AN: okay, this chapter starts in the lab, just before the team finds out that Horatio has been shot. All the addresses are made up by me, LOL.
"Check this out." Eric said as he walked into the break room were Calleigh, Ryan and Nat were sitting, taking a break.
Calleigh took the paper, read it and then handed it to Ryan and Nat.
"Okay, what is it about this Melissa Custo?" Calleigh asked.
"That´s Pedro's mother." Eric said.
"Really?" Ryan asked, surprised that they hadn´t found her earlier.
"Yeah, but she never had any custody over Pedro, he was only living with his father, though she did visit him a lot, but over the past fifteen years she has changed her name four times, that's why she was so hard to find." Eric said.
"How did you find her?" Ryan asked.
"Well she was convicted for robbery in 1987 in China, thanks to a good lawyer she was released four years later, I simply decided to check foreign criminal records and luckily Pedro's DNA matched Melissa´s." Eric said.
"Okay, this is great! Do you know where she lives?" Nat asked.
"Yeah, Camden Street 57, I'm going to call frank and tell him to bring her here." Eric said and picked up his phone, just then it started ringing and Eric saw on display that it was Frank who called.
"Delco." He said.
"Yeah, Eric, we got a huge problem! H has been shot!" Frank said on the other end.
"What?"
"I'm at the hospital right now; he just went into cardiac arrest, get here quickly!"
"On our way." Eric said hanging up.
"What is it?" Calleigh asked, she had a gut feeling that something was wrong with Horatio.
"H has been shot."
"Oh my god!" Calleigh said as they all started walking towards the parking garage.
"Eric what's his condition?" Nat asked.
"He's in cardiac arrest."
They all drove in the same car and Calleigh started crying, why now? When he was starting to get better? For once she actually wished that some unknown would have been shot instead, an awful thought, but she wouldn´t be able live without Horatio, she loved him so much.
-I-
Frank had tears in his eyes when they met him.
"They´ve been working on him for twelve minutes, if he doesn´t get a pulse soon they´re going to stop." He said and they all watched in horror as Horatio´s body jerked up as the doctor pressed on the paddles.
"400... clear!" They heard Doctor Stevenson say. Still no pulse.
They could see Alexx come running towards them, Frank had called her as well, she too had tears in her eyes, but Calleigh was the one who was really crying, Alexx was holding her.
"Alright, let's try three more times." Stevenson said.
He pressed the paddles again, nothing.
He did chest compressions and then the paddles again, still nothing.
"Last time." He said.
First he did chest compressions and everybody watched at the heart monitor as Stevenson for the last time pressed the paddles.
Beep, beep, beep! He had a pulse!
"We got a pulse!" Stevenson said and looked at the team, their faces shined up.
Calleigh hugged Alexx, she had never been happier in her life.
The nurses rolled Horatio to the OR and Stevenson stopped to talk to the team.
"Well, he´s lucky." He said.
"Yeah he is, how many times was he shot?" Alexx asked.
"Three times, two of the bullets are very close to his heart, so the surgery will be very risky and will probably take a while." Stevenson said.
"Alright, thank you doctor." Alexx said and they all sat down.
Eric told Frank what they had found, Alexx told them to talk to the mother, and there was nothing for them to do at the hospital right now anyway.
Alexx would call as soon as she and Calleigh heard something, Calleigh was so shaken that she couldn´t work for the moment.
-I-
Melissa Custo was slightly angry at being taken to the police station, she didn´t really like police stations and gave both Frank and Eric a death glare.
"Melissa Custo, mother of Pedro Moreno who you might know is guilty of attempted murder." Frank said.
"Yes, I know that. He came to me for protection but I'm tired of protecting him and his stupid cousin Ramon." She said.
"Ramon what?" Eric asked.
"Ramon Roberto Tívo, a real asshole, pardon my language, he and Pedro have always been partners in crime, everything from breaking and entering to battery and I always gave them a hideaway, but no more." She said and looked as if she was proud over herself for throwing her son out of her house.
"Is Pedro with Ramon?" Eric asked.
"Yeah, he probably is."
"Does Ramon look like this?" Frank asked, showing her a phantom picture that they got from the officers testimonies.
"Yeah, that's him. Where did you get this?"
"From two officers that was guarding Lt. Caine at Miami Dade Memorial, Ramon shot Lt. Caine three times, only one and a half hour ago."
"Wasn´t the officers supposed to guard this Caine person?" She asked snobbishly.
"Listen lady! An officer might die because of your son and his cousin, now if there is anything you know that could be helpful for us, tell us!" Eric said getting angrier every second that passed.
"Alright, all I know is that Pedro is with Ramon." She said giving Eric another death glare.
"Where does Ramon live?" Frank asked.
"East Friars Copse."
"Friars copse, hmm... okay, what number?" Frank asked.
"Well, I think the street name is Barney Street 17 or maybe 22, I don't remember."
"Alright, thank you very much." Eric said and he and Frank left.
Frank sent a bunch of cops over to Barneys street and told them to check the houses with the number 17 and 22.
"Friars copse! Damn, that means that Pedro was hiding not far away from the house that we found H in." Eric said, slightly irritated.
"Yeah, but now they are both getting caught and will spend the rest for their lives on jail." Frank said.
Eric, Ryan and Frank drove to Friars copse.
-I-
The officers burst through the door to house number 17 on Barneys street. Ryan and a few officers were doing the same thing in house 22. They quickly searched through the houses and found a sleeping Ramon in house 22. Ryan patted Ramon on his forehead holding his gun right under his chin.
"Wake up sleeping ugly motherfucker." Ryan said with a mocking voice.
Ramon opened one eye and when he saw all the cops he jumped up into sitting position.
"Hey! What the hell is your problem?" Ramon said trying to look as innocent as possible.
"Our problem? Our problem is that you almost killed my boss and friend today!" Ryan shouted.
"Ryan calm down." Frank said pulling Ramon up.
"Ramon Roberto Tívo you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Lt. Horatio Caine." Frank said reading Ramon his rights.
Ryan stepped outside, he couldn´t be in the same room as that creep. Eric patted him on his back.
"Are you okay?" Eric asked.
"Yeah, or well, I'm tired and worried about H."
"Yeah me too, but Alexx hasn´t called yet so that's a good sign."
"Yeah, I just want to pull the trigger and shoot that guy!"
"Me too, but we can't."
Eric left Ryan alone with his thoughts and saw two officers drive away with Ramon in the backseat.
"No sign of Pedro." Frank said.
"Damn." Eric said.
"We'll find him."
Eric took his kit and went inside to process the house, after a while Ryan had calmed down and went inside to help Eric. It didn´t take them long to discover where the body of Bradley Ludlow was, he was buried in the backyard of the house, but a little piece of his finger was sticking out of the ground.
"Now we got both Pedro and Ramon for one murder." Eric said.
"And one attempted murder each." Ryan said.
"Yeah, I hope they won't mind moving to a smaller place." Eric said smirking.
-I-
The surgery was over and Horatio was connected to tubes once again. Calleigh and Alexx looked at him through the window of ICU room 15, they weren´t allowed to go in, he was still too weak.
"I´ve got the bullets for you." Stevenson said giving Calleigh a plastic bag with three bullets.
"Thank you, I hope they match Ramon's gun." Calleigh said.
"So you found they guy who did this?" Stevenson asked.
"Yes, his name is Ramon Tívo, our colleagues arrested him almost two hours ago." Calleigh said.
"That's good... anyway, right now we are being very careful so we won't allow any visitors inside the room for 24 hours, he still needs to fight a lot and he needs some peace and quiet." Stevenson said.
"Okay, thank you." Alexx said.
"Listen, Alexx I have to get back and process these bullets." Calleigh said.
"I have to get back as well, I got bodies to cut in, especially Bradley Ludlow's body."
The two women left the hospital with Stevenson's promise to call them if anything happened.
TBC...