Disclaimer: Horatio still is not mine. However, if you read further, you'll see that I'm trying to change that.

Horatio opened his eyes to the wailing alarm. He glanced at his clock as if it was the source, but it read 5:50 a.m. – ten minutes before it should be ringing.

As he processed the time, Horatio recognized the sound for what it was: the house alarm.

He was out of bed and unlocking the top dress drawer for his service pistol in one motion. Madison was in his care and someone had set off the alarm. A hundred terrified thoughts of burglars, kidnaps and revenge-seekers shot through his mind. He would die before he let someone take his niece and he would kill whoever might do so.

Horatio sidled to the bedroom door and looked around the corner. The alarm continued to sound. If it wasn't shut off in another couple of minutes, uniformed officers would be at his house for a welfare check. Seeing no one, he spun around the doorframe, arms extended, hammer cocked.

No one in the main room or in the kitchen from his vantage point. Keep the pistol ready, he ran across the room to Madison's bedroom, clearing the kitchen and laundry room on the way. No one.

The door to her room, however, was open.

Silently cursing, Horatio stood around the edge of the door and nudge it opening, giving himself a view of her empty bed. The ringing alarm became his heightening pulse. He opened the door fully, clearing the room and still not finding Madison.

Horatio took a deep breath. There was still his home office and the lanai to clear. He checked the bathroom, scanned the office and headed through the kitchen to the open lanai door. His lip curled, thinking that somehow the bastard had gotten in through there.

He sidled along the wall until he could look out the window. From that direction, no one. Horatio edged past the sliding glass door as the started its slow rise in the east. He scanned the lanai, his thoughts becoming more murderous. The alarm was harder to hear as he stepped out on the lanai. There was a voice coming from just past the screen door, by the pool heater.

Then he heard what the voice was singing.

"Little lizards are so much fun," Madison sang, "they like to run and run." She paused and then said, "Hi, little lizard. I know you want to live with Uncle Horatio and me. And we can play and you can take a nap in the window and swim with me and Dolphin."

Horatio lowered his gun slightly and opened the screen door, walking around the heater box. Madison was crouched on the ground in her nightgown, plastic tub raised, about to snag a gecko.

With careful eyes, Horatio scanned the side of the house and behind them. They were fully alone. He released the trigger on his gun and thumbed the safety back on. He held it behind his back so she wouldn't see it.

"Madison," he said sharply.

Madison looked up at him, clearly surprised. The gecko took that opportunity to dart away from a future in a plastic butter tub.

"Oh!" she said, dismayed, sitting down on the grass. "He ran away!"

Horatio took a second deep breath and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "Madison," he said again. "What are you doing out of the house?"

"Looking for geckos," she told him in that tone children use when they know it should be obvious to grown-ups what they're doing. "I wanted to take one to school with me."

"Of course you are," Horatio answered her. "Back in the house, now. We'll talk about this after you get dressed."

Madison stood up, her shoulders slumped in defeat. He stepped aside to let her through the screen door.

"Lt. Caine?" a voice called. "Are you out here?'

A uniformed officer rounded the corner of the house, gun drawn as Horatio's had been.

The alarm. Horatio's back-up had arrived.

Madison stopped to turn and see the officer approach. From the other side of the house, his partner advanced toward the lanai. Madison's eyes grew larger to see guns.

"Here, officer," Horatio responded. "My niece set off the alarm while looking for geckos."

The officer lowered his gun, but kept it in sight. "And everything is alright?" he asked.

"Yes," Horatio told him.

The officer nodded toward him. His partner entered the lanai, gun also lowered but still ready. "Do you mind setting down your weapon, sir?" the officer asked.

"One moment," he said and stepped back on the lanai while they watched. He put his pistol on the table and showed his empty hands.

The other officer holstered his gun and walked to Madison, kneeling beside her. "Are you alright, little girl?" he asked gently.

Madison held the butter tub close to her chest and nodded vigorously. Horatio allowed him to look her over to make sure she hadn't been harmed. He looked back to his partner and nodded. The first officer holstered his gun.

"I'll send a copy of the incident report to your office, sir," the officer said. "You might want to explain to her the importance of shutting off the alarm before going outside."

Horatio set his hands on his hips. He was dressed only in boxers and a t-shirt and was starting to feel ridiculous. "I will do that, officer. Thank you."

With a nod to his partner, the two uniform officers stepped out the lanai screen door and walked back around the house.

Madison looked up to her uncle. "Am I in trouble?"

Horatio watched the officers leave. "We'll talk about that after you're dressed, Madison."

MttS

Calleigh walked into the break room, her eyes bright and laughing. Horatio was fixing a cup pf coffee while listening to Eric explain his theory on a recent case.

"Horatio," Calleigh sang. "I heard a radio car responded to your house this morning for an entry alarm. Something about geckos?"

Horatio closed his eyes in pain. Eric turned to him, very interested.

"Are you having a problem with the geckos, H?" he asked. "Pretty talented if they're setting off alarms."

Horatio opened his eyes and continued to fix his coffee. Eric and Calleigh exchanged amused glances, waiting for the story.

"It was on the scanner this morning," Calleigh explained to Eric. "It was called back as 'gecko and entering.'"

"Really," Eric said, grinning. "So, that's like a, 10-51 'gecko on location'?"

"No, no," Calleigh replied. "A 10-38 and a half – suspicious gecko."

Horatio drank his coffee calmly and waited from them to finish. When they did, he simply said, "My niece is staying with me for the week and she opened the back door while the alarm was set."

"Your niece?" Eric asked, counting Horatio's family relations in his head.

"She likes the geckos," Horatio answered without elaboration.

Calleigh tried to cover her laugh with her hand. Her eyes continued to twinkle. Horatio sipped his coffee again.

"I'll – I'll be in my office," he told them. "Eric, follow that up and get back to me."

"Sure, H," Eric said as Horatio left. "I'll send the suspicious geckos your way, too, for questioning."

Horatio waved the back of hand his before walking around the corner. Eric and Calleigh started to laugh again.

MttS

Madison was waiting with the one of the teachers at her daycare when Horatio arrived to pick her up that evening. She was holding the teacher's hand and had her little backpack on when he walked through the doors at the hotel where Suzie worked. She was grinning and had a paper plate with a design made from macaroni in her other hand.

"Uncle Horatio!" she called happily. "Look what I made!"

Horatio found himself smiling in return. He took off his sunglass and bent on one knee to see her artwork better.

"That's lovely, Madison," he said. "Is it a gecko?"

The day at CSI had been filled with geckos, thanks to Eric and Calleigh.

"No," Madison drawled, shaking her head, "it's a dolphin. It's swimming in the ocean."

Horatio studied the macaroni. "I can see that." He stood back up and addressed the teacher. "I'm sorry I'm late. We, uhm, we had a break-through in a long-term case."

The woman frowned but nodded. "Of course, Mr. Caine. Since you don't normally pick up Madison, I need to ask you to sign and show me identification."

Horatio produced his MDPD identification card and his badge for the teacher. She compared the picture to him, something Horatio was unaccustomed to having done to him, and watched while he wrote his name in the ledger.

"With so many divorced parents in custody battles, you can't be too careful," she said by way of apology.

Horatio took Madison's hand. "I know," he said, putting the sunglasses back on. "I see it too often."

Madison chattered about her day, about having macaroni and cheese for lunch, about Jimmy who pulled her hair, about Candy who shared the same rug with her at nap time and about their new teacher, Miss Margaret, who was teaching them sign language.

Horatio buckled Madison into the backseat as she continued chattering.

"Can we have fish for dinner so Dolphin can eat with us?" she asked as he pulled the car from the parking lot.

Dinner. Oh. Horatio hadn't made any plans for dinner. He glanced behind him at Madison, who was sitting up as high as she could to look out the car window. He went through what was in his refrigerator at home, none of which included fish of any kind. It was also just past six o'clock, which meant by the time he went shopping, cooked and they ate, it would be past bath time and up to bedtime.

Horatio groaned inwardly. Bath time. He didn't want to think about it right then.

"How about – how about we go out for dinner?" Horatio suggested. "We could go to a nice restaurant for dinner. Would you like that?"

Madison bounced in her seat. "Yeah!" she cheered. "Can we go to Checkers?"

Checkers was not Horatio's idea of a dinner restaurant. Anything that served greasy hamburgers through a window with outside tables didn't approach a restaurant in his mind. He tried to think of someplace along the way that would appeal to a five-year-old.

"Do you like pizza?" he asked at last. "How does pizza sound tonight?"

More bouncing. "Can I have pepperoni on it but no broccoli? Mommy always gets it with broccoli and makes me eat it."

Horatio grimaced at the thought of broccoli on pizza. "No broccoli, but with pepperoni," he promised.

"Yeah!" Madison cheered again. "I like pizza. We had pizza for lunch at school last week, but it weird pizza made on slices of bread. Billy said it was good but I think Billy is strange. He ate a crayon one time."

Horatio glanced back in his mirror again while Madison went on about Billy and all the things he does that worries their teachers. When he had first met her, just over a year ago, he had thought she was a shy child. The he learned she was just quiet and shy around strangers.

They arrived at Anthony's on Kendall Avenue, not far from his house, at six-thirty. Madison hadn't seemed to take a breath in her chattering when he opened the door to help her out of the car. She happily took his hand as they walked across the parking lot.

The host greeted them with a smile. "How many for dinner?" she asked.

Horatio tipped his head towards his niece. "Two, please."

They followed her to a small table near a side window. The waitress took their drink orders (a chocolate milk and diet Coke) and left a menu with Horatio.

"Uncle Horatio?" Madison asked. Her expression had become darling.

Horatio smiled. "Yes?"

"Can we get a kitty?" she asked, batting her eyelashes.

Horatio paused, glancing from the little girl to the menu. "Madison, you're only stay with me for the week," he said. "We can't get a cat."

"But I want one," she said, still trying to look cute.

He lowered the menu a little to better see her. "Madison, I'm sorry, but I'm not getting you a cat."

She folded her arms and pouted. "But Kimmy has one."

Horatio had no idea who Kimmy was, nor did he much care. He set the menu down. "That may be, but Kimmy isn't staying with us for a week." He tried another tactic. "Have you asked your Mommy for a kitty?"

Some part of Horatio's brain was amazed that he was using the words "Mommy" and "kitty" in a sentence. He watched Madison twirl her braid. The action was so dearly familiar and hard to place. His own mother had twirled her hair when she was thinking.

"No," she admitted. "I didn't want one until Kimmy started telling me about her's."

"Well," he was no longer concerned this was a deep-seated desire. "Tell you what. I'll ask my friend Dr. Woods if we can stop by sometime this week and visit with her kitty."

"Yeah!" Madison cheered back up.

The waitress returned for their order – two side salads with medium pizza, pepperoni and not broccoli. Their salads arrived and Madison played with her's, picking the olives out with her fingers to pop in her mouth and stabbing at the cherry tomato with her fork. She slurped down her chocolate milk before the pizza came and Horatio asked for a second for her.

The pizza was a hit. Madison ate happily, swinging her feet as she did. She ate a whole slice hungrily, then pulled the cheese off a second one to eat.

"Excuse," a woman said from behind Horatio. He turned to see a brunette in her thirties leaning toward him. She had a pleasant smile, a little shy, and her hair fell slightly forward. "I don't normally do this, but I just want to say your daughter is adorable. She looks just like you."

Madison slurped the reminder of her second glass of milk. Horatio glanced at her, seeing again the red hair and freckles that she shared more with him than Raymond.

"Thank you," Horatio said to the woman. "But she's my niece, not daughter."

The woman crouched down so she was eye level with Horatio. "Really?" She tilted her head toward Madison. "I wouldn't have guessed. You're so good with her, I thought you were her dad."

Horatio chuckled in spite of himself. "You're not the first."

The woman offered her hand. "Katie DeMark," she introduced herself. "Maybe I'll see the two of you here again?"

"I – I don't know," he answered truthfully. He took her hand and noted her brown eyes were warm. "Horatio Caine. Uhm," he fumbled in his jacket pocket, taking out a small notebook and pen, "how about – how about I call you sometime – when we're going to have dinner here again?"

Katie's smile grew wider and she brushed back her hair. Horatio noted how she tucked it behind her ear. "Sure, Horatio." She took the pad and pen and jotted her phone number and an email address down. She handed them back and glanced over her shoulder. Two other women were waiting for her by the door. The taller one had her arms crossed and was studying the ceiling. The other was apparently trying not to laugh. "I've got to go, but it was good to meet you."

She shook his hand once more. "Yes," he said, "it was good to meet you too."

Katie stood up and went to her friends. The laughing one didn't try to hide it any longer and the taller one linked her arm through Katie's and drew her out of the restaurant.

"Oooooooh," Madison sang. "Uncle Horatio has a girlfriend."

Horatio turned back from the door to his grinning niece. "Eat your pizza, Madison," was all he said.

MttS

Horatio had just sent Madison to put on her nightgown when the telephone rang. She was chattering away to her bunny about school that day when he answered the portable phone and stepped on the lanai.

"Horatio," Suzie said, sounding breathless.

Horatio smiled to himself and sat at the table. "Suzie, how's the training?"

"Good, good." He could imagine her bobbing her head as she spoke on the phone. "It's really interesting. We have lecture for part of the day and practice for the other part." She took a breath. "How are you and Madison holding up?"

Horatio decided to omit the fact he was deliberately skipping Madison's bath that night. "We're doing well. I – I think she's having fun." He paused again. "I like having her here."

"Oh, good." Suzie sounded relieved. "I know she can be a handful."

"Would you like to talk with her?" Horatio asked as Madison appeared at the door. He leaned back to help her slide it open and passed her the telephone. "It's your mother."

"Mommy!" she squealed and took the handheld receiver. "Uh-huh. I'm being good. And guess what! Uncle Horatio has geckos. And Kimmy got a kitty for her birthday. And –"

Madison was off, dancing around Horatio's swimming pool, talking to her mother. He paid attention to make sure she didn't slip and fall in the pool, but shook his head fondly.

MttS

A/N: Okay, Katie DeMark is a character of mine from elsewhere. I just borrowed her to give Horatio my phone number; the other two are CharlotteB and IceWolf ready to clobber me.