Well, here is chapter 5: thank you for reading! I decided i needed to explain the whole 'Cheryl' thing. Her past, that is, so I'm going off the story slightly, although, i guess it is needed. Enjoy

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cheryl pulled away, 'sorry,' she murmured, as she pulled herself to her feet and hurried over to the gun. She picked it up and hurried around to the back door of her H2. She was about to pull the door open when she was joined by Speed.

'Hey, what are you apologising for? I was the one that kissed you.'

Cheryl shook her head, sending water flying off the ends of her hair, muttering something that sounded like I shouldn't have done that, under her breath. She yanked opened the door, only to let out a scream of pain, and drop the gun. She dropped to her knees, only just noticing that her arm was in agony from holding onto Speed.

'Cheryl?' Speed dropped to his knees next to her.

'I'm fine,' she gasped, grapping the gun and getting back on her feet. Next to her, Speed got back on his, watching her as she put it in an evidence bag. She stepped back and shut the door, before heading round and getting in the drivers seat, careful to use her other arm to open the door.

The drive back was silent, for the most part, Cheryl not even bothering to put some music on.

'Are you going to ignore me all the way home?'

'I'm not ignoring you.' Said Cheryl. 'I just don't have anything interesting to say.'

'I would have thought what happened back there would be a start.'

Cheryl sighed. 'I can't go there.'

'What? Talking about the kiss? It wasn't that bad, was it?'

She sighed again, 'far from it. But that's all it was. A kiss.'

'Why?'

'Because of many reasons.'

'Such as?'

'One, I don't do relationships. Two, I don't do relationships with guys I work with. Three, there is someone else in this picture.'

'You're seeing someone else?'

'No, see point one.'

'I'm seeing someone?'

Cheryl managed a half smile. 'No, but one of my friends wishes that was the case.'

'Who?' Speed was completely confused.

'For a CSI, you aren't very good at noticing what's in front of you.' She said, as she pulled her Hummer into the parking lot of the crime lab.

'I really don't know who you are talking about. Valera?'

'Calleigh.' She said, jumping out and heading to the rear of the vehicle. She was slamming the rear door shut and half way to the lab's front door when Speed had caught up with her.

'Don't, be stupid.'

'I'm not, Tim. The girl has got it bad for you. I could see that with days of being here, so why can't you.' She pushed open the door and walked in.

'Where have you two been?' Asked Horatio, hurrying over.

'Following a lead.' Said Cheryl, holding up a gun.

'Well why haven't you been answering your cell?'

'I hope you didn't do anything illegal to obtain that, because it wont stand up in court,' added Yelina, who was stood next to Horatio

'Why are you two so wet?' Asked Calleigh, who had also joined them when they entered the building.

'Cheryl, you need to go get your arm seen to,' said Speed, before anything else was said.

'I'm fine,' said Cheryl, glaring at him.

'What's up with your arm?' Asked Horatio.

'Nothin- argh!' She screamed, as Speed prodded her shoulder.

She turned around and glared at him, 'it is taking everyounce of willpower in me, not to punch you again,' she told him through gritted teeth.

'Punch you again?' Said Eric as he walked over and joined them. 'What did you do?'

'Ladies, gentlemen, that is enough,' interrupted Horatio. 'What happened?'

'The car genius, that is Cheryl, found a way of working out where Carla had been on her last journey in her car,' said Eric, 'so they went there to see if she had dumped the gun.'

'Which she had,' said Cheryl, holding up the gun.'

Horatio took it and handed it to Calleigh. 'And where was this found?'

'Some drainage ditch – no warrant needed, in plain sight, etc, etc.' Said Cheryl.

'So why are you so wet?'

Because it was in the ditch.' Explained Speed.

'But it hasn't rained here in a while,' Calleigh. 'What did you do, go swimming for it?'

'No, turns out it's been raining upstate,' said Speed.

'So how hard did you punch Speed here, to hurt your arm?' Asked Yelina.

'It wasn't the punch,' said Cheryl, 'it's the fact this guy has a death wish.'

'What happened?' Exclaimed Calleigh.

Cheryl looked pointedly at Speed, before turning back to the others. 'We didn't notice the water until it was practically on us. We barely got out. Well, muppet boy here, didn't. Had to do CPR, didn't I.'

This time it was Speed's time to glare at her. 'You still need to go get checked out.' He repeated.

'I told you, I'm fine.'

'If you're so fine, why are you still barefoot?'

Cheryl looked down at her feet. She had left her shoes back at the ditch without even realising it. She lifted them up and looked at the soles. They were covered in blood. 'Oh!' She cried, before overbalancing and toppling into Horatio.

'You,' said Horatio, 'you are going to the infirmary. Both of you. No arguments,' he added before either of them could protest. 'Calleigh, go run the gun and bullets in ballistics. Eric, you're going to DNA, see if Valera can get any epithelia's off the gun.'

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cheryl was sat in one of the rooms in the infirmary feeling sorry for herself, when Horatio walked in. 'Do I have to send you to an anger management course?' He asked her, as he sat next to her on the bed.

She had since showered, changed into another overall, and was spread out over a bed. 'For the record, I never hit her.'

'No, but the doctor said you threatened her.'

'Horatio, I hate needles, and I will rather catch every disease under the sun, than have one stuck in me,' she shuddered.

'Well, maybe, you should stop putting yourself in situations where you need one.'

'Well maybe, Speedle should be a little more careful with his life,' she retorted.

Horatio smiled. 'You are more like your father than you'll ever know.'

Cheryl looked away, 'I didn't come here looking for a family, you know.'

'I know. But I think you need one.' He sighed, 'you don't like letting anyone in, do you?'

Cheryl didn't say anything.

'OK,' he said, 'ok, lets take this slowly. Tell me about yourself.'

'I've already told you about myself.' She looked over at him. He didn't look like he was going anywhere, anytime soon. 'My mum always told me that an education was the most important thing. She home schooled me, before I went to school, and whilst I was in high school. As a result, I was put in classes with people older than me, but at my level of intelligence. By the time it came to doing my A-levels, I was getting such a hard time about being so young, I just wanted to get out of there, so I did. I became the youngest to graduate, and I'm up there with being the youngest at university. I loved my degree in Cambridge. Doing Engineering meant there were few girls doing the same course, and it was always the girls who had the biggest problem with my age. So I spent my free time with the guys, and that's where my love of cars came from. I ended up specialising in mechanical engineering. The proudest day of my mum's life was when I invented the engine. It would have been when I fine tuned the second engine, but that design got stolen off me by my then boyfriend. I was so annoyed, but at the time I didn't think there was anything I could do about it. So I kept my head down and graduated second in my class.

She looked over at Horatio. He was sat quietly, listening to everything she said. So she continued. 'Just before I graduate, my mum remarried and moved to New York with her husband. Being so young, there were very few jobs I could do, despite my degree, so I decided to do another, to kill some time. So I went to LSU, which seems a strange place to go to after being at Cambridge. I could have gone to any Ivy league institution, but I didn't want that. I don't know why I chose LSU, actually. But I had so much fun there. I did my joint chemistry and physics degree there. I went into a partnership with three of my sisters in my sorority who have opened a cosmetics line. I'm just the scientist in the background, I don't like publicity. They're doing quite well, actually. I'm tying to get them to branch out into the crime world.' She chuckled, 'we developed a soap that would wash away even the smell of a decomp. And lord knows that would be popular, but they say it's not the image they want to have. So I just use it anyway. Anyways, towards the end of my degree, my stepfather was killed in a carjacking gone wrong. So after I graduated, I went to New York to be with my mum. Ended up joining the NYPD on the graveyard shift. Which I prefer to this one.'

She reached over and took a sip of water, before continuing. 'I remember my first dead body. I was nineteen. Had been working for all of a week. He was only seven, and had gotten mixed up in some gang war. In the July, two years later we had finally tracked down the perps, but they got off on some technicality with the evidence. Even my partner was upset, and he's normally just rageful. Apparently, it was incorrectly documented. Which is when I decided I wanted to get into forensics. And then, 9/11 happened, and my mum died. I was going to try and stay in New York, but after that, I just wanted to get out. So I spoke to one of my old professors at Cambridge, and he got me on the forensics in London.'

Horatio looked at her, she had tears running down her face, but he let her continue.

'I did nothing for two years, other than work. I became the equivalent of a level three. And then I realised how much I missed America, so I applied back out here. Why did you accept me? No normal person would have, considering my age.'

'Because,' said Horatio, 'because, I felt you had potential. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what your age is, so long as you are capable of doing the job. And you have certainly proved that.'

There was a knock at the door, and Yelina, Calleigh, Tim, Eric, and another man entered. Cheryl quickly wiped the tears away.

'What's up guys?' Asked Horatio.

'The bullets were fired from the gun,' said Calleigh.

'But we couldn't find any DNA on the gun,' added Eric.

'However,' said Yelina, looking curiously at the Horatio and Cheryl, 'I have had a chat with the DA, and because of the evidence from where her car has been, we arrested her for multiple murder charges.'

'So who are you?' Horatio asked the other man.

'Agent Caudfield,' he said, offering his hand to Horatio, 'FBI.'

'Lieutenant Caine, how may we help you?'

'I'm here about the fake IDs.'

Horatio looked over at his team.

'We think we may be able to work out where 'Mark' will be next, and get him.' Said Tim, 'we found traces of boat oil on Cheryl's dress.'

'The clubs near the fishing port?'

'You got it.'

'And how does this effect us?' He asked Agent Caudfield.

'One of your team has had interactions with him, and we need him for a positive ID. I am sorry to disturb you when you are with your daughter,' he said, looking at Cheryl, 'but if you could take me to your CSI, we would like to get her undercover tonight.'

The room erupted into life. Calleigh and Eric were busy laughing, Tim was shouting his objections, and Yelina was giving Cheryl and Horatio the strangest look.

'Guys!' Cried Cheryl, causing them to be quiet. She looked up at the FBI agent, 'CSI Cheryl Carter. Please to meet you.'

The agent looked over at her in disbelief, 'you're a CSI?'

Cheryl took a deep breath, well aware that she looked a lot younger when her hair was wet, 'yes, I am.'

'Oh!" The agent perked up, 'well, this is even better then. In which case, we want you to go undercover.'

Cheryl looked over at Horatio.

'Undercover doing what?'

'She could pass as a minor, easily. And then we could catch him in the act.'

'But he'll recognise her!' Objected Speed.

'Hair dye,' said Cheryl. 'I've always wanted to be a brunette.' She looked over at Horatio.

'It's your call,' he told her.

'Sure, when?' She told Agent Caudfield.

'Tonight.'

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Well, guys, thanks for reading, and reviewing! It made me smile to see the reviews... so i spent the day writing, instead of watching the football - geaux tigers! Go England!

JACarvello - Thank you! I'm glad you like Cheryl, and the pairing. I'm really not sure if I want it to happen though. I always thought Calleigh and Speed would have gotten together if Speed hadn't have been killed off. Having said that, I never want any of the cast to get together with each other though, which makes little sense.

Kelleigh - hope this chapter made you a little happier. As I said, i don't know who is going to get paired up. But, I'm sorry, it wont be Calleigh and Eric. Hahaha, nah, I can't see it.

brittany - Here you go, was the update quick enough? Thanks for reading, glad you like it!

randomwriting - Again, thanks for reading. I wasn't sure about the age thing originally, myself, but there are a few gifted youngsters out there, and i wanted to go with that. I hope this chapter has cleared up more for you. As for the comedy lines, thank you! I try! I will be running with this for a while - trying to make my own little mini series, includinga cross-over or two.

Well, all, I'm gonna try and get the next chapter done as soon as, but i have an exam coming up soon, and I probably should study... :( but hang in there, it will be up soon - Thank you!