Disappearing Acts

Disclaimer: I own a 93 Saturn and that's just about all. Mild language.

A/N: I know it seems like Calleigh is always getting the bad end of the stick, but I get a better reaction from Speed that way.

Chapter 1

Usually , she would have one of the boys come with her, but she figured she could take care of this one by herself. She looked at her phone as she turned the corner to the crime scene. The display read : 3 new calls.

" Tim," Calleigh said to herself aloud. She opened the phone and spoke into it. " Speedle"

" Hi, Cal," Speed answered.

" How'd you know?" Calleigh asked.

" You know there's this thing called a caller -id..."

"Okay smart ass. What do you want? I just got to the scene."

" Can't I call my wife to check on her?" Speed asked feigning a hurt tone.

" I just left not ten minutes ago, Tim. You called three times."

" I miss you ."

"Aww, honey, that's so sweet," Calleigh said as she got out of the Hummer. She smiled to herself at the sentiment. They had been married almost seven years , yet Calleigh still felt like a newlywed. They had a six year old daughter that was the splitting image of Speed. She sighed audibly at the thought of her family.

" What's wrong, Cal?" Speed said.

" Nothing . Just thinking about Sascha.. And you. How you make my life complete," Calleigh replied as she got her kit out. She closed the door with her elbow and began walking to the yellow tape. " Look, Tim, I'm here. Let me collect this casing then I will be back in the lab."

" Okay. Come by the trace lab before you hunker down in ballistics ," Speed returned.

" Sure will. Love you."

" Love you too, Cal. Be careful."

Calleigh flipped her cell down and placed it back in it's holder. She then sat the kit down and put on the latex gloves, and fished the mag light out of the kit. She went over the scene for almost an hour before she found the casing.

" There you are, you little bugger," she said as she slipped the casing in an evidence envelope.

Clicking the her kit closed, she rose from her haunches and walked back to the Hummer. She got in and looked at her watch. She was out a little of an hour and the phone had not rang once.

" I'm so proud of you , Timmy. You waited," Calleigh said as she flipped her phone up. She would call him to let him know that she was headed back in. She got his voice mail. " Hi Tim, it's me. I've just finished up here, so I'll be there shortly. Love you."

Calleigh drove the Hummer through the streets of Miami. She had loved the city from the moment she arrived all those years ago to start work for Horatio. It had a pulse of it's own and the rhythm of it's beat was always rapid. Despite the horror that she saw on a daily basis, she thought that it was a lovely city.

Coming to an intersection, Calleigh was lost in thought about what she had lost over the years as well as what she had gained. Her best friend , Janet Medrano was killed when Hank Kerner escaped from prison, but Calleigh had caught him and brought him back to prison where he was going to be executed. After Janet, Calleigh began to lose her father to his drinking again. He had gotten worse when Calleigh announced that she was marrying Tim , and she had decided to handle Kenwall Duquense with a ten foot pole. She loved Tim, and nothing her father said or did would change that.

Startling her from her thoughts, Calleigh heard the car behind her honk it's horn angrily. She inched the Hummer forward, getting almost to the middle of the intersection. Before she could react, she saw it,a big black SUV was barreling down on her. Calleigh braced herself for the impact as much as she could and she said a little prayer just as the SUV connected with the Hummer's passenger side. Calleigh's head ricocheted off of the steering wheel and she succumbed to the invading darkness , with him on her mind.

S/C

Speed looked at his watch for the fifteenth time and glanced at the door. Calleigh had not come back, yet and he was getting worried. He looked at his cell phone , noticing that he had turned it off. . He powered it up and watched as the voice mail icon popped up. He dialed the number and waited for the prompts. He then heard her voice," Hi , Tim, it's me. I've just finished up here, so I'll be there shortly. Love you." He smiled widely to himself as he deleted the message. He then noticed what time the call was made. He took his lab coat off and set off in search of her.

Walking into the hallway, he met Eric as he was passing by. " Hey Delko, you seen Calleigh?"

" Lost her again, Speed? Have you checked ballistics? You know she tends to slip through when she has new gun evidence."

" I told her to come by the trace lab before she went down there," Speed said getting upset.

" Since when have you known Calleigh to do what you tell her?" Eric replied playfully.

" Never," Speed said simply.

"Call down there. If she's there, tell her she will have to cook tonight," Eric said.

" Is that all you think about, Delko?" Speed said as he grabbed the nearest phone. He dialed the extension for ballistics.

" You went clubbing with me, is that all I think about?"

" You cease to amaze me Delko," Speed replied as he listened for someone to pick up. The phone continued to ring, unanswered.

Eric saw as Horatio was headed down the corridor towards them. He had a look of distraught that hung tightly on his ocean blue eyes.

" Gentlemen, we have a call out to a scene. A wreck," Horatio said stopping in front of them. He placed his hands on his hips and glanced at the floor, trying to find the words to say to him.

" What's so important, H?" Speed asked.

" One DB ."

" And?..."

"And the fact that a CSI Hummer was involved," Horatio said. " It was unoccupied. We need to get to the scene, so we can know what has happened."

Speed stood speechless as Horatio talked. He hadn't heard another word after he had said the Hummer was involved. He quickly got his field kit and followed Eric and Horatio out the door. Something was telling him that this was going to be bad.

S/C

Calleigh stirred slowly from her resting position at the steering wheel, raising her head slightly. Pain flooded through every inch of her ,as she moved to take the seat belt off. She looked around at the scene and saw the wreckage of the black SUV parked almost 200 yards from where she was. She figured that she was the cause of it. Unable to remember how she got into the accident, she slowly opened the door to the Hummer and got out. Her hands instinctively went to her sides to feel for any broken bones, grateful that there were none. When her hands rested on her holster, she looked down at the gun in confusion. Why do I have a gun? she asked herself as she took it out of the holster and put it in the seat Closing the door to the battered Hummer she , she began to walk away. She shook her head in more confusion as someone approached her with a concerned tone.

" Ma'am , are you ok? That was a wicked accident you were just in," the young man said grabbing her gently. She looked on the verge of passing out. "Why don't you take a seat? Wait for the rescue."

Calleigh smiled lightly , feeling her head getting heavy. She glanced at the black SUV and asked, " What about that other car? Is that person ok?"

" It doesn't look good, but you don't worry about that. What's your name?"

Calleigh opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't follow through, she couldn't remember. She nodded her head slowly, " I don't know. I can't remember." The pain in her head was getting unbearable. " Where am I?"

" On Collins and fourth," the young man said as he heard the sirens.

" Where is that?" Calleigh asked.

" In Miami. Are you sure you're ok?"

" I'm in Miami? Wow! I've always wanted to come here," Calleigh replied as she attempted to get up. The pain had subsided a little and she felt ok to walk.

" Ma'am, maybe you should wait for the ambulance," the young man called out to Calleigh.

Calliegh continued to walk away, turning to wave to him. The young man shrugged his shoulders and turned to walk back to his car. He passed the wreckage and saw a identification badge lying on the ground. Noticing it was the lady that he was talking to , he turned to call for her, but saw that she had disappeared. He tossed the badge back into the Hummer, and got back in his car to wait for the authorities, they would find her.

S/C

Approaching the scene, Speed felt the knots in his stomach turn harder. There was debris everywhere. Horatio stopped the Hummer on the outskirts of the yellow tape, and got out. While Eric and Speed prepared their kits and grabbed Horatio's, Horatio walked over to the Black SUV. He glanced inside the twisted frame and saw a male slumped over the steering wheel. It was obvious that he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and even more obvious that he was dead. Eric walked up behind him quietly , getting his attention.

" Um , H, Speed wanted to take a look at the Hummer, but I told him to wait for you."

Horatio glanced up at Speed who was staring at the wreckage of the Hummer with sorrow in his eyes. He then turned to Eric and slipped his glasses off, " Eric, I'll go with him. Process this will ya? Alexx should be on the way any moment. Watch out for Stelter, he'll probably be sneaking around here soon."

" I'm on it, H," Eric said as he glanced at the Hummer. He was certain that if Calleigh did survive , she was pretty banged up.

Feeling the young man's worry, Horatio put a comforting hand on his shoulder and said, " She's ok, Eric."

Eric nodded his head and then bent to open his kit. Horatio smiled lightly at him as he put his sunglasses back on, " Hang in there, Eric. We are going to find her." Horatio then walked slowly to where Speed was. As Horatio approached from behind, Speed quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. From the outside of the wreckage, it looked as if she had a thirty percent chance of walking away from this ok.

" Speed, are you ok to do this?"Horatio asked as they walked to the Hummer.

" Um, yeah, H," Speed replied , his throat tight with emotion. " Are there any witnesses?"

" If there are, Eric will get to them. Let's get this processed, ok?" Horatio said pulling a pair of latex gloves from his kit.

The men worked methodically as they traced the tire marks from the intersection to where the Hummer finally came to it's resting place. Speed looked at the passenger side door and bent to see black paint ingrained in the twisted metal. He collected it with care and placed the envelope inside his kit. Despite the despair that he was feeling , he continued to work in his regular effective mode. When he was through, he walked over to the driver's side and looked in with his mag light. He saw a stain on the steering wheel and took a swab. Horatio came up beside him and asked, " What do you have?"

" I was getting ready to see if this is her blood. I got paint transfer from the passenger side door. That means that the SUV hit Calleigh as it was coming through the intersection." Speed said applying Nihydrin to the swab. It turned a bright pink. Speed sighed as he showed the swab to Horatio. " It's her blood."

" Speed, take a swab for DNA ," Horatio said as he saw Eric walking to him.

Speed nodded and took another swab, bagged it , then tagged it. As he was coming back up from the kit ,he noticed something on the floor board. It was Calleigh's identification badge as well as her shield. Tears came to his eyes as he looked at her picture. He put the id in a bag then felt around for anything else. His hands rested on something as he heard Eric approaching.

" H, I found a witness who says that he talked to the woman who got out of the Hummer,"

"Who is he?" Horatio asked as he scanned the crowd that had gathered.

" Name's Archie Richardson. He says that the woman didn't know her name and didn't know where she was," Eric continued.

"Did he give a description?" Horatio asked.

" Blond hair , green eyes, about 5'3. It fits Calleigh's description perfectly. He said he thought to ask her out," Eric finished with a chuckle. He saw Speed as he shot him a menacing glare. " Sorry man. I didn't mean to make light of the situation."

" That's ok, Delko," Speed said as his tone soften. " H, I found her gun on the floorboard along with her identification and her badge. So she's unarmed and walking around with no id. She's going to be so easy to find." Speed returned sarcastically. This was eating him up inside, Calleigh was missing, and there was no way he could find her.

Horatio started to say something to Speed before he saw Stelter hovering over Alexx as she gave her preliminary analysis. " Could you , excuse me."

Stelter saw Horatio as he walked to him and began seething inside. There was something that he didn't like about Horatio Caine , and he was determined to find out anything to hang him. But he had a solid arrest record and a sterling conviction rate, so there was nothing he could do.

" Rick, what can I do for you?" Horatio said easily. He knew that Stetler wasn't too keen on him; he wasn't a favorite of Horatio's either, but Horatio downplayed the tension and watched as it always made Stetler squirm. " There aren't any cops here that you can investigate. Just one dead body."

" And one CSI vehicle that was involved. What was Detective Speedle doing at a crime scene alone? Isn't it protocol that all CSI's be accompanied to the scenes?" Stetler asked cooly.

" She, she was doing her job, which is more than I can say for you."

"Covering for her Caine?"

" No, she knew what she was going for ,and that is all that she did. As you can see, she never made it back to the lab," Horatio replied. He was getting weary of this conversation.

" Di d you recover the evidence that she went out for?"

" Investigation is ongoing , Rick. We haven't finished processing the vehicle."

" So , the answer is no then..." Stelter continued. He saw as Horatio had let his guard down somewhat. Seeing this as well, Alexx interrupted them.

" Horatio, I got something that I think you need to see."

Horatio knelt down to look at the body. Under the shirt he saw a badge. Undercover. He looked up at Stetler and then back down at the body.

" Alexx, TOD?"

" His liver indicates that he died about four hours ago. Rigor mortis hasn't even set in yet."

" Three hours ago? The accident happened only two hours ago," Horatio replied taking off his glasses to get a better look.

" There's something else, Horatio. He did sustain blunt force trauma to the head and his torso was crushed under the steering column, but that isn't what killed him," Alexx said as she struggled to flip him over. " That is what killed him."

" What is that," Horatio asked looking at the hole in the man's back.

" I don't know but I guarantee you that it didn't come from the accident. This man was murdered," Alexx stated as she rolled him back onto his back. " I 'll find you if I find anything else."

" Good job, Alexx as always. Rick, do you know anything about our friend here?" Horatio asked as he stood up and faced him.

" It's on a need to know basis, Caine. And you don't need to know right now."

" Rick, if you are hiding something from me that can help this investigation..."

" Are you threatening me , Horatio?"

" Just stating truths. Make sure that your hands are clean on this , Rick. Whatever happened to him, he has put one of my CSI's in danger. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go look for Detective Speedle," Horatio said as he walked to Speed who was waiting impatiently at the Hummer.

" What was that all about," Eric asked as he got in the Hummer.

" Developments. It's gone from an accident to a homicide. The vic in the SUV was undercover," Horatio said as he looked towards Speed. " Are you ok, Speed?"

" I just want her back, H," Speed replied quietly. He fingered the wedding band on his finger and let a tear drop.

As they drove, Horatio's phone chirped to life.

"Caine."

" Horatio, it's Adele. We got a call of a white woman fitting Calleigh's description found on twenty second and Collins. The person that called it in says that he was taking her to the hospital. Mercy memorial."

" Thanks Adele."Horatio said as he hung up the phone.

" H?" Speed asked longingly.

" Someone's picked Calleigh up and they are taking her to the hospital."

" That's where I need to be ," Speed returned, his voice shaking a bit.

Horatio floored the Hummer and switched the lights on as he headed for the hospital, hoping for Speed's sake that Calleigh was ok.

A/N: Let me know if I should continue this... Like it hate it?