Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:Miami in any shape or form – so I am not making any money from this. I will put them back gently after I am finished playing with the characters. As before anything appearing in Italics means that the character is using American Sign Language.
Chapter 4 – Who Am I?
The next morning, Horatio was waiting for Mari, when she stepped out of the elevator, carrying a tote bag and wearing the vest. "Good morning Mari, I'm glad to see that you are wearing the kevlar vest," smiled Horatio.
"Don't worry, I promised to wear it and I take my promises seriously."
"Come in my office, I want to let you know what we found out about yesterday's shooting," Horatio and Mari walked to his office, where Horatio shut the door behind them.
"What's up?" asked Mari, taking a seat on the couch, Horatio sitting beside Mari.
"We questioned Juan and we found out that he has no connection to your harasser."
"Another dead end," sighed Mari.
"We did find out how the harasser was keeping track of your whereabouts. Ryan found a GPS monitor on the car; we are still trying to trace who bought it."
"What about the bullet? Any matches in IBIS"
"No matches, but Calleigh is pretty sure that it is from a Colt .45."
"I'll take Calleigh's educated guess over the computer any day," laughed Mari. Horatio smiled in response, pleased to see Mari's smile. Everyone had been remarking on the lack of Mari's smiles and laughter lately.
"Mari, are you carrying your gun with you at all times now?"
"I got it out of the gun safe after I got home yesterday."
"Good, keep it with you at all times," Horatio stood up, looking at Mari.
"Horatio, there is something else," Mari worried her lower lip with her teeth. Horatio sat back down on the couch, asking. "What is it?"
"I've been reading my mother's journals, the ones that I found in my parent's house."
"I remember," encouraged Horatio.
"I've been reading them in order, trying to find out an explanation for the things that they did. I've never questioned my heritage, even though I have always wondered why I have red hair, a fair complexion and blue eyes and while mom, dad and Aaron had dark hair and a darker complexion then me. Mom always said that I was probably a throwback to one of their unknown ancestors," Mari reached in her tote bag and pulled out of one her mother's journals. She opened it to the marked page and passed it to Horatio to read.
Horatio quickly read the highlighted section, looking up at Mari with a stunned expression on his face. "My God," he breathed.
"Yeah, it was a shock to me too," agreed Mari. "But it may not be true; I may not be a rapist's daughter. But if it is true, it would explain why dad could never seem to connect with me emotionally, not like he did with Aaron."
"Do you want to know for sure?" Horatio asked carefully.
"I have to know, I want to know for sure. Otherwise I would always be wondering about the truth."
"Okay, let's go see Alexx to get some blood samples drawn and arrange for her to get the blood work ups from your parent's autopsies."
"Horatio, can we get Alexx to use an alternate method to identify the blood samples? You know what the rumor mill is like here in the lab. And I don't want any nasty rumors circulating around here if what mom wrote is not true."
"I can arrange it with Alexx," Horatio reassured Mari. Together the of them left Horatio's office and heading for the morgue, where Alexx was doing inventory.
"Hi," Alexx smiled at Mari and Horatio.
"Good morning Alexx," Horatio replied.
"Okay, what's the bad news?" questioned Alexx, setting her inventory list down.
"We need some blood samples taken," Horatio explained the reasons for the request.
"Wow," Alexx said in a stunned tone of voice. "I will put a rush on the request, hopefully we should know something by the end of today, you will probably want to have your questions answered as soon as possible. And don't worry discretion is my middle name."
"Thanks Alexx," Mari sat down, pushing her sleeve up so that Alexx could draw some blood. As soon as Alexx had her blood sample, Mari left the morgue.
"That poor child, she has not had an easy time of things lately," Alexx clucked like a mother hen over her chick. "Now park it mister and roll up your sleeve," Alexx ordered.
Horatio complied with Alexx's order and Alexx quickly drew some blood from Horatio's arm.
"Do you think that what Mari's mom wrote is true?"
"I believe so and it would explain some coincidences."
The rest of the day Mari tried to keep her mind occupied with her work, and her usual cheerful attitude. At the end of the day, Mari was putting her work away for the day when Horatio walked past her lab. "Horatio, any results yet?"
"Sorry no, the test results are not in yet, probably tomorrow. Go home and try not to worry about it."
"I'll try," Mari headed for the locker room.
The next day, Maxine walked into Horatio's office carrying a file folder. "Lt. Caine, I have the results of the DNA workups that Dr. Woods requested."
"Thank you and we appreciate the rush job."
Maxine nodded and left the office after giving Horatio the file folder. Horatio carefully reading the reports before leaving his office.
Mari looked up when Horatio walked into her lab, shutting the door behind him. "The results are in?" Mari paled, blindly groped for her chair. "And?"
"I'm sorry, but your father is not your biological father," Horatio said gently.
"There's more, isn't there?" Mari demanded.