Horatio sat at his desk, his eyes looking from the file he'd received from Mac, to the file he'd had from Erin's case sixteen years ago, to a picture on his desk, to his crime lab's file on Paul Gallagher's death. The picture, was of him and Erin, who at the time was age seven, in Central Park during a music festival. He remembered that day specifically, because that was the day that Erin had decided she wanted to become an investigator like him. He had come up to the City to visit Erin, and had decided to take her to the park for the festival, but there had been a man who Horatio had convicted during a case while he still lived in New York, who was in the Park attempting to kidnap a little boy no older than 5 years old.

Erin had seen the whole thing: the recognition, the chase, the take-down, her little blue eyes had processed the entire thing from start to finish, and when he went back over to her to make sure she was alright, she'd said to him, "When I get older, dad, I wanna be an investigator like you."

He had told her, that by the time she was old enough, she would change her mind on what she wanted her career to be several times over, but his daughter was persistent, and seven years later, the incident that occurred finalized her decision. She wanted to become the ultimate crime-solving weapon: joined the Navy at eighteen, became the youngest officer ever to receive the promotion to Vice Admiral, became a top Marksman and later Lead Sharpshooter for her squadron's Security and Law Enforcement division. She had been stationed in London, where she went to college at the university of London, earning herself a bachelor's in chemistry and a master's in genetics, before resigning from the Navy two years later, moving back to New York City to be hired by Detective Mac Taylor and put under his wing for several years, only, as he learned three years ago, to become something more to the New York Detective. Yet here she was, age thirty, engaged to his own CSI Ryan Wolfe, age thirty-two.

Horatio chuckled, remembering that when Ryan had come to him for the job, his sister-in-law had handed him Ryan's file, telling him the young patrol officer had a bachelor's in chemistry and was going out for a master's in genetics. That was one other reason why Horatio had hired the young man, because he reminded him, intelligently speaking, of his daughter, always reaching for the most challenging aspect of life. But, there was a lot of Ryan Wolfe that Horatio had yet to learn: his family, his childhood, some things that his daughter would have to find out before he did, and that didn't bother him. Horatio knew all he needed to know about Ryan, he made Erin happy and that was all that mattered to the Lieutenant. All of that happiness that Horatio had been searching for was to mask the painful blow he'd received when Alexx had given him her medical examination files. Boticelli had done more harm, raping her a second time, than he had the first. She had more people that cared for her safety now, and the one person who had yet to find out about Erin's raping, was Ryan. The red head didn't know whether to have the doctor tell him, or to tell his future son-in-law himself.

He finally made up his mind, taking Erin's medical file with him out to the car, driving down Flaghler towards the hospital.


Erin had been awake for only an hour, watching him sleep. He'd moved from the chair to kneel on the floor at her bedside, resting his head on the edge of the mattress. She held his hand lightly, the other combed lightly through his hair. Before she'd fallen asleep she'd asked him to stay with her, but about an hour afterward she'd told him to go home and try to get some sleep, he'd be exhausted for work in the morning. He'd insisted on staying; she fell asleep several minutes later. Ryan was protective of her, now he was going to be over-protective, but he had every right to be. Erin remembered the first time she'd met Ryan several years ago, when he first joined her father's lab. They became good friends right away, when Erin went back to New York they'd talk for hours on the phone, something she knew used to drive Mac insane, but she really didn't talk to anyone else besides the people she worked with and her father.

Ryan and Mac were the only two people Erin ever really told about her mother's problem and how it had affected her. Ryan had told her everything about his family and his past, some of what he told her shocked her. Ryan had told her, the night they went on their first date, that he was afraid of heights and thunderstorms; this Erin found quite adorable that he would share something like that with her. Then Erin noticed something when Ryan stayed over Erin's apartment a few times on his vacations up towards his family's house in Boston: he would wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat, shaking, and breathing heavily. Three and a half months into their relationship he told her that he had nightmares about his past. Ryan told her that when he was young, his father, Daniel, was very strict when it came to their religion, Judaism, but he was also a general in the Marine Corps. His mother, Sheila, was your typical Italian housewife, his sister, Amy, was a gymnast, specializing in floor routines. Ryan was the black sheep of the family, staying in his room for hours on end reading crime novels and watching cop shows, while his father wanted him reading military manuals and watching Armed Forces movies.

His father was also very short tempered and quite abusive, if Ryan did something his father disapproved of or didn't do something he was told, his father would either make him kneel on a pile of uncooked rice grains, lock him in the closet for six hours with no food or water, or beat him with a belt. His mother did nothing, and his sister tried to no avail; his Uncle Ron was the only one who was able to get Ryan's father to stop. When Ryan turned eighteen, his father wanted him in the military, to make his family proud, but no; instead he went to the University of Boston and got his bachelor's in chemistry, moved down to Miami with his Uncle Ron and joined patrol until he earned his master's in genetics, then became a CSI for her father, Horatio Caine. Ryan's father died of a stroke about two years after he left for Miami, he talked to his mother and sister regularly, his grandmother or "bubbie" as he and his sister called her, phoned on occasion, and his Uncle Ron visited regularly. Erin had already met Sheila and Amy, she met his Uncle Ron earlier that afternoon when he came to the hospital at Ryan's request, and she'd spoken to his grandmother on the phone, who'd said she sounded like "a perfect match for her wonderful grandson." Ryan had left his mother and sister a message saying that he had some news for them, other than that everyone on his side of the family was happy that he was finally getting married.

She noticed his eyelids twitch, something she knew meant he was having another nightmare. She smoothed his hair back and pressed a kiss to his forehead, over the course of five months, well, five years actually if you count the time that they knew each other, Erin had come to love all of Ryan's little quirks and defects, things that made him human. He never tried to impress anyone, whenever he did he'd said it was always to try and make her smile, he was never shy when it came to expressing his feelings, one way or another, yet when it came to his OCD tendencies, she always thought it was funny to watch him straighten and re-straighten certain things, thankfully he did nothing crazy like separate his food or anything to that extent, but if he did, she wouldn't care. She loved him for who he was. She closed her eyes, seeing that Ryan wasn't going to wake up any time soon, and fell back asleep, his silk-like hair still soft between her slowly-relaxing fingers.


"Ryan why don't you go home and try to get some sleep? You'll be exhausted for work tomorrow."

"No, I'll be fine, I wanna stay here with you. You rest," he watched her heavy-lidded eyes slowly close, her breathing calm and steady. Ryan had made her a promise that he wasn't going anywhere, he'd told her he'd stay with her, and that was what he was going to do. He didn't care if he was tired for work tomorrow, Delko would be on his ass about being engaged to the boss's daughter, anyway, and maybe being a little tired and irritable might give him an advantage.

His hazel eyes watched her every breath, how beautiful she looked, so peaceful. Ryan had come to love everything about Erin Caine since the first day he met her. He'd been shy to ask her to dinner for a long time, and he had never been shy before, either. When she told him about her relationship with Mac over the phone one evening when she was in New York and couldn't sleep, he didn't think he even had a chance anymore, until she told him a couple nights later that she ended it, just staying friends with her boss was enough. That was when, five months ago, Ryan had asked her to dinner, and that was the end of his 'crush' and the beginning of reality. They told each other things that they would never have told anyone else, like how he'd told her he was afraid of heights and thunderstorms, she told him she was afraid of any kind of insect, arachnid, or worm, and she was afraid of total darkness. She'd told him about her mother, and he'd told her about his father, about all of the nightmares he had because of what had happened to him. Ryan had been hiding behind science for years, until he'd met her. She never felt the need to impress anyone, she didn't care about other people's opinion's of her or what they gossiped about behind her back, being in the Navy taught her to ignore the ridiculous.

That was another thing he loved about her, how she turned weakness into strength. She'd taken something tragic and horrible that had happened in her past and turned it into willful ambition for success, and boy had she succeeded. When he'd stayed at her apartment in New York City, he'd admired all of her military photos, the photos of her and Horatio when she was younger and present age, and all of her Navy awards, medals, and other such recognitions of accomplishment that she had skillfully placed out around her loft. She was a Sharpshooter, a Vice Admiral, and so many other things that she'd become, it was like she'd turned herself into a crime-solving weapon. She wanted to be able to take down any kind of criminal, and with training like that, with firearms of that extreme caliber, she definitely had the skill. Unlike how she presented herself at work, head-on focus, at home she was relaxed and calm, he loved how they could just unwind by watching a movie on the couch with a glass of wine. She'd come down to visit her father along their five months of dating, and when Horatio had asked her where she was staying she'd told him with a friend from New York who'd moved down to Miami, when in fact she'd been staying with him. Ryan had come home from a frustrating case, expecting to be agitated and on-edge, but as soon as he had seen her sitting on the couch, legs tucked under her and reading some case files she'd brought with her, all of his frustrations melted away, especially after she'd begun to massage his shoulders, that did it.

He smiled, his grandmother, whom he'd called not too long ago, had told him that she sounder like a lovely young woman, and that she was proud of him, and that made him happy that his family liked her. Erin had already met his mother and sister when he'd gone up to Boston to visit them, he'd taken her with him to meet them, and they loved her. He'd also asked his Uncle Ron to stop by the hospital, and he did, and even he liked Erin. She fit right into his life, and he fit right into hers, like two pieces of a puzzle. The only piece that didn't fit was Boticelli, and how he'd made everything Hell.

A knock on the door broke his thoughts, Horatio entered the room, "Ryan, she's asleep?"

He nodded, "Yeah, H, I thought you went home?"

His boss walked over and sat beside him, "I actually went back to my office to look over some things. Ryan, I have some news and not all of it's good."

Ryan looked at him, "OK."

Horatio sighed, "Alexx, gave me her medical file, and from what I've seen, her injuries should heal quite well. But there is something you should know."

Ryan sighed, "What is it?"

The Liuetenant opened the file to a page Ryan hadn't expected to see: a sexual assault test, "Boticelli, apparently raped her for the second time. She's fine, no diseases or internal damaging has occurred, but it's still something that I felt you had the right to know."

What Ryan just heard made his brain malfunction; he couldn't breathe, he couldn't speak, and he couldn't think. Erin had been raped again....by the same disgusting excuse of a man. His eyes looked at the woman he loved asleep on the bed, now all he could see were nightmares that were going to form in his head while he slept.

"Son? You OK?" Horatio put a caring hand on the young man's shoulder.

Ryan nodded, "Y-Yeah, H...I'm OK."

The red head nodded, "OK, why don't you try to get some rest?"

"Yeah...you too."

Horatio stood, "See you tomorrow, son," with that, he left.

Ryan sighed, rubbing his hands over his face in frustration and anger, "Oh, dear Lord, please don't let this be happening." He knelt down on the floor and rested his head on the edge of the mattress, taking Erin's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze; her hand gripped his, but she wasn't awake, it was a function of the brain as she slept. Sleep, that was something that Ryan desperately needed, Horatio was right, he should try to get some rest, fear still stung the back of his mind where he was sure those new nightmares were stored, but exhaustion took over and his eyes closed, allowing one of the nightmares to seep out into his mind.


Erin opened her eyes once more to see Ryan sitting in the chair once more, his hands covering his face. He was frustrated about something, she could tell by how stiff his shoulders were, "Ryan?"

He looked at her, his eyes meeting her with sadness and anger, but a smile on his face, "Hey. How'd you sleep?"

She nodded, "I slept fine, how about you?"

Ryan sighed, "I didn't."

"Liar, I watched you sleep for about twenty-five minutes...you had another nightmare, didn't you?"

He shook his head, "Erin."

She sat up, "Don't lie to me. I can tell when you've had a nightmare you're tense, you're eyes have this fear in them like you've just seen a ghost, and your palms are still sweaty."

Erin watched him slump back in the chair with a defeated sigh, "Yeah, I had another nightmare."

She reached for his hand and stroked the top of it with her thumb, "Same one?"

He shook his head, "No, a new one, and I didn't see a ghost, I've been seeing a monster."

"Monster? What do you mean?" she'd never heard him talk like this, but the tears that started to form in his eyes made her realize that something was bothering him, "Ryan? What's happened?"

He shuddered, his body shaking fervently with anger, "All I see, is him all over you. That, disgusting, horrible monster, violating you, hurting you, scarring you. This is all I can see, and it's torturing me that I couldn't protect you."

Erin understood immediately what he was talking about, "How did you find out?"

"Your dad came in with your medical file, a sexuall assault test inside," hot tears rolled down his cheeks, both in anger and sorrow.

She cupped his face in her hands and wiped the tears away, "Ryan, I'm here and I'm alright, the doctor's said nothing was wrong, right?"

He looked at her, "But there is somethin wrong. He did this to you again. He got away with it again. I won't let him hurt you anymore, I'll make sure of it." He kissed both of her palms and took her wrists gently in his hands, "Look at me," blue locked with hazel as he continued what he wanted to say, "you are my life now, and I am not going to let him ruin our chance at happiness together."

Erin nodded, "I know."


Ryan woke with a start, sweat covered his brow, his hands shook, and his breathing was ragged and heavy. Horatio had come in about an hour ago, Erin's medical file in hand and a sorrowful gaze in his eyes. The young man still couldn't wrap his head around what his boss and future father-in-law had told him. Nothing could have prepared him for hearing that the love of his life had been raped by the same man for the second time, no man could face that kind of news and take it lightly. He'd seen it in Horatio's eyes that he was furious, but also ashamed that he hadn't been able to protect his daughter yet again from this demon, and now Ryan felt that same guilt.

He had a nightmare again, but it wasn't a nightmare about his father. No. It had been about Erin, and that monster, Boticelli. Ryan was sitting in a corner, watching as Boticelli raped her, abused her, did everything he could possibly do to a captive and more. Ryan wanted to move towards them and stop it, but he couldn't, he wanted to scream at the criminal and make him let her go, but he couldn't, he wanted to close his eyes and turn off the sound so he didn't have to see her tears or hear her screams, but he couldn't. He was helpless and all he could do was watch the torture his fiance was going through, and when Boticelli stood, Ryan woke up.

He decided to get up off of the floor, it wasn't doing anything good for his back, anyway, and sit in the chair. Then he noticed that Erin had been combing her fingers through his hair, she must've woken up and fallen back to sleep. No doubt she noticed he'd been having a nightmare. As he sat in the chair and listened to the sound of the time ticking by, he thought about what Horatio was going to have the team do to catch this criminal. Mac was back in New York with his team and the entire NYPD on alert for this guy, and all of Miami was under a microscope to find him. Ryan sighed, burying his face in his hands, "Ugh, please God let us catch this son of a bitch."

A few minutes later, he heard Erin speak, "Ryan?"

He looked at her, his eyes meeting her with sadness and anger, but a smile on his face, "Hey. How'd you sleep?"

She nodded, "I slept fine, how about you?"

Ryan sighed, "I didn't."

"Liar, I watched you sleep for about twenty-five minutes...you had another nightmare, didn't you?"

He shook his head, "Erin."

She sat up, "Don't lie to me. I can tell when you've had a nightmare you're tense, you're eyes have this fear in them like you've just seen a ghost, and your palms are still sweaty."

Erin watched him slump back in the chair with a defeated sigh, "Yeah, I had another nightmare."

She reached for his hand and stroked the top of it with her thumb, "Same one?"

He shook his head, "No, a new one, and I didn't see a ghost, I've been seeing a monster."

"Monster? What do you mean?" she'd never heard him talk like this, but the tears that started to form in his eyes made her realize that something was bothering him, "Ryan? What's happened?"

He shuddered, his body shaking fervently with anger, "All I see, is him all over you. That, disgusting, horrible monster, violating you, hurting you, scarring you. This is all I can see, and it's torturing me that I couldn't protect you."

Erin understood immediately what he was talking about, "How did you find out?"

"Your dad came in with your medical file, a sexual assault test inside," hot tears rolled down his cheeks, both in anger and sorrow.

She cupped his face in her hands and wiped the tears away, "Ryan, I'm here and I'm alright, the doctor's said nothing was wrong, right?"

He looked at her, "But there is somethin wrong. He did this to you again. He got away with it again. I won't let him hurt you anymore, I'll make sure of it." He kissed both of her palms and took her wrists gently in his hands, "Look at me," blue locked with hazel as he continued what he wanted to say, "you are my life now, and I am not going to let him ruin our chance at happiness together."

Erin nodded, "I know," she wrapped her arms around his shaking body, smoothing his hair down in order to soothe him, "I know."

Ryan buried his face in the crook of her neck, holding her close, "I love you."

She kissed the crown of his head, "I love you, too."

He sighed, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't protect you."

Erin shook her head, "It wasn't your fault and don't say it was. No one knew where he was and it was my fault for not going straight to the lab after you guys left. It's my fault."

Ryan looked up at her, "Don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault, either."

She sighed, "If anyone's going to be blamed it's him."

He nodded, "You have no idea how right you are."

His phone went off, it was already seven thirty, time to go to work and already getting a call from dispatch.

Erin smiled, "Go get 'em."

He stood, pulling his jacket on and kissing her forehead, "I'll be back after work, do you want me to bring you anything?"

She shook her head, "I'm alright for now."

Ryan sighed, cupping her face in his hands, pressing his lips to hers, "I love you."

She kissed him back, "I love you."

He headed towards the door, "Call me if you need anything, OK?"

"OK, now go or you'll be late," she watched as he left the hospital then rested back against the bed, she felt so useless being stuck in the hospital room, but she didn't have time to dwell on it for long, because Alexx came in with a small paper cup and a plastic cup full of water, a smile on her face.

"Hey baby girl, feelin' better?"

Erin nodded, "Much better, Alexx. Thank you, you saved my life."

Alexx nodded, handing her the paper cup filled with pills and the cup of water, "Honey now you know I was not going to let any other doctor in here operate on you. I was not about to lose you on my table."

The blonde chuckled, "I know," she popped the pills into her mouth and chased them with a sip of water.

The doctor sat down taking Erin's hand and admiring her engagement ring, "Our boy's got some good taste."

Erin smiled, "I know, he's such a good person I don't think he even realizes it."

Alexx smiled, "Ryan loves you, baby, that much I know for certain. He was so shook up when you came in here, he was dying on the inside, begging me to let him see you. That boy would rather die himself than see you in any more pain."

Erin sighed, "God forbid...but you're right. He's very protective of me."

"Mmm-hmm and you better believe it. Now I've got some rounds to make, if you need anything let a nurse know and she'll come get me, alright?"

The young woman nodded, "OK, Alexx, thank you."

"You're welcome baby. I gave you some pain killers and a sleeping aid, you need all the rest you can get."

The doctor left the room and Erin sighed, her head falling back against the pillow, deciding to start planning her wedding out in her head, her mind beginning to wander.

AN: Hey everyone I know I haven't posted one of these little notes in a while but I just felt that we needed one in here. Just for the record I am basing the ages of Ryan Wolfe and Erin Caine off of Jonathan Togo's actual age, which is 32, so I made Erin two years younger. Also, be warned I am sort of putting this part of the story around the middle of season 3, and I'm gonna jump all the way to the middle of season 4 beginning of 5, and might even possibly jump to 8 but we'll see how far I get. RnR is much appreciated and I would love some support! Thanks!!