Okay, so this took a little longer to post than expected. It's slightly longer than normal (I hope that makes up for it!) I hope you like it!

'Why can't we possibly have a nice case?' Grumbled Cheryl. She and Horatio were on their way back to the Mayor's house, although making a slight detour so that Cheryl could pick up her Hummer which was still where it had been left earlier that evening when she had attended the RTA.

'Define a nice case.'

'One with no blood, death, violence, nasty scenes, children, or rape.'

Horatio glanced over at her from behind the steering wheel, 'and what would that leave us with.'

Cheryl thought about it, then smiled, 'with a lot more free time.' She jumped out of the Hummer, which had pulled up alongside hers, 'okay, so it's never going to happen,' she said, through the open door, 'see you in a minute,' she told him as she slammed the door shut and ran over to her own car. She jumped in, fired it up, and took off after Horatio, soon catching him up.

They pulled up together outside the gates, which Horatio cleared them both through, although Cheryl held her badge up for good measure, before they took the long drive up the driveway. She pulled to a stop alongside the other Hummer, and jumped out, casting a quick look at the TVR, before joining Horatio at the front door. 'Where are all the squad cars?' She asked, only seeing the one she recognised as what Yelina drove, and that wasn't a black and white.

Horatio was prevented from answering by the door opening and one of the guys in shades leading them back to the Mayor's study. The scene here was very different to what it had been earlier in the day. The Mayor's wife was sat sobbing on the sofa, whilst the Mayor was pacing up and down the room, cell phone in hand, shouting a mixture of commands and obscenities into the mouth piece. Horatio cleared his throat and the Mayor ended his phone call. 'Where is my son?'

'That is what we are trying to find out, sir.' Horatio said. 'How do you know he has been kidnapped?'

'I was given this,' wailed the Mayor's wife, holding out a sheet of paper with letters stuck on.

Horatio took it off her, using glove to hold the corner, 'Have you called your son recently?' He read out loud.

'Where did this come from, Mrs Rollins?' Asked Cheryl after she had taken the note of Horatio and bagged it.

Mrs Rollins looked at her, a strange expression upon her face, 'the maid bought it in for me.'

'It was sent up from the gates. The maid's clear,' said Yelina, appearing from behind. 'I'm having the guards pull the surveillance tapes and send them over to the lab now.'

'Have you tried ringing your son?' Cheryl asked the mayor, thinking about what the message meant.

The Mayor nodded, 'of course I have,' he pressed a couple of buttons on his phone, Cheryl noted them down, and it began dialling on speakerphone.

'You have reached to phone of Michael Rollins. He can't come to the phone right now, because he is a little tied up. Literally. If you want to see him alive, I want $6 million in unmarked bills. Do not involve the police, or I will kill him. You will be contacted at 10pm sharp.'

Cheryl looked at her watch. It was 7pm. 'Well, that's a good sign,' she said, 'it mean's that he's still alive.' For now, she added silently.

'Okay,' said the mayor, 'I humoured you earlier, but who are you?'

'Detective Cheryl Carter, CSI 3, Miami Dade Crime Lab.'

The mayor turned to Horatio, 'do you not think this case deserves someone a little more qualified than a kid?'

'Cheryl is more than capable of doing this job. If anything were ever to happen to me, I would want her on the case.' Said Horatio.

'I may be young, but I know what I'm doing.' Cheryl agreed.

'Then why, pray tell, are you stood in a bikini?

'Cheryl and I entered this case on our day off. Unfortunately Cheryl here happened to have been at the beach when we got the call.'

'You weren't wearing that earlier.'

'No, but earlier, I hadn't been involved in an explosion, my stomach cut, and my other top ruined. And I came straight here rather than waste time and get changed.'

'An explosion?' Exclaimed Mrs Rollins.

'There was a fire in your son's building, a little earlier this evening. It resulted in an explosion in the building. My team is investigating the causes as we speak.' Horatio explained to the worried parents. 'I can confirm that that everyone managed to evacuate the building, and according to the fire chief, there was no one in the building.'

I want your full attention on this, Lieutenant,' said the Mayor. 'We will have the money ready for 10. We want him back.'

'I thought it was policy not to give into the kidnappers demands.' Muttered Cheryl.

The Mayor slammed his phone into its holder, 'and what would a child know about these policies?'

Cheryl turned to Horatio, trying to keep her voice even, 'I am going back to the lab,' she told him through gritted teeth, 'and I am going to run the answer phone message with Dan. And then I am going to process this letter.' She turned and stormed out of the house before she another word could be said.

She jumped into her Hummer and squealed off down the drive, barely slowing for the guarded gates. She sped all the way back to the lab, well aware that she was not setting a suitable example for a member of law enforcement. Normally, driving, especially driving fast, put her in an instant good mood. However, thirty minutes later, she was still slamming doors, storming down corridors and not apologising to anyone she accidentally walked into.

She went into the AV lab, and smacked her phone and notebook onto the table. Dan, who had entered just behind her, stopped, and backed out of the door, heading as quickly as he could in the opposite direction. Not even the temptation of Cheryl in a bikini was enough to keep him there. He had sisters and he knew what they were like when they were angry.

Cheryl didn't notice that Dan had been and left. Instead, she assumed he was hiding somewhere, playing on his new PSP, like she had caught him doing only a few days earlier. She rammed her phone into the lead attached to the computers, clicked a few buttons and waited for the programme to boot up.

Whilst it was, she walked over to the CD player and pressed play, hoping some music would calm her down. If driving didn't help, singing would. In this case it put her in a worse mood. Blasting out of the speakers was Coldplay. She despised Coldplay. Cheryl smacked her thumb against the eject button, almost sending the CD player flying, before wrenching the disc out of the drive. She snapped into as many small pieces as she could before flinging them on the floor.

The computer beeped, signalling the programme had loaded, so Cheryl headed back to the computer and sat down in front of it. She dialled the number, loaded it into the computer and set the message on repeat and sat with her head in her hands, listening to the message.

She was about thirty seconds away from repeatedly slamming her head against the computer desk, when someone entered the lab behind her, and put their ands on her shoulders, starting to massage them.

'So, um, H called me,' Cheryl tensed up at mention of her uncle, 'he said you were a little stressed about something, and that when I was to get back to the lab I was to check on you. Although judging from the knots in your shoulders, and the trail of destruction from the door to here, I'd say you were a bit more than "a little" stressed.'

'I have had it with people judging me over my age.' She cried,'I have had enough of it. It's bad enough I get ID everywhere I go, and that I can still get into many places at a child price. But to have someone assume I am incompetent at my job is insulting. They may as well be suggesting I only got my job by sleeping with my boss.' She shuddered violently. 'Okay, that is just sick and wrong.' She picked her notebook up and hurled it onto the floor, crying out in frustration.

'You know,' said Speed, kneading her back, his hands nice and cool in contrast to her hot back, 'you would look a bit older if you let your hair down, instead of keeping it scraped back.'

'Yeah, and that's one fast way to contaminate a crime scene.'

'So, tie it up at a crime scene, and when you're processing evidence, but leave it down when you're not. I've only ever seen you wear it up, even when we've done things out of work. You look really nice with it down. And,' he added, 'turning up to see the mayor with a bikini on is hardly going to help the situation.'

Cheryl got up and pushed him, 'hey, I came straight here from the beach, on my day off, might I add. And, for the record, I did have another top on earlier. It just happened to get destroyed in the explosion.'

Speedle held his hands up, 'trust me, I am not complaining about your wardrobe. I've already told you, you should wear it to work more often.' He told her with a small smile on his face.

Cheryl sighed and turned back to the computer, leaning against the desk with both hands. 'Did Horatio really say I was a little stressed?'

'Well, his exact words were more like, "check on Cheryl when you get back. She left here upset and I don't need her destroying my lab," or something like that.' He looked at the pieces of broken disc on floor. 'Looks like I didn't get here quick enough.' He bent over and looked at the fragments. 'Is this Dan's Coldplay CD?' Cheryl nodded. 'He is going to kill you.'

'Well, it serves him right for having no taste in music.'

'This coming from the girl who I caught singing along to the Spice Girls the other day.'

'I thought you were here to help. You're not.'

'You mean my massage didn't relax you?'

Cheryl said nothing.

'Well, maybe this will help.'

Cheryl turned around to see what he was going to try this time. He leant over and kissed her.

Thank you for all the reads and reviews! It's nice to know this is being read and enjoyed, so I'm just going to keep on writing. Who knows, maybe I'll get hired by the CSI crew to write episodes... okay, I can dream, can't I? lol

So, my intention is to try and have the next part up by Sunday, but in the mean time... let me know what you think! It's always much appreciated!