Ryan sighed as he saw Horatio coming toward him. Here came another go round with his boss and dealing with his biggest pet peeve, his boss calling him 'Mister Wolfe'. He'd been working for Horatio for almost three years; would it kill the man to call him by his name? Horatio seemed to have no trouble calling everyone by their first names, why was he the one who got the coldly formal address.

Well not anymore, he was sick of always being 'Mister Wolfe'. Hell, he could count on one hand the number of times Horatio had actually called him by his name, and he was sick of it.

As Horatio approached, Ryan braced himself, he wasn't going to chicken out this time.

"What do you have Mister Wolfe?" Ryan gritted his teeth and told Horatio about the evidence he'd found on the clothing of their victim. As Horatio turned to walk away, Ryan saw his chance.

"My name is Ryan." The sound of his own voice shocked him, but it was too late to go back.

Horatio turned back to him, confusion and curiosity clear in his blue eyes, "Excuse me?"

Ryan could feel his knees shaking but he wasn't going to back down. "My name. It's Ryan not Mister Wolfe. Mister Wolfe was my father."

Something resembling a smile tugged at the corners of Horatio's mouth, "I'll remember that. Thank you, Ryan." With that, he walked off.

Ryan felt his already shaking knees turn to Jell-O and he gripped the edge of the table tightly to keep from collapsing in a heap on the floor. Once he was sure he wasn't going to collapse, he straightened and went back to work. As he worked, Ryan couldn't help but feel a little thrill. Nothing, not even Eric or Natalia could dampen his spirits today. He actually found himself humming as he finished. Today was shaping up to be a good day.

The End