Okay, this one is Kat's request! A bit more serious this time! Enjoy!Uh Oh, Horatio!
Ryan is happy, finally his car is all ready to rock and roll! The 'little' accident just a distant memory, and the dents in the bodywork forgotten. He drives more carefully to work this time, uses his pass card to enter the Miami-Dade lab parking lot, and pulls into a space.
“It seems everyone is getting a new car nowadays.” He mutters to himself glancing at the sparkly new red Lamborghini parked on his passenger side. He switches off his engine, that red car was nice, this time he looks a bit longer. Not paying attention he opens his own door and there's a crunch!
“Oh no...no way!” He exclaims angrily. He slaps his forehead, “stupid stupid stupid!”
He slides out of the car to take a look at the damage. Another shiny new green car is parked that side of him, and it now had a great big dent in it's passenger door, his door was bent out of shape, but not enough that he couldn't close it. Ryan looks around, no one was in sight, and no one had come running. He knew it was wrong, but he'd just had an insurance claim, he didn't want any more, and besides, he didn't even know who's car it was. He climbs back into his sleek black car, pulls out of the spot and parks on the opposite side of the garage, hoping that no one saw him, and that maybe the owner of the car might not notice the damage until waaaaay after they left the lab!
...
Ryan is a tad jumpy all day, wondering as every person passed him if it was their car he'd banged into. But luckily for him, it seemed no one had either noticed, or cared. Lunchtime came and he shuffled off into the break room to find Calleigh and Eric already there.
“Hey Ryan!” Calleigh greets him warmly.
“Cal” he responds, with an equally warm grin.
He sits down next to Delko, who says, “did you see my new car in the lot Wolfe?”
Ryan gulps, “no, what have you got?” He asks cautiously.
“Red Lamborghini baby!”
Ryan lets out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I saw it when I pulled in, nice car!”
Eric nods in agreement, and Calleigh lets out a small laugh.
“Boys and their toys!”
As they all laugh, Ryan finally relaxes, having the release he's needed all day, his nerves settled.
The door flies open.
“Anyone here have any clue as to who has put the biggest dent in my passenger side car door?” Asks the red head, removing his sunglasses, “I only picked the car up today!”
“H?” Ryan asks, worried now. A voice in his head says 'uh oh, Horatio!'
Horatio turns to face him, “Ryan you see anything when you arrived?”
“What car do you have? I didn't even know you had a new one.” Ryan answers quietly, actually pretty much certain which car Horatio had.
“A green Aston Martin, custom made I might add!”
Ryan groans inwardly, “I never saw anything.” He lied, hoping his supervisor wouldn't notice the guilt plastered all over his face.
“Well, it has to be someone who works here, you need a pass to enter the lot, surely no one would just drive off and not say anything.” Horatio getting angry now, “a colleague!” he shakes his head.
Ryan hangs his head in shame, but now he's lied there's no way he could own up, what could he say 'oh sorry H actually, yeah I did do it, and thought I'd lie!'
Horatio leaves the room, still shaking his head in disappointment at the thought that someone he works with would do this and leave it unattended.
“Wow!” Calleigh exclaims, “who would do that?”
“I don't know, but I think H is gonna have something to say when he finds out!” Delko throws in.
Ryan nods, then excuses himself to go back to work.
...
Thirty minutes later Ryan's beeper goes off. He checks the message, it's a call out to the whole team to meet in a lay-out room. He clears up what he's doing and heads off, wondering what has come up.
“Welcome people,” starts Horatio, stood at the front of the room. It isn't just CSI's present, there are technicians, detectives, a spattering of front desk attendants... “I thought maybe we could all watch this together,” he motions towards a television, “and then maybe the culprit will be ashamed of themselves.”
There's a murmur amongst the throng, some people didn't even know what Horatio was talking about, others wondering what he actually had to show them.
“This is this morning's CCTV footage of our parking lot, it should've captured the moment that someone decided to damage my brand new Aston Martin and to just drive off.”
Ryan's heart beats faster, almost bursting from his chest, he felt sick, and could almost feel his lunch re-visiting. It's another one of those moments, he wants to own up, but how could he now? In this room full of people! Plus, he'd already lied right to Horatio's face. His face reddened, but nobody noticed, he was at the back of the group, and everyone was staring intently at the screen as Horatio pressed the play button on the remote control.
Everyone holds their breath watching the tape, Ryan shrinks back, trying to disappear. There's a gasp, and he knows that they all just saw him get out of his car, check the damage, look around, then get back in his car and re-park. He hangs his head.
“Mr. Wolfe, my office please.” Horatio demands, and leaves the room.
Everyone turns to look at the shamed Wolfe.
“Ryan!” Calleigh exclaims, openly shocked, “you lied!” She was obviously more horrified about the lie itself than the damage he'd caused to the classic car.
“I know.” Ryan answers quietly, and leaves to follow Horatio back to his office. He knocks on the door and opens it slowly.
...
“H, look, I'm sorry, but...”
Horatio raised his hand to silence Ryan, “take a seat please Mr. Wolfe.”
Ryan sits down opposite his lieutenant, he rubs his hand over his face and his mouth. He's a bright red colour and his shame is apparent.
Horatio raises himself out of his seat and paces, he looks at Ryan, “you can't even begin to understand how disappointed I am in you!” Horatio exclaims, “I asked you, you had every opportunity to tell me, or come to me, it's not something that we couldn't sort out.”
“I know H, but, once I'd lied I didn't know what to do! The lie just felt like it got bigger and bigger and then we were all in that room, and everyone was watching the tape...” he trails off, looking at his hands on the table-top.
Horatio re-takes his seat opposite Ryan, “this is a personal situation.”
Ryan looks at his superior. “H?”
“It has nothing to do with work, or how capable you are. However it does worry me that, number one, you'd do something like that, and number two, that you couldn't come to me with it.”
“Want to know the truth?” Ryan starts in reply, “before I'd never have done anything like that, it's just, I only got my car back today, the insurance has all cleared, I didn't want to do all of that again! Selfish, I know.”
Horatio nods, “yes, selfish. But I understand. Do you promise me that you won't be getting into this situation again Mr. Wolfe?”
Ryan nods, looking back at his hands.
“Well, right now I need your insurance details, because there is no way I'm paying out to fix my own door!”
Ryan nods once again, “sure. You know what makes this even worse?”
“What's that?” Horatio enquires, his bright eyes twinkling.
“Now I have to get my car fixed again!”