Playing Catch Up

"You two jumped right in, didn't you? All that's missing is you didn't find each other on facebook!" Alexx had been a visiting pathologist friend Sylvia Moore about how Ryan had reconnected with his childhood sweetheart. The woman couldn't not smile at Ryan when she saw him.

Ryan laughed.

"Yeah, you could put it that way. Late start, we're trying to catch up."

Millions of times over the years both had entertained the thought of using the social network to search for one another but neither could bring themselves to hit the ENTER key, not waiting to disrupt any happy life either was living with someone else. Emily did have an account on the network, to keep in contact with people she met in college and were now living in various parts of the world, but Ryan did not. He didn't think highly of social networks. Whenever she was asked why she didn't try to track down her first love online, Emily had always replied, "I know him too well, trust me, he's not on facebook or anywhere else."

To some people, and with some couples marrying and building a family so fast was a recipe for disaster, even if they had known even each other practically their entire lives. But for some it worked great

Then the statement came to Ryan, "you guys should sit down write your story and try to sell it. It would be a hit!"

Sure, and if they made it into a movie I want Channing Tatum to play me, Ryan thought with a chuckle. Like we would have the time to'sit down' and do that!

Even with just a toddler, time for "sitting down" was rare. It was only going to get more rare in a few months. "Sitting down" long enough to go through their entire life of memories together.

And Ryan wouldn't change a thing about the pace of how they had built a life together. He knew Emily wouldn't, either.

Three hours later...

Another shift and another child's life taken by a person most believed would protect them.

Ryan felt like he wanted to throw up.

That or grab the man in front of him in the interrogation room and shattered his skull like the man had the one-year-old child. The babynamed Mia, had knocked over his beer. Oliver Rivera was a martial arts champion and child's uncle. With one blow he had fractured the child's skull, causing bleeding and swelling in her brain. She was still alive when her mother Abby, found her in her crib, where Mia had been placed by Oliver. She immediately noticed the blood in the baby's mouth, the bruising on her head and that Mia's breathing was shallow. She immediately dialed 911.

When she screamed "what did you do to her?" moments later in the presence of police and paramedics minutes later, Oliver claimed to have done nothing. Both were taken to the precinct for questioning, in separate squad cars. It was clear before the hour was up that Abby was innocent. She had been working a twelve hour shift as a cook and clearly was not present when her baby was injured. She was immediately driven to the hospital to be with baby Mia. Mia was being kept alive only by machines. All her brain function had ceased. Hospital staff wanted to give the mother a chance to see her baby before telling her the horrible truth and asking if she wanted to discontinue life support. Even with the powerful equipment, doctors expected Mia to die within hours.

Mia died ninety minutes later before her mother could the decision. Resuscitation was attempted because Abby hadn't made the final decision. Tragically the efforts were futile. Mia Rivera was dead.

It was cases like this that made Ryan wonder why he choose to be a cop. Punishing the people like Oliver Rivera was why. But it didn't feel like enough. Why did babies have to die? Especially in this way? These questions were as difficult to answer as what made someone, someone who was supposed to love the baby at that, do this to a helpless baby? What went through their heads to made them think it was okay? People seldom saw it but there were times Bella drove him crazy. But the thought of striking her never crossed his mind, let alone striking her with enough force to end her life. At the end of shift couldn't sign out and leave the lab fast enough. Natalia, Frank and Walter were going to go out for a "much needed" drink. Eric and Calleigh, like himself were going home to their families. No one was sure what Horatio was going. Knowing him it was more work, or home to get the few hours of sleep the man did take.