Author: Sam

Story: Speed Trap: 20 of 23

Series: Speed-Burn

Setting: September 20, 2005: Miami: afternoon

Note: none

Feedback: Yes, please? Especially constructive. samwise_baggins@yahoo.co.uk

Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/samwise_baggins/index.html

Curiosity drew Speed across the trace lab to the chart, photos, and other evidence in the back corner. He looked at his entire life, and supposed death, spread out on the table and tacked up on the lighted wall. It was eerie in a way, but somehow comforting to know that Horatio and the others would put so much effort into checking his death, even after a year.

He ignored the sounds of others entering the lab as he leaned closer to the time line and read Calleigh’s neat printing next to the even neater writing in a hand he didn’t recognize. There were a couple of sticky flags marking his teenaged summers, and Speed knew it was because they hadn’t been able to find out what he’d been doing in those months. With a bitter smile, he wondered what their reaction would be when they found out he’d spent all that time trying to hunt down his wayward brother and bring him back home.

Not once did Speed doubt the Miami team would hear the entire story. He had kept his brother’s existence a secret for almost fifteen years, out of respect for his parents’ wishes, but it looked like that secret may have landed him in this fix. According to what was in the corner of the lab, it may have jeopardized his career, too. Once and for all, he would lay his brother to rest, and separate their lives permanently.

When he’d been thirteen, he’d stopped Tom from trying to hurt baby Matthew. It had been a bitter argument, ending with Tom running away from home and Tim following to try to make things right with his twin. He’d always believed that they had to get along since they were two halves of a whole, had always believed that out of all identical twins, Mirror Twins should be the closest, despite being opposites in everything, even their handedness. And so, for five summers, Tim Speedle had put his life on hold and gone to Staten Island to find his brother, Tom, or TJ as he’d taken to calling himself, and try to bring him back, no matter whatever he’d done wrong.

Speed was done with the secrets, the protection, the delusion... and with Tom.

“Timmy?”

Glancing over his shoulder, Speed nodded to Alexx, noticing Mac and the other New York CSI’s had entered the room while he was occupied. With a negligent wave of his hand, the brunet turned back to the evidence display. “You want answers? Looks like H got them together for you.” He waited as the small group moved forward, glancing briefly at the red-haired kid in their midst. Almost casually, he reached up and started taking down the autopsy photos, finishing just as the group came to a halt.

“Here,” he handed the photos to Danny. “That’s TJ Spedelli, or, as I knew him, Thomas Jeremy Speedle.” Surprise registered in the blue eyes of the New Yorker as he took the photos warily. After a moment, he started looking through them, handing them off to Mac as he went. Speed nodded and turned back to the time line.

“Tom and I were Mirror Twins, identical twins who appear to be physically opposite. Most mirror twins have different handedness, get opposite physical maladies, and even have been known to have nearly identical fingerprints, unlike regular identical twins. When we were ten, I got tonsillitis and Tom got appendicitis; he needed surgery, but I was fine and managed to keep my tonsils. I’m right-handed; he was a lefty.” Placing a finger on his thirteenth year, Speed bent closer. “Contrary to popular belief, not all twins get along like long lost lovers. In fact, Tom and I hated each other.”

When Alexx put her hand on his shoulder, Tim glanced back and offered her a small smile, adding, “Well, actually, he hated me; I barely tolerated him. I was willing to try, but I did get sick of him trying to use my identity to get whatever he wanted.” The investigator glanced over at his supervisor, who was watching him in avid interest. “My parents caught on pretty quickly to Tom’s attempts of identity theft and he rarely got away with it. Parents and other close relatives are actually pretty good at telling their twins apart.”

Speed turned, slipping over so the others could see his life’s story spread before them. “Tom hated Matthew, my baby brother, even more than he hated me. When I stopped him from mutilating the kid, Tom ran away and started working the streets in the City,” turning his head, he clarified for Alexx, “New York City. He ran drugs, weapons, and anything else he could do to get by. I’d go down in the summer, when I was off school, and try to get him to come back home. My parents wanted to try to get him into some sort of counseling. It never happened. By the time I was sixteen, Tom had changed his name to TJ Spedelli and was running with some gang. When I was seventeen, an officer in the gang unit told me Tom had died of an over dose.” With a shrug, Speed looked directly at Alexx, knowing this story probably should have been told to her a long time ago; she was his best friend after all. “I believed the guy and went home to my parents. We agreed never to speak about him again; they wanted to clear the family name and just forget how they failed.”

Alexx wrapped her arms around Speed and hugged him close. She had seen the pain, the loss, the sense of failure in Tim’s eyes and knew that, despite his nonchalance, he truly had been effected by the loss of his twin. It was a tragedy that the loss had been by the age of thirteen, not the supposed death at seventeen, and in such a horrible fashion as the fight over their baby brother.

Pulling back slightly, she stroked a hand down his unshaven cheek, smiling gently at him. When he gave her a small smile in return, she nodded and looked over at Aiden, who was perusing the autopsy photos. Deciding that Speed needed to hear about his brother’s real death, or at least as much as she could give him, Alexx turned back to her friend and placed a hand on his arm. He looked directly at her, brown eyes meeting brown.

“You and Horatio went to that jewelry store, where you were shot when your gun misfired.” At his nod of remembrance, she said, “I was called in but didn’t even get to pronounce you before I was sent back to the morgue by my supervisor. He said he needed to process you because you were law enforcement.” Alexx rolled her eyes. “Two hours later, a body was brought to me with a tag reading TJ Speedle. He’d been shot almost in the heart and had died within the past three hours. I thought it was you and performed the autopsy.”

Speed smiled at her and Alexx stroked his cheek again. She couldn’t reassure herself enough that her Timmy was still alive, was standing right next to her after a year of mourning. Smiling wider, Alexx turned her head to address the rest of the team he’d brought with him. “The driver was a new one, and he’d had a pick up from the other side of Miami. I can only think the other victim was a shooting with the name of TJ Speedle, as well. When he got to my morgue, he must have mixed up the bodies and given me Tom Speedle accidentally.” Looking up at Speed, her smile widened even more. “Somehow, Tim managed to survive and wound up in the hospital under his brother’s name.”

“Well, that mix up may have saved my life, but I think it endangered me, Alexx.”

She frowned, confused, as Speed looked Mac in the eyes. “After only two months, I was taken out of the hospital and abandoned in an unheated apartment in Maine. I was given a sleeping bag and a bit of money for food which ran out pretty quick. I was literally dying on the floor of some apartment when a second agent found me and took me back to the hospital.” His voice turned thoughtful as he said, “Her name was Agent Gideon... Ivana.”

With a frown, Speed pulled away from Alexx and moved away from the evidence corner. He slid his hands into the pockets of the lab coat he wore over his CSI jumpsuit. “I was released two weeks later, though I really should have stayed, but there was no money for the bills and I needed to make the job interview at the lab. That’s when I showed up.” He looked at Mac, who nodded once in acknowledgment.

“I’m not as familiar with the Witness Protection Program as I thought, Baby, if that’s the treatment they’re allowed to give their witnesses.” Alexx hated the idea that her Timmy had been abandoned to die in some cold nowhere then forced to work before he’d had a chance to heal. It didn’t sit right at all.

Looking at her, Speed shrugged. “I’m not sure why Tom would have been in the program, what he knew, but I think someone in the program was trying to kill him. That’s why I was neglected that way.”

“Do you think Agent Gideon was in on it?” Mac’s voice sounded neutral, not giving away whether he believed the charge of attempted murder or not.

“No,” Tim shook his head. “She paid for my medical care after she rescued me, and I know she’s never been reimbursed. I’ve tried giving her money from my checks, but she refused.” Alexx smiled at the frustration Tim displayed at being unable to pay the Federal Agent back for his life. He continued, “I think someone else in the program may want whatever information Tom had out of circulation. Because I’m still alive, that person probably thinks Tom’s still alive.”

“Does that mean you’re in danger?”

All eyes turned to the young boy in surprise. It seemed that everyone had forgotten a child was listening. Alexx sighed and sank to one knee, placing one hand on HR’s torso and one on his back.

“It’s possible, HR, but we’re going to do everything we can to protect Tim. You know your father wouldn’t let anything happen to him; he’s one of your father’s friends.” She offered HR a smile then glanced up into the wary look on Tim’s face. With a small smile, she told him, “This is HR Caine; Horatio’s son.”

“I didn’t know H had a kid,” Speed responded, surprise registering in his dark eyes. “I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

Alexx nodded sagely. “That you do, Baby; that you do.”

Mac watched as Tim Speedle and Alexx Woods led the boy from the room, talking softly to each other. He’d catch up with his tech later, the man had things he needed to talk about. For the moment, the ex-Marine was more content to look over the evidence collected on Speed’s entire life.

As he read, aware that Danny was reading by his side, it became readily apparent that either this was an elaborate web of lies, or Tim Speedle was nothing like TJ Spedelli. Danny was starting to noticeably relax next to Mac, and the supervisor was relieved. He was pleased that his instincts had once again proven right; the man he’d known as Joe Avery was a good man, and a good cop.

He wondered if Tim would choose to go back to New York or stay if the chance were offered. His idle musings were interrupted by the sound of crashing and indistinguishable yelling coming from somewhere nearby.

Mac’s team hurried out to see what had happened in the crime lab.

HR, seeing his father coming down the steps from his office, broke away from Alexx happily. He ran to the man, barely aware that Alexx and Tim merely continued their way to the morgue to catch up. The boy was too excited at seeing his father’s lab, with his father, to care much what the doctor was doing.

“Dad! Aunt Yelina!” He grinned at the surprise on their faces. His dad’s normal gentle look came over him, and HR found himself smiling wider. Somehow that look always made everything seem okay.

“Hey! Ray!” He spotted his cousin and waved to the teen, not stopping his progress towards his father, however. One thing did stop his mad dash. Coming quite quickly behind his dad was none other than Mom, and she looked really grumpy.

The young redhead stopped running and stood, uncertainly, watching the three approaching adults. Dread swept down on him. Mom had come to get him again, and now he’d have to leave.

Leaving had been a big part of HR’s young life. It seemed like every few months his mother would pick him up at one person’s house, hang out with him a couple of days, then drop him off with somebody else. She said she had to go away a lot because she was a reporter and she had to talk to a bunch of important people. HR wondered if he’d ever get to be one of those people his mother considered important enough to talk to.

For the last nine months, he’d been living with Dad and it had been great. Yeah, he’d never met the man before then, and his Mom had never even told him that the guy was still alive, but that was okay. HR had finally gotten to meet Horatio Caine, and his father really seemed to care about him. And the best part was that his dad was a criminalist; okay, not quite a cop, but maybe even more important. After living with his dad for only one week, HR had decided that he was going to be a criminalist, too, when he grew up. Then he could work at his dad’s lab, and they wouldn’t have to be apart. They could spend the entire day together.

But now, when he was finally happy and with someone who really seemed to like him, his mom had to come back and mess things up.

HR wanted to find a place to hide that was so good, his mother would give up looking for him and leave him alone. Maybe if he begged, promised he’d be extra good, she’d leave him with Dad again while she went on her next assignment. Then, if he could keep getting her to leave him with Dad, maybe someday she’d forget to come pick him up and he could stay forever.

“Junior, there you are!” HR cringed at what he considered a babyish nickname.

Horatio got to his son before Peg did and he offered the worried looking child a gentle smile, fighting his anger at the woman who’d been yelling at him a moment before. HR smiled back. His ex-wife caught up to them a moment later and the hesitant, hopeful smile died on the child’s lips.

“Good, you’re here. I’m back.” Peg smiled down at the boy, apparently unaware of his unhappiness as he slumped in the over-sized jumpsuit. “We’re going to California, won’t that be great?”

“Do I have to?” HR had never actually whined at something Horatio had told him to do, so the reaction rather took the man by surprise. It seemed to be something standard for Peg though, as she merely glared in exasperation at the child.

Pushing her drenched black hair out of her eyes, the woman snapped, “Of course you have to, Junior. If I go, you go.”

“You don’t have to go, HR.”

Peg turned her glare on Horatio, but the redhead stood firm, staring her calmly in the eyes. Her voice was a near growl. “Don’t go filling his head with lies, ‘Ratio. He’s going with me to California.”

Quite aware of the attention they’d garnered from not only Yelina and Ray Jr., but from the Miami investigative team and even a handful of vaguely familiar people in crime lab jumpsuits, Horatio merely tilted his head and stated firmly, “I’ve already told you, Peg. He’s staying with me. You knew that before Christmas when you asked me to take him.” Watching her mouth work to form words, he added, “I told you that I’d take him, but you wouldn’t get him back. You left him anyway.”

With a hissing noise, Peg whirled on him and stormed forward, finger jabbing at the air as if to punctuate her angry words. “I am his mother, ‘Ratio. He is my son. You didn’t even know he existed until last Christmas. You can’t keep him; he’s mine.”

Horatio’s voice hardened at her display of self-centered greed. “He’s not some object you can put on a shelf whenever you get bored, Peg. He’s not a toy or a possession. He’s a human being with rights and feelings.”

“No court would dare give him to you.” Peg continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “I’m his mother. I have a great job. You work in a dangerous profession where people get killed all of the time. No judge will award him to you.”

Aware of just how much pain their argument was most likely causing their son, Horatio simply nodded. He gentled his voice, placing a careful hand on his son’s shoulder. “Okay, Peg. Okay. Since we can’t agree, we’ll make a deal, shall we? We’ll let HR decide where he wants to live.”

Apparently, Peg’s quick mind was working through the possibilities of the bargain.

Finally, the woman nodded and smiled overly-sweetly at the boy. “Junior, who do you want to live with? Daddy, who’d never even bothered to visit you before and who will most likely get shot by some punk and leave you in an orphanage like Oliver Twist, or Mommy, who will take you all around the world to really neat places like France and England, and maybe even China? You’ll be living with a famous reporter meeting all kinds of famous people.”

The arguments she presented were obviously heavily biased in her favor, and Horatio had to take a deep breath just to keep calm. He decided to add his own justifier in before the boy made his decision. Slipping to his knee, looking the boy square in the eyes, Horatio said, “HR, here you’ll be in the same school system every year. You’ll live in a stable home in one place and get regular meals. You’ll always know the babysitter you’ll stay with, if we need one. And,” his eyes never wavered from his son’s, “you’ll be with me. I love you very much.”

“Mommy loves you, too, Junior.” Peg threw in desperately, her voice showing her anger at what she apparently deemed as Horatio’s unfair interference.

HR looked over at Peg, the woman he’d known his entire life, then back at the man whom he’d only met nine months before. His intense blue stare seemed to penetrate his father, and Horatio found it was all he could do to not hold his breath in nervous anticipation; he forced his self to breath normally. The boy’s eyes slowly moved to his mother, and he studied her just as seriously. Then, he pulled out of Horatio’s grasp and turned to walk to his mother.

Horatio wanted to cry.

“Mom,” the boy’s voice was steady, calm, and his father knew that the decision had been made, there was no changing it. Peg smiled triumphantly at her ex-husband. “Mom, I... I hope you have a nice time in California and England and... and... China. I want to live here, with Dad.”

“What!” Peg’s voice was a shocked squeak. Her grey eyes turned down towards her son and she seemed uncomprehending for several seconds. Then, she snarled at Horatio, pointing at him in accusation. “You did this. You turned him against me!”

With a slight shake of his head, Horatio walked quickly up behind his son and put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, feeling them straighten in his grasp. “I did no such thing, Peg. You taught him everything.”

The mother glared down at her child and demanded, “Do you know how hard I worked, Junior? I went to school and worked evenings and weekends. I struggled and sacrificed. I slaved and now I’m finally going places. You’re making a stupid mistake. Do you know just how many people read my column? My name is famous world wide, Junior! That kind of fame will open doors!”

HR slipped backwards into the protective embrace of his father, his decision unwavering. Horatio smiled sadly at his former wife and lover, knowing she would never understand the choice the boy had made; she was too self-absorbed to see how anyone could want to be anywhere but with her. Horatio nodded his head, his hands lightly squeezing his son’s shoulders in reassurance.

“That’s right, Margaret. You have your name... and I have my son.”