No Other One, Chapter 52
Title: No Other One, Chapter 52
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.
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, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25, Chapter 26, Chapter 27, Chapter 28, Chapter 29, Chapter 30, Chapter 31, Chapter 32, Chapter 33, Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 37, Chapter 38, Chapter 39, Chapter 40, Chapter 41, Chapter 42, Chapter 43, Chapter 44, Chapter 45, Chapter 46, Chapter 47, Chapter 48, Chapter 49, Chapter 50, and Chapter 51.
Disclaimer: I don't own the show.
“Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.” - Henri Nouwen
They’d been uncharacteristically silent on the drive home, and the lack of noise unnerved Ray Junior more than he liked to admit. Truth be told, he thought the hush shouldn’t have bothered him at all. Given that they were usually talking and yelling, he thought this should have been a nice reprieve from cutting remarks and cough drops.
But for whatever reason, it didn’t feel that way. And shifting on his seat, Ray Junior anxiously waited for his mother to start lecturing.
Of course, she didn’t.
So all he could do was sit back and impatiently wait for her to start.
And Ray figured that she would start at some point. As silent as she was in that moment, there was no way she was going to let him get away with what he’d done; there was no way she was going to pass up an opportunity to shriek about how much he’d screwed up.
Unless…
Maybe she secretly approved of what he had done?
It was wishful thinking, he realized almost immediately. The chances of that being true were so slim that it pretty much seemed impossible. But if she wasn’t yelling… then it couldn’t be all that bad, right?
Wrong.
Soooooo wrong.
Hazarding a glance at her, Ray Junior knew he was being nothing short of delusional to think she was okay with what happened. The angry set of her shoulders, her lips twisted into a gnarly looking frown…
Yeah, she was pissed, and if she wasn’t yelling… well, he didn’t know exactly why she wasn’t yelling. But the point was she would. And that meant he was only biding his time before the nuclear meltdown.
Which turned out not to be much time at all.
Just as he started to tell himself that he’d had every right to beat the crap out of Kyle, Ray realized how close to home they really were. Only a few minutes later, in fact, they were in the driveway, and the ticking time bomb went off.
When he’d been waiting in Dowman’s office, he had thought that the way things would go was this: his mother would get him off, yell at him in the car, threaten to kill him in the driveway, yell at him some more in the house, ineffectually ground him, and be done with it.
But if he’d thought that she’d be hot on his trail as they walked into the house…
He’d been wrong.
The car merely in neutral, his mother didn’t reach for the door handle as he did. In fact, she made no move at all, and that made him literally raise an eyebrow. Curious, he tentatively broke the silence, figuring he’d regret it as soon as he did. “Mom?”
She didn’t look at him. And her voice was so cold when she instructed simply, “Get out of the car, Raymond.”
He opened the door; when she was so unpredictable, he figured it was probably smart to have an out… just in case. But he didn’t move. “You’re not coming in?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as he could.
“No,” she responded immediately, shaking her head. “I’m going to the hospital… Get out, Raymond,” his mother repeated.
But he, of course, was beyond listening. Especially since he was already in trouble, it didn’t really matter if he pissed her off some more. “You’re going to the hospital?” he parroted dimly, not understanding.
“Yes,” she replied unemotionally. “Now -”
But the rest of her sentence went unheard in his mind. Synapses firing angrily in his brain, realization struck him fiercely. The thought so mind blowing that it felt like a real blow to his face, Ray turned his body angrily to face her.
She was going to the hospital.
To see him.
To be with Kyle.
The one thing he’d been trying to prevent being thrust upon him once more, Ray angrily said aloud, “No!”
Calmly, his mother told him, “This is not up for discussion.” And it was then that she finally turned to look at him.
She looked so… different. Cold.
“You’re not going to see him,” Ray hotly ordered.
An eyebrow raised, she asked him, “And what makes you think that you have any right to tell me what to do?” Her voice becoming more confrontational, his mother said, “I am the parent. You are not.I will do as I please, Raymond.”
And even as some part of him recognized that to be true, another part could not accept what she was doing. “You can’t go see him,” he told her in a tone that wasn’t diplomatic at all.
In a way that was condescending, she explained, “Someone has to make sure that boy isn’t going to file charges, and -”
“Then let Horatio do it,” he argued. “He’s the reason we’re -”
“No,” she interrupted immediately. “No, you’re the reason we’re in this situation.”
“But -”
“You attacked Kyle, not Horatio. You were stupid enough to get into a fight on school grounds, not your uncle,” she said, literally pointing a finger at him.
Ray Junior could feel his face become red and heated with his anger. “Horatio’s the one who brought that asshole into our lives to begin with!” Even if a tiny piece of him really didn’t blame his uncle for this… in the moment, he had no problem saying it. Not if it stopped his mother from getting closer to this kid.
“This is your mess,” she argued, leaving no room for further discussion in her viciously sharp tones. “And now it’s up to Mommy to clean it up.” Her frown morphed into a sneer at the word, Mommy, which he hated.
He’d manipulated the word himself before… and he knew it hurt her, because it always seemed to work in throwing her off her game just a little bit. But… now that it was aimed at him, Ray Junior thought that, actually, it was a horrible thing to say. Because…
It stung.
But before he could say anything, she demanded once more, “Get out of the car.”
He had no other choice, he realized. This was one of those times when she would not budge. Just like when she told him a few years ago that he would be confirmed in the Catholic Church when it was time, even if she had to drag him to church on a leash, she was immovable. She’d obviously made up her mind on going to the hospital, and his only other option was to beg.
Beg and seriously mean it.
Which unfortunately at this moment, Ray Junior knew he could do.
He could plead with her to stay here, beg her to not go near that boy. He could ask and cry and explain why he hated this so much. He could sob into her hair all the reasons he was too afraid to let this other kid become a part of the family.
He could do those things.
But resolutely, the teenager decided not to. As much as those things sounded tempting, as effective as they might have been, there was still a chance that it wouldn’t work. And truth be told, Ray wasn’t sure he could handle his mother’s rejection, not in this.
The pleas dying on his lips, he swallowed hard and got out of the car. Before he had a chance to slam the door, however, his mother spoke up, “No TV, no computer, no cell phone, no videogames - nothing remotely enjoyable, hmm?”
“Fine,” he replied petulantly.
“And if you’re looking for something to do,” she told him cuttingly. “Try calling your uncle and explaining why his son is in the hospital.”
They exchanged a dark look, two sets of nearly black eyes meeting with heated glares.
“Fine.”
He slammed the door shut, and she peeled out of the driveway.
And all that was left then was Ray Junior, wondering where his plan had gone wrong exactly.
The case had led them to a home - well, more like a shanty - out in the Everglades. Hidden behind, probably, half a mile of swamp and mosquitoes, it looked like a single wind would knock over the pile of stripped wood and dusty glass.
Looking over each and every crevice of the outside, Horatio could already pick out where his evidence might come from. Pieces of wood in a person’s shoe, a fingerprint on the glass… something could help them.
And falling into that category was, unexpectedly, the pile of dead bodies contained in the shack. Standing side by side with him, Natalia replied dryly, “I think we’re gonna need to call Alexx.”
But that was, of course, easier said than done.
These days, it seemed part and parcel for the job that something would go wrong, that something unexpected would have a two-hour task take upwards of five. And today would be no exception to that.
Both CSIs pulling out their cell phones, the problem became immediately apparent. “No service,” Horatio said simply.
Boa Vista sighed loudly. “Of course not… dispatch still working out the kinks with the new -”
“That is correct.”
She let out another sigh. “Well, I guess one of us will have to baby sit the bodies while the other drives around and finds a signal.”
It wasn’t obvious in her voice, but casting a sideways glance at her, Horatio could tell... she didn’t want to be the one stuck here. So he shrugged. “Why don’t… you find us a signal?” he suggested with a smile.
Happily, she replied, “Great.”
As Boa Vista left him alone with the bodies, Horatio frowned. This wasn’t exactly part of the job that he liked. And standing over what had once been lives, he felt… a twinge of guilt; people deserved better than to be dumped into some old shack left for him to find.
But the feeling passed as quickly as it came. Things shouldn’t have been this way, he realized, but letting it affect him now wasn’t a good idea - not when he was on the job.
So finally sighing to himself, Horatio shifted around on his feet and waited.
It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to be anyway.
He was alone in the emergency room. Sitting on an uncomfortable aluminum bench that dug into his legs, his nose bleeding and fingertips turned crimson, Kyle couldn’t believe his luck.
Who else would be this screwed over?
Nobody.
And as if to emphasize that point, his fingers slick with blood slipped suddenly as he lost hold of the tissue someone had given him. The reddened Kleenex falling to the ground, he was too focused on the hot pain radiating through his nose to care.
Blood continuing to dribble out of each nostril, Kyle wondered if it was ever gonna stop. Knowing his luck he’d probably bleed out in the ER and die. Which Horatio would probably enjoy, if he noticed that Kyle were gone at all. And if the man who was technically your father didn’t give a crap, then you really couldn’t expect anyone else to care.
Letting out a breath of air between his teeth, the teenager reached down between his legs to grab the fallen tissue. It was completely unsanitary and frankly really gross, but since he’d gotten to the hospital, no one had come to see him. And this was all he had to catch the blood with, so…
What else was he supposed to do?
Apparently not that as the almost familiar voice firmly ordered, “Don’t do that.”
The tissue sticking to his fingers, Kyle turned his head to face her. Yelina was honestly one of the last people he thought he’d see here… but at the same time, part of him felt it wasn’t all that unexpected.
Rolling his eyes, he pressed the dirty tissue against his nose once again. “They said I had to stop the bleeding.” Cocking his head to the side, Kyle said, “’Course that was like two hours ago, so clearly they’re not too concerned with me kicking the bucket.”
As Yelina sat down on the bench next to him, she asked, audibly concerned, “You haven’t been seen yet?”
The temptation to say something sarcastic was almost too much to resist. But not really feeling like putting in the energy required to be caustic, Kyle merely offered a grumpy, “Obviously not.”
She frowned then. But if she was upset by his bad attitude, she didn’t say anything. Instead, her hands rummaging through her purse for a few seconds, Yelina pulled out a clean tissue. “We need to stop this - you must have been bleeding for quite a while, yes?”
Before he could object, she reached across his body and pulled his hand away. Her fingers deftly plucked the used Kleenex from his grasp. Done so swiftly that Kyle wondered how often she had had to do this sort of thing, she was quick in getting the new tissue around his nose before the blood trickled onto his lip.
For that, he was grateful; being in the hospital was bad enough, but being able to taste your own blood made it all the more unbearable. And yet… the way she gripped his injured nose was something he did not like.
Her index finger and thumb closing around in a vice, he couldn’t help but whimper in pain. The reaction completely instinctual, he couldn’t have held it back even if he tried.
When Yelina’s grip didn’t loosen, he decided to make his annoyance a little more obvious. “That hurts.”
“I know,” she said sympathetically, still maintaining her tight hold. “But it’s important that you don’t continue to bleed.”
Kyle couldn’t deny that that was true. But at the same time, he hardly thought that squeezing his nose as hard as she was doing was the answer. “It’ll stop,” he told her sullenly, carefully trying not to move.
As much as he wanted to move away from her grip, the teenager was also acutely aware of how much it would hurt to try and do that. That wasn’t even taking into consideration what it would feel like if Yelina held on; in the likelihood of that happening, he was pretty sure he’d wish he’d never been born.
Well, more than this whole situation already did make him wish for that, he told himself.
“It hasn’t stopped yet,” she pointed out. Her voice softer then (her grip just as firm), Yelina said, “Kyle, I know that it hurts, but you cannot continue to bleed and simply hope that it will stop.” She gave him a sad smile that he didn’t feel like returning. Freely, she explained, “When my son was younger, he got into a lot of fights.”
She paused at that moment, her words trailing off slowly. And though Kyle didn’t understand why, he could see the pain in her eyes then. The emotion so evident that it was practically palpable (or maybe he had felt that way before), he forgot, if only for a second, that his nose was throbbing.
But as soon as he remembered what was wrong with his body, it seemed that Yelina realized where she was. Trying to shrug the emotion off, she corrected herself, “Still gets into fights, I suppose, if today is any indication.”
The vice around his nose tightened around him ever so slightly, not enough that anyone else would notice, of course. But it was plenty for him to feel. And though the words hadn’t been said, there was an implication here, one right at the tip of his tongue.
It took him a second to understand what Yelina was talking about. What had happened today that would make her say that? Obviously another fight, Kyle deduced. But what were the chances of two family members getting into two separate fights in the same day?
Probably high, considering the spectacularly messed up way the Caine family managed to make the unlikely highly likely.
Then again…
Not that he knew her very well - or at all, really - but, if there were two fights, why was she here? Wouldn’t she be home with her kid, then?
From his perspective, her actions made no sense, he thought, the question mulling in his mind. It made absolutely no sense, Kyle repeated, unless…
His eyes widened in realization.
Her son had to have been the one who…
“That was your kid,” he said numbly.
She nodded her head slowly. “Do you like him?” she asked, a wry smile playing at her lips.
There were many ways he could have answered the question, so many ways he could have explained to her just how much he’d like to beat the living crap out of that asshole. But all he said was, as sarcastically as he could manage, “Oh, yeah, I really love psychopaths.”
“Yes, well…” Her lips thinned in displeasure, although Kyle didn’t know if that was because of what he said or because her kid really was insane. But if it was because of him, Yelina didn’t say anything. Her response was a dry, “He never did make a good first impression.”
“I guess not.”
Shrugging his words off, she returned to her original point. “Anyway, because of him, I’ve had to take care of several bloody noses. And this really is the best way to stop the bleeding - even though it hurts.”
But even a minute later, he was still bleeding, and Kyle couldn’t think that what she was saying was true.
As though sensing what he was thinking, Yelina explained, “I’ll take a few minutes, Kyle.”
“Oh.” And then as an afterthought, he added, “That sucks.”
They fell into a comfortable silence, quietly watching other people in the emergency room mill around. As time ticked by and Kyle was still not seen, Yelina leaned back in her chair, carefully keeping her grip on his nose. Her body now uncomfortably closer to him, he didn’t like the near contact. They weren’t touching, but that didn’t matter; she was so close that he could practically feel her body heat, and Kyle wanted to pull away.
He wasn’t sure why, really. The discomfort he was feeling originated from some place so completely irrational. It wasn’t like she was dirty or gross; she was beautiful, and that might be the reason, but then… She didn’t seem quite as intimidating as before, and too, she was his aunt, he supposed. So that pretty much cancelled out the hotness.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable by the closeness.
And that feeling was only amplified when the bleeding stopped and she stood up. For whatever reason, the sudden loss of nearness made him feel… sad? Disappointed?
Kyle didn’t really know what the name for it was. Didn’t know how to describe the emotions flitting through him; all he knew was that when she said she was going to find a doctor, he wished she had stayed where she was.
All he knew was that…
He didn’t want her to go.
Go to the next Chapter
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.
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, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25, Chapter 26, Chapter 27, Chapter 28, Chapter 29, Chapter 30, Chapter 31, Chapter 32, Chapter 33, Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 37, Chapter 38, Chapter 39, Chapter 40, Chapter 41, Chapter 42, Chapter 43, Chapter 44, Chapter 45, Chapter 46, Chapter 47, Chapter 48, Chapter 49, Chapter 50, and Chapter 51.
Disclaimer: I don't own the show.
“Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.” - Henri Nouwen
They’d been uncharacteristically silent on the drive home, and the lack of noise unnerved Ray Junior more than he liked to admit. Truth be told, he thought the hush shouldn’t have bothered him at all. Given that they were usually talking and yelling, he thought this should have been a nice reprieve from cutting remarks and cough drops.
But for whatever reason, it didn’t feel that way. And shifting on his seat, Ray Junior anxiously waited for his mother to start lecturing.
Of course, she didn’t.
So all he could do was sit back and impatiently wait for her to start.
And Ray figured that she would start at some point. As silent as she was in that moment, there was no way she was going to let him get away with what he’d done; there was no way she was going to pass up an opportunity to shriek about how much he’d screwed up.
Unless…
Maybe she secretly approved of what he had done?
It was wishful thinking, he realized almost immediately. The chances of that being true were so slim that it pretty much seemed impossible. But if she wasn’t yelling… then it couldn’t be all that bad, right?
Wrong.
Soooooo wrong.
Hazarding a glance at her, Ray Junior knew he was being nothing short of delusional to think she was okay with what happened. The angry set of her shoulders, her lips twisted into a gnarly looking frown…
Yeah, she was pissed, and if she wasn’t yelling… well, he didn’t know exactly why she wasn’t yelling. But the point was she would. And that meant he was only biding his time before the nuclear meltdown.
Which turned out not to be much time at all.
Just as he started to tell himself that he’d had every right to beat the crap out of Kyle, Ray realized how close to home they really were. Only a few minutes later, in fact, they were in the driveway, and the ticking time bomb went off.
When he’d been waiting in Dowman’s office, he had thought that the way things would go was this: his mother would get him off, yell at him in the car, threaten to kill him in the driveway, yell at him some more in the house, ineffectually ground him, and be done with it.
But if he’d thought that she’d be hot on his trail as they walked into the house…
He’d been wrong.
The car merely in neutral, his mother didn’t reach for the door handle as he did. In fact, she made no move at all, and that made him literally raise an eyebrow. Curious, he tentatively broke the silence, figuring he’d regret it as soon as he did. “Mom?”
She didn’t look at him. And her voice was so cold when she instructed simply, “Get out of the car, Raymond.”
He opened the door; when she was so unpredictable, he figured it was probably smart to have an out… just in case. But he didn’t move. “You’re not coming in?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as he could.
“No,” she responded immediately, shaking her head. “I’m going to the hospital… Get out, Raymond,” his mother repeated.
But he, of course, was beyond listening. Especially since he was already in trouble, it didn’t really matter if he pissed her off some more. “You’re going to the hospital?” he parroted dimly, not understanding.
“Yes,” she replied unemotionally. “Now -”
But the rest of her sentence went unheard in his mind. Synapses firing angrily in his brain, realization struck him fiercely. The thought so mind blowing that it felt like a real blow to his face, Ray turned his body angrily to face her.
She was going to the hospital.
To see him.
To be with Kyle.
The one thing he’d been trying to prevent being thrust upon him once more, Ray angrily said aloud, “No!”
Calmly, his mother told him, “This is not up for discussion.” And it was then that she finally turned to look at him.
She looked so… different. Cold.
“You’re not going to see him,” Ray hotly ordered.
An eyebrow raised, she asked him, “And what makes you think that you have any right to tell me what to do?” Her voice becoming more confrontational, his mother said, “I am the parent. You are not.I will do as I please, Raymond.”
And even as some part of him recognized that to be true, another part could not accept what she was doing. “You can’t go see him,” he told her in a tone that wasn’t diplomatic at all.
In a way that was condescending, she explained, “Someone has to make sure that boy isn’t going to file charges, and -”
“Then let Horatio do it,” he argued. “He’s the reason we’re -”
“No,” she interrupted immediately. “No, you’re the reason we’re in this situation.”
“But -”
“You attacked Kyle, not Horatio. You were stupid enough to get into a fight on school grounds, not your uncle,” she said, literally pointing a finger at him.
Ray Junior could feel his face become red and heated with his anger. “Horatio’s the one who brought that asshole into our lives to begin with!” Even if a tiny piece of him really didn’t blame his uncle for this… in the moment, he had no problem saying it. Not if it stopped his mother from getting closer to this kid.
“This is your mess,” she argued, leaving no room for further discussion in her viciously sharp tones. “And now it’s up to Mommy to clean it up.” Her frown morphed into a sneer at the word, Mommy, which he hated.
He’d manipulated the word himself before… and he knew it hurt her, because it always seemed to work in throwing her off her game just a little bit. But… now that it was aimed at him, Ray Junior thought that, actually, it was a horrible thing to say. Because…
It stung.
But before he could say anything, she demanded once more, “Get out of the car.”
He had no other choice, he realized. This was one of those times when she would not budge. Just like when she told him a few years ago that he would be confirmed in the Catholic Church when it was time, even if she had to drag him to church on a leash, she was immovable. She’d obviously made up her mind on going to the hospital, and his only other option was to beg.
Beg and seriously mean it.
Which unfortunately at this moment, Ray Junior knew he could do.
He could plead with her to stay here, beg her to not go near that boy. He could ask and cry and explain why he hated this so much. He could sob into her hair all the reasons he was too afraid to let this other kid become a part of the family.
He could do those things.
But resolutely, the teenager decided not to. As much as those things sounded tempting, as effective as they might have been, there was still a chance that it wouldn’t work. And truth be told, Ray wasn’t sure he could handle his mother’s rejection, not in this.
The pleas dying on his lips, he swallowed hard and got out of the car. Before he had a chance to slam the door, however, his mother spoke up, “No TV, no computer, no cell phone, no videogames - nothing remotely enjoyable, hmm?”
“Fine,” he replied petulantly.
“And if you’re looking for something to do,” she told him cuttingly. “Try calling your uncle and explaining why his son is in the hospital.”
They exchanged a dark look, two sets of nearly black eyes meeting with heated glares.
“Fine.”
He slammed the door shut, and she peeled out of the driveway.
And all that was left then was Ray Junior, wondering where his plan had gone wrong exactly.
The case had led them to a home - well, more like a shanty - out in the Everglades. Hidden behind, probably, half a mile of swamp and mosquitoes, it looked like a single wind would knock over the pile of stripped wood and dusty glass.
Looking over each and every crevice of the outside, Horatio could already pick out where his evidence might come from. Pieces of wood in a person’s shoe, a fingerprint on the glass… something could help them.
And falling into that category was, unexpectedly, the pile of dead bodies contained in the shack. Standing side by side with him, Natalia replied dryly, “I think we’re gonna need to call Alexx.”
But that was, of course, easier said than done.
These days, it seemed part and parcel for the job that something would go wrong, that something unexpected would have a two-hour task take upwards of five. And today would be no exception to that.
Both CSIs pulling out their cell phones, the problem became immediately apparent. “No service,” Horatio said simply.
Boa Vista sighed loudly. “Of course not… dispatch still working out the kinks with the new -”
“That is correct.”
She let out another sigh. “Well, I guess one of us will have to baby sit the bodies while the other drives around and finds a signal.”
It wasn’t obvious in her voice, but casting a sideways glance at her, Horatio could tell... she didn’t want to be the one stuck here. So he shrugged. “Why don’t… you find us a signal?” he suggested with a smile.
Happily, she replied, “Great.”
As Boa Vista left him alone with the bodies, Horatio frowned. This wasn’t exactly part of the job that he liked. And standing over what had once been lives, he felt… a twinge of guilt; people deserved better than to be dumped into some old shack left for him to find.
But the feeling passed as quickly as it came. Things shouldn’t have been this way, he realized, but letting it affect him now wasn’t a good idea - not when he was on the job.
So finally sighing to himself, Horatio shifted around on his feet and waited.
It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to be anyway.
He was alone in the emergency room. Sitting on an uncomfortable aluminum bench that dug into his legs, his nose bleeding and fingertips turned crimson, Kyle couldn’t believe his luck.
Who else would be this screwed over?
Nobody.
And as if to emphasize that point, his fingers slick with blood slipped suddenly as he lost hold of the tissue someone had given him. The reddened Kleenex falling to the ground, he was too focused on the hot pain radiating through his nose to care.
Blood continuing to dribble out of each nostril, Kyle wondered if it was ever gonna stop. Knowing his luck he’d probably bleed out in the ER and die. Which Horatio would probably enjoy, if he noticed that Kyle were gone at all. And if the man who was technically your father didn’t give a crap, then you really couldn’t expect anyone else to care.
Letting out a breath of air between his teeth, the teenager reached down between his legs to grab the fallen tissue. It was completely unsanitary and frankly really gross, but since he’d gotten to the hospital, no one had come to see him. And this was all he had to catch the blood with, so…
What else was he supposed to do?
Apparently not that as the almost familiar voice firmly ordered, “Don’t do that.”
The tissue sticking to his fingers, Kyle turned his head to face her. Yelina was honestly one of the last people he thought he’d see here… but at the same time, part of him felt it wasn’t all that unexpected.
Rolling his eyes, he pressed the dirty tissue against his nose once again. “They said I had to stop the bleeding.” Cocking his head to the side, Kyle said, “’Course that was like two hours ago, so clearly they’re not too concerned with me kicking the bucket.”
As Yelina sat down on the bench next to him, she asked, audibly concerned, “You haven’t been seen yet?”
The temptation to say something sarcastic was almost too much to resist. But not really feeling like putting in the energy required to be caustic, Kyle merely offered a grumpy, “Obviously not.”
She frowned then. But if she was upset by his bad attitude, she didn’t say anything. Instead, her hands rummaging through her purse for a few seconds, Yelina pulled out a clean tissue. “We need to stop this - you must have been bleeding for quite a while, yes?”
Before he could object, she reached across his body and pulled his hand away. Her fingers deftly plucked the used Kleenex from his grasp. Done so swiftly that Kyle wondered how often she had had to do this sort of thing, she was quick in getting the new tissue around his nose before the blood trickled onto his lip.
For that, he was grateful; being in the hospital was bad enough, but being able to taste your own blood made it all the more unbearable. And yet… the way she gripped his injured nose was something he did not like.
Her index finger and thumb closing around in a vice, he couldn’t help but whimper in pain. The reaction completely instinctual, he couldn’t have held it back even if he tried.
When Yelina’s grip didn’t loosen, he decided to make his annoyance a little more obvious. “That hurts.”
“I know,” she said sympathetically, still maintaining her tight hold. “But it’s important that you don’t continue to bleed.”
Kyle couldn’t deny that that was true. But at the same time, he hardly thought that squeezing his nose as hard as she was doing was the answer. “It’ll stop,” he told her sullenly, carefully trying not to move.
As much as he wanted to move away from her grip, the teenager was also acutely aware of how much it would hurt to try and do that. That wasn’t even taking into consideration what it would feel like if Yelina held on; in the likelihood of that happening, he was pretty sure he’d wish he’d never been born.
Well, more than this whole situation already did make him wish for that, he told himself.
“It hasn’t stopped yet,” she pointed out. Her voice softer then (her grip just as firm), Yelina said, “Kyle, I know that it hurts, but you cannot continue to bleed and simply hope that it will stop.” She gave him a sad smile that he didn’t feel like returning. Freely, she explained, “When my son was younger, he got into a lot of fights.”
She paused at that moment, her words trailing off slowly. And though Kyle didn’t understand why, he could see the pain in her eyes then. The emotion so evident that it was practically palpable (or maybe he had felt that way before), he forgot, if only for a second, that his nose was throbbing.
But as soon as he remembered what was wrong with his body, it seemed that Yelina realized where she was. Trying to shrug the emotion off, she corrected herself, “Still gets into fights, I suppose, if today is any indication.”
The vice around his nose tightened around him ever so slightly, not enough that anyone else would notice, of course. But it was plenty for him to feel. And though the words hadn’t been said, there was an implication here, one right at the tip of his tongue.
It took him a second to understand what Yelina was talking about. What had happened today that would make her say that? Obviously another fight, Kyle deduced. But what were the chances of two family members getting into two separate fights in the same day?
Probably high, considering the spectacularly messed up way the Caine family managed to make the unlikely highly likely.
Then again…
Not that he knew her very well - or at all, really - but, if there were two fights, why was she here? Wouldn’t she be home with her kid, then?
From his perspective, her actions made no sense, he thought, the question mulling in his mind. It made absolutely no sense, Kyle repeated, unless…
His eyes widened in realization.
Her son had to have been the one who…
“That was your kid,” he said numbly.
She nodded her head slowly. “Do you like him?” she asked, a wry smile playing at her lips.
There were many ways he could have answered the question, so many ways he could have explained to her just how much he’d like to beat the living crap out of that asshole. But all he said was, as sarcastically as he could manage, “Oh, yeah, I really love psychopaths.”
“Yes, well…” Her lips thinned in displeasure, although Kyle didn’t know if that was because of what he said or because her kid really was insane. But if it was because of him, Yelina didn’t say anything. Her response was a dry, “He never did make a good first impression.”
“I guess not.”
Shrugging his words off, she returned to her original point. “Anyway, because of him, I’ve had to take care of several bloody noses. And this really is the best way to stop the bleeding - even though it hurts.”
But even a minute later, he was still bleeding, and Kyle couldn’t think that what she was saying was true.
As though sensing what he was thinking, Yelina explained, “I’ll take a few minutes, Kyle.”
“Oh.” And then as an afterthought, he added, “That sucks.”
They fell into a comfortable silence, quietly watching other people in the emergency room mill around. As time ticked by and Kyle was still not seen, Yelina leaned back in her chair, carefully keeping her grip on his nose. Her body now uncomfortably closer to him, he didn’t like the near contact. They weren’t touching, but that didn’t matter; she was so close that he could practically feel her body heat, and Kyle wanted to pull away.
He wasn’t sure why, really. The discomfort he was feeling originated from some place so completely irrational. It wasn’t like she was dirty or gross; she was beautiful, and that might be the reason, but then… She didn’t seem quite as intimidating as before, and too, she was his aunt, he supposed. So that pretty much cancelled out the hotness.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable by the closeness.
And that feeling was only amplified when the bleeding stopped and she stood up. For whatever reason, the sudden loss of nearness made him feel… sad? Disappointed?
Kyle didn’t really know what the name for it was. Didn’t know how to describe the emotions flitting through him; all he knew was that when she said she was going to find a doctor, he wished she had stayed where she was.
All he knew was that…
He didn’t want her to go.
Go to the next Chapter