Julia Winston had a troubled childhood. Her mother had problems of her own, the kind she never made Julia privy to and the kind Julia could never understand until she herself was a woman. But as a child she didn't understand, and so she came to believe that her mother despised her which made her mutually resent her mother in return. Her father had long ago abandoned the tiny family and her mother secretly blamed Julia for this event, although her father's leaving was entirely due to her mother's behaviour and his own inadequacy as a parent. He didn't know what to do as a father, and the responsibility terrified him.

In her mind, Julia built her father up to glorious standards and in the process made ridiculous excuses for his abandonment, justifying it somehow on the belief that it was all due to a deep-seated, but misguided, love for her.

Her mother had a fair share of boyfriends during her childhood. There were some that weren't so bad; at least, the ones that acknowledged her existence and sometimes even brought her presents (which were mostly bribes to keep her quiet during her mom's dates). Others were awful, crude, disgusting slobs that she cringed at as soon as she saw them walk through the door.

She longed for the day when she could leave the two-bedroom apartment and make it on her own, to find the man who would treat her the way she believed her father would have, had he stuck around.

She liked attention. In fact, she craved it and that much could be seen from her carefully applied beauty and revealing clothing. But despite the cool, aloof, untouchable exterior she created, on the inside, she longed to feel safe, cared for and protected. And so she naturally gravitated towards men who seemed to be confident, in control of the situation and who were comfortable with the use of a gun.

It didn't particularly matter to her whether they were on the right side of the law or slightly, even shockingly far from the law either. She didn't care for justice, morals, family values or any of that. Julia saw success in the size of a house, in the logo on a purse and the price tag of a car. And these were the things that she provided to those she loved.

Her newfound son, Kyle, was no exception.

His name wasn't Horatio back then. And he wasn't a detective either. But no matter the cover story, Julia saw something underneath. Someone who would take care of her, someone she could build a life with and someone that would stick it out with her. When he abruptly left and she discovered the unwanted pregnancy, the anger and the betrayal were beyond anything she had ever felt before. When the baby boy was born, with eyes as sea-blue as her own, she barely felt a flicker of maternal of love. He was a constant reminder of everything that had failed in her life and everything that she had lost for the future.

She left him with her mother, handing him over with an icy stare and telling her mother that she owed her this. Her bewildered mother took the baby, gave her daughter a questioning look but got no further than that as Julia pivoted sharply and stalked into a white convertible, shooting her mother one final loathing glance before speeding away. The new grandmother cooed at her grandson, admired his scrunched-up face, his tiny fingers and toes and rocked him to sleep.

The love affair didn't last very long. After the cuteness of being a baby fell away into the whiny, neediness of being a toddler, Julia's mother had had enough. All attempts to contact Julia to come and collect her son had been rebuffed or completely ignored. After one very bad weekend complete with temper tantrums and broken figurines that had been a gift from her own mother, Kyle's grandmother called Social Services.

It was a bewildering time for Kyle. He was shuffled into home after home, staring up at weary foster parents who couldn't be bothered to even learn his name. He often had multiple "siblings", many of them much older who ran over him as they ripped around the house, sometimes pushing him violently out of the way. At school he was made fun of for being a foster child, so he mostly kept to himself. The only friends he did have were much like him, either foster children themselves or children of neglectful parents. And so he fell into the wrong crowd; a clubhouse of disaffected children who felt so shunned by society that in return, they did their best to repay in kind.

Drinking, experimenting with drugs, shoplifting and fighting soon began to fill the days that he should have been at school. The last foster home wasn't even a house; it was boat run by a man who only kept foster children for the money he got paid to do it. Kyle was his meal ticket, and even that wasn't a big ticket. The man didn't care for Kyle, didn't care where he was or what he was up to, so long as he got his paycheque every week. Kyle hated this foster father, looked down on him in ways he couldn't imagine and continually told himself that he was never going to end up like that. That one day, he would hit the big ticket and would make something of himself.

Initially, he was hoping that one simple kidnap might be it. In the beginning, it sounded like something that was too good to be true. A huge paycheque and the promise that no one would get hurt. Of course, he didn't factor everything that could go wrong with it, including his own overwhelming sense of guilt. That, and a certain red-haired detective that seemed to be able to read his thoughts.

If the shock of having to spend time in a maximum-security prison wasn't enough, discovering both an estranged father and mother would have sent anyone else over the edge. He was in awe of his mother who was beautiful, rich and supportive of him in ways he didn't think possible. He was similarly in awe of his father, and somewhat terrified of him in the same way. Horatio Caine was smart, powerful and unbending in his pursuit of justice. Even if it meant that Kyle would be going to prison for the rest of his life.

Horatio had clever ways of keeping him safe in prison, but that didn't stop Kyle from being there in the first place. Julia, however, was horrified at the thought of her son in prison and would do anything to get him out.

And so, when he was freed, he felt more than a little obligated to go with Julia. He felt bad for his father, and hoped beyond hope that he didn't look down on Kyle for his decision. Horatio assured him that he was now a part of his life forevermore. Kyle felt something in his chest that day that he had never felt before: trust.

Julia lavished Kyle the only way she knew how; anything he wanted, Kyle got. She supplied him with an entirely new wardrobe (no son of hers was going to look like a skater boy from the hood), let him pick out everything he wanted for his new room, bought him every gaming system on this earth and even consented to Grand Theft Auto (after all, it's not like the game could convince him to do anything he hadn't already done). She let him stay up late, go out on the weekends with whomever he wanted and she even let him drive her Porsche. But she also enrolled him in one of the most coveted private schools in Miami. Kyle was going to be raised right and he was going to meet someone right and the rest of his life was going to be right.

Given Julia's expectations of his bright and hopeful future, it therefore baffled Kyle to no end why Julia would end up with someone like Ron Saris. In the back of his mind, Kyle had always hoped that Julia and Horatio would rediscover their long lost love for each other, and they would all move in together and become the stupidly happy family that he always saw on television sitcoms. He knew it was a silly fantasy, but he didn't feel sorry for his dreams. With all the expensive dreams Julia was willing to buy him, this was an inexpensive, simple dream that money couldn't touch.

Ron was an asshole. He flashed his money around like an egomaniac, controlled Julia and her finances, made fun of Kyle every chance he got. Kyle hated the douchebag but was careful to keep his feelings in check. Ron Saris also scared the living shit out of Kyle.

Kyle knew he was dangerous from the moment he laid eyes on him. In his 16 years of life, Kyle came to recognize the truly dangerous men from the boasting, hot-headed idiots of the world. The dangerous ones never made idle threats or made a show of their tattoos and biceps. They studied their surroundings, looked for valuables and possible escape routes. The dangerous ones studied you when you thought they weren't looking. They measured you up, assessed your weaknesses and their chances against you and they did it silently.

Kyle had once questioned Julia about her attachment to Ron and she coolly told him to mind his own business. He considered talking to his father about Ron, but thought against it. Horatio would most likely confront Julia, who would then blame Kyle, and then Horatio and Julia would get into a no-holds-barred fight and accomplish nothing. If there was one thing Kyle had learnt about his new parents, it was that both of them shared a stubbornness that was epic.

And so, Kyle warily accepted Ron as an unfortunate part of his otherwise great new life. That was, until his mother stopped taking her medication. And money started disappearing. And Ron started gripping his mother's arm forcefully, even painfully. Unease began to grow in Kyle's stomach as every day turned up something even worse.

And then his father showed up one day to warn Kyle and Julia against Ron. What really worried Kyle was his mother's lack of argument. Instead, her eyes grew wide and she nodded soberly.

"I know," she whispered. "I know you're right Horatio." She looked up at him with those luminous eyes, welling with tears. "It's just..." she trailed off as she spared a glance in Kyle's direction. "I don't know if we can just leave. He'll find us, Horatio."

Horatio crossed his arms across his chest confidently. "I can make sure he doesn't."

Julia shook her head slightly. "Where do you want us to go?"

Kyle's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What do you mean go? We're not leaving!"

Horatio studied his son's stubborn stance. It was familiar; the same stance that he held on the dock when he first met Horatio and proceeded to tell him in no uncertain terms that he wasn't his father, even though he really was. "Kyle, it's for your own safety," Horatio reasoned.

Kyle turned to him. "I'm not going anywhere! I just found you two; I'm not leaving!"

"Your mother will be going with you. You won't be alone," he laid a hand on Julia's slender shoulder.

Kyle looked uncertainly from his mother to his father. "But what about you?" He asked quietly. "Won't I ever see you again?"

Horatio approached him and stared at his son firmly in the eyes. "Of course you will. But for now, this is the only way I can keep you safe. That is what's most important here."

Kyle swallowed, unsure of the path his father was asking him to take. He didn't want to leave, at least, not without Horatio. But he was worried about his mother, worried for her safety. He had always felt that his mother bore fragility and that had made him protective of her from the moment he met her. He felt more protective of her now than he had ever before.

Horatio took a step back, inhaled deeply and began outlining the plan. "We'll play it smooth for the next few days. Go about your daily business as though nothing were wrong. We don't want to give him the slip. I'll make all the plans; don't worry about that. When the time is right, be prepared to leave at a moment's notice."

Kyle absorbed what his father's words meant. The life that Julia had tried to provide for him, the future that he had been looking forward to, suddenly all of it was thrown into disarray. The anxiety shone through on his face with a deep frown and a crease in his forehead.

Horatio's hand clutched his shoulder firmly. Kyle looked up into his father's warm face.

"I'll take care of this," he promised.