Author's note: Sorry that it took me so long to update guys. The new period started at school and they decided to let us work hard the first few days ;)

Chapter 6: Drop me a line

Horatio stuck his head around the corner and saw his CSI's sipping on coffee in the break room.

"We have a crime scene guys, another gang shooting" he said while walking into the room.

Calleigh jumped up and put her coffee away. Delko en Ryan followed her and were ready to go with Horatio in no time.

"Calleigh, you can come but I don't want you anywhere near any evidence ok? You can take photos but no touching the evidence. You are personally involved" Horatio instructed the blonde CSI. He knew it would be of no use to forbid her to come, she'd find her way there one way or another.

When the four CSI's arrived at the scene Alexx Woods was already present. Police officers had taped up the whole block, this crime scene was huge. The center of the crime scene was quite clear, it was a shot up car.

"There is only one dead body, male, probably late twenties from Latin-American descent" Alexx summed up.

Horatio ordered Ryan and Delko to check out the perimeter, and Calleigh to come with him.

Horatio took a look in the car. "Calleigh, can you take some pictures please" he said, pointing at the backseat of the car. "Tell me Alexx, if the body was in the front seat, then why is there blood on the backseat?" Horatio asked.

"Because there were more people involved" Alexx answered.

"Horatio" Calleigh said pointing at the other side of the backseat "there is another blood pool there"

When Horatio took a closer look at the blood pool Calleigh pointed at he saw something interesting. A single long blonde hair. He got his tweezers out of his kit and picked up the hair.

"Calleigh, I suggest you get away from here" he said, not wanting to contaminate the evidence.

"What it is Horatio?" Calleigh asked.

Horatio turned around after bagging the hair. "A long blonde hair" he said.

Calleigh's already big eyes grew two sizes bigger. "She was here..." her voice trailed off. She had to swallow hard and prevent the tears from coming. Aimee had been here, she was in the shooting.

"We don't know that for sure yet. I will get the hair tested" Horatio said. He knew the hair probably belonged to Aimee, it was too much of a coincidence.

Horatio swabbed both pools of blood and let Delko take the rest of the photos before going back to the lab. Tests would reveal whether Aimee was indeed at today's crime scene.

Natalia Boa Vista didn't get nervous often, but today her hands were almost shaking. Ever since Horatio had dropped off evidence, Calleigh Duquesne had been pacing around in her lab. Every 2 minutes the blonde CSI had asked her if she was done yet, it was very annoying. She understood it was a big case but she really wanted Horatio to take Calleigh away from her lab.

When the printer started rattling both Natalia and Calleigh looked up. It was that Natalia was closer to the printer but Calleigh almost ran to the printer almost snatching away the paper right in front of her. The lab tech looked at the paper and up at Calleigh, who was almost hanging at her lips. She handed over the paper to Calleigh. The hair was indeed Aimee's, it was either pulled out or Aimee had pulled it out herself and planted it in the car.

Natalia also tested the blood. One pool of blood was Aimee's, which probably meant she hadn't planted her hair there, she was probably attacked. Seeing the amount of blood, she should still be alive, at least that's what Natalia hoped for her colleague.

"The blood is also hers" Natalia said. She was afraid Calleigh would have an outburst of some sort like she had with Ryan. "But seeing the amount of blood at the scene her wounds weren't fatal"

Calleigh nodded, mumbled a thank you and ran off.

"Horatio" Calleigh said when barging into the morgue. Alexx was performing an autopsy on the body of the gang shooting and Horatio was watching. They both looked up.

"The hair is Aimee's, she was there" Calleigh said

"What about the blood" Horatio asked.

"Hers too" Calleigh continued "but there wasn't a lot of blood, she should still be alive" I hope Calleigh's mind added.

"Thank you" he said to Calleigh "see what you can find on those bullet casings we found"

Calleigh nodded and hurried back to the lab. This evidence gave her hope again, her sister was still alive and she was going to find her, and when she did, she was going to make up for everything that went wrong between them.

"Poor girl" Alexx said while she continued the autopsy "What a way to start a new job. I talked to her on her first day, she was so enthusiastic, even about my work"

Horatio smiled, Aimee was indeed very enthusiastic. "She will be fine, I'll make sure I'll get her back in one piece"

Alexx smiled "That would be a good idea. I think Calleigh and her have a lot of unfinished business they need to attend to"

"I think so too Alexx" Horatio added. He was amazed at Alexx' sharp mind, but when it came to people Alexx could always see right through them.

They continued the autopsy in silence. Alexx managed to recover 4 bullets out of the body, which Horatio took to Calleigh for further processing.

"Gotcha" Calleigh said. She had some shell casings from the crime scene and they matched to the ones Aimee had been processing. They were all .303 British, the same rare bullets. Aimee had been making a list of guns that were compatible with this type of bullet and Calleigh smiled as she looked through it, her sister was good. It made her very proud.

Horatio entered the lab Calleigh was working in. It was funny in a way that she was back to ballistics but still refused to work in the ballistics lab. It was only for a while, but still.

"Here are the bullets we recovered from the body" he said while handing them over to Calleigh.

The blonde CSI started processing them right away, with the grace and expertise she possessed. It was a truly amazing sight to see Calleigh Duquesne working.

Aimee woke up to soft voices she heard above her.

Aimee felt like she was still dreaming, it was hard to open her eyes. It felt like they were glued together. She heard herself groaned from the pain. The groaned she produced seemed to catch the attention of her captors.

"I told you she wasn't dead" she heard someone say in broken English.

"You bitch" Aimee heard one of the men say. She wondered what she had done now. She hardly noticed that she received a blow to the head, even though the pain made her pass out again.

The older guy pulled away the guy who had hit Aimee "we need her alive" he hissed.