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With a frown Mac quickly downed the water from the small medicine cup, washing the pain tablets down. He watched the nurse make a notation on her chart before she left on her rounds. Placing the cup on the edge of the bed table, the New York criminalist turned his attention back to the people gathered around his hospital bed. “So, this had nothing to do with the original shooting last year?”

“Not exactly,” Ivana was sitting at the edge of her chair, back straight, as she looked from one patient to the other. It had been deemed easier if both Mac and Speed shared a hospital room, and the agent had to admit, it sure made this meeting possible.

From his position by the door, Rick Stetler frowned at the small group. On a chair between the two beds, Horatio sat in an apparently relaxed manner, smiling softly as he listened to Ivana. Speed was simply lying in his bed, still trying to get the ink from his fingers; he’d been working at it since Stetler had insisted on fingerprinting him two days before. As for the two investigative teams, the New Yorkers were performing the hurricane tasks they’d originally volunteered for, mostly cleaning and crowd control duties. The Miami team was busy processing the lab, the morgue, and everything that went with this convoluted case; Delko had even put Speed’s prints in the front just to get him cleared sooner.

Turning her attention back on the New York supervisor, the Federal Profiler opened her file, though she’d memorized its contents by then. “Fredericks had been in the gang unit in Staten Island fifteen years ago. Apparently, he’d been on the take for the Mafia, closely working with the Tanglewood Boys gang. When Thomas Speedle ran away from home and got into the gang, he became a close contact with Fredericks. They would run guns and drugs back and forth for the local… bosses.”

Speed finally looked up, “Fredericks was the cop who told me Tom died. His name was Johnson back then.”

With a nod, Ivana confirmed the statement. “Apparently, Tom left the country on a large gun run and Fredericks took the opportunity to completely change his identity. He went from Fred Johnson to Jonathan Fredericks, acquired all new identification, and joined the Army. He even made Special Forces.”

“Which would explain a few things,” Mac added softly.

Horatio sat forward in his chair, twirling his sunglasses absently between his fingers. “Fredericks then managed to get a job with the FBI, while Tom continued his illegal activities and Tim joined law enforcement.”

“So,” Rick finally jumped in, still sounding displeased, but at least trying to stay in the case, “When Tim Speedle was shot, it was a mere coincidence that his brother was gunned down on the other side of Miami? And they just happened to be put into the same coroner’s van, where the coroner’s driver just happened to mix them up?” His disbelief was very evident.

Ivana shook her head, wisps of blonde hair escaping her severe bun, unchecked. “No. Fredericks caught wind of Tom coming back into the United States and he apparently thought his old gang buddy would turn him in. He actually ordered the hit on Tom. He also had connections with the hit-men hired by your false jeweler. When they saw Tim walk in, they already had a picture of Tom and orders to shoot-to-kill. The coincidence was that both twins were spotted by hired hit-men within a half-hour of each other; Fredericks had several people around the city waiting to kill Tom Speedle.”

“And the coroner?” Rick was determined to find the loopholes in the theory Agent Gideon presented.

Horatio’s voice was soft, amused, as he replied, “A rookie hired just two days prior. Since both men were marked with their last name and initials, per procedure,” he turned his blue eyes to Stetler, “it was actually a very plausible mistake. We found him yesterday, and he actually remembered the ride since he thought it was "creepy" that he was transporting twins.” The redhead looked towards Speed, and noticed the interest in his friend’s brown eyes. “Since he was under the assumption that Alexx had already pronounced you at the scene, he thought the live body was that of Tom Speedle, who was slated for Witness Protection by our friend Fredericks.”

Speed took up the narrative, “So, he delivered me to the hospital and took Tom to the morgue, where Alexx thought she was getting me.”

Apparently the meeting was going to Ivana’s liking, even if it wasn’t going to Stetler’s, for the blonde smiled and nodded, closing her file. “Fredericks tried to have Tim killed by first abandoning him then blocking the funds for medical care he was supposed to get. He put Tim specifically in the heart of the New York Crime Lab, hoping someone would recognize him and turn him over to the FBI, where he, Fredericks, would be able to go up and claim him personally. That didn’t work out as he’d planned, though, because…”

“Because I didn’t turn him in,” Mac finished. “I went after the truth, rather than a quick ID.”

Their meeting was interrupted by Eric Delko walking into the room with a file. Normally he would have given his findings to Horatio, but at the redhead’s casual nod, he headed directly to Rick Stetler. Offering the file, Eric hid his amusement at Stetler’s look of surprise.

After carefully reading through the file, he slowly closed it and handed it over to Horatio. Rick may have had it in for the leader of the crime lab, but he also admitted when he was wrong. Slowly, he turned towards Speed, straightening his shoulders, and said, quite pleasantly in fact, “You are not being charged with any crime, Speedle. The fingerprints match Tom Speedle to the last shipment of guns; yours haven’t brought up any criminal record whatsoever.”

“I could have told you that,” Speed added, but he let it go at that, not needling the man too much. After all, IAB had just cleared him of his twin’s crimes, something a long time coming. “I do have a question, though.”

“What is that, Tim?” Horatio carefully, deliberately pronounced his friend’s name.

Shifting a bit, wincing at the pain in his side, Speed looked at Ivana. “Calleigh found out about Tom through my brother, Matthew. Alexx was able to determine he wasn’t me because Mom told her about the appendectomy. How did you figure out that I wasn't Tom, and that it was Fredericks who was the one trying to kill me?”

Pushing the loose hair back from her eyes in minor annoyance, the pretty agent offered her one and only Protected Witness a smile. “I actually figured out Fredericks when I got an email at three in the morning; it just clicked after I figured out you were a twin.”

Brown eyes met and held blue. “How’d you find out I was a twin? It’s not in my records.”

“Which is being remedied as we speak,” Rick jumped in forcefully. “Even if he’s dead, and disowned, your brother needs to be listed.”

Again surprising Rick, Horatio joined his voice to the IAB man’s in a gentle reinforcement. “If he had been listed, we might have avoided this whole problem, Speed.”

Speed nodded, dismissing the problem since he actually agreed with the pair. “But how did you find out?” he pressed Ivana.

“I got an email right before I contacted New York to stop him. It was from your mother.” Ivana shrugged, “I let her know you were in protective custody and asked if you had any tattoos. She told me that she had no idea if Tom, I still thought you were Tom at the time, had any tattoos. Then she wrote that she hated guns because she’d been told by an Officer Fred Johnson that Tom had died in a gang related shooting in New York fifteen years ago, and that her son Tim had just died a year ago, also from a shooting.” Ivana smoothed her hair once more. “That’s when I knew that I had Tim in custody, not Tom, and that Fred Johnson had mixed the Speedle twins up just like everyone else had.”

With a sigh, Speed simply shook his head at the old problem. “So, it looks like Tom managed to steal my identity one last time, for the ultimate identity theft.”

“How’s that,” Horatio asked, nodding to the tired investigators from Miami and New York filing into the room; their shifts had ended for the day and they were visiting their two favorite patients.

Fondly, Speed sent a smile to Alexx, letting her take his right hand in hers as she sat beside him. He looked over at Horatio. “Well, he got a full police funeral with gun salute and flag and all. He’s buried in my grave.”

With a laugh, Horatio nodded. “We’ll have to remedy that, won’t we?”

Mac looked directly across the suddenly crowded room, his eyes meeting Speed’s. “Will you be coming back to New York? I could use another good CSI.”

Surrounded by the people he loved, Speed joined in Horatio's laughter. The brown-eyed man shook his head with a soft smile, “Nah, I think I’ll stay here. I’ve come home.”

“That you have, Baby.” Alexx leaned over and kissed his cheek, “that you have.”