Brave Saviour, Precious Child
The morning had started out long and boring as he had to go through the massive amount of paperwork that had accumulated on his desk over the last couple of days, one of the few things that most people hated to do, but had to write out any way. Sighing, Lieutenant Horatio Caine signed off on another report, so that his superiors would know that he had read that particular document in question. It was nearing one in the afternoon when the call came in and he took some of his people with him, glad for the change of pace that violence offered him, even though he despised it. The crime scene was about half an hour away from the crime lab and first responders included Frank Tripp, a member of the Miami Dade Police Force and a close friend of the CSIs who worked with the detectives.
"What do you have for us, Frank?" Horatio asked when he and the other two CSIs pulled up in their department issued Hummers. Standing behind the lieutenant, Ryan Wolfe and Calleigh Dusquene took in the scene before them, holding large, silver kits that held everything that they would need to gather evidence from the scene, from finger printing dust to cameras and impression kits.
A quaint little one storey house was partially burned and the horrid stench of cooked flesh reached them even though they stood on the sidewalk not fifteen feet away. Toys that indicated that there was a little girl living there were scattered across the front yard and there was one of two hints that there was either a family dog or that the neighbour's canine often used the yard as their own personal toilet.
"Fire and rescue were called out around noon when a passer-by noticed the flames coming from one of the windows. The blaze was put out quickly once the trucks arrived and when they found the bodies, they called me and then I called you," Tripp answered, checking his notebook. "From what I can tell, there's a female and a male inside and that I found no evidence of a little girl inside other than a child's room. Neighbours have confirmed that there is a little girl about six or seven years old, and that they don't think that she had left for school today."
Calling the medical examiner to come and retrieve the bodies, Horatio and the other two CSIs started to examine that scene for any clue as to who would do this. They found a lot of evidence, but whether it was associated with today's crime or not would have to wait until everything was processed. Sending Calleigh and Ryan back to the crime lab with all of the evidence that they had collected to start sifting through so that they wouldn't lose any evidence; Horatio decided that he would wait until the last officer had left before leaving himself, something that he sometimes did to make sure that nothing had been missed. As he turned away from the house and headed to his Hummer, he stopped and cocked his head back to the house. Something had made a noise and he waited to see if it would repeat itself, and it did. Following the noise to its source, taking his time so that he made the correct decision and to give him enough time to grab his gun in case he needed it, Horatio crouched down in front of a small plastic house and angled his head to see inside.
Large, mournful green eyes stared back at him. The little girl they belonged to was curled in on herself, trying to protect her small frame from any more hurt and she clasped a stuffed animal to her chest. Her auburn hair was in disarray as if she had just come from a fight and had lost, terribly.
"Hi, sweetheart. Are you okay?" Horatio asked the small form in a kind voice, hoping to try and coax her from her hiding spot, holstering his gun when he spoke. When he received a head shake in response, he continued on. "Do you want me to come in and help you or can you come out for me?"
The little girl seemed to consider her options and slowly crawled out, looking ready to make a run for it if it came down to it. Bathed in the setting Miami sun, the girl looked even more ragged than she did in her plastic house. He clothing was practically non-existent, consisting only of a large male's T-shirt, the wide neck slipping over a shoulder, and bruises dotted her skin in the form of large hands. Horatio suspected that if he was able to get a nurse to examine her, they would find evidence of rape.
Horatio extended a hand to the girl and waited as she mentally weighed the pros and cons of taking his hand, finally coming to the decision to clasp her small hand in his larger one. "My name is Horatio. I'm a policeman. Do you know what that is?" he inquired, smiling when she nodded. "Something bad happened here and I was sent here to find out what happened. Can you help me with that?" The girl seemed to hesitate but eventually nodded again. "Okay, then. What do you think of coming with me and getting cleaned up? I have a good friend at the hospital and she has children of her own. I'm sure that she would help us, okay?"
Nodding once more, the girl accepted Horatio's offer to carry her to his Hummer seeing as she had no shoes on her feet. She stared in awe at the interior and at the passing scenery, but shrunk in on herself when they pulled up at the hospital, refusing to leave Horatio's side, even when the nurse came by and requested that the girl come with her. Before things could get heated, Dr. Alexx Woods came out and told the nurse to leave it alone and led the red headed CSI to a private room, where, after giving a hug to her friend and former colleague, she proceeded to examine the girl thoroughly.
"She's a healthy little girl, Horatio. I'll have the report on your desk some time tomorrow for your investigation," Alexx told Horatio. "I get off in an hour. I'll stop by your place tomorrow with proper clothing for her. She should be okay for the night in a clean shirt and with a good bath to get all of that grime off of her."
"Thank you, Alexx," Horatio gave the darker skinned woman a small peck on the cheek and took the girl to his Hummer and drove back to the crime lab. As he was walking up the steps to the front door, he was intercepted by Tripp, who was walking the halls, obviously mulling over the information in his hand.
"There you are. I have been looking all over for you. We have more information on the couple from today's crime scene," Tripp paused and took a closer look at his fellow law enforcer, specifically the man's leg and the form that clung to the leggings of his pants. "Isn't that the girl that was missing?" He asked as they entered Horatio's office.
"I found her hiding in the play house outside as I was leaving. I'll be taking her to my place for the night and Alexx will stop by and give me some clothing for her tomorrow," letting the girl down to explore the office, Horatio turned to Tripp. "What did you find out about our victims?"
"Well, for starters, they were married, so that wasn't a lie. She was identified, positively, as Anna Beth Colesworth, nee Richards and he was Sean Colesworth. They were suspects in a child pornography ring, but were never convicted and they left the state after the trial was over," Tripp informed the red head. "They moved here under the assumed names of Abigail and Charles Jenkins and were living at the house before it burned. There are no records of a child living with them, so I have to assume that they kidnapped her from somewhere between here and Iowa."
Horatio nodded and snuck a quick look at the girl, who was busy inspecting the office and was now examining the desk, running her hands over the wooden grain. "We'll put out an amber alert tomorrow, Frank. We're tired, and I think that this little lady might want a bed for the night," he said, smiling when the girl yawned in response, rubbing her eyes with her small hands. Gently, so as not to startle the girl, Horatio picked her up and headed out after bidding Tripp a good night.
It was a rather uneventful night. Horatio had managed to get the girl to eat a healthy portion of Chinese takeout before getting her washed and dressed in one of his older T-shirts. As she curled up on the couch, smelling like Old Spice, she turned to the red head and stared at him, a question burning in her eyes, but reluctant to voice it out loud for fear of being reprimanded.
Kneeling, Horatio smiled at her again, silently trying to encourage her to speak up. When that didn't work, he asked her what was wrong. He was surprised by the answer he got, but in truth, he really was expecting it.
"Why are you being nice to me?" she asked, her voice light and feathery, but rough from disuse.
"That's the way I am, sweetheart. I help people, and you need help," Horatio answered her. "Now, can you tell me your name? Or where you came from?"
The girl hesitated again, something that was quick becoming a habit to put off questions for as long as possible. She sighed in resignation, in an incredibly adult-like manner and looked Horatio straight in the eye, bright green boring into blue. "My name is Cameron, not Becky like they called me. I was from Louisville, Kentucky before they came and killed my parents and any relatives that they could find," she whispered to him. "They made me go with other people when we got here, and they hurt me. I wanted it to stop, but they said that they would get another child and hurt them even worse than what was happening to me."
"Would you mind giving us a statement tomorrow when we get back to the lab?" Horatio asked. "You don't have to tell me what happened. You can tell one of my co-workers, a woman, if you feel more comfortable."
Cameron paused for a minute or two, thinking about which option would be best for her. When she finally came up with an answer, she leaned forward, elbows on her knees, and told Horatio her answer. "I'll tell you," she said.
"Okay, then. Now, I think that you should head off to bed. If you're going to tell me, I want you rested," Horatio stood up and showed Cameron her room for the night, which turned out to be the guest bedroom. He helped her to get under the covers and closed the door behind him, heading to his study, working on random files until he was sure that Cameron would sleep through the night. He then prepared to head to bed, wondering who would have killed the girl's kidnappers. Silently vowing to protect her, he turned off his light and closed his eyes, just missing the dark figure that flitted past his window.
Cameron woke up to sunlight streaming on her face and the tantalizing smell of buttermilk waffles wafting in the air. It took her a couple of minutes to remember that she had been rescued yesterday from her own living hell and that she was staying with a kind man for the time being. Getting up from the most comfortable mattress she had ever been on, she headed to the door and opened it, following the aromatic smell of breakfast to the kitchen, pausing when she noticed that the doctor who had treated her yesterday was sitting on a chair, speaking with Horatio as he poured more batter in the waffle iron.
"Good morning, Cameron," Alexx said when she noticed the girl standing in the doorway. "I brought you some clothes and other things, if you would prefer to change out of your night shirt." Handing the girl the bag, she watched as Cameron left and returned minutes later dressed in a pair of jeans and a bright yellow T-shirt, her hair brushed and pulled back with a hair band, bare feet slapping against the kitchen tile. "You look, beautiful, baby. How do you feel?"
"I'm fine," Cameron shyly replied, sitting down and taking the plate Horatio offered her. She smothered the waffle in butter and maple syrup before tearing into it, eating like there was no tomorrow.
"Good Lord, Horatio! Did you feed her last night?" Alexx asked, eyes wide in amazement when she saw Cameron inhaling her plateful of food. The only person who had come close to matching Cameron's eating was her son, especially when the boy would come home from practice.
"She ate a good plate and a half of food for dinner when we got home yesterday," Horatio replied as he sat down with his breakfast, spreading peanut butter on his waffles. "She just needs to build up her strength."
Thirty minutes later, Alexx had left, leaving the two to head off to the crime lab, where Cameron's voice was recorded, telling a horror story of what she had suffered through. Once she had finished speaking and crying because the memories were so fresh and painful, she was introduced to the rest of the team. She found herself giggling when she and Horatio walked in on an argument between Eric Delko and Ryan Wolfe that really revolved around nothing, and laughed harder when they were both whacked on the head with a newspaper by another woman who later introduced herself as Natalia Boa Vista.
"What a way to start the day! I don't think that the entire lab needs to hear who is better between the Mets and the Braves. Besides, I don't think that Horatio and his friend need to hear this either," Natalia growled at the two, earning twin puppy dog looks in her direction before the looks shifted to Horatio and Cameron.
"Sorry, I don't care about baseball. I prefer football," Cameron managed to get out between giggles, glad that she could still laugh about something as mundane as whom was the best pitcher in the entire baseball league. "I'm Cameron. I was found last night by Horatio where that fire was."
"So, is she...?" Ryan started to ask, but stopped, looking at his boss for an answer.
"Yes, Mister Wolfe. This is the young girl that the neighbours reported as missing from the house, the one who hadn't left for school," Horatio replied. "Only, she was never their daughter and she wasn't going to school. Cameron was kidnapped by the couple who lived there from Louisville, Kentucky. Frank is calling the detective that was assigned her case to see if there are any other living relatives that these two did not kill."
"Wow. That's harsh," Natalia said, and offered to take Cameron for the rest of the morning, letting the others work on the case.
Horatio agreed to let the girl go with his CSI as long as an officer dressed in plain clothes would escort them wherever they went as they did not know if anyone was after her or not. And given what Cameron had told Horatio that morning, he was betting on the fact that her 'parents' had been killed because they had not been given a good experience with her. The thought of it all made him ill to his stomach, and he struggled not to be sick. Instead, he watched as Cameron and Natalia left the crime lab, accompanied by a police officer Tripp had sent over. He had to admit that the trio looked like a young family on vacation.
"Okay, people, what do we have?" he asked once they were gone, switching gears to the case before them. As Eric and Ryan filled him in on what they had found, Horatio grimaced at what the evidence pointed at. Just as they were finishing up, Calleigh entered the room with the autopsy report.
"The people we know to be the Colesworths had been tortured before they died from blunt force trauma to the head by something that could be a tire iron. They were burnt after they were dead, hiding the fact that she had been assaulted until Tom opened her up and found damaged tissue," the southern girl reported, throwing the file on the table so that her colleagues could take a look at it if they wanted to.
Eric winced when he skimmed the report. "Okay, so we know that Cameron was hiding in the play house out front when this went down. We can speculate that whoever did this was a... customer... and liked little girls, and has a fixation on Cameron. When he didn't get what he wanted, he assaulted the woman and killed both of them before setting the fire to cover his tracks. The only question is who this man is, and does he still want Cameron?" he asked, summarizing what everyone was thinking at the moment.
Ryan gestured to some of the photographs that he had taken at the scene. "I found recent shoe impressions that didn't match up with what the victims shoe sizes were. His were nine and a half and hers were an eight. I found a size eleven boot print of the most common work boots sold in Miami, so that's no help," he said, showing a photograph that he had taken at the scene. "Luckily, there was some trace preserved from the fire by a discarded towel, and I identified it as cement mixed with a new solution designed to help the concrete be more wear resistant. There are no more than ten sites using this mix, so that narrows things down." Taking out a map, he pointed out where these sites were located, which he had circle with a pen.
Horatio nodded and made a phone call to Tripp so that he could send units out to the locations and detain everyone there. They needed to get the killer before he left the state or struck again.
The big break came when Natalia ran the small sample of DNA that Tom had found inside their female victim. She entered the DNA profile in their database and had set the program to run in every federal database to try and find a match. She had started looking for anything that would help identify their perpetrator faster by trying to identify any biological defect, but had come up empty when the alarm sounded on her computer. Excited, Natalia click on the results and was pleased to see a name and a face, but when she continued to read the profile of the man, her good mood faded. Printing out the results, she yelled to the assistant to keep an eye on things while she took off to find Horatio. Luckily, the lieutenant was wandering the halls with his new charge.
When Horatio caught sight of Natalia's disturbed face, he urged Cameron to go find Eric or Ryan, both whom she had taken an instant liking to. Once the girl was out of earshot, he turned to the woman and asked her what was wrong.
"I found our guy. I ran the semen that Tom found and these are the results that I got," Natalia replied, handing him the paper, watching as his face darkened as he read further down the page. She knew how he was feeling. "Luke Jackson was reported for abusing his children, but was paroled when the woman who accused him was found dead, but his children were never returned to him, even though there never was a trial. He's a listed molester, but he doesn't have to speak to anyone about where he lives or what he does for a living. The judge deemed him a possible risk, but on a low enough scale that no one cares if he lives right by a school."
"Thank you, Ms. Boa Vista," Horatio said, leaving the crime lab with the paper as he called up the police department and requested that a couple of uniforms meet him at the address that he supplied.
Jackson wasn't at home when they got there, so they headed off to his place of work, which was, ironically, one of the places Wolfe had identified that their killer worked at. While speaking to the foreman, Horatio noted a man try to discreetly leave the construction site. When he shouted out a warning, identifying himself and the officers with him, the man bolted and was quickly lost in the surrounding area. At least now they knew that they were on the right track and that lifted their spirits ever so slightly, despite the fact that Cameron could be hunted down by this monster.
Eric and Calleigh were assigned to process their suspect's house. They nodded to the officers standing guard outside and entered the premises with their kits. Splitting up, Eric took the back half of the house while Calleigh took the front half. As Eric processed the back room, where, he discovered, there was a king sized bed, he found something that disturbed him. Taking pictures of the box, Eric pulled out sex toys and child pornography, bagging them for further processing. Turning to the bed, his gut churned violently at the thought of what could have passed here. Examining the sheets, he nearly retched when his ultraviolet light revealed enough semen stains to start a small city. They were so numerous that it was impossible to count, and he wished that Jackson would be put away for each and every child that he had raped.
Unknown to Calleigh, she had received the easier end of the deal. There was next to little evidence that a child rapist lived here, judging from what she found in the living room and kitchen. To the untrained eye, it looked like there was a bachelor living there, seeing as it was so dirty and unorganised, but, when one looked deeper, they could see the faint traces that a child would have been around. A stuffed toy here and a coloring book there, hidden under a car magazine or thrown in a box. It wasn't much, but it was enough to lay suspicions on the man. Sighing, she wished that they would catch this bastard soon enough.
Thirty minutes later, she found herself fuming silently when Eric filled her in on what he had found, A quick glance around confirmed her suspicions that the police officers were just as pissed as she was when they heard what was found in the house. They didn't judge the man yet, but they knew that the CSIs would be able to pinpoint the perpetrator soon enough. Sealing the door with crime scene tape, they left with the evidence, eager, and dreading, to find out what had happened in that house.
Watching from a hidden, shadowed area that overlooked the crime lab, Luke Jackson kept an eye on the only girl who had escaped him. He desperately wanted her again, to have her with him, but he knew that he had to get her away from her protectors first. He watched as a red head, the same red head that he had seen at his work place, exited the building with the girl, heading to one of the vehicles in the lot. Following them as they drove off, Jackson started to create a plan, filling out the idea from the basic outline he had thought of. Taking note of which house the red head and the girl entered, he turned and headed for the nearby park, waiting for the perfect bait.
It wasn't long before a woman and her six year old wandered by, the child catching Jackson's eye. He followed them home and waited until well after dark before breaking in, killing the family and having his way with the girl before killing her, too. He left a message in the parent's blood, grinning as he did so, leaving the premises long before the murders were called in.
Horatio grimaced when he received the call in. A family had been killed in their home during the night, and there was a chilling message written in blood that awaited them. Passing Cameron to one of the officers who had taken to hanging around the lab, he and his team headed to the scene, ready for a long morning of processing. When they got back to the lab, they split up, heading to different areas to get their evidence taken care of. Things changed when Tom call Horatio down to autopsy, saying that he had found a lot of significant evidence on his preliminary examination.
"Ah, Horatio! Good for you to come," Tom Loman said as he gestured the lieutenant closer to the tables that held their victims, who were mercifully covered with white sheets, hiding the horrors that had been inflicted upon them.
"You told me that you had found something of importance," Horatio told the man in response, watching as the M.E. stopped his unconscious pacing by the smallest body, his face darkening in anger at the thought that a young girl had been killed needlessly before she had even begun to live.
"Right! Anyways, here's what I found," Loman pulled the sheet back on the girl, pointing out a small discoloration on her right shoulder. "This isn't bruising. I swabbed it for trace and sent it up to the lab, but look at its shape. The man who did this left us enough evidence to point us to him. I also collected semen from the girl, but nothing from the parents. It seems that they had been tortured before they were killed."
Horatio frowned when he took a closer look at the girl. "What are those?" he asked, pointing out something in her hair. "It looks like someone grabbed her when they had wood slivers on their hand."
"Walter told me that you suspect worked construction. Does he work in wood?" Loman asked, gathering a sample of the evidence, handing the glass dish to the lieutenant when he had gathered enough. He was speaking of another member of the CSI team, Walter Simmons, who had informed him of the recent activities of the case.
"No, he doesn't, at least not at the site. Perhaps this is the result of a hobby that he has taken up, to pass the time between children," Horatio muttered angrily before leaving the autopsy room. He dropped off the evidence at trace, Eric's voice following him as he promised to get the results for him as quick as he could. Heading for the A/V lab, Horatio flipped through the images of their most recent crime scene, finally focusing on the one that had been taken of the message that had been written in blood on the wall. Cupping his chin, Horatio leaned forward on an elbow, re-reading the contents again and again, trying to think up a way to catch this monster.
'Bring her to me, or there will be more like this coming soon,' the message read, followed by a string of coordinates that had been identified as a small clearing, small enough that a helicopter couldn't land there, out in the middle of nowhere, followed by another sentence. 'I'll be watching, waiting.'
Instead of hanging around the lab for the evidence to be processed, Horatio took one of the hummers and drove around, trying to get his thoughts in order. Without realizing it, he found himself near the coordinates that had been found at the crime scene. Picking up his cell phone, he called Tripp, telling the man to get a team together and to meet him at the coordinates, listening to the cursing and the man trying to get him to wait for back up before hanging up on the Texan.
Jackson watched from the trees as the red headed protector entered the small clearing, his gun drawn as he slowly swept the area, making sure that there were no traps waiting for him. There was no indication that the girl had come with him, and he frowned at that. Now, he had to show the department that he was serious when he said that he wanted the girl, using this man as his lesson. He would put the man through horrors that he had never imagined, horrors that would haunt his colleagues for a long time to come. Waiting until the man had reached the tree he was hiding in, Jackson jumped, grinning maniacally at the sound of snapping bone.
Horatio shouted out in pain when he felt his leg break from the sudden weight on him. Horatio found himself staring at the sprouts of grass on the ground and he tried to get his thoughts in order, trying to ignore the pain that he felt. He couldn't help but yelp when he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and dragged to his feet, the world spinning around him until he was face to face with Jackson.
"Where is she?" Jackson hissed angrily, his facial features contorted into something that made him resemble a demon. He howled out loud in anger when he wasn't answered, causing birds and small animals to run away from the clearing, using rage fuelled strength to throw Horatio to the ground half a dozen feet away from him, revelling in the sound of his pained cry. Stalking up to the man who would soon be his next victim, Jackson, grabbed the rope that he had stuffed in his pocket, binding Horatio's wrists behind his back. He brought the red head to a nearby cabin, one that had been hastily put together, as it was something that wasn't meant to last long. "Why didn't you bring her to me?"
"You won't get your hands on her ever again," Horatio answered, taking the blow he knew was coming without a sound. Instead, he just stared steadily at Jackson with blue eyes that promised something more than pain and imprisonment until the unnerved man grabbed some fabric and blindfolded and gagged him.
Horatio grunted when he was picked up again and thrown onto a mattress, his head bouncing painfully against the wall, blood dripping from the fresh cut that he had received. He felt panic flare when the mattress dip beside him and as hands undressed his lower half. He tried to get away, but he was unsuccessful, as he was kept still from the weight of his captor, who lay on top of his body.
"I'll teach you and your crime pals not to disobey me again," Jackson hissed as he rubbed his hand over bare flesh, sliding his pants down. He was just about to enter his victim when the door was kicked open by a heavy blow. Caught in such a compromising position, Jackson could not reach his gun, and, instead, he surrendered to the officers, hands held above his head. His pants were pulled up roughly and he was yanked off of Horatio. He wisely kept quiet when many pairs of angered eyes swung his way when he opened his mouth to say something that would have probably gotten him shot.
Horatio flinched under his blindfold when the door was kicked open, but sighed in relief when he heard officers reciting Jackson his Miranda rights. He blinked when the coarse fibres of his blindfold and gag were removed from his face, revealing Tripp's worried features. Once he was completely free, he sat down, a dizzy spell attacking his aching head and body. "No, Frank, he didn't harm me in the way you're thinking. He only broke my leg and threw me around a bit," Horatio said, knowing that he had slightly calmed the Texan's impressive anger by reassuring him that nothing serious had happened, that they had arrived just in time to stop Jackson.
"Yeah, well, you're still going to get checked out by a medic," Tripp replied, waving the paramedics in from where they stood nervously outside the hut, stepping back to allow them the room they needed to work. He kept a close eye on his friend when the medics strapped Horatio to the backboard and carried him outside and through the trees to the waiting ambulance. He stood just outside the back doors, watching as the red head was prepped for transport. "I'll call the lab to let everyone know that you're going to the hospital, but that you seem fine. They've been threatening me with a sudden vanishing act if we didn't find you today since I informed them what you were doing." Tripp mentally winced when he thought of how the CSIs had all ganged up on him and threatened him with bodily harm if he did not find Horatio alive, and very soon, meaning that very day. The scientists were very scary in their own unique way, and that was what made the officers very wary when they had to give out bad news concerning one of their own.
Horatio grinned as the morphine started to kick in, easing his pain from the red hot poker poking his skin and bones to a dull ache that barely registered. "That sounds like something they would do. I'm surprised that nothing happened to Stetler when he was in charge of the lab," he said, the drug muddling his mind, making him forget what he could have gone through, easing the fear that burned so closely to the surface, reminding him of the past that he desperately wanted to forget.
"Who says that nothing happened?" Tripp left that reply hanging in the air as the back doors were closed and the ambulance drove off.
It took Horatio a couple of days to get out of the hospital, and he was visited every minute of the day. His CSIs stayed during all hours, ignoring the nurses who seemed determined to get them to leave, proving that they were more stubborn than any other family member that usually dealt with during their rounds. They also brought Cameron in to see him, and he was informed that there were no mentions of other family, other than the ones the Colesworths had killed in Kentucky, so she would be entered into the system; an orphan, a foster child. Horatio, once having heard that little bit of information, had made a call or two to some judges who owed him, and had asked that they speed up the process to adopt Cameron and change her last name to Caine.
He was met by loud squeals and cheers when he announced to the group of CSIs who had been with him at the time when he had received the news that he was officially going to adopt Cameron, something that really didn't shock anyone as it was something that Horatio was prone to do. Everyone at the lab had become attached to the spunky little girl who had lived through so much, and had wished them both well when the news had been passed on to them. Actually, they really admired her for her hidden skills, pranking Eric and Ryan with super glue, glitter, food coloring and a little ingenuity. Horatio had snorted in laughter when the two had entered his hospital room looking as if they had just come from a princess party hosted by five year olds. He did face-palm himself when other ideas for an upcoming pranking war were thrown back and forth between the trio, making him realize just what he was getting into, but he didn't regret his decision to give Cameron a good home when he caught sight of her smiling and laughing with the others.
"Remind me to separate these guys whenever they seem to look at each other funny," Horatio and murmured to Calleigh and Natalia, despite their giggles.
Years later, Cameron had hit her fifteenth birthday and had celebrated it with her CSI family and her few friends. The life of the party was Loonie, a rescued Rottweiler affectionately called Loo, who had stolen the cake from Horatio's grasp and had made off with it. When they had found the dog again after an hour of searching, she had icing all over her fur. She hid her face in the rest of the vanilla frosted cake when Cameron pointed her finger at her and scolded her, but when the lecture was finished she snuck up to her masters and had jumped all over them, leaving streaks of cake over their clothing. The resulting picture was hung proudly in Horatio's new office, as he had been promoted to be head of the lab, something that prevented him from going out in the field, but allowed him to be home at night when Cameron got home from school.
Horatio pulled up in the driveway, smiling when he heard Loonie barking inside the house, just begging to be let out to enjoy the rest of the warm sunshine. Cameron would be home soon, so he had just enough time to get the rest of her birthday present ready. Letting the Rottweiler outside to play in the pool, Horatio took the cage inside and to Cameron's room, placing it so she would see it. A stuffed toy sat on the cage, which was draped in a thin blanket, providing a bit of protection from Cameron's large windows, which weren't covered by blinds during the day as she liked to have the natural light flood the area brightly whenever she was in her room for whatever reason, and he didn't dare close them as she would think that something was up.
Loonie's persistent barking alerted Horatio that his daughter was home and was just walking up the drive way. Closing the door softly behind him, he made his way to the kitchen where he grabbed an apple and bit into it, having already changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He opened the newspaper to a random page, which would throw suspicion off of him. He smiled when Cameron walked in, followed by Loonie and her best friend, the first one she had made in this state. Cameron had grown into a beautiful, young woman, dressed in semi-formal attire-she had a presentation today about a career choice, which was, if he was not mistaken, in forensics, something that she had taken to learning since she wanted to be like her father and his colleagues- and her auburn hair had been streaked in bright purple and drawn back into a high pony tail.
"Hey, dad," Cameron kissed him on the cheek in greeting before heading to her room with Loonie and Jamica 'Jamy' McEntire following her. Horatio almost winced in pain at the shriek of glee he heard when Cameron unearthed her present, followed by babbling baby talk and a loud, "Dad!"
Horatio got up from the chair he was sitting in and headed to his daughter's room. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor while Jamy sat on the bed with the stuffed dog. "Yes, sweetheart?"
"Where did you get her?" Cameron asked, holding a white shifting lump in her arms.
"I got her from the shelter. They had just received a bunch of puppies and dogs from a closed down puppy mill up north. They were shut down since the conditions were horrible, and the shelter had to put down nearly ten dogs since they were so far gone," Horatio explained, knowing that his daughter hated puppy mills, especially knowing that some people didn't give a damn about the animals that they raised, but that they only cared about the money coming in. Often enough, the dogs were forced to live, eat and sleep in their own feces, and were forced to mate until their reproduction numbers went down. When that happened, the dogs were usually killed, instead of being handed off to no-kill shelters. "She's a purebred pit bull, and I had her vaccinated and spayed, so she'll be fine."
"Thanks dad," Cameron said, letting the puppy down from her arms. They all laughed when the puppy investigated Loonie, who was lying on her side in the hallway, and as she jumped out of surprise when the pup jumped on her backside.
"What are you going to call her?" Jamy asked, tossing the stuffed dog behind her on the bed.
"I'll call her Hope," Cameron answered, hoping that one day, her wishes that puppy mills would be shut down for good. But until then, she would help out whenever possible and adopted from shelters instead of buying from the pet shop, as that was where these puppies were more often sold after being taken from their mother. She giggled when the newly christened Hope stumbled over to her with the unsteady gait of a puppy that hadn't walked enough to get its feet under itself properly, where she promptly started to play with the little bundle of energy.
Hi people. Glad to see that if you're reading this, then you've reached the end of this fic. I have to throw a special thank you to BLAKKSTONE for being the first reviewer on my fic, To Rescue Warriors. As he pointed out, it was a bit rushed, but then again, I had no way of trying to connect the days, and hurrying through some of the parts seemed like it would work. I'm glad that he liked it, and I commend him for realizing that I used all of the main characters that I could. If someone were to make a movie out of the Mack Bolan series, I would be the first to watch it and then I would buy it so that I would be able to watch it as many time as I could. It is so damn good!
Again, I apologize for not getting a multi chapter out, but I am actively working on four stories that are multi chaptered, and the only problem is that I am nowhere near a quarter of the way done on any of them, and I prefer to finish the first draft and when I write them out on the computer, I edit them further. And my one-shots don't count as I work on them whenever an idea pops up.
Also, I know that this story may jibe with you in a bad way, but I have tendencies to find such things and write about them. I hate the idea of rapists and such as they really hardly have any remorse. I write about these things because the public should know about what lives out in the world, and to know that things aren't always good. I remember back in high school, we were asked if we agree with the criminal punishment system, specifically the idea of killing a jailed man. I strongly believe in this because when you look at it, a rapist will live the events over and over and not give a damn. It's best to let the family have closure and not endure such a nightmare over and over again.
The bit about puppy mills is a true fact, and not fiction. These mills let these dogs live in horrible conditions, well most of them anyways, and sometimes take the puppies before they are even weaned because they want the parents to reproduce again, spreading bad genetics quite often. Don't buy from pet shops, but go a shelter and save a dog instead, and help to slowly put a stop to puppy mills. Look it up if you want to research it further, and to find ways to help save these dogs from something that horrible.