Summary: With Detective Megan Donner leaving the crime lab indefinitely, Horatio decides it's time to recruit fresh blood to the team once the lab is hit with a massive amount of case overload. A new CSI is found by accident, and immediately Horatio places Speed in charge of training their new member to ease the work load on everyone. Everyone is faced with new challenges, fresh frustration, and a new cynical personality that adds a bit of dry humor to a crime lab in need of a change of pace.

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over the rights of the CSI franchise, story lines, and or characters. Unknown and unrelated characters mentioned and or used in this story are a work of pure imagination and the over thinking of a TV show fan. Any related likeness of my characters to that of any used in other fan-stories is purely coincidental and not intentional.

Rating: T

Warnings: Strong language, violence, graphic scenes of death, adult situations, and alcohol/gambling references.

Little Girl Lost

Prologue

"If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die." - Christine, Narration; Part 1 - Chapter 5 by Stephen King

The simple sound of a ball point pen scratching across the smooth surface of a bright yellow legal pad was the only sound in the small office, lost to the hearing of the man seated behind his personal desk as it was just another background noise that made up the soundtrack of everyday life. However, it was something akin to an annoying buzz to the young woman sitting before the desk in a tan leather chair, eyes looking about the small office at a rather leisurely pace, taking in the small details, picking out the unique oddities that gave it all a personal touch in a rather uniform building. The movement of her eyes were the only part of her that even shifted since taking her seat nearly twenty minutes ago, or at least so she summarized while exhaling quietly through her nose now as she adjusted the way in which she folded her hands in her lap.

"I am sorry, Ms. Parker. Paperwork on a transfer is usually the one thing that could be described as the more agonizing experience of the workplace." He murmured while glancing up at her momentarily, powder blue meeting with dark liquid navy for a few seconds, but long enough to take note to the fact that she was paying close attention to him as he spoke. A simple nod from her was enough to allow a rather well known smile slip across his features for a moment before he returned his gaze down to the legal pad his pen continued to scratch across. "Did you have any trouble moving into your new place?" He asked, maintaining a level of somewhat familiarity with the young woman, keeping conversation light and friendly.

"No actually, I didn't. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to obtain a new apartment so quickly in Miami." She replied, a smirk pulling at the corner of her mouth the reminder of the parting words her old co-workers, friends, and family had left with her as she moved. Finding a place in Miami, close to where you'll be working, will be hell. Especially one that will fit you changing budget. That and the ever popular – Good luck...you're gonna need it. "The commute between there and here will take some time to get used to, but it'll be a nice change from the old routine I used to have back home."

He nodded knowingly, his gaze flickering up to her for a moment. "Good. Good." He murmured, satisfied with her response. "I'm sure it will become second nature to you in time." He also offered an assurance, knowing full well how long it took him to adjust to Miami's faster lifestyle than most of the big cities in the US. Scrawling his signature at the bottom of the page, he finally set his pen down and leaned forward in his chair, arms coming to fold atop his desk. "Ms. Parker, I would first like to say that I am very grateful you accepted my invitation to join the Miami-Dade Crime Lab. Extra hands are needed right now, and with your previous training on and off the field will be of great help to us." His tone of voice showed a great deal of sincerity that lacked in a lot of people nowadays. "Effective immediately you will be joining my day shift. At the moment, I will be assigning you to running evidence within the lab to the different departments, picking up evidence from the coroner's office,"

"Basically I'm the gofore." She interjected, knowing that he was refraining from out right saying that she was an errand runner, but yet held a bit of a smirk to the corners of her mouth. Even though it seemed a bit of a down-grade to be named the lab gofore, she still retained some sort of mild sense of humor about it. As the look on the man's face started to change a bit, as if he were looking to possibly apologize or explain something, she cut him off. "Lieutenant Caine, I'm not offended, if that's what you're worried about. You told me that you needed help on and off the field at the moment, that's why I took you up on the offer. I didn't move here expecting to hit the field right away."

The red haired lieutenant of the Miami-Dade crime lab nodded, a bit of a smile pulling at his mouth. "I appreciate that Ms. Parker." He replied before standing up from his place behind the desk in his office. "Now, if you will follow me, I can show you around the crime lab, introduce you to the people you will be working with, and then we can get you started."

Standing up as well, she followed the lieutenant out of his office and stepped out into the main hall that would lead them to the first floor elevators. The two exchanged small talk, the lieutenant asking about the job she had worked prior to coming into Miami-Dade, what position she held within the ranks and what she was considered specialized in, and a bit of a family background. By the time the elevators opened up to the second floor of the crime lab, the red haired lieutenant had learned a few of the basics when it came to understanding the personality of a member to his team. Following the lead of Lt. Caine, she was shown where Trace was located, DNA, Audio/Visual (A/V),Questioned Documents (QD), and was introduced to the technicians she would be interacting with on a daily basis now.

"Giving a tour Horatio?" A female voice pipped up from behind the lieutenant as he and Ms. Parker stood out in the hall talking briefly over something that had apparently come up in question.

Looking back over his shoulder, Lt. Horatio Caine nodded with a smile towards the tall attractive black woman coming his way. "Alexx, perfect timing. I would like to introduce you to the newest addition to the day shift. Reese Parker, this is Dr. Alexx Woods, our prime medical examiner. Alexx, Detective Reese Parker formerly of the San Diego Crime Lab." He introduced the two ladies to one another while stepping out of the way a bit so as to not interfere with their greeting.

Alexx stepped forward with a warm smile on her face and hand extended out to the new employee of the crime lab, taking note of how young she seemed to look but identifying the strong personality in her eyes that betrayed an actual age estimate. Reese was tall, which impressed Alexx seeing as how the young woman was wearing a pair of dress shoes similar to her own. If she had to guess, Reese had to stand at least around the 5'10" mark. Dressed in a pair of pin stripped slacks and a pale powder blue quarter sleeved shirt sporting a stark white collar and pleated cuffs, she looked incredibly professional and a bit on the cute side with a short hairdo that fit nicely with deep reddish auburn color of her hair.

"Nice to meet you Reese. I work with Horatio and the rest of day shift as head medical examiner." She greeted while shaking hands with her. "Hope you're not too squeamish."

Reese chuckled behind her lips briefly. "Depends on what you define as squeamish." She grinned. "I've seen some interesting things that would make Wes Cravens' skin crawl."

"Oh Horatio, I like her." Alexx flashed a smile in response to the younger woman's response, to which even Horatio chuckled. "Well Reese, you'll have to excuse me. I got your two from the art gallery up for autopsy." Alexx turned her attention to Horatio who nodded to her. "It was nice meeting you hun. I'll see you later." She grinned at the redheaded woman before turning to leave.

"Alexx." Horatio nodded at her with his usual smile as the medical examiner took her leave. He glanced over at Reese with a bit of an inquisitive look. "Things that would make Wes Cravens' skin crawl, eh?"

Reese shrugged, eyes grinning more than her mouth. "Outside that glossy veneer every one wants to put on a big place like San Diego, it's a war zone. Gang shoot outs, execution on the streets for drug deals gone wrong, prostitution rings; you know, all that wonderful stuff that makes sure we have a job to do." There was a small glimmer of sadness in her tone of voice. Reese had seen a lot and some of that stuff would in fact probably make the skin crawl right off the back of a dire hard horror film fanatic.

"I understand completely Ms. Parker." Horatio gave her a small smile while gesturing with a tilt of his head for her follow. "Why don't go ahead and head on over to staff lounge so I can introduce you to the rest of the team. Okay?"

A short nod from Reese in response and the two CSI's head off down the hall. On the way to the staff lounge they exchanged a brief conversation on what it was exactly that Horatio needed her to do for the time being inside the lab, while also making mention to the fact there was good possibility that she would more than likely end up on the field as well when necessary. Reese made mental notes of the various area they passed, using them as a self-guided map that she would eventually need to get around the lab without getting horribly lost and turned around.

As luck would have it, the other three CSI's of the day shift had collected themselves inside the staff lounge before heading out on what cases they were working on. Horatio stepped in and immediately was greeted by one of two men inside the lounge, his gaze fell quickly upon the young woman tailing his boss to which he pulled an eyebrow up in question.

Reaching a hand back to her, Horatio gently guided her forward to stand at his side versus hiding out behind him. "I'd like you to meet our newest recruit; Detective Reese Parker. I stole her from the San Diego Crime Lab." Horatio held a faint smirk upon his mouth as he spoke.

"Well hey there." The blonde woman, and the only other female CSI on the day shift, greeted Reese with a bright smile as she strode forward to shake hands with her. The southern accent in her speech made her appear even more friendly. "I'm Calleigh Duquesne, it's nice to meet you Reese."

Shaking hands with her, Reese couldn't help but smile right back as the one on Calleigh's face was just infectious. "Likewise." She returned.

"So H stole you from San Diego, uh?" The same guy who had greeted Horatio first turned a rather charming smile on Reese, the look of question gone as it was replaced by one more of intrigue as he stepped forward to introduce himself to her. "Eric Delko." He offered her his hand as Calleigh had.

The first thing Reese noticed about Eric Delko was that he was of course a descendant of some sort of Latino heritage, but also that he was incredibly attractive, the smile only making that aspect of his appearance even more apparent. She grinned back while shaking hands with him as well. "I'd say it was more along the lines of borrowing with no intention of giving me back." Reese lifted a brow as she took note of the way Eric seemed to be looking her over in a subtle way.

"Sounds like something you'd do H." The other man in the room took a sip from the coffee he poured himself from the small pot on the back counter. "How did the SD Crime Lab take it?" His manner of speech was rather nonchalant and near monotone as he approached, a look on his face that showed he was a bit curious as to how a CSI from California happened to be snatched over to Florida in the first place.

"Ms. Parker this is Tim Speedle." Horatio introduced her to the last member of the day shift while giving his friend and colleague a bit of a look that Reese couldn't quite place at the moment. "They were a bit reluctant to let her go from what I hear." He glanced over at the redheaded woman beside him with a small amount of mirth in his eyes before returning his attention on Tim. "As would any crime lab."

Tim nodded while extending a hand out to Reese, a faint smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Welcome to Miami-Dade."

Reese shook hands with him, but couldn't help but feel as though he were actually judging her right there on the spot. In her own observation of him, Reese agreed with herself to the fact that while he wasn't as suave looking as Eric, he did have an overall attractive look that was rounded off to a more rougher appearance and deadpan sort of attitude.

Once introductions had been made, Horatio dove into his explanation concerning Reese's transfer to Miami-Dade. "I asked Ms. Parker to join the day shift about a month ago. Right now we need the extra set of hands to run things around the lab to help us with the case overload, so I'm assigning her to the lab for the time being. Speed," Horatio again turned his attention to Tim Speedle, calling him by the nickname that he was referred by mainly than his first name, and gained a lifted look back in response. "I'm placing Ms. Parker under your supervision for a while, show her how things work here in the lab until she gets her bearings."

"Yeah, sure, no problem." Tim glanced over at the redhead who didn't seem to show any indifference to her new role in the Miami-Dade crime lab. He hadn't really expected that. In fact, he figured there would at least be a bit of unease at being set in the lab versus out on the field as he assumed that may have been her position back in San Diego. He was a little impressed by her overall placid acceptance.

"Alright then; Calliegh, Eric, where are we on the double homicide at the art gallery?" Horatio turned his attention to the other two CSI's now, a look of serious concentration on his face as he spoke.

"We've got evidence running in DNA and Trace right now, once we get the results back we can start narrowing down our suspect list and hopefully bring someone in for questioning." Calleigh replied while exhaling a small sigh at the end. "Until then we're stuck."

Horatio nodded. "Okay, heres what I want you to do. Go back to the art gallery and question the manager again, go over the same questions from yesterday and see if he changes his story in any way."

"Sure thing H." Eric nodded while glancing over at the blonde, who grinned a gestured towards the door with a hand. Before heading out the door with her, Eric gave Reese another grin. "I see ya 'round Parker."

Reese gave the two CSIs a wave as they left, leaving her with Horatio and Tim in the lounge brief before she too was handed down her first of many tasks to come.

"Speed, I'd like you to show Ms. Parker to the Coroner's Office. Alexx has our two DB's up right now." Horatio nodded over at Nora as he spoke. "I want you to run whatever Alexx's finds to wherever they need to go, okay?" The transferred CSI nodded right back in response, to which Horatio then glanced to Tim. "Once you're done at the autopsy, I need you to head over to the Grove to finish up on the B&E at the Smithson residence."

"Yeah." Tim nodded while casting a glance at the new CSI staring right back at him. "Follow me." He nodded at the door while moving towards it and stepping out into the hall.

Horatio kept Reese back for a moment before she actually left. "First day will probably be a little stressful, so don't push yourself into overdrive." He gave her a smile that looked akin to something she normally got from her former supervisor when she started burning the candle at both ends. "Don't worry about not knowing what to do next, everyone's going to be needing you to run things throughout the whole lab."

"I figured." Reese grinned slightly as she spoke. "You weren't kidding when you said you needed the extra set of hands." She tilted her head to the side in gesture towards the buzzing crime lab outside the door.

Horatio's mouth played with a smirk as he pulled his sunglasses from the right pocket of his pants. "Welcome to the Miami-Dade Crime Lab, Ms. Parker."