A/N: I do not own CSI Miami or any of it's characters, affiliates...etc. This is just my imagination running with it! I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 1

I Knew He Wouldn't Shoot

Calleigh stared down the barrel of the gun, wide eyed. "I don't want any trouble. I was just trying to process a murder scene."

A girl stopped by, hearing something outside of the house. She walked through the drapes and saw what was happening, and walked into the living room where they were standing.

"Franky you idiot! What in the hell are you doing?"

"They're here about Joe."

"Okay. So? Don't you wanna find out what happened to him?"

"Well yeah, but...get out of the way Ricki!"

"It's not gonna happen." and she took another step to the left, standing now, between the gun, and the blond woman with the badge. Then she stared at the gun itself. "You stole her gun? Jeez you really are thick aren't you!" and she grabbed the gun from him in one quick movement, turned and gave it back to the cop, butt first.

"I wasn't gonna use it!"

"Yeah well you're sure not going to now!" and she turned back around to face him. "You better do every damn thing she says too! I can't believe you'd pull a gun on a cop!" then she smacked him across the side of his head. "Dumb ass!"

Turning back around once more, she looked at the woman who had now better gained her composure. "Sorry. Are you okay?"

She nodded. The girl had medium length, dirty blond hair and eyes that were almost slate gray. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

Sticking her hand out, she shook it. "Ricki Vernon. That idiot there is Frank Byers and the guy that lives here is Joe Smith." then she laughed at her look of disbelief. "I know right, it's hard to get any less original than that, but that's all we knew him as."

A tall red head walked back into the house, gun pulled. "Hands up!" and she immediately turned to face him, putting her hands up. "Calleigh, are you alright?"

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and nodded. "Actually, I am, thanks to this one here."

Horatio put his gun back in it's holster. "Well thank you ma'am."

Ricki shrugged. "Eh. All I did was stopped an idiot from being stupid."

"I wasn't gonna use it!"

"Shut up Franky! I can't believe I know you sometimes."

"She did more than that." Calleigh corrected. "She stood directly between myself and the end of the gun."

"I knew he wouldn't shoot." she said, brushing off the experience, as if she'd just picked up milk from the store.

"Did you know the victim?" Horatio asked.

She nodded. "We both did."

"We're going to need you to come with us."

"But I..." Franky started.

"We'd both be happy to go anywhere you need us to." she answered for herself and her cousin, cutting him off mid sentence.

"Are you done here?" he asked his counter part.

She nodded. "I'll take her, you can take him."

He nodded back, noticing how steady she was, for going through that.

She walked with the girl back to her Hummer. Jumping in, she immediately noticed the girl look around the inside.

"Dang! The police department has some bank!"

"We have our own grants and funding as the Crime Scene Investigation part of it."

"Oh so it's not all just Miami-Dade tax payers money then?" she said back, amusement lacing her question.

Calleigh smiled and shook her head. She really liked this girl. "Why did you jump in front of that gun for me?"

She shrugged. "Seemed the right thing to do. You were an innocent bystander doing your job and my cousin rolls up on you and tries to be even more stupid than he's ever been before. I knew he wouldn't shoot me."

"Well thank you. That took a lot of guts."

"Yeah, just don't tell anyone."

"Why not?"

"Because then people will expect me to be gutsy all the time. I have a reputation to uphold, and saving cops isn't part of my forte."

Shaking her head, she drove to the lab and noticed that the girl walked in willingly.

Putting each person inside of an interrogation room, they started the waiting game. "Hey handsome. Which one are we going to question first?"

"Probably the guy that pulled a gun on you. Did she say why she stepped in front of the gun?"

She looked at the girl. "She said it seemed like the right thing to do."

Horatio was the first one to walk into the room Ricki was in, over an hour later.

"It would seem Ms. Vernon, that your cousin in there, thinks that you had something to do with what happened this morning with Mr. Smith."

"What did happen this morning? I didn't even know something had happened until I saw the marked Hummer parked out there and heard Franky threatening your girl."

"And you just decided to see what was going on?"

"Yes sir."

"You said you knew Franky wouldn't shoot the gun?"

"I knew he wouldn't shoot me, yes sir. Thick headed as he is, I'm still family."

"So you put yourself in the path, just in case?"

"Yes sir."

He studied her closely. She was telling the truth. He could feel it. She was extremely calm to have dealt with something like that. Which told him that it wasn't something that was new to her. He didn't like that one bit. "Well that was very nice of you Ms. Vernon."

She looked around suspiciously. "Hey hold it down will ya? Someone might hear you! Then people will start expecting me to be nice all the time, and then I'll just disappoint them and...trust me, it'd just be bad all the way around."

He half smiled. "So you didn't have anything to do with Mr. Smith this morning?"

"No sir."

"How well did you know him?"

She shrugged. "Enough. My father liked to buy drugs. Well, he liked to send me to buy his drugs, but you know. What are ya gonna do?" and she shrugged again. "Anyway, Joe was like the only person he would deal with and buy from."

"Did you have a relationship with Joe?"

"Eew! No! He was like, old enough to be my dad!" she replied, appalled.

There was something about this kid that made people gravitate toward her. "So you just bought drugs?"

She nodded, and then her eyes clouded. "I just got myself into trouble didn't I?"

He studied her again. "Do you have any drugs on your person?"

She shook her head.

"You're not in here for drugs Ms. Vernon. When was the last time you purchased from Mr. Smith?"

She eyed him carefully. "Last night."

"So you, potentially were the last person to see Mr. Smith alive?"

Realizing what was going on she took a deep breath. "Awe man!" and she stood up and started pacing back and forth.

"Please, please believe me. I didn't have anything to do with Joe. I was there at around eleven thirty last night, but when I left, he was alive."

"Why don't you sit down?"

But she kept pacing. "I know how this looks! I watch tv. You think I did it! Or at least I'm a suspect. I know I haven't been the best model citizen, but I've never hurt anybody."

"I don't think you're responsible for what happened to Mr. Smith."

She let out a relieved breath. "Thank God for small miracles."

"What happened to your arm Ms. Vernon? That looks like a pretty nasty bruise."

She stopped pacing, looked at where her t-shirt sleeve had rolled up and pushed it back down, as if he was asking to see an intimate part of her. "Have you seen the neighborhood I live in? It's a rough bunch of people."

"That's not really an answer."

She shrugged and looked away. "I'm not really sure what that has to do with Joe anyway."

"Did he give you that bruise?"

She rubbed her upper arm. "No. Joe wasn't like that." she replied quietly.

She had been fond of the victim, he could see it. For whatever reason, she wasn't letting on how bad it was bothering her that he was gone. "Don't worry Ms. Vernon. We're going to find out who did this to your friend."

Glancing up at him after finally sitting down again, she breathed in through her nose and nodded, looking at the floor when he stood up.

"You're free to go. I may need to talk to you again in the future."

"Whatever you need. Joe was a good guy. He had his problems, but he was good people. He didn't deserve to be murdered in any fashion." Then she stopped and swallowed hard. "What happened to him?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" he asked, not really wanting to get into the gory details.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, before walking out of the interrogation room and into the front of the building.

She leaned against the railing that went around the steps of the lab and was startled when a hand went to her shoulder.

She straightened immediately and brushed a tear away, clearing her throat.

"Joe was shot point blank range in the head."

She couldn't stop the shaking that had set in as she did her damnedest to keep it from being too apparent. "What kind of gun?"

"We're not sure. First guess, from the damage, a nine millimeter. But we wont know until tests are finished."

She nodded.

"Do you want a lift back to your place?"

She turned to him, almost afraid to see if he was being for real. Studying him for a bit, she finally nodded. "Okay." Then as she went to follow, she glanced at him. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because, Ms. Vernon, it seems the right thing to do." and he smiled, put his sunglasses on then started down the steps.