A quick note before anyone reads this. This is set AFTER Crossed Wires and Poison, but BEFORE Finally. I decided to put up more of Finally, but only after I had originally posted it. So although I have finished it, I won't be posting the rest of it up until I've finished this. These four Miami fics are connected, although not quite as closely as the first two because I like connecting things. Confused yet?

Another Victim

Horatio looked at Ryan over the top of his sunglasses. 'I want you to go with her,' he said. 'She might know something, she might have evidence on her.'

Eric, who was watching, expected Ryan to protest, ask why he had to go to the hospital. Instead, Ryan simply nodded. Horatio turned to Eric. 'Process that cupboard. Then get everything back to the lab.'

'All right,' Eric said, nodding.

'I'll have Calleigh sent to the hospital to process her clothes,' Horatio added to Ryan.

'Right.' Ryan walked over to the ambulance and spoke to the paramedics. They didn't look too happy that a CSI would be coming with them, but they couldn't really protest.'

'Eric,' said Horatio, 'I want you to finish processing that bathroom. Then get back to the lab and send everything you and Wolfe have found for analysis as soon as you get there. This case is our top priority at the moment.'

'Understand,' Eric said. 'By the way, H, I checked the dumpsters on this block. Still haven't found anything.'

'At this point, did you expect to?' Horatio asked.

'Not really.'

Horatio nodded and replaced his shades. 'I'll go and make sure Calleigh knows what's happening. Tripp is still interviewing neighbours. No one seems to have heard anything.'

'At this point, were you expecting any of them to?' Eric asked with a hint of humour.

A brief smile flashed across Horatio's face. 'We can always get lucky.'

'How is she?' Ryan asked the doctor.

'Alice is fine,' the doctor said, smiling. 'A little dehydrated and in shock, but otherwise she hasn't been hurt at all. Luckily for her.'

'So physically, she's fine,' Ryan said shortly. 'I want to know how she is otherwise.'

The doctor gave him a serious look. 'In severe shock. I suppose you want to speak to her?'

Ryan glanced over the doctor's shoulder through the window to where Alice was sat quietly at a table. She was drawing. 'We need to find out what happened,' he said.

'I thought you already knew that,' the doctor said, rather more sharply than he intended.

Ryan looked back at him. 'Maybe she knows something we don't,' he said. 'And one of my team has to process her, see if she has any of the killer's DNA on her or if she saw him.'

'One of your team? I trust you're aware of protocol.'

'Of course I am,' Ryan said, rather impatiently. 'Which is why I'm here talking to you and not to her yet.'

'Just making sure,' the doctor said. 'You want to go in and talk to her?'

'If you don't mind. But I need to call my team first.'

'All right. There's a payphone just down the corridor.'

Ryan used the payphone and got Calleigh.

'Is there something wrong?' she asked.

'Yes, and that's why you need to come down here,' he said. 'I need to process Alice.'

'Alice?'

'Didn't Horatio tell you?'

'He hasn't got back yet. Where are you?'

'I'm at the hospital.'

'Again? What did you do this time?'

'Very funny,' he said sourly. 'We found a little girl hiding in the house, Calleigh. Horatio had me go with her to the hospital. She's been treated and now they say we can talk to her and process her, if we need to.'

'Which is why you want me to come down.'

'Yeah. Protocol and everything. Are you free?'

'I'm always free for something this important. You go ahead and talk to her, I'll be there in a bit.'

'Thanks, Calleigh.'

He went back to the room and knocked on the door. Alice didn't reply but he went in anyway. It was a nice enough room, for a hospital, with a pleasant view out of the window, a couple of boxes of toys, crayons and drawing paper. It was a playroom, one of the nurses had told him, and Alice would be here for the day whilst she wasn't being interviewed or analysed by a psychiatrist.

He sat down on the floor and said, 'Hi, Alice. Do you remember me?'

She didn't look up.

'My name is Ryan,' he continued, 'and I was at you and your Mum's house this morning.'

Alice carried on scrawling large, dark crayon marks across the paper. 'Mummy got hurt,' she said eventually.

'I know, and I'm sorry,' he said.

'The bad man hurt her,' she said. 'I hid. Mummy was scared but she told me to hide. She said someone was coming to steal our things.'

'I know, Alice.' She looked at him, dark eyes serious and he said, 'I'm really sorry.'

'Are you a cop?' she asked.

'Yes, I am.'

'Can I see your badge?'

He took it off his belt and showed it to her. She didn't smile, simply examined it intensely and then asked, 'Why aren't you wearing a uniform?'

'I'm a special kind of cop,' he explained. 'I'm what we call a CSI. That's a crime scene investigator. We solve crimes.'

'Are you going to find out who killed my Mummy?'

'Yes, we are,' he said firmly.

'Good,' she said with finality and went back to her drawing. She refused to speak for some time, concentrating solely upon her drawing. It was a house, with a couple of figures stood outside. Ryan was disturbed to see that the dominant colours were black and red and that there were no smiles on the faces of the figures, but black holes that made them look as if they were screaming. The smaller figure was crying.

'Where are you going?' Eric asked Calleigh as she hurried past him out of the building.

'I'm off to the hospital,' she said, stopping. 'Ryan asked me to go and process the little girl you guys found at the house.'

'Horatio's told him to stay there,' Eric said. 'I'm amazed he's not more annoyed about being cut out of working on the case.'

'He is working on the case,' Calleigh said, 'and he knows what's important. See you later, Eric.'

'Bye.'

Calleigh drove to the hospital and went inside. A receptionist directed her to a nurse who could take her to the little girl's room. As she approached, she looked in through the window and saw Ryan sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing some kind of game involving wooden blocks with the girl. He was smiling, saying something and the girl, although not smiling, looked very involved in the game.

She knocked and Ryan looked up. Alice didn't respond, just carried on piling up the blocks into a precarious tower.

'Hi,' Calleigh said cheerfully. 'You must be Alice.' She crouched down, setting her kit on the floor. 'You mind if I talk to you?'

Alice lashed out and sent the tower of bricks crashing everywhere. One of them hit Ryan's wrist with a smack and he winced. 'Alice, what's wrong?' he asked.

She turned a look terrified and angry look upon Calleigh.

'Hey, Alice,' Ryan said. 'What's wrong?'

Calleigh showed no concern over the outburst, although inwardly she was worried and sat down on the floor. 'What game were you playing?' she asked. 'Can I join in?'

Alice shook her head.

'This is Calleigh,' Ryan said to her gently. 'She's my friend. You remember I said my job is solving crimes? Well, so is Calleigh's. She's really good at it, Alice. That's why she's here, to help us find out who hurt your Mum. Is that okay?'

Alice looked at Calleigh and slowly relaxed. One of her hands clasped at Ryan's. He smiled and said, 'Calleigh's really nice, Alice.'

Calleigh gave her an encouraging smile and said, 'Please can I join in your game? It looks like fun.'

Slowly, Alice nodded and picked up one of the building blocks. Calleigh smiled at her, and then at Ryan who looked relieved.

They played the building game for a while until Alice relaxed and some of her distrust of yet another stranger faded. Then Calleigh started the processing. Ryan sat a little way back, watching how Calleigh dealt with the situation with interest. First, Calleigh explained to Alice what she wanted, to see if any of the killer's DNA had got onto Alice's clothes. She explained what DNA was, and how it could help them to catch the killer. She let Alice look through her crime scene field kit before anything else, explaining to her the use of everything in there. Alice didn't want Ryan to leave so he stayed whilst Calleigh took samples from under Alice's fingernails and hair, to see if there was any DNA or anything. She had already collected Alice's clothes from the nurses who had packed them carefully for the CSIs to take away. Then they questioned her, asking her what she had seen, exactly what had happened, but since she had been hiding for most of the time, they didn't manage to get anything substantial.

'I have to take this back to the lab,' Calleigh said later. 'You're staying here, right?'

'Yes,' Ryan said. 'Call me if you find anything. I mean, leave a message on my phone, right?'

She nodded. 'I will.' She left.

Ryan went back to Alice who was playing with the bricks again.

'She's nice,' she said.

'I know,' he said, sitting down.

'Are you really going to find the man who killed my Mummy?'

'Yes, we are,' he said with utter conviction. 'I promise you, we will find him.'

She nodded seriously.

It was a little later. Ryan had stayed with Alice, even when the nurses had tried to shoo him out. Alice had protested very vocally. It seemed that, since he was the one who had found her and had come to hospital, and so far had stayed, she trusted him and regarded him as a constant presence amongst the amount of strangers she had seen so far.

However, when the psychiatrist came around to give an psychological evaluation, Alice refused to budge. She didn't want to leave the room.

'Fine,' the woman said, her patience clearly strained. Ryan had taken an instant dislike to her. 'We'll do it here. Okay, Alice?'

'I'm staying,' Ryan said.

The woman gave him a hard look. 'I don't think we need to here, Mr – '

'Wolfe,' he said shortly. 'And I'm not going.'

Alice looked at him. Not even a flicker of a smile crossed her face, but she looked a little relieved.

'You really aren't needed here, Mr Wolfe,' the woman said tightly. She looked harassed and rather upset; she looked like she'd had a really bad day. Ryan was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt, but her attitude so far had annoyed him and he made a metal note to speak to someone about her attitude. Especially when the person involved was a vulnerable little girl who had already been through hell in the past twenty-four hours.

'If Alice would like me to stay, then I will,' he said.

They both looked at Alice who was nodding slowly. Ryan gave the woman a bright smile. 'See?' he said. 'I think that's settled, then.'