Chapter Thirteen

1x13 - Bunk

Disclaimer: Neither the CSI: Miami Universe nor any of the Characters in the CSI: Miami Universe belongs to me. No profit is made from this story on my part. No copyright infringement is intended.

Horatio had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the shock and dawning awe in Speed's voice. It was - hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. He quickly composed himself before Speed noticed, and redirected the man's attention to the case at hand.

"I swear to you, he just knew! He didn't even look at me, and he knew! The man is superhuman or something. I don't know how he does it." Speed told Eric as they were processing samples a few hours later. The man sounded torn between frustration and awe, Horatio thought with amusement. The air ducts between his lab and Trace easily carried their conversation to him, allowing him to eavesdrop with little effort.

"You know what a mother hen he can be, maybe it's a mom thing - mine always knows when I've done something I shouldn't!" Eric was clearly trying not to laugh at his friend, and failing miserably. "Maybe H was a mother in another life!"

"It's just not fair! I can't figure out how he does it, but it's not fair!" Speed grumbled, but there was laughter in his voice. "It's like magic or something."

Well, no, it wasn't magic at all. Just plenty of practice at noticing the little details. When he came in, Speed had smelled of lab-soap, chemicals, and traces of a woman's perfume. Horatio had smelled the perfume on him before and knew it belonged to a woman named Pam. The lab-soap was from using the locker-room showers, which meant that he hadn't gone home last night, or he would have smelled of his own soap instead. But it was the various chemical odors that had really given him away: fresh clothes would have smelled of fabric softener or the dry-cleaner's, not of the chemicals that were used in the Trace labs. And while Speed might have dug an unwashed outfit out of his dirty laundry basket, it wasn't very likely in light of the other evidence. Ergo, he was most likely wearing the same clothes he had worn yesterday. Speed's shock had only confirmed his hypothesis. No magic or special powers involved.

He wasn't planning to tell the younger man that, though. No point in losing his air of mystery and omnipotence! Besides, worrying over a puzzle like this would do Speed some good. Keep his mind busy while he was performing the repetitive tasks that made up the largest part of his job. Wouldn't want him to get bored, after all - he might miss something important.

And if it meant that Horatio's reputation for knowing everything increased, well, that was just a convenient side benefit.