fic_variations | The Fall Could Kill You (Rd 14, Horatio/Marisol)

Title: The Fall Could Kill You
Author: Sara (

callmedirk)
Rating: PG
fic_variations Prompt/Claim: The Four Seasons- Horatio/Marisol
Word Count: 537
Spoilers: Some for S4's Rampage
Warnings: Death and some slight AU.
Author's Notes: None. Wrote this at midnight. Woo!

Five months after her death, he still wore his wedding band. He found himself twisting it around his finger when he was deep in thought, the cool metal somehow comforting.

It was supposed to be their first holiday season together, bringing cranberry sauce and wine to Thanksgiving dinner at the Delkos' and buying gifts for everyone imaginable at Christmas time.

They didn't make it to the holidays. Hell, Horatio thought, they didn't even make it to their honeymoon. They had their mini-wedding at City Hall, with Eric as witness, and that was nothing. It had been Marisol's idea to have the simple ceremony, even though he had offered to have a real wedding, with her family and their friends all there to see it.

But Marisol had leaned over and kissed him softly, touching his cheek with a warm hand.

"All I really want is you," she'd said quietly, smiling up at him. "Just you and me, and Eric, if he's willing."

Horatio remembered smiling back at her and nodding.

"Then you shall have me," he'd said.

They were married in May, and they were looking forward to an entire summer together, including a honeymoon. They'd spread brochures across the table the night before the wedding, trying to stop the onset of nerves by talking about a future trip. There were the usual ideas of Hawaii and Mexico, but after two hours of poring over facts and hotels, they'd decided on a week in Italy sometime in October, before the major holidays and after the blistering Miami summer.

The morning after the wedding, they sat at breakfast, waiting for Horatio to be paged into court. They had dinner plans, and were going to set a final date for their first trip together.

But everything changed when Horatio hurried up to the gurney that held his new wife and he saw the blood staining her white top and the hole in her abdomen. He knew it was bad instantly, but he also knew that he couldn’t show his fear or his worry in front of her. All he could do was whisper softly that he loved her and that he wouldn't leave her.

When she died looking into his eyes, a little bit of his own life slipped away. After all that time, he'd finally found that one person who steadied his life, and now he had no one and nothing. At the funeral, her mother slipped something into his hand and he looked down, tears blurring his eyes. A small gold cross on a chain was in his palm and he choked back a sob.

"She would want you to have that," her mother said. "Please accept it,"

Horatio had nodded and bent to kiss her cheek. Mrs. Delko held him tightly for a brief moment, and then was led away by her daughters and husband. Eric could hardly look him in the eye, but a brief, understanding look passed between them. Horatio shook off anyone who tried to comfort him. There would be no comfort for him—not anytime soon, anyway.

He sat five months later on a plane headed to Italy, without her and feeling more alone than he had even before he met her.

The Fall Could Kill You (Rd 14, Horatio/Marisol)

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