AN: The prank in this chapter is an idea from LilDevyl (Thank you!).

Enjoy!

-I-

Horatio Caine. Man of justice. Owner of the sunglasses of justice. A man that was hard to intimidate. A man hard to scare... unless you knew what he was most afraid of in the entire world.

Cooper knew he was risking his life doing what he was about to do. If Horatio would find out that he was the mastermind behind the prank he was about to do; he would be killed slowly and painfully.

But it was a risk worth taking.

Horatio Caine was afraid of snakes. He hated snakes more than anything in the world. He would rather get shot by the Mala Noche then get close to a snake. Not many people knew of this fear he had, but Cooper was one of the few who did. As pay-back for the prank Frank had pulled on Cooper's partner in crime; Ryan, Cooper would pull a prank on Frank's partner in crime; Horatio.

Cooper had to admit he almost peed his pants when he thought about all the horrible things the red head would do to him if he was found out. It was early morning. Cooper had bought a plastic snake and decided to put it on Horatio's desk. He covered the snake with some files and then set up a small camera behind the couch that would tape the whole thing.

When everything was done Cooper left and waited for the Lt. to arrive.

The red head arrived moments later and seemed tired. Not a good sign. A tired red head usually meant that he would be in quite a bad mood all day too. Cooper could unfortunately not see what was happening in the office because the AV lab was so far away from it, but he would be able to hear what happened for sure and then enjoy the video later.

Horatio yawned as he entered his office and sat down on his chair. He rubbed his tired eyed and started to sort through some papers looking for some specific case files. He smacked his forehead when he saw that they were right in front of his eyes. He lifted them up.

"AAAHH!"

Horatio jumped back three feet right against the glass wall and then ran out of the office and bumped in to Frank just outside the door. The whole lab froze and wondered what could have possibly scared their boss so much.

"It's under the papers!" Horatio panted and hid behind Frank as the two men entered the office.

Frank frowned and looked at Horatio's desk. He chuckled as he saw that the snake didn't move. He picked it up and turned to Horatio who jumped up on the couch.

"Get it away from me!" He growled.

"It's made of plastic." Frank said, "This is Ryan or Cooper's work."

"I'm going to kill them both." Horatio said and then shuddered, "Slowly and painfully."

He hated snakes. Now he would be emotionally scarred for the rest of the day, maybe even the rest of the week. He would plan an evil revenge too.

Cooper tried not to laugh as he heard a male scream coming from the office. Victory was his.

-I-

Cooper didn't get the chance to get the tape until lunch and he showed it to Ryan who doubled over in laughter. Ryan then showed the tape to some other lab techs and soon the video had been watched by almost all the lab techs and all the CSIs. Cooper only prayed that the video wouldn't end up in the hands of Horatio who was in a very bad mood after being scared.

"Cooper. You got the tape?" Horatio asked as he appeared out of nowhere.

Cooper froze. Could it be the tape?

"Um…"

"The tape from the surveillance cameras from this morning's crime scene." Horatio said.

"Oh right, I do." Cooper said and sighed in relief.

He showed Horatio what he had found so far and then innocently asked about the morning's incident.

"Somebody hid a snake in my office. It was made of plastic." Horatio growled and looked intensely at Cooper.

"It wasn't me. Maybe it was Ryan, but it wasn't me." Cooper said and tried to look extremely innocent.

Horatio would almost have believed the young man if Valera hadn't picked that particular moment to ruin everything.

"Hey Coop! Great prank on the boss. I didn't know he was afraid of snakes… oh Hi, Lt." Valera blushed and ran away.

Cooper smiled his most innocent smile as Horatio glared at him. He bolted out of the lab and could hear Horatio yell after him.

"COOPER!"

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