Disclaimer: See part 1.
A/N: I've had enough readers tell me that they would love to see where the story would take Ginny and everyone involved. So, I've added another chapter and if I receive enough reviews I'll add another one. So enjoy this until I've got more people telling me to continue.
Lost GirlA few days later, Ginny and her adoptive family were sitting at a graveside funeral. Ginny had tears coming down her cheeks because she knew whose funeral she was attending. Timothy Speedle's parents were sitting in the front, his mom was crying into a handkerchief as she clasped her silently grieving husband's arm. When it came time to view the body one final time, Ginny had got up and walked off. She couldn't bring herself to see his unsmiling face and not cry even harder at the loss of her friend and big brother.
Ginny had talked her uncle into letting her have Speed's bike. She looked back one last time and muttered, "I'll miss you, Speed." Her uncle had taken his hummer to the funeral, but she had talked him into letting her ride her big brother's bike. She wanted it to be one last ride connected to him on his bike while her uncle had taken a few other team members. She climbed on the bike and added, "I'll take good care of your baby for you, Speed." She then started up the bike and took off with a fresh set of tears in her eyes.
Horatio had noticed that his niece didn't stay to view the body. He saw her out of his peripheral vision as she got on Speed's bike and left the cemetery. He then did his leadership duty and gave his and his niece's condolences to the grieving Speedles. He had a feeling on where his niece had gone to, but he also needed to finish up here first. "Mr. and Mrs. Speedle, I would like to offer my and my niece's condolences. She looked up to your son as a big brother." At the older woman's question of where she was he answered, "She had taken Speed's bike and left the services. Not too long ago, she had lost both of her parents to a horrible murder and now she is having trouble coping with this. She completely fell apart when I told later that day. Since then she started to shut everyone else out."
Speed had given Ginny a key to his apartment just a few weeks ago. He told her to use it if she ever found herself in trouble and he wasn't home. She had used the key for the first time and let herself into his place. She wasn't in the trouble that he had in mind when he had given her the key, but she was in trouble nonetheless. She walked through his place remembering the first time she came to Miami. She walked into the spare bedroom and stopped in the doorway unable to go in. It was in that room where the two of them bonded deeply. Her uncle was under investigation for a mass murder, and she had the luck of showing up at CSI headquarters on the first day of the investigation. Speed was put in charge for as long as it took the team to clear her uncle from the charges. Until that had happened, she wasn't allowed in his total care and she had stayed here with her friend. Tears started to fall down her cheeks as she remembered waking up constantly with nightmares about her father's beating punishments and how Speed reacted when she told them to him. He would hold her until she felt better and safe, and promise her that if her father were still alive he would've made sure that her father was facing a prison term other than St. Peter. She then moved to the master room and just looked inside, and she couldn't bring herself to disturb it as it just screamed his presence. She made her way back to the living room and sat down on the couch. The same night she came, she remembered that her other friend and big brother, Eric Delko, had crashed in the exact same spot. She pulled a pillow to her and cried herself to sleep.
Horatio and the team had gone over to Speed's apartment after the funeral to have the wake, and to talk to his parents about his remaining possessions. He was too wrapped up in his thoughts to look around as he came in and sat down at the kitchen table. His ballistic expert, Calleigh Duquesne, walked in behind him and right behind her was his underwater recovery specialist, Eric Delko. Then came in Tim's parents, and following up the rear was the medical examiner, Alexx Woods. They conversed in the kitchen for a while not venturing into the other rooms. Eric then excused himself to use the restroom, and then disappeared out of the door leading to the living room. He wasn't gone but for only a few moments before returning, "H. You should come see this." He said before disappearing from everyone's view again. Horatio got up and followed his CSI into the living room. He could feel the rest of the team follow suit before he stopped to the side of Eric. He quietly walked over to the figure of his niece clenching one of Speed's couch pillows and crouched down in front of her. He studied her for a few seconds, before reaching out a hand and soothing her red hair out of her tear stained face.
"She feels lost and came here to say her final goodbyes." Horatio told the assembled group in a quivering voice. He then gently leaned forward and kissed where he had brushed her hair away before standing up. He looked at all the adults before him with unshed tears pooling in his eyes, and looked into everyone tears stained face. "I want everyone's promise that no matter how hard she tries and pushes us away, we will not let her and give up on her."
Calleigh thought about how the girl had been trying to distance herself emotionally from her over the last few days. Not caring what happens around her, mostly how she is losing interest in the lab. She remembers clearly how excited the girl was when Ginny helped her lift a print off of an unspent bullet when she first arrived in Miami and at CSI. She told the girl that she could help prove her uncle innocent quietly behind the scenes there at the lab. She remembered the clear excitement written all over the child's face, and she suddenly knew that she would do anything to see that again. "I promise Horatio." She told her boss and friend.
Eric remembered the first time he met her. He had stopped by to see if he had missed anything while he was off, and found out that his friend Speed was taking care of her until Horatio's name was cleared from a mass murder. She was cheeky and quick-witted, but extremely smart. She had made the grouchy, unsmiling Speed laugh and smile. Her good humor was infectious and she had the ability to keep everyone's spirits up, seemingly without having to think about it. The past few days, he had noticed that Ginny was just a shell of her former self. She had stopped cracking jokes at everything, and her astuteness had abruptly came to a stop that day. Right now, everyone needed her to be herself not this girl that suddenly didn't care what happened to her. He would do anything to hear her laugh and crack a joke again. "You can count on me, H." He said to his boss.
Alexx thought that the child was her boss's kid at first, and they had seemed so much alike and still do until Speed had died. She saw the intelligence behind the girl's eyes and how she took everything in. She noticed how Ginny was always asking questions, and how fast and correctly she worked puzzles. Her uncle had the same talent, and he had a way to mentally organized things in his mind. The girl also had that talent as well. She noticed how she had unofficially adopted the girl as a daughter, because Ginny had lost her own in a violent way. Lately, Alexx had noticed how the team's child had lost interest in everything that she once found exciting and she then knew that she would do anything to see the girl they all came to know and love come back again. "Horatio, you have my word that I will not give up on her." She told him as a fresh set of tears came to her eyes.