Title: Kisses
By: cassie_jamie
Disclaimer: Not mine. Despite the wishing I did with Tinkerbelle's dust.
Rating: G/PG
Pairing: Horatio/Eric
Spoilers: Any and all up to now. Though nothing is mentioned from before T.B.
Notes: This is what happens when my cousin and I spend prolonged periods of time together. We watched "Tinder Box" four times and got inspired.

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I didn't start thinking until after the trucks and fire marshals arrived. Alexx was already there, tending to the bodies and ordering her assistants to preserve the evidence. Tim and Calleigh were off somewhere, starting the investigation with...

Horatio.

That's when the night's events came back. A great flood of memories... Speed's plea that I come with him, flashing badges to get to the head of the line...drinking, Connie.

I had to talk to H, went looking for him. He was standing in what used to be the club owner's office, talking about the safe. And my nerve melted away. How exactly does one explain that he just spent part of the night all over a girl whose last name is currently an unknown?

So I say nothing at all. Merely stand there, taking him in before I have to spill out all the information contained guiltily in my gut.

It isn't long before he notices, takes me out into the hallway, asks me to lift prints. An affirmative answer, before I exit.

"Hey."

I went back to the driver's seat of the Hummer; the fabric still faintly smells like him. I heard the phone ring as I left, and now he's standing outside the door. The window is rolled down, and he rests a hand on the metal, "Hey."

"Go home." His voice is full of compassion, "I want you to take the night off."

Eyes turn to finally catch his line of sight, "I already told you I need to work, H."

"You did." That red hair shifts as he nods, "But I think you should reconsider." Then he goes on, and my heart nearly stops, "Speed told me about Connie."

There's suddenly this thick of something in my throat, sticky and it aches my chest, "I'm sorry."

"Eric..." "I'm really sorry, Horatio."

He sighs and goes around the side, gets into the truck, "Shut the window." He orders, so I do it, "Listen to me. You've been drinking for one and you always get a little less cautious when you've had a couple of beers. And I told you when you left the house to have fun."

"But I..."

"Did you have sex?"

Okay, *that* was out of the blue, "What?"

H fixes me with one of his fiercest stares, "Did. You. Have. Sex?"

"*No*." I emphasize the word; my voice is heavy with anger.

"Then don't worry." He tells me, reaching across to wipe away some of the dark ash, "Now, I have to go to a D.B. for a higher up. We'll talk tonight, alright?"

"Alright." I let myself breathe, sighing tiredly. I don't want to leave the vehicle... I want to stay here with him. I need him right now like I need to work.

He allows me to sit there a few minutes more, his hand continuing its ministrations, then, "I really need to go, Eric."

And reluctantly I crack open the window again, slip out the door while he hops into the seat. Wordlessly, Horatio leaves. Which gives me the answer to the question I'd been thinking.

He's upset with me. He never just goes without some sort of secret signal, some word with a meaning we know as something more. Yet, I did something stupid this time. So there is no one to blame except my own self.

"Delko." Calleigh's sudden presence grates my nerves. I spin to look at her, eyes glistening with fury, "What the hell were you *thinking*?"

"Shut up, Cal." I mumble, rub my hands together.

"You'd better be drunk." Her blonde hair flutters in the slight wind, "Or I'm kicking your ass."

I feel my control gradually seeping away, like the air seeped from the club tonight. I understand her anger, and that's what makes me upset. Not wanting to do something I'll regret, I begin walking back to what is now our crime scene.

However, She stops me, "Get your act together." Her voice is low with warning.

If it would make a difference, then I would. But I've fucked up; my act is together for now, for work. Can't guarantee it'll stay together after that.

-*-*-

He tosses his keys on the hallway table like he always does when he comes in; they clatter against the wall as they slide into it.

I've been settled into the bed for an hour bathed in moonlight from the sole window not covered with a curtain; the tape holding on the gauze is itchy and I scratch it periodically to (pardon the expression) kill time. I tried to sleep, but all the images come back and I returned to lazily digging my fingers into my skin. Erin, Horatio's two-year old Irish Setter, was sleeping at my feet, but lifts her head as the stairs creak from his footsteps.

The door opens and I grunt when the harsh recessed-lighting from the hallway pours in. He says nothing.

No noise from him as he enters the bathroom nor as he comes back and changes into his pajamas. He shuffles beneath the covers...then lays and arm across my abdomen, "I'm not mad at you."

"You should be."

"Why?" His eyes been closed and he pries them open, stares at me like he did before.

"I cheated on you."

His cheeks redden, as he grabs my face in his hands, "Stop this!" Then he leans forward, his teeth catching my lower lip. Then, kisses me hard, rolling me onto my back and pressing against me. I begin to lose my sense of who is who, when he stops, "Now. If we were two teenagers in high school, maybe I'd feel like making out were some sort of infidelity, but we're now. We're adults. Kisses are kisses.

"We kiss our family and our friends when we see them. Do I like yours and do I cherish them? Yes. Do I want you to feel a little bit guilty about being attracted to someone who isn't me? Of course." He grins cynically at that, "But do I want you to beat yourself up over this? No. Because the case is done and you're in my house, in my bed."

And he kisses me again, knee between my legs and tongue grazing across the roof of my mouth.

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