Trust
I was watching season eight box set today and inspired to write this (for now) one-shot.
Notes: All timeline goofs are mine; the length of police academy training is only my guess! This isn't the same family from "A Gentle Nudge From a Child."
Eric Delko decided to take Detective Horatio Caine's suggestion that he go to the police academy and then apply to crime lab. First Eric had told him that in his experience that people made a lot of promises and in the end they never came through. However there was something about Horatio Caine that caused the young man to believe him. The detective know that Eric had an infant daughter he was raising alone. Since she were twenty-four hours old, Eric had been Nevaeh Jasmine Delko's sole parent in very way. Eric had had a very brief relationship with the child's mother, a woman named Tammy Lewis. Tammy was adamant she did not want the child or anything to do with "it." Eric thought it was miracle that the woman had gone through with the pregnancy; if she had wanted to have an abortion, there was no way that he could have stopped her. There was also a possibility that someone else was the father of the child Eric found out when he demanded full custody of the child upon birth. His attorney was to able obtain a court order to test the cells from an amniocentesis Tammy had done to determine whether or not he was the child's father.
Eric found himself wishing with every bone in his body he was the unborn baby girl's father. He had already served Tammy with legal notice he intended to pursue custody of the child, she responded with legal notice that he was "welcome to it." When the results came back Eric was the father, he was elated. Social services had already approved his custody application. With the help of his family he began setting up a nursery, painted lilac purple with Disney princess wall stickers in the small two-bedroom basement apartment he lived in that was twenty minutes away from the house where he grew up with his parents. By the time he was accepted to the academy and began training, Nevaeh were six months old. Before Eric could contact him himself, Detective Caine got word that the young man he now never saw driving a tow truck anymore, was now a police academy recruit.
Horatio attended the academy graduation as he always did and after the young man's relatives, he was the first to shake the young man's hand. The smiling baby girl was in father's arms.
"And who's this pretty girl?"
"This is my daughter, Nevaeh. Can you say 'hi' to Detective Caine?" Eric said to the baby.
The baby only grinned more. The love Eric had for his daughter was apparent on his face as he looked at her.
Horatio thought the fact that Eric embarked on police training while raising a daughter all on his own was commendable. He learned then that a week prior to joining the academy, the now officer Delko had enrolled in Miami Universality to obtain a degree in fingerprint and trace identification. He did classes on-line as well as at night three nights a week. By doubling the number of his classes he did online, Eric hoped to have his degree in nine months verus the standard year. Horatio told the young man "the moment" he received his degree to call him. He would put in a word to have Eric join his team. As exhausted as he often was at the end pf the day, for Eric, seeing his little girl smile when she saw him was worth it. he was doing all this to make a better life for her. At least when all his schooling was over and he hopefully got a job in forensics he'd be able to see her more than three or four hours in the whole day. he was glad that she was too young to remember this time in her life.
With that, it was time to celebrate for all in the auditorium. Horatio laughed watching Nevaeh Delko light up and her reach out from Eric's arms as she saw three large white cakes roll by on trolleys .
"That's what she's here for," Eric laughed. "Daddy graduated police academy. That's great. Can we cut the cake, now?"
Six Months and A Week Later...
Horatio Caine had made good on his word. The redhead would accept the new rank of lieutenant soon. Today was Eric's first day as a part of his team. The young man smiled when the first thing Horatio did was ask about thirteen-month-old Nevaeh.
"She's great. She's walking and talking now. Or trying to do the latter at least," Eric said.
Horatio still didn't know much regarding Nevaeh's mother, whether or not she saw the baby at all. He assumed she did periodically. He knew Eric had full custody of the baby since she was a day old and was the one who named his daughter. But Horatio couldn't imagine a mother not wanting anything to do with her child. The detective raised his eyebrows when he heard another one of his CSIs, Tim Speedle ask about Nevaeh's mother and Eric respond she had given up her parental rights when the baby was three-days-old. She had seen the baby when the nurse had held her up in the delivery room but she hadn't held her, demanding the nurse get the child away from her. Nevaeh wasn't the first child that Tammy had given up. Six years ago, she given birth to twins who couldn't name the father of. They were adopted. Five years ago, she had a daughter who was placed with paternal relatives. Although he had "faint" chance of getting it if he applied to the court, Eric didn't receive child support from Tammy. He didn't want it, he stated.
Hearing this, Horatio thought maybe the little girl was definitely better off.
As he neared the end of his probationary period, Horatio told Eric there were two more things he had to do to stay on the team.
"What's that?" Eric asked., getting nervous.
"Call me Horatio or H, like I insisted before. Two, bring in the baby every once in a while. I'm sure she would like see everyone and I know they'd love to see her."
Eric laughed.
"Okay, I'll do that."
That first part was going to be hard for Eric, at least at first. He always been taught not to address superiors so formally. He had worked for Flagler Tow for over three years and still didn't call the boss by his first name while a lot of employees did.
Her father wasn't sure Nevaeh remembered Horatio or if was just his demeanor. But she smiled at the redhead and reached out for him when Eric bought her into work days later. Horatio had smiled and taken the child in his arms and this seemed to the start of the two developing a deep bond. Horatio commented how much the child looked like Eric. Except for her lighter complexion, father and daughter had the same features.
That was eight years ago.
Eric and Horatio were now best friends, like brothers. Horatio was an uncle to Nevaeh as well as her godfather.
Now Nevaeh had a mother, too. There had been a spark between Eric Delko and ballistics expert Calleigh Duquesne since Eric drove a tow truck. The two married five years ago, three years after Eric joined the team and Calleigh legally adopted the girl. The adoption was only a formality, Calleigh and Eric become a couple when Nevaeh was just eighteen months of age. And to Calleigh's delight, had been "mommy" to her ever since. The couple also now had a five-year-old son named Matthew and two-year-old twins named Ashley and Brandon. Having become so close to Eric had given Horatio something he hadn't had since the death of his mother; a sense of family. He had set up a healthy boundary from the beginning, with Nevaeh, but he was like a second dad to the all four children, knowing all their likes, dislikes and quirks.
Both men were grateful for that fateful day. Someone you could truly trust didn't come along everyday but both men knew from that day there was at least one person in the world each could trust.