So I deleted my Criminal Minds fic due to a resent accident that almost cost my dearest friend and fellow CM fan her life. While she's still at the hospital, I'm not feeling for continuing the fic, considering that my made up character, Anna, was loosely based on her. However, that doesn't stop me from writing another CSI: Miami fic. God knows, I need something fun to do. There is some H/OC slash later in the story, but I don't really know how serious yet so I'm keeping the rating on T for now. As always, I love to hear reviews!
Summary: After "Time Bomb", the team helps Ryan clean up his things. The content of an old box stirs up unexpected memories from the past for Horatio.
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: Miami or the characters belonging to the show (yet), but I do own my own character Amanda.
"No, not there!" Ryan said while approaching Walter. "Just sit down, I'll fix it." He took the items in his friend's hands and went away to put them on their right place.
"Ok…" Walter sat down next to the rest of the team in front of the television and took a beer from Eric.
"I don't know why you even bother." Natalia said, shaking her head.
"Well, we are here to help him clean up the mess we made." Walter pointed out.
"The guy is OCD, so no matter how much we try, to him, we're always going to do it wrong. So why bother?"
"If you guys knew he wouldn't let us help, why did we come here?" Jesse asked from beside Horatio.
"Because, friends help each other out."
"But, like you said, we're not helping." Jesse said.
"Yeah, but we tried. So technically, we're good friends. At least that's what he will think." Eric said, a big grin on his lips.
"That's… Actually, that's kind of smart." Walter admitted and leaned back in the couch, taking a sip from the beer.
"I know."
"Hey, you guys, I just found the strangest box on my way to the bathroom." Calleigh said, walking in with a big brown box that looked as If it was about to fall apart at any minute. "Look, it's filled with pictures made by children. And photos of a kid and seemingly his mother."
"Are you telling me that you've got a box filled with embarrassing photos with Ryan as a kid?" Eric said, suddenly looking much more interested.
"Well, I haven't seen anything embarrassing yet but I've only seen some of the contents…" Callegh was interrupted by Eric quickly taking the box from with everyone gathering around her.
"Oh, look. He's so cute." Natalia said, taking up a photo of a seemingly three years old Ryan sitting and playing with his toys.
"Wow, look at this!" Callegh said suddenly, showing them a black velvet box holding a sparkling necklace that had a blue bird attached to it.
"It looks really expensive! I wonder why Ryan keeps it in this box." Natalia stared at the necklace with big eyes.
"Miss Duquesne, may I take a look at that?" Horatio said, reaching after the necklace.
"Yeah sure." she handed it over to Horatio just as Ryan walked in.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Looking through your stuff." Eric said casually.
"Yeah, nice hat cowboy!" Jesse took out a photo of five years old Ryan dressed in a cowboy suit riding a little horse, getting everyone, except for Horatio and Ryan, to laugh.
"Hey, where did you get that?"
"From this box."
Ryan looked down in the box and seemed to immediately recognize it.
"That's mom's old stuff." he murmured. "It's all I've got left of her." The sad look on Ryan's face got all of them to stop snickering.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Ryan. I just saw the photo on the top and got curious. I mean, wouldn't you?" Callegh said, smiling weakly at him.
"I don't know, I've never seen the contents." Ryan admitted.
"Really, why not?"
"Well, my mother died when I was eight, while we were living in New York. After her death, I had to move to Boston to live with my dad and my stepmother and their kids. I didn't have time to collect so much of my stuff before we went, so my uncle Ron filled two boxes with some of her things and sent them to me. They were kept in the basement, and later in a storage room until I finished college and got my own place. I've kept them in the spare room ever since."
"And you've never looked inside either of them?"
"No, it brought back to many painful memories of the day she died." He reached out and took up a badge from the box. "Did you know she was the first female lieutenant in the NYPD." he said proudly.
"Wait, your mother was Amanda Wolfe? I've read all about her! She died when her car was rammed by some members in a drug cartel whose boss she'd recently arrested. Her husband and her two years old daughter died with her in the car, but her eight years old son, who was also in the car, survived miraculously after the paramedics…" Callegh stopped, seeing everyone's faces. "Oh."
"Yeah…" Ryan murmured, followed by an awkward silence. "H, what are you holding?" he asked suddenly, seeing his boss with the velvet box in one hand and a note in the other.
"Oh, we found a necklace in the box. It's really beautiful." Natalia informed him.
"Let me see that." Ryan reached out to Horatio and the redhead politely gave him the box with the necklace and the note.
"The note was under the cushion holding the necklace up." he explained. Ryan nodded and read eyed the note:
Happy birthday Amanda,
Love Harry
"Harry, was that her husband?" Natalia asked after reading the note over his shoulder.
"What? No. Uncle Harry was mom's coworker. I remember him because he used to look after me when mom had to work." Ryan mumbled.
"Considering the note and the necklace, he seemed to be more than just a coworker." Natalia said smilingly.
"Oh, he was." Callegh gave him a surprised look. "Let's just say that the walls of our old apartment were very thin." Ryan's face immediately turned pink when the rest of the group started laughing. "But she dumped him for Jack, who she later married. I remember that too because they had the biggest argument about it. I mean, mom and dad used to have big arguments whenever he found the time to actually visit me, but the thing with Uncle Harry was worse. My mom actually cried after he left. It was the only time I'd ever seen her cry." Ryan seemed to be lost in his memories and everyone decided to leave him alone with the box, retaking their places in front of the television.
Horatio was the only one not laughing to the jokes on the TV. He kept his gaze at Ryan, who was tucking away the necklace, struggling not to point out the resemblances between him and H's first love:
Amanda Wolfe.
I feel a little obliged to mention this: English is not my first language, that's you might find the story a little messy with spelling a grammar mistakes. I tried to run it through my spell checking program, but since my computer is ancient it didn't really help that much.
Next chapter will probably be a flashback. Most of my story will, but there will also be part in the present.
As always: Please R n R : )