Big thanks to Jodie for correcting my shocking grammar and spelling. You're a star!

Note: This is the sequel to Inheritence


"Exactly one year ago today, we lost the most influential part of our team during a raid – our boss. To those of us who knew him, Horatio Caine was much more than a supervisor… he was a friend. A selfless, understanding, honourable man who we all miss and shall miss dearly. His passing was very sudden; and he was taken away from us far too soon," Ryan whispered into the microphone, the enormous group of people who turned up to remember Horatio gathered in the large hall gazed upon him, many crying for the loss of such a great friend.

"When I was a kid, my mother said only the good die young and now I know she was right, which brings us onto the next event. The latest thing in pop, she's just got back from a Florida tour and has cancelled three gigs to be here with us tonight. Daughter of two of the most prestigious CSI's that ever graced the Miami Dade department, I am very pleased to welcome Emily Delko."

The crowd cheered as Emily made her way onto the stage from the place she had been sitting with her family. Just like any time when Emily was performing, Eric clapped and cheered the loudest. He couldn't have been prouder of her. He couldn't have been prouder of any of his kids, looking around at each of their beaming faces; he could barely remember when it was just him and Calleigh. He could remember most of when the two of them became the four of them but he'd never forget when the four of them became the six of them.


"Eric, I need to talk to you…" Calleigh whispered, pulling him into the kitchen away from the mayhem that was Emily's fifth birthday party. He gulped, wondering what he had done. It was hard to tell if he was in trouble or not. She didn't look angry, but neither did she look happy.

"What's up?" He asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"I need to tell you something." She said, closing the door. That was never a good sign.

"Okay. Am I in trouble?" He braced himself for the worst.

"No. Why would you think that?" She smiled, taking his hands, feeling him relax. "The thing is … I'm pregnant."

He froze, unable to decode what she had just said. She might as well have said in a different language for all the sense it made to him. His muscles refused to work, his brain refused to process, his heart stopped beating.

"Eric?" She frowned, stroking his face gently, her hands leaving his in an outstretched motion, unmoving.

"P… P…P…," He stuttered, words failing him.

"You're going purple," She giggled, "I think now would be a good time to breathe."
He did too, yet his lungs refused to take in air. He was faintly aware of someone walking into the kitchen and speaking to Calleigh, but he couldn't seem to focus on who it was.

"Dad, Emily fell down the stairs."

Muscles, brain and heart suddenly snapped back online and he sprang into action, dashing to the foot of the stairs only to find them deserted, Emily happily playing with her friends in the garden. Gasping for air, wiping the sweat from his brow, he made his way back to the kitchen.

"That was really mean Jess…" He said grumpily, pushing the kitchen door open.

Twelve year old Jessica smiled brightly back at him.

"Well, I didn't want you to suffocate, did I?"


He glanced at his son, a male form of Calleigh but with big brown eyes; a musical prodigy, the next Mike Oldfield, able to play all the instruments the school had to offer him fluently by the age of 8; cheering on after his big sister.
"You can push when you're ready, Mrs. Delko," The midwife explained. Eric gasped when a blinding pain in his hand came out of nowhere and the next thing he knew, his son was being cleaned up. He couldn't believe one of his babies had entered the world. One. The second was yet to come, his hand was already throbbing, and he could have sworn it was broken.

He wondered what his second baby would look like. Would it be a boy or girl? Blonde hair or black hair? Another agonized yell and pain slicing down his arm and the waiting was no more. Their youngest daughter was brought out into the world to join her twin brother. Both of them wrapped up and given to their parents. Two and two makes four.


He turned his attention to the youngest Delko, almost a perfect miniature of Calleigh except for her dark brown eyes, a dancing extraordinaire at only 10 years of age. Competing at the ice skating finals in Torrance that spring, too. Eric felt that he was truly blessed to have such an exceptional family. A family who he loved dearly.

"Thanks! Hey everyone!" Emily giggled into the microphone, "I just wanted to come in and do a song today in memory of a man who brought a little light into all our lives. A man who helped us learn how to ride our bikes, Martin…"

Her brother suddenly turned a violent shade of scarlet, which prompted a bout of hysterical laughter from his younger sister.

"And a man who helped us off the ice when we fell over and cut our knee, Marcie."
With that, Marcie joined her brother in turning the deepest shade of red, truly embarrassed. They were like chalk and cheese, those two.


"Why do you let them get right down to the hilt?" Marcie asked, sitting cross-legged on Martins bed while he made a desperate attempt to turn the TV on with the remote next to her.

"Not helping!" He mumbled, his thumb going white with the pressure he was exerting onto the button, "Come on!"

Marcie sighed as he began to shake the remote violently, and winced slightly as he leapt up of the bed and stood in the middle of the bedroom floor and banged the remote on his dresser.

"What are you banging it for? You wouldn't let your DS's battery get onto the red and then bang it, would you?" Marcie reasoned. This produced no effect. He walked right up to the TV and pressed the remote pushed to the remote up to the receiver and used both thumbs to press down the button.

"You could turn it on manually from there!" She implored, "Why don't you just go and get some new batteries out of the cupboard?"

"No! These … Batteries … Work!" He said, accentuating each word with a sharp stab at the keypad.

"Well… We could always just sit here and have a chat…"

Martin let his remote drop to his sides and began walking towards the bedroom door. "I'm gonna go and find some new batteries…" He stated as if that had been his intention the whole time while Marcie allowed herself a small giggle.


"So," Emily laughed, very pleased with herself, "Here goes…"

The band started up and the crowd fell silent, yearning to hear the fifteen-year-old phenomenon.

"A hand above the water, an angel reaching for the sky, is it raining in heaven - Do you want us to cry?

And everywhere the broken-hearted, on every lonely avenue, No-one could reach them, No-one but you,

One by one, only the Good die young, they're only flying too close to the sun, and life goes on - Without you..."

The crowd gasped at the beauty of her voice and Calleigh grinned at her daughter.

"Another Tricky Situation, I get to drownin' in the Blues, and I find myself thinkin', well - what would you do?

Yes! - It was such an operation, Forever paying every due, Hell, you made a sensation; you found a way through,

One by one, Only the Good die young, They're only flyin' too close to the sun, We'll remember - Forever..."

A tear slowly made its way down her cheek as she sang, a slideshow of Horatio's life being played on the big screen behind her.

"And now the party must be over, I guess we'll never understand, the sense of your leaving, was in the way it was planned...

So we grace another table, and raise our glasses one more time, There's a face at the window, And I aint never, never saying goodbye...

One by one, only the Good die young, they're only flyin' too close to the sun, Cryin' for nothing, Cryin' for no-one, No-one but you…"


The song is 'No one but .

In memory of Aurora: Spoke to me in a dream, My Angel's Secret Whisper.

Thank you for reading. Merry Christmas!

Drommie

XOXOXOX