Title: One More Victim
Rating: FRM
Author: Timothy Quinn
Author’s Notes: Told from Speed’s PoV. There was someone else in Horatio’s life.
2nd Author’s Notes: Okay so here it is – I wrote Goodnight Nick … This was my other’s half’s revenge. From that a series was born.
Series: Goodnight Nick, One More Victim, Fixer Upper, Breakfast, Moving On, Messages, Saving Love, Shower Food Sleep, Home, Full Circle
***
He walked away. A kiss. Soft words. He walked away.
And I just stood there on the beach letting him go.
It was over.
He tried his best to make it painless. I know that. Part of me is grateful for that. I mean it could’ve been worse right? Recriminations, accusations…
He’d done all he could for me. Now he was moving on to someone else who needed him.
And that was it.
Was that all I’d been? Was I just another victim he’d comforted, guided, loved? Was that it? Did he really see me that way?
A million questions, maybe more, all raced through my brain in the time it takes for a single heartbeat.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.
I’d just nodded, smiled and let him go. He was going to her, to Marisol. The world’s most glamorous cancer victim. She needed him. She needed someone to take care of her, to love her in her last days, to make her feel special, wanted.
I get that. I do. I understand. I’m not stupid.
But I’d thought, I’d thought what we shared was more than that. I really did.
Guess I made a fool of myself.
I know it’s not Horatio’s fault. He’s compulsively drawn to helping those who can’t help themselves, and after Dispo Day, I was one of those people. But in my heart, what we were…
I didn’t even realize the sun was coming up. I just stood there. Lost. Alone.
It was too much like the night I lost Andrew. Just a phonecall. Soft words. A little reassurance that everything would be okay. And that was that.
I couldn’t do this any more. I couldn’t spend my days wondering about all those things I should’ve said and didn’t, or all those things I’d said when I should’ve been silent. Why does always end like this? Why do I have to be alone?
Nothing on this earth could compel me to stay now. I couldn’t smile and pretend it was alright. My own sense of personal credibility will only stretch so far. Marisol deserves good things in her last days. I won’t deny her that. I won’t deny Horatio being happy. If I couldn’t make him happy, someone else could.
It was over.
I got on my bike and drove away from Miami.
And I never went back.