No Other One, Chapter 19
Title: No Other One, Chapter 19
Author: Duckie Nicks
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Yelina Salas, Horatio Caine, the whole Caine family
Author's Note: WARNING: SPOILER FOR SEASON 6.
Summary: Almost two decades ago, Horatio made a decision that would change his family forever. Will they ever forgive him? Will he ever tell Yelina how he feels? This is an alternative to the beginning of season 6. A Horatio and Kyle story; H/Y romance in the future. Fulfills
alphabetasoup prompt, L is for Lakshmi.
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, and Chapter 18
Disclaimer: I don't own the show. Don't sue me.
No Other One
Chapter Nineteen: The Substance of Things Hoped For
By Duckie Nicks
"Just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings." - Elie Wiesel
The Styrofoam cup was warm in his hand, which was really all anyone could hope for from police department-made coffee. Horatio quickly stirred sugar into the not-quite steaming black liquid. Sweetening it to her taste, the redhead smiled in the darkness.
This area of the lab was almost empty, the night shift having filed out to take care of two separate double homicides. Throwing away the red plastic stirrer, the lieutenant couldn’t stifle the disbelief making itself known in the back of his mind. It was ridiculous - completely unreasonable - for Rebecca Nevins to be focusing all of her energy on Kyle.
Sure, the teenager had had priors; Horatio wasn’t blind to the boy’s imperfections. But… there were other criminals out there, people far guiltier than Kyle was. And Rebecca should have been focusing on them - not trying to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend through his son.
The redhead worked to push the thought out of his mind. It wouldn’t help now to think like this. There was no point in thinking about Rebecca’s decision; she’d made up her mind, and he knew there would be no changing it, at least for the moment.
All he could do was fight for his son. Which… standing in front of a coffee pot cursing his ex-girlfriend took away from.
Carefully, Horatio made his way back to his office, where Calleigh sat watching the security tape from the convenience store. It was a long shot, originating in the receipt the redhead had found. There was the definite chance that there wouldn’t be anything on the video, but he was determined to find the truth if he could. And the blonde sitting in his leather chair seemed just as intent.
She looked just as exhausted as he felt; Calleigh was watching security tapes with heavy eyes and occasionally twirling her hair. The girlish move was a testament to how much she wanted to sleep, Horatio understood.
But they weren’t ready to quit. Not when something could be out there that would either convict or free his son.
“Coffee?” he asked, closing the door behind him; they’d chosen to work here so that they would be unobstructed by the other cases that needed to be handled in the lab. He hadn’t realized it before, but in only a few hours, his office had gone from controlled chaos to something that looked like his nephew’s bedroom.
Stacks of paper littered his desk. They’d reread the entire original case file, retested (twice - because neither was willing to trust the other’s results at first) every sample. There had been, unfortunately, no mistakes, no oversights - nothing for him to pounce on.
So the CSIs had moved onto the evidence they’d collected tonight. And Horatio knew that they would find something. They were close, he could tell, could feel it in his bones.
But the last hours had been a bust. DNA evidence off of the cigarettes proved that the other teenagers, Adam Jackson and Deana Burton, had been at the abandoned house. Which was hardly news, given that the two kids had already confessed to being there.
Fingerprints on the sales receipt also belonged to Adam Jackson. But at least, Horatio thought, trying to remain optimistic, nothing had implicated Kyle further.
Now warmed slightly by the thought, he set the cooling cup of coffee down next to Calleigh.
“Thanks,” she said.
“You find anything?”
She took a sip of coffee, her face screwing up slightly at what had to be the horrible taste. “No,” she drawled. “The security tapes are all mixed up. I swear - there was a tape with a mall Santa Claus in it.”
Horatio sat down on the edge of his desk next to her.
“But,” she said, her voice brighter than before, “I’ve found the tapes from the past week. And I’m searching through them to see if I can get as close to the time on that receipt as possible. So hopefully…”
Calleigh didn’t finish the thought, her voice trailing off.
They sat in silence, fast-forwarding through the tape. The security camera only recorded video, which made the process feel even slower. Even though the blonde seemed slightly friendlier, neither C.S.I. were in the mood for conversation. Save for the occasional jerk of the machine they were using, the room was quiet.
It made the redhead feel even more tense. But in a way, that was good, he thought, because it allowed him to focus on the tape. Eagerly, he watched for something. And in the quick motions of people coming in and out of the store with bags in their hands, of old people hobbling in the store and children running out, Horatio saw it.
“Wait, wait,” he said quickly. And slowly, probably from exhaustion, Calleigh hit the pause button. “Go back.”
As she did, the blonde asked him, “You see something?”
But the question went unanswered, didn’t need to be. Because when she stopped the tape, at that moment, Calleigh saw it as well.
They both sighed with relief, if for different reasons. For her, it probably only meant that she could go home and sleep soon. But the redhead didn’t care, because on the monitor, in grainy black and white, was proof that Horatio hadn’t been wrong. That there was more to this case than Kyle being a horrible teen.
The blonde looked over at him, a smile playing on her lips. “Well, at least this hasn’t been for nothing.” It was, Horatio thought, the closest she would come to apologizing (at least for now, anyway)… not that he really needed her to. It was enough to know that the evidence was finally pointing them in the direction of truth.
“I think we need to take a look at that cell phone,” the redhead said, feeling relieved.
Yes, they were finally heading in the right direction.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
He lay on the metal cot waiting.
Maybe it was stupid to think that Horatio would come through. After all, the man didn’t exactly seem reliable, but… here Kyle was, waiting… hoping for something to happen. What alternative was there?
Sit and wait to be convicted and carted off to the big house?
His fingers unconsciously continued to pick at the crack in the wall. There were no windows in the tiny cell, but out of the corner of his eye, Kyle could see that there was one down the hall near the guard’s station. And coming in through the window were the beginnings of the morning dawn.
He’d spent a whole night in jail, the blond realized. An entire night waiting for his… father to fix things and so far absolutely nothing had happened.
It really was stupid, Kyle knew then, to think that Horatio would do anything. It was one thing to pledge your help but entirely another to actually accomplish something, and the redhead clearly just wasn’t interested in going the distance.
He was such an idiot for thinking any differently. Really, he was a fool for believing that anyone in his life would come through for him. After all, hadn’t that been his experience up until that point - that no one had ever helped him? Why should he wait around, expecting for things to be different this time?
Closing his eyes, Kyle decided then that he wasn’t going to wait any longer.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
When she entered the kitchen that morning, Yelina was shocked to see that Ray Junior was already awake. Even as a baby, her son had been a late sleeper. While other parents bemoaned being woken up at 5:30 by the sounds of cartoons, her own child had always slept later.
It was something that only got worse as he aged. And these days, she knew it required his alarm clock going off at least three separate times and a good number of threats from her to get him out of bed.
But here he was, hunched over a bowl of cheerios.
“You’re awake early,” she said. Sliding her silver hoop earring in place, the mother closed the distance between them. One of her arms snaked around his upper body. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder, and she pulled him back gently into a hug before kissing the top of his dark curls.
It was with relief that Ray Junior didn’t shrug her off. Yelina hated fighting with him, hated thinking that… something might happen, and there wouldn’t be any time to apologize. And yet, their arguing seemed to be inevitable, unavoidable, these days.
“Yeah,” the boy said noncommittally as he spooned another milky bite of cereal into his mouth. He made a loud slurping sound, shoveling the food in as quickly as possible. But Ray Junior wasn’t fast enough to stop the thin trail of white liquid from meandering down his chin and landing on the sleeve of Yelina’s suit jacket.
She groaned, untangling herself from her son. This was absolutely not what she needed today. Not when she had to sit in front of a panel and explain her year in Rio. Hurrying, the brunette dampened a towel and worked quickly to make sure the milk wouldn’t stain her white suit.
Seemingly unaware, Ray Junior continued to devour his breakfast.
“If I hadn’t painstakingly taught you table manners, I would think you’d been raised by wolves,” she said, frowning.
He shrugged. “You act like there’s a difference.” Narrowing her eyes on him, Yelina could see the smile forming around the spoon in his mouth. She chucked the yellow tea towel at his face, which Ray caught easily. “Nice, Mom,” he said sarcastically
Truth be told, the brunette was grateful for the change of pace. Lately they’d fought so much that Yelina had almost forgotten how easy it could be. Her son still had a mouth, but that seemed almost inevitable. How could she have ever been foolish enough to think her child would turn out any different? And there was no malice in it, at least not right now, so the mother turned her attention to pouring herself a glass of orange juice.
She didn’t dare eat anything, was convinced she’d vomit before her interview if she did. There was so much to account for, so much that she would have to answer for, and Yelina was more nervous now than when she’d originally been hired.
Eventually, Ray Junior turned to look at her. He frowned at her appearance. “You’re wearing white,” he said negatively. She glanced down to look at herself, trying to see what he saw that was so horrible about her outfit. But everything seemed okay to her. Before she could say anything though, the teenager explained, “You’re wearing white, and you’re crying over some spilt milk that a person couldn’t even see.”
“One day,” Yelina started to say, as she took a seat at the kitchen table. “You will understand that cleanliness isn’t just about what you can see.”
“Whatever,” he muttered, turning his attention to a stack of papers next to his cereal bowl.
Yelina knew she should tell him then that she was going to try and get her old job back. But as she sipped her juice, it was harder than she had originally imagined it would be.
And the mother wasn’t exactly sure why that was, because Ray Junior had never really liked the idea of her being a private investigator either. But she doubted that he would be thrilled over this. Because she could hardly argue that being a detective was that much safer. Not with their family history anyway.
But there was no point in avoiding it, the brunette knew. If she did get the job, Yelina wouldn’t be able to hide it from her son. Preventing a fight now might make her feel better, but in the end, they would argue over this. Better to tell him now so that it would at least look like he’d had a say.
“You’re staring at me,” he complained, turning a page.
She took another sip of orange juice before setting the glass down gently. One of her manicured fingers swirled around the top of the cup. “I have a meeting today.” Ray looked up at her expectantly. She hadn’t expected to pique his interest, and now that the brunette had done so, it made her nervous. “With I.A.B,” Yelina said eventually.
He didn’t say anything at first. Rather, his hands picked up his bowl and quickly slurped down the milk. Plunking the bowl back down, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “So you’re trying to get your job back,” Ray said.
“Yes,” Yelina told him quietly. She waited for the argument to come. Her body tensed at the yelling that was bound to occur, but… it didn’t come.
Instead, Ray Junior stood up, his chair scraping against the tile floor. Grabbing his bowl, he put it in the sink.
“You’re… not yelling,” she said, her eyebrow arched in confusion.
“Did you expect me to?”
The brunette sat there, frozen. Her son had never been a quiet baby; he’d never taken the high road. And when he disagreed with something, Ray Junior was always willing to let anyone and everyone know. “Uh… yes. Yes, Ray, I did.”
“Why are you investigating one of Dad’s old girlfriends?”
It was a question that seemed to have come from nowhere, and Yelina had no idea how to respond. She licked her lips, tucked a stray curl behind her ear, because she needed time to see where this was going. But she couldn’t stall forever. And finally, the brunette gave in, asking, “What do you mean?”
“In these papers… one of Dad’s old girlfriends is named. And you have them, so I want to know why?” Ray walked back to the table, grabbing the papers he’d been looking at and set them down in front of her.
She recognized them immediately; they were the contents of the file she gotten only hours previously. But Yelina still didn’t understand how Raymond’s sex life could be brought into this… though part of her thought angrily that her husband’s proclivities often came to her attention in the oddest of circumstances.
“Your uncle asked me to investigate a teenager. I did some background on his family.” The brunette looked up at her son. “How does your father fit into this?”
“I told you. One of his ex-girlfriends is -“
“And who would that be?” she asked.
“Julia Alvarez.”
The question that had been plaguing her finally went answered. It was as though some part of her mind had been lit up with an ancient memory.
Her husband had always been an open person, to a fault even. Before he’d become lost in the drugs, Ray had regularly confided in her; she was his spouse but so much more. His wounds splayed out for her to tend to, he had called her his demon slayer. Equal parts avenger, lover, and mother, Yelina had worked so hard to help him overcome his past.
Looking back at that time now, the brunette could see that nearly everything had worked against them. She’d never really been in the position to help him; she wasn’t an expert, didn’t know how to deal with half the situations he’d talked to her about. But more than that, Yelina could see now that too many times, his revelations had been intended to hurt her… or to make her stay.
It was a pattern she’d been unable to see at the time, but there could be no denying it now. When the brunette had sided with Horatio over some… procedure decades ago, Ray had told her how his parents died. He had told her the truth then, not because he was in pain, but because he wanted to make his brother seem evil, undesirable.
And Julia Alvarez… Ray’s ex-girlfriend had been brought up shortly after a random convict had hit on her. That particular day, he had said, “I picked up your dry cleaning, sweetheart, and by the way, I ran into Julia Alvarez, you know - the woman I lost my virginity to - earlier today, so we had lunch together.”
Even now, despite the fact that her husband was dead, it irritated her. She shouldn’t be jealous, she understood. After all, Raymond Caine was hardly a prize in the spouse department. And… frankly, if someone had wanted to take him off her hands in the last year of their marriage, Yelina would have gladly welcomed it.
It made no sense, that the sudden jolt of envy should course through her body. But here she was, ready and willing to fight for her husband.
“Mom.”
The sound of Ray Junior’s voice quickly snapped her out of her thoughts. “Hmm?”
“Dad’s not in trouble, is he?” He was desperately trying to sound cool, she could tell. But there was concern pooling in his dark brown eyes. And her jealousy had a new target now.
Her idiotic husband.
He’d left them both, too afraid of going to prison; he had let everyone think that he was dead. And yet, Ray Junior was still his little boy. Her husband had disappeared for years to let her raise their son alone, had only reappeared because he had been forced into it. And still…
She bit down on her lip to stop herself from saying something horribly cruel. Because it was wrong, she knew, to say anything about it to Ray Junior. It was in some ways, her own fault, that their son still worshiped his father. She’d been so frustrated and appalled at the rumors of Ray’s disloyalty that she’d blanketed her son in myth and outright lies.
But that didn’t make it any easier to take. And right now, as she was about to go before the firing squad for her son, he could only think about his father, and it hurt. “Honey, nothing is going on with your father,” Yelina said as reassuringly as possible.
“Then why are you researching one of his -“
“I’m not, Ray. This has absolutely nothing to do with your father. And on the off chance that it did, do you really think that I would -“
“Don’t even,” he snapped. “You want to get your old job back? Fine. But don’t think that I don’t know how you’re going to do it.” Opening the white refrigerator door, Ray Junior snatched a soda before slamming it shut. “You’re gonna sell out Dad to do it. So don’t act like you’d never do something like that.” Snatching his book bag up from the back of his chair, the teenager said, “Don’t forget. I was in Rio too.”
He stormed off, and Yelina didn’t have the heart to go after him. Because there was nothing she could say at the moment that he’d believe. And frankly, Ray Junior wasn’t all that wrong; she was going to tell them whatever they wanted to know about her husband. But the mother thought that this was a small price to pay in order to have a job that offered her some small measure of protection. Somehow, she knew Ray wasn’t going to see it the same way.
Because he was Daddy’s little boy through and through. And if she could do everything she had done for her son over the years and still have him think so little of her… was there really anything she could say that would convince him?
End (20/??)
Author: Duckie Nicks
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Yelina Salas, Horatio Caine, the whole Caine family
Author's Note: WARNING: SPOILER FOR SEASON 6.
Summary: Almost two decades ago, Horatio made a decision that would change his family forever. Will they ever forgive him? Will he ever tell Yelina how he feels? This is an alternative to the beginning of season 6. A Horatio and Kyle story; H/Y romance in the future. Fulfills
alphabetasoup prompt, L is for Lakshmi.
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, and Chapter 18
Disclaimer: I don't own the show. Don't sue me.
No Other One
Chapter Nineteen: The Substance of Things Hoped For
By Duckie Nicks
"Just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings." - Elie Wiesel
The Styrofoam cup was warm in his hand, which was really all anyone could hope for from police department-made coffee. Horatio quickly stirred sugar into the not-quite steaming black liquid. Sweetening it to her taste, the redhead smiled in the darkness.
This area of the lab was almost empty, the night shift having filed out to take care of two separate double homicides. Throwing away the red plastic stirrer, the lieutenant couldn’t stifle the disbelief making itself known in the back of his mind. It was ridiculous - completely unreasonable - for Rebecca Nevins to be focusing all of her energy on Kyle.
Sure, the teenager had had priors; Horatio wasn’t blind to the boy’s imperfections. But… there were other criminals out there, people far guiltier than Kyle was. And Rebecca should have been focusing on them - not trying to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend through his son.
The redhead worked to push the thought out of his mind. It wouldn’t help now to think like this. There was no point in thinking about Rebecca’s decision; she’d made up her mind, and he knew there would be no changing it, at least for the moment.
All he could do was fight for his son. Which… standing in front of a coffee pot cursing his ex-girlfriend took away from.
Carefully, Horatio made his way back to his office, where Calleigh sat watching the security tape from the convenience store. It was a long shot, originating in the receipt the redhead had found. There was the definite chance that there wouldn’t be anything on the video, but he was determined to find the truth if he could. And the blonde sitting in his leather chair seemed just as intent.
She looked just as exhausted as he felt; Calleigh was watching security tapes with heavy eyes and occasionally twirling her hair. The girlish move was a testament to how much she wanted to sleep, Horatio understood.
But they weren’t ready to quit. Not when something could be out there that would either convict or free his son.
“Coffee?” he asked, closing the door behind him; they’d chosen to work here so that they would be unobstructed by the other cases that needed to be handled in the lab. He hadn’t realized it before, but in only a few hours, his office had gone from controlled chaos to something that looked like his nephew’s bedroom.
Stacks of paper littered his desk. They’d reread the entire original case file, retested (twice - because neither was willing to trust the other’s results at first) every sample. There had been, unfortunately, no mistakes, no oversights - nothing for him to pounce on.
So the CSIs had moved onto the evidence they’d collected tonight. And Horatio knew that they would find something. They were close, he could tell, could feel it in his bones.
But the last hours had been a bust. DNA evidence off of the cigarettes proved that the other teenagers, Adam Jackson and Deana Burton, had been at the abandoned house. Which was hardly news, given that the two kids had already confessed to being there.
Fingerprints on the sales receipt also belonged to Adam Jackson. But at least, Horatio thought, trying to remain optimistic, nothing had implicated Kyle further.
Now warmed slightly by the thought, he set the cooling cup of coffee down next to Calleigh.
“Thanks,” she said.
“You find anything?”
She took a sip of coffee, her face screwing up slightly at what had to be the horrible taste. “No,” she drawled. “The security tapes are all mixed up. I swear - there was a tape with a mall Santa Claus in it.”
Horatio sat down on the edge of his desk next to her.
“But,” she said, her voice brighter than before, “I’ve found the tapes from the past week. And I’m searching through them to see if I can get as close to the time on that receipt as possible. So hopefully…”
Calleigh didn’t finish the thought, her voice trailing off.
They sat in silence, fast-forwarding through the tape. The security camera only recorded video, which made the process feel even slower. Even though the blonde seemed slightly friendlier, neither C.S.I. were in the mood for conversation. Save for the occasional jerk of the machine they were using, the room was quiet.
It made the redhead feel even more tense. But in a way, that was good, he thought, because it allowed him to focus on the tape. Eagerly, he watched for something. And in the quick motions of people coming in and out of the store with bags in their hands, of old people hobbling in the store and children running out, Horatio saw it.
“Wait, wait,” he said quickly. And slowly, probably from exhaustion, Calleigh hit the pause button. “Go back.”
As she did, the blonde asked him, “You see something?”
But the question went unanswered, didn’t need to be. Because when she stopped the tape, at that moment, Calleigh saw it as well.
They both sighed with relief, if for different reasons. For her, it probably only meant that she could go home and sleep soon. But the redhead didn’t care, because on the monitor, in grainy black and white, was proof that Horatio hadn’t been wrong. That there was more to this case than Kyle being a horrible teen.
The blonde looked over at him, a smile playing on her lips. “Well, at least this hasn’t been for nothing.” It was, Horatio thought, the closest she would come to apologizing (at least for now, anyway)… not that he really needed her to. It was enough to know that the evidence was finally pointing them in the direction of truth.
“I think we need to take a look at that cell phone,” the redhead said, feeling relieved.
Yes, they were finally heading in the right direction.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
He lay on the metal cot waiting.
Maybe it was stupid to think that Horatio would come through. After all, the man didn’t exactly seem reliable, but… here Kyle was, waiting… hoping for something to happen. What alternative was there?
Sit and wait to be convicted and carted off to the big house?
His fingers unconsciously continued to pick at the crack in the wall. There were no windows in the tiny cell, but out of the corner of his eye, Kyle could see that there was one down the hall near the guard’s station. And coming in through the window were the beginnings of the morning dawn.
He’d spent a whole night in jail, the blond realized. An entire night waiting for his… father to fix things and so far absolutely nothing had happened.
It really was stupid, Kyle knew then, to think that Horatio would do anything. It was one thing to pledge your help but entirely another to actually accomplish something, and the redhead clearly just wasn’t interested in going the distance.
He was such an idiot for thinking any differently. Really, he was a fool for believing that anyone in his life would come through for him. After all, hadn’t that been his experience up until that point - that no one had ever helped him? Why should he wait around, expecting for things to be different this time?
Closing his eyes, Kyle decided then that he wasn’t going to wait any longer.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
When she entered the kitchen that morning, Yelina was shocked to see that Ray Junior was already awake. Even as a baby, her son had been a late sleeper. While other parents bemoaned being woken up at 5:30 by the sounds of cartoons, her own child had always slept later.
It was something that only got worse as he aged. And these days, she knew it required his alarm clock going off at least three separate times and a good number of threats from her to get him out of bed.
But here he was, hunched over a bowl of cheerios.
“You’re awake early,” she said. Sliding her silver hoop earring in place, the mother closed the distance between them. One of her arms snaked around his upper body. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder, and she pulled him back gently into a hug before kissing the top of his dark curls.
It was with relief that Ray Junior didn’t shrug her off. Yelina hated fighting with him, hated thinking that… something might happen, and there wouldn’t be any time to apologize. And yet, their arguing seemed to be inevitable, unavoidable, these days.
“Yeah,” the boy said noncommittally as he spooned another milky bite of cereal into his mouth. He made a loud slurping sound, shoveling the food in as quickly as possible. But Ray Junior wasn’t fast enough to stop the thin trail of white liquid from meandering down his chin and landing on the sleeve of Yelina’s suit jacket.
She groaned, untangling herself from her son. This was absolutely not what she needed today. Not when she had to sit in front of a panel and explain her year in Rio. Hurrying, the brunette dampened a towel and worked quickly to make sure the milk wouldn’t stain her white suit.
Seemingly unaware, Ray Junior continued to devour his breakfast.
“If I hadn’t painstakingly taught you table manners, I would think you’d been raised by wolves,” she said, frowning.
He shrugged. “You act like there’s a difference.” Narrowing her eyes on him, Yelina could see the smile forming around the spoon in his mouth. She chucked the yellow tea towel at his face, which Ray caught easily. “Nice, Mom,” he said sarcastically
Truth be told, the brunette was grateful for the change of pace. Lately they’d fought so much that Yelina had almost forgotten how easy it could be. Her son still had a mouth, but that seemed almost inevitable. How could she have ever been foolish enough to think her child would turn out any different? And there was no malice in it, at least not right now, so the mother turned her attention to pouring herself a glass of orange juice.
She didn’t dare eat anything, was convinced she’d vomit before her interview if she did. There was so much to account for, so much that she would have to answer for, and Yelina was more nervous now than when she’d originally been hired.
Eventually, Ray Junior turned to look at her. He frowned at her appearance. “You’re wearing white,” he said negatively. She glanced down to look at herself, trying to see what he saw that was so horrible about her outfit. But everything seemed okay to her. Before she could say anything though, the teenager explained, “You’re wearing white, and you’re crying over some spilt milk that a person couldn’t even see.”
“One day,” Yelina started to say, as she took a seat at the kitchen table. “You will understand that cleanliness isn’t just about what you can see.”
“Whatever,” he muttered, turning his attention to a stack of papers next to his cereal bowl.
Yelina knew she should tell him then that she was going to try and get her old job back. But as she sipped her juice, it was harder than she had originally imagined it would be.
And the mother wasn’t exactly sure why that was, because Ray Junior had never really liked the idea of her being a private investigator either. But she doubted that he would be thrilled over this. Because she could hardly argue that being a detective was that much safer. Not with their family history anyway.
But there was no point in avoiding it, the brunette knew. If she did get the job, Yelina wouldn’t be able to hide it from her son. Preventing a fight now might make her feel better, but in the end, they would argue over this. Better to tell him now so that it would at least look like he’d had a say.
“You’re staring at me,” he complained, turning a page.
She took another sip of orange juice before setting the glass down gently. One of her manicured fingers swirled around the top of the cup. “I have a meeting today.” Ray looked up at her expectantly. She hadn’t expected to pique his interest, and now that the brunette had done so, it made her nervous. “With I.A.B,” Yelina said eventually.
He didn’t say anything at first. Rather, his hands picked up his bowl and quickly slurped down the milk. Plunking the bowl back down, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “So you’re trying to get your job back,” Ray said.
“Yes,” Yelina told him quietly. She waited for the argument to come. Her body tensed at the yelling that was bound to occur, but… it didn’t come.
Instead, Ray Junior stood up, his chair scraping against the tile floor. Grabbing his bowl, he put it in the sink.
“You’re… not yelling,” she said, her eyebrow arched in confusion.
“Did you expect me to?”
The brunette sat there, frozen. Her son had never been a quiet baby; he’d never taken the high road. And when he disagreed with something, Ray Junior was always willing to let anyone and everyone know. “Uh… yes. Yes, Ray, I did.”
“Why are you investigating one of Dad’s old girlfriends?”
It was a question that seemed to have come from nowhere, and Yelina had no idea how to respond. She licked her lips, tucked a stray curl behind her ear, because she needed time to see where this was going. But she couldn’t stall forever. And finally, the brunette gave in, asking, “What do you mean?”
“In these papers… one of Dad’s old girlfriends is named. And you have them, so I want to know why?” Ray walked back to the table, grabbing the papers he’d been looking at and set them down in front of her.
She recognized them immediately; they were the contents of the file she gotten only hours previously. But Yelina still didn’t understand how Raymond’s sex life could be brought into this… though part of her thought angrily that her husband’s proclivities often came to her attention in the oddest of circumstances.
“Your uncle asked me to investigate a teenager. I did some background on his family.” The brunette looked up at her son. “How does your father fit into this?”
“I told you. One of his ex-girlfriends is -“
“And who would that be?” she asked.
“Julia Alvarez.”
The question that had been plaguing her finally went answered. It was as though some part of her mind had been lit up with an ancient memory.
Her husband had always been an open person, to a fault even. Before he’d become lost in the drugs, Ray had regularly confided in her; she was his spouse but so much more. His wounds splayed out for her to tend to, he had called her his demon slayer. Equal parts avenger, lover, and mother, Yelina had worked so hard to help him overcome his past.
Looking back at that time now, the brunette could see that nearly everything had worked against them. She’d never really been in the position to help him; she wasn’t an expert, didn’t know how to deal with half the situations he’d talked to her about. But more than that, Yelina could see now that too many times, his revelations had been intended to hurt her… or to make her stay.
It was a pattern she’d been unable to see at the time, but there could be no denying it now. When the brunette had sided with Horatio over some… procedure decades ago, Ray had told her how his parents died. He had told her the truth then, not because he was in pain, but because he wanted to make his brother seem evil, undesirable.
And Julia Alvarez… Ray’s ex-girlfriend had been brought up shortly after a random convict had hit on her. That particular day, he had said, “I picked up your dry cleaning, sweetheart, and by the way, I ran into Julia Alvarez, you know - the woman I lost my virginity to - earlier today, so we had lunch together.”
Even now, despite the fact that her husband was dead, it irritated her. She shouldn’t be jealous, she understood. After all, Raymond Caine was hardly a prize in the spouse department. And… frankly, if someone had wanted to take him off her hands in the last year of their marriage, Yelina would have gladly welcomed it.
It made no sense, that the sudden jolt of envy should course through her body. But here she was, ready and willing to fight for her husband.
“Mom.”
The sound of Ray Junior’s voice quickly snapped her out of her thoughts. “Hmm?”
“Dad’s not in trouble, is he?” He was desperately trying to sound cool, she could tell. But there was concern pooling in his dark brown eyes. And her jealousy had a new target now.
Her idiotic husband.
He’d left them both, too afraid of going to prison; he had let everyone think that he was dead. And yet, Ray Junior was still his little boy. Her husband had disappeared for years to let her raise their son alone, had only reappeared because he had been forced into it. And still…
She bit down on her lip to stop herself from saying something horribly cruel. Because it was wrong, she knew, to say anything about it to Ray Junior. It was in some ways, her own fault, that their son still worshiped his father. She’d been so frustrated and appalled at the rumors of Ray’s disloyalty that she’d blanketed her son in myth and outright lies.
But that didn’t make it any easier to take. And right now, as she was about to go before the firing squad for her son, he could only think about his father, and it hurt. “Honey, nothing is going on with your father,” Yelina said as reassuringly as possible.
“Then why are you researching one of his -“
“I’m not, Ray. This has absolutely nothing to do with your father. And on the off chance that it did, do you really think that I would -“
“Don’t even,” he snapped. “You want to get your old job back? Fine. But don’t think that I don’t know how you’re going to do it.” Opening the white refrigerator door, Ray Junior snatched a soda before slamming it shut. “You’re gonna sell out Dad to do it. So don’t act like you’d never do something like that.” Snatching his book bag up from the back of his chair, the teenager said, “Don’t forget. I was in Rio too.”
He stormed off, and Yelina didn’t have the heart to go after him. Because there was nothing she could say at the moment that he’d believe. And frankly, Ray Junior wasn’t all that wrong; she was going to tell them whatever they wanted to know about her husband. But the mother thought that this was a small price to pay in order to have a job that offered her some small measure of protection. Somehow, she knew Ray wasn’t going to see it the same way.
Because he was Daddy’s little boy through and through. And if she could do everything she had done for her son over the years and still have him think so little of her… was there really anything she could say that would convince him?
End (20/??)