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English
Series:
Part 2 of Look where you least expect to find love
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
Completed:
2007-05-19
Words:
12,789
Chapters:
10/10
Comments:
19
Kudos:
49
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6
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12,234

Look where you least expect to find it 2

Summary:

When Horatio went to New York chasing a murder suspect he found a life partner. This story follows their developing relationship. I don't own anything you know and am only playing around.

Chapter 1: Back to New York

Notes:

new wallpapers are up on my livejournal. I'll take requests for pairings/ideas. :)

Chapter Text

“Hey bitchwhore,” Danny said walking into the trace lab, “we need to talk.”
 
“I’m busy and Mac won’t like you talking to me like that,” Lisa said, not looking up.
 
“You know what, why don’t we ask him,” Danny said, grabbing her upper left arm. “Hey Adam, you think you can finish this? I need her for a special project for Mac.”
 
“Yeah, no problem,” Adam said, obviously puzzled.
 
Danny led Lisa through the lab to an old interrogation room where Stella and Flack were waiting. “Here she is,” he announced, forcing Lisa into the empty chair. “Here’s the bitch who decided to ruin our boss.”
 
“Good work, Danny,” Stella said, opening a folder. “Lisa Steinman aka Melissa Zimmerman. I can see why you changed it; all those sexual harassment suits you’ve filed really don’t look great on the old resume. I guess we need to start screening a little harder when someone new comes into our lab.”
 
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
 
“Oh I think you do,” Flack said, leaning over and putting his weight forward on his hands. “You planned to seduce one of the best men in this department, hell, this city and then file a formal complaint against him.” Flack slammed a fist against the table. “You were going to completely destroy my friend.”
 
“Not to mention the package you sent to Mac’s best friend and research partner in Miami,” Danny added. “Lieutenant Caine and Mac have been working on this project for over a year and you almost ruined it by sending that stupid petty assed package to Miami.”
 
Lisa shook her red hair back. “They’re not research partners,” she said. “They’re lovers.”
 
Both Flack and Danny snorted. “Please,” Danny finally said. “Where the hell did you get that idea from? Because I can tell you right now that Mac Taylor ain’t gay.”
 
“I found a coded email on Mac’s computer,” Lisa started.
 
“Oh, what’s that?” Flack asked. “Did I just hear a confession from that pretty poison mouth? We already knew you was on Mac’s computer; we planted that email for you to find.”
 
“Prints, hacker codes, pictures, eye witnesses,” Stella said. “They all put you where you shouldn’t be; in Mac’s office on his private computer.”
 
“How do you know he didn’t give me permission to be on there?” Lisa demanded.
 
Danny looked towards the mirrored window. “You know what, you can sit here and deny it all you want to, sweetheart, but why don’t we just ask Mac?”
********************
 
Mac looked over at Horatio. “Tell me I can do this.”
 
Horatio ran his hands up Mac’s arms and cradled his face in his hands. “You can do this, Mac,” he said softly. “I’m sorry my insecurities almost destroyed us. When we’re done here I’ll take you home and make it up to you.”
 
“I’m holding you to that.” He kissed Horatio gently before making his way to the door. “Don’t miss your big entrance.”
 
“Hey Mac,” Flack said as the dark-haired detective was closing the door. “Sorry to pull you back from Miami so sudden but this bitch here is making trouble.”
 
“I know,” Mac replied. “Danny called just as my plane landed. I’m impressed Stella, Danny, Don; at all the research and hard work you’ve done. I think I’ll have you start screening all new hires from here on out.”
 
Lisa stood up. “Mac, tell them what happened,” she exclaimed. “Tell them you gave me the okay to use the computer in your office.”
 
“I did no such thing,” Mac replied, his face hard. “No one, not even Stella, knows my passwords or has permission to access my computer at any time.”
 
“Why are you doing this to me, Mac?” Lisa asked.
 
“I haven’t done anything to you,” Mac replied. “You wanted money from the city and this was the only way you knew to obtain it. You chose a potential victim from the lab to target and it probably would have worked if you hadn’t gotten a stupid idea in your head and sent pictures to Miami.”
 
“Pictures that arrived the same day Mac did,” Horatio said quietly from the corner of the interrogation room. “It took us five minutes to realize there was something very wrong in his lab.”
 
“Our research has been sanctioned and funded by our cities,” Mac said. “And we’re about to publish our first paper.”
 
Lisa jumped up, knocking her chair over. “It’s a lie!” she yelled. “Look at their rings!”
 
“My wife died in the 9-11 attacks,” Mac said going a deadly cold. “How dare you drag her memory into this?”
 
Stella, who had known about Mac’s plans and seen the rings, looked closely at Mac’s left hand. He was wearing the same yellow gold band he’d worn for years.
 
“And my wife is at home in Miami,” Horatio said. “We can call her if need be but I’d rather not upset her if we can avoid it. Mac, I think we should end this now and let Detective Flack book our suspect.”
 
“I agree,” Mac said. “Don, I don’t want to see this piece of trash again until we have a court date.”
 
“My pleasure, Mac,” Don said. He cuffed Lisa and led her from the room.
 
Mac sighed and sat down at the table. “I meant it; good work both of you,” he said. “Come on, I’m buying dinner.”
********************
 
“Okay, I have a few questions,” Stella said, leaning back in her chair. They were in Mac’s apartment with an open pizza box on the coffee table. “Why were you wearing your wedding band and who the hell did you have lined up to play Horatio’s wife?”
 
Mac unhooked a silver chain from around his neck. The light glistened off the white gold band. “I knew that Lisa knew H and I are lovers,” he said. He slipped off his wedding ring, put it on the chain and refastened it before sliding his commitment ring on. “So I decided to wear Claire’s ring because everyone had seen it before.”
 
“So you couldn’t be caught in a lie,” Danny said. “That’s smart, Mac, but it had to hurt.”
 
“It did,” Mac said. “But I also know Claire would understand and love the joke behind it all. It was her kind of humor.”
 
Horatio kissed Mac’s temple gently. “As to my ‘wife’ I asked Calleigh if she would accept the phone call,” he said. “She’s a born actress and was ready to play the role if we called.”
 
“It all worked out okay then?” Danny asked. “Mac was pretty shaken when he called and asked for my help.”
 
“I have some issues in my past and the pictures and note played right to them,” Horatio said. “Luckily Mac is stubborn and got Calleigh on his side.”
 
“Yeah, after she slapped and tried to shoot me,” Mac said. “Don’t ever piss that woman off.”
 
“Did she hurt you?” Horatio asked.
 
“No where near what I knew you had to be feeling,” Mac replied. “My only concern was finding you and setting the record straight.”
 
“Well it’s lucky you guys have been researching that paper on the side,” Stella commented. “Otherwise we would have been SOL.”
 
Danny laughed. “And then some,” he said. “I called my friend in DC and he’s sending up some new encryption software and password scrambler for your computer, Mac. Ain’t no one gonna be able to do this again.”
 
“Thank you, Danny,” Mac said. “Remind me to send a letter thanking him as well.”
 
“Will do; his boss is a former marine and swears at, I mean by, this stuff,” Danny said. “It’ll all be ready when you come back to work on Monday.”
 
“And we’re going to get out of your way,” Stella said. “Thanks for supper, Mac, and congratulations; both of you.”
 
“What she said,” Danny added. “Whatever help you need, Mac, H; you know where to find me.”
 
Horatio smiled. “Thank you, Danny. Have a good night.”
 
Mac saw his friends to the door and locked it behind him. “I’ve been thinking, Horatio,” he said sinking into his favorite chair. “If Lisa was able to get into my office what’s to stop her getting into my apartment as well? This whole place could be bugged.”
 
“Do you think she’d go that far?”
 
“In a plan to ruin me and extort money she had to have video and audio proof,” Mac said. “There were no guarantees I’d go to her apartment so she had to have a plan B.”
 
Horatio nodded. “Then I suppose we need to do what we do best,” he said. “Do you have a spare flashlight?”
********************
 
The lovers spent the next two hours carefully searching Mac’s apartment and found spy cameras in every room. “We’ll have to have them printed to be sure,” Mac said, “but now I’m pissed. She could have been watching me for weeks; ever since we hired her.”
 
“I wonder where the feeds are sent to.” Horatio asked.
 
“My front closet,” Mac sighed. “I found a lap top there. Danny’s going to come pick all this up and take it all to the lab.”
 
“It’s good we have friends we can trust to be discrete,” Horatio said. “I wouldn’t mind seeing the footage from your bedroom.”
 
Mac groaned and sank onto the sofa. “If she has this saved on another source then our relationship could still come out,” he said. “What if she’s been doing a remote access download?”
 
“Then we’ll find it,” Horatio said, sitting down and pulling Mac into a hug. “We knew this could happen, Mac. We knew going in that our relationship could come out at any time. We’re ready and can deal.”
 
“You haven’t stayed over since she was hired,” Mac said. “And I suppose we can say she manipulated the feeds from our nightly phone calls.”
 
“And its illegally obtained information,” Horatio said. “Mac, I’m supposed to be the insecure one and you’re the strong one.”
 
That got a laugh. “You’re the strongest man I know, Horatio,” he said. “You take care of everyone no matter how much it could hurt you.”
 
“Speaking of, I had to tell Yelina the truth about Madison,” Horatio said. “It was right before your case and this whole mess.” He rested his head against Mac’s shoulder. “I have never seen so much anger before and it was all directed at me.”
 
“What happened?” Mac ran his fingers through his lover’s soft red hair.
 
“Madison has cancer,” Horatio said. “And needed a bone marrow transplant. The hospital said a sibling would be the best match but Yelina refused to believe me when I told her the truth. She didn’t want Ray Jr. tested.”
 
“How could she do something like that?” Mac asked.
 
“I’m not sure but she came around in the end and Ray Jr. was a match,” Horatio said. “I just felt so helpless, Mac. My princess has been through so much and it was still just being piled on.”
 
“You did what you could,” Mac said. “And if I know you, you had yourself tested for the transfusion and are paying the medical bills; exactly what I would do if I was in your place.”
 
“Fortunately I owned some land that was of interest to developers,” Horatio said. “I was going to give it to Ray Jr. when he turned 18 but no one else knew about that.”
 
“Let me know what I can do to help,” Mac said. “You don’t have to carry this burden alone any more; Horatio; Suzie and Madison are my family too.”
 
Horatio moved and claimed his lover’s mouth in a soft but passionate kiss. “Thank you, Mac,” he whispered against his lover’s lips a minute later. “I love you so much.”
 
“I love you too,” Mac said. He groaned when the doorbell rang. “Hold that thought, that’s Danny.”
 
“You called, Mac?” Danny asked, looking around. “That bitchwhore do something else to you?”
 
Horatio snorted and looked like he was trying not to laugh. Mac just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Danny, it looks like Lisa broke in here too,” Mac said. “Horatio and I found prints, cameras and a computer. See what you can do with them and get a warrant for Lisa’s apartment. I want her to go away for a long time.”
 
“You got it, Mac,” Danny said. “You got pictures for me too?”
 
“Memory card in an evidence envelope,” Mac said. “Give me a call and let me know what you find.”
 
Danny picked up the box. “As soon as I can,” he said. “And don’t worry, ain’t no one else will see any of this. It stays between us.”
 
“We owe you, Danny,” Horatio said.
 
“Buy me a beer and call it good. I’ll see you later.”
 
“He’s a good kid,” Horatio commented as Mac rejoined him after relocking the front door. “Danny reminds me so much of Speed it hurts.”
 
“I know, H,” Mac said. He pushed his lover back so the red head was spread out on the sofa. He straddled Horatio’s lean hips and leaned down to kiss him. “So I think you said something about making up to me?”
 
“I was thinking about a bed being involved at some point,” Horatio said. “There’s more room to move around.”
 
“You do realize that this is technically our honeymoon,” Mac said, standing up. He held out a hand to his lover.
 
Horatio took it with a smile and pulled Mac in against him once they were both on their feet. “Then I’d better make it a night to remember,” he purred, kissing Mac possessively.