At the End of the Day
Piss off!
What have I done wrong now, Horatio Caine wore a puzzled look while throwing up his arms in a gesture of dispair, a very unusual thing to do for the Lieutenant of the CSI Department of Miami-Dade.
You know very well what you did...again!!
Is this the `We-promised-mother-that we´d-come-over-for-her-birthday-but-you-didn´t-show-up´ situation again?!
Sure as Hell it is, Cathrine was close at throwing her glass of tomato juice (which was a must for when she was extremely vexed or close to loosing control) at her husband and take one of the kitchen chairs to throw after it. I´m sick of always telling mother that you couldn´t do it and will make it up to her, right into her sagging, dissappointed face! I always have to iron the things out that you do wrong in your personal life!! But not anymore Horatio, NOT ANYMORE, DAMIT!!
Tears sprang into her already bloodshot eyes. She had promised herself not to cry again but obviously her exhaustion made it impossible. She sank back onto the couch and covered her face with her hands. Horatio stood there quite speechless and unable to move even an inch. Why hadn´t he seen this coming.
C...Cathrine...I´m...I´m sorry...I...
Don´t...say...another...word, she wispered, and Horatio had to strain his ears in order to hear her at all. Not another word!...Get out... He looked at her dumbstruck. Cathrine got up so suddenly that she caught the table with her knees and caused the bottle with tomato juice to soak the beige carpet underneath. She pointed with her index finger towards the door of their house. GET OUT...NOW!!!
Horatio grabbed his jacket, took his car keys, and was gone within seconds without a slamming of the door. Cathrine started to shiver violently. *Bastard* she thought, and she wasen´t talking about Horatio.
Cathrine Deven had lived in Miami for almost 12 years now. It had been quite hard to get used to the city and it´s vacation atmosphere. It was still a bustling city, like any other of course, but the citizens were always in a constant state of celebrating. Especially the clubs were packed after 7 pm, but the people of Miami were still hard working individuals, and that showed itself in any profession performed in the city of constant exitement.
Cathrine had grown up in Elizabeth, Maine; a small village situated between Mooselookmeguntic Lake and Mt. Sugarloaf, a real hikers paradise. But she had always been drawn to the city, and therefore had left her hometown immediately after she had finished High-School. The extiement brought by the constant traffic, the laughter and music out on the busy streets at night and the sound of people coming and going around her apartment block was what gave Cathrine the energy to wake up and go to work everyday.
Not that life had been all that bad in Elizabeth. It had it´s exitements; a funeral here, a wedding there, an affair around the corner, but there were no possibilities of night life. No clubs, no discos, no pubs or bowlingbars, not even a cinema.
Cathrines junger brother Eric had no problem with living a life out of the ordinary, a life that rather resembeld the everyday exitement of a senior citizen. He rather spent his time brooding over science books and literature articles given to him by his best friend, a librarian.
So Cathrine had left Elizabeth and gone to the big city in the south, another important factor. She hated the winter season, being cold, presenting herself with a runny nose and a cough everytime she came in concat with some one who only had the beginning symptoms of one. She had hoped that her amazing talent for catching anyones´ cold would take care of itself. And it had wonderfully. She hadn´t been sick once since moving to Miami.
After she had found a nice little apartment for herself opposite the beach, which cost her a little fortune every month, Cathrine started looking for work straight away. She luckily found one in the same week, and started to work as a waitress in a cozy café just a few blocks away, ´The Sun´. It was a simple job that she liked very much. Not only did she serve the people what they ordered, but she also made new friends with the customers that came regularly, or even everyday. After 2 pm the place was always packed with teenagers that just got out of school, and ther was one girl that Cathrine had strated to feel affection for especially. Her name was Dana, and Cathrine viewed her as being her younger sister. They did a lot of things together, and Cathrine appreciated the fact that she had someone to talk to in this big city, far away from home, even though that someone was 17 years younger than herself.
Today was one of those days that Cathrine liked very well. Her alarm clock woke her up at 7 am with ´Secret´ by Maroon 5, she realized that she still had some RiceCrispies left for breakfast, the day was a little cooler than usual, Carol, her boss, gave her a payment raise, and Stacy had invited her to her birthday party.
It was way past 6 pm (her official time for workend) and Cathrine was on her way home. Carol had offfered to drive her, but she wanted to walk that little distance and reassured her that she´d be fine by herself.
Cathrine had taken off her shoes and was strolling along the beach, looking steadily at the ground, watching the sand flow over her feet as she dug them into it and lifted them up again. She was thinking about nothing in particular, when she suddenly saw a pair of black shoes facing the sea, rigth in front of her own.
******
Horatio Caine was busy looking over a profile of a suspect that was probaly causing the bomb threaths that were hitting Miami the past 2 weeks and had finally taken thier practical job into action this morning at a beauty parlor in Miami Beach. With only a warning of five minutes before it would go off, solely giving enough time to evacuate the building, the bomb had torn half the parlor into bits. Horatio had spent his entire moring and beginning of the afternoon at the crime scene, looking for any indication of who and how he had done this. Nothing had helped him or his fellow C.S.I.s to come to any conclusions, except to where the bomb had exploded, but he had also not expected it to so quikly, at least not much, since they hadn´t even been able to trace any of the maniacs preceeding phone calls either, but that there was absolutely no evidence whatsoever was tearing at his nerves.
Horatio was just rubbing his eyes out of frustration; he had to get the bastard, he had to get him before someone died; as Eric Delko walked into his office.
Make me happy, he said, leaning back into his chair and cracking his lower back.
Sure, H. The bomb was an IED, around five gallons of Astrolite. We found the melted plastic containers close to the explosion site, and some Astrolite remained inside a bubble in the plastic...luckily.
Good, at least we´ve got something, Horatio looked at him with a half-hearted smile on his face. Eric turned around and was opening the door to leave again. Eric, he quickly turned around again. Go home. Enough for today.
Okay H., He made another 180° turn and left the room.
Horatio stayed another three hours after Eric, Speed, Alexx and Calleigh left, brooding more over the case without evidence, trying to see if he had missed anything. He had gone back to the crime scene in his mind, looking over the explosions center, it´s colsest surroundings, the area around the building. He was just going to open one of the trash cans as he realized that he hadn´t done so, and therefore deciden to do so, but tomorrow. * Tomorrow * he told himself, got up from his chair, took his jacket off the rack, turned off the lights and left his office. Arriving out on the parking lot, he climed behind the wheel of the Hummer, turned his key in the ignition and was off home.
******
Horatio was halfway home when he dicided to take a right turn and drive towards the beach. He hadn´t been there for pure enjoyment for a long, long time and felt that he could need a little peace from his busy life. Even though it was only for a few short minutes. He parked is car,left his jacked behind, and made his way towards the shore. As he stood there he tried to expell all his thoughts out of his mind, and just concentrate on the splashing of the incoming waves. But after a few minutes, his train of thought unevitably found it´s way back to the case. Lost in his thoughts, Horatio did not notice a figure approaching him from a distance, until it was about ten feet away from where he was standing.
Cathrine hadn´t seen him at all, hadn´t noticed him one bit, and as she stood in front of him now, she didn´t know what to say either or what to do, how to react. He rested his hands on his hips and looked her straight in the eyes, tilting his head a little towards the left side. She turned bright red, at least that´s what it felt like, and she hoped that the black of night conceled her face.
Hello Miss, he gave her a little smile that suddenly made her day worthwhile.
Oh, I didn´t mean to intrude. I...I´ll be on my way. Sorry, Cathrine turned around and walked back towards the street. She was nearly at the sidewalk, when she noticed that he had followed her.
No need to excuse yourself Miss...?
Cathrine. Cathrine Deven, she offered him her hand.
Horatio Caine, he took it in his. She smiled back, and Horatio thought that he hadn´t seen an honest smile like that from a stranger in ages. I know it might seem a little out of the ordinary for me to ask this, but...are you sure that you´re supposed to be walking all by yourself at this time of night?
Oh, I just live one more block from here. I walk this way from work everyday. I´m alright by myself. She noticed, now that they were walking under the latern lights, that he was quite tall...and he had red hair. He was wearing a white shirt and dark-blue silk slacks, his identity disk was fixed on his belt. You´re a police officer, he gave her a look of suprise. Your belt.
He looked down at himself and realized that he hadn´t taken the disc off yet. Yeah, I patrol the beaches and look out for rapists.
Really? Then I´m lucky tonight, this time a look of amusement showed on his face. Alright. I have to get going. Gotta get up early. Good night Mr. Officer.
C.S.I.
What?
I work for the Crime Scene Investigation Department.
Mr. C.S.I. then. Good night. Cathrine offered Horatio her hand and shook it again, turned around and crossed the street.
Wait, Horatio shouted, and she spun on her heel when she was savely on the other side. Where did you say you worked ?
I didn´t tell you anything. He shrugged his shoulders. The Sun.
He watched her walk down a few more feet, then up some steps and after a few seconds into the house. She turned around one more time and waved. He lifted his hand as a sign of farewell. She smiled and then dissappeared in the door.
The Sun. Horatio said quietly to himself. He walked back to his car, got in and sat there for a few moments. Then he started the engine and was on his way home.
´Sein [Gottes] Ziel ist es, jeden Menschen in den Mantel eines geheiligten Charakters zu kleiden und ihn mit der Zier heiliger, edler Taten zu schmücken.´
- Bahá´u´lláh
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