This is my first CSI: Miami fic. When I was writing the Horatio bits I found my head tilting to one side. Odd. Very very AU story. Bare in mind that I haven't seen any of series 5. Not out in the UK yet

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: Miami so please don't sue, 'cause that would be mean, and I have no money.

Times of Tragedy

She groaned inwardly as a small voice stirred her from the sleep that she really desired, she looked up; "Mummy." The voice spoke again, and the little girl standing in her doorway did not move. Calleigh forced herself to sit up, ignoring the instant dizzy feeling that surrounded her she smiled at her 5-year-old daughter.

"What's wrong sweetheart?" she asked and the small child rushed to her mother's side and clambered into bed next to her, Calleigh smiled and wrapped her arms around her.

"I had a scary dream." She whispered and Calleigh smiled again, for such a young child she was very perceptive, she knew when her mother was feeling down, or when a case particularly effected her, they were very close despite the fact that Calleigh worked insane hours, and had managed to keep her child a secret from everyone. Calleigh took a deep breath as her cell rang, she knew whom it would be calling her at 4am, and it could only be one person.

"Duquesne." She said answering it; she could feel her daughter's eyes on her watching her expression. She closes her cell without saying goodbye and gives her daughter a sad look; "I'm sorry Ali, you're gonna have to stay with Melissa tonight…" she paused as she watched Alexandra nod sadly. She jumped out of Calleigh's bed and grabbed a change of clothes. For a 5-year-old Alexandra was very intelligent Calleigh had always put it down to the fact that it had always been the two of them, they were a mother daughter team, and Calleigh told her daughter everything.

Calleigh dragged herself out of bed and pulled on some clothes, Ali was already standing in the hall waiting for her mother, Calleigh smiled at her and grabbed Alexandra's teddy that she couldn't sleep without. Handing it to her she picked up her kit and walked out of her condo, she rushed Ali across the lawn to her next-door neighbour. Melissa Johnson was a 23-year-old student who was generally nocturnal, this was a good thing for Calleigh when like tonight she was called out at ridiculous hours of the night, Calleigh knocked on the door and soon she heard footsteps hurrying towards it.

"Hey Cal." Melissa said opening the door a little wider so that Ali could run in after giving her mum a goodbye kiss.

"Hey." Calleigh replied taking a deep breath.

"Just get called?" Melissa asked, Calleigh nodded as she waved goodbye to her daughter, she had to go now.

"If I'm not back by…"

"By 9…I'll take her to nursery," Melissa smiled they'd been over it so many times before; "I'll see you." She said waving as Calleigh moved down the drive to her car. It was so hard just leaving her daughter in the middle of the night. But it was her job.

----

She arrived at the station about 10 minuets after leaving Ali with Melissa; she parked her car and walked up the steps.

"Good morning Cal." A familiar voice said from behind her. She smiled.

"Is it Ryan?" she asked, noticing his smirk they walked in together.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen." Horatio spoke in his instantly recognisable voice, Calleigh smiled at him and Ryan nodded. "We have work to be getting on with, even at this early hour." Calleigh nodded; "We have three victims, all shot execution style- bullet to the brain…and all of the victims were children." Calleigh gasped as H showed them the picture from the scene.

"Why didn't we process it?" she asked.

"Because they weren't killed in Miami, they were killed in New York, and the killer got away…sadly they think he came here." Horatio said his expression grave. Calleigh couldn't help thinking of Ali; every time they had a case where a child had been killed she would think of her.

"So what are we meant to do?" Eric's voice caused Calleigh to look up, her eyes reflected his question; "We can't exactly wait for him to strike…" he continued and Calleigh felt an impromptu shiver run down her spine.

She coughed and got to her feet; "I…er…I have to make a call." She said leaving the room a far away look in her eyes, Ryan watched her go confused slightly by the fear he saw colouring her face.

"Hey Melissa." Calleigh spoke her heart pounding in her ears.

"Cal you only just left her, you can't keep doing this." Melissa scolded. Calleigh sighed running a hand through her hair, she knew Melissa was right but it was hard to take in. It always was. She heard footsteps behind her and a hand was placed on her shoulder. She knew it was Ryan without turning around.

"Are you ok?" he asked as she took a deep breath. Her cell was still pressed to her ear.

She bit her lip before answering Melissa; "Ok, but if there's a problem call me." She said before hanging up and turning to face Ryan, she smiled at him.

"Don't we have some evidence to sort through?" she asked smiling brightly at him; he nodded slightly worried that she hadn't answered his question.

----

They had entered the lab at 6:03am, it was now 10:30am and Calleigh felt her eyes drooping slightly; "There's so much." She commented in an attempt to stay awake, she had got hardly any sleep the night before because of Ali and it was beginning to show, of course being called into work at 4am didn't help either. She rubbed her eyes and turned her back on the evidence.

"Are you ok?" Ryan asked for the second time that day.

"Yeah I'm fine." She replied without looking at him, he frowned wishing that she would look at him, her eyes gave away many things and at the moment he was worried about her. "It's just…" she began, thinking her words through carefully; "cases with children…" she paused again and Ryan nodded.

"It's tough on all of us." He replied squeezing her shoulder attempting to reassure her. Her cell ringing caused the two of them to jump, Calleigh pulled it out and flipped it open.

"Duquesne." She said answering it.

"Cal." Melissa's voice on the other end of the phone was frantic.

"Mel what's wrong?" she asked her heart in her mouth, she felt Ryan's eyes on her.

"Stay calm Cal, she's ok, she's just had a fall." Calleigh closed her eyes and breathed out.

"You have no idea how much you scared me just then!" she whispered feeling tears in her eyes, she quickly blinked them away.

"I had to inform you 'cause they're taking her to the hospital to x-ray her wrist, but you don't have to come it's fine, I'll handle it." Melissa said, Calleigh could hear the smile in her voice and sighed in relief.

"Thank you so much honey." She said smiling; "I don't know when I'll be back. I'll talk to you later. Bye." She hung up and turned back to the evidence, Ryan was watching her.

"You not going to tell me what that was about then?" he asked.

"Nope." She replied smiling to herself.

She was ok, Ali was ok, a serial killer hadn't got her and she was just going to the hospital to get her wrist x-rayed there was nothing wrong with that, yet Calleigh now couldn't stop worrying, every time her phone rang she'd jump a mile high she was so on edge all thanks to this new case. The whole team had noticed it.

"You alright Cal?" came Eric's voice, it sort of floated to her as if she were dreaming.

She looked up at him and nodded absentmindedly; "Yeah I'm fine, I wish people would stop asking me." She muttered running a hand through her hair.

"It may be because we're worried about you," he paused and smiled at her; "You've been so distracted recently, surely you can tell me what the matter is?" he asked watching her she looked up at him.

"I can't. I'm sorry, you'll find out one day, but not today." She said picking up her bag, it was 8pm and she just wanted to go home, Horatio had told them to go home and think over the case, hope that this madman didn't kill anyone in Miami.

She walked down the steps to her car; "You off then?" Ryan asked, he was standing by his car.

She smiled and nodded; "Off home," –to see my daughter- "for a nice warm bath and a good night's rest I hope." She smiled warmly at him as she pulled her car door open. He felt his heart melt with that smile. She was so beautiful. "See you tomorrow!" she said waving as she pulled out, Ryan nodded waving goodbye to her.

----

Calleigh arrived home and parked outside her condo, she got out of the car and headed quickly to Melissa's place, she rang the doorbell twice and got no answer, it was then that she realised the door was slightly ajar, she reached slowly for her gun as her heart began to race, she stepped inside Melissa's condo looking around, there was a picture frame smashed on the floor and glass was everywhere. "Hello?" she called out realising that there was blood on the wall she felt her heart miss a beat. "ALI!" she screamed losing her cool. A loud noise coming from the cupboard behind her made her jump, she spun around and headed towards it, she opened the door slowly to reveal Melissa bound and gagged and covered in blood; "Oh god." Calleigh said falling to her knees as she removed Melissa's gag. She quickly pulled out her cell dialling 911 and quickly holding it to her ear; "Hi, I need an ambulance for 352 Acrose Avenue, a young female has been stabbed…" she felt her own voice cracking up she still hadn't been able to bring herself to ask the simple burning question, her lips trembled; "Where's Ali?" she asked Melissa who was now shaking.

"I'm so sorry Cal." She replied, Calleigh felt tears form in her eyes.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" she shouted panicking.

"I don't know…he took her." Calleigh bit her lip as she felt a sob rise up from her chest, she began crying, and Melissa moved forwards and wrapped her arms around her. "I'm sorry Cal, I tried to protect her, I really did." Calleigh nodded through her tears as she and Melissa held on to each other. Calleigh pulled out her cell, whom should she call first? Horatio, Eric, Ryan or Alexx? She couldn't breathe, she heard the ambulance arrive and felt someone pulling Melissa away from her, she was covered in blood but in a daze she didn't know what was going on. She pressed the call button on her phone and took a deep breath.

"Hello?" the young male voice on the other end answered.

"Ryan," she whispered tears streaming down her face.

"Cal? What's wrong?!" he asked, he had heard her voice tremble.

"I need, I…I need you, to…to call H, my, umm, my next door neighbour has been…stabbed…and they took…they took my…my, oh god." She broke down unable to complete her sentence.

"Ok Cal it's ok, I'll call him we'll be right over." He said hurrying as fast as he could to call Horatio and tell him of the situation.

Calleigh was sat on the front step when he and Horatio arrived, he jumped out of the car and ran quickly to her; "Hey," he whispered wrapping his arms around her; "It's gonna be ok." He said holding her tightly.

She was still crying, tears were slowly slipping from her eyes; "No. It won't," she whispered back; "They took her, they took my…my daughter." She managed to stutter out, saying it out loud made it so much more real and she felt her walls crumble again as her body was wracked with sobs. Ryan was left speechless, he didn't know what to say, there wasn't anything he could say to make this better, after being on the inside of all of the cases seeing desperate mothers who had lost their children it made it twice as heart breaking now that it was one of their own. Calleigh's daughter, who none of them knew about, had been taken and that was all that mattered to him to her to H to Eric, all of them. They all cared. "You have to find her." She whispered once her tears had subsided slightly, he nodded and found his own eyes filling with tears; it was so very hard to see Calleigh who was always so strong, in tears like this. It was then that Horatio reached them, he had been talking to a police officer, his head was cocked at an angle and he was watching her he's eyes were soft.

"We will find her Calleigh, I promise you that." He said carefully.

Ryan had been told to stay with Calleigh while Eric and Natalia processed the scene, H told him to take her home and seeing as she lived next door it wasn't all that hard. She was sitting on the sofa, silence reigned over them, she would sniff every now and again, but that was the only sound coming from inside the house. Ryan had his arms around her, she was still shaking slightly and had begun hiccupping. So many questions burned in his chest, there were so many things he wanted to say, he wanted reassure her, but no words seemed to be enough.

"How did you manage to keep her a secret?" he finally asked unable to stop himself.

Calleigh looked at him; "It wasn't hard." She croaked her voice was weak and Ryan was worried that she was about to start crying again very soon; "I had Melissa who would look after her without a second thought…she's a good kid, understood when I had to go to work, obviously when she was born and while I was pregnant I had to be careful. I didn't want anyone knowing about her." She whispered. Ryan nodded, though he didn't really understand, surly it would have been easier to tell them what was going on rather than hide it from them. She took a deep breath; "What if…" she began and Ryan shushed her.

"They'll find her." He whispered pulling her into his chest where she rested her head. She closed her eyes allowing her tears to fall. A loud noise at the front door signified Alexx's arrival. Ryan got up carefully and pulled the door open.

"How is she?" she asked her eyes conveying her concern.

"Not too good." Ryan replied his own emotions about ready to boil.

Alexx rushed in, being a mother herself she was able to understand some of what Calleigh was going through but none of the team would be able to understand fully what it was like to have your child kidnapped. "Baby." She whispered wrapping her arms tightly around Calleigh who had started to cry again. Ryan was surprised she had any tears left after all the crying she had been doing. He decided to make some hot chocolate, thinking that, that was exactly what Calleigh needed, after her daughter of course, walking into the kitchen he wondered how she had managed to keep her secret for so long, there were pictures and drawings everywhere stuck on the fridge and on her notice board, he smiled slightly as he noticed a picture of the whole team on her notice board. There were two pictures one of the team before he joined and one after with him in it. He remembered when the latter had been taken, at the Christmas party. Calleigh had declined the offer of many drinks and now he understood fully why, she had responsibilities at home that none of them would understand. He smiled looking at it, in the picture she looked so happy, so natural, he had an arm around her shoulders and was raising his glass in a toast. Ryan picked up the kettle and filled it at the sink trying not to hear what Alexx was saying to Calleigh.

"Sweetheart, Horatio will find her…" Alexx whispered stroking Calleigh's tearstained cheek.

"B-but what if he doesn't?" she whispered her voice cracking.

Alexx looked at her sympathetically; "If anyone can find her, it'll be him!" she said taking Calleigh's hand. Calleigh looked at her, her brow was furrowed, a sob rose from her chest as she said;

"Dead or alive?!" Alexx felt her heart jolt. Ryan almost dropped one of the mugs he was holding when he heard her say that. It was of course true that there was every possibility that Alexandra was dead, and that was how they would find her. Calleigh was tired, tired of crying, of worrying, and of lying, she was struggling to keep her eyes open when Ryan sat down beside Alexx and herself, she felt him wrap an arm around her before she slipped into an uneasy sleep.

Ryan sat with his arms around her for a long time, he didn't want to move, neither would he dare to for fear of waking Calleigh up, at about midnight Horatio walked into the condo a look in his eyes that meant they were still looking for her. Ryan nodded slowly. He then felt Calleigh stirred in his arms, she sat up slowly her eyes half open looking straight at Horatio who shook his head sympathetically. Ryan could see that she had cried all her tears for now and wouldn't be crying again for a while at least.

"So…" Calleigh began looking over at Ryan who was sat beside her. He turned his head to look at her, her eyes were puffy and her hair was a mess but she was still beautiful; "…where…wh-where have you looked?" she asked, Ryan wasn't sure who the question was for seeing as she was looking at him.

"Well…" Horatio began his sunglasses in his hands; "We looked in all of the near by parks first, because that's where this guy left his victims last time." He said taking a seat on an armchair. Calleigh nodded, glad that he wasn't lying to her. Horatio then listed all of the places that they had looked, and all of the information they had gathered from the scene.

"You haven't learnt anything new then?" she asked rubbing her hands together, she wanted to be involved in this case, she wanted to know what they were doing and how they were trying to find her daughter. But being emotionally involved meant that Horatio couldn't let her.

"No, I'm sorry, Natalia found a partial print, which was more that we had before…" H sighed, he wanted so badly to tell her that they were on the look out for someone and that there were near to catching him, but he wasn't about to lie to her. "You need to get some sleep Calleigh you look shattered." He whispered getting to his feet. Ryan watched as Calleigh nodded slowly, her mind wasn't on his words, it was on what he hadn't said. Calleigh was glad that Ryan was there, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to keep it together without him, he was the only thing in her life that she had left to cling onto.

"Ryan…" she said his name, her voice was weak and tired.

"Yeah?" he replied turning to look at her his brow furrowed, worry colouring his expression.

"I just want to thank you, you've been so good to me, been here when I really needed someone…" she paused as tears found there way to her red eyes. "If…you weren't, here I don't know what I'd do." She whispered resting her head on his chest, he smiled.

"There's no where else that I'd rather be Cal…other than perhaps helping the others look…" he rethought the ending of his sentence. Calleigh could tell that seeing her in such a state was hurting him almost as much as it was hurting her. The pain in her chest wasn't subsiding with time, and it wasn't about to not until they found her, alive and well. The phone rang just as Calleigh was dosing off to sleep, Ryan leaned over and picked it up.

----

"This is Ryan Wolfe speaking…" he paused it was Horatio. He handed the phone to Calleigh who held her breath.

"I'm sorry Calleigh…" he paused as he heard her sob loudly. They had been too late, the man had killed her, Calleigh's own daughter was dead. She found then that she couldn't breathe, she handed Ryan the phone.

"H, are you sure it's her?" he asked desperate for it not to be Calleigh's little girl.

There was a long pause; "We got a DNA match, I didn't want to call until I was certain, I'm on my way over…unless…" he paused and swallowed hard; "do you have this one covered Mr. Wolfe?" he asked carefully, Ryan looked over at Calleigh who was now sat stock still she was looking off into space, clearly not believing a word that Horatio had told her. Ryan licked his lips and took a deep breath.

"I can handle it Sir." He said closing his eyes, praying that he could. He rung off and wrapped his arms around her; "Tell me about her, it helps." He said as she tried to hide her face in his chest. "It's horrible when I child dies, but you can't shut me out Cal." He said when she didn't reply.

Calleigh pulled away; "This isn't just any kid Ryan, she was my kid, she was amazing and smart and beautiful…" a sob cut off the rest of her words. "…and I'll ne…never…see her again." Calleigh sobbed again. There was no way Ryan could make her feel better about this, it was true that Ali was dead and wasn't coming back, and there were no words to console a grieving mother.

Ryan closed his eyes; "I'm sorry Cal, I know it's meaningless and hopeless 'cause it won't make you feel any better, but every time we get a case and it's a child my heart breaks a little for those parents who have to identify the body. You have no idea what seeing you like this is doing to me. You've always been so strong and now this. You're amazing, I don't know how you managed to keep her a secret. I don't know how you managed to keep up with this job with such a young child in your care…" he paused as he looked into her eyes, she was watching him her eyes shining, he was clearly doing something right; "if I could bring her back, I would. I would move heaven and earth just to make you happy again, 'cause from where I'm sitting it looks like nothing will be ok ever again." She whimpered slightly and he took her into his arms, she wasn't ok, she wouldn't be ok for some time, but Ryan's words had helped her, if only slightly it was enough for now.

"Thank you." She whispered into his chest, she would recover from this, she had to, she would depend on him until the moment that she was able to stand on her own two feet without faltering in the slightest. He knew that his was going to be a long process but he was ready to be her rock. Ready to watch out for her, she needed a guide to help her out, this was her hour of need, and she had him. No question.

A/N: Bare in mind this is my first CSI fic, be kind please. Reviews are nice. No flames please.