I've only got one shot.

Drabble - Are we out of time ? (Horatio & Eric)

Requested, asked if I could do a one-shot about Eric Delko and Horatio Cain when Eric is in the hospital at the start of season 8. Eric's just had surgery removing the bullet from his head , Horatio feels guilty and scared. Horatio and Eric see each other as family.

Horatio steps into the sterilised hospital room, the only noise to be heard was his own seemingly loud breathing and the beep-beeping of the heart monitor and the soft hissing of the ventilator. Swallowing, he stepped closer and examined the young man in the bed. His dark hair , what was left of it, was damp with sweat, there was a large amount missing where the doctors had shaved it, his eyes were sunken with dark bags underneath, his skin was too pale ,too sunken. His chest was forced into moving. It was incredibly unnerving to see such a normally energetic man laying so motionlessly. Horatio sighs and sits beside Eric in the hospitals uncomfortable plastic chair his hand gently brushes the other man's. "Oh, Eric " he mummers under his breath as he grasps the still-warm hand.

Before his eyes, he replays every significant moment he has had with him. The day he offered a job to the younger man pops into his head and he smiles , he remembered that day clearly , it was his second favourite day after the day he married Marisol. He blows out a shuddery breath as he thinks of her. He swallows roughly.

"Eric, i need you to listen to me " he says as he leans down to talk to him, "I know how hard you're fighting 'n' how easy it would be to slip away" he pauses as he clears his throat, feeling his emotions start to clog up his throat " I don't want to lose you, I am not ready. I'm not ready for you too. I'm just not ready " he whispers softly as he rubs his thumb along Eric's hand." I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" he whispers as he leans in and rests his head closer to the hospitalised man's head.

"It is just that i...i.... I lost...i lost her and Speed. You're all I got left Eric, so I want you to do what we always do, I want you to fight. That is what I need you to do , okay. I need you to fight with everything that you have" Horatio says softly as he leans closer and brushes his hand through Erics hair as he leans down,

"I'll be right here " he whispers into his ear as he brushes a strand of his hair from his face and moves back slightly "ill be right here Eric always, " Horatio tells him quietly as he returns to the hard plastic chair. His icy blue eyes turn to the heart monitor and the ventilator, he watches the monitors closely, he couldn't tear his eyes away, scared that if he looked away, something bad would happen, that the machines would show that Eric had lost the fight, lost the will to live , that he would leave him alone. With a shuddery breath, he forced himself to calm down, that nothing would happen to him.

"It should have been me, " Horatio says quietly as he swallows, "it should have been me " he whispers pain leaking out into his voice