Chapter 1:

The sun had reached its zenith point in the suburban Miami area. All was silent. The birds were chirping. It was a perfect summer day…

"C'mon, Jem, give JoJo back!" The small brunette girl cried, referring to her soft and huggable lime-green teddy bear, JoJo.

"You called me Squirt!" The taller boy retorted. He, similar to his father, had thick tufts of espresso-colored hair.

"So, I didn't mean it! You're older, why do you care? Give her back!"

"You're my sister, I'm supposed to DISSECT this." He very well knew that that was her most hated word.

"No! I'm telling mommy and daddy!"

"They're not home!"

"Jeremy…give her back!" She rammed her tiny five-year old body into her brother's eight-year old body. "Give her back!"

He shoved her back and the fight pursued. They didn't notice the rip that appeared into the thin air until they were already in it, falling into the black abyss. They didn't notice the thirty-or-so old man follow them in.

As he blinked his eyes open, he suddenly became very protective as he recalled the previous moment's events. "Ella? Where are you? Dammit. This is isn't funny!" Then he took in his surroundings and began to panic. Where was he? He blinked a couple of times and then recognized his whereabouts. What am doing at the crime lab? Wasn't I just in our backyard fighting with Ella? I bet this is all her fault! Maybe I should move from the middle of the hallway. He got up and began walking around, searching for his little sister, or at least his parents. At least it's cooler than outside.
Having saved JoJo from Jem, Ella woke up clutching the stuffed animal tightly to her chest. It was silent in the hallway she was in. "Jem…Squirt?" When nobody responded, her little body began to quiver. Where did everyone go? "Mommy, Daddy…?" How come I'm all alone?

A familiar face to Ella turned the corner. She instantaneously felt better as she recognized the fiery, yet ironically soft, orange hair. It reminded her of Kurosaki Ichigo's hair from the anime, Bleach. She may have been five, but she knew how to operate a computer, more importantly how to operate the Internet, with the help of Jem of course, and go onto and watch it. The subtitles had improved her reading skills. Well, anyway, seeing the hair and black sunglasses filled her with a sense of ease. "Unky H!" She jumped up and down in excitement, swinging her tiny arms, and lime-green bear, wildly.

The man took off his sunglasses and gave the small child a bewildered look and then a warm smile as he came over and down eye to eye with her. "Hello, ma'am; are you looking for somebody?" Ella loved it when her uncle called her 'ma'am' because it made her feel like such a big girl.

"Yep! Do you know where Mommy and Daddy are?" She puffed out her cheeks with air, looking like a little chipmunk.

The man grinned at the little girl's innocence; he held a soft spot in his heart for sweet little children and made sure that they never became tainted. There was something about her, though, something about her eyes that seemed so strikingly familiar. "What's your name?"

Ella giggled, "Uncle Horatio! You're so silly! Where's Daddy and Mommy? Are they still working?"

"Do you know their names?"

Ella's youthful face scrunched into a frown, "I don't know…" She was becoming confused and agitated. "Who are you? Aren't you Unky H?" Her five-year old mentality couldn't comprehend the situation she was in and she started to become frightened.

"Of course, ma'am." Horatio smiled warmly. The last thing he wanted was for this girl to start panicking.

"Then how come you can't remember me."

Horatio was faced with a difficult choice. He chose the simpler one for now so that there would be less complication since the child was clearly befuddled. "I'm just testing you dear."

"Again? Okie!" Ella giggled, which reminded Horatio of someone else's, but at the present moment he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Ella Chloe D---- DADDY!" Ella observed her dad exit a room frowning as he flipped through a file in his hand. She ran around Horatio and rammed into her dad, throwing him into the wall as she grabbed his leg. At the same time, he let out a huge, "Ohmph!"

"Daddy, Daddy! Jeremy's in trouble, right? He said he was gonna dissect JoJo! Is he gonna get in trouble?" Ella exclaimed expressively. She shoved her teddy bear upwards so that her father got have a better look at the 'damage,' which was, if anything, something as miniscule as misplaced fur fuzz. "I think that you should give his chocolate to me. As a punishment for hurting JoJo."

The half Cuban, half Russian man blinked confusedly at the small girl. A moist pool of mocha brown eyes met its match as they looked at each other. He glanced over to Horatio, now standing, who just shook his head silently, as if to say I know no more than you do. Looking back at the child, the man thought to himself miserably, Eric Delko, you're in deep shit now; exactly how many women did I sleep with? No one ever mentioned that they were pregnant…Natalia had that close call a couple of months ago, but she said that the doctor said that it was a false alarm. Who else? Is this a joke from Gloria? No, she isn't that clever. Crap. Is this really my child? Who's mommy? I hope not my wife… Who's Jeremy? What do I say to this girl?

"Daddy?"

"Uh." Eric coughed. He didn't want to scare or confuse the girl. She was beginning to get restless.

"Daddy…you're like Unky H! Are you two playing the same game? That's boring!" She faked a yawn.

Eric laughed nervously. This has to be some kind of joke. "If I'm 'daddy,' who are you?"

"Ella!" Ella giggled again. "C'mon, let's find mommy and Jem!" She inserted her small hand into Eric's big one. The act nearly broke his heart. She tugged it, "C'mon daddy, we also have to stop by Auntie Valera's for some chocolate!" Ella enthusiastically dragged her father away as they went in search for people and chocolate. "Jem's in trouble, right?"

Horatio shook his head as he chuckled at the pure innocence of this girl, Ella. He spotted the file that Eric had dropped during the 'chaos' of the situation, and picked it up. He frowned as he realized what the contents of the file implied. He needed to make a couple of important calls. I need to inform Natalia.