AN: Rated T for safety.
It had started as a normal day for Jessica. Sophia, who was now 11 weeks old, had woke her up later than usual. Jessica fed her and even gave her a bath before eating her own breakfast. Sophia was in a good mood and "talked" almost non-stop. Jessica loved the sound of her laughter as she tickled her daughter.
At lunch however, everything changed. Jessica had just turned on the TV and almost passed out right away. Erica Sykes was reporting that somebody had just taken the Miami Dade Crime lab techs and CSIs as hostage. Jessica sat down on the couch and breathed heavily. Horatio was in the lab. The camera man filmed the area in front of the lab and Jessica saw Eric and Frank on the scene.
Quickly, Jessica turned off the TV and decided to head to the lab. Sophia noticed the change in her mother's mood and knew something was wrong. Jessica broke many traffic laws on her way to the lab and when she got there she went with Sophia in her arms, towards Frank. She was stopped by some officers that were trying to keep people away on a safe distance.
"Frank!" Jessica called.
Frank turned around and was surprised to see Jessica. He had just tried calling her house and she hadn't answered. Now he knew why. Frank nodded for the officers to let her through
"Jessica, what are you doing here?" Frank asked, "I just tried to call you."
"I saw on the TV. Is Horatio in there? Please tell me he's not." Jessica begged and Frank could see that she was on the verge of tears.
Frank rubbed her back softly and shook his head.
"He is in there. The whole team is." Frank sighed, "The guy who is holding them hasn't tried to make contact with us yet."
"How could he take the entire lab as hostage?" Eric asked.
"When we hacked in to the surveillance cameras and looked, we saw that he was holding Natalia as a shield. He forced everyone to put down their guns." Frank said and nodded towards a computer station, where several detectives were watching to see what was going on.
"SWAT is on their way and they want to cut the power." Frank said.
"Why?" Jessica asked.
"He can't go anywhere if we do. He can't use the elevator or go to the evidence locker. Nothing." Eric sighed, "The bad part about it is that it could trigger him to do something stupid."
"You mean hurting someone." Jessica said, "You don't think anybody is hurt do you?"
"No." Frank said, although he left out that he wasn't so sure it would continue that way.
-I-
Inside the lab, everyone had been forced to lie on the floor in front of the elevator. So far nobody had gotten hurt. However, the man holding them as hostage was nervous and agitated. He would easily snap and hurt them. He had a revolver in one hand and a knife in the other.
"Where is the evidence locker?" He man asked.
Nobody answered and the man got angry.
"Where is the evidence locker?!" He growled, "Tell me or I will shoot one of you."
The team glanced at each other and finally Ryan nodded towards a room right behind the receptionist desk. Just as the guy moved to open the door, the power was cut off.
"What?!" He exclaimed, "Who cut the power?"
"SWAT." Horatio said.
"Tell them to put it back on."
"I can't do that." Horatio said.
The guy growled and kicked at the wall. He picked up the phone and when it didn't work he threw it towards Ryan and Natalia, who luckily weren't hit by it.
"What is the number to the cops outside?" The guy asked as he pulled his cell phone out.
Horatio gave him Frank's number because he knew Frank would be outside. The guy dialed and Frank picked up right away.
"Frank."
"I want the power back on so I can go inside the evidence locker." The man demanded.
"SWAT turned it off and it's not coming back on."
"I will have to shoot someone then."
"What is your name?"
"You can call me Zep."
"Okay, Zep listen, the power is off. I might be able to put it back on if you tell me why you want to access to the evidence locker." Frank said.
"I want to take some evidence from my own case. I am not going to jail."
"What case?"
"I'm not about to tell you that!" Zep growled, "Now turn the power back on!"
With that said Zep hung up and sighed heavily. He knew he was in trouble. But he had a jet waiting for him so all he needed was to find the evidence in the right case, take it with him and leave the country.
-I-
"Can we get a picture of this guy?" Frank asked.
A lab tech from the night shift who was working with the computers nodded and replayed the tape. He stopped it at the right time and got a picture of Zep's face.
"Run it through the database." Frank said.
It didn't take long before Zep's face popped up on an old charge for manslaughter. Frank recognized his real name and knew that the evidence he wanted to take away was from a murder charge that could put Zep in jail for the rest of his life.
"Blaine Hicks." Eric said, "You know the case?"
"Yeah, he murdered a woman when he tried to rob her. He shot her with a gun and left. We have his fingerprints on her purse and the tape from the ATM where it happened. He said he was innocent but the evidence proves the opposite." Frank sighed, "He probably knew we were going to bring him in today."
"So he decided to do this instead?" Jessica asked in disbelief.
"It seems so." Frank said, "We need to get SWAT inside the building."
"Wait, Frank, this guy is not stable. If you let SWAT storm the place, he will kill the hostage." Eric said.
"Where is Alexx?" Jessica asked, "And Kyle? He is working in the morgue today with her."
"Jessica you're a genius!" Frank smiled and hurried off towards the morgue.
Since the morgue had a different door then the lab for body transports, it would be perfect to use to gain access to the lab without Blaine seeing them. As Frank, Eric and Jessica went to the morgue they heard Alexx and Kyle talking while performing an autopsy, completely unaware of what was happening in the lab.
"Alexx, leave quickly. You too Kyle." Frank said as he burst through the doors to the autopsy theatre.
"What?" Kyle asked, "Jessica, what are you doing here?"
"Blaine Hicks has taken the lab as hostage." Eric said, "Since you're down here you didn't know it. Through the morgue we can peek inside the lab without him knowing it, if we use the door that leads from the lab to the morgue."
"Dad is there right?" Kyle asked, becoming pale.
"Yes, now I need all of you to leave." Frank said, "You're not cops and this could be dangerous."
Kyle nodded and started leaving with Alexx. Jessica stayed behind for a while.
"Whatever happens, bring him home alive please." She sobbed.
Frank nodded and gave her a supporting hug. Eric patted her shoulder. Jessica went after Kyle and Alexx and as they stood outside the morgue, Sophia started crying.
"Oh, she's hungry." Jessica sobbed.
Alexx lead Jessica and Kyle further away from the lab, towards a bench where they could sit down. There was nothing they could do but hope that Frank and Eric managed to get the situation under control. Unfortunately, Frank and Eric were not able to do anything to help because when they peeked inside the lab and saw Blaine, they realized that they wouldn't be able to get closer without him seeing them.
"Time to get SWAT to do something." Eric sighed heavily.
-I-
Horatio and Ryan had seen Frank and Eric and knew that this would soon be over. They glanced at each other and Horatio nodded, they were going to do something soon. Something to bring Blaine down. As Horatio started coming up with an idea on how to do it, Ryan simply prepared himself to make a quick decision once Horatio decided how to act. Since they couldn't talk to each other they had to trust that they knew what the other one was thinking and hope that it would work.
It didn't take long before Horatio was forced to act. When he saw two SWAT members peeking through the same door as Frank and Eric, Horatio knew that he had to distract Blaine, (or rather who he thought was still named Zep), from that direction.
"Let us go please." A lab tech begged.
Zep sighed and glared at the woman.
"Just keep quiet." He growled.
But the woman could no longer keep quiet and she started crying. Horatio knew that he would have to change his plan. He had figured he would get Zep to focus on him, but instead he had to do something else. Zep turned to face the woman, who was a new member of the lab.
"I said be quiet!" Zep growled and aimed his revolver at her head.
Horatio jumped up on his feet and ran towards Zep. He knocked him down on the ground and the two rolled around on the floor, fighting for the gun. Horatio had completely forgotten about the knife that Zep had in the other hand. As Horatio and Zep fought for the gun, Ryan jumped up and grabbed Zep's legs. He pulled him back and at that moment SWAT stormed the place.
Ryan lost his grip of Zep's legs and got a kick to the face because of it. He fell backwards and then everyone froze as Horatio aimed the revolver at Zep.
"On the floor, hands above your head. Now!" Horatio demanded.
Zep nodded and got down on the floor. He was arrested by SWAT and Horatio slid down the wall. He knew he had been cut by the knife on his upper arm.
"Alexx is going to kill me." He muttered.
"Why would she do that?" Walter asked, "You saved us."
Horatio pointed at the long and deep cut on his arm and the team felt sympathy for him. Alexx would certainly give him a tongue lashing for getting himself in danger again. Jessica would probably join too. Although, they all knew that it was only because they were shook up and the fear of losing him made them lash out. Not to mention, Horatio could give them his innocent puppy-face and be forgiven in no time.
As the team made it outside the building, two paramedics lead Horatio to their ambulance even though Horatio protested and said he was fine. He was only there for a second when he heard a female voice calling his name.
Horatio had never felt happier than when he saw Jessica walk quickly towards him with Sophia in her arms. It was then he realized what he could have lost today. He could have lost his two girls and his son.
"Jessica, I've never been happier to see you!" Horatio smiled and kissed her as he embraced her.
Kyle was right behind her. Jessica cried and kissed Horatio all over his face.
"I saw on the TV what had happened." Jessica said, "I've never been so scared before. Not even when I was a hostage myself."
Horatio kissed her and then looked down at his baby girl. Sophia was awake and smiled at her father. Horatio took her in to his arms, even if his injured arm hurt, and kissed her cheek.
"Hey there sweetheart, daddy missed you all day!" Horatio smiled.
"Horatio Caine where are you!" An angry female voice called and soon Alexx was standing in front of Horatio.
"What have I told you about getting yourself in to dangerous situations?" Alexx asked, her hands on her hips just like Horatio used to do.
Horatio glanced at his team and they innocently looked down at the ground. Of course they had told Alexx what had happened; Horatio was the hero of the day after all.
"Well, I did it to save a member of the lab. As I believe you would have done if you had been in the same situation." Horatio smiled.
Alexx knew she was losing.
"Oh, what am I thinking? I can't be angry at you for saving her. Just don't hurt yourself in the process next time." Alexx said and gave him a hug, "And after you get checked up at the hospital, you go home and spend all day and night with your family."
"That won't be a problem." Horatio chuckled.
Kyle then hugged his father hard and could feel tears of his own threatening to fall. He hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation until he had seen his father hurt.
"It's okay, Kyle. I'm still here." Horatio smiled.
Kyle nodded and then took Sophia from Horatio, since Horatio needed to take a ride with the ambulance to the hospital.
"We'll be right behind you." Jessica said as the doors closed and the ambulance drove away.
-I-
Horatio's arm would hurt and be sore for a few weeks as the cut healed. But it was nothing he couldn't handle. After coming home from the hospital, he had enjoyed a family dinner and the game of Monopoly. Kyle had won and Horatio had got in last place. All because he had to pay Kyle money the whole time.
Now Horatio was telling a bedtime story to Sophia and even though she didn't understand a word he said, she seemed to have a good time while daddy made funny motions with his good arm as he told her the story of Robin Hood.
"And that, Sophia, is the story of Robin Hood." Horatio smiled and gave his daughter a kiss on the forehead.
"That was greatly told." Jessica smiled from the doorway and startled Horatio.
He turned around and gave her a smile. Sophia started falling asleep, so Horatio and Jessica left her alone.
"I'm sorry that I scared you today." Horatio whispered as he embraced Jessica.
"Horatio, what you did today was very brave. Yes, I was scared but that's not because of anything you did. It's because of what that man did." Jessica said.
Horatio nodded and the two moved towards the bedroom.
"How did your parents react when you told them?" Horatio asked as he kissed her neck.
"They worried about you and mom probably won't believe that you're fine until she can see for herself that you're still in one piece." Jessica said, "Dad says he's proud and Henry wants all the details next time we see him."
Horatio chuckled and then closed the bedroom door. When he locked it, Jessica raised her eyebrows at him.
"We don't have any sneaky children that will open the door." She grinned.
"No, but we better get used to locking the door though. In the future we will have sneaky children." Horatio grinned and kissed her deeply.
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