Tuesday December 31st, New years eve, 07:15

I've already gone to work.

We have to talk.

You know I love you.

Horatio

Eric sighed and ripped the note apart. Of course he knew Horatio loved him. That's what made it all so much more difficult. Horatio's big heart was both a blessing a curse. His heart was what made him who he was. But it also hurt him a lot. Eric didn't want to be the one to hurt Horatio. He didn't want to add to his pain. Yet, if he didn't tell the truth soon, he could lose Horatio because of it. And it was only a matter of time, before his sisters would find out that Eric and Horatio had some trouble. In fact the doorbell rang and guess who was outside. Maya. Eric gulped and opened the door.

"Maya, what are you doing here?" Eric asked, pretending not to understand why his sister would be standing outside his door at this early hour. Maya was a person who preferred to sleep very much. She usually woke up at ten. That's why she worked during the nights.

"I wish I could say I was here because it's new years ever, but I can't." Maya said and walked past Eric inside the house.

Eric sighed and closed the door. He followed his sister to the living room.

"What's going on little brother?" Maya asked.

Eric flinched. Whenever anyone of his sister used the term, "little brother" they were being serious.

"Maya, I can solve this with Horatio myself." Eric sighed. He was too tired and too hungry to deal with his sister right now. And once she found out about his secret, she would yell at him. He didn't need that right now.

"Did you sleep on the couch?" Maya asked and pointed at the sheets on the couch. Eric nodded to her.

Since Horatio had closed their bedroom door with a bang last night, Eric hadn't seen him.

"So you and H are having a fight?"

"Maya, how do you know that?" Eric asked.

"Because I've seen Horatio lately, when I've walked outside the lab to my job or to meet a friend. He's sad and angry. Something is bothering him. And I can now see that it's clearly bothering you too."

"Leave it alone Maya." Eric said.

"Why? Eric I might get angry at you if you don't tell me what's wrong soon."

"You'll get angry once you hear what the problem is too." Eric sighed.

"You've cheated on Horatio." Maya said. She had expected it. She new her brother very well. And she knew what kind of a person he had been befor he got together ith Horatio. Every week a new girl. Never a man. Probably because back then he had been too afraid to be with a man. And the truth was that Eric had cheated on his girlfriends before. Sometimes even more then once.

"How did you...?" Eric asked.

"I thought about your past." Maya shrugged, "I'm not going to yell at you or throw anything at you. Because I can see how sorry you are."

Eric was surprised to hear that. He hadn't expected his sister to take the news so calmly.

"Thanks." Eric said.

"I will however yell at you, if you don't tell Horatio." Maya said in a warning tone.

"I will tell him."

"Today Eric." Maya said and then walked towards the front door.

"Today?"

"Yeah, I realise it is New Years Eve, but you have to tell him." Maya said and opened the door, "Bye."

"Bye." Eric sighed.

He closed the door after Maya and then wne into the bedroom to get dressed. Maya was right. He needed to tell Horatio today. He had kept it hidden long enough.

What Eric seemed to have forgotten was to check the mail. Joseph was supossed to be checking the mail for the letter from Raquel. But Joseph had overslept. And the mail was lying on the kitchen table. Someone had put it there.

-I-

07:45

Eric Sykes was waiting outside the lab for Ryan Wolfe. She had some letter and photos of children in her hand. She wasn't there to snoop around. She was there with important news. Ryan and Calleig arrived in the same hummer and their smiled faded when they saw Erica. Eric didn't waste anytime. She almost ran towards them.

"I have something you need to see." She said.

Ryan and Calleigh looked confused at Erica. She had never really helped them before. But her eyes told them the truth. Something was making her nervous and she did have something important to say.

Ryan and Calleigh led her inside the lab and they sat down in the break room.

"What is it Erica?" Ryan asked.

Eric gave him the photos. It was photos of children and then letter. One letter to each photo.

"This is almost thirty photos." Ryan said shooked.

"I know. And each and everyone of them came together with a letter from mothers." Eric said, "Mothers are writing to me, telling me about their lost children."

"All these kids are kidnapped?" Calleigh asked.

"Yeah, some of these mothers even called me. They want me to tell the police about this. They're not allowed to." Eric said, "And I did some checking on the women's names. Ten of them died in the last year. In fires."

"So they couldn't have sent these letter to ya." Calleigh said and Eric nodded.

"We will do some more checking. In the mean time you come to us everytime you get a new letter." Ryan said and left the break room with the photos and letters.

"Thanks Erica." Calleigh said and gave her a small smile.

Erica nodded and left the lab. Calleigh went after Ryan, who was working in his lab. He was also on the phone with Horatio. Maybe they had caught a break in the case.

-I-

Raquel smiled widely as her cell door opened for her. She was led to a visitors stall and grinned as she greeted the woman infront of her.

"Chleo Kilmer, it's been a while." Raquel smiled.

"Yes it has." Chleo smiled, "But remember. I have a new name, fake of course, Janet Chambers.

Chleo Kilmer, daughter of Fredrick Kilmer. Chleo Kilmer has an alias, Missy Hills. Several months ago, Chleo paid Raquel Delko ten thousand dollars, so that Raquel could pay Jason Ash money, to shoot Joseph and Horatio. Chleo was able to disppear to Europe before the team even found out about her. Now she was back and unfortunately she was a good friend of Raquel. Those two womne together was not a good idea.

"Well, Janet, how was Europe?" Raquel asked, she couldn't stop grinning.

Her partner in crime was back and that made Raquel happy. Though nobody was as happy as Janet, after all, she could have some fun with Raquel. She might be the one to pay Raquel money so that she could hire people to the real dirty work. But in the end, Raquel would take the blame. because Janet would disappear again. Raquel didn't mean very much to Janet. Only Raquel thought she was Janet's best friend.

"Good, I had a really good time. How's jail been?"

"Not as bad as I thought." Raquel said, "Let's talk business."

"And what if someone is listening?" Janet asked.

"Do you see any guards around?"

"There is one outside." Janet said, "They should be in here."

"Yes, well, they like their coffee more then they like watching us." Raquel said, "But you do speak spanish."

"Of course." Janet smiled. The women started talking in spanish, a language they knew that the gurards on duty today, didn't understand much of. Howver, there were other guards who did understand spanish. They just werent working today.

"Did you tell the read head about your son's mistake?" Janet asked.

"Yes, I wrote him a letter. He must have recieved it today."

"Good. So why did you write to me?" Janet asked, even though she knew why. Raquel wanted a job done, and Janet was the only person Raquel could trust it with. Janet would find someone to what Raquel wanted.

"I love my son. Even though some people might think I don't. I even love Joseph, my ex-husband." Raquel sighed, "But I do not love Lt. Caine."

"So you want hime gone?"

"I want him to suffer too. I want my son to understand how wrong this is. I want him to leave Caine. and then I want Caine to feel what pain is. I want him to fell my pain." Raquel grinned.

"That can be arranged." Janet smiled.

-I-

08:30

The team was in the break room. Looking at the thirty pictures of kids between the ages of three and ten. All missing. From different states in America. Texas, Califonia and so on. Horatio had spent over an hour calling detectives in charge in all these states. It seemed as there were three to five missing kids in each state. The police on those states had nothing from the fires to work with. All they knew was that the fired had started with gasoline. They didn't have DNA or anything else. Even though Horatio and the team had DNA from their arsonist, they didn't have a match. The case had been turned over completely to Horatio now. But he did have help from Mac Taylor in New York. Mac Taylor and his team still dealt with missing children. Every week another child went missing, and all the children belonged to single mothers, who didn't call the cops. Instead it was the schools who called the police. However, since the arsonist moved to Miami, the single mothers stayed alive.

"Are NY sending someone down here?" Frank asked Horatio.

"No, it's not necessar yet. But it now seems as if we don't only have one pedophile but two. One is here and one is in New York." Horatio sighed, "However our arsonist is working alone."

"Why would the arsonist move?" Ryan asked, "I mean, she always burns down houses where the child is missing, yet she moved to Miami and completely forgot about NY."

"Maybe she's following a specific pedophile." Calleigh said, "But as Horatio said before, we can only prove he is a child abductor, not a pedophile."

"That's not true." Eric said, and showed the team the medical file on the little girl, they found yesterday, Emma Manson, the daughter of Chleo Manson.

The team sighed as they read the medical file. Emma had indeed met a pedophile.

"Now he is offcially a pedophile." Horatio growled, "I wonder how Emma managed to escape."

"I can ask her." Frank said, "She seems to afraid to men. I went with her to the hospital yesterday and when a male nurse wanted to examine her, she started screaming."

Emma had been sent to the hospital when it was clear that she was in pain. Apparently the little girl had some bruises on her back, but she hadn't told anyone in the team about it. And when two paramedics had checked her out at the lab, they hadn't noticed her bruises. Because they hadn't appeared so clearly yet.

"But she thinks you're a teddybear and that will help?" Ryan asked.

"Exactly." Frank smiled sligthly.

Everybody could see that Frank has a soft spot for the little girl already. The big Texan was Emma's bear, she had made that perfectly clear at the hospital and the lab.

"Alright. Frank and Natalia you talk to the girl. The rest of us will call these women." Horatio said and rubbed his tired eyes.

-I-

09:00

Frank and Natalia smiled widely as the entered Emma's room at the hospital. Emma reached her arms out and wanted a hug from Frank. Frank smiled and gave her a warm hug. Natalia chuckled form behind him.

"Hi Tweddy." Emma said.

"Hi Emma." Frank smiled back and sat down in a chair next to her bed. Natalia sat down on the other side.

"This is Natalia, she's my friend." Frank smiled and pointed at Natalia.

"Hello Emma." Natalia smiled.

"Talia." Emma chuckled, she remembered Natalia from yesterday when she and Calleigh had found her, "Hello."

"Are ou feeling okay today?" Natalia asked, and Emma nodded.

"Sweetie, I want to ask you something." Frank said, "How did you find Calleigh, do you remember her?"

Emma nodded, "I found a hole."

"A hole?" Frank asked, "A hole in the ground?"

Emma shook her head, "No, in that." She pointed to the wall.

"A wall, okay." Frank said, "Did you see flowers or bushes outside the hole?"

Emma nodded again, "Many bush."

"Many bushes, alright. Thank you." Frank smiled, "Do you remember what the man who took you looked like?"

Emma seemed to want to cry as Frank brought the man up. It was a terrible memory for her.

"It's okay, sweetie. He can't hurt you. I just want to know if you remember what he looked like." Frank said soothingly.

Emma nodded, and a small tear ran down her cheek.

"Can you tell another friend of mine, what he looked like?" Frank asked. He wasn't sure that a three-year-old would be very good at retelling something like that.

Emma nodded and again.

"Okay, good. I will give my friend a call then." Frank smiled and gave Emma another hug.

---

Valer and Jason were also the hospital, for another reason then to talk to a victim of a crime. They were at the hospital to have another ultrasound. Valera was now. Valera as now 26 weeks pregnant.

"Remeber I told you before that you were due on the 16th of april?" Valera's doctor Travid Wallace, and Valera nodded.

"I think you're cloer to the 13th of april." Travis smiled, "And the babies look healthy."

"Good." Valera smiled and gave Jason's hand a squeeze.

"They're seem to like moving around." Travis said.

"Oh yeah, I will have my hands full with them as soon as they learn to walk." Valera chuckled.

-I-

12:00

Horatio and Eric were having lunch at their house. Or at least they tried to. Eric avoided eye contact with Horatio, and Horatio looked at Eric. He didn't eat, because he wanted to know what ws wrong.

"Is something wrong with me?" Horatio asked suddenly. The thought had crossed his mind many times over the last 24 hours. Maybe Eric wanted to break their engagement and move out. Maybe he found Horatio too old and wanted someone much younger. Maybe he wanted a woman and kids.

"No, H. It's not you. I't me." Eric sighed.

"Something happened to you?" Horatio worried. Maybe Eric had gotten some bad news by his doctor. Maybe he had gone to the doctor and found out that he was sick.

"No, H. I um... I did something a year ago." Eric said, "Someone I regret very much."

"What did you do?" Horatio asked.

The look in Horatio's eyes told Eric, that Horatio didn't believe that it was he who would get hurt. Horatio belived Eric had done something to hurt someone else. Not physically, but maybe emotionally.

"I did something I will regret my entire life. And I need to figure out how to tell you about it." Eric said.

"Why so sudden?" Horatio asked confused, "If it was a year ago, why is this bothering you now? Are you being blackmailed?"

"No, H."

"Then what is it... do you want to leave me?"

"God no H!" Eric said, "Never. I'm just afraid that you will leave me."

"Eric, why would I want to leave you?"

"Because what I did will hurt you. Deeply."

"Eric, just say it. It can't be so bad."

Eric sighed, "H... one year ago.... I slept with someone else."

TBC...

AN: Please review! Oh, and please vote on my poll on my profile!