Thanks to Maraena, who reviewed.

As usual, please read and review!

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The man looked round. Lily couldn't see his eyes through the sunglasses, but he was frowning slightly. He was probably wondering what a kid like her was doing out this early in the morning. All the other girls in her class at school would be in bed at the moment, or watching cartoons. He crouched down so he was about level with her.

"What's your name?"

"Lily," Maybe he would help her. Policemen had to help people. Her Mommy had told her that, and her Mommy was always right.

"How did you get here? Are you hurt?" The man's voice was gentle. Lily already trusted him, but she didn't know why.

"I think I'm ok. I ran here 'cos… I think she's dead!" Lily hadn't meant to blurt it out like that. Her eyes were burning from trying not to cry.

"Who's dead?"

"My mom. They took her," The tears that had threatened to overwhelm her came back in full force, and several spilled across her cheeks. The man reached out and took her hand.

"Okay, just come in here and tell me everything. Then I can try and find her for you,"

They walked towards the front stairs on the building. Lily looked up at her new friend- he looked very tall when he was standing straight- and realised she didn't even know who he was.

"Mister?"

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?" The man smiled.

"Horatio. Horatio Caine,"

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Lily was sat on a long bench opposite an enormous window. Someone had given her a can of Coke, but she hadn't opened it yet.

After Mr Caine had taken her into the building (she found out it was actually the CSI labs) and had asked what her address was, she'd been waiting for him to come back. A nurse had looked at her hand and said it was just a graze, and a couple of people had walked through and given her strange looks, but they'd all looked like they were in a hurry to be somewhere else.

Lily wondered what was happening at her house. Maybe they'd found her Mommy, and arrested the evil guy. But what if they hadn't? She had seen all the blood that was smeared around the kitchen, and all the bleeding from the gunshot wound. Didn't you die if you lost too much blood?

She was so absorbed in her thoughts she didn't notice someone else walk into the room until they sat down next to her. She turned to look. It was the most beautiful lady Lily had ever seen, even prettier than her Mommy. She felt a small stab of guilt for thinking something like that when her Mommy was probably dead or dying someplace, but it wasn't as if she could lie about it, even to herself.

"Hi. I'm Calleigh. H asked me to look after you till he comes back," The lady was smiling at her, but she looked a bit nervous. Lily didn't know why. The scary guy who shot her Mommy wasn't here, was he?

"I'm Lily,"

"That's a very pretty name, Lily," They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, before Calleigh said brightly,

"Do you like colouring?"

"Sometimes," Right now she was so bored that anything would seem good.

Calleigh led her down a corridor into a room with a desk that had a lot of paper on it.

"This is H's office," Calleigh stepped behind the desk and looked thoughtfully at it. "And I happen to know he keeps a box of crayons in… this drawer!" She opened it and pulled out a big box of crayons and some paper.

"Why does he have crayons in his drawer?" Lily asked. She had never met a grown up who liked crayons.

"I don't know. Shall we go do some drawing?"

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They had been drawing for half an hour. Lily had done a picture of her school (she didn't really want to do her house), her friend Carla who was in her class, and the little cat that sometimes followed her to school. Calleigh had been busy doing her own drawing, which surprised Lily. Usually when they did colouring at school the teachers would walk around and lean over her shoulder to see what she was doing, but Calleigh seemed just as deep in her own drawing as Lily had been a second ago. Calleigh seemed to notice she was being stared at and looked up.

"Is that your school?" Lily nodded. "And your friend? Do you have a cat?"

"No, she follows me to school. I think her name's Cookie," Calleigh smiled. Lily tried to look at what she had drawn, but only caught a glimpse of a handsome man with black hair before Calleigh covered it with another bit of paper.

"Calleigh!"

Another lady was walking towards them. She looked very surprised when she saw Lily, but smiled warmly.

"What's your name, sugar?"

"Lily," It was strange having to tell everyone who she was.

"Nice to meet you Lily, I'm Alexx," Alexx turned to look at Calleigh. "There's been a shooting downtown. Hagen requested you personally on the firearms evidence, I'm afraid,"

"Well, I can't just leave Lily on her own…" Lily pretended not to notice the hopeful looks Calleigh was giving Alexx.

"I'll take her if you like," For a second Calleigh's expression was purely relief. Lily grinned.

"Bye Calleigh,"

"Bye!" Calleigh almost ran off down the corridor. Alexx laughed.

"That girl's never happy till she fires off a couple of rounds,"

What? But Calleigh seemed so nice! Could she…

"She sh-shoots people?"

"No, not people. She finds out who shoots people by testing the guns," explained Alexx. They were in a part of the lab Lily hadn't been before, with a big table and loads of big drawers in one wall. It was really cold.

"So she could find out who shot my mom!" Alexx glanced up briefly from the filing cabinet she was looking in.

"Maybe, sugar. It's a lot more complicated than that,"

They left the room a few minutes later. Alexx was holding some files she said she had to give to DNA, and they were going to the labs. There were lots more people down here, most of them wearing long white or blue coats. They stopped in front of a glass door. Lily could see a man inside bent over a microscope.

"Wait here a moment, I'm just going to give these to him," Alexx went into the room and was soon talking to the man inside.

There was a loud bang, then another. It must be the man who shot her Mommy!

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Lily ran down the seemingly endless corridors, trying to find a place away from the noise. It chased her into the lobby, down another corridor and finally into a tiny cupboard that smelled of bleach when it stopped. Lily sat huddled in the corner, crying a little. What if he found her? He was going to kill her, she knew that. Maybe if she stayed here he'd go away, or Mr Caine would arrest him.

She sat in the cupboard for what felt like hours before she heard footsteps outside. She opened the door a crack to see who it was, and gasped. It was the man from Calleigh's drawing!

He had heard her, and swung round.

"So you're the little kid everyone's looking for. H was pretty annoyed you'd gone- No, don't worry, he's not angry," he added after seeing Lily's look of terror. "He's just a bit worried. My name's Eric, by the way. You must be Lily,"

"I know you!" Lily said, then blushed slightly. Eric looked puzzled.

"Where do you know me from?"

"The blonde lady- Calleigh- did a drawing of you," Eric's look of puzzlement turned to downright confusion for a couple of seconds.

"Well, H just got back from the crime- your house. Do you want to go see him?"

Lily nodded, and followed Eric back to Mr Caine's office. Maybe they'd found her Mommy!

"Hey H, I found her," Alexx was in there as well as Mr Caine, who smiled when he saw her.

"Did you find my mom?"