AN: Hello! I don't know how long i'm going to make this yet, but i do have a few chapters in mind. I want to try to make it until the last season, but i'm not sure. This story has been in my head for years, I mean years, so I finally wrote it down. I hope everyone enjoys it. I may throw in a few episodes I like, like "Broken" and "Nailed". I don't know when i'll be able to post because i'm still not sure what the next chapter will be, but it wont be to long of a wait. Reviews are welcomed. :)
Warning: Cursing, Violence, and child abuse (not to bad though, I couldn't do that).
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: Miami or it's character's.
Can I get a Witness?
I was riding my light blue bike to school and I was already fifteen minutes late. My step dad was drunk, again, and was getting physical with me. I'm sure my bruise collection just got a few new ones to add to it. Thankfully, my mom woke up and then he focused his anger on her.
While they fought, I snuck out and headed off to school. I pulled into an empty spot at the bike rack and took my bike lock out of my book bag. I quickly locked it and ran inside the school. I ran down the empty halls towards my classroom and once I got there I tried to catch my breath before I tried to sneak in unnoticed.
I opened the door quietly and tried to sneak towards my seat the third desk in the first row. All the kids were giggling and the teacher spoke up, "Diana Lopez."
I perked up from where I was and looked over towards my second grade teacher.
"Good morning Mrs. Lockhart. How's life," I said.
"Your late for the third time this week, Miss Lopez," she said.
"I know I'm sorry, I had some bike issues," I said lying to her.
"Principles office," Mrs. Lockhart said.
I groaned and walked off to the principal's office for the second time this school year. I walked in and told the reception lady my situation. She told me to wait and I sat down in one of the chairs in the front office. A few minutes later the principal came out and said, "Miss Lopez, come in."
I walked into his office and he closed the door behind me. I sat in one of his big comfy seats he had in front of his desk and he sat in his black office chair behind the desk. Our principal, Mr. Wallace, was a nice older African American man, who has his daughter attending the fifth grade here.
"Diana you know this is the second time this school year," he said.
"I know I'm sorry, but my bike tire was flat, so my step dad had to pump some air in it before I could leave," I said.
Mr. Wallace sighed and said, "I know things happen, Dianna, but you have to try to make it on time. I don't want to have you in my office twenty times like last year. I might have to bring your folks in."
"No, that won't be necessary. I'll get here on time I promise sir," I said.
"All right, I hope you do. Go ahead, back to class," he said.
"Okay thanks, Mr. Wallace," I said.
"No problem," he said.
I walked back to class and got settled in my seat. The teacher was talking about our new math assignment and I tried to keep up, but I was so tired. Last night my mom and step dad had some "friends" over and I heard a lot of commotion and yelling. They didn't leave until two in the morning and I barely got any rest.
Eventually school was over and I headed to the cemetery with my bike. Once I got there I walked my bike over to the grave that I wanted to see. Every day after school I'd visit the grave with a small angel head stone marking it. I read what was engraved and it said: "Gia Johanna Espinoza, Jan. 5 1997- May 18 2001, gone too soon."
"Hey, little sister. I miss you so much. It's been getting worse at the house, but I'm glad you're not there to see it. I love you," I spoke to my sister's grave.
I sat there for a little while watching the birds and just relaxing. It's good to get out of the house when I can, I'm afraid the same thing that happened to my sister will happen to me, but I try not to think about it too much. I said goodbye to my sister and walked home.
On my way home I cut through the park. It's a dingy park and no one really goes here anymore. As I took my time I heard a commotion going on near the fountain. I slowed down and hid from view. There was known to be a lot of shady people in these parts, including my step dad. I watched from a far and saw two tall Caucasian men yelling at each other. I couldn't make out what they were say, but it didn't look so good.
The taller one with a black jacket pulled out a small handgun and shot the shorter one. The short one grabbed his chest and slumped to the ground. The tall one shot at him again, to make sure he was really dead. The tall one stuck the gun in his pocket and hoped into the passenger seat of a black car. They pulled off with a screech and I looked over at the dead body.
A man and a woman came out of a building and saw the dead man and quickly ran over towards him. The woman took out a cell phone to call, what I'm guessing is the cops. The man looked over the body, probably looking for a pulse.
I couldn't move from my spot, I was still trying to take in what I saw. The cops arrived and blocked the scene with the yellow crime scene tape. I watched as they tried to talk to bystanders, to see if anyone saw anything. It looked like they were striking out left and right.
Then two hummers pulled up with the words crime Scene Investigation. A man with red hair and sunglasses stepped out of the one and a Spanish man stepped out of the other one. A young African American women, who I think was a medical examiner, was already looking at the body. Another officer with a bald head came by and started talking to the red headed man with sun glasses. The man nodded and went over to the African American lady.
I watched the Spanish man walk around the scene looking for evidence. He came over to the edge of the tape where I was a few feet away from and he looked at me. I didn't know what to do, but we just stared at each other, like there was something deeper.
He looked back at the red headed man and then back at me. He ducked under the tape and made his way over to me. He gave me a small smile and dropped down to eye level.
"What's your name?" he asked me.
"Diana," I said.
"Hey Diana, I'm Officer Delko. Did you happen to see what happened?" he asked.
"I did, it was terrible," I said remembering what happened.
He bit his lip and looked a little panicked, "Did you see the other man?"
"I did see him," I said.
He nodded and stood up. He scrubbed a hand down his face, probably trying to figure out what to do.
"Delko, what's up?" The red headed man asked.
"This kid saw everything, H," Delko said.
"Is this true?" the man nicknamed H asked.
I nodded my head, too scared to speak.
"Take her to the station, we just found ourselves a witness," he said as he took of his glasses.
I was seated in the Miami Dade Police Departments interrogation room and I was flipping through pictures and pictures of criminals.
"Did you find anything yet?" officer Delko asked.
"No," I said.
"We have a sketch artist coming by, hopefully you can give a detailed sketch to help us find this criminal," he said.
"Okay," I said.
The sketch artist came by and I gave full detail about the man I saw in the park. Officer Delko took notes on the details she couldn't draw, like his hair color and height. By the time I finished up at the police station it was pretty late at night. They asked for my home number and I wanted to refuse to give it up because if the police would call home, my parents would be pissed.
Eventually I gave them my number and they got a hold of my mom. She came in about thirty minutes to pick me up and she stormed over to me. I couldn't look her straight in the eye and I wanted to stay here instead of going home.
"Diana Helena Lopez! What did you do?" she screamed at me.
"Calm down miss," a nice lady who I learned was Officer Duquesne.
"Did she damage property, or something," my mom asked.
"She didn't do anything, she was a witness to a murder," Officer Duquesne said.
"Oh, thank god. I'm sorry she inconvenienced you," she said.
"She was no inconvenience at all. She's a good kid," the officer said.
"Sure, I know that's not true she's a pain in my ass," my mom said.
Officer Delko came out of one of the offices and looked at my mom confused.
"Lorena?" he said.
"Eric, I didn't know you were a police officer," my mom said.
"You two know each other?" Duquesne asked.
"Yes, we dated about 8 years ago," Delko said.
"Yes a long time ago, let's go Diana," she said as she pulled me along.
I looked back at the two officers wishing I could at least stay the night. Officer Delko watched after us having a confused look on his face.
3rd Person Pov
Eric watched Lorena pull Diana away from them and towards the elevator. The little girl looked so helpless and he didn't know what to think. The kid was about seven years old and that was right around the time he split from Lorena. He couldn't help, but see the resemblance of himself and his sister, Marisol, in the little girl.
"Did you see the bruises on her arms," Calleigh said breaking his train of thought.
"Bruises?" he asked.
"Yeah the girl had bruises on her arms, and not small ones either. I'm not accusing, but it's suspicious," she said.
"I didn't notice them," he said.
"Poor kid. I hope she won't become a victim in here. Whenever a little kid dies from abuse I can't bare it, that's my hardest cases to work on," she said.
"Yeah, I understand. Do we still have that soda can she drank from?" Eric asked.
"Probably, why?" she asked
"I think she might be my daughter," he said.
Calleigh and Eric worked on obtaining DNA from the can Diana drank from and compared DNA to his own. An hour later the results came in and Eric was afraid to look at the results.
"You don't have to look at it if you don't want to know," Calleigh said.
"I know, but I have to. Whether I am or not, it would just make me feel better," Eric said.
He let out a short shaky breath and looked at the results from the DNA test. The DNA was very close and it was not hard to deny that that little girl was his.
"She's mine," Eric said.
"Wow, congrats I guess," Calleigh said.
"Thanks, but I can't believe Lorena kept this from me. How could she?" he said.
"I'm sorry Eric. Maybe you can try to work it out, I think that little girl needs you. Just looking at her today, she seemed liked she needed it," Calleigh said and walked out of the room.
Eric just stayed there looking at the paper wondering what to do with this new information. Should he fight for his new little girl or should he just let it go.
"Eric, you're still here?" Horatio asked.
"H, that little girl. She's mine and I didn't even know," he said.
"You know, now that you mention it, she looks like you. What are you going to do?" he asked.
"I don't know, H. I don't think I want to pop into her life now, if Lorena wanted me to know she would have told me," Delko said.
"Is that what's best for Diana?" Horatio asked.
Eric sighed, "I hope so."
Horatio nodded and walked off, leaving Eric to his thoughts.
Diana's Pov
I was practically thrown into the house, hitting our wooden coffee table very hard. I cried and begged to not be beaten tonight. My step dad was waiting in the car at the precinct and he glared at me all the way home. He couldn't wait until we were inside and away from the public to torture me.
He pulled me up roughly by the collar of my shirt. I was practically hanging in the air like a rag doll.
"What the hell were you doing at the police station?" he yelled in my face.
"I'm sorry. I witnessed a murder. I'm sorry," I whined.
"Witnessed a murder, you little shit can't stay out of trouble. I can't stand you, you were the one who should have fell and not my baby girl. You're the one who should be buried in that grave, not Gia," he screamed.
"Mommy!" I screamed for her.
"I'm sorry Diana. He's right," she whined quietly.
I sobbed hard and wondered if I was going to see my sister again. He threw me roughly to the ground, my arm hurt and I couldn't crawl away. He whaled on me and it felt way worse than any other time he'd beat me. I could hear my mom sobbing in the corner of the room, but she didn't dare to do anything about it, she never did. I was losing consciousness and I felt him pick up my body and he tossed me into my room, locking it from the outside.
I passed out in pure agony and stayed on the ground the whole night. I woke up the next day and saw I already missed almost the whole day of school. I got up slowly in so much pain I could barely breathe. I looked in my mirror and saw that I was battered and bruised throughout my entire body. I had dried blood on my face and a few other parts of my body.
I tried to open the door, but the door was still locked. I cried silently because I hurt everywhere and I haven't eaten since lunch at school yesterday. I curled up into a ball and rocked myself back and forth. There was only one thing I could do, but I didn't think I could manage it with the shape I was in.
After a few minutes I grabbed the courage to climb out the window and down the trellis we had. I limped as fast as I could down the street and towards the Miami Dade police department. Since my bike was still in the back of Officer Delko's car. I knew I couldn't dilly dally because once, Hector, my step dad would find I was gone, he'd kill me.
Once I got there I went to the floor I remembered I was on yesterday. I limped in and I was so light headed from my exertion and lack of food in my system. I heard my name being called out, but I succumbed to the darkness that over took me.
"Diana, can you hear me?" I heard a man say.
I felt something wet hit my forehead and I blinked open my eyes. I saw Officer Delko looking over me with concern written all over his face.
"Hey, it's okay. Can you tell me what happened?" he whispered soothingly to me.
"My step dad beat me again," I said.
"Again?" he asked.
"Yes, he wanted me to die like Gia," I said.
"Who's Gia?" he asked.
"My little sister. It was his daughter. I was the one he wanted to push down the stairs, but Gia got caught in the middle," I said.
"My god," he said.
"I'm hungry," I cried.
"When's the last time you ate?" he asked.
"Yesterday at lunch time," I said.
He looked baffled and angry at what I told him.
"An ambulance is on its way to take you to the hospital, but I'll get you a granola bar to keep you a little fed," Delko said.
He came back a few minutes later with a granola bar and I ate it greedily. I was still pretty hungry, but at least it should hold me over for a little while. Officer Duquesne came in and talked low to Eric. He nodded his head and looked over at me.
"The EMT's are here. They are going to take you to the hospital. Calleigh here is going to go with you, okay?" he said.
"Okay," I said.
The EMT's came and loaded me onto a stretcher and took me to an ambulance. Officer Duquesne was by my side the whole time and it was comforting to have someone here for me.
3rd Person Pov
Eric paced the floor of the lab waiting for news if they picked up Hector Espinoza. That asshole was going to pay once he got his hands on him, he couldn't think about protocol right now, no one hurts his little girl. He may have only found out yesterday, but she was still his.
"Eric pacing like that isn't going to find him any faster," Speedle said as he walked in.
"I can't help it, I'm pent up with anger. How could someone do that to a kid? Especially since she's mine. I want to kill him Speed," Eric said.
"I know but we're cops. We can't do that," Speed said.
"I know," Eric said sighing.
There was a commotion out front and Eric and Tim went to check it out.
"I didn't do shit! That little demon is lying," Hector screamed as he was being dragged in with cuffs on his hands.
"Then why was she caked in blood and bruised from head to toe. How do you explain it?" Horatio yelled at him.
"The kid did it herself," he said.
"Those wounds were nothing a child could inflict on themselves," Horatio said.
"I want my lawyer," Hector said.
Eric couldn't take it anymore he went up to them and decked the guy. Speedle pulled him back and held onto him.
"What the hell! That's police brutality," Hector yelled with a bloody lip.
"Take him away Speedle. Come on Mr. Espinoza we have lots of questions," Horatio said.
Speed took Eric to the break room and Eric took a seat in a chair.
"That could have cost us the case," Speed said.
"I know, but I had too. I couldn't take listening to him and seeing his face. He hurt my daughter, Speed. I don't think it'll matter though, we have so much evidence on him and he was also a part of the murder in the park. He was the getaway driver. He's going away for a long time," Eric said.
"Yeah, I guess," Speed said.
"Hector!" A women screamed in the hall.
Eric stormed out to the front and got into Lorena's face.
"Why didn't you tell me about her? How could you let him do that to my own little girl? I knew you were no good when I dated you, but I wish I stayed around for my daughter," Eric yelled.
"You wouldn't have wanted her. You said you didn't want a family yet, you wanted to get ahead in your life, so I let you go. When I found out I was pregnant I didn't hunt you down, it doesn't matter," she said.
"It does matter, my little girl is in the hospital beat half to death. If she couldn't have gotten out, she'd be dead right now," he bellowed.
"If she would have died when Gia did, you would have never known," she said.
"He killed his own little girl. You two are sick, arrest her," Eric said.
"What? I didn't do anything," She said
"Mrs. Espinoza you are an accomplice to attempted murder of a minor and abuse of a minor. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do can and will be used against you in the court of law," Speedle finished the Miranda rights and took her to another interrogation room.
"Eric," Horatio called.
"Yeah, H," he said.
"Go to your little girl. She needs someone right now, and I think her father would be the best. We'll take care of Hector and Lorena. We won't let them get away with this," Horatio said.
"Thanks, H." Eric said.
He headed off to the hospital wondering what he was going to tell Diana.
Diana's Pov
I was laying in my hospital bed, watching bad daytime television. I just finished the food they brought me, it tasted horrible, but I wasn't complaining I was starving. Calleigh left the room a few minutes ago to go call someone.
I had to get twelve stitches in my forehead, five in my leg, I had a broken rib which they wrapped up in medical tape around my chest and back, and I have a cast on my left hand. I was bruised up pretty bad, but they gave me some pain medication.
Officer Delko walked into my room and I smiled up at him. He was friendly to me and I liked him a lot. He came over and sat next to me in the guest chair near my bed. He handed me a stuffed fluffy rabbit and I took it gratefully. It's been a while since a got a new toy and one that wasn't used and old.
"Thank you," I said.
"You're welcome, Diana," he said.
It was silent for a while and I held the stuffed animal close.
"Diana, we have your parents in custody they are going to go away for a long time. You may have to testify against them," he said.
"Okay, will you be there?" I asked.
"I'll try," he said smiling.
"What's going to happen to me? Am I going to go to foster care? My mom always said if I didn't behave I'd go there," I said.
"Diana, the thing is… I'm your father, and I was thinking of gaining full custody of you. Unless you don't want to," he said.
"You're my father?' I said.
I didn't know how to feel about that, but I was really happy. He seemed so much better than my step dad and he's my real dad.
"I am your father. Would it be okay for me to get custody?" Officer Delko said.
"I'd like it a lot," I said.
"Great, I was hoping you would," he said.
We spent the rest of the day talking and getting to know each other. My dad was so nice to me, it was weird learning what a parent was really supposed to be like. I felt much better with him by my side.
I got out of the hospital two days later, my bruises were slowly fading away, but they were still visible. My cast and wrapping were going to be on for a while, they said probably a month or two. My stitches were supposed to dissolve in a few weeks.
My dad was going through the process of getting full custody of me and my mom was in jail with my step dad awaiting their trial. I stayed at my dad's house for now and it wasn't exactly made for a child. He said we'd go shopping soon for some stuff. I was even able to pick up some stuff from my old house, including a picture of me and my sister. It was two months before her death and I loved the picture so much.
I think living with my dad is going to be great, I just hope things are going to be all right now.