[DISCLAIMER: I do not own CSI Miami or any characters, but I do own my plot/characters I have made up]

AUTHORS NOTE - This is a pretty long chapter, but totally worth reading. Hope you like it

CSI Ryan Wolfe kept looking at his watch, counting down the minutes until he saw his girlfriend Charlie for lunch. Natalia and Eric looked at eachother and laughed at their colleagues impatience. "Ryan you still have 5 minutes until she's meant to meet you. How about you make yourself useful and drop this off to the morgue?" Eric said and passed him a piece of paper. Ryan zoomed through the reception area of the crime lab to get to the elevator. When it opened up, Charlies face was peering back at him and she got out.
"Hey babe, I'll be another 5 minutes, just got to drop this down to Alexx." He said pressing the button for the lift to open up. Horatio walked over to the couple
"Good afternoon ma'm" Horatio greeted her just as the elevator door opened up and Ryan got in.
"H, can you keep Charlie company until I come back?" he said smiling to the both of them as the door closed. Charlie smiled up at Horatio Caine, the team leader of the CSI and he returned the favour. She had never had much of a conversation with the older man, just the usual small talk when she'd see him with the team. Charlie was actually intimidated by Horatios demeanour, he was so cool and collected and she thought they would never have much to talk about.

As Ryan walked into the morgue he saw Alexx Woods their M.E examining a dead body "Hello stranger" she said glancing up from her examination. Ryan held up the piece of paper which Eric had given him.
"The death certificate of our victim, just had to make a copy of it" he said and she gestured for him to put it on the desk. "How are you and Charlie going?" Ryan smiled, putting his hands in his pockets "We're good. Charlie's perfect, I'm lucky to have her". Just then the other blonde haired beauty in Ryan's life walked in, Calleigh Duquesne was smiling away
"Do I hear wedding bells?"
"oooooo" Alexx added excitingly but Ryan walked away without saying a word with a big grin overtaking his face.

Ryan walks back to find Charlie and Horatio talking as if they'd been friends for years. "You're a lucky man Mr Wolfe" Horatio said as Ryan approached them.
"That's what I keep saying" Charlie teased. Once Horatio had left them, they walked into the elevator
"What did you's talk about?" Ryan asked curiousity flowing through him. Charlie laughed and leaned in closely "If I told you, I'd have to kill you!" she said and quickly got out of the elevator when it opened, leaving Ryan speechless at his girlfriends games.

When Charlie had walked Ryan back after lunch, they stood outside on the steps of the MDPD. Before he went to leave, Charlie started playing around with his suit jacket.
"You look sexy in that green shirt" Ryan laughed and grabbed both of her hands from his collar. "Do you have to have your girls night tonight?" She let go of one hand and lead him towards the door.
"I haven't seen my girl friends properply since before Nikki died. All their other girls nights I couldn't go too, so yeah I kind of have to go tonight" she said facing him. Ryan sighed jokingly
"I guess I can let you go for one night" He said.
Charlie rolled her eyes "What are you going to do? Organise your sock draw or something?" she said poking at his OCD.
"Hey!" he said but she just giggled leant up, gave him a peck on the lips and then started walking off towards her car.

That night Charlie was at a local cocktail bar with a few of her girlfriends. "So Charlie, tell us all the latest gossip!" said Lauren as she ordered some Sex on the beach drinks. Charlie smiled as she picked up some of the drinks to help her friend. Lauren also had blonde hair like Charlie, but instead of long and wavy, it was cut just above her shoulders in a cute bob. Charlie, Nikki and Lauren went to highschool together and were known as the 3 blonde musketeers. Although Charlie was closer to her bestfriend Nikki, she was closest to Lauren out of all the other girls. After highschool Lauren moved in with her boyfriend at the time into an on campus doom room while Nikki and Charlie did their own thing.
"Whats the goss?" Lauren said as she sat down at a table, handing out the rest of the drinks.
"Well my new job is going well, I'm really enjoying it." A few of the other girls nodded and sipped their drinks but Lauren seemed more interested in what she was saying.
"Whats it like dealing with criminals? You must see some bad stuff Charlie" Lauren asked. Charlie nodded as she played with the umbrella straw in her drink. "You can say that again. You wouldnt believe the crime scenes I've had to look at for some of our clients cases".

As the night went on, more drinks were bought and more gossip told. "Did you guys hear about that girl from the East Coast the other day? Who got attacked?" asked Lauren. The other 3 girls shook their head, but showed interest in the topic. "Apparently this guy had been watching this girl at a club a few weekends ago and asked for her number but she refused. Then the following weekend, he found her at another club, followed her home and raped her". The other 3 girls all started talking amongst eachother, saying how bad it was and how they felt sorry for whoever that girl was.
"Did they catch the guy?" Charlie asked. Lauren nodded "The creep wasn't that smart apparently, they found all his DNA in the girl's apartment".
"Eww" one girl said
"At least use a condom!" one of the girls replied with and the 3 of them started giggling. Charlie shook her head at her friends "You've got to careful, you never know whats going to happen" she said, while getting up and walking over to the bar.
Lauren made her way over "How are you going anyway?" she asked looking at Charlie with concern. She lightly smiled "I'm alright, Ryans been a big help with Nikki's death". The girls looked up when the bartender brought over 2 drinks which the girls had not ordered.
"Complements of the 2 guys in the corner". Charlie and Lauren looked over and saw to guys around their age, holding up their drinks for a toast. Lauren laughed as they headed back to the other 3 girls "When am I going to meet the famous Ryan Wolfe anyway?" she said sitting down. The other 3 girls were all now looking at Charlie "I've seen him on the news, he's pretty cute" one of her friends added "Must be exciting to date a CSI!" said one of the others.

3 hours had gone by quickly and the two guys who had bought Charlie and Lauren the drinks had come over to their table. Charlie obviously wasn't interested in them because she was already taken, but Lauren on the other hand was loving the attention. Charlie looked at the time to see it was nearly 4am.
"Guys, the bars going to be closing soon. Maybe we should head off?" she said to her drunken friends. "But the nights only just starting!" said one of the guys who was next to Lauren. Just then one of the bar tenders came over and told them to leave because they were actually closing. All the girls complained about being kicked out of the bar and having no where else to go until the guys told them about their hotel room.
"We have a room in the hotel next door. We can take the party upstairs?" said the one who was smiling at Lauren. All the girls applauded and started walking off towards the hotel, Charlie following behind them.

After 2 more hours of drinking and dancing in the guys hotel, Charlie was starting to get tired and was sick of that one guy hitting on her. Lauren and Charlie were starting to sober up whereas the other 3 girls were still drunk. Charlie sat down on one of the beds in the next room, while the others were in the main room dancing to music. She opened up her phone and saw Ryan had left a voice message for her "Hey babe, hope your having a fun girls night. I've missed you tonight and I can't wait to see you". Charlie closed her phone and saw that the same guy who had been hitting on her all night was standing in the doorway, holding a beer. Charlie looked at the time again and it was just on 6 o clock. The guy came and sat next to her on the bed, Charlie knew she had to get out of there before anything bad happened. So she got up off the bed, heading for the door but was pulled back by her wrist.
"Where you going?" he slurred. Charlie got out of his grasp
"I've told you numerous times that I have a boyfriend". The guy was swaying back and forth, so Charlie sat him back down on the bed. "You need to sleep this off" she said and left the room. Charlie walked past her 3 friends who were raiding the fridge and went to Lauren
"I'm going to head off now. That guy passed out in the bedroom and the others are in the fridge." Lauren nodded walking away from the guy "I can look after them, dont worry" she said reasuring her friend. Charlie nodded "But you can't drive home Charlie" she rolled her eyes at Lauren
"I know that, I've just got to go back to my car and get my bag. I only brought my purse to the club, then I'll catch a taxi and I'll get Ryan to drive me back to my car later on".

As Charlie walked out of the hotel, the sun had risen showing that it was going to be another beautiful day in Miami. She only walked 5 minutes and found herself back at her car which was behind the bar they had been at earlier. Charlie unlocked her car, leant over the driver's seat to grab her bag when all of a sudden she felt someone grab her from behind.
Then Charlie was up against the side of the car and a guy holding her there. She struggled, trying to get of his grip, but he was too strong. Charlie started to scream but he hit her across her face so hard she fell onto the ground. Next thing she knew the guy was sitting on top of her, holding her hands above her head. With one hand, he slapped her again and this time she felt blood come out of her mouth. He did that a couple of more times until she stopped screaming and trying to get away. Charlie was in so much pain, she couldnt struggle against the man anymore. He let go of her hands and put a hand under her dress and the other tracing her face.
"Shhh shh" he whispered to her "You know you love it" he said as he roughly wripped some of her dress and started to unbuckle his pants. Charlie then looked to the side as she heard some yelling and a stranger running towards them.
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" the man said, who was a good 15 metres away. The guy got up off Charlie and ran off, leaving her there. Charlie was in a daze as the man who saved her life, came to her side "The police are on there way".

It was now around 8:30 in the morning, and Ryan was on his way to work when he got a phone call. He stopped in his tracks and asked the person to repeat what they just said "What?" he said in disbelief.
As Ryan walked through the Emergency entrance of the local hospital, he found himself in the middle of a hall of rooms, not knowing where to go. He looked up when he heard a womans voice he knew. Alexx Woods the M.E for the Crime lab was walking towards him with CSI Calleigh Duquene.
"Whats happened?" he asked once he met them. Alexx and Calleigh both looked at eachother, then back to him. "Is she alright?" Calleigh nodded, and looked to the room beside them. Ryan turned, looking through the window and saw Charlie lying in the hospital bed.

10 or 15 minutes later, Ryans co workers CSI Natalia Boa Vista and Eric Delko were there. "We came as soon as we heard" Natalia said to Ryan as he passed back in forth infront of Charlies room. "What happened?" Ryan shrugged "I haven't been able to see her yet. Calleigh and Alexx are processing her now." Eric nodded and put his hand on Wolfes shoulder for support.
Then shortly after, Alexx and Calleigh stepped out of Charlies room, holding their kits.
"There was skin under her nails, our baby fought back. I'll get this to DNA to see if there are any hits in the system" Alexx nodded to her CSIs and headed off back to the lab.
"Can I see her now?" Ryan asked Calleigh who nodded, opening the door. When Ryan walked into the hospital room, he could hardly recognise his girlfriend.
Charlie already had purple bruises forming over her face, arms and legs. Her lip and the top of her forehead had stitches, and Ryan could also see some lacarations on her arms. Ryan slowly walked over to the left side of Charlie bringing a chair over next to her, but she was in a daze.
"Charlie" he said lightly. She looked at him as if she didn't know who he was and looked up as the others came in after him.
"Hey Charlie" Calleigh said in a soothing tone. "Would it be alright if we asked you some questions now?" she nodded. Calleigh pulled over another chair to sit on the other side of Charlie.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Charlie closed her eyes tightly, biting her lips.
"I was walking back to my car, then someone had come at me from behind" Ryan looked up at Eric also closing his eyes, trying not to imagine what happened next. "
That's good Charlie, then what happened?" Natalia asked as she stood next to Eric. Charlie shook her head, putting her hand through her hair. Calleigh and Natalia gave each other a look
"What about the guy who did this? What did he look like?" Charlie thought for a second, shaking her head side to side.
"I don't remember! I'm so sorry!" she said putting both hands on either side of her face, getting upset.
Charlie started shaking and muttering words "Charlie its okay" Ryan said touching her hand, but she snapped it back from him.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" she screamed "GET AWAY FROM ME!" she said as she tried to get out of her bed. Ryan got up and tried to calm her down, as well as Calleigh and Natalia. "Ryan go!" Calleigh said giving him a stern look as Charlie began to settle down.
Ryan and Eric left the room, stopped just outside her door. Ryan had his hands over his head, pacing back and forth "Wolfe, just calm down" Eric said holding his hands up. Ryan wasn't listening and all of a sudden punched the wall, luckily not leaving a mark on it. He looked up at Eric
"We have to get this guy". Eric nodded, showing Ryan to a seat. Calleigh and Natalia came out a few minutes later, closing the door behind them.
"She's still in shock, needs some time alone I think" Natalia said to both of the men. Horatio Caine their Lieutenant arrived out of nowhere "I spoke to the witness at the scene, didn't get much of a description". Ryan got up from the seat and crossed his arms "I don't care about protocol, we don't catch another case until we get this guy" Ryan said to his boss.
Horatio nodded "We'll get him Mr Wolfe".

A few hours later back at the lab, Natalia had been looking through the system with the DNA found underneath Charlie's fingernails, but there was no luck. Calleigh walked in to see how she was going. "Anything?" Natalia shook her head "Whoever it is, they're not in the system. Did you go back and get Charlie's statement?"
Calleigh held a piece of paper "There was no sexual assault, thank god. But the poor things too terrified to remember everything. She can't even tell me what colour hair he has". Natalia shook her head "It could have been worst I guess" she said with a faint smile.
Calleigh nodded "True, we could be looking at her body in the morgue".
Natalia looked through Charlie's photos "Did H talk to her friends who were with her?" Calleigh replied "The girls were still in the room with the 2 guys. The hotel staff confirmed no one left or followed Charlie out of the hotel."

Ryan had just left the scene of Charlie's attack and the witness was hopeless, Ryan thought to himself as he drove. He had heard Charlies screams as he was walking past the parking spot, looked over and saw the guy on top of her. He gave a vague description, nothing that could be of any help. Ryan stopped his car outside a building he had once spent a while at, walked over and went inside. He opened a door and saw 4 or 5 men sitting around a table playing an underground poker game.
"Wolfe! Didn't expect to see you here" Michael Lipton, Ryan's old bookie said as he got up and walked over to him. "Can't buy in Wolfe, already start the game". Ryan sarcastically laughed then pushed Michael up against a wall "Whoa whoa!" Michael said as Ryan held him up by the collar.
"What did you do to Charlie?" Ryan yelled in his face.
Michael was confused "What are you talking about Wolfe? Who's Charlie?"
"My girlfriend!" The other men stood up but Michael put out his hands as to say stop.
"Don't act dumber than what you already are."
*Flashback* "you still owe me 10 grand Wolfe and if you can't come up with the money maybe I'll just work it out with your new friend over there" He said looking over in Charlies direction. "Doesn't she work over at that Hawks and Burrows Lawyers?" Michael said with a smirk. "You leave her out of this" he whispered in all seriousness. "Get me my money and I will"*End of flashback*
"Oh the pretty blonde" Michael said remembering his threat. Ryan nodded, still holding him up by the collar.
"I got you the money, but you still came after her!" Ryan said.
Michael shook his head with his hands up "Hey, I may be a crook Wolfe, but I keep my word. I never hurt your precious blondie." Ryan let go of his collar and put his hands over his head
"Is she alright?" Michael asked rubbing his neck. Ryan ignored his question, giving him a watchful look as he got out and answered his phone.
"Wolfe, there's been another attack". Ryan hung up the phone "I'll be seeing you" he said to Michael and left the building.

When Ryan got back to the lab, Eric, Calleigh and Natalia were looking over previous cases in Horatios office. "Hey" Calleigh said softly as he joined them. He nodded "So what have you's got?" Eric answered him "There are 4 other cases which are similar to Charlies."
"But only one of them has been in the rich scene of Miami, the other 3 were either just outside the area, and were prostitutes." Natalia added.
"So no one thought they were connected" Calleigh said. "The latest victim is at the hospital, we'll go talk to her." Calleigh said to Ryan. Natalia lightly smiled and followed her colleague out of the office.
Ryan caught up to them with Eric next to him "I'm coming with you". Natalia looked at Calleigh not knowing what to say
"You can come with us to the hospital, but I think it's better if you go see Charlie instead of coming with us to speak to the victim".

At the hospital Ryan went to Charlie's room while Eric, Calleigh and Natalia went to speak to the new victim. The doctors told them that this girl's injurious were far more serious than Charlies had been, and that she was lucky to be alive. Before Eric walked into the victim's room, Natalia stopped him.
"Maybe you should go see how Ryan is going Eric. Women who have usually been attacked like this feel threatened and not safe around men..." Eric nodded "Okay".
Natalia and Calleigh entered the girl's room; she was hooked up to a machine that was helping her breathe. Her arm was in a cast and there were bruises forming all over her. Calleigh sat down next to the girl while Natalia stood behind her.
"I'm Calleigh from the Crime Lab and this is Natalia". The girl nodded, trying not to move so much. "We'll try and make this as quick and harmless as possible. Can you tell us what happened?" the girl closed her eyes and started speaking softly
"I was walking to my car after going shopping; some guy came up behind me. He dragged me to an alley way and started beating me... then he..." the girl couldn't finish her sentence. Tears started to fall down her face, Calleigh smiled "Its fine."

Eric had walked down a couple of halls to find Ryan outside Charlie's room, just staring at her through the window. "Wolfe, what are you doing?"
Ryan snapped out of it "I can't go in there. What if she freaks out like last time?" Eric walked over to him
"Look Ryan, Charlie needs you right now. If she freaks out, deal with it. Just be there for her, calm her down and let her know that it's going to be okay." Ryan nodded and walked into her room. Charlie was looking away from the door "Hey" he said as he slowly approached her.
She looked at him and smiled "Ryan..." she said and started to cry hysterically. He ran over and held her tightly "I have to get out of here!" she cried into his chest, holding onto him.
"Shhh shhh baby. We're going to get this straightened out. I'm going to find whoever did this to you, I promise".

Eric watched on through the window and then Calleigh and Natalia were beside him. "Same story?" he asked them.
Natalia nodded "Yeah, he came up behind them when they were getting in their car, hit her over the head but this time dragged her to an alley".
"He's changing" Calleigh added. Eric breathed in heavily, he couldn't wait to get this guy and put him in his place. "She did say that the guy said something to her"
Eric looked at Natalia "Said what?"

5 minutes later, Calleigh, Natalia and Eric walked into Charlie's room. Ryan was sitting on a chair next to her bed, pulling back some of her hair.
"Hey Charlie" Calleigh said with her soothing southern accent "I'm sorry about this, but there's one more thing we need to ask you?"
Charlie nodded "Anything I can do to help, I know I wasn't of much use before and I'm sorry". Eric moved to the other side of her bed "You don't need to be sorry" he said smiling down at her. Natalia moved to the end of the bed "Did he say anything to you?" Charlie thought for a second...
"Yes... he did" she said looking at Ryan and then back at Natalia.
"He said 'You know you like it'" she repeated in disgust. Calleigh, Eric and Natalia moved away and quietly said "The same thing as the other girl".
Calleigh nodded "We definitely know now it's the same guy". Then Calleigh phone went off, so she left the room to answer it. She came back a few minutes later "That was Horatio; he's at another crime scene."
"Is the vic on the way to this hospital?" Eric asked.
Calleigh shook her head "She's still at the scene" Eric was confused "She should be getting processed here..." Calleigh looked down sadly and back at him "She's dead." Natalia looked at Ryan and Charlie with shock.
"Oh my god" Charlie said putting her hand over her mouth. "H wants us there straight away".

Eric, Natalia and Calleigh left Ryan with Charlie at the hospital, while they drove to the new crime scene. When they arrived Horatio was standing over a female body in an alley way behind a restaurant. All 3 of them set down their kits on the ground to look around the scene while their M.E Alexx Woods had just arrived.
"This poor thing was beaten to death" Alexx concluded as she examined the girl. "She has a broken arm, lacerations everywhere."
Horatio took off his sunglasses "How was she killed Alexx?" she stood up slowly and turned to the CSIs.
"Strangulation" Alexx said as she wrote down her notes "I'll let you guys continue" she said sadly and walking away.
Natalia got out her camera, starting to take photos. Calleigh and Eric looked around at all the police officers talking to witness and trying to control bystanders.
"He's killing now. What are we going to do Horatio?" Calleigh asked her boss.
Horatio put on his sunglasses once again and said "We need help".

To be continued...

AUTHORS NOTE: Did everyone enjoy that chapter? I'd love to hear what you all thought so review please! p.s the next chapter will be a crossover ... what show will it be? have any thoughts as to what show? let me know what you think.