Title: Investigation
Author: Bj Jones
Rating: FRAO
Disclaimer: I don't own them. They are owned by people who have mean nasty lawyers that can and will eat me for lunch. Not making any money - just borrowing them for a moment or two... or three....I'll return them when I return them.
Summary: A new case brings danger for the three men.
Genre: Slash
Series: A Second Can Change the World, Revelations, Playing It Forward, Vacation's Over, Decisions, Consequences, The Past Returns
Beta: Christina (Dino)
Challenge: 12 Stories - Horatio Caine/Timothy Speedle/Rick Stetler
Prompt: #8 - Dawn
Word Count: 2136

~*~

It had taken weeks for Rick to relax again. No one was asking about Philip Dent. No one was wondering where he had gone. Horatio had assured him no one would be finding the body.

He had known when Speed had taken him home, what Horatio was going to do. He had known what Horatio did, when he asked to be part of their operation. But knowing something and facing the reality of it was two completely different things. It had taken him a few days to wrap his mind around the fact that Caine had hunted Dent down and ended his life. Rick wasn't sure if it was the actual killing part that had him reeling or the idea that he really didn't care.

Both men were very patient, letting him come to grips on his own terms. Rick had sat in his cold condo, trying to come to terms with his own emotions, when a sudden realization hit him. There was only one place in the world where he felt secure, safe and loved. And it sure as hell wasn't in his condo on the east side of the city. It had taken him a few moments to pack a bag, then a total of three hours to get across town. Only he would have an epiphany in the middle of rush hour.

By the time he arrived at Horatio's beach house he was tired and a bit cranky. Speed had just snickered and pulled him into the house and kissed him. "Next time you decided to have an epiphany check the traffic report."

Rick grumbled good naturally as he collapsed onto the sofa. "I'll remember that."

"You understand now?" Horatio asked his voice calm.

Stetler looked over at him and nodded. "I understand now."

"Good, Speed's making lasagna..."

Rick shifted on the couch and looked into the kitchen. "With garlic bread?"

"Geeze," Speed muttered going back into the kitchen. "If you two had your way I would never leave the kitchen."

"Actually," Horatio moved in behind his lover. "I would chain you to the bed and every once in a while let you out to cook us dinner."

"Naked of course," Rick added smirking. "Okay you can have an apron, have to protect the assets."

He just stared at the two men. "So I'm your love slave who can cook."

The two looked at each other and smirked. "Yeah."

~ Horatio's Office - Weeks later ~

Stetler stepped into his office, closing the door he leaned against it a folder clutched to his chest. "Close your blinds."

Horatio looked up at him, eyebrow raised. "You're going to blow me under my desk?"

Rick startled slightly, "Speed's done that?"

"If I recall, I was on the phone with you arguing over something," the redhead smirked.

"Damn." He glanced toward the blinds. "Believe me when I say this, the information I have will be better than a blow job."

Horatio stood up and closed the blinds, "What do you have?"

Rick handed him the folder. "A possible connection to a large bribery ring that could lead up to Ratner."

That got the redhead’s attention, "And here I was actually looking forward to shooting the bastard."

"Well there is a sense of justice in it all don't you think, taking him down legally," Rick sat down on the couch.

Horatio moved back to his desk. "Do we have any evidence?" He flipped through the pages looking through the documentation.

"At the moment circumstantial at best," Rick sighed. "But if I keep pushing the envelope I think we'll find hard evidence. Right now, I've got enough to subpoena Captain Johnson's financial records. I've been working on this case for almost a year now, and I've finally got enough to get a warrant, of course I had to wait until the new judge was sworn in and I practically ran him down in the corridors to get it, before Ratner got to him."

Horatio smirked up at him, "Why do I have this vision of you standing by the swearing in ceremony and tackling the guy to the ground."

"Haha." Rick rolled his eyes. "I've hit every fucking block wall on this investigation, and you're connected to it by default."

"Me?" He glanced back down at the records. "I've never worked with Captain Johnson, he's mostly night shift..."

"Officer Lowes," Rick stood up and moved toward the desk. "I know you've never closed the case."

Caine leaned back in his chair. "Speed worked it for weeks. I had to drag him from the lab. He knew Lowes personally," Horatio glanced toward the Trace Lab, memories of dealing with his lover during the investigation. "He swore up and down Lowes was taken out professionally, there was no evidence, and someone knew what they were doing."

"He's the one that came to me." Stetler's voice dropped. He had no idea that the case had affected Speed so much. "He suspected something was going on, but couldn't put a finger on it. His comment was, 'Hell back in New York if my department had that many cases tossed out we would be getting our asses handed back to us by the higher ups.'"

"He was from New York?" Horatio tried not to smile.

"Maybe Speed is right about the geese flocking to Miami," he then paused, "Don't you dare tell him I said that."

"Hell no," the redhead shook his head. "It's bad enough we got a toy stuffed goose in the living room."

"I looked into his department, of course this was during my phase of 'I hate Horatio and he needs to be taken down', so I checked the CSIs to see if any of them were throwing the cases and before you growl at me, even at the time it was obvious they had nothing to do with it, day and night shift came out clean. So I pulled all of their cases, and started to see a pattern." Rick leaned forward and pointed at the documentation.

"Seventy-five percent of the cases Captain Johnson signed off ended up tossed for some small infraction," Horatio glanced over the numbers. "Out of that seventy-five percent, sixty percent of those cases ended up in front Judge Ratner."

"Each time I dug into the files and cases I ended up blocked," Stetler growled slightly. "When the call came out about Lowes I knew..."

"They had him killed, afraid he knew more than he did." Horatio's eyes narrowed. "Also taking away you're only witness, making it even more difficult to get a warrant because it was heresy from a dead officer."

"Exactly," Rick nodded. "Now here comes the irony, I moved off Captain Johnson and started to look into officers in his department, ones I figured who were on it, and well someone got a call ..."

Caine's eyebrow rose, "That is connected to this."

"I think so," Stetler quietly remarked.. "As Speed pointed out when you had a gun to my head. They figured you wouldn't care..."

"Because of our rivalry," Horatio frowned. "Speed actually found evidence allowing you prosecute those officers."

"I’m surprised they didn't try to take you down," Rick said. "They knew you were the assassin."

"They didn't know I was the assassin, they had actually came to me showing you on the take, figuring I would go after you, soon after we got contacted for the hit, impatient people, they had figured I wasn't doing anything, but in reality Speed was investigating." Horatio paused. "When the hit came down, and with the evidence shown I went after you...."

"Remind me to thank Speed when we get home," Rick shivered a bit, remembering that night.

"True irony here, is the fact, that now that we're working together..."

"We may have enough to actually take Ratner down." Stetler grinned evilly.

"Does Captain Johnson know your back to investigating him?" Caine asked getting back to the subject at hand.

"I've issued the warrant, and collecting the financial statements as we speak." Rick stood up. "He's already lawyered up, and not surprised if he's made a call to Ratner to see if the warrant can get pulled for lack of evidence or something." He rolled his eyes.

"Any chance of that happening?" Horatio asked concerned.

"Have you met the new guy?" Rick smirked. "New, young, idealistic, just your type of judge. Matter of fact, when I was talking with him, he asked about working with you..." Horatio's eyebrow rose. "You got a fan. He said more cops should be like you, putting the people first before their careers."

The redhead groaned, "You're not going to let me live that down are you."

"Oh hell no, and I'm going to take enjoyment telling Speed," Rick gave him a saucy smile. "I'll probably be home late, if I get out of my office I want to go through those statements before Ratner tries to do something."

"You're not going to find a check made out to Judge Ratner with a note on it stating bribery." Horatio smirked up at him.

Rick just glared at him. "Really?"

Caine stood up and moved for the door, "Bring copies home, let Speed look at it, or if you want make an inquirer into Lowes case and I can let Speed officially help."

"Not a bad idea, if we could connect it to Lowes case, we got more than bribery..."

"They've upgraded to murder."

~ Horatio's Home ~

"So all of this is linked together?" Speed asked shifting through the evidence. "I knew Lowes death was professional, no crime scene is that clean." He paused and looked at Horatio. "This is before they hired you to take out Stetler, so why not use the same hitman?"

"Something happened to him?" Horatio looked over at him. "We haven't taken any hitman out, have we?"

"Loosing track in your old age?" Tim teased. "But to answer, no we haven't. Which means, there's another guy our there they are willing to use."

Realization suddenly dawning on him, Horatio grabbed his cell phone, "Rick."

'It's only ten, not that late...'

"Look, they used a different hitman on Lowes," Horatio voice was tight with emotion.

'Then why didn't they use him for me...' Rick paused.

"After we left the building we returned the money, and accused them of lying to us about the true reason for the hit." Caine looked over at Speed, seeing the fear in his eyes.

'So they could send the other guy after me, now that I've dove head first into the case.'

"You remember how easy it was for me to grab you, if this guy is a professional." He warned.

'I'll have someone escort me to my car, and come straight home.'

Speed grabbed the phone from Horatio, "Please. I don't think I can handle if something happened."

'I'll be fine and home soon.'

Horatio pulled Speed into his arms. "He'll be fine, I promise you."

"If it gets too much..." Tim buried his face into his lover’s shoulder.

~ Days Later ~

"We have an officer down! Repeat officer down!"

Horatio stared at the radio as he drove back toward the lab; he had just left Speed at a crime scene. It was a simple smash and grab at a jewelry store, in the jewelry market section of downtown.

Caine grabbed the hand held, "This is Lieutenant Caine, report."

"There's been an incident downtown, McCauley Jewelry," dispatch answered. "One officer reportedly killed, a second wounded."

Fear gripped at his heart. "Who's down?"

"Not yet confirmed, sir." Dispatch informed him.

Horatio turned the Hummer around and made his way back to the crime scene he had just left. He knew, his instinct telling him that this wasn't random. That this was an orchestrated planned hit.

He grabbed his phone, "Caine."

'Horatio...'

"I don't know, Rick. I'm pulling up now..." He hung up as he slammed the Hummer into park. His eyes glued to the scene before him. One body covered with a white sheet, another being worked on by paramedics. One of them was his lover.