Eric, Alexx, Ryan, Natalia, Valera, and even Frank.

The blond CSI sighed and closed the little birthday card again, then sadly threw it into the drawer, put the tissue box on top of it, and closed her drawer again.

Sighing, she sat down onto the stool standing beside her work table. She had already turned thirty-three, and she feared as each year passed she had less of a chance of ever marrying or having a child. She was just still waiting for Mr. Right, and she hadn't met him yet, although Jake had said so more than once. Maybe she had already met him, but just didn't realize this?

Last night had been a rough one. She had just gotten home, when Diana had called her and had informed her that her dad didn't want to take a taxi like innumerable times before. Leaving him there was not an option, so she had picked up her car keys from the counter and had driven to the bar where her dad sat, completely intoxicated.

As she had driven him home, it should have been about twelve-thirty, Calleigh had just wanted to get to bed, but Jake had other ideas. When she had returned to her apartment again, Jake had been waiting at her door and had begged her to let him in. Rather this than to stand at the door and argue with him, she had let him in, and it had taken her more than an hour to convince him she was really quite tired and just wanted to go to bed. Jake had also wanted to get in her bed, but for other reasons. After a very long hour, she had finally succeeded in locking the door behind him. And all that had been followed by a sleepless night.

Calleigh's eyes filled with unshed tears, as she suddenly felt someone's hand on her shoulder. As it softly massaged her there, she vaguely recognized the gentle touch. "–ratio," she whispered.

"Calleigh..." came Horatio's low, velvet-like rumble, both soothing and showing his concern for his only ballistics expert and the woman who he would give his life for without hesitating. Horatio Caine felt like he was already an old man, and she was this ray of sunshine that should live her life as long as possible. He had never known of a feeling to last that long, until Calleigh had popped up into his life. That which he really thought was love, he truly believed to be one-sided, but unconditional and unwavering in strength and intensity for him.

"What's wrong?" Horatio wasn't the one to be fooled. "What's going on inside that head of yours?"

Personal contact wasn't normally something he condoned for his employees and co-workers on his time, but this was different. He noticed she was hurting inside, he just didn't– It broke his heart apart not to try and do something about it, so that's just what he did.

Gently taking hold of her hands, Horatio gently pulled his southern belle closer, and loosely wrapped his arms around her for a hug, much like the one the two of them had shared on the day of Speed's funeral.

Calleigh bit her lower lip, struggling not to start crying, but Lieutenant Caine immediately noticed what she was doing. "I'm here," he whispered, exhorting her to let it all out. She was there safe with him. So she held him tight and allowed herself to melt into Horatio's arms.

"I don't wanna let go..." she hoarsely whispered with a nearly inaudible voice.

Calleigh felt his hands cautiously roaming over her back, as if asking permission to touch her. Then her mind decided otherwise again. She tried to shield herself of further emotional pain, which could be caused easily at this moment, and consequently pushed him away to continue with the evidence, but Horatio didn't want to let go before making sure she really was fine.

"Don't, Horatio..." she whispered and laid her recently cut open middle finger on his lips. "I've been a little too wrapped up with comparing bullets and casings," she replied noticing the look on his face.

"I just… realized I don't have plenty of time left to…" Calleigh was absolutely shocked at her own words. The truth penetrated more deeply than ever, as if saying it out aloud made it even worse. She realized she had never been this open with anyone else before, but when she looked up into Horatio's blue depths, she didn't really mind, because if there was one person she trusted with every fiber of her being, it definitely was the one who was holding her.

Horatio was the one who saw through her like nobody else. He always seemed to notice what she was thinking. Sometimes, she really wanted to be able to do the same. Horatio usually told her about everything, she thought, and usually she also noticed his moods and some thoughts. It was quite frustrating she couldn't read them all, not really like Horatio could.

She had stared into his sapphire blue eyes for a little too long, and broke. "I…" A single tear came running down her cheek, and she just searched someone to lean on, and then she realized he was just there. "Horatio, what the hell is wrong with me? I mean, most... women... of my age are happily married to a nice, handsome guy and already have toddlers crawling around in their house. It really..." Her breath slightly caught, and then she continued, "hurts... seeing women my age carrying around their sons or daughters, or having a pregnant, round belly, while–" "Shh," Horatio whispered. "Everything's going to be just fine."

"I would have cried myself to sleep every night, if–" Calleigh started, thinking about his stunt with Ron Saris. "I'm not, Calleigh. I'm right here, just holding you tight."

"Thank goodness." Calleigh tried to chuckle against his chest. "Why can't I just have someone like you?"

"And who said you can't have the original?" Horatio questioned, sincerely looking at her, then planting his reddish lips upon hers and clarifying his statement until air became a necessity.