Calleigh drove like a maniac to work in her Mini-Cooper, almost crashing into Tim's Volvo while pulling into the parking lot. She kicked the door open and ran hard up the stairs, plowing over several interns on her way to her office. Calleigh didn't even wave 'hello' to Alexx.

Once in her office, she stared at her phone, clutching the number in her fist. She picked up her fingers to dial, placing them on the appropriate squares when her door swung open.

"Making a call?" Alexx smiled at her warmly from the doorway. Calleigh quickly dropped her hand and hitched up a grin, shaking her unkempt head.

"No, it's okay," she lied. Alexx watched her for a moment before locking the door behind her and sitting down. "What's up?" Alexx said nothing, just stared into Calleigh's blue eyes with evident concern.

"Calleigh, please tell me if there's something wrong, will you?" the woman pleaded.

"I'm fine," Calleigh answered a little too sharply. "There's just a lot on my mind, that's all." Alexx stared at her friend for a moment before standing up to leave. "Um, Alexx? Can I ask you a question?" She nodded. "If you thought there was a chance someone you knew was in trouble, how far would you go to help them?"

Alexx tried to penetrate through Calleigh's steely gaze, but she couldn't. Instead, she sighed and weakly smiled again.

"I'd do anything, honey, you know that," she told Calleigh. "But don't get yourself hurt while doing it." Then, turning, Alexx left Calleigh alone to her thoughts in the small office.

It took about fifteen minutes for Calleigh to finally decide what she already knew she had to do. A quick prayer and not on her desk later and she headed for the door, but paused. Calleigh glanced at the window and suddenly opened it, climbing onto the fire escape. Her heart wasn't pumping fast enough and it left her dizzy and full of adrenaline. By the time she lowered herself onto the ground, she was covered in a sheen of sweat, but she ran to her car nonetheless.

"Duquesne, what the hell are you doing," she muttered to herself, a quick smile flashing across her face. Pulling out of the CSI parking lot, she flipped on her radio with a vengeance. The music roared in her ears, and swearing, she lowered the volume before all the glass in her car shattered. Not really knowing where she was going, she headed towards the coast, watching as the sun glinted on the water like drops of gold. She contemplated just turning around and driving home, but she knew that honestly wasn't an option. Slowly, Calleigh drew out the Atlas from under her seat and turned past Wisconsin, past Wyoming, and, heart beating like a drummer on steroids, turned to West Virginia.

She studied the map, eyes determined and wide. However, she paused suddenly, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. With her eyes still shut, she rammed the stick into gear and passed the gas pedal to the floor. Calleigh sped towards the highway, eyes flying open, exhilarated and scared out of her mind at the same time.

An hour later, she remembered she'd packed no clothes and left her purse in her office. Thank God she had sixty bucks in her visor for emergency gas stops. She tor the top off an Aquafina water bottle and chugged half of it thirstily. Suddenly, her cell phone buzzed in her pocket, and she jumped. Flipping up the cover, she groaned.

"Calleigh? God damn, where the hell are you?" Tim's voice was aflame with concern and anger.

"Hey, Tim."

"'Hey, Tim?'" He repeated dumbly, "'Hey, Tim?' What are you doing, Calleigh? Come back to the office right now, please!"

"I—can't," she stuttered, a bit guiltily. "I'm in Georgia." Calleigh waited for him to explode, but he didn't. Instead, she heard a deep shuddering breath on the other end of the line. "Tim?"

"Calleigh, why don't you ever tell me what's inside that head of yours," he sighed, noticeably hurt.

"What are you talking about?" Calleigh whispered.

"Nothing. Forget it. Just—don't you forget to come home, alright?"

"Tim, what are you trying to say?" She heard the phone disconnect and was greeted by an unearthly dial tone. Poor Tim. She didn't even think about her own fiancé before leaving the state. She unconsciously sped up.

By the time she reached North Carolina's borders, it was almost one in the morning. Her body was tired, but her mind was rapt with alertness. She had to shift in reverse on the isolated highway to double check the sign by the road she just passed really read "North Carolina Welcomes You" or if she was delirious. It was around this time that her cell phone went off between her legs. She almost swerved off the road.

"Hello?" She coughed, once her heart resumed beating at its proper rate.

"Miss Duquesne?"

"Yes?"

"This is Officer George Willis from the Miami Dade Police Department. Are you all right?"

"Excuse me?"

"We've received a phone call concerning your disappearance and we are checking up to see if you are all clear."

Calleigh blinked. No one besides Tim and her colleagues had her new cell phone number. Who else could have—

"Miss Duquesne?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you. Just taking a quick trip to West Virginia."

"Why?"

"'Why?'"

"Just doing my job, ma'am."

"Of course," Calleigh muttered, "seeing some—relatives." The officer paused then cleared his throat.

"Ah, yes, I understand," he said apologetically. "Excuse the interruption." Calleigh frowned and hung up the phone. She was allowed to leave the state if she wanted, wasn't she? She was 25 years old, for Christ's sake.

After another hour, Calleigh pulled inot a motel and bought a cheap room for the night. She planned to leave first thing in the morning around five.

The bright sun on her face woke her abruptly at ten-thirty.

Apologizing for bull-dozing over a woman climbing up the motel staircase, she threw her room key to the manager while pulling a sweater over her disgraceful hair, paused, ran back to the manager and retrieved the car keys she had thrown him, replaced them with the room keys, and, finally, with a steaming cup of coffee and glazed donut in her trembling hand, she sped out of the motel garage and back onto the highway.

When two-thirty rolled around, Calleigh was about fifteen miles from the border of Virginia. The air was warm, but cooler and less muggy than Miami's atmosphere. Calleigh enjoyed Virginia. She'd been here once before on a vacation in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and had thoroughly had a good time. Plus, she was less than 100 miles away from West Virginia. She guessed another four or five hours, at least.

In shock, she breeched West Virginia's borders in a record two and a half hours later, observing the mineral rich state's rocky hills with a blank expression. Nervously though, she pulled out the map where a red circle marked her destination—only twenty-three miles away in Berkley. Ten minutes later and a threatening experience with the State Police for speeding, and she was there.

Calleigh was scared to the cores of her bones as she pulled onto the dusty, poorly paved street that went through the town. People glanced up lazily at her as she drove by in her extremely dirty Mini-Cooper, but paid little else mind to her. A little girl with blondish-red hair suddenly ran out into the street causing Calleigh to break her car so hard that the engine squeaked in pain. Shaking, Calleigh stepped out of the vehicle.

"Hey there, sweetie," Calleigh whispered gently, squatting down and taking the girl by her shoulders. "Are you okay?" To her relief, the child managed to nod mutely. Calleigh wiped the dust from her cheek and sighed, still shaken up to no end.

"Can you show me where to find a hotel or—" Calleigh watched the girl run off down the street, and, jumping back into the Mini, she followed at a safe distance behind her until the girl halted in front of a shabby, two story building with a forbidding sign reading, "INN."

"Lovely," she whispered. Looking up to thank the little girl, she discovered she was gone. Sighing, she pulled into the parking lot and paid for a cheap room. Collapsing on the way-too-springy bed, she figured she'd wait until tomorrow to search for...him. It would be too much to immediately run house-to-house with naught but an address as direction of any kind. Common sense clearly commanded her to stay right where she was, to get a good nap—

A half-hour later she was driving away from the inn and squinting at numbers on doors for corresponding digits with her address.

Her desperation mounted as each building's number was either too high or too low to fit the numbers. Finally, she almost cried out when she struck a dead end by a large, old house a huge amount of land dotted with ancient trees and horses, some cows, and a couple of sheep...or were they goats. Calleigh had collided headlong into the dead end that she had prayed and prayed wouldn't greet her, yet there she was. Lost and alone.

She looked up blankly into the wide property, and suddenly frowned. The young girl with the golden-red hair sat on a fence post. Calleigh shrugged. It wasn't so much of a coincidence. The town was a fourth of Miami's size, anyway. The girl caught her eye, and Calleigh tried not to blink, but her eyes shut nevertheless.

About to reverse to get back to the hotel, she turned in her seat when—

"Madison!" Calleigh froze, her body tensing up like a stuff in rigormortis. "Madison, where are you?" The girl turned, and leapt off the post. "Come, dinner's ready."

Calleigh forced herself to look around, hoping, fearing, praying that it was---

The man rounded the corner and opened his arms to welcome the child into his arms. Calleigh's mind was spinning. Had it not been his voice, she would have driven away. His skin was darker, his hair lighter. His clothes, unlike the ones he had unintentionally turned into his customary uniform at CSI. He kissed the girl's red head and put an arm around her shoulders with a melancholy expression on his face.

Calleigh panicked, trying to decide whether to hide or to scream. Her mouth was filling with a voice that she couldn't claim as her own. Her heart was bursting inside of her, and she struggled to kick open the car door.

His face turned as she jumped out of it, her blonde hair as crazy at it had been days before. Finally, his eyes landed on her face, and they stared, unseeing, as she ran to the fence before pausing. They showed no recognition. Calleigh could feel her ripping from her chest as they locked eyes. Suddenly, it all rushed into motion.

Horatio's eyes filled with shock and he stood, dumbstruck as she climbed over the fence and ran towards him. Her eyes were flooding with tears as she came nearer and nearer until she stood less than three strides away from him. He stared into her eyes, his own lipid and his chest rising with in a ragged, uneven rhythm. He opened his mouth several times to try and speak, but no words were needed. She crumbled into his arms, and she felt his breath in her hair. She held him so tightly that she feared she'd lose grip and he'd fall away and lose him again. The things going through her mind were like lighting striking her soul. He was so much more than her boss, he'd always been. He was her mentor, her teacher, her trust...her friend. Her body shuddered as they broke away and Horatio held her shoulders in his roughened hands.

"Where...why...how did you...?" Calleigh tried to ask, but the words died on her lips. She didn't want to know, not now. Her body, mind, soul, and heart were in mental overload. As she leaned in to him again, exhausted, she saw the little girl, Madison, standing behind her with a small, almost imperceptible, smile on her plump, still dirty cheeks.