The next morning Nerissa woke up with a sense of calm after the reassurances from her dad, but she was a bit uneasy about the newest task that had come about, she had to tell Ana she was leaving for four months. Even though her daughter was only three she was still old enough to notice her mother's absence, to a three-year-old four months, may as well be an eternity. Was this going to affect her development? Nerissa didn't have long to contemplate her thoughts because she heard her daughter begin to stir in the next room and she went in to say good morning to her little girl.

"Good morning my little bird," whispered Nerissa to her daughter, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yea," Ana said rubbing the sleep from her bright green eyes, "What's for breakfast?"

"Well, my little bird, we have two choices," said Nerissa, stroking her little girl's bright red hair that matched hers and Horatio's, "We have fruit loops or I can whip up some mouse-eared pancakes with bananas. What do you think?"

"I wan' pancakes," she said a slight lisp on her Ss, "but can we have them with booberries? Pwease Mommy, Pwease!"

"Well okay, but only because you asked nicely," Nerissa replied, "but after we have to talk about something very important."

"What is it, Mommy?" asked Ana curiously.

"We'll talk about it after breakfast but right now let's go whip up those pancakes!" said Nerissa as she picked up her daughter and carried her towards the kitchen, all the while initiating a tickle fight.

After the mess that was breakfast was eaten and cleaned up and dishes were done Nerissa and Ana headed out back to play on the swings for a little while and as the fun was winding down Nerissa braced herself to tell Ana about what was soon to come.

"Hey, Little Bird, can I talk to you about something?"

"Yea Mommy," Ana smiled.

"Um, well do you remember when Uncle Eric went on a super secret job for Grampa and he was gone for a few weeks?" said Nerissa as gently as she could.

"An' he wasn't able to see or talk to us," replied Ana who was still blissfully unaware of what was coming.

"Exactly. Well, um," Nerissa stammered, "I kind of have to go on a super secret mission like Uncle Eric's and I'm going to be gone for a bit longer than he was." Nerissa braced herself as she finished her last word for the tears that were possibly about to come.

"Oh," whispered Ana, "We won't be able to thee each other or talk?"

"No, mia bella," Nerissa murmured, "but I promise I will come back and then I'm never going to leave you again. I swear." Then she pulled her little girl to her side and kissed the top of her head.

"Pinky pwomise?" whimpered Ana as the tears began to flow and she held up her little finger.

"Pinky promise," Nerissa whispered to her little girl as she wrapped her pinky around her daughter's, then pulled her in for a hug.

After their eventful morning, the mother and daughter went out to lunch at their favorite restaurant and then went to park to enjoy a few carefree moments of the sunshine and mother-daughter bonding. Before long the pair were headed to the MDPD lab to meet Horatio for their weekly dinner and movie night, tonight would be pizza rolls and Horton Hears a Who. It was bittersweet that this would be a chance for family bonding but it would be the last for a few months.

"Hey, Dad," Nerissa said greeting her dad, "How was work today? Did I miss anything exciting and dangerous?"

"Hey, Riss," said Horatio, "Nothing exciting today but I did file your temporary leave of absence today."

"Oh," said Nerissa her smile fading at the reminder of the separation that was to come in a few days, "Did anyone cause any problems?"

"They tried to," explained Horatio, "but once they saw the order from the FBI, that was signed by not only the Director of the FBI but also the Director of the CIA, they had a hard time arguing about your extremely short notice and the length of time you'll be gone."

"Well at least Fornell came through on that," said Nerissa trying to find the bright side of this depressing situation.

"Yeah," Horatio started and looked at his daughter, "Before we go Calleigh told me she wanted to you meet her in the Ballistics lab. She said she has something she wants to ask you."

Nerissa began to be a little worried, "Did she say what it was about"

"No, she just said it was important," replied Horatio who clearly knew more than he was letting on and Nerissa, being a highly trained former assassin, could tell he knew what Calleigh wanted.

"Alright, you take Ana and go ahead. I'll meet you back at my place," she said

"Okay. Come on, Princess. Let's go get ready for dinner," said Horatio smiling and picking up his granddaughter and carrying her towards the Hummer. As Nerissa watched the two most important people in her life walk away she began to wonder how things could have been different if Xavier hadn't raised her to be a killer.

As Nerissa was walking to the Ballistics lab she began running through all the possible questions that Calleigh could ask her ranging from if she really had to take this job to if she really couldn't find a way to talk to them while she's away. Finally, she reached the entrance to Ballistics and she took a moment to mentally prepare herself for the southern storm that is Calleigh Duquesne.

"Hey Cal," said Nerissa as she stepped into the lab, "Dad said you wanted to talk to me."

"Yeah, I do," said Calleigh smiling as she looked up from the reports she was writing up, "I was wondering if we could have one last team dinner before you left?"

Nerissa was slightly taken aback at the simplicity of the question. The whole way up here she had been preparing herself for a maelstrom of questions her best friend was likely to throw at her and she hadn't even considered this one. "Um, well," she stammered, "I don't know. I'm going to be really busy packing and getting all kinds of things in line for my absence and I just don't think I'll have time to cook a big dinner and all that jazz."

"That's no problem," said Calleigh who wasn't about to let her get off that easy, "We can have it at my place. I'll cook up and all you have to do is show up."

"Cal, I'm really not going to have the time," said Nerissa who was really trying to get out of anything that would make the separation even harder.

Calleigh who was tired of excuses exploded, "Nerissa Anne Caine! You are going to be at my house by seven o'clock Thursday night! We are having a team dinner and you won't miss it! You're leaving for four months and we need this one last dinner! Got it?"

Nerissa who was taken back by this sudden explosion just stood there dumbstruck for a second then quickly agreed because she could see that she was definitely not getting out of this.

"Good," said Calleigh whose voice was now back to its normal volume and tone, "I'll see you then."

Nerissa who was still shocked at Calleigh's outburst simply turned and walked out of the lab and headed home to meet her dad.