Fun fact: The idea of this story came to me after I watched a rerun of the episode "Under the influence". In the end of that episode Horatio tells Calleigh that Ryan "has it in his blood". Then I saw the commercials to Blue Bloods and my mind clicked! Well, actually I bumped my head to the wall while leaning back, but still. I figured the statement meant that someone in Ryan's family was, or had been, a cop. And since I'm all for girl power I made it to be his mother :P.

Summary: After "Time Bomb", the team helps Ryan clean up his things. The content of an old box stirs up unexpected memories from the past for Horatio.

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: Miami or the characters in the show (yet), but I do own my own character Amanda. And my storyline. (My friend says I have to write this in every chapter. Don't know why though.)

Flashback

"This is the New Work Police Department, how can I help you?" Rookie officer Horatio Caine heard the receptionist say to a visitor when he walked in to the department. He hadn't been out of the academy for long and was still getting used to everything. Becoming a cop, he had always thought that his biggest issue would be fighting the criminals. Little did he know that the rest of the cops were just as dangerous. Which toes not to step on, which people not to mess with and who you could ask for help, and who you most definitely couldn't, wasn't something you learned in the academy.

Luckily for Horatio he was very good at "figuring people out", as his mother would have put it. And with a little help from fellow rookies and some of the friendlier old officers, he'd managed to stay on everyone's good side, making a lot of friends in the process.

While changing in the locker room with some of his coworkers he heard a few older cops whisper close by.

"Wolfe's coming back today. Should be here by lunch. Better watch out!" one of them said. The second man mumbled something back, but Horatio couldn't really hear what. A third man took the word and Horatio managed to catch a few words "Kid, death, anger problems, stay out of the way…"

"Yeah, I don't want to end up like Emerson!" the first man said and then they walked away.

"Who's Wolfe?" Wilson asked curiously, revealing that he too had heard the conversation.

"I don't know, but my the looks of it it's not a person you want to mess with." Herm answered and shrugged. They walked out of the room and managed to jump in to Sergeant O'Connell who greeted them happily. O'Connell was known for knowing pretty much everyone. If you had a question about any person; cop, politician, pop-star, you could ask him and get the answer in the heartbeat. It wasn't that O'Connell wasn't trustworthy, he was just terrible on keeping things for himself.

"Hey, Jack." Herm said to the sergeant. "What do you know about someone called Wolfe?" Jack's smile suddenly fell.

"You know that I'm not the person to keep things for myself, but the last thing I want is to have Wolfe pissed at me." He shook his head and started walking down the hall. The officers, who were now undyingly curious, immediately followed.

"Why not?" Wilson asked.

"Looks guys. There is one thing, and one thing only that you need to know about Wolfe. And that is the unwritten rule we have about the lieutenant." O'Connell said, stopping in his tracks.

"Which is…?"

"Do not, I repeat; do not mess with lieutenant Wolfe. At least not if you're planning on having a family in the future."

"You're kidding, right?" Horatio said, attempting a smile that immediately fell when he saw the sergeant's serious expression.

"Trust me, I'm not kidding. And if you don't believe me, just go and see Emerson." And with that O'Connell walked away, leaving the rookies to for themselves imagine what had happened to poor Emerson.

While on their way out for lunch the trio, together with a few other officers, noticed a woman coming in through the doors, carrying a car seat with a child straddled in it. It wasn't an unusual sight, people walked in and out all the time. Maybe she was one of the cop's wife, visiting her husband?

But still, for some reason, almost every head turned in her direction when she walked in. It was just something about her that made you stare. The magical moment broke quickly though, and everyone went back to what they were doing. Everyone except Horatio.

The woman had dark hair and hazel eyes. She was tall and skinny. Or, not skinny per say. She had a few curves, the most flattering ones being her big breasts and ass, but she still showed signs of a woman who had lost a lot of weight in a very short time. Of course, that wasn't so strange considering that she seemingly just had a child. The woman looked like she was about five, six years older than Horatio, give or take. She had dark marks under her eyes and her hair was untidy. So were her clothes, which were hanging rather loosely on her body, supporting his weight loss theory.

She was just a normal woman coming in with her child.

Still Horatio Caine, a man who had occupied his summer with a bunch of models his roommate had set him up with, couldn't stop thinking that he was right at that moment staring at the most beautiful woman on the planet.

So I wrote this chapter in the middle of the night while on an adrenalin rush I'd gotten by hearing that my friend had finally woken up at the hospital. It's probably a little blurry and stuff but right now, some food and sleep later, I don't really want to change it. I'm afraid I'll ruin the chapter, or as my dear friend Anna would have put it: messed up the feeling of the chapter. So here it is. R n R away!

PS: As you probably have already figured out I don't know much about police rankings and what they do depending on their rank, no matter how many cop shows I've watched (CSI: Miami, CSI, CSI: Las Vegas, Criminal minds, Bones, NCIS etc.). I guess they're right saying that I should work on keeping my attention on one thing :P. Any way, if you feel for it, don't be afraid to point out my mistakes. I'm open to criticism and I have to learn somehow.