Previous part of Doppelganger.

***

"Where'd they find this guy?"

"He struck again. Victim is thirty year old Josh Brenner, he was strangled in bed while he was sleeping."

"How'd we catch him?"

"The victim's partner walked in just as the suspect was walking out. A struggle ensued, and the suspect was finally knocked unconscious when the victim's partner, Kyle Reynolds, slammed his head into a mirror, almost putting it through the wall. The suspect is being treated here at the hospital along with Mr. Reynolds. Neither have life threatening injuries; Reynolds should be released soon. Our suspect will probably be kept overnight; he's got a pretty bad concussion. He's still unconscious, but the doctor's are monitoring him closely."

As if to prove the point, both men walk into the suspect's hospital room where a doctor is listening to the unconscious man's chest, a nurse writing in the patient's chart as the doctor speaks in a language that medical professionals can only understand.

"Mr. Caine, it's been a while. I assume you're wanting to question Mr. Sullivan?"

"How long do you think it'll be before he's awake?"

"Could be a little while, his head almost went through a wall. He's also got a broken wrist. All I can do is call you when he finally wakes up."

The suspect looks to be in his early thirties, approximately the same age as all the victims, but he doesn't have the same resemblance that they do. His hair is a lighter blonde, and he's a little more muscular than the victims, forcing Horatio to continue to wonder about the motive behind the killings.

Although he knows it could be a short while before the younger man wakes up, he wants to talk to him now, find out why he killed seven innocent people and went after two CSIs, but he knows he's going to have to wait. It makes him feel better though, knowing that they at least have the killer in custody, his hands restrained to the bed and two officers outside of his door.

"Alright, call me as soon as he wakes up. Eric, I need to know what Mr. Sanders said about the attack."

They talk as they walk out of the room, and Eric recalls the very slow conversation he had with the younger CSI.

"He was in the shower when the attack happened, he had his back to the shower curtain. He said that it happened so fast, that the wire was wrapped around his neck before he even got a chance to yell for help. The suspect pulled him out of the shower, he kept struggling with him, and eventually they ended up in the bedroom where Greg collapsed. He figured the only way to get the guy off him was to make him think he was dead, so he allowed himself to go limp, and the suspect finally let him go. When Greg thought the suspect was gone, he tried to find a phone to call for help, but he blacked out only a few feet from where the killer left him. He said he heard Ryan start to struggle with the guy in the kitchen before he passed out, but he never got a look at the guy; he was behind Greg the whole time."

"Why didn't Ryan hear the struggle in the bathroom and bedroom?"

"Greg's struggle didn't get much further than trying to kick the suspect. His hands were busy trying to pull the wire from his throat, he's got the cuts on his fingers to prove it. With Ryan on the phone with Calleigh, it wouldn't be that hard not to hear the struggle, especially with them being on opposite sides of the apartment."

It's fair enough, and Horatio's glad that both men were able to make it through the situation, although not unscathed.

"How's Mr. Sanders doing?"

"A lot better than expected. When I left they were just about to transfer him out of the ICU, he could be discharged within the next twenty-four hours."

"That soon, huh?"

"He'll be sore and in pain, won't be able to talk real well and have to stick to a liquid diet, but the swelling has gone down, and he's on a laundry list of medications. He needs to have close eyes kept on him for the first week or so. Otherwise, there's not much else they can do for him here."

It seems a little early, but Horatio knows that Greg's going to have around the clock supervision, although the police detail is being called off now that the man they suspect to be the murderer has been caught.

"Alright, Eric, lets go talk with Mr. Reynolds and get his side of what happened. I want to be absolutely sure that we've got the right guy, I want everything to be done strictly by the books so that there's no risk of this guy getting away."

Eric agrees and follows Horatio through the halls of the hospital until they're entering the emergency room where a nurse is wrapping the wrist of Kyle Reynolds. He has a split lip and a few bruises scattering his face and arms, but otherwise, the only real concern Horatio finds is the zoned out look in the younger man's eyes.

When the nurse asks him to hold up his arm a little more, he does so, but otherwise, he seems to be on autopilot, like he's unaware of his surrounding, everything around him.

"Mr. Reynolds, my name is Horatio Caine, I'm with the Miami Dade crime lab. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Good luck on getting him to talk. He hasn't really said anything since they brought him in. He's in shock. The doctor wants a psych evaluation before he's discharged. The psychiatrist should be down here shortly, he's with another patient upstairs."

They talk as if he's not in the room, and after she's finished bandaging up Kyle Reynolds's sprained wrist, the nurse leaves the men alone in the room, closing the door behind her.

Horatio takes a moment to look over Kyle Reynolds, the younger man blankly starting to fumble with the edge of the ace bandage, eyes not really following his actions, and after a moment, Horatio tries to get his attention again.

"Mr. Reynolds, I'm sorry about what happened to your partner."

It seems to work as the younger man finally looks up to make eye contact with Horatio, doing so at the mere mention of his partner.

"I tried to save him. He was bleeding, I couldn't get it to stop."

"Can you tell me what happened before that, when you first got home?"

He casts his eyes down briefly, as if he's trying to remember what happened just two short hours ago. Blood still lines the edge of his nails, his partner's blood no doubt, and he squeezes his eyes close for a second before looking back up.

"I got home from work early. When I went into the bedroom, the guy was just about to walk out. For a second we just kind of stood there, we both caught each other off guard, but then I saw Josh, and he-"

Kyle stops then, shaking his head as he tries to get the bloody images of his partner out of his head.

"Take your time, Mr. Reynolds."

"I just- I saw him, saw all of the blood, and I just snapped. I went for the guy, but he must have been expecting it. We fought, he hit me a few times, but I finally knocked him out. By the time I got to Josh- by the time I got to him, he was covered in blood around his neck. I tried pulling the wire out, but my fingers kept slipping from all the blood. I really tried to save him."

"Have you ever seen the suspect before?"

"No."

"Do you have anyone you can stay with until your apartment is released?"

"I haven't lived here for very long, I don't really know anyone around here."

"Alright. We're going to have an officer escort you to a hotel. If you remember anything else about what happened, you can call me at any time."

Horatio gives the younger man his card before apologizing again for his loss and leaving the room, Eric following behind as they close the door and walk just outside of the hospital.

"Alright, Eric, I want you to go to the victim's apartment and help Calleigh. I'm going to see what we've got on Josh Brenner's autopsy."
--

"Please tell me we've got this guy, Horatio."

Alexx stands next to the body of Josh Brenner, Horatio across the table from her, examining the younger man lying on the table between them.

"I hope so. What do we have?"

"Baby boy died just like all of our other victims, a wire to the throat. It looks like he was straddled, there's bruising on the outside of his thighs. The wire cut through his carotid arteries and veins, his larynx, and almost severed his spinal cord. He died almost instantly. I sent the wire up to trace along with his clothes."

"Nothing out of the ordinary?"

"He's just like the other victims. If our suspect killed him, then we're looking at the same guy that killed the other victims."

"That's what I want to hear, now it's just a matter of putting it all together and tying all of our victims to the suspect. So far, all we've got is Kyle Reynolds's word on what happened."

He knows that he can't use one person's word. He has to follow the evidence, and right now, all he has is a bunch of victims and a man that he's got to be able to link to two states.

"Call me if you find anything else, Alexx, I'm going to see how they're doing in trace and try to put this puzzle together."

Alexx watches Horatio walk away before turning back to their latest victim to finish the autopsy.

At the crime scene, Eric joins Calleigh in the victim's bedroom, finding her snapping pictures of the mirror that the suspect's head was slammed into. When she sets down the camera, she picks up her tweezers from her kit, carefully pulling a bloody clump of hair from the shattered glass before slipping it into a small evidence bag.

"Calleigh, what do we have so far?"

After initialing the evidence bag, Calleigh turns towards Eric who's standing in the doorway with kit in hand, glancing around at their crime scene.

"We've got a bloody mess, and hopefully the end of a serial killer's spree. I've already processed the bed and found some hair and fibers. All that's left is to bag up the sheets and blanket. It looks like our suspect and Kyle Reynolds had a pretty active fight, we've got several broken picture frames and other items on the floor. There's some blood drops on the ground and blood smeared on the wall, I've already swabbed it."

It seems that Calleigh has already covered most of the obvious aspects of the room, and Eric sets down his kit before going over to one of the two nightstands that sit on either side of the bed, finding it partially open.

"Did you check this?"

Calleigh turns around and sees Eric glancing in the drawer, snapping a picture of it before pulling it completely open.

"I haven't gotten over there yet."

Eric uses his gloved hand to move? the items inside the drawer around, lube and condoms sitting on top of several papers. He briefly glances through the papers, finding them irrelevant, but when he reaches the back of the drawer, he finds something that could possibly be pertinent to their case.

"Calleigh, you might want to take a look at this."

She finishes swabbing the blood on the mirror before turning to Eric, taking the card from his hand.

"It's a driver's license of Kyle Reynolds from Las Vegas."

***

"Do you think he has any sort of link to the victims?"

Horatio holds the old driver's license of Kyle Reynolds in his hand, looking over it as he thinks about the question that Calleigh just asked.

"We can't be sure of anything until we get more information on this. Calleigh, I want you to run Kyle Reynolds's background, find out how long he lived in Vegas and when he moved to Miami. I also want you to fax a copy of this to Gil Grissom, find out if Mr. Reynolds made any appearances in their cases.

"Eric, you and I are going over to the suspect's house to see if we can find a link between him and all of our victims."

Horatio hands the card back over to Calleigh before they split ways, he and Eric getting into the Hummer and driving over to Chris Sullivan's house. It's not in the richest of neighborhoods, they noted, seeing a large guard dog in the backyard, waiting for an intruder to give him something to do, something to chew on.

They're cautious as they enter the house with a pair of officers with them, searching for any unwanted presences before they set about looking through the house, Eric's attention primarily drawn to the bedroom. It has the primary furniture, a bed and dresser, but otherwise, it's simply a room, no emotion added in the form of pictures or paintings on the wall.

The whole house seems kind of cold, as if it's just simply a place to sleep in instead of a home, and Eric wonders how anyone could really live like this. He can't imagine coming home to bare walls and simple furniture, the sheets on the bed the cheapest it looks like money could buy.

Upon opening the closet, the amount of clothes that are hanging up are limited, a few shirts and slacks pushed to the back where Eric finds a simple shoebox hiding in the shadows. He kneels down in front of it with his flashlight shining, his gloved hands pulling open the cover of the box, revealing a highly possible link to the victims.

The shoebox is almost overflowing with newspaper clippings, the most recent sitting on the top, the faces of Greg Sanders and Ryan Wolfe staring back at him under the bold letters "CSIs attacked by serial killer". Underneath, he finds several other articles about the attack on the two men, but as he gets further down, Eric finds articles on the other Miami victims as well.

"Eric, what have you got?"

Eric is temporarily startled by Horatio's sudden presence behind him, but he soon recovers and pulls the shoebox off the ground, allowing Horatio to pull a few articles out of the box to examine them.

"It looks like our killer enjoys seeing his work in print. I think he enjoys being in the spotlight."

"But why wait so long between Vegas and Miami?"

"He could have been incarcerated or otherwise incapacitated."

Eric shakes his head; he has never really understood the mental process of a serial killer. To leave behind all inhibitions and go on a murderous rampage of innocent people...

"You think this is our guy, H?"

"It's looking that way, but we won't set that in stone just yet. I still want to find out about Kyle Reynolds."

Horatio leaves Eric when his cell phone rings, and Eric puts the shoebox into a large evidence bag, initialing the tape before making another quick sweep of the closet, finding no other evidence that could link their suspect to the case.

The next connection isn't made until Eric finally makes his way to the suspect's garage, finding almost immediately the roll of wire that's identical to the kind used in all of the murders thus far. He's able to lift a few prints after photographing the evidence, and he does so just as Horatio enters the garage, the older man on the phone during most of their time in the suspect's house, talking to Gil Grissom in Vegas as well as others that are involved in the case.

"Eric, I just got a call from the hospital, Chris Sullivan has just woken up. How much do you have left here?"

"I'm just finishing up. If this guy isn't the killer, then he's got a lot of explaining to do."

As he speaks, Eric hands the evidence bag containing the roll wire, the older man looking it over.

"I think you're right."

--

"He's not talking, at least not to me or the staff."

"Is there a medical reason behind that?"

The doctor shrugs as they stand outside of Chris Sullivan's hospital room. It doesn't look like there's a medical cause for the suspect's silence. Instead, it looks like he's just trying to be stubborn, keeping his secrets inside.

"There's no medical reason for it; he's just a man with something to hide. He put up a fight against his restraints when he first woke up, spit on one of our officers, but the second he saw me coming towards him with a needle, he calmed right down. Guess he's not a fan of needles. Maybe that's something you can keep in mind. I've released him over to the state's care. Other than a concussion, there's really no other reason for him to stay here."

"Thank you, doctor."

The doctor nods at Horatio before walking away, the oldest CSI turning to Eric, who's already itching to get into the room to interrogate the suspect.

Horatio knows that as soon as one of their own was attacked, that this case became more personal, and he knows that if he doesn't keep a close reign on it, judgment could be clouded, and their case against the suspect can come crumbling apart.

"Eric, I know that you want to catch this guy for Ryan and Greg, and I need you to remember that in there. We need this case to be as solid as possible."

He nods, knows what Horatio's getting at, and finally the older man opens the door to the hospital room, finding their suspect laying in his back in the bed, restraints pinning his wrists and ankles in place.

In a normal case, the suspect being handcuffed to the bed is usually enough to keep them under control, but at this point, they don't want to take a chance on a man that might possibly have killed several innocent people and went after two CSIs.

"Mr. Sullivan, my name is Horatio Caine with the Miami Dade Crime lab, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

No answer as the suspect remains silent, his eyes fixed on the ceiling above him. His hands are clenched into fists, his jaw set, and it's easy to see that he's upset, as most suspects usually are when they wake up and realize they're in police custody.

"Mr. Sullivan, you're the suspect in the case of six different murders and two attempted murders. If you want to clear your name, it would be in your best interest to cooperate."

More silence, and this time, Eric takes action, leaving the room for a brief second before returning with something in his hand. When Horatio sees what he's holding, he tries to stop the younger man, but Eric ignores him, advancing towards Chris Sullivan.

The suspect's eyes avert from the ceiling long enough to see Eric coming towards him, and he automatically tenses up and tries to pull away.

"Get that thing away from me."

Eric holds a large two-inch needle with a syringe attached, getting only close enough until Horatio finally manages to stop him.

"Eric, control yourself," Horatio tells him in a low voice.

"He tried to kill Ryan, he killed seven other people-"

"And if that's true, we'll prove it. If you go after him like this, though, it's just going to complicate the case even more. You need to make a decision, either get yourself under control, or you're going to have to leave the room."

The conversation is held in a hushed tone, the suspect's main focus resting on the needle, Horatio taking it from him and sticking it in the Sharps container that's mounted on the wall.

"Mr. Sullivan-"

"I'm not the man you're looking for, I didn't kill anyone."

"Tell me what happened."

Horatio hopes that the suspect will give them something to work with, something to prove or disprove what happened at the latest victim's apartment. It's not going to be that easy, though; he quickly realizes that when the suspect shakes his head.

"If I tell you, you're just going to turn it around on me. I know how you people are. You believe what you want to, you arrest innocent people and lock them up because you're incapable of doing your job."

"With all due respect, withholding information isn't going to help prove your innocence either. Right now we've got a witness that says you killed Josh Brenner, we've got evidence from your house. The only way we can consider you to be innocent is if you tell us what happened in that apartment."

It's obvious he doesn't want to, but the restraints are starting to get to him, the images of what happened won't go away.

"Whatever that guy told you, he's lying. I broke into his house, I didn't know anyone was there. I was going to rob the place. When I went into the bedroom, I found that guy on the bed; he was killing the other guy. I was going to run, but he attacked me. I didn't kill anyone."

"Can you explain the roll of wire or the shoebox we found at your house?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Horatio's surprised to see the look of genuine confusion in the suspect's eyes, the anger gone from his eyes as he tries to convince the CSIs of his innocence.

"Mr. Sullivan, have you ever been to Las Vegas?"

He doesn't answer right away, looking between the two men standing next to him. He doesn't know what answer they're looking for, and he's worried of what the truth will prove.

"I stayed with a friend in Vegas a few years back."

Horatio's silent, thinking about his next move before eventually nodding his head in the direction of the door, instructing Eric to follow him into the hallway.

"H, you don't actually believe this guy, do you?"

"Eric, I believe whatever the evidence tells me."

As he speaks, Horatio pulls out his phone and hits speed dial, waiting for a response from the other end.

"Calleigh, I need to know what you found out about Kyle Reynolds."

***

"How are you feeling?"

Greg stands in front of a mirror, fingers hovering over the bandage that encircles his neck. He wants to see the extent of the damage that lies beneath, see the source of pain radiating through him while at the same time wanting to keep it hidden. Out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.

"Greg?"

Sara prompts him a little more, finally grabbing his attention in the reflection in the mirror. He's spacey from a combination of the attack and medications they have him on, and although he sees her standing behind him, he can't really focus on her, on anything really.

She's used to it by now. He's been this way since he woke up. She only hopes that getting him back home will make him a little more comfortable, being back in a place that he feels safe. Unfortunately, the doctor would rather have them wait a few days before flying back to Vegas, wanting to make sure Greg's alright before getting on a plane.

He has agreed, however, to discharge Greg, Sara managing to convince the doctor that Greg's not so hot on hospitals ever since the explosion. Since there's not much else they can do for him other than put him on antibiotics and pain killers, they allow Sara to take him to a hotel, promising to bring him back in a few days for a check up.

Which is why he stands in front of the mirror now, dressed in a pair of sweat pants and a loose fitting shirt. He's ready to get out of here, away from the smell a hospital brings, away from all the sick people.

"Greg, the doctor has already signed the discharge orders. We can leave when you're ready."

He nods, actually acknowledging her words, and she holds his arm as they leave the hospital room, the younger man a bit unsteady on his feet. He walks in much of a daze, going wherever Sara leads, sliding into the backseat of the cab as Sara gives the driver the name of the hotel they'll be staying at.

The ride to the hotel is silent, Greg's head resting against the window, his eyes closed. It looks like he's sleeping, but Sara can feel the tight grip he has on her hand. He seems scared, but Sara can't blame him, not after everything he's been through.

When they finally reach the hotel, Greg heads straight for the bathroom, closing the door behind him to obtain at least a little privacy. He knows that Sara won't let him out of her sight, but he won't complain; he doesn't really want to be alone right now.

He tries to avoid looking in the mirror as he makes his way to the toilet, but he finds himself standing in front of it after pissing in the toilet, his hands shaking as he washes them off. After drying them, he can't seem to keep his actions under control any longer, his movements slow and calculated as he unwraps the bandage from around his throat.

The damage that lies beneath is startling, his skin sutured together where a wise once cut it open, massive bruising surrounding the area. It looks much worse than he thought it would. In all reality, it looks like they had to reattach his head, something you would see in a movie, and he can't help but let his fingers carefully glide over the stitches.

"Greg, are you okay in there?"

Sara's voice on the other side of the door catches him off guard, and he groans out in pain when he accidentally flinches and pushes on the injured area, tears springing to his eyes from the intensity of it.

The groan is loud enough for Sara to hear it, and she's thankful that he didn't lock the door as she walks in, finding Greg bent over the counter with his eyes squeezed closed, the bandage from his neck resting on the counter next to the sink.

"Greg, you're not supposed to take that off."

Sara helps him sit on the closed toilet seat, grabbing the bandage and carefully wrapping it back around his neck, making sure it's not too tight.

"Come on, I'll get you some pain pills and some sleeping pills. You need to rest."

She feels like she's taking care of a child, a side of Greg she's never seen or dealt with before. She doesn't mind it, however, since she did volunteer to stay behind; she's just not used to it. He wasn't even this bad after the explosion.

Sara directs Greg to the edge of one of the twin beds, the younger man sitting down while she gets his medications and a bottle of water. He takes them without any problem, lying down afterwards without any prompting from Sara, his back to her as he closes his eyes.

He lies like that for a while, long enough for Sara to think he's fallen asleep, but in reality, he can't relax, is too afraid that someone is going to attack him if he sleeps.

Eventually, he can't take it anymore, and he turns over only to find Sara asleep in the other bed, a frown gracing her lips as she seems to dream.

Greg quickly gets out of the bed, watching the older woman as he makes his way to the door of the hotel room, wanting a chance to get a little space while he can.

The moment he steps out into the brightly lit hallway, he feels himself relaxing. The more the light, the safer he feels, remembering the darkness of Ryan's bedroom, the only light being provided by the bathroom he was dragged out of.

As he's about to walk down the hallway, Greg freezes at the sound of a door opening, watching a familiar woman coming out of a room at the other end of the hallway. He remembers seeing her at the Miami Dade Crime lab, and he remains still, unknowingly holding his breath as she waits for the elevator, not noticing the man watching her.

When she's finally gone, Greg looks in the direction of the door she came from, hesitating a moment before slowly walking towards it. When he finally reaches the room she came out of, he raises his hand to knock, almost jumping back when the door suddenly opens.

Ryan doesn't look as startled when he sees the older man standing outside of his room; he recovered just seconds after looking through the peep hole and seeing Greg standing there.

"Greg, what are you doing here?"

He doesn't answer, but it's not because he doesn't want to, but because he can't. Even talking in just a whisper hurts him, preventing him from saying anything as he continues to stand in front of Ryan.

"Come on, Greg, come in."

Greg does so reluctantly, his eyes scanning the hotel room to the best of his ability, finally landing on Ryan as the younger man closes the door and turns around so that they're facing each other.

Ryan isn't really sure how to communicate with Greg, realizing that the other man isn't capable of speaking, but he soon realizes that the older man's mouth isn't completely useless when he suddenly finds himself pinned against the door, Greg's tongue invading his mouth.

The kiss isn't confident and rough like the previous times, and Ryan can almost feel the energy leaving Greg as the older man eventually pulls away and buries his face in the crook of Ryan's neck, letting his body weight rest against Ryan's.

"Greg, you shouldn't be doing this. You should be getting some rest."

Ryan tries to suppress the feelings that are trying to come up as he gently pushes Greg away, seeing that the older man has his eyes closed, his hands grasping Ryan's biceps.

"Greg-"

He's caught off by yet another invasion of the tongue, and this time, he feels himself being drawn in, letting his body relax against the door as he pulls Greg closer to him.

For several moments, there's a clash between teeth and tongues, and Ryan eventually finds himself being pulled towards the bed, putting his hands out to brace himself as Greg falls back and drags the younger man with him, their lips still locked in a heated kiss.

The voice in the back of Ryan's head is telling him that Greg's not ready for this just yet, but he can't force himself to push away the hands that are unbuckling his belt and pants, pulling them down with his boxers to expose his growing erection.

He gasps when a hand wraps around the base, and although he knows he shouldn't be letting this happen, he's letting the wrong head think for him. He puts his hands on either side of Greg's head, bracing himself up as he thrusts into Greg's hand, feeling the older man thrusting his own body up into him.

When he feels like he can't take it anymore, Ryan reaches down and stops Greg's hand, sitting back as he pulls down the waistband of Greg's sweat pants, lowering his head down until he has captured Greg's straining erection in his mouth.

He has to hold the older man's hips down to keep Greg from choking him, but eventually, he pulls away, stripping himself free of his clothes before doing the same to Greg, noticing the faint bruises covering his body, the stark white bandage sticking out against the slightly pale skin.

Ryan takes a minute to react to the bandage, touching it gently much the same way Greg did before, and he slowly lowers his head down to place a light kiss between Greg's chin and where the bandage rests, following it around the neck before finally returning back to Greg's lips.

He's not used to being the one in charge, but his main focus is on trying to keep Greg pain-free as he reaches for a bottle of lotion that's sitting on the nightstand.

Greg watches every move silently, his hands resting on Ryan's hips as the younger man massages the lotion into his own erection, making sure it's well-coated before slowly pushing into Greg.

For a few brief moments, Greg feels like he's going to suffocate, his throat closing off slightly as he tries to get used to the intrusion, tries to block out the images of the attack, Ryan waiting patiently until Greg finally nods.

Unlike the last time they were together, this encounter is slow, Ryan watching for any discomfort in Greg's face, the older man keeping his eyes open in an attempt to block any unwanted images.

He's not really even sure why he came over here in the first place, why he forced Ryan into this by initiating the kiss; he doesn't feel like he knows anything anymore. This whole case has driven him to the point where he can't force himself to care anymore either, or at least, that's how he feels, trying to stop the killer before he hits again.

Hitting this case from every angle, both in the lab and the field, he has yet to get what he needs to put a stop to this. Now he's out, off the case and away from the evidence. Another person was attacked, and although they're moving in the right direction, he feels like they're getting further away.

Ryan watches the shift in emotions occurring in Greg's eyes, the older man seeming to think about everything other than what's going on right now. He can't really blame Greg, though, to be the only survivor of a vicious serial killer, to be able to feel the damage left behind.

Just thinking about that night they were attacked gives him the chills, and he forces himself to finish before finally stopping his thrusts, pulling out of Greg but staying over him briefly.

"Greg, are you okay?"

Greg wishes people wouldn't ask him that. Does he really look okay with the bruises and stitches, the inability to really talk to anyone? He nods regardless, though, realizes he never really got fully hard as Ryan moves to lay beside him, pulling the covers up over them.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Greg shakes his head, his eyes averted to the ceiling, and Ryan knows not to push it. It hasn't been that long since the attack, and he can't imagine anyone letting it sink in this early.

Instead, he reaches out to turn off the lamp, but thinks better of it when he sees Greg tense up slightly. He gets the picture, fast, leaving it on before laying back down, pressing himself against Greg's side so that at least the older man knows he's not alone.

***

Ryan's only slightly surprised to wake up and realize that Greg is gone. At first, he considers the idea that Greg could just be in the restroom, but as he sits up and looks around, he notices the older man's clothes are gone, and the bathroom light is off.

He worries about how Greg is handling all of this; he's not really sure what happened last night. He figured they would at least talk about it a little, but he could also see the look in Greg's eyes and knew that the older man was going to run the first chance he got.

It's all the same, though; he's not sure he even wants to talk about it. Calleigh's tried to get him to talk about it, to an extent more than just giving details or the police report, but it's not something he's ready to do just yet.

Ryan tries to push the thoughts from his head as he finally gets out of bed, making his way into the bathroom to shower. He remains there for almost an hour, until the water runs cold, trying to stir his thoughts away to no avail, finally getting out when he realizes that his attempts are futile.

When he walks out of the bathroom, he's surprised to see Calleigh standing in the room, putting her cell phone away as she sees the towel-clad CSI walk out. His face flushes briefly, his hand grabbing and holding the edge of the towel to make sure it doesn't come open by accident.

"What are you doing here?"

"I heard you had a visitor last night."

She doesn't sound upset, by any means, but more concerned. He knows that she didn't want him to see Greg, and he wonders how she found out, hoping that she didn't walk in by accident last night and he didn't notice.

"Greg came over. How'd you find out?"

"Sara Sidle. She woke up in the middle of the night, and he was gone. She panicked and left the room to go find him, and she saw him leaving your room."

"Nothing happened, if that's what you're thinking. He was zoned out most of the time he was here. We fell asleep on my bed, and he was gone when I woke up."

As he speaks, Ryan goes through the small amount of clothes he has, pulling out some clean underwear and jeans. Calleigh turns her back to him briefly, giving him a moment to dress before turning back around, finding him still shirtless.

He goes back to searching through the bag of clothes, Calleigh watching silently as she sees the look in his eyes. It's a mix of frustration and anger, and she can tell that everything that has happened is really starting to affect the normally controlled CSI as he finally pushes the bag off the bed in frustration.

"I need more fucking clothes."

And there goes the control.

"Ryan-"

"I'm tired of being in this fucking hotel. I want my apartment back, I want all of my clothes."

She's never seen him act like this before, and she can see the tears of frustration building in his eyes as he runs his hands through his hair.

"I'm tired of being a fucking victim of this guy."

"I know."

"You don't know. You weren't there, you didn't have someone sitting on you trying to fucking choke the air out of you. I thought I was going to die, you don't know how that feels. The only person that does can't even talk, and he's worse off than I am."

Ryan's breathing heavily by the time he's done yelling, Calleigh silently watching him. She knew this would happen if he didn't talk about it. Eventually, it would get to be too much, and he wouldn't be able to stop it from all coming out.

She's not exactly sure what to do either, afraid he's really going to shatter if she tries to approach him. He's breathing heavily enough that he looks like he's having a panic attack, and she knows that if he doesn't calm down soon, he's going to pass out from the carbon dioxide build up in his body.

"Ryan, please calm down, you're going to make yourself pass out if you don't breathe."

She's truly worried about him, realizing that he's not even listening to her anymore, a distant look in his eyes.

Eventually, her fears come true, and Calleigh barely manages to cross the room and catch Ryan before he hits the ground as he passes out.

--

Ryan's head is throbbing when he wakes up several hours later, opening his eyes slowly and turning his head to see Calleigh sitting in a chair next to the bed, her eyes closed but not asleep.

When she feels someone looking at her, she opens her eyes to see Ryan still lying on his stomach with his head towards her, staring silently.

She doesn't know what to say to him, unsure if he's going to lose it again, and she's glad when he finally breaks the silence, his tone back to the one she's used to instead of the angry and frustrated one he was using before he passed out.

"How long have I been out?"

"A few hours. Eric came by and brought you some more clothes."

Ryan closes his eyes and shakes his head, sighing heavily.

"I want to go back to my apartment."

Calleigh thinks that's one of the last things he needs right now, not after his breakdown before. It's only going to repeat when he sees the blood stains in his bathroom and bedroom from Greg's attack.

"Horatio's going to have it cleaned up before you go back. He's working on getting that taken care of right now."

"Has it been released?"

"We gathered everything we can from it. It was released last night."

"Then I want to go back... today. I'm not staying in this hotel any longer."

"Ryan-"

"You can take me, or I'll get a cab. I'm going back."

He pulls himself out of the bed, and Calleigh's not sure what to do as Ryan pulls on a clean shirt and socks, finding his shoes and pulling them on.

She doesn't want him to go back to his apartment, but he's not giving her much of a choice, shoving all of his clothes in the bag after folding them up, ready within minutes to finally leave the hotel.

"Are you sure you want to do this right now? You can stay at my place for a few days, or Eric's."

"The guy is behind bars, and I'm not going to let him control my life any longer. I'm not hiding anymore."

She realizes she has no choice. It's his decision to make, and with the mood he's in right now, she knows he's not going to back down until she finally agrees. Maybe in the end this is what he needs, though - to go back to his apartment and face what happened.

"Alright, I'll take you. But if you change your mind, promise you'll let me know."

He easily nods, silently thanking Calleigh as she finally stands up and moves to the door, walking out after Ryan.

On the way back to the apartment, not much is said between the pair, and Calleigh can tell by the way Ryan's sitting that he's a bit nervous about going back. She considers asking him again if he's sure he wants to do this, but she decides against it as she pulls into the parking lot of the apartment complex, shutting off the Hummer and waiting for Ryan to make some sort of movement.

He only sits there for several long moments, silently staring at the window that leads to his master bedroom.

She doesn't rush him, instead waiting silently until he finally opens the passenger side door and steps out, grabbing his bag from the backseat before walking in the direction of his apartment.

Calleigh gets out behind him, following him the short distance to his apartment door, but when he reaches it, he turns back to her, looking slightly confused about what she was doing.

"I want to go in alone."

"I agreed to bring you here, Ryan. I'm not going to leave you alone in there until I know you can handle it."

"I'll be fine."

"You've already had a panic attack just from thinking about what happened. If you go in there, it's going to be more real than ever."

"I need to do this alone. It's my decision, I was the one attacked-"

"Ryan."

"I'm going in there alone."

He makes his decision clear by unlocking the door and tearing away the police tape, walking in but stopping Calleigh when she tries to follow.

"Thanks for the ride."

He closes the door before she can respond, locking it and pressing his back against it as he closes his eyes. He can smell the stench of blood, the air in the apartment feels thick, making it hard to breathe.

He's trying to make himself open his eyes to walk all the way into the apartment, but it's not as easy as he thought it would be, a cold sweat breaking out across his body, making him shiver slightly.

For a moment, he considers turning back around, he knows the chances of Calleigh still being outside is high, but he feels like going in is the only way to really start dealing with this.

When he finally convinces himself to go in, he has to force himself to remember to breathe, his eyes scanning over everything that was once familiar to him.

It doesn't really feel like his apartment anymore, but more like another one of their many crime scenes: things moved around, out of order, pure chaos in his mind. As he walks through the living room, he hesitantly touches things, straightens them up, and puts them back in order.

The pillows on the couch are turned so that the patterns match, a spot catching Ryan's eyes as he does so. He knows what it's from, who's it is, and in the back of his mind, he knows that they swabbed the semen stain when they went through his apartment.

He tries to flip the cushion over, but he still knows it's there, and he can't help but go into the kitchen and grab a wet rag, returning to the living room to try and scrub it away.

He scrubs at it even after it's gone, his breathing heavy, and he knows he's just trying to avoid the inevitable. He wants to get rid of any evidence of what happened that night, any evidence of Greg or the attacker being in his place.

It isn't until he's worn away a spot in the cushion that he finally stops, trying to get his breathing back under control as he stands up with the rag, turning the cushion back over to hide the spot.

When he returns back to the kitchen, he notices the random spots of fingerprint powder still lingering around, and he uses the rag once again to eliminate the evidence.

It's almost an hour of cleaning the kitchen before he finally even considers going back towards the bedroom, his hands shaking when he reaches the closed door. He's really not sure what to expect and not sure how bad it really is in there. He knows that the extent of Greg's damages are bad, and that if cut deep enough, the throat can cause mass amounts of blood loss.

Those thoughts give him a mental image of just how bad it might be, and he hopes he's over-exaggerating. But upon finally opening the door, he realizes he's not, the amount of blood extreme in the short distance from the bathroom door to where Greg collapsed.

It's easy to see where Greg tried to crawl for help, blood-stained handprints covering the carpet, massive blood drops following it along the once white carpet.

For a while, Ryan can only stand in the doorway of the room, staring at the blood, trying to force back the bile in his throat. He can feel the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, but he blinks several times, forcing them away, not allowing himself to cry.

As if to prove to himself that he can handle all of this, Ryan finally takes a step into the room, shortly followed by another until he's standing in the doorway of the bathroom, staring at even more blood on the floor and counter and on the shower door.

He wonders how Greg could have possibly survived with this amount of blood loss, how he was discharged from the hospital so quickly with injuries that would cause this big of a mess.

However it happened, Ryan doesn't want to think about it anymore, and he starts to repeat his actions from the kitchen, finding a rag and getting it wet.

He starts at the same place the attack started-- in the shower, spraying it down with bathroom cleaner before wiping away the blood, the water in the sink turning pink when he rinses the rag out.

--

Calleigh stays outside of Ryan's apartment for a while, not sure if it's really safe to leave him in there alone. She knows he needs to do this on his own, but that's not going to make it any easier. She might not be so worried had it not been for the panic attack earlier, but that only serves to make her apprehension worse.

She only finally decides to leave when she gets a call for a new case, a DB out on the beach, and she really has no choice left but to go, apprehensively returning to the Hummer and leaving the apartment complex.

By the time she's arrived at the crime scene, Calleigh's managed to get herself back into CSI mode, walking over to Alexx who's kneeling over a young girl in her early twenties, cause of death unknown.

"Alexx, what do we have?"

"A young one, between the ages of twenty-three and twenty-five. She was found about an hour ago by a man jogging along the beach. Right now there's no obvious signs of COD, I'll have to get her back to the lab first. According to the liver temp, she died less than four hours ago."

As Alexx speaks, Calleigh's phone begins to ring, and she excuses herself, seeing Horatio's name on the screen when she flips it open.

"Duquesne."

"Calleigh, where are you?"

"I'm at a crime scene on the beach. What's going on?"

"Is Ryan with you?"

"No, I took him to his apartment. I left him there almost an hour ago. Horatio, what's going on?"

His voice sounds off, oddly panicked, and it's quickly worrying Calleigh, waiting for Horatio to answer as she feels a chill travel up her spine. She can hear tires squealing on the other end of the phone, as if Horatio just made a quick u-turn, and now she knows that something is definitely wrong, feeling her heart stop in her chest when Horatio finally responds.

"Chris Sullivan escaped from police custody at the hospital. He's already killed Kyle Reynolds, and he might be going after Greg and Ryan next. I need you to get over to Ryan's apartment, now. I'm already on my way."

***

On the way back up to Ryan's apartment, Calleigh tries calling the younger man with no luck, his phone ringing several times before going to voicemail. In the back of her mind, she knows this is bad, that something has happened to him, but she tries not to think about that when she finally pulls back into the parking lot of the complex, finding Horatio getting out of his Hummer just as she pulls up.

"Backup is on the way, but we might not have time; we're going in."

He runs towards Ryan's apartment as he speaks, Calleigh keeping up as they un-holster their guns, stopping on either side of the door as Horatio turns the knob, finding it unlocked.

"He locked it as soon as he got in there."

"Stay close and keep your eyes open."

Horatio pushes the door open, checking to make sure it's clear before carefully and slowly moving into the apartment, gun drawn, moving in the direction he's searching. Calleigh follows him in, mimicking his actions, and they both stop near the entrance of the kitchen, finding Chris Sullivan's body on the floor, a gun in his hand and a single gunshot wound to his right temple.

"Ryan?"

Calleigh's first instincts are to call out for the CSI upon finding the killer, and she turns to move in the direction of the bedroom, but Horatio stops her.

"Stay here and wait for backup; I'll check the back rooms."

"Horatio-"

"This isn't up for dispute."

He knows she's become attached to Ryan ever since the initial attack, and he's afraid how she might act if something did happen to the youngest CSI. He doesn't want her to see it, and he's glad when she finally agrees to stay behind, her gun clasped between her hands still.

Horatio checks the guest bedroom and bathroom first, making sure the rooms are clear before finally making his way into the master bedroom. At first it looks insignificant, just as it was during the first crime scene with blood staining the carpet, but as he moves into the bathroom, he finds what he dreads.

"Ryan?"

He makes sure the small room is clear before holstering his gun and kneeling down next to the young CSI, his only response a noticeable gurgling as blood seeps into his trachea from the gash in his neck.

"Ryan, help is on the way, you need to stay with me."

His eyes are barely open, his skin pale, cool, and clammy. He tries to respond, but it only forces more blood to bubble from his throat, his hand weakly grasping for Horatio.

The older man grabs Ryan's hand, feeling the blood covering it transferring to his own skin, and he knows it's only time that's keeping Ryan holding on, knowing now from the amount of blood on the floor that the younger man isn't going to make it until the paramedics arrive.

Horatio grabs a towel that's sitting on the counter, placing it over Ryan's neck to try and at least slow the blood flow. The younger man tries speaking but it's of no use, his vocals almost completely severed.

It's a miracle that he's survived this long, and Horatio wonders if it could have been stopped if they had arrived just moments earlier.

Despite knowing that he can't, Ryan continues trying to speak until Horatio finally pulls out a pen and a small notepad from his pocket, helping place the pen in Ryan's hand before placing the notepad under it.

The writing is barely legible, the paper becoming smeared with blood as Ryan's hand brushes against it. When he's finally finished, Horatio tries deciphering it, only getting as far as recognizing a probable name, the sketchy writing not providing much of a clue.

"Ryan, what does this mean?"

He points to his throat, and it doesn't take much to figure out what he's saying.

"Is this the name of the person that attacked you?"

Ryan barely nods his head, but shakes it moments later. It confuses Horatio, but before he can ask about it, the gurgling of blood in Ryan's throat suddenly stops.

"Ryan?"

It looks as if the younger man is trying to gasp for air but his chest isn't moving at all. And Horatio knows this is it, Ryan's eyes becoming slightly glazed over as his lips tinge blue.

"Ryan, I'm right here, you're not alone."

He's not sure if Ryan heard it before the younger CSI's body falls limp, his eyes glossy and distant as his body finally stops decompensating after the amount of blood loss it's suffered.

Horatio doesn't move for several moments, Ryan's hand limp in his own before he carefully lays it over the younger man's stomach. Before he stands up, he closes Ryan's eyes and grabs the pen and notepad, leaving the room where his youngest CSI lies.

Upon retuning to the living room, Calleigh sees the blood immediately, and she knows, her breath catching in her throat as she covers her mouth. She doesn't cry, not right away, she's always tried to convince herself that she's too strong for that.

"How'd he die?"

"Same as the other victims."

"I shouldn't have left. I knew he shouldn't be here by himself."

"Calleigh, don't starting blaming yourself. No one knew this was going to happen."

She can't process this right now, she feels like everything is going too fast. Horatio can see it in her face, and although he wants to approach her, he's covered in Ryan's blood.

"I think I need some air."

Calleigh quickly leaves the apartment before Horatio can say anything, passing Eric and two officers on her way out, ignoring Eric when he asks if she's alright.

"H, did we find him? Is Ryan okay?"

Eric's first question is answered when he walks far enough into the apartment to see Chris Sullivan's body, the second when he sees the blood on Horatio's hands and the look on his face.

"Eric, go through this place with a fine tooth comb. I don't think this is over yet."

"Why do you think that?"

Horatio holds up the bloodied notepad, Eric's eyebrows rising in confusion, unsure of what the shaky scribble says.

"What's that?"

"Ryan's last word. I think it's supposed to be a name. I'll send it back to the lab and see if they can decipher it, but until then, we treat this case like any other. I want the possibility of someone else being here eliminated. Start with Chris Sullivan's body and go from there. I'll process the master bedroom and bathroom."

Eric tries to look okay with all of this, but the look in his eyes gives it all away. A colleague that he worked fairly closely with was killed, and although there were times when they didn't see eye to eye, they still got along, working alongside each other.

Horatio claps Eric on the shoulder before he walks away, squeezing it before walking over to an officer that's standing near the front door.

"I need you to go stand in front of the master bedroom. I don't want anyone going in there unless I approve it."

The officer quickly does as he asks as Horatio walks outside, finding Calleigh standing away from the chaos that has started to form outside of the complex.

"Calleigh?"

She doesn't respond right away, a distant look in her eyes as Horatio approaches her. He waits a moment before saying her name again, and only after another second does she turn to look at Horatio, a blank look in her eyes.

"Are you going to be alright?"

"He could have been in there waiting for Ryan, I should have cleared the apartment before I let him go in there."

"He wasn't there when Ryan went in."

It doesn't make her feel any better, Ryan's still dead, and she thinks she should have done something to try and prevent it. She thinks that she shouldn't have just let Ryan shut her out. Too many thoughts and what if's are going through her head right now.

"Calleigh, I think it would be best for you to go back to the lab. I don't think it would be best for you to be working on this case."

"You can't keep me from this, Horatio. I can't just sit back while everyone else is taking care of it. I'm the reason he was here in the first place, I shouldn't have agreed to bring him back here."

"Calleigh, you're not in the right state of mind right now to be handling this case. If you want to do something to help Ryan, take this with you back to the lab and have it analyzed, see if we can figure out what Ryan was trying to say."

She can handle that, something to help Ryan but not get her too much involved further with the case. She's normally stronger than this, able to control herself under any circumstance, but since the first attack, she's managed to get closer to the youngest CSI.

"Alright, I can do that, Horatio."

Horatio places the notepad into an evidence bag before handing it over to Calleigh, calling an officer over just as he sees Alexx pull up.

"I need you to take Ms. Duquesne back to the lab."

"Yes, sir."

Calleigh silently leaves with the officer, the evidence bag held close as she gets into the squad car and stares at the apartment as they drive away.

"Please tell me he wasn't alone, Horatio."

The first words as Alexx approaches are of concern for Ryan, her tone saddened by the loss of a colleague that she was very fond of.

"I was with him; he knew he wasn't alone."

"Where is he?"

"Master bathroom."

Alexx walks into the apartment building, Horatio following behind her, and she stops briefly at the body of Chris Sullivan. There's not much to examine, it looks like a simple gunshot wound to the right temple, indicative of suicide. His hands have several cuts around the fingers, as if something was tied tight around them, and it's pretty obvious that they match the kinds of wounds found on their serial victims' necks from the wire used to strangle them with.

After clearing the body for removal, Alexx makes her way to the master bathroom, her steps slowing as she reaches the room, unsure of exactly what she's going to find.

The original call she got was for one body, a suspected suicide. But then she had to pull over and take a moment when she got the second call about Ryan. It's never easy getting the young, innocent ones on her table; it's even worse when it's someone she works with, someone as innocent as Ryan.

"Before I go in there, Horatio, how bad is it?"

"The truth?"

"That bad? Lets hurry up and get him out of there. He deserves to be put to rest without lying in his own blood."

She enters the bedroom before Horatio can respond. He knows that nothing can describe what she's going to walk into, even if he tried.

He stays behind for a moment, standing by the officer that's still watching the door, allowing Alexx a moment to take the scene in on her own. He knows how she feels about most of their victims, slightly attached, and he knows that feeling is increased incredibly when it comes to people she knows.

After giving Alexx a moment, Horatio walks into the bathroom to find her kneeling next to Ryan, trying to hold back the tears as she lightly touches his face.

"Alexx."

"Baby boy did nothing to deserve this; he died just like the other victims. It looks like he was able to put up more of a fight than the others. My guess is he saw the killer in the mirror just before the attack. He's got defense wounds and scratch marks in his neck around the wire. He's got petechia around the eyes; it confirms strangulation."

"Is there anything different from the other victims?"

"The wound doesn't look exactly the same, it looks like he was strangled differently than the other victims. Other than that, they're identical."

Horatio can see what she's talking about. The wounds look like they're at a different angle. It wouldn't be noticeable if this was only the second or third victim, but after seeing the same consistent wounds with the past seven victims, it's obvious when something's different.

***

Horatio covers the bathroom top to bottom, collecting any piece of evidence that might tell him what happened from the moment Ryan entered his apartment to the moment he took his last breath. He wants this case to be solid, with no doubt in anyone's mind of Chris Sullivan's guilt in the crime.

So far, he feels fairly confident that he has a timeline of what happened, and by the time Eric walks in, he's just about finished, taking a few more pictures around the room before turning back to Eric.

"What have you got, Eric?"

"Ryan was here a while before the attack. It looks like he cleaned the kitchen and living room spotless, probably trying to erase any reminders of the original attack. With the way he keeps this place clean, I wouldn't blame him for wanting to try and bring some sort of order back to this place."

"He had OCD. Mix that with the aftermath of the attack, and he was probably already on edge when the suspect came in here. From what I gather, his cleaning spree moved here into the bathroom. He started cleaning up the blood from Greg's attack, that's when he was attacked. I think Alexx was right, Ryan was able to see the suspect in the mirror before he was strangled. He put up a fight, but unlike CSI Sanders, he wasn't able to survive the injuries."

Eric takes in the scene around him as Horatio explains his idea of what happened, the blood-tinged rag laying on the floor proving his theory that Ryan was trying to clean up the mess when he was killed, the once clean floors now stained with pools of the CSI's own blood.

It's tragic, really, to survive one attack but then get killed only a short time later. Eric feels that the only thing that has come out of this is a dead colleague, their prime suspect taking his own life before they can ask the one question that's on everyone's mind - Why?

What was the motive behind these attacks, why take the lives of seven innocent people for seemingly no reason? It's what they all want to know, especially now that one of their own has become a victim, killed so brutally when his only objective in this whole case was to stop the killing of innocent people.

"Eric, have you finished processing the rest of the apartment?"

"Yeah. There wasn't much to process, actually. There appears to be no forced entry, but we both know Ryan wouldn't let this guy in. Once he came in, it looks like he went straight for Ryan before going back into the living room and killing himself."

"Why the living room? Those who commit murder suicide usually take their own lives within a close proximity to their victims."

"Maybe he felt guilty for what he'd done, didn't want to see Ryan lying there when he killed himself. If you feel that much guilt for your actions, the body of your victim isn't the last thing you'd want to see before you kill yourself."

"You'd feel guilty if this were your first, maybe second victim. This guy was a serial killer, Eric, he showed no remorse for his actions when we last talked to him."

"So what do you think?"

Horatio takes a moment to look around the room again, his eyes finally stopping on the pool of Ryan's blood for a brief second before looking back up at Eric.

"I think this case is far from over."

--

Horatio stands in the doorway of print analysis, silently taking in the sight of Calleigh, blankly staring at the large screen in front of her that reflects the images from the computer.

The tech works silently with the sheet of paper that Calleigh brought him, trying to decipher the last word written out by their fallen colleague. He doesn't seem to be getting far, but Horatio doesn't blame him, Ryan's hand wasn't exactly steady when he wrote it.

"How far are we?"

Horatio finally makes his presence known, Calleigh remaining motionless while the tech looks over his shoulder at Horatio.

"This isn't as easy as it originally looked. I managed to digitally separate the blood from the writing, but at this point it just looks like random squiggles - it's going to take a little more time than I thought."

"Do what you can. Mr. Wolfe was trying to tell us something, and I want to know what that is."

"Yes, Lieutenant."

"But first, why don't you go get yourself some coffee? I'd like a moment with Ms. Duquesne."

The tech nods before silently leaving the lab, and Horatio walks further in to stand next to Calleigh, her eyes still fixed on the screen in front of her.

"Calleigh?"

She faintly acknowledges her supervisor's presence, her eyes leaving the screen for only a moment before returning.

"Calleigh, why don't you and I go get some coffee?"

"We have to figure out what this says. Like you just said, Ryan was trying to tell us something, we need to figure it out."

"We will figure it out, but you're not on this case, you shouldn't be in here."

Horatio is thoroughly worried about the CSI, the empty tone in her voice, the emotionless look in her eyes. She's not with it right now, her mind trying to shut out the pain she's feeling, trying to lock it away with devastating effects.

"Three colleagues have died on me. Each one I cased about a little more than the other. I watched one of them kill himself right in front of me, the other, I basically handed right over to a serial killer. Alexx won't even let me see Ryan."

It's the most she's spoken since Ryan died, and even still, her voice holds no real emotion. Her eyes never drift from the screen, and Horatio isn't exactly sure how to handle this.

"You don't need to be there for the autopsy."

"I'm not going to let you take me off this case. I can handle it."

"I think you've become too attached to Ryan to continue to be on this case. I think it would be better for you in the long run to distance yourself from this."

Calleigh finally turns to look at Horatio, emotion finally showing in her eyes, one of slight anger.

"You can't take me off this case."

Determination quickly takes over the look of anger, and Horatio knows that she's not going to back down, that's just not in her nature. Instead, he allows himself to cave in, knowing that Calleigh can help better than anyone else on this case in one aspect.

"Alright, if you want to help," he hesitates, seeing the hopeful look in Calleigh's eyes as she stands up. "I need you to run the gun found with Chris Sullivan's body. Compare it to the bullet found in Kyle Reynolds, and run it to see if the gun has been involved in any other crimes. Will you be okay with that?"

He asks more out of concern for Calleigh than he does the jeopardy of the case, and when she nods, he makes a mental note to have her checked on periodically, just in case.

"Alright, call me the moment you find out anything."

Calleigh thanks Horatio before leaving the print analysis lab, the tech coming back just as she does so.

"Let me know what you find."

Horatio leaves the lab before the tech even gets a chance to sit down, the lieutenant making his way down to the morgue, passing Chris Sullivan's body in the hallway on the way in.

When he passes through the doors, he's not at all surprised to see Alexx sitting on a stool next to the cold steel table where Ryan's body lies, his lower half covered by a white sheet, the upper half revealing the sutured "Y" that confirms the autopsy has already taken place.

Alexx has one hand resting on Ryan's that is laying on the table, the other gently brushing fingers down the side of his face. The scene looks as if it were one of Alexx's own children laying on the table, and Horatio can't help but move to stand next to her, a hand resting on her shoulder as silence plagues the room.

It remains this way for several moments, neither saying anything, both trying to hold back their real emotions.

Alexx finally breaks the silence by standing up and pushing the stool away, clearing her throat to prevent her voice from wavering as she prepares to go through the autopsy findings.

"Alexx, are you alright to handle this?"

"I'll be alright once this guy is caught and Ryan can be laid to rest."

The statement catches Horatio off guard, realizing Alexx must have found something for her to veer from the idea that Chris Sullivan was the serial killer.

"What have you found?"

Alexx walks over to the counter briefly, going through a case file before coming back with the picture of one of the previous victims, the picture zoomed in and focused on the fatal neck wound. She holds the picture up next to the similar wound in Ryan's neck, and nothing needs to be said, Horatio seeing right away what she's getting at.

"The wounds aren't similar."

"Not even close. I considered height playing a role in the difference, but Ryan was just about as tall as the other victims. The cut didn't go as deep as the others either, these wounds look like the result of someone doing this for the first time, not a serial killer. Either someone else was in the apartment and killed baby boy, or Chris Sullivan isn't your serial killer."

Just as Horatio suspected, this case isn't over, far from it really, but he knows this isn't one that he's going to allow to remain unsolved. He looks to Alexx for more clues.

"What else did you find?"

"Skin under his nails. He might have scratched his killer, I already sent it up to DNA. I checked Chris Sullivan's body for any cuts or scratches. I didn't find any, other than the ones on his fingers that match the wire I removed from Ryan's throat."

"Cause of death?"

Alexx lets her eyes fall on Ryan when Horatio asks the question, a deeper sadness filling them when she looks up seconds later.

"The cut wasn't deep enough to kill him right away. Instead, blood filled his lungs until he couldn't breathe anymore. He suffocated, Horatio, a very painful way to die, but at least he wasn't alone."

Horatio tries to block out the last moments of Ryan's life, hearing the sounds that the younger CSI was making as he suffocated. It makes him sick, but it increases his drive to find the killer, thanking Alexx as he leaves her alone once again.

It's only a short time until Horatio finds himself in the DNA lab, the tech feeling under pressure when she sees the CSI walk in.

"Lieutenant."

"Do you have the DNA results on the skin found under Ryan Wolfe's nails?"

"I just got the samples, I'm running them right now. I've also got the blood samples from the wire."

"How long until you get the results?"

"They're top priority, it'll be less than two hours."

Horatio reminds her to page him as soon as she gets the results before leaving the DNA lab, soon finding himself standing behind Calleigh as she looks through a microscope at the bullets found in Chris Sullivan and Kyle Reynolds.

"Calleigh?"

"They're a match. Chris Sullivan killed Kyle Reynolds and turned the gun on himself."

After everything he's found out so far, Horatio is starting to wonder if that's even true. When he walked into Ryan's apartment and found Chris Sullivan's body, he hoped that meant this was all over, that this case could be closed quickly and Ryan could be laid to rest, but it only continues to get more complicated, and Horatio is starting to think there's a big piece to this puzzle they're not getting, one that's right in front of them that they're simply overlooking.

One of the many pages that he's been waiting for finally comes in as Horatio takes a quick glance into the microscope at the two bullet comparisons, seeing the matching striations almost immediately.

The page comes from the DNA lab, and Horatio thanks Calleigh before leaving, making his way back to the lab once again. The tech holds the results in her hands, an odd look in her eyes that the CSI can't quite place until she hands him the results and reveals the reason behind her pale face.

He reads the results several times over, making sure he's reading it right, and he realizes this is it, the missing piece to the puzzle. As he suspected, it was right in front of their faces the whole time. Ryan was right.

***

Sara stands in the middle of the hotel room, cell phone still in hand after getting the call, finding out that Ryan Wolfe was attacked by the serial killer.

Her eyes are fixed across the room at Greg, the younger CSI sleeping silently on the bed with his knees pulled to his chest. He's been asleep for a while now, after taking a sleeping pill and some pain killers, and now Sara debates whether or not to wake him to inform him of what happened.

Although the two men haven't known each other for very long, they've been through a lot and Sara can only imagine how he's going to react, especially considering they've slept together. Whether they meant for it to be just a fling or more, the attack following the sex brought them closer together, giving Greg a reason to keep the other CSI on his mind front and center.

As Sara continues to debate the situation, Greg stirs lightly, his legs moving away from his chest to stretch out, his eyes still closed as he stretches his muscles.

When he finally opens his eyes, he almost immediately sees Sara standing there, staring at him intently. She looks a little pale, her eyes showing pain, and Greg knows something isn't right, seeing how tight her cell phone is gripped in her hand.

"Sara?"

His voice is low and harsh, his face scrunching in pain when he speaks. Sara remains still for a moment longer, staring, until finally she gathers her senses and makes her way over to the bed, sitting on the edge as Greg pulls himself up so that his back is leaning against the headboard.

"Greg, how are you feeling?"

The debate is still going on in her head, trying to put off telling Greg until she's sure she knows how she's going to do it without him getting too upset.

"I'm fine."

The look on his face when he says it proves otherwise, and Sara reaches across the nightstand, grabbing a pill bottle and bottle of water. She shakes two pills out and hands them to Greg, the younger CSI taking them thankfully before chasing them with the water.

He closes his eyes as the water rushes down his throat, soothing it briefly. Even with the painkillers he can still feel his throat throbbing with intense pain, the pills only barely making it tolerable. Even after the wounds heal and fade into scars, Greg knows the pain will remain, physical and emotional, the details of the attack etched in his memory.

No matter how much anyone may act like they know what he's going through, they never really will. He's only glad that Sara's not acting that way, the female CSI simply being there to make sure he's physically okay, giving him the distance he needs.

Sara knows he's going to be spacey for a little while, like he is now, like he has been since he woke up in the hospital. She can tell when he reverts back to the attack, the way his body tenses up, the fearful look he gets in his eyes. Sometimes, something as simples as a single word can make that look appear in his eyes, a fleeting moment that's gone as quickly as it came.

She doesn't like that look, not at all, but she knows it's going to happen when she tells the younger CSI about Ryan. That the first thing he's going to think when he finds out is about the events of a couple of nights ago.

She can't keep it from him forever though, he's going to find out the second someone turns on the television or drops the daily newspaper off. With that in mind, the debate going on in her head finally ends, and it takes a moment to get Greg's attention, the look in his eyes distant when he finally turns back to her.

"Greg, something has happened. I'm going to tell you, but first I want you to promise me that you'll try to stay as calm as possible; keep in mind your injuries."

He doesn't like where this is going, faintly nodding his head as he tries to brace himself for whatever it is he's about to hear.

"They guy they arrested for all of the murders, he managed to escape from custody. He killed Kyle Reynolds, shot him."

Greg noticeably tenses when she mentions the killer escaping, and she hates to go on, knowing his apprehension is only going to get worse.

"He also got another victim... he broke into Ryan's apartment last night; strangled him before taking his own life. Lieutenant Cane got there shortly after it happened, he was with Ryan when he passed away."

Greg's silent, motionless, and Sara's thrown off by the brief look of relief that's held in the younger man's eyes. She just told him that a guy he was with only a few short days ago is dead, and he looks relieved. It's not what she expected.

When the look finally dissipates from his eyes, he moves to get off the bed but Sara stops him, worried that he might break his promise and possibly cause more damage than what has already been inflicted on him.

He doesn't try to get up again, instead letting his head fall on Sara's shoulder, her hands reaching around his back to hold him close, trying to comfort him. His shoulders don't shake as if he's crying, Sara doesn't feel any moistness on her shirt from tears, the younger man is just motionless, his breathing coming out a little rapid but otherwise normal against her shoulder.

--

"Is this the DNA sample from the wire?"

Horatio continues to hold the DNA results in his hand, his eyes still scanning over them. This makes the case much more complicated, just when Horatio thinks he's beginning to figure it out something else comes up.

"Those are the DNA results from the skin found under Ryan's nails. That's only one of the samples though, it also says Ryan had Chris Sullivan's DNA under his nails as well."

"So there were two people in Ryan's apartment when he was attacked, and only one was there when we arrived. Do you have the results from the wire yet?"

"They're coming through right now."

Horatio pulls the sheet from the printer as it comes out, and he's surprised to see yet another two matches, both matching those of the results he currently has.

"Alexx pulled two different samples from the wire. One included blood and skin, which means there was force put into it. It made the wounds on Chris Sullivan's fingers and the DNA matches. The other is just a skin sample, no blood. It matches the donor of the DNA under Ryan's nails."

"They tag teamed Ryan. One tried to strangle him, but when he tried to fight back the other tried to restrain him."

"But Alexx didn't find any scratches on Chris Sullivan's body, and Ryan didn't have any marks to prove he was restrained at all."

Horatio turns around at the sounds of Eric's voice behind him, the younger CSI making a very good point.

"If it helps, Horatio, the skin sample from Chris Sullivan didn't look normal, it was colored."

"Like from a tattoo?"

The tech nods, and Horatio is quick to pull out his phone, dialing the number for the morgue and waiting for the M.E. to pick up.

"Alexx, does Chris Sullivan have a tattoo?"

"Pardon me?"

"The skin sample matches Chris Sullivan. I need you to check if he's got any tattoos, and I need you to check and see if there's any wounds in them."

"He's got a tattoo on both arms, I'll double check for wounds."

Horatio waits on the phone while Alexx goes to check, Eric and the tech standing silently by.

"I don't know how I missed it the first time Horatio. There's a small cut on his left arm on the tattoo."

"Alright Alexx, that's what I needed. Keep me posted on anything else you find."

"Are we going to go pick this guy up, H?"

Horatio thinks about Eric's question while still holding the results in his hands. They can't rush into this, doing so may severely damage the case. Not to mention that arresting their new suspect can turn out very bad for them if they don't have all of their evidence straight.

"I don't want to jump on this just yet-"

"This guy killed Ryan. The longer we wait, the more chance there is that he's going to leave."

The pain of his colleague and friend's death is apparent in Eric's voice, and although Horatio wants to just go after this guy without any boundaries, he knows he can't do it, knows that his team is hurting right now and he needs to be the one to keep his head on straight.

"Valero, I want you to run the DNA again, just to be absolutely positive. Eric, I need you to do me a favor. I don't want Calleigh to know about this just yet, not until we get this guy. I don't want her trying to take matters into her own hand. Take her to get coffee or something to eat, take her back to her apartment to clean up. She hasn't had a break since yesterday, I just need her out of the lab, she needs to take care of herself right now and she's not going to do that here."

"H, I want to be there when you pick this guy up."

"Calleigh needs someone with her right now. I'm going to go talk to the DA and get a warrant for arrest."

"H-"

"It's not up for discussion, Eric."

--

Sara isn't sure what to do for Greg other than let him know she's there, the younger man now laying back down on his side, his eyes emotionless. She isn't sure what he's thinking right now, if he blames himself for what happened, feels guilty that he was able to survive the attack but Ryan wasn't.

She may never know what's going through his head, but she does know that his reaction worries her, the silent emotionless stare. She tried getting him to talk, but he doesn't respond, doesn't even flinch.

When there's a knock at the hotel door, Sara's actually glad for a break, getting up from the edge of the bed where she's been sitting, and looking through the peep hole. She's glad to see a familiar face standing on the other side of the door, and she quietly slips into the hallway, not wanting Greg to be bothered.

Greg hears the door close, his eyes blinking several times. His mind is as blank as the look in his eyes, like he forgot how to think, how to have any sort of thought. His movements are automatic as he pulls himself out of the bed, walking across the small room over to the bathroom.

He stands in front of the mirror, staring at his reflection, thoughtless. His left hand rubs at his right arm, the room a little cold, his eyes caught on the bandage.

His hands shake as he raises them to his neck, carefully pulling the bandage away from the skin. The area around the stitches is still a little tender and read, small jolts of pain shooting through Greg as he gently palpates the area. He wants to feel something, something other than what he's feeling physically.

He wants to feel sorrow for Ryan's death, anger towards his killer, something. It feels like his emotions were switched off overnight, and he doesn't know what to think.

Even as movement in the bathroom doorway catches his eyes and he sees Sara standing behind Lieutenant Caine, a shocked and saddened look in her eyes, he can't feel anything.

Everything seems to slow down around him as he stares at the lieutenant, his body flaccid as the words "you are under arrest" are uttered by the red-head, an officer behind him quick enough, his eyes empty as he feels the cold metal cuffs encircle his wrists.

***

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