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<b>Disclaimer #1</b>: Buffy the Vampire Slayer concepts and characters, are the property, copyright and trademark of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui, Sandollar, David Greenwalt Productions and 20th Century Fox. No copyright infringement is intended.
<b>Disclaimer #2</b>: The characters of CSI: Miami are the property of CBS Broadcasting Inc and Alliance-Atlantis Communications. No copyright infringement is intended.
<b>Warning</b>: Language, <b>Major Spoilers</b> for No Man’s Land, Man Down, and Lover’s Walk (BtVS) <b>Male/Male/Male relationship! Don’t like, turn back!</b>
Jodine16: In the Buffy!verse, this would be set right after the events of <i>Lover’s Walk</i>. When I watched <i>No Man’s Land</i>, I knew it would be a perfect story to add to my collection of E/R/H stories. Oh, since the Buffy!verse and CSI: Miami!verse are in obviously very different time frames, we’re going to just pretend they aren’t because this is fanfiction and there aren’t any boundaries! Well, except for the spelling, grammar, and making sure characters are IC :P.
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<center><u>Quiet Revenge</center></u>
Ryan and Calleigh were in the Hummer, heading back to the lab when they heard the call, “<i>Officer Down!</i>” His insides became icy and while he tried to calm himself down and tell himself it wasn’t Horatio or Eric, just an unfortunate officer in the wrong place at the wrong time, Calleigh was on the phone, calling someone.
“Ryan, I…I’m so sorry, that was Alexx…Eric’s been shot…” People always say it’s like the world’s stops turning and it’s like you’ve suddenly lost your hearing and sight. All you can think about are those last words spoken and how you keep telling yourself over and over that it’s not true, it never happened, this is just a nightmare you’ll wake up from.
'<i>Eric can’t be shot; he can’t be dead…</i>' Ryan looked at Calleigh when he felt a hand on his arm.
“Don’t zone out on me, Ryan,” she said gently. “We’ll go to the hospital and see how he is, okay?”
“Right, right, we’ll go to the hospital…see Eric…how, how’s Horatio?” Ryan asked quietly.
“He wasn’t hurt, that I’m aware of, but he’s pretty distraught.” Ryan nodded, looking out the window, his eyes unfocused as scenery he didn’t see flew by.
It didn’t take long for the two CSIs to reach the hospital, though it seemed like forever to Ryan. They quickly hurried into the waiting room and stopped a passing nurse. Ryan’s mind was reeling when she said they were still trying to revive him and that if he didn’t get a pulse in the next five minutes they were going to call it. Calleigh grabbed his numb hand and ushered him down the hall towards the elevators. When they reached the floor Eric was on, they barely gave the doors time to fully open before they were hurrying down the hall. They turned a corner and found Horatio sitting on a bench, in front of Eric’s room, with his head hanging low.
“Horatio?” Ryan said softly, kneeling down in front of him. “Is…Is Eric okay?”
Horatio looked up at him. Ryan mentally cringed at the haunted look in the older man’s eyes. He hadn’t seen that look in his eyes since Marisol’s death. “Yeah…he’s—they revived him...he’s surgery now.” Ryan wrapped his arms around him, holding him close.
“He’ll make it, don’t worry,” He whispered, running his fingers through his lover’s hair soothingly. He looked up at Calleigh. “Can you ask when he can receive visitors?”
She gave him a smile and nodded. “Sure.”
“What happened, H?” Ryan asked as soon as Calleigh was gone.
Horatio buried his face into Ryan’s neck and was quiet for a moment before he spoke. “Eric and I were looking for Cathy when we were ambushed. The shooter shot Eric in the leg. I-I dragged him behind a car and continued shooting and managed to kill the man, when-when Eric…someone shot Eric in the head.”
Ryan moved to sit next to Horatio. He held Horatio tight. “Did you get a look at the guy?”
“No, it, the bullet came from a different direction.”
“Don’t worry, Horatio, we’ll get the bastard who tried to take Eric from us and we’ll get Cruz.”
<hr>
<i>Beep…Beep…Beep …Beep …Beep …</i>
Ryan tried not to let the beeping of the heart monitor bother him as he watched his lover sleep. He now knew how the families of hospitalized victims felt and he hated every second of it. The brunet walked over to Eric’s bed and sat down next to him, taking the Cuban’s hand. “Hey, baby, it’s Ryan. Don’t stop fighting, okay? Don’t leave us. As soon as you’re well enough, we’ll go on that weekend getaway that you’ve always wanted, I promise. J-Just don’t go, I wouldn’t be able to handle it and Horatio would die.”
He kissed the cool fingertips and stood, taking a deep breath to calm himself down and get himself collected.
<hr>
'<i>That bastard!</i>' Ryan shivered violently as cold water pounded on his back. He was in the lab shower room trying to keep his temper in check. His lover was shot because some idiot guard (dare he be even called that) wanted money for his stupid junk on wheels. What a life even fucking worth that?! Not even close! Ryan reached a shaking hand out and turned the water off. He grabbed a towel he left out and wrapped it tightly around his waist before exiting the showers and entering the locker room.
“Wow, this is almost like my fantasy, only the other guys are in it too,” said a Southern female voice behind him. Ryan jumped and gave Calleigh a half-hearted glare.
“Don’t do that!” He grumbled, opening his locker.
Calleigh was about to innocently ask, 'What?' when she noticed his blue lips and quivering body. “Are you alright, Ryan?”
Ryan smiled tightly, pulling his clothes out of a duffle bag. “Cold shower. I don’t know how you do it, Cal.”
“Do what?”
“Keep your cool when interrogating suspects that deserve more than a 25 year sentence.”
Calleigh shrugged, pulling her jacket off and putting it in her locker. “Well, it takes years, Ryan, and practice. I didn’t get to CSI Level Two by letting my temper get the better of me. Instead, I let my anger out by heading to the firing range and shooting up pictures of Stelter.”
“Remind me never to piss you off,” Ryan chuckled, pulling his clothes on. “So, why are you here? I thought you have mountains of Ballistics reports to go through.”
“I’m heading over to the hospital with Alexx and her family,” she replied, closing her locker. “Horatio’s in his office, I’m assuming you’re going with him?.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you there.”
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“He didn’t show up,” were the first words out of Horatio’s mouth when Ryan entered his lover’s office. It took half a second for Ryan to figure out who he was referring to.
“He’ll be on the most wanted list for what he’s done H,” Ryan said softly. “We will get first crack at bringing justice to the bastard when we catch him.”
“When we catch him.” Horatio walked out of the room.
Ryan watched him leave. '<i>I’ve never seen him like this. I think it’s time to bring out the big guns. I’m not waiting for the legal system to get it’s ass in gear.</i>' He pulled his cell phone out and dialed an almost long forgotten number.
“This better be good,” said a gruff voice on the other line.
Ryan headed out of Horatio’s office. “It’s Wolfe. About that favour you owe me…”
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Clavo Cruz didn’t know what hit him. One minute he and his gang of buddies were heading down the dark streets of Costa Rica to a popular night club when they were surrounded by a large group of freaks. It didn’t take rocket science to figure out who these guys were after, judging by the way they were throwing his boys to the side like they were nothing. Cruz tried to fight them off, but they had inhuman strength. He tried to shout for one of the guys to get off their ass and help him, but one of the freaks hit him in the head, knocking him out.
When Cruz came to, he found himself in a large warehouse. There were crates here and there and freaks <i>everywhere</i>. He tried to move, but found his hands tied above his head and his legs forced apart by a spreader bar attacked to his ankles. Cruz forced his discomfort down when he noticed he wasn’t wearing anything.
“Where am I?” He demanded.
“Somewhere where no one will ever find, unless I allow it,” answered a cold voice. Two men walked up to him and Cruz glared when he recognized one of them.
“You, you’re one of Caine’s lapdogs,” he sneered. “You think you’ll get away with this? Police brutality will make the media go crazy.”
Ryan smirked. “That’s where you’re wrong, Cruz. I’ll be the last human you’ll ever see.” Ryan shook his head in mock disappointment. “You should have went to Horatio when you had the chance, because Spike here, isn’t nice. You see, his lover left him a while ago and he has some unreleased anger still left.”
“You think you’ll get away with this?!” Cruz yelled, trying to mask his apprehension.
Ryan turned to Spike, handing him something. “You can torture him as long as you like. When you’re finished, leave his…remains…on the beach.”
Spike smirked, tossing his cigarette to the ground. “No problem, mate.”
“Have fun.” Ryan turned and left. Spike looked at Cruz, inhaling the smell of fear coming from the human before him.
“I’m going to have fun with you and show you why they call me Spike,” he said, coming towards Cruz with a railroad spike in hand.
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Ryan stood next to Horatio as Alexx went over the list of injuries Clavo Cruz had. He was found a couple months after Eric was shot. “So you mean to tell us that out of the multiple stab wounds, slash wounds, burn marks, broken bones, whip marks, Cruz died from a snapped neck?”
“Whoever did this knew the human anatomy like the back of their hand,” Alexx said. “It’s a pity the person who did this will have to go to jail.”
“If we catch him,” Ryan said. “The spikes in his eyes were clean for fingerprints.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Horatio said, leaving.
<hr>
Ryan smiled when he entered Eric’s room. “Hey baby, I have great news.”
“Really? What?” he asked.
“We found Cruz dead on the beach,” he said sitting in a chair next to Eric’s bed.
“Who did it?” Eric asked, carefully sitting up.
“It’s a cold case,” Calleigh said, from the doorway, holding an assortment of drinks. “We couldn’t find any evidence of the killer. It’s one of those few cold cases that doesn’t bother me in the slightest…well, as long as whoever did it, doesn’t go on a killing spree.”
“How’s Horatio taking it?” Eric inquired
“He’s doing fine, but he’d feel better if a certain someone could come home,” Said a voice from the doorway.
Eric grinned. “Doctor said another week and then I’ll be home. So, Calleigh, I thought you said you were going to bring Snakes and Ladders with you?”
Ryan let Calleigh take his seat and he stood next to Horatio. “I assume you called in a favour and had the problem taken care of?” Horatio asked quietly.
“He hurt Eric,” Ryan said simply. “I did what I had to do.”
“Call me next time,” Horatio said.
Ryan glanced at Horatio. “There better not be a next time,” he said before joining Eric and Calleigh in their game.
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Jodine16: Yay, nay?