Three now, huh?

I don't know CSI Cardosa's back story so for this story I am making up my own. Everyone is free to like the characters they chose and I am a fan of the character Eric Delko and so far, very unimpressed in all aspects by the character Jesse Cardosa. I prefer Eric Delko, the "new" or the "old" *any day*! This is my personal opinion so please, no mean messages in my reviews or PMs!

Considering the divorce rate nowadays, casual employees and detectives for other departments who barely knew Horatio Caine and his wife 'betted' that the couple divorced by the time their oldest child were two or three and therefore hadn't had anymore children.

A CSI who used to work with Horatio twelve years prior, Jesse Cardosa, who was now working with the crime lab in Los Angeles were in Miami to see another detective and asked how his old friend was doing. He had heard all about what Horatio and his wife had been through together and last he heard the two had a beautiful daughter and had renewed their wedding vows. Still he wasn't sure if the two were still together, again how many marriages ended in divorce, especially cops' marriages, though he didn't say anything, Calleigh seemed to read what he was thinking when she spoke to him briefly at the reception desk.

"He and Aimee are still married by the way; and if they're not happy, I'm not how you'd define 'happy.' Hopefully you'll get to meet Aimee and the kids while you're in town."

"Kids?" Jesse asked. "'Thought they only had a little girl?"

"Oh!" Calleigh said. "You didn't know they added two more since then? Rachel's four, now. Cheyenna's two and the lil' guy is a month old. This is actually Horatio's first day back from family leave. He's out in the field. He should be back shortly."

The first things Jesse Cardosa noticed about his former co-worker's office was the array of framed photos of a pretty young woman, two little girls and a newborn boy on the desk. Then he noticed a child-size table and chair set with crayons on it and lots of sheets of paper with scribbles on them, near the corner of the room.

The kids must visit him often, Jesse thought.

"CSI Cardosa."

Jesse turned to see his old friend.

"Horatio Caine," he said. "Long time."

"Yeah," Horatio said.

"And you've been a busy man, I see," Jesse smiled.

Horatio chuckled. "You could say that."

"They're beautiful," Jesse said, gesturing to the photos.

"That they are."

With three children under five, including a newborn, Aimee told her husband if he bought home company, he bought home take-out. When he invited Jesse home to meet his family Jesse wasn't surprised to hear Horatio's wife's "rule."

"I don't blame her," he said. "I bet she's ran off her feet."

Though he had always been a very private man, it wasn't lost on CSI Cardosa how Horatio Caine had longed for a family for as long as they had known each other. The Horatio that Jesse met in the office doorway that day was a very different one. This one was so happy. There was something about his face Jesse couldn't quite pinpoint, but maybe it was that he had never seen Horatio Caine smile like this before, the man's whole face lit up. Jesse was glad for Horatio but himself could never settle down with a family. He had been through two failed marriages while in California. Neither involving children. He couldn't relate to children the way Horatio had always seemed to be able to.

It was the truth when he told Horatio that his family was beautiful. It was enjoyable watching how his daughters climbed all over him and how Horatio asked them about their day, talking about toys and cartoon characters. Even Horatio and Aimee's youngest, Austin, all of four weeks old, responded to his father's voice. He swore he saw a smile on the cooing infant's face while Horatio spoke to the boy when he had him in his arms. The way Horatio switched from tough cop to family man the moment he pulled in his driveway impressed Jesse. He couldn't have done that.

"Your friend is nice," Aimee told her husband when she got into bed that night. "He seemed a tad taken back to see you so involved with the kids. His expression, no matter how quick, was priceless, when you said you'd change Austin's diaper."

"Speaking of the lil' guy," Horatio said, tightening his arm around his wife's shoulders and kissing her forehead. "I forget to tell Jesse his name till we were almost here, when he said how much 'junior' looked like me."

The father knew it was common for people to call tag little boys 'junior' even if they weren't named after their dad and Horatio tried always to take it in good stride but he found it annoying how most people referred to Austin as "Junior."

That wasn't their son's name. Though they wanted to be polite, the two wanted to make it firmly known that their son's name was Austin, not Horatio Caine Jr. The last thing they needed was their son getting confused as he learned his name.