"The Road I'm On" Miami fic

I'll always look back
As I walk away
This memory
Will last for eternity
And all of our tears
Will be lost in the rain
When I've found my way
Back to your arms again
But until that day
You know you are
The queen of my heart


Horatio slid quickly into the driver’s seat as Yelina sat in the back next to the German.
He turned the ignition key and the engine attempted to turn over. The motor sounded sick, and he knew now why Rick had left it running at Port. Even Mercedes Benz’s weren’t all perfect—-especially if the owner was someone like Stetler.
Listening intently to the sounds of the car, Horatio pumped the gas pedal.

“Come on,” Yelina urged.

After what seemed an eternity the engine finally started. Horatio took no time to celebrate; he backed the car up and made his way to the Crime Lab. Both he and Yelina prayed they weren’t too late.

CRIME LAB,

Eric met up with Maxine Valera in the hallway. Both still wearing their lab coats and looking tired from a long day.

“You heading home?” she asked, looking up from her paper work.

Eric shook his head and rubbed the nape of his neck to try and get some of the stiffness out. Maxine gave him a small smile.

“No, I’m going to stick around until H gets back. We got some info for him but can’t reach him on his cell,” Eric shrugged.

Maxine frowned and brushed a strand of hair from her field of vision.

“Maybe he went home?” she suggested.

Eric sighed and stepped closer to whisper to her.

“Yelina came back. She left Ray Jr., with us and went to help Horatio. Some foreign officials were here looking for her about an hour ago,” Eric explained.

Maxine raised her eyebrows and removed her glasses.

“Looking for her?” she asked.

Eric nodded and glanced behind them where two detectives lead a suspect to the elevator.

“Yeah, turns out that H’s brother Raymond was alive but was killed again when he was in hiding with Yelina and the kid,” Eric explained.

“Wow,” Maxine said slowly.

Calleigh approached them from down the hall.

“Any luck getting a hold of Horatio?” Calleigh asked checking her wrist watch. “It’s 12:30.”

Eric shook his head and Maxine shrugged.

“Think he’s in trouble?” Maxine asked.

Just then Calleigh’s cell phone rang.


ELSEWHERE,

Horatio realized that there was no chance of him beating the other men to the Crime Lab. He needed to warn them so they could take cover. By this time Stetler was returning to consciousness.

Leaving the car’s engine running he parked the car under a street lamp and beside a payphone and hurried to it.

“I didn’t know they were going to attack the Crime Lab, I swear,” Rick spoke after Yelina explained to him.

Yelina watched Horatio quickly dial the numbers on the phone.
Why did the night that they’d declared their love have to be going the way it did? Why were fate and the world always against them? Only hours ago, they’d sat in his Hummer, and recited a poem, then everything wasn’t so bad--maybe even tolerable.
Now the night had turned from avenging the death of her husband to saving their friends lives.

“Calleigh, there are men coming there with guns. No time to explain. Just take cover,” Horatio spoke quickly though more distinct then he’d ever been.

Yelina wringed her hands as she tried to ignore the satisfied grins of Vlad. In the front seat, Rick continued to mumble regrets to his self as he listened to the phone call through the rolled down window.

“There’s not much time,” Horatio continued.

A moment later he turned from the phone; looking exhausted.

He locked eyes with Yelina and sighed.

“The men…they just got there,” He spoke tensely.

Yelina covered her face with her hands and Vlad nodded happily to himself.
 
I don't like reading FF, and also I don't like Yelina so much.
But this story is kind of good!
 
And we will only need each other,
we'll bleed together,
Our hands will not be taught to hold another's,
Cause we're the special two.
And we could only see each other,
we'll breathe together,
These arms will not be taught to need another's,
Cause we're the special two...



CRIME LAB,


Calleigh watched as the men made it through the glass doors, moving slowly as if they were taking a stroll and enjoying the scenery. She barely had enough time to warn Eric and Maxine of the situation.

They began running down the hallway as the men quickened their steps. They were lucky that there were nearly no people there after midnight. Those that they did meet up with were warned of the approaching danger. Bullets whizzed past them as they looked for cover.

“We’ve got to get Ryan and Ray Jr.,” Calleigh exclaimed.

Eric turned and started leading the way back towards DNA analysis as Maxine kept an eye out behind them as they ran.

“Guys!” she notified them.

The men were running around the corner and seeing them opened fire. Bullets whizzed past them and shattered a window. Eric and Calleigh pulled out their 9MM’s.


Ryan looked up from the book Ray Jr. was showing him when he heard the shots.

“Holy--” he mumbled.

He stood and pulled Ray Jr. from his seat to the floor.

“What’s going on?” Ray Jr. asked as Ryan drew his gun.

Ryan frowned and pointed towards the seat.

“Get under there and don’t come out until I come back. You hear me?” Ryan ordered.

Ray Jr. nodded and crawled up under the seat. Ryan made his way to the door to see Calleigh, Eric, and Maxine firing their guns at someone behind them.

“Ryan!” Maxine called out, sounding more thrilled then ever to see him.

They entered the room a few seconds ahead of the gunmen.

“Three huge men with AK-47’s, Horatio called and warned us. It looks like they’ve got enough ammo to take out half of Miami. Our guns won’t hold them off long,” Calleigh explained quickly.

Eric helped Ray Jr. out from under the seat, and they made it torwards the door on the opposite side of the room.

“The ballistics lab then. We can use the guns there,” Ryan suggested, breaking into a run.

The men made it to the glass outside of the door they’d entered and began firing before they could open up the exit.



CRIME LAB: PARKING LOT,

Horatio handcuffed Stetler’s wrist to the steering wheel before getting out. Yelina followed and they both drew their weapons, an extra gun tucked between belt and shirt. Back at the telephone he has phoned in need for back up at the Lab.

The Miami moon above them willing to reveal their position they ran cautiously. Horatio and Yelina shifted through the darkness with the agility of a cat.

Across the parking lot they caught sight of the gunmen’s van—the driver still inside. They soon found out that they had been expected when a gun appeared out of the window. Perhaps the man had seen them pull in.

“Get down!” Horatio exclaimed, pulling Yelina to the ground.

The man in the van fired several more poorly aimed shots at them before speeding away. Horatio shielded Yelina incase any bullets found a target.

“You okay?” he asked, breathlessly.

He ran his hands along the length of her to assure himself that she was alright.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” she nodded.

Horatio felt overwhelmed. It was getting harder and harder to keep her, his friends, and Ray Jr. safe on this night. It was if God or someone was testing his capabilities. He just prayed he wouldn’t fail. Who knew what the men had already done inside the building.

Horatio stood and helped her to her feet. They embraced for a short moment, glad that they were both still together and unharmed.

“What in hell was that?” Frank Tripp roared, walking up behind them with his gun.

Horatio turned to watch him approach.

Frank Tripp had left the lab an hour ago to go to a scene. He had returned only a moment before they did. Luckily he had seen them take out their weapons and followed their example.

“Long story, Frank,” Horatio began, breathlessly. “There are three gunmen in there with only one objective….”

Tripp wanted to ask more questions but knew that there couldn’t be much time. One question being when Yelina arrived.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go get their asses,” Frank nodded.

Horatio nodded. Reinforcements were more then welcome.
 
Take my hand and hold it tight
I will not fail you here tonight
For failing you I fail myself
And place my soul upon a shelf
In hell's library with no light
I will not fail you here tonight


CRIME LAB,

Calleigh, Eric, Ryan, Maxine, and Ray Jr. took cover behind the steel counter where the lab equipment sat. Balling up together, they shielded their heads from falling shards of glass that from the table. The three CSI’s doing their best to shield the boy.

“What do we do?” Ray Jr. asked, hands held tightly to his ears.

“We’re gonna get out of this, okay?” Calleigh tried to assure him.

Ray Jr. nodded.

Calleigh tried her best to turn her head and look at Eric and Ryan when the gunmen paused.

“Wait until they reload their magazine, okay? Ryan you and Valera get Ray out of here.” Calleigh spoke.

Ryan nodded hesitantly. He did not want to leave them to face the gunmen alone.

“We just can’t leave you two alone--,” Valera spoke, echoing his thoughts.

Eric turned his head to look at Ryan and Maxine.

“You have to,” he said, tensely.

There was a loud silence and they heard the clips falling to the marble floors.

“Now!” Calleigh and Eric yelled.

Calleigh and Eric rose to begin firing.


CRIME LAB: Hallway,


Not noticing the scraped skin on his hands as he held out his gun, Horatio looked around the corner with caution.

“See ‘em?” Frank asked, kneeling just behind him.

Horatio gave a short nod and they listened a moment to the firing. They could tell that two other guns were firing back.

“On my count,” Horatio whispered.

He looked back at Yelina. Her dark eyes were large with severity as she stood with her gun pointed at the floor. She looked ready, at any time to dash out into the hall—he knew she would.
Even in such a tense situation, he could still feel the pang in his chest when he looked at her. The need for her had only grown stronger since that fateful day when he watched her fly off.

Life had been a strain since that day for him. He tried anything to dull his hurt, but he knew that there was only one cure. At first, he thought that he could over power his heart with his mind: forcing her out of his thoughts, avoiding anything that reminded him of her. All of that had been impossible.

Everything reminded him of Yelina: work, a sunrise, the ocean, the beach, music. No matter what he did, where he went, who he was with, what he was doing, she was always there. Her face, her voice, her smell, her absent presence haunted him. He could not lose her. For losing her, meant losing himself.

Yelina nodded and Horatio looked away from her.

“3-2-1…,” he counted.
 
I really liked how you described the way everything reminds him of her. Aw. :(
 
Tu restes avec moi...



CRIME LAB: 2: 00 AM

Ryan, Maxine, and Ray Jr. exited the crime lab just as several squad cars and ambulances wailed into the parking lot.

“I’ve got to go back in,” Ryan said, releasing Ray’s arm.

Ray Jr. looked from Valera to Ryan.

“What?” she exclaimed.

Maxine knew why he wanted to go back in. He was feeling guilty and responsible for leaving Calleigh and Eric back there—truth was she did too. Looking back at the approaching officers, she sighed.

“You stay here with Ray,” Ryan spoke. “And be safe.”

She nodded and he turned to run back up the steps.

“You too,” she spoke softly.

She and Ray Jr. were lead to EMT’s to be examined for injuries.



***********************

Horatio made it into the hall first but Tripp was the one to warn the men to freeze. None the men obeyed and turned to fire at them. A few rounds were shot all poorly aimed.
After a short firefight, two of the gunmen were injured and the other surrendered. Calleigh and Eric left the room where they had been unscathed just as Ryan and several officers and paramedics rounded the corner. It was also then that Yelina buckled.

Horatio stood in front of Frank and Yelina with his gun aimed at the surrendered gunman. Just as Eric handcuffed the snarling man, Horatio heard his name. He turned to see Yelina clutching her side.

“Yelina?” Horatio questioned, hurrying to her.

Frank turned to look at them not knowing what was going on.
Horatio caught Yelina before she fell and lowered her to the floor.

“Horatio,” she whispered.

“SHH…SHH…you’re going to be fine, okay?” he spoke turning back her jacket to look at the wound at her side.

She watched his expression and saw a twinge on his face. Over her head, she heard rushing footsteps and heard Ryan say something. She could not put words together anymore and Horatio’s face was fading.

“Don’t go. Please…” she spoke to his blurry face.

Horatio knew that she was on the verge of unconsciousness. He took her hand and a tear dropped from his cheek to her hand.
Down the hallway, the paramedics who had been running towards them finally arrived.

“I won’t. Just stay with me. Yelina!” he spoke.

Yelina reached her bloody hand up to stroke his face. She needed to feel it, even if she could not see him. It was the last thing she felt before losing consciousness.

“We’ve got a free bleeder. We need to get her to the OR now!” the paramedic ordered.

Horatio backed away while they moved her onto a gurney that was brought in. There were no words strong enough to describe the agony he felt-- he had failed to protect her and now…now he may have lost her.

“Oh God Horatio, I’m so sorry,” Calleigh spoke softly from behind him.

Horatio nodded and felt his lip tremble. How could he live with himself if he lost her? Knowing that he had failed to keep her safe was more then he could take. The words she had spoken at port rang in his ears:

I’ll be safe with you.”

Yelina had trusted that there was shelter with him. He had told her that he wished that were so, yet she stood by her belief in him.
Horatio knew the world and the pain and hurt that came with living in it. Yelina was his light, his reason, his life. She was that beam of hope in dark days that reinstated his belief in all that is good and right. Now he may have lost her forever.
He was in need of solace but there was no one that could console him.
 
Every now and then soft as breath upon my skin
I feel you come back again
And it’s like you haven’t been gone a moment from my side,
Like the tears were never cried,
Like the hands of time were pulling you and me...



Baptist Hospital of Miami
5:30 AM

Sun filtered in through the window up above the polished white marble floors. Colors of a tangerine sunrise marked the beginning of another day. The sun was rising earlier then it had all week.
What better place to see it; the hospital's architecture was that from the Italian Renaissance. A surreal place, but the beauty was going unnoticed by one particular set of steel blue eyes.

Horatio sat in the hallway with his head bowed and his hands clasped. Yelina had been in surgery for nearly three hours, and he hadn't changed his position since he talked to a nurse two hours before.
He stared sadly at Yelina's dry blood on his white shirt cuff and hands. He shouldn't have let her go in that building no matter how much she argued. It was his fault, and no matter how many times someone tried to tell him otherwise, he believed it.

From down the hall Frank and Ryan approached. Horatio did not hear their approaching footsteps--lost in his own pain.

Frank rubbed his eyes, and Ryan widened his in attempt to keep himself alert. Neither had slept a wink.

"Horatio," Frank spoke, making his presense known.

Horatio blinked several times at his hands them looked up at them slowly. His face was like different: overshadowed and spiritless.

"We, um, have Stetler, Vlad, and the guy that surrendered all being interrogated. No news yet. Calleigh and Eric will call," Tripp explained.

Horatio nodded and looked down the hall. It was the same hall he'd seen Yelina disappear down. Her brown skin was deathly pale when he kissed her forehead before they carted her off. He'd just gotten her back...

"H, did you hear me?" Ryan asked.

Horatio blinked slowly and turned to look back at him.

"Hmm?" he asked, trying to focus.

Ryan glanced worriedly at Frank and sighed.

"Ray's getting some sleep. Alex is going to bring him here later," Ryan repeated.

Horatio looked back at his hands. How would he explain what happened to Ray Jr.? The boy had been through so much in such a short life. If only he had married Yelina...

Horatio turned his head to look down the hall again just as the doors opened up. A surgical-scrubs clad doctor walked their way. Horatio stood.

"The surgery went well. We removed the two bullets with very little tissue damage and her pulse-time modulation is good. Apparently it wasn't a direct shot--they ricochetted. What made the removal difficult was that one the bullets knicked Superficial Iliac Circumflex... a, um, small vein in the side linked to the larger femoral vein in the pelvis. All that caused the excessive bleeding. She's not out of the woods, but we're very optimistic right now." the man explained.

Horatio sighed and nodded. The surgeon pat him on the shoulder and returned from the way he came. Horatio watched him until he was gone then turned to Frank and Ryan.

"Let's go talk to Rick," he spoke intensely.
 
The Hummer from the Port where Stetler and the men had seized them sat in the parking lot. Ryan explained that an officer had found it an hour before and dropped it off. To this Horatio merely nodded.

Ryan knew how much Horatio cared for Yelina—everyone did. He did not have to know their long and trying history to take notice. It was in plain site no matter how hard he tried to hide it. Yelina was Horatio’s biggest vulnerability and that was what scared him. Ryan saw the fear when Horatio entered the Crime Lab last night and saw Yelina back from Brazil and now when her life is uncertain. Behind that, fear anger was boiling.

“I’ll ride with Horatio,” he called to Tripp across the parking lot.

Frank waved in acknowledgement, talking on his phone. He was letting Calleigh and Eric know that Horatio wanted to see Rick.

“You sure that’s the right thing to do right now?” Calleigh asked, surprised.

Frank watched Horatio as he walked around to the driver’s door of his Hummer. His mouth was set in anger and that dangerous look glinted in his eye. No one was going to make him change his mind.

“You’re out of your damn mind if you think I’m gonna try and stop him,” Frank scoffed.

Calleigh sighed on the other end of the line. She did not think it the best of ideas. If Horatio got in the same room with any of the men involved in the shooting of Yelina, she was not so sure they hold him off.

“We’ll put more officers in the room…how’s Yelina?” Calleigh asked.

Frank placed his elbows on the roof of his car, watching Horatio back out.

“Out of surgery, and she was hit by two ricocheting bullets. Doc says nothings certain right now,” Frank explained in short.

Calleigh was silent for a moment.

“I know Horatio can’t be taking that too good. Yelina is a great cop, and we all know she has had more then her share of problems. Where’s Horatio now?” Calleigh asked.

Tripp slid into his car and sighed.

“Just left with Ryan for the lab. I’m gonna follow right behind them,” Frank explained.

With that, they exchanged good-byes and ended the conversation.

………………..

Horatio tried to maintain his mind set on Rick. That snake of a man who never caused him anything but pain and anger. However, the memories from the night before were flooding back. The moments that he and Yelina had shared: she had finally told of her feelings for him, he had kissed her palm; she had run her hand through his hair. Cherished moments that before he could only have dreamed of happening before.

“Um, Horatio,” Ryan began, disrupting his thoughts. “I just want to say how sorry I am about what happened to Yelina…”

Horatio pulled into the crime lab parking lot after a moment of silence.

“Me too,” he nodded. “Me too.”

Ryan looked out the passenger window.

“She was a good cop,” Ryan sighed.
Horatio looked at his bloodied hands on the steering wheel.

“Is Ryan…is a good cop,” he spoke slowly.

“Right, right!” Ryan nodded, mentally kicking himself. “I didn’t mean…”

Horatio nodded and opened his door.

“It’s alright. Let’s go,” he sighed.

The two got out and walked across the pavement. Crime scene tape was still up outside and around the building. Horatio tried to keep his thoughts on Rick.
 
I am really enjoying your writing. Almost first thing each morning I log in to see if there are any updates, and each night before I go to bed :).
Shell
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top