Under Suspicion and Skeletons gave us clues and hints about Horatio's relationship with his father but how did it all start?

CSI: Miami

Horatio/oc

Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI: Miami, I do not know anyone connected with the show or with CBS and they do not know me, all of which is a shame.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born:

April 1954 – Sacred Heart Hospital, Bronx, New York

Jack Caine had to be practically dragged to the window to view his infant son. The chattering nurse's enthusiasm would have been catching if he'd been sober. They'd called the bar just as he was pulling down his second boilermaker on a dinnerless stomach. The nurse behind the window was doing her best to display the quiet newborn as attractively as possible but there wasn't much she could do with the wizened little thing, so she ended up posing hopefully, as if for a school portrait. Jack pulled deeply on the freshly lit cigarette, squinting behind the stinging smoke and figured he'd better call his mother.

The next morning, his first words to the flame haired Francis Dioletto Caine were, "Ma says he looks like I did when I was born, so I'm guessing it's mine." The flash of puzzled hurt in her bright blue eyes gratified him. "When're you coming home?" He'd finally gotten used to Frannie's cooking.

January, 1955

The city glow from the window was pale in the dark room but plainly showed the still purpling bruising around her eye, especially up close. He couldn't see her fine copper brows frowning, but knew they were and leered down at her.

"Jack, no! We'll wake the baby!"

Looking quickly to the small dark form in the crib, he snarled, "He's so sick he'll sleep through it. I got needs Frannie, so, open up dammit! Jeez! I'm tired of your lip. What should I do, pop ya again?"

Frannie grunted in pain as her young husband viciously stabbed himself into the tight, dry orifice between her legs. Scared because, for once, she wasn't going to commit the mortal sin afterwards, she desperately wished she could enjoy this. A child, after all, should be conceived in love and joy but Jack had taken her by surprise. Yeah, well, when didn't he? Trying not to cry out, she lifted her legs to make herself deeper and larger. Why couldn't he just be nice like he used to be? She looked up at the handsome, Black Irish features hovering over her. How she wished she could see through the dark into his deep blue eyes. Maybe it would feel better, then.

For better or for worse, right? 'You made your bed of roses, so now you get to lie in it, thorns and all' her grandmother had archly chided. 'Honey, you're the one who got pregnant.' Her father had quietly said that as he'd kissed her freckled forehead just before her hurried City Hall marriage. So, she was doing just that, making the best of the thorns, taking him for better or for worse, accepting that if she was 'in for a penny's worth, she was in for a pound'. Having another child was the only way, even if the new one were to be sick like little Jack.

Her mother had counseled last February, "Sweetheart, I know you've been afraid to have another baby, but do you want to lose your man?" Frannie knew her mother was ignoring the bruise on her cheek, the fading greenish ones on her upper arm. "I know hearing today that little Jack ain't going to live another two or three months don't exactly put you in the mood but, honestly, do you think Jack's going to stick around past the funeral, without a kid? You're going to have to make hay while the sun shines, you know?"

The atypically redheaded Italian woman peered through the kitchen door to the sleeping child on the living room couch. At nearly nine months, he was no larger than a four month old.

There was no question between mother and daughter that Frannie had to stay married. After all, a good Italian girl's worth was in being married, right? Yeah, so maybe the bum wasn't worth keeping and all that, but, then, it's the rare man that is. You puts your money down and you takes your chances. Family is everything, right?

"I mean, I know you been doing something to not have more kids, right? I mean, having little Jack didn't hurt you so you can't have more, right?"

Looking into her mother's bright blue eyes, she smiled tiredly, "Mamma, I can have more. I went to a doctor and he put a thing in me. He wanted me to get Jack's permission but I begged, so he did it. I know, it's a sin in the eyes of the church." She looked down at the dregs of the strongly brewed coffee her mother had poured into the last of her fancy company cups and heaved a sigh. Her mother was right on both counts. She didn't want to think that her precious baby was going to die soon. Also, knowing she had to conceive another child or risk being left alone in the world was another thing. Why, oh, why hadn't she left it in God's hands? Had another child as soon as He decided it was right?

&&&

Much to Frannie's relief, she received the news that the rabbit died on little Jack's birthday. Predictably, her husband's face, when she told him, darkened to the point she almost thought that either he was going to either hit her or have a heart attack. Fortunately for her, he did neither. Two days later, little Jack passed away. Unfortunately, Jack disappeared for three days after hearing he was going to be a daddy again and missed his son's death. When he did find out, he went on another bender and had to be dug out of bar just before the interment services. He embarrassed everyone by puking royally in the funeral home's fancy car for the family and then again, when he did it behind some fancy stone angel at the cemetery.

January 1956 - Sacred Heart Hospital, Bronx, New York

Jack Caine stared cold-eyed at the squalling, squirming, red-haired infant in the nurse's arms. Not only was there no doubt it going to live but it was going to be noisy too. And, not a sign of his family features to be seen; just the pale, pasty look of Frannie's so-called Italian family. Who ever heard of redheaded Italians, for Christ sake? First thing, he was going to do was teach the kid to shut up!

Yeah, and then teach him a few other things. Caine's memories recalled the big fat redheaded bully who'd tortured him all through grammar school. Damn! He'd almost forgotten that kid. That was probably because Billy Burke moved away before they'd gotten to high school. At fifteen, Jack had started a growth spurt and by his junior year, he could not only qualify for the basketball team but the football team as well. No one ever bullied him then. He'd have liked nothing better, though, than to have been able to get back at that redhead. So, duty number one with this kid was going to be to teach him who was boss, right off. He wasn't going to let a redhead get the better of him, ever again.

Worse, this kid had already been named! Frannie's pregnancy had made her go peculiar in the head. For the last five months, she'd been reading stupid stuff and had declared that it would be really unlucky to name a boy after him again. She's said that she wanted something really unusual and memorable. If it was a girl, she'd said she was going to name her Ramona after some Indian in some stupid play she'd read about. If it was a boy, the name was going after some fancy, shmancy guy, Horatio.

TBC to Chapter 2

I am happy for any and all reviews, even anonymous ones, positive and negative. What do you think of the story? What do you think of the writing?