Title: Blood Ties (7/8)
Disclaimer: Don't own anything to do with CSI: Miami, and all you'd get if you sued me is a laptop and a couple pairs of really nice shoes. Hardly seems worth it, right?
Rating: Back to a PG-13 rating...for now!
Pairing: Eric/Maria (OC)
Feedback: Please! But be nice. If I wanted to be criticized, I'd call my sister ;)
______________________________________________________
"There you are." Calleigh said. It had been almost five minutes since she'd paged Maria. The younger woman shrugged, but Calleigh noticed a faint blush color her pale cheeks.
"I was in the restroom, okay?" Maria replied. That was at least true. After her tryst with Eric, she had ducked into the ladies' room to fix her hair and smeared make up, and splash some cold water on her face. But she could tell that Calleigh wasn't buying the act for a second.
"Uh-huh. And who was in there with you?" Calleigh asked, winking.
Maria rolled her eyes. "So, why'd you page me? Anything new?"
"Possibly." Calleigh said. "We've got a couple of visitors."
"Who?" Maria asked, following Calleigh into an interrogation room. She stopped in the doorway when she saw Lisa Denton and Abby Hammond sitting at the table, both of them wearing dark clothes and matching fearful expressions.
"We shouldn't be here." Lisa stammered. Abby lay her hand on the other girl's arm. "I mean, no one can find out that we came here." Her eyes darted around the room.
"Lisa, if you know something that could help us figure out who killed Jessica and Kyle, you need to tell us." Calleigh said in a soothing voice as she and Maria sat across the table from the two girls. "I promise, we will do everything in our power to keep you safe."
"Well..." Lisa began. "We don't know anything about who did it...but we need to know something." She glanced at Abby, who continued for her.
"It's just..." Abby took a deep breath. "We almost don't want to know, but we need to...we need to ask you if Jessie..." Her voice cracked and she paused for a moment. "If Jessie was really pregnant."
Calleigh and Maria exchanged looks. "Pregnant?" Maria repeated. She had been present that morning while Alexx had been finishing Jessica's autopsy, and seen the report. "No, she wasn't. Why, did she think she was?"
"Yeah." Lisa said, letting out a long, deep breath. "She told us last week that she was a few days late, and she wasn't sure how she was going to tell Kyle, or her family."
Calleigh glanced between the two young women. "Wait...so, she told both of you? Together? Matt said that none of you were speaking to Abby."
"Well, he didn't know." Abby spoke up. "He didn't want me around, because of my...my problems."
"I see." Maria nodded. "Lisa, did he know that Jessica thought she was pregnant?"
"He might have...I mean, I think I may have mentioned it." Lisa admitted.
"Okay." Maria sat back. Calleigh could almost see the gears turning in the new CSI's head. "Okay, listen, is there anything else you're not telling us?" The girls shook their heads. "All right, now do either of you have any reason to feel that you're in danger? Any reason at all?"
"No. Why, do you think we might be?" Abby asked nervously.
"Well, no." Maria admitted. "But it can't hurt to be cautious. If you'd like, we could have an officer escort both of you back to your apartments-"
"No, that's okay." Lisa said, standing up. "Really, we're fine. We just wanted to know...and now we do, so, we're fine. Thank you."
"Are you sure?" Maria pressed. "You said you don't want anyone finding out you came here. Are you absolutely sure that you don't want someone to escort you?"
"Yeah." Abby said. "But thanks. So, can we go?"
"Yes, you can leave." Calleigh said. "You have our cell numbers if there's anything else, right?" The girls nodded. "Okay, you can go ahead."
Maria stood up after the girls had gone, frowning and running one hand through her hair. Calleigh had noticed that she did that a lot when she was upset or agitated about something. "We shouldn't have let them leave alone."
"I know." Calleigh agreed. She had a gut feeling that something was wrong. "But they're both adults, if they don't want protection, we can't force them. Not without some concrete evidence that they're in danger."
"If I had it my way, women's intuition would be considered concrete evidence." Maria sighed. "Lisa seemed so nervous, but she kept saying that she was fine. And yesterday, when Eric and I tried to talk to her with Matt there, we could barely get her to say two words to us." She paused. "We need to talk to the rest of the team about this."
A knock on the door startled both of them. Calleigh opened the door, and Lisa peered in nervously.
"I...I can't do this." She said, starting to turn around.
"Lisa, wait." Calleigh said. "What's going on?"
"No one can know that I came here." Lisa stated again. She pulled a half-empty water bottle out of her purse. "I bought this on Friday, from a vending machine in the hotel where Matt and I stayed." She handed the bottle to Calleigh and took off like a shot, disappearing down the corridor before either of the women could respond.
Maria looked at the bottle in Calleigh's hand. "Get that tested for drugs."
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Calleigh replied, knowing exactly what was on Maria's mind.
______________________
"Where have you been?" Tim asked.
"Around." Eric replied, pouring a cup of coffee.
"With Maria." Tim guessed.
"Yeah, I talked to Maria."
"Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Tim asked, sarcastic.
"Is any of this any of your business?" Eric shot back. "Besides, you could not be more wrong."
"Okay." Tim said. "But I think it's only fair to warn you, your fly's down."
Eric glanced down at his zipper. Seeing that it wasn't down, he realized a moment too late that he'd fallen right into a trap. Busted. "Damn it."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Tim chuckled. "Come on, H said Calleigh and Maria had something new for us."
_________________________
"So, you think that the brother did it?" Tim asked. "I thought his alibi was airtight."
"So did we." Calleigh said. "But we got the results back on the water bottle that Lisa left here, and it's positive for Rophynol. If she was unconscious, he could have come and gone from the hotel, and she never would have known, she would have thought he was asleep beside her the whole time."
"And there's more." Maria spoke up. "Jessica thought she might be pregnant, and she told Abby and Lisa, and Lisa may have told Matt. The same person who tried to prevent Jessica and Lisa from seeing Abby, because of her history of mental health problems."
"The guy's a perfectionist." Tim said. "And to him, a friend with manic depression, well that's a pretty big imperfection, as far as he's concerned."
Eric nodded, putting the pieces together. "And his sister getting pregnant out of wedlock, at the age of nineteen..."
"All right, here's what we need to do." Horatio stated. "We've got to bring Matt in here and question him again, and we need to find Abby and Lisa, and make sure that he can't get at them."
"I already called Hagen, he's on his way over there to get them now." Maria said. "He should get there a few minutes after they do."
Horatio nodded. "Good work. All right, let's move, we need to get over there and get Matt." He looked at Maria and Calleigh. "Good catch, ladies."
_______________________
Maria leaned back on the couch in the break room, waiting for the Advil she had taken a few minutes ago to take effect. Her head was pounding. When Horatio had left to apprehend Matt, Eric had gone with him, while Maria and Calleigh had chosen to stay behind with Tim. Eric had approached her just before he left.
"How'd you figure it out?" He had asked.
She'd tried to shrug it off. "You saw how nervous Lisa was yesterday. At first I thought she was in shock, but after seeing the way she was acting when she was here, I thought it was pretty obvious that she's being abused emotionally, intimidated." She'd held her breath for a moment, hoping he wouldn't question how she'd recognized and diagnosed the signs so easily.
He'd just laughed. "Man, you are gonna make the rest of us look bad, aren't you?"
"Damn, you caught me." She'd sighed with a sly grin. "Hey, I probably don't need to tell you this, but be careful."
"Always am." He'd assured her. For a moment, he had looked like he was about to kiss her. Instead, he'd just winked at her, then walked away.
Now she was sitting on the couch, anxiously flipping her cell phone back and forth in her hands. Hagen was going to call her or Calleigh as soon as the girls were safe, which should have been some time ago.
"He hasn't called me yet, either." Calleigh sighed as she sat down at the other end of the couch, noticing that Maria was fidgeting with her phone.
Maria shrugged. "I'm sure everything's fine. Maybe the girls wanted to get some stuff from their apartments or something."
Calleigh nodded. "Yeah, that would make sense."
"If we're right about Matt...God, what a sick son of a bitch..." Maria sighed. "If he did this, I mean...he's a fucking psychopath. Do you think he might become dangerous when they try to arrest him?"
"It's entirely possible." Tim replied, hearing her question as he entered the room. "I wouldn't worry, though. We've all dealt with more than our share of violent suspects. Delko will be fine." He said the last part with a smirk that made Calleigh laugh softly, and made Maria blush and sink down on the couch.
"Does the whole damn state know about this?" She groaned, pressing one hand to her forehead in exasperation.
"Those matching 'just been fucked' grins you two have been sporting all day haven't exactly been subtle." Calleigh told her. "Besides, we're CSIs. Give us a little credit."
"Oh my God..." Maria buried her face in her hands. She was unspeakably relieved when Tim's cell phone rang, halting any further discussion.
Her relief faded, however, when she saw the look that crossed his face just seconds after he answered the phone.
"Holy shit." He said. "Yeah, we're on our way."
Calleigh reached for Maria's hand instinctively, but kept her eyes on Tim's face. "What is it?" She asked fearfully. "Speed, what's going on?"
_________________________
TBC...
Disclaimer: Don't own anything to do with CSI: Miami, and all you'd get if you sued me is a laptop and a couple pairs of really nice shoes. Hardly seems worth it, right?
Rating: Back to a PG-13 rating...for now!
Pairing: Eric/Maria (OC)
Feedback: Please! But be nice. If I wanted to be criticized, I'd call my sister ;)
______________________________________________________
"There you are." Calleigh said. It had been almost five minutes since she'd paged Maria. The younger woman shrugged, but Calleigh noticed a faint blush color her pale cheeks.
"I was in the restroom, okay?" Maria replied. That was at least true. After her tryst with Eric, she had ducked into the ladies' room to fix her hair and smeared make up, and splash some cold water on her face. But she could tell that Calleigh wasn't buying the act for a second.
"Uh-huh. And who was in there with you?" Calleigh asked, winking.
Maria rolled her eyes. "So, why'd you page me? Anything new?"
"Possibly." Calleigh said. "We've got a couple of visitors."
"Who?" Maria asked, following Calleigh into an interrogation room. She stopped in the doorway when she saw Lisa Denton and Abby Hammond sitting at the table, both of them wearing dark clothes and matching fearful expressions.
"We shouldn't be here." Lisa stammered. Abby lay her hand on the other girl's arm. "I mean, no one can find out that we came here." Her eyes darted around the room.
"Lisa, if you know something that could help us figure out who killed Jessica and Kyle, you need to tell us." Calleigh said in a soothing voice as she and Maria sat across the table from the two girls. "I promise, we will do everything in our power to keep you safe."
"Well..." Lisa began. "We don't know anything about who did it...but we need to know something." She glanced at Abby, who continued for her.
"It's just..." Abby took a deep breath. "We almost don't want to know, but we need to...we need to ask you if Jessie..." Her voice cracked and she paused for a moment. "If Jessie was really pregnant."
Calleigh and Maria exchanged looks. "Pregnant?" Maria repeated. She had been present that morning while Alexx had been finishing Jessica's autopsy, and seen the report. "No, she wasn't. Why, did she think she was?"
"Yeah." Lisa said, letting out a long, deep breath. "She told us last week that she was a few days late, and she wasn't sure how she was going to tell Kyle, or her family."
Calleigh glanced between the two young women. "Wait...so, she told both of you? Together? Matt said that none of you were speaking to Abby."
"Well, he didn't know." Abby spoke up. "He didn't want me around, because of my...my problems."
"I see." Maria nodded. "Lisa, did he know that Jessica thought she was pregnant?"
"He might have...I mean, I think I may have mentioned it." Lisa admitted.
"Okay." Maria sat back. Calleigh could almost see the gears turning in the new CSI's head. "Okay, listen, is there anything else you're not telling us?" The girls shook their heads. "All right, now do either of you have any reason to feel that you're in danger? Any reason at all?"
"No. Why, do you think we might be?" Abby asked nervously.
"Well, no." Maria admitted. "But it can't hurt to be cautious. If you'd like, we could have an officer escort both of you back to your apartments-"
"No, that's okay." Lisa said, standing up. "Really, we're fine. We just wanted to know...and now we do, so, we're fine. Thank you."
"Are you sure?" Maria pressed. "You said you don't want anyone finding out you came here. Are you absolutely sure that you don't want someone to escort you?"
"Yeah." Abby said. "But thanks. So, can we go?"
"Yes, you can leave." Calleigh said. "You have our cell numbers if there's anything else, right?" The girls nodded. "Okay, you can go ahead."
Maria stood up after the girls had gone, frowning and running one hand through her hair. Calleigh had noticed that she did that a lot when she was upset or agitated about something. "We shouldn't have let them leave alone."
"I know." Calleigh agreed. She had a gut feeling that something was wrong. "But they're both adults, if they don't want protection, we can't force them. Not without some concrete evidence that they're in danger."
"If I had it my way, women's intuition would be considered concrete evidence." Maria sighed. "Lisa seemed so nervous, but she kept saying that she was fine. And yesterday, when Eric and I tried to talk to her with Matt there, we could barely get her to say two words to us." She paused. "We need to talk to the rest of the team about this."
A knock on the door startled both of them. Calleigh opened the door, and Lisa peered in nervously.
"I...I can't do this." She said, starting to turn around.
"Lisa, wait." Calleigh said. "What's going on?"
"No one can know that I came here." Lisa stated again. She pulled a half-empty water bottle out of her purse. "I bought this on Friday, from a vending machine in the hotel where Matt and I stayed." She handed the bottle to Calleigh and took off like a shot, disappearing down the corridor before either of the women could respond.
Maria looked at the bottle in Calleigh's hand. "Get that tested for drugs."
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Calleigh replied, knowing exactly what was on Maria's mind.
______________________
"Where have you been?" Tim asked.
"Around." Eric replied, pouring a cup of coffee.
"With Maria." Tim guessed.
"Yeah, I talked to Maria."
"Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Tim asked, sarcastic.
"Is any of this any of your business?" Eric shot back. "Besides, you could not be more wrong."
"Okay." Tim said. "But I think it's only fair to warn you, your fly's down."
Eric glanced down at his zipper. Seeing that it wasn't down, he realized a moment too late that he'd fallen right into a trap. Busted. "Damn it."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Tim chuckled. "Come on, H said Calleigh and Maria had something new for us."
_________________________
"So, you think that the brother did it?" Tim asked. "I thought his alibi was airtight."
"So did we." Calleigh said. "But we got the results back on the water bottle that Lisa left here, and it's positive for Rophynol. If she was unconscious, he could have come and gone from the hotel, and she never would have known, she would have thought he was asleep beside her the whole time."
"And there's more." Maria spoke up. "Jessica thought she might be pregnant, and she told Abby and Lisa, and Lisa may have told Matt. The same person who tried to prevent Jessica and Lisa from seeing Abby, because of her history of mental health problems."
"The guy's a perfectionist." Tim said. "And to him, a friend with manic depression, well that's a pretty big imperfection, as far as he's concerned."
Eric nodded, putting the pieces together. "And his sister getting pregnant out of wedlock, at the age of nineteen..."
"All right, here's what we need to do." Horatio stated. "We've got to bring Matt in here and question him again, and we need to find Abby and Lisa, and make sure that he can't get at them."
"I already called Hagen, he's on his way over there to get them now." Maria said. "He should get there a few minutes after they do."
Horatio nodded. "Good work. All right, let's move, we need to get over there and get Matt." He looked at Maria and Calleigh. "Good catch, ladies."
_______________________
Maria leaned back on the couch in the break room, waiting for the Advil she had taken a few minutes ago to take effect. Her head was pounding. When Horatio had left to apprehend Matt, Eric had gone with him, while Maria and Calleigh had chosen to stay behind with Tim. Eric had approached her just before he left.
"How'd you figure it out?" He had asked.
She'd tried to shrug it off. "You saw how nervous Lisa was yesterday. At first I thought she was in shock, but after seeing the way she was acting when she was here, I thought it was pretty obvious that she's being abused emotionally, intimidated." She'd held her breath for a moment, hoping he wouldn't question how she'd recognized and diagnosed the signs so easily.
He'd just laughed. "Man, you are gonna make the rest of us look bad, aren't you?"
"Damn, you caught me." She'd sighed with a sly grin. "Hey, I probably don't need to tell you this, but be careful."
"Always am." He'd assured her. For a moment, he had looked like he was about to kiss her. Instead, he'd just winked at her, then walked away.
Now she was sitting on the couch, anxiously flipping her cell phone back and forth in her hands. Hagen was going to call her or Calleigh as soon as the girls were safe, which should have been some time ago.
"He hasn't called me yet, either." Calleigh sighed as she sat down at the other end of the couch, noticing that Maria was fidgeting with her phone.
Maria shrugged. "I'm sure everything's fine. Maybe the girls wanted to get some stuff from their apartments or something."
Calleigh nodded. "Yeah, that would make sense."
"If we're right about Matt...God, what a sick son of a bitch..." Maria sighed. "If he did this, I mean...he's a fucking psychopath. Do you think he might become dangerous when they try to arrest him?"
"It's entirely possible." Tim replied, hearing her question as he entered the room. "I wouldn't worry, though. We've all dealt with more than our share of violent suspects. Delko will be fine." He said the last part with a smirk that made Calleigh laugh softly, and made Maria blush and sink down on the couch.
"Does the whole damn state know about this?" She groaned, pressing one hand to her forehead in exasperation.
"Those matching 'just been fucked' grins you two have been sporting all day haven't exactly been subtle." Calleigh told her. "Besides, we're CSIs. Give us a little credit."
"Oh my God..." Maria buried her face in her hands. She was unspeakably relieved when Tim's cell phone rang, halting any further discussion.
Her relief faded, however, when she saw the look that crossed his face just seconds after he answered the phone.
"Holy shit." He said. "Yeah, we're on our way."
Calleigh reached for Maria's hand instinctively, but kept her eyes on Tim's face. "What is it?" She asked fearfully. "Speed, what's going on?"
_________________________
TBC...
