Okay so this is definitely not the best chapter I've written, but there's a lot of content I need to shift through. Also seeing as I've split my characters up I'm trying hard to keep up with them all. Sorry for the lack of Ryan in this chapter, I got carried away with other stuff and didn't want this chapter to be too long. There will be a long Ryan scene in chapter 15 :) promise! Stick with me, it'll get better and RaiN will be back!
"Miss Boa Vista?" A voice called, cutting through the darkness Natalia felt surrounded by.
"Come on baby. You're going to be fine, you hear me?" Another voice spoke, it sounded a bit like Alexx, Natalia thought, but she was only here with Ryan. There would only be one reason for Alexx to be here . . .
Natalia's eyes shot open and she gasped for breath. Alexx placed a restraining hand on her shoulder and looked down with worried eyes.
"Ryan?" Natalia asked wanly.
"Honey we need to make sure you're okay first," Alexx stalled, "what can you remember about being poisoned?"
"Poisoned?" Natalia said the word slowly, not quite believing she had heard right.
Horatio stepped closer to where she lay. "Natalia, before you passed out you told Frank you believed Mr Wolfe had been poisoned. Why?"
"I . . . I don't know," she stuttered, "I can't remember."
"What can you remember, honey?" Alexx asked kindly.
Natalia frowned, she remembered she had been at Ryan's house, and she definitely remembered his expression when she had appeared at the top of his stairs. She pushed harder against the wall in her mind; she thought something had happened between them since they had left the house, the kiss. But aside from that one memory, she had no recollection of the events between leaving Ryan's house and right now.
"We left his house, with Frank." She said with a dry mouth. Looking around at the puzzled and concerned faces told her this was not what they had expected to hear. "What happened?" She asked in a small and scared voice.
"We don't know yet." Horatio said as he whipped out his ringing cell and stepped away.
"Alexx?" Natalia looked up, silently begging for answers.
"Natalia . . . they think Ryan is still inside the house. Eric and Calleigh have just gone in."
Natalia started to hyperventilate. Why had she left Ryan inside alone? If anything happened to him it would be her fault. She remembered making him promise he wouldn't leave her, what had happened in order for him to break his promise? And why couldn't she remember anything about what had happened?
"Calm down sweetie, it's going to be okay." Alexx's soothing voice cut through Natalia's panic.
"He promised." She moaned, tears forming in her eyes and starting to gush down her cheeks. Alexx stroked her forehead lightly as she cried; this was not the strong Natalia she remembered from her days as ME, maybe the after effects of the poison? She wondered.
"Alexx, can I take a blood sample back to the lab?" Walter asked.
Alexx turned to regard the team's newest CSI; he was always spoken highly of by Horatio and so without ever meeting him, Alexx found she had developed a huge respect for him. "Sure Walter," she prepared a syringe and turned to where Natalia half lay, "I'm going to take some blood okay baby?" She said calmly.
Natalia looked up, her eyes still full of tears, and nodded hesitantly.
"Good girl." Alexx said reassuringly as she inserted the syringe. Seconds later she handed Walter the small vial of blood. "I've read about something similar to this in medical journals, although the substance I'm thinking of isn't legal yet. It's a fast acting anaesthetic which, in small doses only lasts for a handful of minutes, memory loss is a common side effect," she inclined her head towards Natalia, "it hasn't been approved yet because so many people seem to be allergic to it and have really bad reactions."
Walter listened intently to what Alexx had to say. "If you're right, if it is this new drug . . . what if Ryan reacted badly to it?"
Alexx frowned as she thought, and lowered her voice so Natalia couldn't hear her next words. "I read that when people react badly to it the survival rate is about fifty percent. But it's only been trialed on terminally ill patients as a last resort. The odds should be much better for a healthy young man."
"Right, well I'll get these back to the lab, hopefully the night shift can help us out."
A feeling of dread had settled in Alexx's stomach. In theory, Ryan should be healthy enough to fight out the poison and, seeing as it was only a short term drug, the effects should start to disappear within an hour. But it was still only in the trial stage, there was no way to be sure. One thing was abundantly clear; they had to find him, and soon.
XXX
Horatio had set off to find Eric and Calleigh the moment Eric had finished explaining what they had discovered. Now the three of them stood in the small bathroom, staring around at the obvious struggle which had taken place.
"I've sent Frank and some of his patrol men to clear the house. This is our crime scene now." Horatio stated.
"Good," Calleigh gave a fleeting smile, "I'll go grab my crime kit." She strode purposefully towards the door, trying to push all emotions from her mind. It's a crime scene, she reminded herself, you have to be emotionally detached. But it's Ryan! The gravity of the situation hit her again. She had dealt with crimes involving her colleagues before, and they never, ever got easier.
"H, I'm going to see if I can climb through the window and see if there's any evidence outside."
"Wait until Calleigh's taken her crime scene photo's first, Eric." Horatio reminded him kindly.
Eric flushed. He had just made a rookie mistake, but when it was one of his friends in danger a small bit of contamination to the crime scene didn't seem like a big deal if it could speed the investigation along.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" A boy's voice screamed. Eric and Horatio spun to find a teenager standing in the entrance to the bathroom, wielding a gun in shaking hands.
"We're with the Miami Dade crime lab," Horatio answered evenly, "son, why don't you put down the gun?"
The teenager pointed the gun at Horatio. "Not until you tell me what you've done with my dad!" His voice blazed with fury.
Eric looked to Horatio, he was always the best at handling these situations. "Your father is Kris Harper, am I right?"
"Where the fuck is he?"
"Son, we believe your father has kidnapped one of our CSIs."
The boys gun dropped an inch or two in disbelief, before he raised it again, defiantly. "You're lying! How dare you lie to me about my own dad!" He squeezed off a shot and Horatio dived out of the way. The recoil of the gun startled the boy and he staggered back.
"Put the gun down." Came Calleigh's voice, her own gun jabbed into the boy's back. He froze, and slowly bent down to drop his weapon. "Semi-automatic," Calleigh mused, "it's a Beratta. Where'd you get this?" She asked sharply.
"I, uh, I bought it from a guy at college." The teenager stuttered, all at once his rage seemed to have seeped out of him. "Did my dad really kidnap someone?" He whispered.
Horatio looked at Calleigh and Eric for a long moment, before turning to the boy. "Come with me son, I'll tell you what we know, they how about you answer some questions?" The boy nodded and allowed himself to be led away by Horatio.
"Poor kid." Eric sighed.
"Dangerous kid." Calleigh corrected as she pulled on a pair of gloves to pick up the firearm.
Eric grabbed the camera and worked slowly around the small crime scene, taking pictures of everything.
"Cal I'm going to go round the back and see if we can find where Ryan was led away."
Calleigh was absorbed in the crime scene and barely looked up from her evidence as she replied. "Yep."
Eric walked through the now empty house. Outside a perimeter had been established by Tripp to keep the guests of the party from returning indoors. Most of them looked confused and slightly angry as they stood behind yellow tape, waiting for their gracious host to appear and sort everything out. Only he isn't going to appear, because the bastard kidnapped Ryan. Eric jogged round the house until he found the bathroom window.
"Calleigh, how you getting on?" He shouted.
"Eric," Calleigh called back, a smile in her voice, "I think I just found our first piece of evidence. This gun still has its serial number, it's almost brand new. I'm going to find out where this gun is really from," she paused, "hey Eric, did you see Nat when you went by the driveway?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, she was sitting up but I didn't stop to check up on her."
"Okay." She sounded disappointed.
"Can you pass the camera out to me?" He asked. Calleigh's hand snaked through the open window with the camera and Eric reached up for it. Their hands clasped for a tiny fraction of a second as the camera was transferred, Eric noticed it. He wondered if Calleigh did too.
Eric snapped several shots of the grass, there was an obvious trail which indicated that Mr Harper had dragged Ryan over the floor. He's not a heavy man, why not carry him? Eric wondered. Eventually the trail ended, but it met with something far more interesting. Marked into the grass there were tyre treads which lead round to side of the house and cut through straight onto the main road, as Eric followed them he could barely make out the driveway, which ran parallel on his left. He bent down to examine the treads and he instantly recognised them from the photo's Walter had taken at his crime scene the day before. They were the treads of a Lotus Evora.
Eric sprinted back up towards the house and found Horatio standing with Frank, Mr Harper's son was nearby, hands in his pockets looking thoroughly miserable.
"H, the car that took Ryan was the same one who picked up the driver of the van in the Everglades." He said quickly.
"Daniel Harper's car?" Horatio asked thoughtfully.
"It seems so. Me and Calleigh saw him earlier, headed upstairs I think."
"Are you talking about my uncle?" Mr Harper's son asked nervously.
"Eric this is Sam," he turned to face the teenager, "Sam, meet CSI Delko."
Eric nodded politely and Sam stared awkwardly at the ground, after all he had just tried to kill Eric.
"Lieutenant Caine," he spoke up, trying to sound brave, "my uncle has an office on the second floor where he works with my dad. He's probably there."
Horatio smiled gently. "Thank you Sam."
"I'll go and fetch him." Frank growled.
XXX
Walter arrived at the lab and quickly made his way to DNA. The lab was quiet, most of the night shift were busily tapping away at computers. It reminded Walter of his early days there, before he had been promoted to day shift. He recognised several faces, but was too busy to stop and chat.
He reached the room he was after and entered. Only one person was in there, she looked up under a curtain of thick blonde hair and smiled.
"Evening Walter." The woman said.
"Molly?" Walter stuttered. "What are you doing here?"
"I was just picking up some results, don't worry I still work in trace." She teased with a smile.
"Yeah, but what are you doing here at this time?" Walter asked, totally bewildered.
She shrugged. "I had today off, so when the night shift trace tech called in sick I volunteered to cover. Never say no to overtime." She laughed while reading her results.
"Huh." Came Walter's stunned reply.
"What are you doing here anyway?"
Walter looked down at the blood in his hand and deposited it at the front of the samples which needed running. "Molly, did Ryan tell you anything about his assignment?" He began, heavily.
Well now do you see what I meant at the top? Hahah. Also did anyone spot the teeny tiny almost-so-small-it-wasn't-there moment between Eric and Calleigh? Would you like the scene with Molly extended, or is everyone sick of her? I'll try to make the next chapter awesome :D