Natalia slowly opened her eyes and moaned as her head throbbed from the Chloroform she was forced to inhale. She attempted to rub her aching head but failed when she saw that her wrists were bound together, the more she tugged on them, and the more they hurt.

The first thing that came into Natalia's mind was Calleigh. She searched the room, her eyes scanning the whole place furiously. But Calleigh was no where to be found.

Out of desperation, she sighed and slumped on the cold concrete wall.

Natalia hoped that Calleigh was alright. She looked up and studied the room she's in.

It was a storage room with empty shelves and boxes. A single light bulb hung in the ceiling and the door was barred from the outside. On the door was a small window lined with bars and all she could see was the dirty white walls of the hallway.

She suddenly heard footsteps outside and the door being unbarred. A man, about the age of 34, with ink black hair and blue eyes came in and closed the door behind him

"Ah," he said, the familiar voice gave Natalia a chill up her spine. "You're finally awake." He dragged an iron chair and sat in front of Natalia. His piercing blue ices studied every inch of Natalia and then locked on her gaze.

"You are the DNA analyst of Caine's team, right?" the man said knowingly. "Natalia Boa Vista, if I'm not wrong."

"Where's Calleigh?" Natalia demanded, it sounded more of a hiss of hatred. "Where am I? Why did you kidnap us?"

The man chuckled coolly. "Hey sweetie." He said, he reached out towards Natalia and tucked a lock of hair behind her ears. Natalia pulled her head away angrily. "One at a time, please."

"Don't touch me." She snapped, it sounded more like a hiss. "Ashton Winters."

"You remember me," Ashton ginned. "I'm touched."

He shifted into a more comfortable position. "Your friend," he started. "Her name is Calleigh? Yes, she's still unconscious. I hit her pretty hard, but no harm done."

"No harm?!" Natalia shouted angrily. "You could've killed her!"

"Chill, sweetie." Ashton held up his hands. "She's going to be fine. For your second question; I'm not stupid, alright? You don't have to know where you are. And for your third question; this is a matter of revenge. Me and my brother promised Caine that we'll come after him in our own little way."

"Horatio and the others will get you." Natalia said the words carefully, venom in her voice.

"Not if we get them first." Ashton replied coldly. He smiled down at her and went out.

"Oh," he said before he left. "About the other two, CSI Delko and CSI Wolfe? They gave us a pretty hard time. I'll make sure they all go through hell."

He slammed the door shut and his footsteps dissolved in the distance.

Natalia bit her lower lip until she tasted blood. Her blood boiled with anger, she felt like she was going to pass out. Ashton's words kept repeating in her mind.

'I'll make sure they all go through hell.'

Ryan.


"Alright, mister," Eric stared but the club's bouncer cut him off.

"Smith." He said in a husky voice. "Denver Smith."

"Mr. Smith," Eric repeated. "Could you describe to us exactly what you saw last night?"

"It was dark, as you can see; there is only one lamp post." Denver began. "I didn't see that well because it was dark in that area. But what I did saw was two other people were there with them. One grabbed the other girl and one hit the other in the head. After that, I called the police."

Eric scribbled on the small notepad he was carrying; he found it hard to concentrate after Denver said that one of them was hit on the head.

Ryan, who was standing beside Eric, pulled out separate pictures of Calleigh and Natalia and held it out for Denver to see.

"Are these the women who left the club at that particular time?" He asked.

Denver squinted as he looked at the pictures.

"Yeah," he finally replied. "That's them alright. They looked pretty damn hot in those party dresses too."

Eric and Ryan ignored this statement.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Eric said after he finished scribbling notes in his small notepad.

"Sure," Denver grinned. "Anything I could do to help."

Horatio was studying the car and the scattered belongings of Calleigh and Natalia on the ground. Not far from where he was standing was a baseball bat with smeared blood on it.

Ryan joined him, with the camera in hand.

"Mr. Wolfe." Horatio began; it was a signal for Ryan to report any findings.

"The prints on the car are Calleigh's and Natalia's." Ryan replied quickly. "I'll process the bat now."

"Let's do that." Horatio said with authority and Ryan immediately took pictures of the bat and started dusting for prints. After thirty minutes of careful processing, he was able to find some prints on the handle.

"I'll get this to the lab." Ryan said as he placed the collected prints in an evidence envelope.

"ASAP, please." Horatio said simply. "We need you back here."

Ryan nodded and left. On his way to the Hummer, he passed by Eric who was collecting Natalia's and Calleigh's belongings and placing them inside envelopes.

"You going back to lab?" he guessed, knowing that Ryan had already finished collecting prints.

"Yeah." Ryan replied.

Eric picked up a piece of fabric that he photographed a while ago and held it out for Ryan to see.

"Found this." He said, "Beside Natalia's stuff."

Ryan felt his insides churn at the sound of her name. He ignored that feeling and studied the fabric.

"There's a red smear on it." Ryan observed as he squinted to see more. "Could be lipstick." Then he saw that there is a much darker red stain. Ryan clenched his fist inside his pants pocket so Eric wouldn't see. "And there's blood."

"Smells like chloroform." Eric's voice was full of grim emotion. "An over dose of this stuff could be lethal."

"Don't think I know that?" Ryan snapped impatiently. Thoughts of Natalia's limp and lifeless body ran through his mind.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Eric could see that Ryan couldn't handle this stress he's going through.

Ryan took a deep breath again. "Can we just please avoid those kinds of statements?" he said, struggling keep his voice from rising. "Just…" he sighed angrily, unable to continue.

"Hey man," Eric placed his hand on Ryan's shoulder, shook it gently a few times to comfort him. "Don't think that I'm handling this thing well. I'm just as worse as you are."

"How could you be so calm at a time like this?" Ryan asked, his voice shook with anger.

"It's not easy," Eric replied. "That much I could tell you." He removed his hand from Ryan's shoulder. "But if you keep getting agitated like this, it'll get us nowhere. It might even make things worse. So, just try to control it and don't let it get the best of you, alright?"

Ryan nodded and took the fabric from Eric. "Thanks, Delko." He said, he tried to smile but he found it difficult. "I'll take this to trace."

"'Kay then." Eric nodded with a comforting smile. "I'll see you back here."

Ryan nodded, and got behind the wheel.

After Ryan left, Eric went trough the bushes to look for evidence they had missed before.

Then, he stepped on something and it made a crumpling sound. He looked down, and there on the heel of his shoe, was a piece of paper. He photographed it and then picked it up. He unfolded it and his heart seemed to skip a beat as he read:

Hurry or they would die.

One wrong move and they go 'kaboom'

Eric almost tore the paper in pieces from anger.

"H!" he called out, a few seconds later, Horatio was there beside him.

"Eric," he said, he seemed out of breath. He strode quite a distance. "What've you got?"

Eric wordlessly handed the piece of paper to Horatio.

"What do we do?" Eric asked after Horatio read the message. "They're a blind target."

"Do what it says, Eric." Horatio said, looking into the horizon. "This just became a race against time."


A man who looks a lot like Ashton entered the room where Natalia was being kept. He carried a tray of food with him.

"'Sup, babe." He grinned. "I'm Greg."

Natalia glowered murderously at him. "Did I ask?" she snapped.

Greg walked over to Natalia coolly, as if he never heard her, and set down the tray in front of Natalia. On the tray were a small carton of milk, a tuna sand witch and a small bowl containing a scoop of ice cream. Greg kneeled down beside her and untied her wrists.

"What the hell is this?" Natalia asked rudely.

"What does it look like?" Greg replied with sarcasm. "I'm bringing you food, duh."

Natalia rubbed her wrists to get the blood flowing. "What? So you can poison me?"

"Nah," Greg said with a sly grin on his face. "That'll ruin everything."

Natalia stared down on the tray of food in front of her. Then she looked up; her eyes darted between Greg and the door.

"Bad idea." Greg pulled out a glock .45 and cocked it, the loud click of the gun intimidated Natalia.

Natalia glared at Greg and then at the tray of food.

"Aren't you hungry?" Greg asked, he loosened his grip on the gun but didn't let go of it. "Where's Calleigh?" Natalia asked. "Where is she?"

Greg scratched his head like a child. "That Barbie chick?"

"Yes." Natalia sighed impatiently. "The Barbie chick, if that's how your slimy brain works."

Greg ignored that comment. "She's fine. Ash is with her, probably eating her snack."

"I want to see her." Natalia demanded, almost rudely.

"Won't you at least take a bite first?" Greg sighed. "I mean, you haven't eaten anything for the day yet."

"Why the hell do you care?"

"Because I don't want you dead yet."

"I want to see Calleigh."

"Eat something first, you look like you're ready to faint."

"No."

Greg sighed, annoyed. "Alright." He said, "Eat something first then well go see Barbie chick. Deal?"

Natalia glared at Greg, "Fine," she said, defeated. Anything she could do to see if Calleigh was safe. She poked her sand witch, like it would come alive any moment.

"It won't eat you." Greg said flatly, taking it as an insult. "You have no idea it's hard it is to make that."

"Just put some tuna flakes in some mayo." Natalia rolled her eyes.

"It's not in my nature to cook." Greg frowned.

"Duh."

"Just eat." Greg poked the end on the gun barrel on Natalia's forehead.

Natalia took a bite on her sand witch and drank the milk. It wasn't that bad, it actually was good.

Once done, she pushed the tray away. "Thanks." She muttered.

"Yeah, sure." Greg replied, although a bit shyly. "Alright, stand up."

Natalia did so. She found it a bit difficult because she's been sitting for hours.

Greg stood up as well and went behind Natalia; he held the gun on Natalia's back.

"Walk." He ordered. "Don't think of getting any ideas. Either I'll shoot you, or I'll blow this place up."

Natalia felt frozen in place. She looked around the room; there behind the shelves, at the very corner was a black box with a tiny red blinking light. She wondered why she hadn't noticed that there a while ago.

Greg nudged her back with the gun. "Hey, what's the hold?" he said, annoyed. "Get a move on!"

Natalia walked out of the room and into the hallway. It was lined with doors and she was able to glance in the small windows and see the room inside. There were hospital beds with belts attached on them. Broken hospital equipments and syringes on the floor.

This must be an abandoned hospital, but where?

There were very few abandoned hospitals here in Miami.

Finally, they stopped in front of a door.

"Open it." Greg ordered and Natalia obeyed.

"Good girl." He said in a satisfied voice. "Enter."

Natalia did, she took cautious steps.

Calleigh sat in the corner of the room, her wrists and ankles bound together. There was a tray of half eaten food beside her and there was also a wound clotted with dried blood on her temple.

"Cal!" Natalia cried, relieved that her friend was safe. She ran to her and embraced her.

"Hey," Calleigh smiled. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm glad you're okay." Natalia said tightening the hug. "You were hit pretty hard." Natalia glared at Greg who was standing on the door way.

"Hey," he said, holding up his hands and putting on an innocent look. "That was my brother. I'm the on that drugged you, J Lo."

Natalia's glower became even angrier. "Do not call me J Lo!"

Greg just shrugged.

Natalia turned back to Calleigh. "I believe Horatio and the others are on the way." She whispered. "Just hang on."

"I'm alright," Calleigh whispered back, "Though sorry, I can't return the hug."

Natalia managed to smile; "That's fine, Cal. I'm just relieved that you're okay."

"Alright," said a familiar voice. Both women turned and saw Ashton standing beside Greg. "Cut the drama. I'm getting sick."

Calleigh and Natalia glared at him.

"Now," Ashton grinned, "I left Horatio a note. That would stress them enough."

"Do you want a ransom or something?" Calleigh demanded.

"Nope." Ashton replied.

"Then what?" Natalia asked, she wished she had her gun with her.

Ashton leaned casually on the door way. "I want Horatio, Delko and Wolfe dead."

Yeah, so again. Sorry for the typos and bad grammar. R&R