Chapter Six

Horatio was headed to the departmental hummer and police units were screaming out of the lot. Speed turned to Alyssa, and she saw the look in his eyes. She knew him well enough to know that no matter how much he loved and respected her, nothing she said was gonna stop him following Horatio. She nodded and he tilted her chin before quickly kissing her. He turned towards the lab before the distance between them finally pulled their hands apart.

He burst through the doors of the ballistics lab and into the gun vault before Calleigh appeared behind him.

"Tim…"

"Calleigh, I don't wanna argue with you…give me my gun."

"Horatio will kill me…" she shook her head, hesitating

"Call, this psycho just tore outta here with my baby. Horatio can give me the heat for disobeying orders!"

Calleigh just nodded and Speed waited while she opened the locked drawer and pulled out his gun. She handed it to him, and he ran from the lab before Calleigh could say another word. She rubbed her hand across her stomach and prayed that Speed, Cruz and Horatio would be ok. She thought back to the week before when she found she'd been expecting.

Calleigh walked into the pharmacy and took a deep breath before going to the counter. She asked for the test and caught the smile the girl gave her. She didn't know how she felt and couldn't bring her self to return the gesture. The pharmacist returned with the test and Calleigh left the shop. After pulling up to a stop in front of the apartment building she grabbed her bag and ran in. Unlocking the door, she dumped her bag and jacket on the floor and raced to the toilet with the test.

After 3 minutes of pacing, she glanced at the kitchen counter from the living room and looked at the ceiling before crossing the apartment. Picking up the test she saw the second blue line and felt the smile creep across her face. Placing a hand on her stomach and looking down she whispered to the empty apartment

"Hey baby" she smiled again.

She shook her head and headed to the locker room. Once she got there she pulled out her bag and sat down she pulled out the sonogram picture and smiled. She opened the plain white card and slotted the picture under the tabs and closed it. On the front she took a gold pen and simply wrote "Daddy". Closing her locker she went to her husband's office and placed the card on the desk. She left the room and went to find Alyssa.

Speed weaved through the traffic and pulled out his cell phone. Dialling, with one hand on the wheel he hit speed dial 3 and rang Horatio.

"Caine"

"H, it's me…where is this guy heading?"

"Speed, I told you to stay put. This is your daughter"

"No shittin' H. I never listen to you, what makes ya think ama start now?"

"Ok, ok. He's heading to the warehouse district just north of Biscayne Park."

"H, am tellin' you now, anything happens to Cruz and he's gonna be on Alexx's table"

Horatio tried to say something but Tim had shut the call off. He sighed. He knew how much he would do for Calleigh, and Alyssa and Cruz were Tim's entire world. He'd go to hell and back for them. It scared him the crap out of him that Tim was ready and willing to kill to protect his family. He had to get Cruz back into his arms before Speed did something he would regret.

He swerved over the lanes and prayed his god daughter was ok.

Horatio pulled out his cell phone and dialled Calleigh's number, suddenly needing to tell his wife just how much he loved her.

Back at the lab, Eric was heading to find Valera to do the same.

Alyssa flipped her cell open when it bleeped. She smiled when she read the text message. Speed had a habit of recording a message in voice form and then sending it in text message format.

"Hey beautiful…just wanna tell you how much I love you and Cruz…our little girl will be back with me shortly…I'll go to hell before this creep hurts her. I'd do anything for you. Me and Baby Speedle will see you soon. Xxxxxx"

Speed braked hard just behind Horatio and pulled his gun out of his holster. Horatio shot him a look. Speed held his gaze.

"Blame me, not your wife."

H had to smile. The S.U.V came into plain sight as they crept around the corner. The driver's side door was open and so was the passenger side. Speed held back his tears as he realised that Lynch had taken her with him. Upon closer inspection, Horatio and Tim could see that the car seat was missing. Tim looked at the sky before setting his jaw and looking at H.

"I swear I'll kill this guy with my bare hands H…He's going down"

The entire place was crawling with MDPD officers and Tim didn't fail to notice that there was more than one Riot officer on the premises of the warehouse district. As they slowly and cautiously moved down the middle alley, Speed suddenly stopped. Horatio turned to look at him. Tim simply held up his hand before looking back at Horatio and nodding his head in the direction of the warehouse just directly beside where Horatio was standing.

"You sure?" Horatio mouthed to Tim, instead of talking out loud.

Tim tilted his head to the side with a classic Speed look on his face. Horatio bit back a grin, as Tim smirked at him. For a moment, Horatio had forgotten exactly why they were standing at the warehouse door. The look on Tim's face had reminded him of the times that Eric and Tim had been humoured by some strange cases. Horatio wished that this had been one of these times. All that did was make him more determined to get back Cruz, protect Speed and put Simon Lynch up for death penalty. H was going to make sure that he couldn't hurt another family like Tim and Alyssa's. He nodded once to Tim and the rest of the team that was now surrounding them and then to the warehouse door. Slowly they closed in on it. Tim could feel his pulse and heart rate kick up a notch. A minute later they heard Cruz cry and Speed couldn't wait any longer and burst through the door.

"SPEED!" Horatio cried, unable to stop his young protégé.

Back at the crime lab, Alyssa was pacing the floor of the break room and despite the best attempts by Alexx and Calleigh, wouldn't stop and had been pacing since Tim left the vicinity of the lab.

Eric entered the room as Alexx was trying in vain to get Alyssa to stop. She scraped her brunette hair back into a ponytail and looked at Alexx.

"NO, not until Speed brings back my little girl. ALIVE"

Calleigh shot her head in Alexx's direction at Alyssa's use of "Speed". Alyssa had never called him Speed in front of any member of the team before and it felt strange to have her say it. Alexx shook her head slightly at Calleigh. Alexx had heard it from her before, when she was flirting with him, angry, or scared half to death. Alexx had become close to Alyssa when the girl had came to her shortly after she'd starting seeing Tim. Alyssa knew how important Alexx was to him, and she wanted to be important to him too. Tim may know it and he may not, but Ally had fallen for him long before he'd picked up enough sense to see what was right in front of him. He was her one, and Ally had turned to Alexx when they'd had fights, and the one night they'd broken up, Alyssa had shown up at Alexx's in tears and breaking her heart. Alexx shook her head from her memories. She knew how strong they were together and her own heart was aching for the look she saw in her eyes.

Speed burst into the room and found no one in it. Horatio and MDPD were right behind him. The crying got louder and Speed stopped when he realised that it wasn't real. Slowly crossing the room, he saw where it was coming from. A portable C.D player was playing a tape and Lynch and Cruz were no where to be seen.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Tim slammed his fist against the wall and it responded by bursting open. As blood dropped from the nasty wound on his right hand, Horatio told the team to search everywhere and put a call in to nearly every squad car. He crossed the room to Tim.

"Don't H…I can't take this any more. I just…can't…I have this feeling like am never gonna get her back. Am never gonna see her again. I hate to say this H…but…"

"Speed…don't say what your about to say. I promised you'd have your baby back, and I'm not going back on it."

"H…I can't do this…it's killing me…Ally's dependin on me to be the strong one and all I wanna do is break down and cry. I'm barely hangin on and am scared and that itself is scaring the shit outta me. I look at you and your so in control and I know that the minute we get this guy, am gonna lose it big time…H…I don't know how to tell her everything's gonna be alright when am scared its not…"

"Tim…I know you…and this...raw emotion your feeling is because you're a parent. AM in control? All I wanna do is run back to the lab and never let go of Calleigh…I know where you're coming from. Tim, I promise you…everything is gonna be alright."

Tim turned back to the wall. H turned to walk away and turned back.

"Oh and Speed?"

"Yea?"

"I won't let you lose your badge over this guy; I need my best criminalist on the field…not in a prison cell"

"Thanks H…just…Just Thanks…"

Horatio understood and left Tim with a nod, and when he left Tim turned to the wall and let the tears fall, unwilling to let anyone else see him cry the tears behind his hazel eyes.

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