So, here's chapter 2 for y'all. Thank you all, for the reviews and the reads. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am writing it! And, there's the 'guest appearence' of a familiar face. It seems a little corny, I know, but, it will make a bit more sense in the long run of this... epic.

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Cheryl was pacing up and down the floor of the ER waiting room, slowly wearing the linoleum down in an attempt to seem… less anxious. The short ride to the hospital had been the worst thing she'd experienced in a long time. After Eric crashed, the rest of the trip seemed to go by in slow motion. She'd been at the wrong end of a gun before, but that journey was up there with one of her scariest events experienced. Thankfully, the medic knew what he was doing, and managed to stabilise him, although Eric had crashed again whilst entering the ER. And now? Cheryl didn't have a clue. She'd lost track of the time, whilst pacing, and all she was aware of was that it was getting dark outside.

Finally, a doctor appeared. She hurried over to him, 'What's up, doc?' Any other day, she would have seen the humor in that phrase, but not today.

'Are you family?'

'No, but-'

'I'm sorry, miss, but I cannot divulge any information about the patient unless you are a family member.'

Cheryl glared at him, before pulling out her badge. 'Detective Cheryl Carter, with the Miami Dade Crime Lab. And that patient is not only a colleague, but he's a witness to an attempted murder.'

'An attempted murder?'

'Do you know how hard it is to destroy a Hummer to the degree he did? Now don't make me go get a warrant for this information.'

The doctor frowned, 'he has suffered from a few broken bones, and some major internal bleeding, but he's stable.'

'Can I see him?'

'He's not conscious yet.'

'And that bothers me how?'

The doctor frowned again, and let her into the room. 'You have five minutes, and then I'm calling your superior.'

'Deal.' Cheryl walked over to the bed. Strangely, Eric was in the same room Speed had been, all those months ago. But Speed had never looked as lost in the bed as Eric currently did. Despite his height, Eric was drowned in tubes, monitors and, Cheryl shuddered, needles.

She dropped down onto a chair next to him, 'Ey up, chuck,' she greeted the still body, 'I'm impressed. You managed to roll a Hummer. Not many people can do that. Don't worry about anything other than getting better. I'll find out what happened, and my God, you know the rest of the team are going to.' She looked at the variouslimbs that were bandaged up. 'And just think, you're going to get that time off you keep asking for.'

The doctor appeared in the door, 'time's up,' he stated, as though he was expecting a fight.

Cheryl got up, kissed Eric on the forehead, and left the room. She turned to the doctor and handed him her card, 'this is my number. Please call me if anything changes. He may not be my biological family,' she added when he looked like he was going to object, 'but he's part of the only family I have, and that means a lot. And, if nothing else, he is a witness, and a victim.'

The doctor nodded. In the five minutes he had asked a few colleagues about her, and her reputation had preceded her. She was the one who hated needles, and wasn't afraid to show it. Frankly, he didn't need a black eye.

Cheryl turned and headed outside, flipping her phone open as she left the building.

'Caine.'

'Horatio, it's Cheryl. Eric's… Eric's fine. He's still unconscious though, but the doctor said he'll.' She stopped and took a deep breath. 'Where do you want me?'

'I'm sending a squad car to pick you up. Come back to the lab. Calleigh is working on IDing the other car that was involved in the accident, and I think you'll help speed that up.'

'There was another car then?'

'Tire treads give us the indication there was someone else there.'

'Tell her to focus on anything bigger than an SUV. There is no way anything smaller would be able to run a Hummer off the road.'

'Okay. The car is on the way.'

Cheryl flipped the phone shut and sat down to wait. She didn't have to wait long for a patrol car to appear. She opened the door and got in, 'hey,' she greeted the car's sole occupant.

'Hello,' he replied. 'So, how is he?'

Cheryl looked over at the officer. He looked a little uncomfortable, as though he wasn't sure whether he should be asking or not.

'He is going to be fine,' she told him, trying to reassure herself at the same time.

'Do you know what happened yet?'

'That's what I'm going to help do now,' she shook her head.

'You're job seems interesting.'

'We haven't met before, have we?' She asked him, cocking her head.

'No, ma'am.'

'Cheryl. Cheryl Carter.'

'Ryan Wolfe.'

'Well, Officer Wolfe,' she looked out of the window, 'the job can be rewarding. A bit like doing a jigsaw for adults. But it can be hard as hell, too.'

'Yes, ma'am,' he agreed.

'Ugh, please. You're older than I am, so less of the ma'am.'

'Sorry,' he apologised, 'I guess you hear this a lot, but aren't you a little young to be doing this?'

'Yes, I do hear this, a lot. But what can I say? I'm a big kid who likes the puzzles.' She looked over at him, 'do you know what the most important thing for the first officer at a crime scene is?' She asked, changing the subject.

'To secure it?'

'Bingo. Make sure it's secure, without disturbing anything unless necessary. Take good notes, in case the CSI needs it later.'

The car pulled up outside the Crime Lab. 'I'll remember that. And good luck finding out what happened.'

'Thank you, Officer Wolfe, and thank you for the lift. No doubt I'll see you around.' She got out of the car and hurried into the building.

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'What have we got, Calleigh?' asked Cheryl, pulling up a seat next to the fidgeting blonde, sat at the computer. She looked like she had been crying.

'The wheel base matches that of a H2, and the paint transfer on the one Eric was driving matches the Lab's Hummers.'

Cheryl's head snapped round to look at Calleigh. 'It wasn't one of ours?'

'No,' reassured Calleigh, 'Speed has checked them, and they've all been accounted for.'

'And I realise this is probably a stupid question, considering, but have any been reported stolen?'

'None.'

'And have any been reported in an RTA?'

'One, but it was blue.'

'Okay, so where are we on this?'

'Well, according to the DMV, there are one hundred and sixty eight Hummers registered in the Miami area.'

'Strangely, that doesn't surprise me. So how many are Desert Sand?'

'Thirty two.'

'But the crime lab owns nine of them, which leaves us with twenty three possibilities.'

'Is there any way you can track their routes, like with that thing you have on your Hummer?'

Cheryl shook her head. 'I wish. The GPS system on mine was added by me. They don't come standard. Besides, you would need the code to track it.'

'Well, surely a Hummer has a GPS tracking system in them? They're expensive cars.'

'They do, but they are the kind that track the current position, not the routes. And even if they were to, you'd need a warrant as we don't know which Hummer was involved.'

'Well, where does that leave us?' Cheryl turned around to find Tim stood in the door. 'I've been over that Hummer twice, and there is nothing, other than the paint transfer.'

'That leaves us with nothing, unless something comes in about a Hummer.' Said Calleigh.

'Perhaps we are looking at this all wrong.' Said Cheryl.

'What do you mean?' Asked Speed.

'Perhaps to find who, we need to know why.'

'That doesn't make much sense.'

'Well, who would want to hurt Eric?'

'To be fair, Cheryl, he's a CSI, so pretty much anyone he has helped lock up.'

'Exactly. So, start there. If the owner of the Hummer hasn't reported it stolen, then perhaps he owns it. How many people that he's put away are rich enough to own Hummers, or have connections to people who could afford them?'

'Cheryl, this is Miami,' said Speed, 'that could be a long list.'

'Cross reference the twenty three hummers with either parolees, recently arrested and released, or family members of said people.'

'Well, we don't seem to have anything else to go on,' agreed Calleigh.

'Okay, well, if you need me, give me a buzz. I'll be in the AV lab.'

'You're not going to help?'

'It doesn't take three of us. Besides, you'd much rather be doing this, than what I'm about to be doing.'

'And that is?'

'I'm checking all the footage from the tolls on that road. The other Hummer had to get on somewhere.'

'Do you know how many cameras there are? And there are none for a few miles either way. Who's to say he didn't get on, or off, anywhere else?'

'Hey, Calleigh, it's a longshot, but at least it's an idea.'

Cheryl walked out of the lab and towards the AV lab.

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A couple of hours later, and Cheryl's eyes were going funny from staring at a computer screen for so long.She had found Dan, and he had managed to pull the surveillance tapes of the tolls, and the two of them had been watching cars go through in fast forward for ages.

'I have no idea how you can do this all the time. Don't your eyes hurt.'

'You get used to it.' Dan told her. 'Hey, I think I've got something.'

Cheryl wheeled her chair over. 'It's definately the right colour.' She peered at the screen. 'Can you zoom in on the front passenger side?'

'No problem.' He pressed a few buttons and zoomed in. The pixels came into focus to show the car had recently been in a collision of some kind.

'I think you may have found it. Can you get me the lisence?'

Dan nodded, hit a few more buttongs on his keyboard, and pulled up the lisence. Cheryl wheeled herself to another computer and began to run the numbers. After a few more minutes, the computer flashed up a name and lisence. 'Michael Christopher Rollins.'She turned to Dan, 'is there a reason why that name sounds so familiar?'

'Yeah, I should think so. Michael's father is the Mayor of Miami.'

'Oh crap.I really hope we have the wrong car, otherwise, this is going to get interesting.' She pulled out her phone and dialed Horatio'e number. "Hey, Horatio, I think we may have something. And I'm not sure if that's good news, or not. Can you get to the AV lab, asap?'

Well, again, thank you for reading! I hope to have the third chapter up before thanksgiving... I'm off to Texas, for some bizarre reason (involving students and alcohol!) so I don't know if i'll either have the internet access, the time, or the soberness needed to post, but the laptop is going with me, so maybe when my friends are trying to sleep off their hangovers, I might get something done.

Go on, make my day, leave a review. As my friend said, if you've taken the time to read it, go on and spend a couple of extra seconds to tell me what you think! It honestly makes me happy! x