Disclaimer: Thank you all for your show of support, but he still hasn't called. I'm beginning to lose hope.

A/N: Here's Thursday morning. I'm doing the research I need to write the rest of the day and I will be away (again!) for the holiday weekend. I hope to update by this time next week. If only I could drive for seven hours and type at the same time… Thank you for the wonderful reviews – It's great to know you're reading and loving this fic.

Horatio tossed in his sleep.

With a glance at Speed, Horatio drew his own gun. The armed man moved along the floor, crouched beneath the table in the back room.

The hairs on the back of Horatio's neck bristled as the armed man stood up, his eyes wild in panic. The man was going to shoot, he was going to shoot at Speed and then at him –

-- but he had to leave work before five, he needed to pick Madison up from daycare.

Horatio opened his eyes in the dark. His t-shirt was again soaked from the sweat evoked by the nightmare, his heart pounded in his ears. He lay there for a long time while his breathing returned to normal and his eyes adjusted. The digital alarm clock read 3:30 a.m.

He sat up and scrubbed at his face with his hands. The nightmare, again, the second time that week. This time, it had been different. This time, instead of worrying about Speed, he had worried for Madison. It was an odd sensation of guilt and relief.

Horatio stood and walked to the kitchen, thinking he just needed a drink of water. His feet detoured, past the kitchen and to his niece's bedroom. He cracked the door and peeked in on her. Madison was asleep, bunny in her arms and conch shell on the bedside table. Eric the Gecko lay at the foot of her bed as a protective spirit. She was safe, he was alive.

Horatio watched her sleep for a minute, then went to the kitchen for his drink of water.

The rest of the morning he dreamed of a little girl with red hair, who starred in the middle school play, graduated from college and became a woman with red hair, applying to the Miami-Dade Police Department.

MttS

Madison was dressed in a pair of denim shorts and a gold t-shirt when she came bouncing from her bedroom. Horatio had knocked on her door twenty minutes earlier to wake her. She carried her hairbrush and the figure-eight pony-tail holder with little plastic bubbles in each loop that little girls wore.

"Can you braid my hair, Uncle Horatio?" she asked, handing him the brush and hair loops.

Horatio set down his fresh cup of coffee. He scooped her up with one arm and stood her on one of the kitchen chairs.

"You know," he told her with a half-grin, "I used to be a big, scary CSI before you came here. Now, I braid little girls' hair."

Madison giggled. "You're not scary." She held her hand up, fingers curved like claws. "Scary are alligators and monsters under my bed." She made a silly growling sound and giggled some more.

"That's what you think," he told her, separating her hair into strands. She wiggled a little while he worked her fine hair into a half-way decent French braid.

"If you're a boy," Madison said, "how come you know how to braid my hair? You're better at it than Mommy."

Horatio's fingers finished the higher braid and continued on the length of her hair, while he considered his answer. "Well," he said, "when I was a young man I knew this girl. And she had very pretty long brown hair."

"Like Miss Yelina?" Madison asked.

"Yep," Horatio said, using the double loop to secure the braid. "Like Miss Yelina. Well, this girl had trouble braiding her hair, so one of her friends showed me how to braid it for her."

Madison turned around, her face solemn as she listened. "So what happened to the girl?"

Horatio lifted her down from the chair. "I married her. But, it didn't – it didn't quite work out."

"So where is the girl now?" Madison asked.

Horatio took a bowl from the cupboard and set in with the cereal on the table. "Have breakfast, Madison. We need to leave soon so we can be on time for the boat."

Madison poured her cereal, but continued to watch Horatio, thinking hard enough that she was squinting. "You're not going to tell me what happened to the girl, are you?" she said at last.

Horatio drank his coffee. "There's no secret. She lives up in Jacksonville with a new husband. They have a son and daughter in high school now, I think."

Madison added milk to her breakfast, swinging her feet under her chair. "Well," she declared. "I'm not going to Jacksonville. I'm gonna to stay right here with you, Uncle Horatio."

Horatio chuckled as he looked at the little girl, head tilted slightly toward the floor. She was so sincere in her pledge, eating frosted flakes and swinging her feet.

"Tell you what, my friend," he said, crouching down so that they were eye-level. "You are going to grow-up and have your adventures, but I, I will always be here for you. How about that?"

Madison bobbed her head and grinned. "Are we going to see dolphins, today?" she asked.

Horatio nodded and stood up. He took his mug to finish the rest of his coffee. "You know, I think we just might."

Madison clapped her hands and gobbled the rest of her cereal. She took her bowl to the dishwasher before skipping back to her room. Horatio collected his wallet and keys from the top of his bedroom dresser. He took the daypack with their bottles of water, sunscreen and snacks from the kitchen counter.

"Come along, Madison," he called, waiting by the garage door.

She came from her bedroom, carrying her large conch shell. She held it out for him to see. "Can I bring this?"

Horatio studied the shell for a moment. "Maybe – maybe you have a smaller one that will fit in your pocket?" he suggested.

Madison thought about it and darted back to her bedroom. She returned with a shell about the size of her hand. "This fits," she told him.

"Okay." Horatio nodded. "Put it in your pocket. We need to hurry; the boat leaves at ten o'clock and we don't want to miss it."

Madison grinned and nodded, putting the shell into her pocket and putting on her sunglasses.

MttS

"Two tickets, please," Horatio said to the young woman at the counter for the boat tours in Dante Fascell Visitor Center, "one adult, one child."

The woman leaned over the counter to see Madison, who was holding on to Horatio's hand and looking around the lobby of Biscayne National Park headquarters at Convoy Point. Tour groups were gathered in different corners while families and the occasional couple strolled by.

"They're leaving in twenty minutes," the woman said, taking Horatio's money and passing him the tickets. She point out the door and towards a walkway, leading to the marina. "You're just in time."

He took the tickets with a nod. Horatio lead Madison from the building and they walked down the path. A small group people waited on the pier. Some, such as the couple who wore University at Buffalo ball caps, were obviously tourists. Madison let go of Horatio's hand and skipped down the wooden walkway, ending at the railing. She ducked her head between the two rails and peered down to the water.

Horatio came up from behind her, resting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I can see to the bottom," she told him. Madison stood up again. "When's the boat getting here?"

Horatio checked his watch. "In just a minute, I suspect."

That's when the boat puttered from around the bend. It approached the dock slowly enough not to leave a wake. It neared the pylons and the engine audibly cut out. The crewman and the interpretative guide leaned out the side of the boat, which had a white roof covering and high blue walls, as it neared the pier.

"Stand back," the crewman called as the boat slowed further. A second whine started up as the captain use a smaller motor to bring the boat to a stop. It got close enough for the crewman to jump from the boat to the pier. The guide tossed him a line and he pulled the boat up to the bumpers, tying it to the pier.

The crewman offered the guide his hand and she stepped across the small gap. Together they laid a short plank down for their passengers. A moment later the captain appeared. Each of them wore the park's tan polo-shirt uniform, but the captain had on surfer jams and a cap with a gold ship's wheel embroidered to the front.

The guide was a woman who looked to be in her early fifties, with short, sun-bleached hair. She had a welcoming smile as she greeted the boaters for the morning.

"Welcome to Biscayne National Park," she said. "This is one of the largest national parks in the South. What makes us unique, is 95 percent of the park is underwater, which is why you'll be our guests for the day. As you've already figured out, the best way to see that 95 percent is from one of our glass bottom boats."

The guide indicated with her hand to the crewman, a brown-hair man who looked to still be in college. "This is Greg, who is crewing for us today. And here," she indicated toward the third member, "is our Captain, James McKay, affectionately known as Captain Bubba."

Captain Bubba tipped his hat to the crowd and winked at the guide. He looked to also be somewhere in his late fifties and Horatio thought he had a mischievous grin.

"I'm your guide, Savannah," the woman continued. "We're going out on a three-hour tour to the coral reefs and back. But don't worry," she added, "if anything happens to our Minnow, I assure you, it will take considerably less than three years for us to be found."

"That's 'cause the lady can holler sumtin' good," Captain Bubba commented. "They'd a' hear us all the way down island."

Savannah shot him a glare. "Thank you, James," she said, stressing his name. She turned back to their passengers and stepped away from the plank. "Come on board and let's take a tour of nature's beauty."

Captain Bubba headed back to the pilot wheel, but not before Horatio heard him mutter to Greg, "I know the tour a' beauty I'd like."

The younger man glanced heavenward with a pleading look on his face, palms outstretched to the sky. Madison saw him and tugged at Horatio's belt loop, a questioning look on her own face.

Horatio chuckled. He had seen the same expression on more than one of his team members' faces.

"They're friends," he told her.

The tour crowded on the boat, Savannah and Greg standing to one side. Captain Bubba, with another wink to Savannah, headed back to the pilot wheel. Horatio and Madison found a spot near the stern of the square boat, where she could see through the bottom of the boat and he could watch over the side rail.

Madison tugged at his blue shirt sleeve and pointed in excitement through the glass bottom. A brightly colored angel fish had darted toward the middle, paused, swished its tail and dart away again. Madison set both of her hands on the caution rail and leaned over, enthralled.

The engine started up and Greg untied the boat, pulling up the small plank with Savannah's help. There was a sharp whistle that made Madison jump and cover her ears, and the boat tugged away from the pier.