Title: Isolation (1/?) (Second story in an ongoing series that began with "Blood Ties.")
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: PG-13 (language and violence, no fun stuff in this one, I'm afraid.)
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC) slight Tim/Calleigh
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.
Summary: A combination of bad luck, bad timing, and a few simple mistakes put two of the CSIs in grave danger.
_________________________________
The Story So Far: On her first case after leaving vice to join the CSI team, 24-year-old Maria Santiago found herself hit a little harder than expected by the murder of two college students. Meanwhile, the mutual attraction between Maria and Eric led to her going home with him on the first night, and a quickie at the lab the next morning. When another murder hit too close to home for Maria, she broke down, and Horatio let her take the rest of the day off. Eric followed her back to the hotel room where she had been living, and she confessed to him that she had been married before, and, like the victims of the second attack, had been emotionally abused. It's now six weeks later. Eric and Maria are still seeing each other, and Maria has recently moved in with Calleigh...
________________________________
"Good morning." Calleigh said brightly.
Maria barely looked up from the coffee mug she was hunched over. "Ugh...sorry, no speak-a the English till my third cup."
"What time did you come in this morning?" Calleigh asked, pouring a cup of coffee for herself.
"Around four, I guess." Maria replied.
"Well, thanks for not waking me up."
Maria shrugged. "You're welcome. Wish I'd been as lucky with Eric. He was pretty determined to keep me there." She could still feel his hands and lips caressing her skin as she made a half-hearted effort to get out of his bed. In the end, she'd given in and let him have
his way with her. Not that she had exactly minded. She'd left his apartment an hour later than she had intended, with a dazed smile on her face.
Calleigh sat down across the kitchen table. "Why don't you just take a change of clothes with you when you stay over there?"
"Same reason I don't keep a toothbrush and tampons at his place." Maria said. "Because that's...it's a 'couple' thing. Eric and I aren't a couple."
"You've been sleeping together for more than a month." Calleigh pointed out.
"And that's it." Maria stated firmly. "We're having fun, that's the point. I can't get into a relationship right now, and he's cool with that."
"If you say so." Calleigh said. She could sense that this conversation was going nowhere. "You want the first shower?"
Maria shook her head. "Nah, you go ahead."
_______________________
"Well, if it isn't Jugs. Where's Ammo?" Hagen greeted Maria as she approached the house.
"That's charming, John." Maria sighed, rolling her eyes. "Must have taken you at least a day or two to think that one up, huh? Calleigh's working with Speedle on a case. So, is it just us?"
"Sorry to disappoint you, no." Hagen replied. "Delko's already here. Horatio would be, but it looks like he'll be stuck in traffic for a while."
"Typical Miami." Maria sighed. "So, what do we have?"
"One vic, male." Eric replied, emerging from the house. "No I.D, but it looks like a drug deal gone bad, so we've already sent fingerprints back to the lab to be cross-checked with criminal records."
"Anyone else in the house?" Maria asked.
"Just the three of us and Alexx." Eric said. Maria's eyes met his, and they shared a brief, secret smile.
Hagen was oblivious. "Well, are we just going to stand here all day?"
___________________________
Horatio was getting impatient. The traffic was at a stand-still, had been for more than half an hour.
The ringing of his cell phone interrupted his thoughts, and he grabbed it off the seat next to him. "Caine."
"Horatio, it's Laura." The lab tech greeted him. "I've got an I.D on your victim. His name's Michael Stoeger, thirty-two years old. Three priors for dealing pot, no convictions."
__________________________
"Apparently, he's a single father." Horatio relayed what Laura had told him about the victim to Maria.
"So where's the kid?" Maria asked, watching as Alexx and Eric loaded the body bag containing Stoeger into the ambulance.
"Well, the house was empty when Michael was found, wasn't it?" Horatio pointed out. "His daughter, Janie, is four, she's probably in preschool. Just to be safe, we've got some people looking for her."
Hagen approached Maria at that moment. "I just called Janie Stoeger's school, she's absent, and no one's called in."
"Shit." Maria gasped. "Horatio, did you hear that?" She said into her cell phone.
"I heard it."
"There's more." Hagen said. "A woman who lives next door just told me that she's baby-sat for Janie a few times, and the kid loves to hide in the crawl spaces behind the bedrooms."
"Were those checked?" Horatio asked, having overheard.
Maria repeated the question to Hagen, who shook his head. "Just the closets and the attic."
"What do you want us to do, H?" Maria asked.
"Check the crawl spaces, maybe she hid in there." Horatio said. "I've got to go, traffic's finally starting to move. Keep me posted."
"Hoo-ah, boss." Maria replied. She saw Hagen give her a look as she closed her cell phone. "What? You can take the girl out of the Army..."
"What's up?" Eric asked.
"Turns out the vic's kid might still be in the house after all." Maria told him. "H wants us to check the crawl spaces behind the bedroom. John, we'll handle that, can you see what else you can get from the neighbors?"
"I think I should go in with you." Hagen said.
"We only need two, and Eric and I have seen more of the house than you have." Maria replied.
"She's got a point." Eric backed Maria up.
"All right, I'll handle the neighbors." Hagen relented.
"Good." Maria looked at Eric, then at the house, absently placing one hand on her gun. "Let's go."
_______________________
"How long do we think the kid's been in here?" Eric asked as he followed Maria up the stairs.
"Alexx said Stoeger had been dead for at least forty-eight hours." Maria replied, approaching the room where the body had been found. "If the kid heard or saw anything, she's probably in shock, so it's not impossible that she's been keeping out of sight since. When the officers searched the house, she could have kept quiet." She carefully opened the closet door, pushing aside the clothes that were hanging in there.
"Check this out." Eric shined his flashlight on the ceiling, where a cord dangled from a trapdoor. "That's too high for her to have gotten up there, right?"
"Right." Maria said. "And Hagen said the attic had been checked." Feeling around the back wall of the closet, she finally found what she was looking for. A small, painted over latch. "When my dad was stationed in Minnesota, we lived in a house that had spaces like this. They're pretty hard to find, unless you know exactly what you're looking for. My sister used to hide her boyfriend in the one behind her room, until our folks turned in for the night."
"You never tried that?" Eric teased.
"I was nine." Maria laughed. She flipped the latch, and most of the back wall opened up, falling right into her hands. Leaning it against the side of the close, she ducked down and peered in. "Janie? Are you in here, sweetie? It's okay, we're here to help you. No one can hurt you now."
For a moment, the two CSIs held their breath and listened. Then, from the back of the crawl space, they heard a rustling sound, and then a tiny voice, hoarse from crying.
"My daddy was shouting." The small girl said as she crawled towards them. "He whispered to me to stay in here until he came to get me, and then I heard him shouting and there was a loud noise."
Maria winced. She'd been afraid that the child had heard her father die, and that confirmed it. "Your daddy was right to put you in here, that was smart of him." She said in a soft, soothing tone. "But it's safe for you to come out now, okay? Come with us." She held out her hand.
Janie came fully into view and stood up. Her nightgown and hair were spotted with cobwebs and dust bunnies, and her face was streaked from her tears. She looked at Maria's outstretched hand, hesitated, and then took it.
"Good girl." Maria said gently, pulling the child out into the bedroom. "That's good, Janie. Your daddy would be proud of you." She handed Janie off to Eric, who picked her up and held her so that she was facing away from the bloodstain on the opposite side of the bed.
"Okay, Janie, we're going to take you outside now, all right?" He spoke in a tone similar to Maria's. "There are some people who will want to talk you, but first there's a doctor out there who will want to make sure you're not hurt."
"I scraped my knee." Janie whispered, sucking on her fingertips.
"Well, the doctor will give you and band-aid for that." Maria said, rubbing the girl's shoulder as the three of them made their way to the door.
Both Eric and Maria were focusing on the frightened child. Neither of them realized they weren't alone until it was too late.
It happened too quickly for Maria to be entirely sure what had happened. But within seconds, there was a crack, then a groan, and then Janie shrieking. The next thing Maria was aware of, Eric was on his knees, clutching the back of his head. A piece of metal piping lay on the ground near him, his gun was a few feet beyond his reach, and blood was beginning to seep out between his fingers.
Maria looked around and saw the bathroom door next to the bedroom was wide open. Inside, a tall, lanky one man had one hand on the window, trying to force it open. His other hand was clutching the back of Janie's nightgown, holding her a foot off the ground. The girl's face was contorted with fear as she sobbed.
"Let her go and put your hands behind your head!" Maria ordered, aiming her gun at the suspect. Where in the hell had he come from?
"Shut up, bitch!" He yelled. "Shut up or I'll kill her!"
"If you hurt her, I will blow your head off." Maria snapped. She glanced at Eric, who was struggling to stand up, then back at the man and his terrified hostage. He was now holding her up in a way that made it impossible for Maria to get a good shot at him without endangering Janie, even at such a close range. There was only one thing left to do.
With a deep breath, she charged the suspect, throwing all her weight against him. Surprised, he dropped Janie onto the tile floor, and the little girl screamed as she scrambled out of the bathroom. Maria's gun clattered to the floor, and she reached for it just as the suspect pounced on her, pulling her back by her hair. In a flash, she was on her knees, with her arms pinned behind her, her head tilted back, and the cold steel of a knife blade pressed against her throat.
Ignoring the pulsating pain in his head, Eric managed to stand up when he saw the danger Maria was in. His gun was out of his reach, in the seconds it would take for him to reach it, Maria's captor could easily slice her throat.
"Back off, man!" The suspect shouted, pressing the knife further into Maria's flesh. The skin under the blade turned white from the pressure. She closed her eyes, but her face remained calm. "I mean it, I'll cut her fucking head off!"
Eric became aware of the fact that Janie was clinging to his leg as he heard Maria's voice.
"Get out!" She said, her voice low but urgent. "Eric, get her the hell out of here, quick! Go!"
Picking up the little girl with one arm, while keeping the other hand pressed firmly against the back of his head, Eric watched helplessly as the suspect kicked the bathroom door shut and Maria disappeared from his view. The clicking of the lock snapped him out of it, and he turned and fled down the stairs with Janie.
_________________________
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: PG-13 (language and violence, no fun stuff in this one, I'm afraid.)
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC) slight Tim/Calleigh
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.
Summary: A combination of bad luck, bad timing, and a few simple mistakes put two of the CSIs in grave danger.
_________________________________
The Story So Far: On her first case after leaving vice to join the CSI team, 24-year-old Maria Santiago found herself hit a little harder than expected by the murder of two college students. Meanwhile, the mutual attraction between Maria and Eric led to her going home with him on the first night, and a quickie at the lab the next morning. When another murder hit too close to home for Maria, she broke down, and Horatio let her take the rest of the day off. Eric followed her back to the hotel room where she had been living, and she confessed to him that she had been married before, and, like the victims of the second attack, had been emotionally abused. It's now six weeks later. Eric and Maria are still seeing each other, and Maria has recently moved in with Calleigh...
________________________________
"Good morning." Calleigh said brightly.
Maria barely looked up from the coffee mug she was hunched over. "Ugh...sorry, no speak-a the English till my third cup."
"What time did you come in this morning?" Calleigh asked, pouring a cup of coffee for herself.
"Around four, I guess." Maria replied.
"Well, thanks for not waking me up."
Maria shrugged. "You're welcome. Wish I'd been as lucky with Eric. He was pretty determined to keep me there." She could still feel his hands and lips caressing her skin as she made a half-hearted effort to get out of his bed. In the end, she'd given in and let him have
his way with her. Not that she had exactly minded. She'd left his apartment an hour later than she had intended, with a dazed smile on her face.
Calleigh sat down across the kitchen table. "Why don't you just take a change of clothes with you when you stay over there?"
"Same reason I don't keep a toothbrush and tampons at his place." Maria said. "Because that's...it's a 'couple' thing. Eric and I aren't a couple."
"You've been sleeping together for more than a month." Calleigh pointed out.
"And that's it." Maria stated firmly. "We're having fun, that's the point. I can't get into a relationship right now, and he's cool with that."
"If you say so." Calleigh said. She could sense that this conversation was going nowhere. "You want the first shower?"
Maria shook her head. "Nah, you go ahead."
_______________________
"Well, if it isn't Jugs. Where's Ammo?" Hagen greeted Maria as she approached the house.
"That's charming, John." Maria sighed, rolling her eyes. "Must have taken you at least a day or two to think that one up, huh? Calleigh's working with Speedle on a case. So, is it just us?"
"Sorry to disappoint you, no." Hagen replied. "Delko's already here. Horatio would be, but it looks like he'll be stuck in traffic for a while."
"Typical Miami." Maria sighed. "So, what do we have?"
"One vic, male." Eric replied, emerging from the house. "No I.D, but it looks like a drug deal gone bad, so we've already sent fingerprints back to the lab to be cross-checked with criminal records."
"Anyone else in the house?" Maria asked.
"Just the three of us and Alexx." Eric said. Maria's eyes met his, and they shared a brief, secret smile.
Hagen was oblivious. "Well, are we just going to stand here all day?"
___________________________
Horatio was getting impatient. The traffic was at a stand-still, had been for more than half an hour.
The ringing of his cell phone interrupted his thoughts, and he grabbed it off the seat next to him. "Caine."
"Horatio, it's Laura." The lab tech greeted him. "I've got an I.D on your victim. His name's Michael Stoeger, thirty-two years old. Three priors for dealing pot, no convictions."
__________________________
"Apparently, he's a single father." Horatio relayed what Laura had told him about the victim to Maria.
"So where's the kid?" Maria asked, watching as Alexx and Eric loaded the body bag containing Stoeger into the ambulance.
"Well, the house was empty when Michael was found, wasn't it?" Horatio pointed out. "His daughter, Janie, is four, she's probably in preschool. Just to be safe, we've got some people looking for her."
Hagen approached Maria at that moment. "I just called Janie Stoeger's school, she's absent, and no one's called in."
"Shit." Maria gasped. "Horatio, did you hear that?" She said into her cell phone.
"I heard it."
"There's more." Hagen said. "A woman who lives next door just told me that she's baby-sat for Janie a few times, and the kid loves to hide in the crawl spaces behind the bedrooms."
"Were those checked?" Horatio asked, having overheard.
Maria repeated the question to Hagen, who shook his head. "Just the closets and the attic."
"What do you want us to do, H?" Maria asked.
"Check the crawl spaces, maybe she hid in there." Horatio said. "I've got to go, traffic's finally starting to move. Keep me posted."
"Hoo-ah, boss." Maria replied. She saw Hagen give her a look as she closed her cell phone. "What? You can take the girl out of the Army..."
"What's up?" Eric asked.
"Turns out the vic's kid might still be in the house after all." Maria told him. "H wants us to check the crawl spaces behind the bedroom. John, we'll handle that, can you see what else you can get from the neighbors?"
"I think I should go in with you." Hagen said.
"We only need two, and Eric and I have seen more of the house than you have." Maria replied.
"She's got a point." Eric backed Maria up.
"All right, I'll handle the neighbors." Hagen relented.
"Good." Maria looked at Eric, then at the house, absently placing one hand on her gun. "Let's go."
_______________________
"How long do we think the kid's been in here?" Eric asked as he followed Maria up the stairs.
"Alexx said Stoeger had been dead for at least forty-eight hours." Maria replied, approaching the room where the body had been found. "If the kid heard or saw anything, she's probably in shock, so it's not impossible that she's been keeping out of sight since. When the officers searched the house, she could have kept quiet." She carefully opened the closet door, pushing aside the clothes that were hanging in there.
"Check this out." Eric shined his flashlight on the ceiling, where a cord dangled from a trapdoor. "That's too high for her to have gotten up there, right?"
"Right." Maria said. "And Hagen said the attic had been checked." Feeling around the back wall of the closet, she finally found what she was looking for. A small, painted over latch. "When my dad was stationed in Minnesota, we lived in a house that had spaces like this. They're pretty hard to find, unless you know exactly what you're looking for. My sister used to hide her boyfriend in the one behind her room, until our folks turned in for the night."
"You never tried that?" Eric teased.
"I was nine." Maria laughed. She flipped the latch, and most of the back wall opened up, falling right into her hands. Leaning it against the side of the close, she ducked down and peered in. "Janie? Are you in here, sweetie? It's okay, we're here to help you. No one can hurt you now."
For a moment, the two CSIs held their breath and listened. Then, from the back of the crawl space, they heard a rustling sound, and then a tiny voice, hoarse from crying.
"My daddy was shouting." The small girl said as she crawled towards them. "He whispered to me to stay in here until he came to get me, and then I heard him shouting and there was a loud noise."
Maria winced. She'd been afraid that the child had heard her father die, and that confirmed it. "Your daddy was right to put you in here, that was smart of him." She said in a soft, soothing tone. "But it's safe for you to come out now, okay? Come with us." She held out her hand.
Janie came fully into view and stood up. Her nightgown and hair were spotted with cobwebs and dust bunnies, and her face was streaked from her tears. She looked at Maria's outstretched hand, hesitated, and then took it.
"Good girl." Maria said gently, pulling the child out into the bedroom. "That's good, Janie. Your daddy would be proud of you." She handed Janie off to Eric, who picked her up and held her so that she was facing away from the bloodstain on the opposite side of the bed.
"Okay, Janie, we're going to take you outside now, all right?" He spoke in a tone similar to Maria's. "There are some people who will want to talk you, but first there's a doctor out there who will want to make sure you're not hurt."
"I scraped my knee." Janie whispered, sucking on her fingertips.
"Well, the doctor will give you and band-aid for that." Maria said, rubbing the girl's shoulder as the three of them made their way to the door.
Both Eric and Maria were focusing on the frightened child. Neither of them realized they weren't alone until it was too late.
It happened too quickly for Maria to be entirely sure what had happened. But within seconds, there was a crack, then a groan, and then Janie shrieking. The next thing Maria was aware of, Eric was on his knees, clutching the back of his head. A piece of metal piping lay on the ground near him, his gun was a few feet beyond his reach, and blood was beginning to seep out between his fingers.
Maria looked around and saw the bathroom door next to the bedroom was wide open. Inside, a tall, lanky one man had one hand on the window, trying to force it open. His other hand was clutching the back of Janie's nightgown, holding her a foot off the ground. The girl's face was contorted with fear as she sobbed.
"Let her go and put your hands behind your head!" Maria ordered, aiming her gun at the suspect. Where in the hell had he come from?
"Shut up, bitch!" He yelled. "Shut up or I'll kill her!"
"If you hurt her, I will blow your head off." Maria snapped. She glanced at Eric, who was struggling to stand up, then back at the man and his terrified hostage. He was now holding her up in a way that made it impossible for Maria to get a good shot at him without endangering Janie, even at such a close range. There was only one thing left to do.
With a deep breath, she charged the suspect, throwing all her weight against him. Surprised, he dropped Janie onto the tile floor, and the little girl screamed as she scrambled out of the bathroom. Maria's gun clattered to the floor, and she reached for it just as the suspect pounced on her, pulling her back by her hair. In a flash, she was on her knees, with her arms pinned behind her, her head tilted back, and the cold steel of a knife blade pressed against her throat.
Ignoring the pulsating pain in his head, Eric managed to stand up when he saw the danger Maria was in. His gun was out of his reach, in the seconds it would take for him to reach it, Maria's captor could easily slice her throat.
"Back off, man!" The suspect shouted, pressing the knife further into Maria's flesh. The skin under the blade turned white from the pressure. She closed her eyes, but her face remained calm. "I mean it, I'll cut her fucking head off!"
Eric became aware of the fact that Janie was clinging to his leg as he heard Maria's voice.
"Get out!" She said, her voice low but urgent. "Eric, get her the hell out of here, quick! Go!"
Picking up the little girl with one arm, while keeping the other hand pressed firmly against the back of his head, Eric watched helplessly as the suspect kicked the bathroom door shut and Maria disappeared from his view. The clicking of the lock snapped him out of it, and he turned and fled down the stairs with Janie.
_________________________
TBC...
