Disclaimer: Don't own CSI: Miami… remember that. I may forget. P

A/N: . All I can say is SORRY! I NEVER meant for mv-ing, school, my laziness to all get out of hand! LOL Hey. Pure NED here. XD …okie, not pure. There's RaVe and CaPe too! XD

Chapter 20:

Morning came way too quickly for the sleepy people of Miami. As the crack of dawn crept in, his blinds doing a poor job of filtering out the bright rays, he moaned. Ugh…another day…STRE- He stopped mid-thought when he found himself having difficulty doing his morning stretch. He opened his eyes to see what was preventing him to do so. Natalia? What's she doing here? He and the woman's limbs were intertwined together, tangled with the thin sheets.

Without its regular morning dose of caffeine, his mind ran sluggishly as he recalled the events of the previous day. Right…protective detail… Wait… where's Jeremy and Ella? He figured that they were kids and as a result fooling around or watching morning cartoons and so he began to revel in the sleeping woman's beauty. He needed to shower, but decided to wait; he wanted her to have as much rest as possible and didn't want to be the source of her waking up.

He was almost returning to sleep, when he thought he smelled something. It was a horrendous smell. Is something burning? The smell stirred the woman next to him out of slumber as well. She must have forgotten where she was because she the first thing she did was wrench herself out of his grasp. This proved a difficult task considering, it seemed, that the bed itself was meshed with them. Her flailing landed their entangled selves both on the floor, with him on top. He had his arms on either side of her, elbows locked, to avoid collapsing on her. Both panting from the much too early exertion, their eyes met.

"Eric?" She, like him, had a small memory lapse of what she was doing in his house or, better yet, bed. Or like Jem likes to say… brain fart…right…Jem, kids…protective-right…oops… "Oi. I'm sorry." She laughed a little to ease the awkwardness.

"Yeah. Morning to you to." He grinned from ear to ear, making her enter an endless fit of giggles. This situation reminded them of good memories of times from not too long ago.

Their noses cringed as the smell that had initially awakened them wafted in stronger. There was an explosion heard from somewhere in the apartment and concurrently, the fire alarm began beeping. Any residue of sleepiness was, by now, completely erased. Eric was immediately up on his feet, helping Natalia to hers. As they made their way to the sound of the blast, they had one thing on their mind, the safety of their children.

There was black smoke pouring out of the kitchen and their two children stepping cautiously away from the flaming microwave. They gave their parents a shamefaced look. Eric grabbed the fire extinguisher and shouted to the woman beside him. "Take the kids outside and call the fire department!"

"What about you?" There was no way she was leaving without him.

"Natalia! I'll be fine. Think about the baby! Just let me handle the flames and I'll meet you out front! Just go!"

Reluctantly, she led the children outside, grabbing her cellphone from the counter. Once the fire department had been informed of the minor mishap, she turned to her children. "What exactly happened?"

"Uh," began Jem, shuffling his feet from side to side.

"We're really sorry, mommy!" Ella was on the verge of tears and clutched onto JoJo.

"Yeah," her brother continued, "we woke up earlier and we were hungry-"

"So we decided to put the food from yesterday in the oven."

"It's a microwave," corrected the eight-year old.

"Same thing!"

"No."

"Yeah."

Their mother was getting slightly annoyed. Eric's still in there. "That still doesn't explain the explosion.

"Well we decided to eat the rest of the food from yesterday," answered her son.

"Yeah," the little girl carried on, "we just put everything into the microwave and Jem pressed the buttons."

"Then it started to smell real bad."

"Wait," interrupted their bewildered mother, "where the aluminum foil wrappers still on the sandwiches."

The children were silent for a moment. The boy slowly nodded, "Yeah, yep. The silver stuff right? That's not important though."

"Nobody ever told you two not to…never to…put any form of metal in the microwave?" Their mother looked very exasperated, especially when the two gave her a negative response. "Because that's how an explosion like this can happen."

"Really? Why?" Jem was eager to learn something new.

"Sweetie, it's not important. Just remember next time not to put any form of metal into the microwave."

"OK, mommy," chorused the two siblings. Upon seeing their father exit the house, they apologized to him too. When he patted each on the head in a forgiving manner, they knew that he wasn't mad. He had heard the last portion of their mother's speech, and decided that they probably didn't need nor want another one.

"Eric," the pregnant woman let out a sigh of relief. He came by her side, expecting a hug or kiss for his efforts, but instead received a hard smack on the arm. In exasperation, she shouted, "What's wrong with you? Maybe, they're temporary, but he's…or she's… not!" She thrust his hand on her stomach. "You have a family now! Don't try to be all heroic! Let the firefighters do their job, and us do ours."

He smiled. Women are so strange… or maybe it's just hormonal pregnant women. He knew that she was worried, though, and kissed top of her hair tenderly. "Nothing's going to happen to me, Natalia," he murmured softly into her hair so that only she could hear. The preceding night's events clouded his thoughts. "And nothing's going to happen to you," he paused, "I won't let it."

She looked up at him. What's wrong with him? It's like something's worrying him. I guess the whole not knowing what Luke's capable of is getting to him too.

Sirens around the block separated the two of them. I wonder if inhaling some of the smoke harmed the baby, she thought with much visible agitation.

"You call this a 'hearty' breakfast?" The obsessive compulsive man looked at the woman before him. He still couldn't believe that he had slept over her house. Sure I was too drunk to know or do otherwise, but it was kind of her to let me sleep over…not that I was coherent enough to give her a proper address… but she could have dropped me off in the morning, instead she gave me a Motrin and took me out to eat…strange. They were sitting in the Miami's famous burger place, Big Pink, awaiting their orders to arrive.

The DNA technician rolled her eyes. "You're gonna tell me that you don't eat burgers. That they're too 'messy.'" She air-quoted the last word.

"No," he frowned, "I just don't find it very idealistic to have a heart attack so early in the morning." He stared at the mammoth-sized barbeque burger with its bacon, fried onions, and barbeque sauce with a side of homemade fries. Across from him, he watched as his colleague became absorbed in eating the same sandwich.

Upon hearing his comment, she said with her mouth full (to his disgust), "Doesn't matter, it's the fact that it tastes good that counts. I mean if you're unwillingly to eat, I'm more than willing to finish it for you."

"Haha. Where's the fork and knife?"

"You don't need utensils. This is the American way; burgers aren't meant to be sliced." She laughed. I love teasing him! "Just try it. It won't hurt to try." Ryan gave her a look. "Oh, please. You got drunk last night! I think you'll be able to handle being one with the burger!" She took another bite out of her burger and grabbed the ketchup from the far side of the table and shook it before turning it upside down and squeezing it over her fries. Except, due to the previous dry and crusted over ketchup, it squirted in the wrong direction. She gasped. "I'm so sorry!"

"Maxine!" Then he mischievously eyed the mustard bottle. "This. Means. War." Grinning, he grabbed mustard bottle and squirted it at her. "Gotcha!"

"Hey!" Valera cried indignantly. "Mine was an accident, but yours wasn't!" She returned the 'favor' by squirting him with ketchup, which he managed to duck for the most part. His next shot made contact once again.

"OK. OK. Truce," she pleaded. He sat up properly again and taking advantage, she hit him full on. She giggled playfully. "I win!"

"Oh," moaned the man. That was strangely very fun… I could get used to this. "I've been shot. I've been shot. Oh the pain! He began sliding off his seat in mock hurt.

"Ryan!" Valera cried, playing along. He was dripping red and she was dripping yellow. She continued with a phony faint damsel-in-distress voice, "Don't leave! Not like this! You never even got to eat your burger! Oh, the drama!" She became so enthusiastic and expressive with her arms that she knocked over her orange juice. Now they were stained with something more.

They were in such a great fit of laughter that they could barely breathe. Ryan couldn't remember the last time he had had this much spontaneous fun and Valera was absolutely enjoying herself.

"Ryan, Valera?" They turned at the sound of their names to find their fellow blonde CSI was arm-in-arm with the Secret Service agent, Peter Elliot. The food covered couple laughed. They're been flirting with each other for the longest time, thought Valera. It's about time!

"Wanna join us?" Ryan and Valera laughed as they sat up properly and scooted over. The couple carefully sat down, trying, with great trouble, to avoid the ketchup, mustard and orange juice.

Hunger got the best of Ryan and he took a huge bite out of his burger. I'm already a mess…it doesn't matter now.

They received a strange look from the waitress who came by to take the order of the newly arrived couple. Once she turned away, a series of snickers could be heard.

"So," asked the curious ballistics expert, "what'd y'all do last night?"

Valera bit her lip to keep from laughing again. "What'd you guys do?"

The two men watched as the scene unfolded nearly in front of them as they waited for their take-out order of four classic hamburgers with homemade fries to arrive. They bought two bottles of Budweiser beer to drink, one for each.

"Thank you for coming to Big Pink and enjoy your meal!" The cashier spoke unbelievably cheerily as she handed over two large paper bags.

The men nodded faintly in acknowledgment before leaving. In their red Jeep, they shot out of the restaurant's parking lot and didn't stop until they were back in the Cocoa Bean Apartment Complex's garage.

Within half an hour, they were finished. Picking at his teeth, Luke asked, "So, now we just move the stuff from the trunk to the room?"

"Wait…" said the other man lazily, "We've got some time. Don't worry. Let's just digest what we ate. It'll be a while until we eat again."

"So, we're setting up the CD in the player in the bedr-I mean living room?"

"Yep, that's where I'll be hiding."

"And I'll be in hanging out in the kitchen with Larry." The two men found that last bit particularly amusing. "So, I basically gotta take down the head investigator, the coroner, and most likely the boyfriend?"

"Mm-hmm… especially the boyfriend and I'll deal with Natalia. The freezer chest-"

"If I can recall, is in the basement…" Luke frowned slightly, deep in thought. "Yeah."

"Accessible from the living room window?"

"Huh?"

"The fire escape…"

"Well, the fire escape is attached to the living room window, if that's what you mean."

"I mean after that," stated the older man impatiently.

"Hey. Cool it. We're in this together…for the same reasons." While his future self's jaw set in pure annoyance, Luke tried to map out the route in his mind's eye. "After the fire escape, there's a side door in the back, by the garage, that leads to the basement…and the freezer chest."

"Alright. Let's get going then." They popped open the trunk and carried the items from there to the elevator.

A/N: Heh, getting closer to the climax… LOL…