At 9-months-old Sophia was moving around quicker than before. She couldn't walk without support just yet, but she was crawling and when she did she was fast. Sophia seemed to be a child that likes to move around and always grab things. She had already "decorated" the floor in her room with colours from her crayons and had managed to throw Kyle's iPod across the living room.
It was Monday morning and Horatio had just picked Sophia up from her crib. Jessica was still asleep and since Horatio didn't have to be at work for another hour, he figured he would let her continue to sleep while he fed their daughter. Breakfast went fine as Sophia demonstrated how good she was at sticking her hands in the food and then smear it all over her face. Horatio chuckled as his daughter giggled and smiled proudly at her father.
"You're just making your face all messy because you like getting washed, aren't you?" Horatio grinned.
Although Sophia loved to play with her food, she never had any problems eating what she was given. After breakfast Horatio took his little princess to the bathroom and washed her face. Sophia giggled and clapped her hands in the spray of water. Once she was clean, Horatio laid her down to change her diaper. It was then his cell phone rang. He sighed and fished it out of his pocket.
"Horatio." He answered.
"Hey H, we got an assault case on an officer." Frank greeted and then gave Horatio the address of the crime scene.
"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can." Horatio said, while trying to take the diaper off with one hand.
"What are you doing?" Frank asked when he noticed that Horatio seemed a bit distracted.
"Changing Sophia's diaper." Horatio said.
Frank chuckled and then the two men hung up. Sophia giggled and kicked with her legs to make the diaper change more difficult for her daddy. Horatio smiled at her and put his phone on the counter next to her. The changing table was in the bathroom, right next to the toilet. While Horatio threw the dirty diaper away, Sophia grabbed the phone, put in her mouth and then held it above the toilet, where the lid happened to be opened, which usually meant Kyle had been there. Horatio missed the splash when the phone went down the toilet and became unusable.
"Here we go sweetheart." Horatio smiled and put the new diaper on Sophia and then picked her up into his arms.
"Where did the…?" Horatio asked himself and searched through his pockets.
He looked at the counter and then frowned. Sophia giggled and grabbed Horatio's hair to play with. Horatio got a feeling that his daughter had something to do with his missing phone. He sighed and gave up. He simply had to manage without it for the day. Hopefully he would find it once he came home. Horatio took Sophia to his and Jessica's bedroom and kissed Jessica to wake her up.
"Hey beautiful, I need to go to work. This little angel has already eaten." Horatio grinned.
"Okay." Jessica yawned and sat up.
She took Sophia from Horatio and then followed him to the front door.
"Bye bye daddy." She grinned and waved Sophia's hand for her.
Horatio arrived at the crime scene ten minutes later and there he was met by Frank and Ryan.
"Hey H, I called you this morning to let you know I need to leave for an hour at ten. I have a dentist appointment." Ryan said.
"Yeah, that's fine. I think Sophia misplaced my cell phone this morning. One moment it was on the counter next to her and then it was gone."
"Really? When I called I was told that you're cell phone can't be reached." Ryan frowned.
Horatio frowned, "That's strange."
"Yeah, well I'm sure you'll find it later." Ryan smiled and then winced as his tooth hurt.
"You finally going to get that tooth checked out huh?" Frank asked.
Ryan had been having tooth ache for three weeks and had avoided making an appointment with his doctor until today.
"Yeah, um, my girlfriend talked me in to it." Ryan blushed.
"It's a good thing Natalia is around, huh?" Horatio winked.
Ryan gaped at his older friends. Had they been that obvious? Ryan didn't have time to think about it more since he had a job to do.
-I-
"Hi Horatio, did something happen to your phone?" Jesse asked as he was processing fingerprints in the lab and Horatio had walked in.
"It's missing. Misplaced by a 9-month-old." Horatio said.
"What did she do? Take out the chip?" Jesse asked.
"No."
"You're number is unreachable." Jesse said.
Horatio frowned. How could Sophia manage that? Had he done something maybe? Maybe Sophia was innocent. But she was the only one who could have grabbed the cell phone in the morning.
Throughout the day, Horatio was told how his team had tried to call him and found out his phone was unreachable. Horatio had called Jessica with Frank's phone and asked her to search for his cell phone somewhere in the bathroom. However, the last place anyone had expected it to be in was the toilet, therefore Jessica didn't look there.
When Horatio got home in time for dinner he could see the mischievous look in Sophia's eyes. Like she was enjoying every minute of it because she had outsmarted her parents.
"Hey dad, I tried to call your…"
"I know. My phone is unreachable. I've heard it all day long." Horatio sighed.
Kyle smirked, "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. I was changing Sophia's diaper this morning and in two seconds it was gone. It was right on the counter next to her." Horatio said, "I don't know what she could have done with it."
Sophia giggled and clapped her hands. Jessica put the food on the table and everyone sat down to eat. It wasn't until after dinner that Horatio finally found his phone. Apparently Jessica hadn't looked in the toilet when she had searched for the phone, but she had put the lid down. Therefore the phone had remained unseen during the day. It wasn't until Horatio had to use the bathroom that he saw his phone.
"What the? He exclaimed and then he remembered.
He had put the phone on the counter closest to the toilet. He should have known that the most likely place for it to end up was in the toilet! Horatio slapped himself against the forehead as he used a pincer to fish it out.
"How did she manage that?" Jessica asked, once Horatio showed her the now dried phone.
Horatio glared at Kyle and Kyle blushed.
"Ops!" He shrugged.
"You need to start putting the lid down after you use the toilet. Next time it could be your cell phone that ends up in there." Horatio said.
"Our daughter is a smart girl!" Jessica chuckled.
"She owes me a new phone." Horatio joked and then gave his little girl a kiss on the cheek.
Please review!
