Greetings, and welcome to the third enstallment of the 'CSI Cheryl' Series. PArt one and two have been posted, if you want to hunt them out and have a read. (Lost Son and Evidence) It might help understand the characters up until now.

I suppose I should stick in a disclaimmer, although I would have thought it was obvious this was a fanfic and I don't own this. But on the off chance someone wants to sue me... I own nothing that can be found in any of the CSIs. Just my own characters. (Only kidding.. CSI is mine, all mine!)

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Cheryl was sat on the beach, soaking in the sun. It was one of the rare days she had off and she was making the most of it. She had spent the morning exploring downtown Miami and getting her hair cut. She'd been in the city for a little over eight months now and she still hadn't explored much of it. She hadn't had much free time, either. Instead, she had been busy solving a various array of crimes, and if she wasn't doing that, she was busy putting her finishing touches to a new procedure she'd discovered which would make it possible for GSR to be matched to the weapon it was fired from.

She leant over and rummaged in her bag, looking for her 'phone to check the time. It was already 4pm, and she was supposed to be meeting her uncle in half an hour. She grabbed her things, pulled on a white skirt and flip flops, leaving her white halter-neck bikini as it was, and hurried off to her car.

She jumped in the big, black Hummer and drove off to the small restaurant where they were to meet. Unsurprisingly, she made it on time. She was a good driver, although she was pushing her speed to the limits of legal, and could get the Hummer in places and gaps most would think were impossible.

Cheryl walked into the restaurant and scanned the heads at the tables. She spotted a head of red-blonde hair and headed over to it, sitting down opposite. 'Afternoon, Cheryl,' said Horatio Caine, her boss at the Miami Dade Crime Lab, and her uncle. Cheryl had found out that they were related on her first case, and although, at first, she had been reluctant to accept the fact they were related, thanks to a lot of pushing from her good friend, and co-worker, Tim Speedle, they were finally acting like a family.

'You cut your hair.'

Cheryl smiled, of course he would notice. She wouldn't have expected any less from a CSI. 'Hi, Horatio. Glad you could make it.'

'You know I'd make the time for you.'

'How's Raymond Jr and Madison?' Both were her half-siblings, although each had a different mother. Raymond's was actually a detective she frequently worked with, and Madison's was a girl whom her father had had an affair with whilst he was undercover. Turned out her father actually got around a bit.

'They're good. They both want to know when you're going to visit again.'

Cheryl chuckled. Kids loved her, and in this case, she loved these as well. Raymond was a little monkey, and Madison was a quiet little girl. Unfortunately, neither had met each other. Yelina, Raymond Jr's mother, and Raymond Snr's widow was completely unaware that her son had two half-siblings, and had even been led to believe that Madison was Horatio's. She even believed that Horatio was Cheryl's father, and things betweenHoratio and Yelina now were strained.Suzie, Madison's mother, on the other hand, knew about both Cheryl and Raymond Jr, although she also knew that Yelina didn't, and was alright about the situation. She let Cheryl visit the child whenever she had the time, although recently, that was getting harder.

'You know me, I'm always busy.'

'How is Speed these days?'

Cheryl scowled at him, over the drinks the waitress had left for them. 'Horatio, there is nothing going on between me and Tim.'

'And where have you been staying for the past couple of days?'

Admittedly, she had been at his, but she hadn't done anything more than actually sleep with him, 'it is possible for two people to be friends and not have sex, you know.'

'I know, but I can also see that he loves you very much, and I don't want either of you getting hurt. And there's also the fact he's eight years older than you.'

'Horatio, everyone's older than me.' At twenty-three, she was the youngest CSI 3 in Florida, and quite possibly America too.

'I know.' He smiled. He was immensely proud of his niece. 'How is that procedure of yours going?'

'It's done, and it works. I sent it off to the various places it needs to go so it can get verified so that the procedure will actually hold up in Court. But from what I can gather, it's getting the green light so far.'

'What have you called it?'

'You wont believe me if I told you.'

Horatio smiled, 'try me.'

'Well, I was considering it for ages, and decided to use my surname, but I double barrelled it to Carter-Caine.' She looked over to Horatio. His smiled had widened. 'But the computer saved it as C'caine.'

'Cocaine?'

'That's exactly how it was said to me down the phone by four separate people.' Chuckled Cheryl. 'It's goofy, but I kind of like it. At least that way, I remain semi-anonymous.'

'You won't be after you've made it in the journals and newspapers. Cheryl, it's probably going to be one of the best forensic break-throughs of the past twenty years. And then you're going to have to go to seminars and present.'

'There is no chance that's going to happen. The public don't take me seriously at a crime scene, so I don't see how a roomful of scientists are going to believe that a twenty-three year old is capable of it. Besides, there is nothing that I would hate more than getting up in front of a roomful of people. So I made an idiot-proof video explaining the procedure and how to use the chemicals and interpreting the results.'

She was going to say something else, but was interrupted by a loud bleeping. She looked down at her phone to read the message, before looking across at Horatio, he was doing the same thing with his. He looked up to meet her gaze and nodded. 'This is why I never get a day to myself,' she sighed.

'You never get a day to yourself because you are always at the lab, and they beep you because you're a good CSI.'

'More like they just don't want me to have a good time,' she grumbled as she threw down a few notes to cover the drink and followed Horatio out of the restaurant.

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Cheryl hopped out of her Hummer at the location she'd been sent to, having changed her skirt for a pair of trousers and her flip flops for a pair of boots. She'd also pulled a longer top over her bikini and scraped her hair back into a ponytail. She went straight to the trunk and pulled it open, grabbing her kit. And then she turned around to deal with the RTA she'd been called out to deal with. She ducked under the crime scene tape and headed over to the car, dodging around the ERT who were running about with various cutting equipment.

Her heart stopped. The RTA vehicle was a Hummer. A crime lab Hummer. A Miami-Dade Crime Lab Hummer. It had somehow veered off the road, rolled over at least once, and was now wedged against a tree.

She dropped her kit, not noticing the chinking sound from something being broken inside it, and ran over to the door, anxious to see who it was in the car. At first, she couldn't make out his face as it was both turned from view, and covered in blood, but then, as he was pulled from the wreckage, his head was turned.

'Eric!' She ran over to him, 'is he alright?' She asked the first EMS she reached.

'Ma'am, we need to take him to the hospital.' She was told, as an officer grabbed her around the waist.

'Let me go! I'm with the Crime Lab,' she told him as she grabbed her badge and ID and flashed them at him, 'he's one of us.' The officer let her go and she jumped in the back of the ambulance. The door slammed shut behind her and it set off.

Cheryl sat to one side watching them work on him. She pulled out her phone, found the number she was looking for and hit dial.

"Caine.'

'Horatio, it's Cheryl. The RTA I was called out to. It's Eric.'

'I know Cheryl, I just go here. Where are you? I see your car, and your kit.'

'I'm with Eric, en route to the hospital,' she told him, as the ambulance conveniently put its sirens on.

'Stay with him, Cheryl. We'll be there as soon as possible. Let me know the second you know something.'

'I will.' She flipped her phone shut and hung up.

'You know, you shouldn't be using a cell in here.' The paramedic shouted over to her.

'I know, but I had to. I'm sorry.'

'It's ok. I've worked with Delko before. He's a good guy.'

'Is he going to be ok?'

"I think so, but we'll know more at the hospital.'

And then the alarms went off on the machine he was hooked up to. 'He's crashing!' the medic shouted to the driver.

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Part two should be up soon!

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